Colliding Worlds Trilogy 03 - Explosion Read Online Free Page A

was “freed” and moved to the Etzee with all the others, only to have him assigned as her Leash, perhaps to punish, perhaps to see when she’d screw up. Perhaps he’d volunteered simply because he found her intriguing. She couldn’t read him, but she believed he watched her to protect her, though it made no sense. Whatever went on in that head of his didn’t matter. She couldn’t make him stop, and she didn’t want to.
    She’d stayed at Laze’s last night, waiting to be taken. But the door hadn’t been broken down, and soldiers hadn’t come to take them away. She’d awoken after only a few hours’ sleep, and everything seemed no different. As she stood in line, there were no rumors about a human being killed, though Sephians tended to not talk much around Draeken.
    To say the two races barely put up with each other was an understatement. The Sephians here had chosen to stay behind, some to start a new life on a planet that hadn’t been ravaged by war. Most clearly stayed behind because they didn’t trust the Draeken and were looking forward to decimating them the first chance they got.
    Did Jax watch her because he didn’t trust her? What had Jax done with those soldiers after they’d left? No matter, Talla was now in a human’s debt. A debt that might be more than she could afford.
    A murmur of voices brought her back. “They say millions dead in China already,” she overheard Wync say.
    “And it’s spreading,” Qan replied.
    “What’s happened?” Talla asked.
    Wync wrapped his arm around her, leaning closer than what was proper. Laze smirked, and she rolled her eyes. Draeken propriety had suffered since they were forced from their home planet. “Remember those rumors that the humans have contracted a nasty plague?” he whispered in her ear. “Well, they’re true. Evidently, it all started nearly three weeks ago. We’re just finding out now. It’s hit several major cities in Asia already. Who knows how many lives it’ll claim.” Humor interlaced the words.
    Like Wync, Talla had no love for humans, not after being forced onto the Etzee to live side-by-side with the Sephians, the race they’d been at war with for over two decades. Like nearly every other Draeken, she also had no love for the gold-skins they were forced to cohabitate with now. The Sephians had obliterated her people and thrust what few remained from Sephia, the planet they’d shared in relative peace for centuries.
    “Yeah, nearly a hundred percent death rate within three days of contracting it. Humans drown in their own blood.” Wync gave her a toothy grin. “Karma’s a bitch, huh. If we’re lucky, this will clear the humans out. Then we can finally be free from this prison camp and everyone on the core ships can join us.”
    Talla simply nodded in response. She knew better than to speak of such things the humans may consider “inappropriate.” Microphones and video cameras were hidden across the Etzee. She even suspected the tracers implanted on all of Etzee’s inhabitants were more than simple GPS chips. Simply put, there was no escape from the Etzee.
    Lord Commander Roden Zyll, her people’s leader and Etzee powerhouse now that the Sephian Apolo had returned to Sephia, could’ve called in the three core ships under his command — the
Striga
,
Artox
, and the
Evo
— to rescue them. He, too, was growing tired of the humans’ delays. They’d promised to turn control of the Etzee over to the Triad three months ago. Yet nothing had changed. Still attempting to keep the façade of relative peace, Roden had the
Striga
,
Artox
, and
Evo
keep a safe distance from Earth.
    But that didn’t mean the
Grax
would listen.
    Controlled by a vile man, the fourth core ship was all that remained of the blood feud Roden and his consort, their new Grand Lord Nalea Puftan (a Sephian-Draeken hybrid, no less), had stomped out a year ago. Currently, the
Striga
,
Artox
, and
Evo
maintained orbit in this solar system, waiting until a