Aanya
Ouch. My head hurt worse than my hangover after my 19th birthday. Without opening my eyes, I took stock of where I was.
Hard metal beneath my back. An ozone-y, metallic-y smell. My flesh goosebumped. It was colder here than in my cell or the torture room.
Slowly, I opened my eyes and stared at the dingy metal ceiling. I was lying at awkward angles like I'd just been dropped here like a sack of potatoes.
I turned my head from the ceiling to the side, and the slight movement took all my energy. My eyes landed on another cage, separated from me by a set of bars.
A sense of deja vu hit me. I'd run past here with Lani. The man with those mesmerizing blue eyes... I blinked at the big man hidden by shadows in the back of his cage.
He stiffened with my eyes on him. We stayed like that, neither one of us saying anything. Apart from Lani's mom, I hadn't seen or spoken to another being in so long. And I wasn't sure that he was entirely human.
"You're alive?" his low, gravelly voice asked from the shadows.
"No, I'm a dead person blinking at you." Sitting up, I rolled my eyes. "Yes, I'm alive!"
I winced. The movement hurt. Belatedly, I realized I should probably be afraid of the huge, muscled stranger, but we had bars separating us. He couldn't get to me.
I looked up at him from my spot on the floor, neck craning. He must've been at least seven feet tall.
He pushed off the wall and stepped forward into the light, illuminating his features. I openly stared at him, face heating. My lips parted as a small gasp escaped me.
His dark, tousled hair hung down to his shoulders. It was such a contrast to his icy blue eyes. He had brooding features, almost perfect, if not for his slightly crooked nose that seemed to have been broken more than once. And not to mention his wickedly sensual mouth. Those full, pink lips on such a grim face were a sin.
His jawline was hard as rock, leading to the corded muscles of his neck and his chiselled, bare chest. He had bronzed skin with a purple sheen to it. All he wore were a pair of dark pants slung low on his hips. My eyes followed the v of his hips until I realized where my gaze was going and flashed my eyes back up to his unreadable ones. His gaze went molten, and heat pooled in my centre.
I wrapped my arms around myself. Here he was, looking like a Greek god, and I was wearing this stupid, see-through dress on the floor, too weak to even stand up.
He crossed his well-muscled arms, large black wings flexing out behind him.
I choked on my spit, spluttering. He had wings?
He had fucking wings and an impressive wingspan too. They were covered in what looked like feathers, but the edges had a hazy quality to them, like some sort of smoke or energy swirled around them. Whoa.
He cocked his head to the side.
"What are you?" he asked, his accent unlike any I'd ever heard. His words were rough and clipped, but I don't think he was angry; his language was rougher, more guttural.
"I could ask you the same thing, wingman," I said, still eyeing his wings. He definitely wasn't human, and those dark wings gave major fallen angel vibes. But that was the question, wasn't it? Was he an angel or a demon? Should I even be talking to him?
"I'm a Rhodinian. Obviously," he said oh so matter-of-factly.
"Then I'm a human." I fought the urge to roll my eyes. "Obviously." I drew out the word. I don't think I got the effect I was going for– my voice was almost gone from when the lizardman choked me and all the screaming. I licked my lips. What I wouldn't have done for a glass of ice-cold water.
"Hy-oo-men?" he sounded out the unfamiliar word, gaze going clouded.
"Yes." I gave a subtle nod. "How do I even understand you? We're not the same species, or whatever, so we most definitely don't speak the same language."
"I have a translator." He tapped the skin behind his ear, where it was presumably implanted. "You must as well."
I shivered at the thought of the lizardmen implanting things in me without me knowing. Nausea filled my senses. I wanted to claw at the skin behind my ear and rip out whatever they put in me, but I held back.
I pulled myself so that my back was up against the wall, but I was still facing him. My whole body ached from their cattle prods. I couldn't trust anything here in this place that was so far from home.
My gaze grew guarded. "How do I know you're not working with them?"
He shrugged his broad shoulders. "I'm locked in here, same as you."
"They could've put you in here to lull me into a false sense of security." I narrowed my eyes at him.
He raised his chin, showing red, inflamed injection sites on his neck. "They've done this to me. But I can't make you believe me."
That looked pretty gnarly. Plus, how could the lizardmen have known I would try and escape and conveniently put one of their own in a cell? Maybe he wasn't working with them.
I wrapped my arms around my knees, pulling them into my chest. "Aren't you going to ask me if I'm working with them?"
"You aren't. I saw them... attack you." His voice went thick before he cleared it.
He gazed at me with a sudden focus. "What was it that you had in your arms? That they took from you?"
My heart stuttered, eyes going round. Oh God, Lani! I pushed myself to my feet with laboured breaths and went to the bars facing the corridor. I grasped them, using them to keep me upright.
"Should you be moving around so–"
I cut him off by slapping and shaking the bars as loudly as possible. "Lani! Where did you take her, you dickheads!" I yelled, straining my hoarse voice. I hollered and screamed until one of the dickheads came walking down the corridor.
Mr. Lizardman eyed me with disdain. "Specimen 001 is secure."
"She's not a specimen; she's a baby, asshole!" I seethed.
Be logical, Aanya. I took a deep breath. If this Rhodinian guy didn't know about humans, the lizardmen surely didn't, either. That's probably why they'd been experimenting on me too. My mind worked a mile a minute trying to devise some excuse.
I raised my chin with false bravado. "You really have learned nothing about humans if you locked her away from me."
"Explain," Mr. Lizardman hissed.
"Babies, human babies, need physical touch to survive. From other humans, not you scaly sons of bitches. So unless you want her to die, you'll bring her back to me!" I snarled.
"We will find out if you're lying, Specimen 124."
I leaned forward, staring him right into his ugly red eyes. "Just bring her to me."
Mr. Lizardman turned on his clawed heel.
"That's right, go slither away," I grumbled under my breath.
I used up all the adrenaline that sustained my confrontation, leaving me even more tired than before. I barely stumbled to the cot at the back of my cell before collapsing onto it.
Moments passed in silence.
My winged fellow prisoner stepped closer to my cell, grasping the bars between us.
"She? It's... it's a female?" He spoke slowly with something like awe in his tone.
"Yeah." I side-eyed him. "What, you've never seen a baby before?" I laughed, but he stayed quiet. Okay, not super funny but he could of at least given me a pity laugh, we were–
"No, I haven't." He shook his head. His voice was soft, definitely filled with awe. "Especially not a female."
I scoffed. Was this guy being serious?
✶ ☾ ✶
AUTHOR'S NOTE
AAAAAH Ronan and Aanya have finally met! What did you think of their first encounter?
If anything confusing so far in the story? How's the pacing? The chapter length– too short, too long, or good as is?
Comments and votes are much appreciated.
Virtually yours,
Ro
P.S. mind me asking how you discovered the story? Did a friend recommend it? Did you find it on TikTok? Wattpad search? Another way?