Chapter 3

The rest of the night was fun. Nita broke out her flask of alcohol. She was really the only one who could drink it. Callum didn't even understand how the stuff was manufactured but it was absolutely disgusting and blindingly powerful. It didn't really matter that she was the only one drinking though. Once she had a few shots down, she entertained them all with stories from her ridiculous life. Despite not being that much older than the rest of them Nita Kay had LIVED. She'd been something between a bounty hunter and a mercenary before arriving on Ragrun. As for what got her sentenced to the moon, she never broached the subject and Callum and the rest weren't tactless enough to ask.

As the night began to wind down, Catriona told some tales of Jesus, the God of Humans. They were mostly parables of meekness, humbleness and hard work being rewarded, not on earth but in heaven. Callum had heard them all before but he listened anyway because he liked the sound of his sister's voice. He noticed Nita withdraw a little and begin to drink more heavily. Soon enough, it was time for Valencia to go home and to begin getting ready for bed.

First thing was to begin taking turns for a bath. Mining was sweaty, dirty work so it was good to have a wash up before bed. Baths were taken in a barrel behind the house that sat atop a small wood-burning stove. Neither wood nor water was readily available on Ragrun so the bath could only be heated once a night and the water changed only once or twice a month. That meant it could get a little gross by the end of the month but it was still generally better than sleeping the gritty mix of dust and sweat from the mines. Since the bath could only be heated once, they switched between who could use it first. Tonight's order was Riley, Callum, Catriona. They had tried to insist that Nita use it first, since she was a guest but she demurred and eventually won the argument by passing out. Or pretending to.

After Riley was finished, Callum was enjoying his soak, arms resting on the lip of the barrel. He was wondering what he could possibly do if the Odontas demanded that Catriona attend him. It wasn't unheard of, pretty women being taken by the carcha. Callum didn't really understand it at all. He couldn't imagine being attracted to carcha women so he wondered why the reverse was true. Even stranger, they seemed to have the same standards of beauty that humans themselves did. And by any measure, his sister was the most beautiful woman in the village. Likely the most beautiful to be found anywhere on Ragrun, in fact. 'Maybe I should have hidden her away for the Odontas's visit…'

"You look like you're thinking about something serious." Callum twisted around to see Nita emerging from the house. She had her usual sardonic grin and seemed completely steady on her feet. 'So she was pretending, then.'

"I thought you'd passed out." Callum grinned. "Here I thought you were turning into a lightweight."

Nita barked a laugh. "Rich, coming from someone who coughs up a lung every time he tries a slug."

Nita took a step forward and had to catch herself on the side of the house when she stumbled. Callum quickly levered himself out of the barrel and hurried over to steady her. 'Maybe she really is drunk.'

"Thanks," Nita said with an unsteady grin. Her eyes roved up and down his body and Callum belatedly realized he was naked.

Callum stepped back and tried to cover himself. "Sorry," he muttered.

"Why?" Nita asked, her grin now teasing. "It wasn't a bad sight." Callum's blush grew fiercer. It only got worse when Nita started undoing her robe.

"What are you doing?" he asked in a strained voice. He felt heat in his stomach and a growing pressure further south.

"I'm taking my turn." She shrugged her robe off. Callum breathed in sharply and was riveted by the sight. Her breasts were bigger than he thought, settling into a nice bell shape capped by two small, dark nipples. The tattoo on her torso, which he'd been trying to make out for some time now, was fully revealed as some kind of creature diving toward her crotch. What he'd thought earlier might be a sword was in fact its tail slicing between her breasts. The creature's circular body took up almost all of her stomach, part of it still hidden behind the waist of her short pants.

"W-what is that? T-the tattoo?" Callum asked breathlessly, trying to focus on something other than the fact she was naked. He saw she had another piercing as well. Her belly-button. There was a tattoo on her hip but the light was too dim for him to make it out.

Nita reached up and undid her scarlet hair, letting it fall down to her shoulder blades. "It's a stingray. Creature from the oceans of Earth." Callum barely registered what she was saying. His mouth and eyes were dry, drinking in every movement she made, despite himself. His erection became almost painful when she slipped her thumbs into her waistband and began to slide her pants down her long legs. She straightened and kicked them to the side.

Callum, almost guiltily, glanced down. The stingray's head went all the way down over the mons pubis, which was somehow scoured of hair. Though it was dark beyond the dull light from Algnen, Callum had never gotten such a clear view of a woman before. And Nita was absurdly gorgeous. Callum could barely breathe and he didn't think he could have moved if his life depended on it. His hands unconsciously fell away from his cock, leaving it bare for her green-eyed gaze.

With a throaty chuckle, she stepped forward. "I admit, it does a woman good to know she can still spark such a reaction." She stopped right in front of him and put a hand gently on his chest. Though she barely touched him, he felt a jolt of lightning run through his body. She looked down. "Hmm. I thought you were probably packing but this is even more than I expected." Her fighters, ever so gently, wrapped around the shaft of his penis. Callum let out a rattling breath. She glanced back up into his eyes, suddenly serious. "Before we go any further though, I do need to know what is going on between you and Valencia. I'm not trying to ruin anything."

'Valencia? Why would she be bringing up Valencia?' Before Callum could ask, a scream sounded from the house. Callum's blood, on fire a moment ago, turned to ice. That was Cat. He was moving before he even had time to complete the thought. Nita was only a half step behind. Callum burst into the house and skidded to a stop. The scene that awaited him was out of a nightmare. Riley was on his knees and elbows with a carcha soldier looming over him. His sister was half-collapsed, one hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes. She was being partially held up by another carcha's hold on her other arm. Two more carcha were in the house, all armed with their stun-staffs. 'The four soldiers from before.' "What the hell is happening?" he whispered, his brain unwilling to accept what it was seeing.

"I knew they would come," Riley gasped. "I knew the moment that bastard set eyes on her."

"Enough," the carcha soldier standing above him hissed. He casually lowered his staff so the forked top was touching Riley's back and triggered it. The young man seized wildly.

"Stop it!" Catriona shouted. "Please! I'll come! Leave him alone!"

The carcha did stop, though whether it had anything to do with Catriona's pleading was anyone's guess. Riley collapsed, already unconscious. Callum stared at him and then looked at his sister. Nita, behind him, and one of the carcha were speaking but he couldn't hear them. Instead he heard the voice. The whisper from his dreams. 'Let me give you power.' His head felt like it was in a vice-grip. His heart was beating so fast he thought it would explode. He answered the voice with a thought of his own. 'I'll do anything.' His sister was the only family he had left. He wouldn't let them take her. Not while there was still breath in his body.

Something seemed to blossom in the middle of his body, just below his breastbone. Tendrils snaked through his body. They were hot and painful but he could feel the power in them. The carcha was dragging his sister toward the door. Callum exploded into motion. The carcha standing over Riley's prone body was closest. He covered the distance so fast it threw him off. The punch he tried whistled by the carcha's head and Callum ended up crashing into him. They both went head over heels, Callum's momentum carrying him all the way to the far wall. Where it was simplicity itself for one of the other carcha soldiers to jab him with a stun-staff.

Every muscle in his body spasmed together and pain like he'd never experienced arced through him. His jaw clenched so tight he thought his teeth would crack. A few seconds that felt like an eternity when by and then the carcha lifted up the staff. Callum was overcome with relief, even though his body felt as beat up as if he'd been caught in a landslide. He wanted to curl up and pass out. No! Cat needs you! The tendrils, which he'd stopped feeling during the onslaught of electricity, were still there. He could feel them still pouring power into his body. His hearing was coming back and what he heard was Cat begging the carcha to stop and promising to come with them. Never!

He forced himself into motion, grabbing the stun-staff just below the head and trying to jerk it out of the carcha's hands. His muscles were still weak, though, and the carcha hung on. The soldier tried to jab him but Callum managed to hold him back, locking them in a tug-of-war. Callum tried to feed more of his new power into his arm and slowly began to move the stun-staff away from his body. Then the last carcha stepped beside him and hit him with a shock. His body seized again, including the hand and arm that had been holding the other stun-staff back. It jabbed forward and two currents of electricity surged through his body.

By the time it was over, Callum wasn't feeling much pain anymore because he could barely feel anything at all. He knew that was very bad but he refused to give up. 'Come on! Get up! You're all she has. You have to!' His body wouldn't respond to his orders. He couldn't even get a finger to wiggle. The tendrils of power were gone now, as if they never existed. His eyes still worked though and he saw one of the soldiers walking toward him with a limp. It must have been the one he bowled over. "Vermin," the carcha sneered, lifting up his staff, "should know its place." He placed his staff in the center of Callum's chest and hit the trigger. Callum blacked out almost as soon as the fourth wave of electricity surged into him.