Serena's POV:

My mind was lethargic and didn't want to cooperate with my attempts to wake up. My body was being even more stubborn and I couldn't move. The first thing that stood out was that someone was holding me, but it wasn't Darien.

I realized I had felt like this before, and I knew I had been drugged once more. My hazed mind traced the mate bond, but Darien was not close by, although he was heading in this general direction.

I could hear faint muffled voices nearby, but couldn't make out what they were saying. I didn't recognize the voices though. My eyelids finally cooperated and I managed to open them. Very dim light came in through several tiny ventilation slits higher up and showed that Saphira was holding me.

She held her fingers to her lips as a sign for silence. I still couldn't move yet, but I took heed of the warning. This drug wore off slowly, as I knew from past experience. It would probably be five minutes before I could manage to stand.

Faint vibrations showed that we were moving, but more slowly than when I had blacked out. Saphira kept half an eye on me while also watching the walls of whatever box we were in. There wasn't enough light to really see colors, but the dark color of Saphira's skin and her bristled hair showed that she was not impressed.

I started flexing my fingers as I tried to regain control over my body. It was slow going, but as minutes ticked by, I regained my mobility. I started to very softly hum the calling song to direct Darien to me. Once it peaked, I dropped it, lest the goons outside realize that I had woken up.

Hopefully, the longer they thought I was unconscious, the longer they would leave me alone. Hopefully. The box was still moving, which was either a good thing or a bad thing. At least I wasn't alone this time. Saphira put me down so I could sit on the floor, although I still leaned against her side as she kneeled beside me alertly.

Darien was much closer now, and still headed this way, although he was some distance out. I held my breath as a voice I recognized spoke loudly.

"Well, well, well. So you did manage to take her alive. I am quite impressed. Let's have a look at her."

The sound of bolts and clips being removed had Saphira crouching down in a defensive position in front of me. One side wall was pulled away from the thick metal bars to show Councillor Mitchell.

He blinked in surprise, "You didn't mention that you also managed to catch a Dranek. Both seem unharmed as well." His evil grin spread across his face, "I am very impressed. I will triple your payment for this delivery."

The two Valrid stared at Saphira in surprise, they must not have known she had been in here with me, but they nodded their acceptance and left. It was eerie how their faintly dappled dark grey fur and dark clothing blended into the shadows of the lantern-lit hallway and practically made them disappear.

He watched us for a few moments, "Interesting, very interesting..." He glanced to the side, "Push them into the room and put the cage on the platform."

Others I couldn't see continued pushing the cage as Saphira glared through the bars at the Tarulk who seemed far too pleased with himself. I uneasily shuffled backwards until my back was against the wall of the cage.

There were at least a dozen armed fighters around us, possibly more that I couldn't see through the walls. I doubted Saphira could fight so many at once. I didn't see a door on this cage either, which also complicated our escape. I wrapped my arms around my knees nervously before humming as quietly as I could to Darien once more.

I kept an eye on the Councillor. I didn't trust this Tarulk in the least, and I knew he had been behind my earlier kidnapping as well. He was far too cheerful about having trapped a Dranek and a human who was soulbonded to a Tarulk. It looked like he might have also been the one to put a bounty on my head as well...

The room we entered was startlingly large for this planet, and it was larger than any Tarulk house I had been in. There was a large raised platform on the far side of the room made from metal grating flooring. Otherwise, the room seemed pretty bare and empty.

I stopped my humming before it caught someone's attention. The cage was pushed onto what looked like an elevator and another Tarulk started turning a crank as the elevator rose into the air towards the larger platform.

It took them some time to raise the elevator up to the rather high platform. Chills ran down my spine as the cage was pushed into the middle of the platform and I saw an array of various weapons lined up on one side.

"Take the other walls off."

Saphira snarled at the Tarulk who removed the flat walls of the cage, leaving just the bars to contain us. She kicked one bar, but they were solidly built, and Mitchell just smirked at her attempt.

The other Tarulk left after they finished their task, descending down the elevator and heading out the door. Darien was getting closer and I risked a quick faint hum to guide him more directly to me.

Mitchell slowly walked along the table as one hand trailed over the objects that looked like they were designed to cause pain. Whips, long knives, bows and arrows, long pins, and other things that I didn't want anywhere near me.

"Where to start..."

How could I buy time for Darien to get here? I whispered, "Why are you doing this?"

He paused in his walking as he turned to face me incredulously, "Why? Why? Have you not seen what the people of your own planet have done to their home? How cheerfully they murder their neighbors without pause? They pollute the very air and water they need to survive. The human capacity for destruction is unparalleled."

He picked up a long narrow blade and fiddled with it as he walked towards us while watching me intently, "You... You are a problem. You know how the waygates work, so you cannot return to Earth, lest humans once more spread to other planets to continue their destructive path. Yet, if you remain, it is the exception that means that other humans may also come through and some will eventually try to exploit or pollute our planet. It is a problem that we must nip in the bud. And that mate of yours just complicates things. Horrendously so, in fact."

Saphira tried to bring her own logic into it, "She is a Tarulk's soulmate, and thus is adopted into your people."

He did not appreciate her answer and he started to get mad, "You have clearly never been to Earth, or else you would agree wholeheartedly with me. They would probably kill you just as they killed my mate."

His gritted his teeth and his voice grew tight, "Those humans killed her! In cold blood! Before tying a rock to her feet and throwing her into the ocean! Do you know what it feels like when the soulbond is destroyed?!" His voice choked out at the end.

He threw the knife at Saphira in a rage and I gasped in alarm, but she managed to use her own dagger to deflect the blade harmlessly away from us. He stormed over to the other side of the platform. I hadn't realized he had a soulmate at one point. I didn't want to contemplate what it would feel like if the mate bond disappeared.

I took a few more seconds to hum to Darien and relay my direction once more. He was getting closer and was likely even inside the building, but the winding hallways were probably delaying him as he tried to navigate them. I hoped that any guards were smart enough to just get out of his way.

Saphira sounded faintly disgusted, "And you would inflict that same pain on another?"

He snorted, "I wasn't on the Council back then, and I originally pressed the Council to wipe out the humans on Earth since they are destroying the planet anyways. There was too much pushback though, and it was never even considered."

"And how would killing Serena fix anything? She did not kill your mate."

Mitchell walked over to a large cloth-covered object the size of a van and yanked the covering off to reveal something that looked like a giant crossbow the size of a catapult mounted on a swivel. He slowly spun it to face our direction.

There was a glint in his eyes that I was sure was madness. "Humans can never be allowed to leave Earth, and they can never learn the secrets of the waygates. If I have my way, the human race will finally be extinct within the century."

Saphira brought up her dagger as she crouched in front of me in an attempt to shield me. There was no way she could stop this weapon though, the arrow shaft was thicker than my arm. Her armor may be able to stop a normal arrow, but not something like this.

I started humming a faint urgent tone letting Darien know that we needed him now. A distant roar responded the moment I felt my magic peak. Mitchell glanced at the closed doors before swiftly starting to crank the handle to draw the heavy bowstring back.

I got to my feet as my heart sped up in dread. I doubted I could dodge the missile in this tiny cage, but I had to try. The string clicked as the locking mechanism held the bow at full draw and he quickly put one of the massive arrows into the guides.

I started to hum as I tried to find some way to seize the gears so they wouldn't release. The metal was the same obstinate stuff from the ship, it needed a whistle - and time. A song couldn't hit the right tones either.

I tried to hasten my hum as he lined up the sights on the deadly contraption. Saphira shifted uneasily in front of me, probably just as aware of how tight of a spot we were in. I tested the bars that confined us, but they were made of a similar metal.

There were bolts and pins securing the lid in place, and the lid had originally been jammed in with a lot of force. I could not undo so many things quickly enough.

We were truly trapped.