CHAPTER 3
Fire. I’m onfire…burning…searing…melting me down to the nubs.The Oro consumed me, gobbling me up while singeing blood vessels—destroying me from the inside out. My throat burned like I’d swallowed jet fuel. I could never get a breath in deep enough. Time sputtered and slowed until it inched by second by second.
First, it attacked my womb. I would have laughed if I had the tiniest breath to spare. Good luck trying to find it.
No uterus, no babies. No sister.
My sorrow swept me away in a river of gold.
Next came my shoulder. The scapula wrenched itself out of place—the clavicle broken and cutting through tissue. My left pinky twisted. My right wrist yanked and pulled until it separated from my skin. On and on and on…
After demolishing my body, the Oro swallowed my mind. It pulsed and grew until it washed over my grey matter, penetrating every fold and sinew until there was nothing left. No respite, no life—just inky black. The certainty of my death was one of the few thoughts I held onto along with…
Valentina.
I floated in fiery nothingness as each body part was examined and then destroyed. My only tether was the image of my sister, which I fiercely held onto.
As time passed, days…weeks…minutes… I clung to life. For the briefest second, the pain eased enough for me to perceive my surroundings. The sound of the aliens’ chatter, like shattered glass, shredded my damaged mind. Rough tubes were insertedinto my body as I lay torn. Freckles lurked; the shrieks never faded.
I’m his pet project now.
When I came to, he was there—watching, manipulating my body. Trying to own me. He prodded me with his mouth. Or, more specifically, foul-smelling dick-tongues. He had three of them, and he used them. Frequently.
You’ll never break me, you pedazo de mierda.
Cocooned in a life-and-death struggle, Freckles and his foul-smelling junk became no more important than a pesky fly. I focused on the true threat. The Oro. As it rearranged me on a molecular level, I realized it had a pattern. A design. None of it was random which made me feel it was alive, judging me, deciding my fate, taking my measure—not him. Who was Freckles in comparison to this otherworldly substance? He didn’t understand. I would have laughed if I could breathe without charring my lungs. He knew nothing. Had no idea he could be taken as quickly as me.
I will kill yousohard, Freckles. Right after I find my sister.
That was the first time the Oro paused. My thoughts caught its attention. Even though the force of its power threatened to crush me, I was filled with peace. When I thought of killing Freckles, the Oro cooled within me. As I envisioned shoving a needle through his eye and beating him to a pulp, the Oro lovingly caressed my insides, as if in agreement.
Por favor.Please let me help my sister, I whispered repeatedly in my mind. For Valentina, I would beg. For her, I would give up almost anything… even my soul. But I needed to bealiveto help her. Then I needed to kill Freckles for what he’d done.
Find Valentina. Kill Freckles.
The Oro swirled and crested, coasting over me, considering my plea. It didn’t have a voice, but it was the echo of a whisper. A swirl of shadow in my mind. A presence in every cell of my body.
As it got to know me, I got to know it. Or them. I felt their pain, the rage at being separated from the ones they loved. They existed in the fabric of every inch of this planet, it wasn’t meant to be stolen and manipulated by aliens like Freckles. The Oro needed contact, needed attention, needed love.
Revenge and connection. I didn’t know how to give that to them except to let their sorrow and rage mix with my own. I understood losing someone you loved. I’d had so much loss, my parents, myabuelos, and now my sister. I surrendered. Sank into the feelings. Let myself be consumed by the gold. I drowned in a tsunami of energy. Could see it, feel it, smell it. Perceived it in ways I’d never imagined.
It broke me down and remade me into something… new. The bones began to knit, the organs reformed, and the cells renewed. I was reborn in fire—because of a golden alien substance with the knowledge of the universe.
It understood love.
It understood revenge.
It understood me.
We were one.
***
Pleasure coursed throughme like a full-body orgasm. The burn, the writhing agony—all gone.
Is it pleasure or just the absence of pain?
Nope. I was high as hell, but it didn’t matter. Drunk, smashed…borracha! Nothing mattered but this feeling. My knotted muscles relaxed. My chilled skin heated. An eternity of pleasure existed between each drawn-in breath.
