“It’s all right.” The man beckoned to her. “You can get up now. You’re free.”
Maggie tried. But she’d been kneeling in the same position for so long that everything was numb. Her arms were all pins and needles and her legs felt like rubber. She stumbled and would have fallen off the raised pedestal she’d been displayed on for so long if the man hadn’t caught her.
“It’s all right,” he said again and lifted her easily into his arms, cradling her like she was a baby. He looked at Zamir. “I’m taking her. Is there anything else I need to know about this fucking implant?” He nodded at the jewel blinking slowly in Maggie’s naval.
“Nothing,” Zamir said sullenly. “Just go. I will tell my patroness that she has been purchased by a suitable male.”
“If by suitable you mean a mean son of a bitch more than willing to come back and wring your skinny green throat, you’d be right,” the man growled. “Fuck off, slaver.”
And turning, he carried Maggie away.
Chapter Twenty-two
He carried her through the crowded marketplace and into a small, twisting corridor that seemed to be leading outside. Maggie lay still in his arms, too frightened to say anything. She belonged to the man in black now—he had bought and paid for her, implant and all. Would he be a kind and compassionate master, as Zamir seemed to think? Or would he hurt and abuse her as soon as he got her wherever it was that they were going?
He could be anyone—could be a serial killer! whispered a little voice in her brain. He could just buy slaves so he can take them away and torture them to death.
Of course, even if he wasn’t, even if he was a completely nice guy, the fact remained that he was a stranger and he owned her now. And what if she somehow managed to get away from him? Everything was just a big blur. How could she ever get back to Earth? And even if she did get back, she still had the implant lodged firmly in her belly button. An implant she still knew almost nothing about. What even was it? Some kind of animal? Some kind of machine? Zamir had said that it was bred and engineered. Did that mean it was some freaky hybrid thing that was half living and half robotic?
As if the implant knew she was thinking about it, Maggie felt it begin pulse more steadily again. She bit her lip and moaned silently as the unwanted pleasure between her thighs began to grow. The need it evoked in her wasn’t unbearable…yet, but she knew eventually it would be. God, this was torture. What was she going to do?
“Here we are.” The man’s low voice broke her train of thought and Maggie looked up to see that they had reached the end of the twisting corridor and were facing a white panel that might be a door—it was hard to tell when everything was so blurry. The man pressed a button on the wall with his elbow—he was still cradling Maggie to his chest like a baby—and the white panel in front of them whooshed silently open. The man stepped inside and the door shut behind them, leaving them in a small white box of a room.
“Hang in there,” he told Maggie. “Just have to wait for the airlock to cycle.”
There was a whirring noise and a second white panel slid open. This time they entered a much larger room filled with many colorful blurs. Maggie wished desperately that she could see where he was taking her. What was this place? His private apartment? The secret lair where he tortured his victims? Without her glasses she felt absolutely helpless—lost and vulnerable and afraid.
The second door whooshed shut behind them, trapping her alone with him in a strange place. Maggie shivered, wondering what was coming next. Was this the moment he dropped his nice guy act and pulled out a knife? Was this the moment she died?
The man set her down on a soft surface and took off his gloves and cloak. Then he knelt in front of her.
“Are you all right?” he asked her directly. “That bastard of a slaver back there, did he hurt you?”
“I…he…” Maggie shook her head. “Who are you?” she blurted.
“Who am I? Don’t you know?” He slid off the black mask and tossed it aside. “Well?”
Maggie looked at him but his face was still a blur. “I’m sorry, I lost my glasses. Well, I didn’t lose them—they were broken. And without them I can’t really see much of anything.”
“Oh, that’s right—your oculars. I forgot. He leaned closer. “Open your eyes wide and look straight at me.”
“All right,” Maggie said, obeying his orders. “But I’m afraid that really doesn’t help much. You’re still just a big blur and—”
Suddenly a burst of red light came right at her, so quickly Maggie didn’t have time to shut her eyes. She felt a pressure sensation against both eyeballs—the same feeling she got when the optometrist did the air puff test for glaucoma when she had an eye exam.
“Ugh!” She jerked away, closing her eyes reflexively. She’d always hated that test! “What did you do to me?” she demanded, forgetting for a moment to be afraid.
“Open your eyes and find out.”
Maggie blinked and opened her eyes, expecting to see the familiar colorful blurs which had been her whole world since Lady Pope’nose had spitefully broken her glasses. Instead, everything around her jumped suddenly into focus.
She was sitting on a gold brocade couch with intricate scarlet patterns embroidered all over it. The room around her seemed to match the couch in opulence and elegance. And kneeling in front of her was…
“How about now, blondie?” he asked. “Do you know me?”
Maggie could have cried as his familiar features came into focus. “Kor?” she asked in a small, trembling voice. “Is that really you?” She reached up a hand to touch his cheek…then pulled back at the last instant. “Where have you been? Why didn’t you come for me? And what did you do to my eyes?”
“Fixed them.” He grinned. “You can see now, right?”
“Yes, but how did you do it?”
“I’ve been mastering my, uh, talents for lack of a better word.” He tapped his temple, indicating his eyes. “I’m safe now—I won’t hurt anyone by accident.”
“That’s great.” Maggie crossed her arms and looked down. “It sounds like you’ve been putting your time to good use. Meanwhile, I’ve been locked up in some kind of stasis tube while Lady Pope’nose grew this…this thing in me.” She looked down at the ruby implant in her belly button.
“Yes, that thing does seem to be a problem. Let me see it.” He leaned down to examine the implant but Maggie covered it quickly with her arms.
“Don’t. Please.”
“All right.” Kor sat back. “I’m sorry I didn’t come for you sooner but I thought you were fine—thought you got away safely. I had no idea that bitch Pope’nose had gotten free and come looking for you.”
“When did you find out?” Maggie asked.
“One solar week ago. I’d been cruising towards the Black Planet, looking for answers, and then I had a dream—the same kind of dream we shared before. I saw you in a dark room with Pope’nose and that slimy green slaver.”
Maggie’s heart jumped. “You saw that?”
“The same way you saw me chained up before you came to rescue me,” Kor said softly. “The least I could do was return the favor. I knew you were in trouble so I came back to find out what was going on.” He frowned and cracked his knuckles. “I had to get a little rough with one of her slaves but he finally gave up the information. I came to find you as fast as I could.” He looked at her earnestly. “I got here in time, didn’t I? Nobody hurt you, did they? Please tell me you’re all right, sweetheart.”
“Nobody raped me if that’s what you’re asking,” Maggie said bitterly. “Unless you count being implanted with an alien device that makes you—” She broke off abruptly. “Why did you come in disguise? I thought…I didn’t know who you were. I thought some stranger was buying me to take me away and do God knows what to me!”
“I’m sorry about that, blondie,” he said gently. “But I’m a wanted male and I’m known in the Hub. Don’t forget I used to be a slave myself—I was bought and sold to my
last master not fifty feet from the place that slimy green bastard had you displayed. I couldn’t risk showing my face.”
“You should have let me know somehow.” Maggie’s voice trembled and she dropped her eyes. “I was so embarrassed and ashamed, thinking I had let a total stranger touch me. Make me…” But she couldn’t finish.
“Oh Maggie…sweetheart…” He tried to cup her chin but Maggie pulled back from his touch.
“Don’t. When you touch me it only makes it worse. Makes me want…” She shook her head.
“You’re going to have to let me look at that thing eventually, you know,” he said softly. “We need to figure out how to get it out of you.”
Maggie kept her eyes down. “I don’t care about that. I just want to go home.”
“Home to Donald you mean?” His voice hardened. “I should have known you’d still feel the same way.”
Maggie glared at him. “What do you expect? I know it’s been six months for you but it’s only been two days for me. Two days since you said it was a trillion to one chance we’d ever see each other again. Two days since you walked off and left me.”
“I left you because you didn’t want me,” he reminded her grimly. “You wanted that stupid fiancé of yours. Well, let me ask you something, blondie—how do you think good old Donald is going to feel about that implant you’ve got? Will you try to hide it from him? Or explain what it is and how it affects you?”
“I…” Maggie looked away. She could just imagine Donald’s irritation if she had to interrupt his work and ask him to “service” her. He wasn’t very into sex at the best of times, believing it was simply an appetite that had to be satisfied occasionally. If she was constantly at him, always needing him to touch her, to help her… “He won’t like it,” she said at last in a low voice. “He won’t like it at all.”
“So we need to get it out,” Kor said reasonably.
“I’m sure one of the Kindred doctors can do that,” Maggie said. “We should call and ask them. In fact, I should call right now. I’m sure my family is worried sick about me.”
Kor shook his head. “The viewscreen on this ship isn’t wired to make such a long distance interstellar call.”
“Well, then let’s just go. I’m sure the Kindred can get it out—they have very advanced techniques.”
“Not for something like this,” Kor said firmly. “It has to be taken out by the same people who developed it in the first place.”
“Why?” Maggie demanded. “Please, Kor, I just want to go home.”
“Why?” He stood up and started to pace. “Because that thing is like a fucking bomb, that’s why! You think it’s just a pretty, shiny little jewel in your belly button? Hell, no—it’s a living creature with biomechanical tendrils. Tendrils that are probably wrapped all around your spinal cord and—” He must have seen the stricken look on her face because he stopped abruptly. “Damn it. I’m sorry, Maggie—I didn’t mean to scare you. I just want you to know how serious this thing is.”
“You think I’m taking it lightly?” she demanded. “After the way it made me—makes me feel? After what it made me do when you…when you touched me?”
Kor stopped pacing and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry about that too,” he said roughly. “I didn’t want to take advantage of you but I could tell you were in need. You were practically crying with pain. I couldn’t just let you suffer.”
“Maybe you should have,” Maggie whispered. But even as she spoke, she could feel the implant cycling up again, pulsing faster and faster, sending unwanted jolts of desire to the place between her thighs. She crossed her legs and tried to ignore it.
“Fuck.” Kor ran both hands through his hair this time. “I can’t talk to you about this now. I have to go set a course for the ship.”
“The ship?” Maggie looked around at their opulent surroundings. “We’re in a ship?”
“Lady Pope’nose’s private luxury space cruiser to be exact.” Kor gave her a hard grin. “Let’s just say she won’t be missing it any time soon.”
“She…she won’t?” Maggie put a hand to her throat. “Kor, not that I like her—she’s horrible. But what did you do to her?”
“Nothing she didn’t fucking deserve,” he said shortly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, blondie, I have to get us away from the Hub and set a new course before anyone gets suspicious.”
“Set a new course? Where are we going?”
“To the Maw Cluster,” he said. “Straight to the Dragon’s Mouth.”
* * * * *
Kor handed the ship’s controls roughly, jerking the little cruiser out of its docking berth and shoving it into hyperspeed as soon as they were clear. Damn it, what was wrong with Maggie? Would she never be willing to see that she didn’t belong with anyone but him?
Mine, he thought, unable to help the wave of possessiveness that swept over him. She’s fucking mine. Where was her fucking fiancé when she was captured and slaved out? When she was put up for sale? Did he even come looking for her? Kor would have bet any amount he hadn’t. I came for her. I claimed her. She’s mine…or should be anyway.
But what if she didn’t want to be? She’d been stuck in stasis for almost the entire time they were apart—which was possibly the reason he hadn’t dreamed of her before a week ago. Because the weird dream thing that happened between them seemed to need both of them to be lucid to participate somehow.
The point was, almost no time had passed for her. Of course she still felt the same way—why wouldn’t she? Kor had been off, researching his roots and learning to deal with the devastating powers taking off his inhibitor collar had unleashed. He’d also had plenty of time to think…time to regret that he’d left her. But that didn’t mean Maggie had experienced a similar situation. To her it was just yesterday that he’d left her standing at the end of the Grand Promenade thinking she would never see him again.
Kor thought of the dream he’d had—the abject terror he’d felt for her when he realized what was going on. He knew the shame and humiliation of being put up on the block for sale, knew the helpless anger you felt when complete strangers touched and handled you, seeing if you met their requirements, deciding if they wanted to buy you or not. He hadn’t wanted that for Maggie—had been desperate to spare her that shame. And yet, somehow, he had only added to it.
Shouldn’t have touched her, he thought savagely. Should have just taken her back to the ship and let her deal with the need herself. But the urge to touch her had been irresistible. When he’d seen her chained up like that, her full breasts on display with nothing but the narrow silk ribbon to hide her ripe nipples and just a tiny little red skirt that barely covered her pussy, he’d been overcome with desire for her. And Gods, the way she’d reacted when he touched her…the way she’d pushed her little cunt into his hand, begging mutely for release…the soft cries of desire that had escaped her when she came for him…the way her hot, slippery pussy had squeezed his fingers…
She only reacted that way because of the implant, a sharp voice spoke up inside his head. It’s not like she wanted you to touch her—you’re not the male she longs for and you probably never will be.
You should never have come back for her, A deeper, uglier voice whispered. It was the voice he sometimes heard in his dreams—the other dreams that had nothing to do with Maggie. These were the dreams that had come to him soon after he left her, whispering what he was…and what he could become. The dreams that had taught him how to control the strange powers growing within him. The dreams that had been leading him to the Black Planet to find the secret of his origins before he’d turned around and gone back for Maggie…
I had to come for her, Kor thought uneasily. I could never leave her to be slaved out like I was. Even if she doesn’t care for me, I have to do the best I can to help her. I’ll get the implant out of her and help her get safely home to Earth, then I can go back to my quest. After all, it’s not like the Black Planet is going anywhere.
The ugl
y voice muttered indistinctly in the back of his mind but Kor tried to ignore it. Instead, he concentrated on setting a course for the Maw Cluster. Of course once they got there, it would take a bit of finesse to get them to the Dragon’s Mouth. They would probably have to join a group that—
A low cry of pain from the living area of the ship stopped him in mid thought. That’s Maggie! What’s wrong with her?
He jumped up at once, and ran to the living area which was furnished with gold brocade couches and gilded lamps with exotic red silk shades. It was a foolishly lavish display as far as Kor was concerned but it wasn’t the décor he was concerned with right now—it was Maggie.
She was sitting in the middle of the gold couch where he’d left her, a look of pain twisting her lovely face. Her hair was disheveled as though she’d been running both hands through her curls and her deep blue eyes were wild. Her hands were between her legs but when she saw Kor, she pulled them away quickly, as though she’d been burned, and crossed her arms over her chest instead.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” he demanded, going to her. He put out a hand but Maggie pulled away from his touch.
“It’s nothing. I…I’m fine.”
The broken tone of her voice told him it was a lie and the way she wouldn’t meet his eyes made Kor’s heart twist in his chest.
“Maggie…” He tried to keep his voice gentle as he sat beside her on the couch. “Come on, sweetheart…please.”
“I just…I can’t…” She shook her head and he saw that she was crying. Kor wanted to gather her to him and hold her, wanted to comfort and protect her. But she’d already pulled away from him once so he sat quietly and waited. “It’s the implant,” Maggie burst out at last. “I can’t…it’s making me feel so…so…”
Kor looked at the rapidly blinking red jewel and nodded. “I get that when it cycles up it makes you hot—gives you increased desire—but your arms aren’t chained now. You can…take care of yourself if you need to.”