Assassin (12 page)

White orbs returned to her. “The best blowjob my slave buyer has experienced? Tell me, who was your former master?”

Jaienna raised her head. “I was the property of T’Er Ja, the slave trainer until he granted my sister and me freedom.”

There was a hissing intake of breath from Ctix at her unheard of proclamation. Sex slaves were never released on Raavelia Alpha; they were either killed or fucked to death. Crortek’s spines flared again. “Freedom?” White eyes narrowed. “Yet you are a slave once more?”

“Four cycles ago I was aboard a Boaronian merchant vessel when it was raided by an Acheron slave gang. I’ve been a slave since.”

“And where is your sister now?”

Jaienna blinked. Once. “Dead.”

Crortek’s lips pulled down in a cold pout. “What a pity. I would have enjoyed fucking you both.”

Murderous fury ripped through her, but she held herself still. Now wasn’t the time. Later however...

Crortek turned back to Ctix. “I think I would like to experience this phenomenal blowjob.” Elation, cold and triumphant, flooded through Jaienna, and she couldn’t help her small smile.

A loud bang on the door shattered the quiet of Crortek’s suite and Lyso barged into the room, blue mottled skin dark with anger, tail a short swishing whip as he charged across the floor. “The Raavelian is mine, Crortek. She’s my slave.”

Jaienna clenched her fists and bit back a sharp curse. She’d been so close!

Lyso stopped beside Ctix, his pink eyes blazing. “The one those fucking Boundary Guardians stole from me!”

Crortek’s smug smile evaporated. “The Terran?”

Jaienna closed her eyes.
Shit
.

“Yes. The Shikz-fucking Terran. He almost blasted my head off in his hurry to get away with her.”

Dead white eyes turned to her and Jaienna’s blood turned icy. This was
not
how it was meant to go. Crortek’s cock should be in her mouth by now and she should be in his head, telling him to put his own gun to his temple and blow his brains out!

“Tell us,
slave
,” Crortek’s grating voice was calm. “How did you get away from the Boundary Guardians?”

The pulse in her neck was a pounding trip-hammer as she stared into the Ornithion’s unnerving eyes. “I didn’t,” she kept her voice as soft and submissive as possible. “They took me to a Guardian Out-post near Boarona and placed me in the charge of a Peace-keeper.”

 “And?”

“The Peace-keeper sold me to the next Acheron slaver that docked. Who then sold me to the slave dealer here.”

Crortek didn’t move. Nobody moved. Except for Ctix whose grip on her chain tightened. The faint chink of the links hitting each other was the only sound to be heard. That and Lyso’s heavy breathing.

She was in trouble. She knew it.

A shiver rippled over her, pinching her nipples into rock-hard peaks of cold fear. A shimmer blurred across Crortek’s eyes and they narrowed into slits. “Just like that?” he asked. “No fuck? No blow job as reward?” Without waiting for an answer his face swung to Ctix. “Do you have your Bliss?”

Wordlessly, the Sheilite bowed his head.

Jaienna froze. Oh, gods, no, she thought. No, no, no, no.

“Give her a hit,” Crortek ordered. “Just enough to take away her inhibitions—and control—and then lead her to the dais. I want to see what a Raavelian Alpha slave can do.”

Chapter Eight

The Pit’s
bouncer, a muscle-bulging seven-foot Keltarian with razor-sharp teeth the length of a man’s finger stood before the entryway, wide nostrils flaring as Zeric and Jak approached. Each had dressed appropriately for a sex-club: Jak in red leather trousers that looked like they were painted on, sculpted chest bare, Zeric in his customary black trousers, shirt and jacket. Both looked extremely dangerous. And entirely fuckable.

The Keltarian bared his teeth as they stepped onto the entryway platform. Massive, fur-covered arms crossed over a colossal fur-covered chest as he watched them with intent burnt-orange eyes.

“Uh-oh,” Jak muttered, right hand moving slowly down to his disrupter. “We could have trouble here.”

Zeric narrowed his eyes, watching the Keltarian’s hackles rise as they drew closer. The bouncer’s scent filled his nose. Since his last transformation his senses had been less human and more that of the beast’s—heightened, instinctive and finely attuned. At this very moment, they told him he and Jak were treading on very perilous ground. The Keltarian was prepared for a challenge to his turf, was ready and almost eager. Territorial dominance hung on the air. That, and Zeric was interested to sense, muted apprehension. “Don’t do anything rash,” he said without looking at his partner. “Just follow my lead.”

“Hey, you’re the animal here,” Jak muttered under his breath, making Zeric want to curse. “He’s all yours, partner.”

“Ho, Keltarian,” he said instead, raising his right hand.

The bouncer sniffed the air, eyes staring into Zeric’s. “Ho,” he replied, the words more guttural growl than humanoid voice. “Your purpose?”

“We come to fuck,” Zeric answered, never breaking eye contact. “To mate.”

The Keltarian didn’t move, but the scent of nervous unease and whimpering challenge seeped from him, almost tactile in its intensity. A driving urge to leap forward and teach the pathetic animal a lesson surged through Zeric. For a split second his body tensed, ready to pounce.
Get out of my fucking road, or pay the consequences
. The Keltarian’s eyes widened and, with an almost inaudible whine, he dropped his head and stepped aside. Zeric bared his teeth, his agitated pulse slowing back to a normal pace as he wrenched himself back under control. “Thank you, brother,” he said, walking past the bowed head of the bouncer.

Jak followed, one eyebrow cocked. “Want to explain that?” he asked as they walked through the club’s entry corridor, harsh neo-lights flashing frantically all around them.

For an answer, Zeric gave him a flat glare.

A grin split Jak’s face. “Okay, okay. But whatever you did, can you do it again? The weapons check booth is coming up and I’d rather not try and arrest Crortek without my guns.”

* * *

Ctix held up the small hypo-shot, translucent purple fluid glinting under the lights of Crortek’s suite like crystalline shards. Jaienna stared at it, heart pounding, mind racing.

She had two options. Fight or take the hit.

She was an excellent fighter. She had to be. The Intel-Patrol Corp wouldn’t have it any other way. But she was also chained and out-numbered three to one.

Ctix tugged her closer. In approximately two seconds she would be on a Bliss high. Who knew what would happen then?

She gave Crortek a sideward glance, noting his cold, leering grin. He’d thought he’d won. Again. A slave or Guardian spy, it didn’t matter to him as long as he was in control.

Jaienna curled her hands into tight fists, adrenaline rushing through her veins.
Fuck him.

She moved. Fast.

Ctix was the first to fall. Swinging her leg high, she brought it down on the chain held by the Sheilite in a sweeping arc, jerking him toward her in a stumbling fall. His jaw shattered as her fist smashed into it. His knees buckled and he collapsed, iridescent yellow eyes rolling back into his skull. She snapped up her knee, smacking it under his pointed jaw, whipping his head back. The hard plates of his exoskeleton clattered as he dropped the chain and hit the floor in a twitching and shuddering heap.

“What the—?”

Ctix’s destruction had been so fast, neither Lyso nor Crortek had moved. Jaienna turned to find Lyso watching her, mouth agape. She looped the chain around her forearm and lashed it out at her former owner, the leather handle on its end whipping across Lyso’s stunned face, tearing a chunk of blue flesh from his cheek. “Owww, you bitch!” he squealed, smacking his hands to his face as a gush of blood spurted from the gaping gash.

Cold rage boiling through her, she flicked the chain again, curling its end around his fat ankle and giving it a savage yank.

With a loud wail, Lyso landed on his tail, the sound of snapping bones reaching her ears. An icy smile stretched her lips at the sound. She gave him a quick look, knowing he was out of action for a while—long enough for her to deal with—

Cold metal pressed against the back of her neck. “That’s enough,” Crortek’s coarse voice rasped in her ear and she froze. “
Slave
.”

She closed her eyes and dropped her head.
Shit
.

There was a dull pop, followed by intense blistering heat.

And then everything went black and Jaienna fell to the floor.

* * *

Jak grinned at the Hetap behind the weapons-check counter. “Busy night?”

The Hetap smiled back, bulbous eyes flickering with interest as she ran her eyes over his bare chest. “Always,” she practically panted.

Jak chuckled, leaning forward. “I tell you what,” he said in a low voice. “After I’m finished inside, why don’t I come back and take you out for a drink.”

The Hetap’s smile broadened. “I finish at five.”

Jak winked. “I’ll be here.”

The larger than normal Boaronian standing guard beside the counter grunted. “That’s enough, lover boy. Check your weapons.” Piggy eyes drilled into Jak. “Now.”

Jak held up his palms. “Okay. Okay. No need to get snippy.” He reached for the disrupter tucked into his trousers at the small of his back. He looked over the Hetap’s shoulder into the storage compartments. “Say, is that an illegal Boaronian Pacifier? I’d love a go.”

The Boaronian turned, reaching for Jak. “That’s it. I’m taking you—”

Jak heard a high-pitched whine and the Boaronian dropped to the floor with a thud. “Let’s go,” Zeric growled, stepping over the Boaronian’s motionless form and walking into the club.

Jak turned back to the frozen Hetap. “Sorry, sweetie,” he said, leveling his disrupter at her. “But you’re gonna have a headache when you wake up.”

* * *

“You took out my dom master, Raavelian.”

Jaienna struggled to open her eyes, squinting against the light as she peered around her. Crortek stood before her, a gleam in his eyes and a grin on his face. “You’ll have to be punished for that.”

A hot and greasy vice-like grip around her shoulders and biceps told her all too painfully that two Boaronians held her. She didn’t need to see them to know they were big, hulking and sweaty; all Boaronians were.

“If Ctix wasn’t in a state of unconsciousness,” Crortek went on, so close she could smell the sour stench of his breath, “
he’d
be teaching you how to behave in my club.” He held up the Bliss-filled hydro-shot. “But now it seems I get the pleasure.”

Jaienna began to buck wildly. If she took the hit, she was as good as dead.

A cruel smile played with Crortek’s thin lips. “Now, now,” he purred, the sound hideous coming from his grating throat. “Some beings would sell their very souls for what I’m about to give you.” And he abruptly stabbed the hydro-shot straight into her neck.

The effect was immediate. Bliss filled her bloodstream, pumping straight to her brain. Heat blossomed in her core and, unable to stop it, a moan escaped from her lips, low and ripe with pleasure. She rolled her head, ribbons of surreal sensations threading through her. Into her stomach. Her core. She was horny. Eager.