Wicked Beloved (15 page)

Someone had gone to great lengths to package
her like this. She had the sick feeling she knew who’d done it,
too. Knotwork had been one of Senator Wrall’s passions.

When the giant uniformed man stormed into
her cabin and started dragging her out, she’d fought as hard as she
could, but he’d managed to stab her with something that knocked her
cold. This was just not her day to stay conscious, apparently.

A uniformed lackey also indicated senator
Wrall’s involvement. He’d had a bunch of those. He’d also had a
bunch of cells in different dungeons, but she didn’t recall this
one. It was larger, warmer, and emptier than those she remembered.
No benches, no tools on the walls. Maybe he’d only recently bought
this, to make Dzer-Jin’s tracing her more difficult.

Not that Dzer-Jin would be looking for her.
He didn’t want her anymore. And even if he did, he thought she was
safely on her way to Earth.

She was doomed.

At the sound of muffled footsteps, her pulse
quickened. A door opened somewhere behind her, and shut again just
as quickly. She waited. And started to sweat in the unbearable
silence.

A laugh she had hoped never to hear again
broke the quiet. She shivered. “You never would beg to just
anyone,” Wrall said. “Glad to see he didn’t beat all the
willfulness out of you.”

The footsteps sounded again and then he
appeared in her line of sight, a confident swagger in his gait. He
stopped directly in front of her feet. “No word of greeting?”

Just the sight of him standing there, the
smug grin on his face and the gloating expression that grew as he
cast his eyes over her, was enough to make her sick. She hated her
own weakness. “Hey, Wrall. Drop dead.”

He chuckled. “I shall enjoy conquering you,
now that I know it can be done.”

Panic clawed at her throat. Not again. Not
all this again. She’d survived it once. She shouldn’t have to do it
repeatedly. It wasn’t fair. She took a steadying breath. “You’ll
get no enjoyment here.”

“
Yes. I will. Dzer-Jin
Vonn broke you. I can break you, too.”

She snorted. “Shows how much you know.
Dzer-Jin never even tried.”

Wrall’s eyes narrowed slightly. She
recognized it as one of the signs his temper was slipping and
chalked a point up to herself.

“
I’m your master now—” he
began.

Her heart beat a heated staccato but she cut
him off anyway. “No you’re not.”

“
Whore—”

“
Okay, y’know what? The
word you’re looking for is
slut
. Whores get paid. You never
paid me. You want to demean me, get your fucking vocabulary right.
Otherwise it’s just irritating.”

A long pause followed. He stared down at
her, the grin gone, his lips pursed together. “What say I leave you
to marinate. Just like this. You won’t be so feisty when your
immobilized muscles ache, you’re lying in your own filth, and you
have to depend on me for a sip of water.”

She didn’t like that image at all. “What say
you release me and we pretend this whole thing never happened.”

“
Why would I wish to do
that?”

“
Because you touch me and
my master will kill you.”

“
I’m
your master now.”

She shook her head. “Dzer-Jin is my only
master. I obey him. I’ll never obey you.”

Wrall marched to her side. Squatting down,
he took hold of her bruised chin—the grip of his fingers
exacerbating soreness that lingered from Dzer-Jin’s punch—and
wrenched her head around to face him. “He’ll never give you orders
again. You do realize this? He protects you no longer.” His thumb
rubbed harshly across her lips, pressing them into her teeth. “You
want the comfort of domination, you come to me. Vonn abandoned
you.”

She jerked her chin away.
“He did not. He actually
freed
me. And he’ll be furious you interfered.” She
sounded much more confident than she felt. Wrall was right.
Dzer-Jin had abandoned her. Because he wanted her to return to her
home world. Her safer, saner home world.

She was pretty messed up that she wanted to
stay with him.

Wrall stood. “The Assassin’s Guild would
never allow him to harm me. Not over a slave.”

Her heart sank, though she hoped she was
hiding her despair. What he said was probably true. Slaves didn’t
count as people.

“Oh, he’s pretty resourceful.” Empty words,
but they sounded cocky. Tone of voice was all that mattered at this
point. She gave him a matching smirk. “Don’t say I didn’t warn
you.”

* * *

The shock of ice-cold liquid sheeting across
her skin was her first indication she had somehow managed to fall
asleep. Or pass out. Sputtering and gasping, her slowly focusing
eyes found the source of the deluge—a metal bucket in the hand of
her tormentor.

Wrall set the empty bucket on the stone
floor, and the clang of contact echoed around them.

“
Do you have anything to
say to me?”

“
Thanks…for the drink.”
She licked her cracked lips, attempting to catch any stray beads of
water.

He shook his head, a smile on his face. Then
he stepped forward and her scalp screamed as he pulled her head up
by the hair. “Now…who’s your master?”

Throat dry and voice hoarse from shouting,
she struggled to form words, coughed, attempted to swallow, and
coughed again. Her raspy efforts were the only sounds in the room
as he waited for her response.

“Dzer…Jin.” She tried to grin nastily at him
and hoped the sentiment at least reached her eyes.

He slapped her so hard her head spun and she
spit blood. “He won’t want you, not after I’m done. You will be so
defiled he’ll never wish to touch you again.”

She swallowed the warm liquid that had to be
her own blood trickling down the back of her throat. At least it
would help her voice.

“Maybe. But he’ll still
eat your liver with fava beans.”
Whatever
they are
. She couldn’t think up her own
threats anymore. Her body hurt too much.

He grabbed her face and jerked her head up
so her eyes met his. “You are going to beg for my cock before we’re
through here.” His voice had calmed and he spoke with quiet, cold
clarity. “You will be my obedient little whore. I’ll order you to
suck me off in front of Vonn and not only will you do it, you’ll
thank me for it.”

“Die…first.”

“They always think that, but they always
break in the end. I just didn’t realize you need comforting as well
as pain. That was my mistake. Once I condition you to seek me for
solace you will revel in my touch. You will beg me to mark you with
my seed. Vonn’ll watch you relishing every warm drop as it drizzles
down your face and stains your skin and be sick with jealousy.”

“You…talk…too…much.”

“Get used to it. Mine will be the last voice
you hear at night. The first voice you hear come morning. The only
voice you will obey for the rest of your life.”

A metallic bang startled her. Wrall jumped,
too. It took a moment for her to recognize it must have been the
door to the room getting kicked in. Wrall backed away from her, his
eyes widening as he stared at the newcomer she could not yet
see.

“Vonn!” While emphatic, the word left
Wrall’s lips as no more than a shocked whisper.

She twisted, trying to see him, hope
fluttering inside her chest.

Dzer-Jin sauntered into her field of view,
all of his focus intent on Wrall. His clothes were disarrayed and
tattered, his sleeves no more than ribbons. His hands and arms up
to his elbows were coated with blood. Another slash of blood
vividly smeared a wide swath across one cheek, from his fiercely
scowling brow to his chin.

With his lip curled in a snarl, he prowled
closer to Wrall, his angry movements fluid, swift, and uninjured.
She realized he carried no wounds. None of that blood was his.

“Not over a slave.” Wrall gasped.

“No. Not over a slave,” Dzer-Jin replied,
voice flat and dark. “Are those to be your last words?”

“Where are my guards?”

“All dead.”

“I see. You are as talented as is said.”

“A realization from which no one ever
recovers.” He leapt at Wrall.

The scuffle was brief, Dzer-Jin seeming most
concerned with leading Wrall out of her line of sight. Once they
were behind her she guessed why. The unholy sounds that followed
were not to be watched. In the middle of a scream, Wrall suddenly
fell silent.

Soft footfalls heralded Dzer-Jin’s approach.
She watched him stride back around the pole, returning to her.

All that blood on him, the vicious cast to
his countenance and the wicked gleam in his eyes should have
terrified her. Instead, weak as she felt, she flushed with warmth
and her spirits soared. He may have been scraped and scuffed and
smeared with blood and dirt, but he was still the most handsome man
she had ever seen.

“How’d you find me?”

“It was not difficult once I knew you were
missing. I should have checked on you sooner.” He crouched down at
her side. His knife appeared in his hand as if it had suddenly
grown there, so natural did it seem, and he began sawing her free
of the ropes. “The captain of the Oracle now realizes he should
have contacted me the moment you were detained. It was a painful
lesson for him. No, do not worry, he lives to put his new knowledge
to good use. Unlike Wrall’s guards, none of whom survive to learn
from their mistake.”

The ropes fell away. She was free, if only
she could get her numb limbs to function.

He began gently chafing her arms, the enemy
blood still staining his long fingers leaving streaks of red up and
down her skin as he urged her circulation to return.

Even like this, he was gorgeous. And she
was…An embarrassed horror overcame her. How could he bear to be
near her, let alone come in contact with her?

“
Don’t touch me,” she
mumbled. “Please don’t touch me. I’m disgusting.”

“
No you’re not. The
conditions here are appalling. But they do not taint
you.”

She would have sobbed, if she had the
strength. He didn’t know. In the dungeon’s dim light, he obviously
couldn’t see her, or he didn’t realize the stench all about them
was coming from her as well, or something like that.

If only he didn’t have to know. She couldn’t
bear to see disgust in his eyes.

Leaning as far away from him as she could,
she tried again. “Just leave me. You won’t want…”

He shifted to chafe her near leg, which was
already stinging mercilessly as it awoke. “I already do want. Trust
me.”

“
You can’t…I’m
all…defiled.” It was the only word she could think of. In her mind,
Wrall’s voice taunted her with it repeatedly.
Defiled
. She wanted to sink through
the flagstone floor and hide beneath it forever.

Suddenly she was in his arms. She struggled
to get away, afraid of getting filth all over him, but his embrace
only tightened. At her continued resistance, he nipped her throat
and growled a warning. She stilled.

“
You’re mine, Ahno’ee,” he
whispered against her ear, the play of his breath against her skin
sending shivers up her spine. “Always mine. Nothing will change
that. I have no peace without you.”

A pained honesty ground through his husky
voice. She wanted nothing more than to relax into his arms, but
this had to be a hallucination. Or she was dead and in heaven. It
was just too good to be true. But that didn’t stop her from wanting
to hear more.

“
Really?” she
prompted.

“
Yes. If you had died, I
would have lain in the dirt above your decomposing remains and
plunged my blade through my heart so that my deliquescing flesh
could mingle with yours.”

“
Okay. Big words. I’m
guessing it sounds poetic in your language. Is that love on this
planet? ‘Cause that’s…sorta disturbing.”

He chuckled. “If I were a good person, I
would load you right back on a ship to Earth—and ride along with
you this time to make certain you arrive safely at your
destination.”

Rejection slashed through
her heart and she tried to shove him away. “So you
don’t
want me, then?
Don’t put me through this. I can’t handle it right now.” She
whimpered.

He sighed and his arms
tightened around her. “I said
if
I were good. I am not. And in my selfishness, I
want you to stay. You are too nice to survive here and yet I want
you to stay. You should hate me and leave, even if it renders
me….”

“
What?”

“
Nothing.” He touched the
side of her chin and she flinched at the pain. “I caused that. You
ought not to forgive.”

Gingerly she felt along her jaw. “If you
were from Earth I wouldn’t. But this place…I get that it’s
different here. And I think I figured out your intent. So I’m
willing to give you one more chance.”

“
That is all I shall
need.” He helped her to her feet. “You once said you wanted to spit
on Wrall’s corpse. Still interested?” He indicated the direction of
the body with a nod of his head.

“
Uh, no thanks.” Fear
spiked her innards at a sudden thought. “Hey, you won’t get in
trouble for…y’know…killing him? And all this? Will you? Over a
slave?”

He shook his head. “I registered my intent
with the Guild. And it was not over a slave.” It was a flat
statement, as if his terse words explained everything.

She leaned against him, only partially
walking, letting him half-carry her to the door. “So that made it
okay?”