by Raven Dark
It was all so surreal. I saw one or two slaves in the same red dress and collar as me sitting with bare-chested Xandari masters, along with a half a dozen women of various races that at least appeared to be free.
A sudden longing for Earth washed over me, seeing those women talking and laughing with their friends, many looking as if they hadn’t a care in the world. Would I ever feel as carefree as them?
The food came, and Raul reached across the table and took off my muzzle, setting a plate of some kind of lumpy soup in front of me. It looked like green sludge, but it was delicious and creamy, like chowder. I didn’t want to ask what the hell it was, though. The guys had ordered big plates of some sort of thick meat that smelled like steak, and probably tasted just as good. Raul gave Tarku the scraps.
Malek ordered dessert for himself and me, and I almost squealed when I saw the suma delivered to the table.
“Hurry it up, Malek. The Tanticore has about another twenty minutes left to fuel up,” Z’pheer said. “She’ll be ready to depart soon.” He glanced at my suma, this time a dark, delicious red covered in yellow sauce. His eyes twinkled.
My cheeks flamed. I knew he was thinking of the midnight snack we’d shared aboard the ship, and the hot sex that had followed.
“I think I’ll order some of that for myself,” Z’pheer added. He reached over to my bowl and stuck his finger in the crimson-swirled cream, then licked it off.
My heart pounded, watching him.
“You’re good at that, Z’pheer,” Malek teased while finishing his last spoonful. “I ought to know.”
“Blow me, Malek,” Z’pheer said.
“No thanks, that’s your job. I prefer to be on the receiving end.”
My jaw dropped at their openness, heat spreading through me.
Raul laughed and shook his head at their banter as Z’pheer waved a server over and ordered himself a bowl of suma.
When we’d finished eating, Malek picked up my muzzle, but instead of putting it on, he snagged me around the shoulders pulling me into him. I gasped in surprise. He seized my chin and tipped my face up.
“Before I put this thing on…” His mouth seared mine.
Hot need spread through me like wildfire, but such a public display of affection wasn’t something I was used to, so I instinctively pushed at his chest.
Malek growled a warning into my mouth and yanked on my hair, trapping my mouth under his. His tongue raked over my lips, lapping with open hunger, speared inside, and then lapped at my lips again.
I whimpered, half mortification, half need, my pussy already getting wet.
As soon as he lifted his head, I glared at him. “Why did you do that?” I could feel Raul and Z’pheer both watching, and half the cantina’s eyes on me.
“Why?” He stuck two of his fingers in my mouth. “Because your mouth is mine, shleta. I can take it whenever I want, however I want.”
He removed his fingers and snatched one more kiss. Then he slapped the muzzle over my mouth ignoring my indignant growl, shoved the rubbery piece in, and buckled the strap around my head before I could say a word.
On our way out, Raul leaned down to my ear. “You’re lucky it wasn’t me who kissed you back there, Vahashatai. If it had been me, I wouldn’t have stopped there.” He tugged my hair. “I’d have bent you over and made you suck me off right under the table.”
I dropped my shoulders, refraining from rolling my eyes where he could see them. The day had been shaping up to be a nice one, as days with these men went, and Raul had to pull his usual assholery and ruin it.
Too bad my pussy was throbbing, apparently not remotely in sync with my head.
Once we boarded the Tanticore, Raul closed the doors. As we walked toward the bridge, we paused. The ship’s lights should have come on the moment we stepped aboard, but they didn’t; ahead, the bridge was pitch black, leaving the where we stood only dimly illuminated by the faint lighting from the floorboards.
“What the fuck?” Malek jabbed at the console on the wall near the entrance, evidently trying to turn on the overhead lights. The console gave one of those buzzes that made it clear it wasn’t operating.
Dread coiled in my gut as my thoughts rolled back to my experience on Raul’s wreck of a ship. Now this ship didn’t work? Why?
Tarku barked at something further in the room, scaring the shit out of me. He growled, baring those rows of pointed teeth.
Raul tugged on his leash and made a clucking noise. Then he sniffed. “Anyone else smell that?”
Malek drew his sword and it buzzed to life. “Yes,” he snarled. “Rith.”
What! How?
Z’pheer put me behind him in a hurry and drew his staff. The steel rod elongated in his grip.
“How the hell did they get on the ship?” Raul snapped, handing me Tarku’s leash and moving forward. “It was locked, with a new set of access codes, and they couldn’t have got through this base without being seen—”
“I’ll tell you how.” A familiar voice rang out from the near-darkness of the bridge.
A cold chill raced through my blood. Oh, you have to be shitting me…
I’d have known that voice anywhere.
As the lights came on, two things happened at once. First, the tall figure of a man appeared on the bridge, close to the ship’s main console. And second, a sheet of red bars made of lasers dropped down to the floor, enclosing me, Tarku, Z’pheer, and Malek inside a cage of light.
Trapping us.
The man stepped closer. A smirk, so much like Malek’s, twisted his mouth. “Hello, Raul.”
Oh, fuck me.
31
Turncoat
Laric.
Malek’s brother.
I was too confused and shocked to feel much else. What the hell was he doing here? I could tell by the triumphant smile he wore, whatever reason he had for being there, it wasn’t good.
“What do you want, Laric?” Raul demanded. He was a good ten feet away from the rest of us where we stood behind the laser forcefield. Tarku’s growl was growing louder, probably at the tone in his master’s voice.
“What in the name of Rosht are you doing on my ship, Laric? And how come you stink of Rith?”
“That tends to happen when you kill them, Raul.” He stepped closer but not too close, just enough to avoid Raul’s axe. “And this is not your ship, Your Highness. It belongs to the Order.”
“What are you doing here?” Raul demanded again.
“I came to have a word with you, Hadu Raul. Over here. Take a seat.” He gestured to the captain’s chair as if it was his.
On my left and right, Malek and Z’pheer had their weapons at the ready, but unless these lasers were just for show, I doubted we’d be able to do shit.
“Drop the containment shield, Laric!” Malek demanded. He glanced at Raul. “What the fost is going on here?”
Privately, I had a bad feeling I knew why Laric was there. His presence had everything to do with that little argument I’d heard between him and Raul the night Raul’s father had died. Malek obviously didn’t know about it.
Raul gripped his axe, holding it out between them so that the blade was pointed at Laric. “Get. Off. My. Ship.” His voice was a livid rumble that sent a shiver through me with the anger in it.
“Raul!” Malek snapped. “Put the axe down! What the hell is wrong with you two?”
“Ask him.” Laric grinned, backing up toward the chairs, hands up in a placating gesture I didn’t buy for an instant.
Beside me, I watched Z’pheer out the corner of my eye. He kept looking around, hopefully, for a way to turn these damn lasers off. Something bad was about to go down, and the thought filled me with panic. Unconsciously, I buried my hand in Tarku’s fur, seeking his comfort as he sought mine. At least he wasn’t growling anymore.
Raul had ignored Malek’s order and was still backing Laric up toward the chairs. Laric flopped right into Raul’s captain’s seat. Then Raul shoved the tip of his axe under Laric�
��s chin.
“Raul!” Malek shouted.
Raul put up his hand to silence him.
Laric’s eyes glinted, flickering to Malek and then back to Raul. “Are you going to kill me in front of my brother, Raul? That won’t do much for your friendship, will it?”
“Get out of the chair,” Raul rasped.
Laric didn’t move.
“Get up. Don’t think I won’t use this.”
“Let us see if this changes your mind, Raul.” Laric jabbed a button on the arm of the chair.
Two doors on opposite ends of the bridge hissed open, one which led to the bedrooms, and another which led to a conference room.
Oh, shit.
Two Rith, one at each doorway, stood armed with those long glowing staffs, yellow, animalistic eyes pure evil. My knees threatened to collapse. Z’pheer must have realized this, because he carefully put himself in front of me, blocking the watching Rith.
“Laric,” Malek snapped at his brother. “Why are you doing this?”
Laric stood up as Raul backed away slowly, lowering his axe, the color draining from his face. Malek’s brother shrugged.
“How could you do something like this, brother?” Malek demanded. “This is not like you.
“Yes, it is,” Z’pheer grumbled.
“You see, you are outnumbered, Your Highness,” Laric said, holding his hand out for the axe and nodding to each of the doorways where the Rith stood.
The two creatures stalked in. We were fucked.
Raul’s head swiveled, visibly taking stock of his situation. His big shoulders dropped. He knew there was nothing he could do with these odds except do what Laric said for now.
He spun the axe around and slapped the handle into Laric’s palm. His eyes burned with rage. “Why?” he snarled.
Laric nodded to the Rith on his right, and with a press of a button near the console, the laser shield turned off. Rith Number One shoved Z’pheer out of way in two seconds flat and grabbed me by the arm, dragging me to the middle of the room just as Laric pressed that same button again. The lasers came back on, but this time, I wasn’t in thier cage.
Behind me, Z’pheer and Malek roared in anger.
I watched Rith Number Two take up position behind the captain’s chair. Laric moved aside and gestured with false benevolence for Raul to sit in it. “Your Majesty?”
Raul turned and slowly lowered himself into the chair, fixing Laric with a dark glare. “Why, Laric?”
Rith Number One held me with one of his disgusting reed-thin arms, while the other arm went across my shoulders, his spindly hand holding a wicked looking blade against my throat. I held my breath, fear nearly making my knees fold under me. Tears burned my eyes, and I screamed at myself to remain still.
“Why what, Raul?” Laric held out his arms. “Why am I working with the Rith? Or why am I here? You should know the answers to both.” He bent and wrapped his hand around Raul’s pendent, tearing the hammak from his chest.
Raul stared at it.
“You did this just to get the hammak?” Malek demanded behind me.
“Oh No. No, that’s only part of it.” He turned to the Rith who held me. “Let her go. Come here, gorgeous.” He gestured to me.
I froze, heart hammering as the Rith released me. Laric couldn’t be serious. Horror and fear created a toxic mixture in my blood. My two captors yelled something I couldn’t process enough to understand.
I caught Raul’s eye as his legs flexed as if he was about to stand. He froze when Laric pointed his own axe at him. Once he knew Raul wasn’t going to resist, he handed the axe to one of the Rith and grabbed me, hauling me against him. He ripped the muzzle off and his gaze drank in my face.
“She’s beautiful, Raul. What will you do to keep her alive?”
“You aren’t here for her, either. And if you are, then you’re more foolish than I thought. She’s just a slave.”
God, he sounded so convincing, it made me shudder.
“Is she?” He shrugged and put his arm around me in a parody of a lover’s embrace, only it was tight enough to choke, and his body was tense with malice. “Let’s see, shall we?”
He turned his head and laid a long, wet kiss right on my lips. I screamed in horror. When he lifted his head, I had to use every ounce of willpower not to punch him.
I caught Raul’s eyes again.
He was sitting in his chair, arms on the armrests, the picture of a calm ruler, his expression cold and stoic, unfeeling. He’d just watched Malek’s idiot brother kiss me, and other than the slight tick in his jaw, he did nothing.
He better be fucking acting, pretending I meant nothing to him.
“Laric, if you want the hammak, take it. If you want her, take her. I have no interest in my father’s title, you know this. And she means nothing to me. But you aren’t here for either of those, otherwise you’d already be gone. And you wouldn’t need the Rith for backup.”
“Backup?” He barked a laugh. “Is that what you think they are?” He sighed and ran a hand over my jaw. “Although, you’re right, I’m not here for her. She’s just a bonus. I want her because she belongs to Malek and you. Your prize.”
“I am here for the hammak, though. And something else.”
“Which is?” Raul.
“This entire ship’s systems are extremely well-coded. I got the codes to get in here from the Order’s backup systems. Unfortunately, the ship’s onboard computer is guarded by your personal codes. Which means, Raul, I need you to give them to me. Specifically, the ones for the navigation system. Unless you want to make it easier and just tell me where the weapon is.”
Raul’s eyes narrowed. “You want the weapon?” His eyes flicked to Rith Number One behind me, then back to Laric, his gaze burning with rage. “You’re helping the Rith? Why would you do that?”
I stared up at Laric, confusion mixing with panic. The Rith wanted to take over his world and strip it of all that it had. Why would he do something so insane?
Keeping his arm around my neck, he shoved the hammak in a pocket of his pants. “We have a deal, you see. I help them get the weapon and destroy it, then deliver them a whole host of other worlds ripe for the picking, and they leave our world alone.” He cocked his head. “Just think what the Order will say when the Rith disappear from Xandar, never to return, and they find out I am the one who saved us all.”
“Laric, you son of a bitch,” Malek snarled.
“I’ll kill you,” Raul growled.
“Oh, but that’s not even the best part, Your Highness. Since you’ll be dead…” He patted the hammak in his pocket, letting the gesture speak for itself.
The implications slid through me like an icy blade. He’d be king.
“How sad the world will be, to have lost its beloved king, the son of the mighty Hadu Haruuk. And yet they will rejoice under the rule of a new king. The king who should have been on the throne from the start. The king your father chose before you came running back, expecting to pick up where you left off.”
“So, let me get this straight.” Raul’s voice was a low rasp. “You’re going to sacrifice who knows how many worlds, innocent worlds, to the Rith and kill us all, so you can be Hadu?”
“Why the fuck not?”
Raul’s teeth ground so loud I could hear them from here. “I’ll gut you, Laric. I’ll gut you and hang your entrails all over this ship!”
Laric shook his head. Then, keeping me pinned to him with one arm, he spun around, grabbed Rith Number One’s staff and pointed it at Raul. The end of it glowed, powering up to fire, aimed right at Raul’s chest.
Raul…
I reacted without even thinking. There was nothing war-like about me, but with Malek and Z’pheer both unable to do shit, I was all that was left. I shoved both my hands up and pushed the weapon upward toward the ceiling just as it released its blast. Instead of hitting Raul in the heart, it hit the ship’s ceiling with a loud bang.
Laric snarled in rage and swung the butt of the weap
on into my face. I flew back with a scream, pain blazing through my skull.
“You stupid bitch slave!” He came at me.
Behind him, Raul sprang up from the chair, hit the button on the console for the forcefield, and ran at Laric with a roar of livid anger. Rith Number Two pounced on Raul, kicking him to his knees and putting his staff under Raul’s chin. Raul froze, his eyes blazing.
Oh my God, I’d never seen him look so pissed. Over me…
Laric reached for me.
Malek’s face twisted with a look I’d never seen before. Pure, raw protection, and very real fear flashed in those purple eyes.
As Laric’s fingers closed around my hair, Malek, now free of the laser cage, tossed a knife right at Laric’s back. Laric spun toward him at the wrong moment, and the knife caught him in the arm. How he didn’t drop the staff, I didn’t know.
Laric fired the weapon at his brother’s chest.
A streak of blue fire shot off. Malek weaved out of the way and the blast hit Rith Number One in the gut. The Rith gave a dying growled click, dropping Raul’s axe and crumpling to the floor.
Next thing I knew, a streak of pink went flying over me, landing on Laric’s back. Man and dog wrestled and rolled until Tarku pinned Laric to the floor on his back with his huge paws. Laric kicked Tarku off. Tarku flew across the room and slammed into the floor with a pained whine.
Staff back in hand, Laric aimed once more for his brother.
Fuck!
I searched for Z’pheer, but he was busy fighting staff-to-staff with Rith Number Two.
Which meant Raul was free.
With Laric’s focus on Malek, I reacted again, hoping to give Raul time. As Raul picked up his axe and stood, I caught his eye, hoping he understood my look. “Laric!”
The stupid moron rounded on me.
“I’ll give you the codes,” I told him.
He barked a laugh. “Why would these men give the codes to a—”
But that was all the time Raul needed. In one move, he ran and swung the axe across Laric’s throat.
Laric’s head rolled to the floor, and his body crashed after it, blood spraying everywhere. I jerked my head away, my stomach roiling.