Assassin

by Lexxie Couper

  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.”
r />   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.

  Hungry.

  “Good, good,” Crortek’s smile spread wider and his all-white eyes positively glinted with glee. “Now tell me, slave. Who are you?”

  Jaienna gazed at him, her lids heavy and her limbs languid. The desire to tell Crortek what he wanted to know was powerful. Why shouldn’t she tell him? What harm could come of it? She was an excellent agent. She should be proud of her skill. If she told him, perhaps he would stick his fingers in her pussy again. Or suck on her nipples.

  She opened her lips, the words forming on her tongue.

  No! A fierce voice in her head screamed. No. Remember your training. Resist. Resist!

  Through ever-increasing waves of hot, intoxicating pleasure she leveled a glare at Crortek. “Go fuck yourself.”

  Crortek chuckled and he looked over her shoulder. “Fraik, stick your tongue in her ear.”

  The Boaronian on her left pressed his grotesque snout against her ear, wet fat tongue slicking over her flesh, into her ear cavity. Bolts of tight heat stabbed straight to her pussy and she moaned, rubbing her thighs together, craving friction and penetration.

  Oh gods, Jaienna, resist!

  “Enough!” Crortek smirked. “Now, slave, who are you?”

  “Eff-yu. Goddess of Go-stick-your-head-up-a-shikz’s-ass.”

  A furious snarl curled Crortek’s thin lips. “Fraik, squeeze her tit. Hard.”

  Fraik did just that, large hand mauling her breast in clumsy enthusiasm. Hot moisture pooled in her sex. Crortek waved his hand and Fraik stopped, leaving Jaienna gasping and craving release. “Who are you?” Crortek demanded in a soft voice.

  Through a hazy pink cloud, feeling invulnerable, excited and horny, her sex contracting and heart thumping, Jaienna gazed at the Ornithion. “Intel-Patrol Corp special agent, Jaienna Ti. Assigned to Termination.”

  Crortek’s soulless eyes slitted. “Why are you here?”

  “To kill you.”

  “Is that so?”

  Jaienna nodded, smiling slowly. She leaned forward, straining against the Boaronians’ hold as she stared into Crortek’s face. “I feel sooo good.” Every inch of her body was tingling, every strand of hair, every bead of sweat. Her pussy throbbed with uninhibited craving. She licked her lips. “Touch me.”

  The spines sprouting from Crortek’s shoulder blades flared. “Tell me about the Boundary Guardians. Where are they?”

  Feeling like she was turning into a cloud of warm mist, Jaienna shook her head and the luscious pink world surrounding her swayed. “I don’t know.” She giggled, the sound bubbling up through her throat like Raavelian Spice Tea. “But you better hope I kill you first.” Closing her eyes, she moaned as a wave of heat crashed over her, ebbing down to her pussy in delicious licks of tension. “If Zeric gets his hands on you, you’ll wish you’d never been born.”

  Strong fingers traced a line over her jaw and she whimpered in lustful delight. She opened her eyes and smiled at Crortek. “Jaienna,” he said. “Such an unusual name for a female. Meaning steel, if I am correct. Or is it stubborn?”

  Jaienna raised her chin. “Both.”

  Crortek gave her an appraising look. “Let’s see how appropriate it is then, shall we? Tell me, Jaienna.” Sharp claws drew a line from her chin down to her left nipple, flicking at her small pierced hoop. “Why do you want me dead?”

  Her nipples pinched, sensitive and aching, and she wished desperately for a mouth to suckle there. Not just any mouth. Raq Tornada’s mouth. No, not his, Zeric’s mouth. Both…

  Jaienna! That fierce voice in her head was screaming, trying to drag her back from the Bliss euphoria. If you ever want to see Zeric again you need to fight this! Fight it! Her eyelids dropped, heavy with wanton hunger and mindless ecstasy. Fight it? Gods, why?

  “Why do you want to kill me, Jaienna?”

  “Because you killed my sister,” she growled, but the words sounded more like a moan of rapture. “Because of you, she became a whore, selling herself to score her next hit. Because of you she sold her body to get her Bliss high.”

  An unreadable light flickered in Crortek’s eyes. “So how did I kill her?”

  “She died in one of your sex-dens on Ornith. Of a Bliss OD. After you’d fucked her till she was unconscious.”

  Crortek’s fingers drew a lazy circle around Jaienna’s puckered nipple. “Tell me your sister’s name, Jaienna.”

  A shiver rippled down her spine and stabbed at her Bliss-damp pussy. She looked at him from behind half-lidded eyes, her breath beginning to quicken even as, in the deep reaches of her mind that voice screamed and cursed and cried with disgust. “Bhelais,” she whispered. “My sister’s name was Bhelais Ti.”

  “Oh.” Crortek’s chuckle was soft. Gleeful. “This is sweeter than I first thought.” He turned to Fraik again. “Take her to the centre dais in the main chamber and bind her to the tower. She’s open property for whoever wants to fuck her.”

  Wet heat exploded in Jaienna’s core. Bliss licked through her blood. The voice in her head screamed.

  Crortek looked back to her, his grin strangely triumphant. “There’s someone I want you to see, Raavelian. As you’re being fucked in every way possible, by every being and creature here that wants you, I’m going to be watching—while someone very important to you sucks my cock.”

  As high as she was on the cerebral drug, Jaienna felt cold fear grip her heart.

  Oh, for the love of Druentia, Jaienna, fight it.

  She blinked, the pink haze of her vision fading. A little.

  Think of Bhel. Think of your sister. She squeezed her eyes shut painfully tight. Think of Zeric.

  Returning her stare to Crortek, she glared at him, vision almost crystal clear. She sucked in a harsh breath, cold air filling her burning lungs. Bliss tried to eat at her mind, but she fought it. “Crortek, you son of a Shikz-fucking whore,” she growled, the throb in her sex weakening even as her blood began to boil with anger. “I’m going to rip out your throat and shove your balls down your gut.”

  Crortek’s eyebrow ridge shot up. “Well, well, well. The agent is back. And after such a short time. I’ve never seen anyone resist Bliss so quickly.” Sharp claws snared her nipple in a pa
inful pinch. The fading traces of Bliss in her system cried out for more, but she ignored it. “You are well named. And very well trained. The Corp must be very proud of you.” He stepped back. “I’m going to enjoy this so much. Take her away.”

  The Boaronians’ grip clamped harder on her arms. Hefting her feet from the floor they dragged her—kicking, screaming and cursing—back through the club to the centre of the stage floor, toward a raised dais bathed in warm pink light. To the black tantium X tower standing empty there. Waiting for her.

  A group of curious patrons began to congregate before the dais, watching as her wrists and ankles were strapped to the metal arms, laughing and applauding at her writhing struggles. The cross’s surface was icy and her flesh rippled. She stood there, spread-eagled, anger curling into the pit of her stomach like a serpent, studying the leering crowd in front of her. She needed an orgasm. If she could just slip into someone’s head...

  The Boaronian—Fraik—raised his hands and the crowd hushed. “She is for anyone who wants her,” he stated. “No restrictions. Compliments of Hrung Crortek.”

  A cheer erupted from the crowd and a svelte Aglaian, dressed in the clinging diaphanous robes of a master-merchant, stepped up onto the dais. Slitted violet eyes shone out from behind long black lashes as she trailed long bejeweled fingers over Jaienna’s ribcage. Glossy black lips curved into a slow smile. “I’ve always wanted to taste a Raavelian,” she said. “I’ve heard a Raavelian’s cunt tastes like wild honey.”

  Jaienna turned a level gaze on the woman. “And I’ve heard Aglaian females can’t give head for shit.” She cocked one eyebrow. “Pissy little forked tongue and all.”

  The Aglaian let out a hiss, fangs glinting in the low light. “I’ll have you eat those words, bitch,” she spat, plunging one clawed-tipped finger deep into Jaienna’s pussy.

  Jaienna however, didn’t notice.

  Crortek had just arrived to watch the show, a slim golden-haired Raavelian following him on the end of a short leash.

  Bhel? Her blood turned to ice and her heart stopped. Oh, gods, Bhel. She’s alive.