"Ever so pleased to meet you, Ami," the rider said. "I'm Kat. Like a nice big juicy grown up pussy except with a capital K." She squatted in front of him, between his legs, putting her other hand on his knee. Theda had the blinding thought that she could ram the rider then, push her away, assault her, spill her blood. The woman was distracted; surely the element of surprise was in their favor. But for Ezekiel, she might have tried it.
"Promise," Theda said.
"She doesn't need to promise," Ami said, his eyes glued to Kat's.
Kat squeezed his legs just above the knee. "That's the spirit," she said.
"She does need to," Theda said, stubborn. "I want to hear it from her."
Kat swung her gaze in Theda's direction. "The only thing more stupid than a mung is a spitter," she said. "You think a promise will make a difference?"
"Can't hurt."
The woman straightened to her full height, looking down at Ami's sandy hair. "Alone, you said."
Theda nodded. "That's what I said."
"Yes," Kat said thoughtfully. "A pretty specific request."
"I thought so."
"You just want me to leave him alone; you're not worried about me hurting him."
Theda shrugged. "You can't have one without the other."
"But the first means he's completely off-limits."
"And you said you didn't go far in school."
The woman grinned. "You remember that? I would've thought that little comment would have slipped right straight over your little spitter head."
"I wasn't that out of it." Theda squirmed as she recalled her nights in the sanitorium's closet, drenched in hallucinogenic sweat, waiting for Ezekiel to come for her.
Kat ran her fingers through her hair, and when they fetched up into a tangle of dried blood, she frowned and yanked them free. "No matter what you remember," she said. "I won't do it. I won't promise. Not that it matters anyway, but I'm not playing this ridiculous game."
"I've never thought of this as a game," Theda said. Her nerves were starting to let go. The longer they stood here rattling on about nothing, the more she wished she had given into the urge to fix on the smears Kat had sent to her through Ami as a threat. Each moment they delayed meant one more moment of possibility that the rider would discover Cain as he hid beneath the crawlspace under the stairs, or that he'd make some noise under there and all their plans would be for naught. She took a step toward the rider, holding her hands out as though she expected to be cuffed. Move this train along, so to speak. The result of her surrender was a peal of derisive laughter from the rider.
"He your lover, mung?" She clapped her hand over Ami's shoulder. "You making some pitiful effort to protect him? And here I was starting to think maybe it was General Eazy you were soft for." She looked from Theda to Ami appreciatively. "You the jealous sort, mung?" She squeezed hard enough that Ami rose to his feet. "Because you're out of luck if that's the case. This one interests me. And I most definitely will not leave him alone."
Ami's gaze flew to Theda's. "It's okay," he said. "I won't cause any trouble; I'll do everything she asks."
Theda was about to speak when Kat interrupted her. "Now isn't that just sweet. Such chivalry." The hand that was on Ami's shoulder moved to grip behind his neck, apparently squeezing enough that he was forced to look at the woman. Theda could swear she saw the rider lick her lips.
"Maybe I'm not looking for a submissive," the rider mused aloud. "Plenty of those at the boutique," she said. "Maybe I'm looking for something a little more challenging." She reached between Ami's legs and cupped him through his jeans.
Theda thought she was going to be sick and she wasn't sure if the sudden nausea was because of the possibility of her friend's certain rape, or if it was the mention of the boutique. Looking at Ami's face, she couldn't be sure he shared her horror. She only knew that every moment they delayed, meant failure.
"How do you want to do this?" she asked the rider.
"Easily enough," she said. "You lay those smears on your tongue like any other day in your idea of paradise and I cart you off."
"Not without me," Ami said and Theda wanted to slap him for his crazy notion of chivalry. It would come to nothing but his death.
Kat turned a pleased eye on him. "Oh, handsome. You were going anyway. The party just wouldn't be a party without you."
Theda had to work her tongue around the revulsion, trying to tie it to the back of her teeth. "That's it? No mention of where we're going?"
"That you're going anywhere at all should be enough. If the Beast didn't want you so badly..." She let the thought trail off suggestively.
"Well, I'm not going back to the sanitorium even if Ezekiel is there."
The general skimmed Theda with a scrutinous glance at Ezekiel's name, and Theda rushed into the silence, afraid the woman would realize she was fishing for his location.
"I'll fight before I go back there."
Kat made a great show of choked laughter and Theda let go of her breath in relief, thinking Ezekiel had been forgotten.
"Oh mung, you amuse me." Kat ran her hands over the layer of air just above her clothes, indicating the copious amounts of blood on her jeans and in her hair. A struggle would be a futile notion at best. When she got no reaction, the rider pouted like a school girl. "Want me to tell you what happened to all those mungs back at the sanitorium? Would that make you happy?" She seemed to pause as if she was considering the thought and then spoke, barely concealed glee in her tone. "Now I think of it, I'm sure it would do exactly the opposite. All the more reason to tell you."
She reached for the first smear and peeled the backing off with aggravating slowness.
"We gave some of them to the crowd, you know. Just two or three at first, until we could see how they'd react." Kat eyed Theda. "What do you think happened?"
Theda's mouth went dry. She didn't need to imagine; the crowd outside of the sanitorium had been as passive as a pack of rabid mutts. Cain had punched her nearly unconscious just to fake his way past them so they wouldn't turn their hatred his way.
"The crowd," Kat said, waving a hand in front of her face, the smear flapping with the movement. "They were real worked up after the general's show. Fire does that to people, you know, especially an angry mob." She whistled as if impressed. "They didn't waste any time, I'll tell you that. They went right to town with bricks and pieces of pave. Those poor mungs didn't stand a chance."
Ami gagged and Kat sent him an interested look. "They were just mungs, handsome. No one will miss them."
"You're the devil," Theda blurted out, believing it, not caring that the term was incriminating. What did she have to lose now?
"Close." Kat grinned, turning back to Theda. "But not close enough. Now. The smears?" She stretched her palm out toward Theda, The smear lying on the palm.
Theda eyed it warily. "If not the lab, than where are you taking me?"
"Us," Kat corrected, taking in Ami as he stood rigid, his hands clenched at his sides. "You should have said 'us'."
"Us, then. Where are you taking us?"
"Somewhere no self-respecting spitter wants rescued from, somewhere a gal can question a criminal without worrying she'll run out of resources just at the prime moment."
There was only one place that fit that description that Theda could imagine. The spitters' den. The Red General was taking them back to Sasha's.
Chapter 19
Only one reaction leapt to Theda's lips. "No," she said. "Hell, no."
Before she could control her legs, they were backing her away from Kat, away from Ami as he stood next to the general, back toward the sofa in an awkward bid to escape. Not the den. Never. She swore she'd never go back there. Not even for Ezekiel could she do it. No. Not that. Not there.
"So you've heard of the boutique, have you?" Kat purred as she watched Theda's reaction. "You'll love it there. Lots and lots of godspit. All for the taking." She had the nerve to actually stretch her hand forward, pressing the smear closer
to Theda.
Theda stumbled against the sofa as the backs of her thighs met the armrest. The dusty scent of age scraped its way into her nose as she brushed against the fabric. She only saved herself from collapsing on the cushions by throwing herself forward, her eyes on the smear still lying on Kat's outstretched palm.
There was a brief second when Theda knew the woman expected her to grab for the smear and cram it into her mouth, letting the drug save her from the terror of returning to the spitters' den. Kat's eyes lit with victory like paparazzi flashbulbs nailing the perfect photo. It was time. Whatever Kat was expecting, it certainly wasn't for Theda to slap the Red Rider's hand back toward her mouth, gripping the fingers with the kind of strength only fear-fueled adrenaline could supply. She hoped Ami understood what she wanted quicker than Kat did. She even prayed for it in those seconds as she clawed with her other hand at the woman's chin.
She needn't have wasted her breath. The god let her down. Kat realized what Theda was up to too late, but even so, moved just enough that the smear stuck against the corner of her mouth. Theda had to throw all her weight into the battle, using her palm to scoop up the smear, her fingers digging into the woman's cheeks as she tried to work the drug onto Kat's tongue.
Teeth clamped down on her fingers, making her yelp. She tried to pull them free but the rider started to grind down hard enough that Theda would have fallen to her knees if she was capable of reaching the floor. Tears stung her eyes as she tried to wrest herself loose, bucking back, trying to twist like a crocodile in its death roll. The smear had a glued hold of the heel of her palm and she had no doubt the drug had been ungodded onto the beastly woman's chin. She thought she might have yelled for help; her throat burned with it. Kat's fingers spidered down onto Theda's left wrist, strangling off any ability to even think of doing anything more than dragging in oxygen. Within two heartbeats, the teeth holding her fingers captive let go; the fingers gripping her wrist found some excruciating pressure point, and this time she was truly on her knees, sobbing, shrieking in pain. Begging for release.
Ami must have tried to come to her rescue, because Kat barked out an order for him to stay put. The next Theda knew, Ami was on his knees next to her, his arms around her waist, pleading with the general to let go. Theda didn't blame him for electing not to fight; the woman's face was a twisted ball of fury and all Theda cared about in those moments was that the agony stop. Her hand was still above her head, captured in Kat's grip. Little electric shocks were streaking up her finger bones into her wrist. Past the pain, her mind counted out the waste of a good smear, knowing there were only two left. She sobbed even harder.
Kat said nothing more, but Theda knew the woman burned with the desire to kill her right then and there. Whatever Kat thought the Beast wanted her for, Theda knew by the way she was inhaling and exhaling so purposefully that the general was counting it as inconsequential. The battle to keep her temper waged war so obviously that Theda could even imagine the woman counting to ten. She was up to eight, she had to be, when Theda's hand was suddenly let go, letting her fall in relief to the floor.
The boots would drive into her ribs next, she was sure of it, maybe she'd even be backhanded or struck with the butt of the woman's pistol. Expectation and instinct made her body curl tighter into itself as she waited, and when the blow never came, when instead she registered a shift in the tension of the room, she dared peer up from beneath her hair, thinking to find the source of the shift.
Cain had come out from the closet and was squaring off just beyond the general's legs with nothing but a baseball bat he'd obviously found beneath the stairs. It was ridiculous, suicide even. Theda scrabbled her fingers across the carpet, searching for Ami's hand. This wasn't what they'd planned, she'd ruined everything, all because she couldn't manage her own fear. She could sense the pitiful hope of getting Ezekiel back slip into oblivion, knowing she was about to witness the death of the only man who could rescue him.
"Don't," she shouted, confused when all that came out was a whimper. She tried again, struggling to force her throat muscles to let go of the vise on her voice.
The rider didn't hesitate for one more second. She lifted the gun, leveling her arm almost casually, pointing the muzzle at Cain. He smirked at her, the fool, pointing the bat in her direction as if he outgunned her. Theda had time to realize her mouth had gaped open, that some primal wail had freed her vocal cords just enough to allow them to thrum against each other in a grieving dirge.
Cain lunged even as Kat's gun fired; the bat he hefted swung behind his head as he gave it all the kinetic energy of his shoulders and hips. Theda saw his upper body swivel and jammed her fist into her mouth, trying to stuff a distracting cry back down her throat. All wrong. It was going all wrong. She had to do something. She could run. She should run. It was what she was good at, the only thing she could count on.
The gun fired again. Kat had missed the first time, obviously. Cain still moved toward her, the bat swinging again, this time in mid-curve, his whole torso bucked backward, lending thrust to the arc. A grunt. The horrible thud of wood connecting bone, of it cracking. Theda thought for sure the general would fall to her knees.
Cain must have thought so too because he released the bat from his hands. It landed on the carpet with a muted thunk.
But the general didn't collapse. She fired again. Even as the report assaulted Theda's eardrums, she knew the bloom of red on Cain's chest was companion to the one in his belly. He'd been hit; the bat hadn't been released, it had been dropped. It lay inert on the carpet, unable to lend, the still charging horseman aid.
She had to get to it.
It was just feet away. Past the general who managed to backhand Cain as he fell on her, fingers raking for her eyes. Cain flew backward, landing on his back. The general limped toward him. She leaned over, pointing the gun at his head.
The bat. Theda had to move. She had to get just one muscle to obey her.
She thought she heard a noise from beside her: Ami getting to his feet, readying himself for launch. It seemed to be all the signal her own muscles needed. They let go as though they'd been rusted shut and had been given a blessed dollop of oil. She creaked to her feet, rising from a sprinter's lunge, aiming for the edge of the coffee table.
Let Ami go for the bat, she wanted a smear.
Not the one on the left. No. The one on the right. Or was it the one on the right? She couldn't remember anymore. She grabbed for them both, willing the sound of wood to sound against bone instead of gunfire. A grunt. Someone fell. Ami must have launched himself at Kat and one of them or both had fallen to the floor.
The smears wafted off the table onto the carpet.
She scrambled for them, peeling their backings away as her elbows dragged against the carpet, pulling her forward, crawling, to where Ami lay sprawled beneath the general.
"So you were listening when I said I didn't want submissive," Kat murmured to her captive. "That does make me hot, handsome."
The bat. It was right there. All Theda had to do was pick it up, rise to her feet to gain the heft she needed to bring it solidly against Kat's head. That was it. Just one quick grab and maybe even a single swing and it would be over. Two smears in her hand, a good solid hunk of wood just within reach. Theda eyed the two in front of her, astounded to see the general pulling off her duster as she straddled Ami, the right leg bent off to the side, being favored obviously, but not truly broken.
Theda eased to her feet, mincing her way toward the bat.
"You were lucky," Kat said to no one in particular. A surreptitious peek sideways showed Theda that the general had the blood-caked duster off and was working at her leather pants, shoving one leg down over a muscled thigh with one hand while the other wrapped itself around Ami's throat. "If I didn't need the stupid bitch alive," she said, "this would've ended up quite differently."
There was a peculiar huskiness in her voice, one Theda didn't quite understand until she realized she had managed to yank down Am
i's jeans far enough to prove how traitorous a male body could be. Theda's stomach recoiled as she watched the woman bear down on his member, forcing him inside her as she began to ride him with concentrated purpose. One more reason to take the bitch's head off. Theda's mind went reeling back to each time she was assaulted, to each unwanted forced entry she had suffered since the god had come. Her fingers went round the handle. She stood, ready to swing.
"You swing that bat, mung," Kat growled beneath heaving breaths. "Or you run, and your lover here will become another gasper statistic."
"You won't have time to strangle him," Theda said, surprised at the calm in her voice. Even so, she paused. One quick movement, and the woman could break Ami's neck.
The woman chuckled between breaths. "He's already strangling," she ground out. "You're the one I need alive. Your choice."
Despite the clarity in her voice, the woman began driving with purpose, so certain Theda would elect to let her finish rather than try to harm her and end up inadvertently getting Ami's neck snapped. So certain. It was almost ludicrous.
Theda dropped the bat, knowing that Kat would hear it fall. She waited for the woman's reaction, but got no more than a grunt that made her stomach recoil. She was even more sick when she realized that despite the expression of self-revulsion on his face, Ami's body was responding to the Red General's movements. She forced herself to look into his eyes, read the loathing within them. Just a moment more, just one more moment. She flicked her gaze to the rider, waiting, knowing that in just seconds more that back would arch, unable to contain the blissful spasm. The head would go back. The throat exposed. The mouth...
Open.
She jumped for the woman, aiming her palm for the gaping mouth, pressing the smears inside, clamping the jaw down around them. One heartbeat. Two heartbeats. The woman's body struggled to register the sublime bliss of the drug with the electric tension of orgasm and the adrenaline pump of danger all pulsing through her body in the same second. Theda almost felt sorry for her. Almost.
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