Chained (Brides of the Kindred) (7 page)

“Uh…” Maggie’s eyes were still wide behind
her oculars. “I’m not—”

“You
should
apologize,” Kor cut in
swiftly, putting himself between Maggie and the strange creature. “You startled
my lady.”

“I meant no disrespect.” The creature
spoke in a strange, bubbling voice that made it sound like it was talking underwater.
“I am Xilix—a Sporran. I have come to convey your lady to the
Lo’thian
spa
and resort as she requested.” It peered around Kor, trying to see Maggie with
its bulbous eyes. “You
did
request transport to the spa, did you not, my
lady? As the spa is located on Twidal, Yonnie Six’s second moon, it is quite
difficult to get there without a proper escort.”

A light went off in Kor’s head. “Yes,” he
said, answering for Maggie. “As a matter of fact, my lady
did
request
transport to the spa. Lead the way.”

“Oh, good. I am glad not to be mistaken.”
The Sporran burbled happily and slithered down the sidewalk to a long black
hovercoach which obviously had flight capabilities. “Please step inside and
make yourselves comfortable,” it said, opening the door with one of its many
tentacles. “Your luggage was sent days ago, as I am sure you remember, so there
is nothing to do but enjoy your ride.”

“Good.” Kor started to pull Maggie toward
the hovercoach but she balked.

“No,” she hissed at Kor, shaking her head.
“No, I’m not going.”

* * * * *

“Why not?”

Maggie had a feeling Kor was losing
patience but he didn’t shout and more importantly, his eyes stayed a cool, pale
blue. He simply stood there and looked at her in a way that made her squirm
uncomfortably.

“Why not?” he asked again.

“Because. I told you I’m
not
going
off planet with you,” she hissed. “I have a ship—”

“Which you can call from the spa the
minute we get there,” he said soothingly. “Look, this is the perfect
opportunity to put at least a million miles between us and…” He cast a quick
glance at the Sporran who was still holding the door and waiting politely,
pretending not to hear. “And our problem” he finished in a low voice.

“I don’t know…” Maggie’s insides felt all
twisted up in knots. Somehow her initial action of freeing Kor kept getting
blown further and further out of proportion. First she’d been forced to kiss him
(well, not actually
forced
because to be honest, she’d kind of enjoyed
it, but still…) And then she’d had to touch him
intimately
all over his
body. Then she’d seen him blast a hole in solid stone with his eyes and
now
he
wanted her to go off-planet with him, about a million miles from where she was
supposed to be. Things were getting so out of control and she didn’t know how
to stop them or even slow down a little.

“I…I just don’t know,” she repeated. “This
is all going so
fast.”

“Is there a problem?” The Sporran chose
this moment to come forward, a look of uncertainty on its bulbous face. “Have
you changed your mind about coming to the
Lo’thian
spa, my lady?”

“My mistress is a little nervous about
space flight, that’s all.” Kor shooed the alien away dismissively. “Give me a
moment more to soothe her.”

“Of course. Forgive my intrusion.” The
Sporran retreated but it was still within hearing distance.

“Mistress…” To Maggie’s astonishment, Kor
dropped abruptly to one knee in front of her. “My lady, please get over your
fear and come with me,” he said, loudly enough for the Sporran to catch each
word. “Please.”

“I…I…” Maggie felt tongue tied. He was so
tall that they were almost eye to eye even with him kneeling—she’d always liked
tall men. Also, he looked absolutely mouthwatering in those tight black leather
pants and she could still taste his mouth on hers, could still feel the
rock-hard planes of his big body under her hands…

But he also had laser beams for eyes—or
something like them, anyway. And despite her dreams, he was essentially a
stranger. She’d been raised from childhood to never go anywhere with a strange
man—not even around the corner, let alone to a far distant moon. There was also
the fact that he was an avowed killer—he freaking murdered people for a living!
Could there
be
a more dangerous person to run off with? Maggie didn’t
think so.

Not to mention you
also have a fiancé,
whispered a snarky
little voice inside her head.
I mean, as long as we’re listing pros and cons
don’t forget about poor Donald.

Maggie blushed when she realized she
had
almost forgotten him. How could she even be considering going off with some
strange man when she’d been with her fiancé for five years?

She opened her mouth to refuse but then Kor
took her hands in his much larger ones and looked into her eyes.

“I’m asking you nicely because our driver
is watching,” he said in a low voice meant for her ears only. “I don’t want to
scare you, Maggie, but it’s clear you won’t last a minute here alone and this
is the best chance we’re going to get to leave the planet.”

“What are you saying?” she demanded,
keeping her voice low. “That you’ll sling me over your shoulder and carry me
off?”

“If I have to.” His eyes flashed red for a
moment. “If it’s the only way to keep you safe. Do you know what will happen to
you if you try to cross the prosti and porno district alone?”

“Nothing, I’m sure.” She raised her chin.
“After all, this is a
female
dominated society. So I’m sure if there are
any prostitutes, they’re male.”

“So they are.” His deep voice was grim.
“Because the upper echelons of Yonnie Six are all female dominated. But what
they don’t know—what they don’t
want
to know is that the lower
echelons—the dregs of society and the poorest of the poor—are free males who
hate
the females who rule them. And the porno and prosti district is where they all
congregate. If you go down there dressed like a rich mistress—even this time of
day—they’ll tear you apart.
After
they rape you.” His deep voice was
harsh.

Maggie’s stomach did a slow, sick flip. “I…but
I can go around that area then, can’t I?”

He shook his head. “Walk leagues and
leagues out of the way? In
those
shoes?” He nodded down at the
ridiculously high green leather heels strapped to her feet. “I don’t think so, blondie.
And if you have to run in them, which you
will
if you go down the wrong block by mistake…”

“All right.” Maggie looked down at her
feet. “They
do
hurt but Lady…uh,
she
made me wear them.
Apparently they’re all the rage this season.”

“They’re liable to get you killed,” Kor
said grimly. “Which is why you’re coming with me. So I can protect you.”

His proprietary attitude pissed Maggie
off. “Who do you think you are, anyway?” she demanded, poking a finger in his
broad, bare chest. “I mean,
I
rescued
you,
remember?”

“Of course I remember,” he said gravely.
“I owe you a debt. You came at my darkest hour and saved me. I am a warrior—it’s
a point of honor for me to repay my debts. I
must
protect you. Please…”
He squeezed her hands. “Please trust me, Maggie.”

That was what it boiled down to, wasn’t
it? Trust. Did she trust him? Maggie wasn’t at all sure but when she opened her
mouth she heard herself say,

“All right. I’ll come.”

“Thank you.” He rose smoothly and pulled
her to him. Before Maggie could say anything, he took her mouth in a sweet,
breathless kiss.

At first she was stunned, but then she
pushed against his broad chest, breaking the kiss.

“Wait a minute—what do you think you’re
doing?”

“Where I come from, we seal an agreement
with a kiss.” He looked at her innocently. “Isn’t that how you do things where
you live?”

“No…no, absolutely
not.”
Maggie’s
heart was thumping and her cheeks felt hot. God, she never felt this way when
she kissed Donald. Which wasn’t very often since he disliked kissing.

“I’m sorry.” He shrugged as though it was
no big deal. “Well, shall we go? I believe our car is waiting,
Lady
Pope’nose.”

“Yes, I…” Maggie took a deep breath. “I
guess we should.”

As she allowed him to help her into the
luxurious hovercoach which reminded her of a stretch limo, she still couldn’t
explain why she’d agreed to go with him. She only knew that being around the
huge, muscular prisoner seemed to turn part of her brain off—namely the part
that reasoned and kept her from getting into trouble.

But it’s going to be
okay,
she told herself as she settled back
against the plush, velvet gray seat cushion.
As soon as we get to this spa
place, I’ll call Ferna and Ratner and tell them where to meet me. Then we can
get on with our mission and I’ll never have to think about Yonnie Six or Kor or
anything that happened here ever again. Right?

Chapter Six

Kor was relieved that she had agreed to
come with him of her own volition in the end. If necessary, he had been
prepared to pick her up, throw her over his shoulder, and take her with him by
force. He didn’t
want
to do that, though—Maggie was already wary of him
and it would have been much more difficult to win her trust back if he'd had to
resort to such measures to keep her with him. But he would have done it if he
had to.

He couldn’t completely explain it, even to
himself, but he was unwilling to part from her. The universe was vast and
wide—huge beyond imagining. If there was one thing Kor had learned it was that
once you lost someone in that deep, black void, the chances of ever finding
them again were a trillion to one. So he planned to keep Maggie with him by
whatever means necessary—at least until he was sure she was safe. Or so he told
himself.

Kor made sure the privacy screen between
the driver’s and passengers’ compartment was up and then settled into one of the
plush gray seats. He didn’t want to take a chance on their alien driver
overhearing their conversation.

"Comfortable?" he asked, cocking
an eyebrow at Maggie.

“Hardly.”
She
relaxed in the seat across from him, putting an arm across her face. “Will it
be a long trip, do you think? I’m
dying
to get out of these shoes.”

“Not long. Here.” He reached for one of
her small feet and began removing the ridiculous strappy green shoe she was
wearing.

“Hey!” Maggie sat up with a jerk and would
have yanked her foot right out of his hand if he hadn’t kept a firm but gentle
grip on her ankle. “What…what are you doing?”

“Giving you a foot massage…
Mistress.”
Kor
raised an eyebrow at her and then finished taking off her shoe.

“But you don’t…you shouldn’t…” she
protested weakly. “I mean you don’t have to do that.”

“I want to,” Kor said simply. Really what
he wanted was to touch any part of her at all and if he could bring her
pleasure at the same time, so much the better. They were going to be together
for a while—he wanted Maggie to get used to having his hands on her. He rubbed
the sole of her little foot, which was barely as long as his hand, then kneaded
the arch with his thumbs.

“You don’t…ooooh…” Maggie’s eyes rolled up
in her head. “You’re, uh,
really
good at that.”

“I know.” Kor grinned at her.

She opened her eyes and frowned at him.
“But…where did you learn to do that, anyway? I thought you were a warrior. A,
uh, gladiator kind of guy.”

Kor shrugged. “Don’t know what a gladiator
is.”

“It’s…basically it’s a slave that fights
in the arena for the entertainment of a bloodthirsty crowd. There were people
like that—gladiators—in the past on my planet. In ancient Rome. You wouldn’t
know where that is but it was a city where everyone was trying to sleep with or
assassinate everyone else. If the prime time cable shows are right, anyway.”

Kor nodded thoughtfully. “That sounds
about right. If it makes you feel better then, yes, I was a kind of
‘gladiator.’”

“It doesn’t make me feel a
whole
lot better,” she said, frowning as he started on her other foot. “But I guess
it’s better than you being just a straight out cold blooded murderer.”

“Not all of my kills took place in the
arena. I killed my old master, as I’m sure Lady Pope’nose told you,” Kor said
neutrally. “And I would do it again in a heartbeat.” He didn’t want to frighten
her but there was no point in her making false assumptions or romanticizing his
past life. Much of his former existence had been nasty and brutish—there was no
hiding or denying it and Kor didn’t intend to try.

“You…” She shook her head. “Why? Did he
torture you like Lady Pope’nose did?”

“He treated me well as long as I was
winning—which I generally always was,” Kor said. “He never beat or starved me
or forced me to service him sexually.”

Maggie shivered. “Well, that’s good, at
least. So then why…”

Kor looked down, concentrating on her
foot. “You don’t need to know why. Not now,” he said roughly. “It should be
enough that I admitted it to you—that I didn’t try to hide it.” He looked back
up at her. “Can you just trust me when I said I had a damn good reason and
leave it at that? Is that enough?”

“I…guess so,” she said hesitantly. “I
guess it will have to be.”

“Thank you,” Kor said simply. He felt
relieved. The reason behind the death of his master was still too fresh—too
raw. Talking about it would have been like poking an open wound with a stick.
He was glad she wasn't demanding a full explanation right this instant.

“So, uh, are we doing true confessions
then?” Maggie sounded uncertain. “Because I cheated on a spelling test in sixth
grade.”

Kor looked up at her swiftly. “You
cheated?
On a
test?”

Her cheeks got red at once. “Yes. I knew
it was wrong but I…see, I’ve always been strong in math and science but spelling
just isn’t my thing and it was going to hurt my final grade and I, well, I…”

“I’m kidding.” Kor almost laughed at the
guilt on her face. What was it about this little female? She was so innocent
that she was almost completely transparent—every emotion she felt showed on her
face. He liked that about her. “I admitted to you that I murdered my old master
and you come back at me with a falsified test,” he pointed out. “Those don’t
exactly measure up.”

“Sorry,” she muttered. “I can’t help it
I’ve lived a boring life up until now. I mean, I’ve never killed anyone or
stolen anything other than a pair of pantyhose I accidentally tucked under my
arm at the store and I took those back
immediately.
I’ve basically just
been living the life of a sequestered academic, up in my ivory tower doing
nothing but research and writing papers to get grants.”

“Well, I’m glad you came down from your
ivory tower to save me,” Kor remarked.

Maggie’s face got even redder. “That’s
just it—I
didn’t
come for you. I’m not even supposed to
be
on
this planet. I was going to wait in the ship. I should be on my way to Gaia
right now—the new Super Earth world the Kindred discovered—to catalogue all the
new species of flora and fauna.”

“The Kindred, hmm?” Kor frowned.

“Yes, do you know of them? They saved my
planet from the Scourge attack and they’re still orbiting our moon. They’ve
been very helpful and willing to share research opportunities.”

“Hell yes, I know of them.” He frowned.
“I’ve got Kindred blood myself—they’re the ones who sold me—slaved me out in
the first place. Because I didn’t fit their ideal—because I was a freak.” He
tapped his temple, indicating his red eyes. “I know because I heard it from my
first master.”

“They what?” Maggie frowned. “I’ve never
heard of them doing anything like that. They’ve been nothing but nice to me.”

“I’m sure,” Kor said neutrally. To change
the subject, he tickled the arch of her foot and smiled when she jumped.

* * * * *

“Hey!” Maggie flexed her toes. Despite the
impromptu tickle, he really was amazingly good at this. “You know, you still
never told me how a gladiator got so good at giving foot massages,” she
remarked.

“It’s the easiest way to relax a female
when she’s nervous—at least, so I’ve found,” Kor said.

“What?” Maggie began to get a bad feeling.
“What do you mean by that? How many women have you had to, uh,
relax?”

Kor shrugged. “On occasion my master sent
me a female to breed who was a virgin. I never wanted to frighten them so I
tried my best to relax them before we did what was necessary.”

“What?” She sat up fast, jerking her foot
out of his hand. “You’re treating me like some…some
floozy
you’re about
to have sex with?”

He frowned. “No, of course not. I’m just
trying to relax you…and to be honest with you. You asked how I learned to give
massages—well…” He shrugged again, like it was no big deal.

“But this is…that’s…” Maggie shook her
head in disgust. “I knew I shouldn’t have gotten into this ship with you.
You’re just some kind of a…an intergalactic player, aren’t you?”

Kor lifted an eyebrow. “Define ‘player.’
Is it like a gladiator?”

“No! It’s a guy who screws every girl he
sees—or tries to. He doesn’t give a damn about their feelings—he just wants
into their pants.” Maggie crossed her arms over her chest angrily. How could
she have let herself be so taken in by him? The quickest way to relax a girl,
indeed. It was
disgusting
.

“Maggie,” Kor said, leaning forward. “I
don’t think you understand. I didn’t
try
to get into these girls, uh,
pants—or under their skirts—or however you want to put it. They were sent to my
cell for me to breed them whether I wanted to or not. I simply tried to make it
easier for them.”

“So you had
nothing
to do with it?”
Maggie asked sarcastically. “Poor Kor, forced to have sex with all kinds of
beautiful woman. What a
terrible
time you must have had.”

Kor shook his head. “I won’t pretend it
wasn’t pleasant at times but sometimes I was sent a female I had no affinity
for. That was mostly with the rich mistresses though, who wanted the thrill of
sleeping with an arena champion.”

“Oh great—mistresses, virgins, was there
anyone you
didn’t
screw?”

“No,” Kor said harshly. “Because I didn’t
have a choice. My master rented my stud services the same way he used me in the
arena. I fucked at his pleasure as I fought at his pleasure. I was a slave—I
had no free will in the matter.”

Maggie shook her head, bewildered. “But
how…how could you live like that?”

“I had no choice,” Kor said simply. “It
wasn’t all bad so I lived with it.” He frowned. “At least I didn’t try to take
revenge, like some of others.”

“Revenge? For being a slave?”

He nodded. “Some of the other warriors in
my master’s stable were cruel to the females that were sent to them. They
looked at the opportunity to breed as a way to pay back the pain we were dealt.
They didn’t dare get too rough with the rich mistresses but the
slaves…sometimes they were brutal.”

“That’s awful,” Maggie whispered.

“Worse than you think. There was one…” He
frowned as though remembering and his big hands curled into fists at his sides.

“One who what?” Maggie prompted, curious
despite herself.

“He had the cell next to mine and he
always liked to brag that he broke in the females who were sent to him
properly. I remember one little virgin slave girl—barely old enough to bleed.”
He shook his head. “It was fucking inhuman to try and get her with child at
such a young age but her master wanted her to have a son with warrior’s blood.
So he…”

“He what?” Maggie leaned forward. “What
happened?”

“She was given to Raban—he went by ‘Raban
the Animal’—and for a damn good reason.” His eyes flashed red. “He hurt her…badly.
All night long I heard her crying and begging through the window that connected
Raban’s cell to mine. I shouted at him to stop but he just laughed. Bastard.”
He took a deep breath. We were locked in so there was nothing I could do. I
paced all night, listening to it. Her screaming. Him laughing. And I couldn’t
do a damn thing.”

"That's awful!"

"More than you know." Kor closed
his eyes briefly and a look of pain passed over his face. “In the morning they
let her out and I watched her limp away. She could barely walk and her face…”
He shook his head. “I could tell she was never going to look the same again.
Raban fucking brutalized her.”

“Oh no,” Maggie breathed, feeling sick. “Wasn’t
there anything anyone could do?”

“Not officially. The masters didn’t
care—the girl had been bred and she still lived, that was all that mattered to
them—greedy bastards.” Kor’s deep voice was bitter. His eyes flashed red again.
“
Un
officially though, during my next training session with Raban, my
sickle knife somehow slipped.”

“Meaning what? What happened?” Maggie
demanded.

“Meaning that my master was no longer able
to collect a stud fee for Raban anymore. He had nothing left to stud with.” Kor
grinned grimly. “I was beaten severely for the ‘accident’ but it was well worth
it as far as I was concerned.”

“I’m glad you did it,” Maggie said
decisively. “I’m glad you cut off his…his business. It sounds like he deserved
it.”

“He did,” Kor said soberly. “But even though
I took revenge for her, nothing could undo that little slave girl’s agony. No
doubt she’ll be frightened of males for the rest of her life.”

“Poor thing.” Maggie felt a lump in her
throat. “And what a terrible thing for you to have to hear when you couldn’t do
anything about it.”

“That was an extreme case, but
unfortunately not that unusual around our stable. We lived and died, fought and
fucked all at my master’s command.” A grim look came over his face. “I will
never
be in that position again,” he swore softly. “I am no one’s fucking plaything
and no master or mistress will ever control me again from now until I die.”