Hell, no. She wasn’t offering this out of benevolence.
“Be prepared to prove yourself, girl. For the moment, I will spare you a row of men ass-fucking you. Prove it, or else.”
When he rammed himself against her pussy as if he could throat fuck her from this end, her gasp made him smile – a hard, flat-lining smile.
Had he always been this much of a cunty asshole? Maybe not. Aerthe brought out the worst in him.
Chapter 15
Gods, the threats unhinged her. Mind blown, she felt every inch of him. The fronts of her thighs were squashed against the stone, and he had one hand clawed into her ass cheek while the other hand violated her with that thumb. A giant thumb surely. The throb from that merged with the ram of his cock until she was hurtling toward an orgasm.
Threats shouldn’t make her want to come. Neither should being tied up and screwed while trapped and exhibited.
He wanted to scare her? She was scared and turned on and wanted to wriggle back against him to stuff more of him into her. Appalling. Disturbing.
Then he stopped parking himself in her and started banging at her with devotion and violence.
She craved this. He couldn’t ever know how much. Her hate knew no bounds. He was a craven, shitty fuckwad of a man, and for her to want his cock was deplorable.
Ari groaned and tucked her head under, absorbing the blows of his body trying to fuck its way into her, through her. His hand unstuck from her ass cheek and he crammed his fingers and thumb around her breast where it hung over the side – the thin fabric no barrier – and then he squeezed and awoke those already tortured nerves. Sadism personified.
Fuck.
Her existence narrowed down to this...
The orgasm barreled in with no respect for her innocence or pride. Mouth wide, she strained against the cuffs, blind and overcome – her body a receptacle for the man to do with as he willed.
When he came, his cum filling her, his sweat drip-dripping on her back, his hard thighs crushing hers, and his hand possessing her breast, she was his penitent worshipper.
Once he’d released her, she crumpled beside the pillar – kneeling but collapsed forward, with her clothes askew and her face cradled on her arms.
A new man arrived, walking in from the side and stopping. Too shattered to raise her head, she peered at his boots then noticed something that was so out of place she didn’t recognize it at first.
A hatchling jagg had wandered across then vanished into the grass. At least...she thought it’d been one. They were so tiny it was possible she’d made an error. Nothing else that size had eight legs with four along each side. If it was one, a jagg swarm was around here, somewhere.
“Is this what you do to them with your magic cock? I heard that humans are fantastic fucks, and she seems to agree.”
That...seemed to explain everything. Sassik had said something similar. Damn him, twice then. This wasn’t fair at all.
“What can I do for you, Zarr? I’m about to get cleaned up.”
“I can see why, but I need you to show me this mech, what he can do. I did not free you and provide you with clothes, weapon, a slave, and so on, only to watch you fuck a girl senseless. The mech won’t care what you smell like.”
“Okay. Good. I wanted to talk to him anyway.”
“I’ll meet you over where he sits.”
She saw his shadow change, as if Zarr pointed.
“Up.” Sawyer’s boot tapped at her leg. “I’m not carrying you.”
She pulled herself to her feet, straightened her skirt, disconcerted at what then ran down her leg. Sex had disgusting after-effects. “I...” She waved vaguely at her legs, frowned.
“Zarr says to come now. So we come.” He smirked. “In your case you have extra come.”
Oh, the asshole thought he was funny.
If spitting had still been an option, she would’ve.
“This is when you prove what you said. Put your shoes back on.” He tossed them to her, clicked the leash onto her collar, and walked off. The chain hung in a swinging arc between them. He stopped a moment and eyed her feet.
After hopping on each leg to don the shoes, she followed. It took only a few steps before what he meant percolated into her mind.
Sawyer wanted her to prove she could diagnose JI’s problem. That was what she’d asserted to him? She hadn’t said she could fix JI had she? Worried, she almost walked into a small tree. Brushing off pieces of leaf and branch, she kept walking only to find Sawyer eying her oddly. The long gun he’d been training with hung from his fist.
The mottled novice color told her it might be from Uncle’s stock. Stolen, of course. She’d probably calibrated the damn weapon. Irony incarnate.
“Take care with my property. I don’t want it damaged.”
Her? He referred to her? That...was strange. He slapped her, caned her until her butt felt like it’d been beaten raw, fucked her savagely then worried when she ran into a tree?
She didn’t recall ever being this concerned about a slave. Uncle certainly regarded most of his slaves as disposable when misfortune forced his hand and he couldn’t afford to feed them. That had happened once, in the middle of a long road between towns. He’d killed a few of the cheap ones to save on food.
The sight of them being led away and shot had given her nightmares.
Zarr was there already.
The mech, JI, sat sprawled against the base of one of the tilted buildings. Rubble lay about him, overgrown with plants. Vines dangled past his rectangular head and shoulders. The eye sensor lights were blue and not the orange they’d been at night.
He was muttering again.
“Hark, what light...what light do you... No. No. Spots many spots. Out damned spot...”
Sawyer sent her one long assessing look then walked closer and tucked the loop end of the leash into her hand. “Hold yourself, girl. Don’t move. Yet.”
He fucked her then expected her to police her own movements, when she was still hurting from what he’d done to her. The ramifications ran around eating their own tails in her mind. If she ran, he’d catch her. If she didn’t, she was almost admitting he’d in some way intimidated her? Or controlled her. Torn, she stayed where she was.
He sauntered to JI and squatted next to one of his long legs. The rectangular foot alone was enormous. His leg joints were the size of a man’s head.
The mech looked up and studied Sawyer. “Shakespeare, sir. It’s the bard’s words, though I fear I forget many of them. Emery would be sad.”
“Hello, JI. Yes. I did recognize many of the words.”
He was being gentle with this mech, as gentle as a parent with a child. It bothered her, but not for the right reason. She was jealous of what seemed a relationship already established. She was the one who knew this mech. She’d felt his pain. Sawyer was a fake.
“You are not well?” he asked.
Zarr stood, arms folded, long blond hair wisping in the wind, and clearly unsure what to make of this scene.
“I am not, sir.”
“What do you think I can do with a disabled mech, Saw? Nothing. Fix him or you will see what happens when a man disappoints me.” Zarr strode away.
“I am sorry, Sir. I would repair myself fully if it was possible, but I can only repair some of my metal parts.”
Sawyer swiveled where he squatted, mouth twisting as he found her. “Over here. Tell me what’s wrong with him. How to get him well.”
Timid, suddenly, in the face of a more normal problem than how to kill a sex fiend and escape from him, she approached cautiously. Sawyer took the leash from her and gestured to take her place in front of JI.
She kneeled then put her hand out, aiming to touch JI’s hand where he had it resting on his giant knee.
“Hello, little one.” JI’s sensors brightened. “I know I am unwell, but you seem in disarray also. May I ask why?”
What an opportunity. Though Sawyer would hurt her if he knew what ideas had spawned from this
inquiry. This probably wouldn’t go the way she wanted it to. She’d play it slow and steady, wait for the best time. So far she’d been rushing, and look what that’d gained her – an angry, suspicious Sawyer.
“I’m a slave, JI. I belong to Sawyer.”
The man cocked an eyebrow, and now his eyes brightened. He liked her saying that?
Her face heated with a blush as the memory of what he’d done to her resurfaced – inside her, asshole and pussy, making her come badly enough to bring her to her knees... If she could survive the act itself, she could survive the memory.
Ari sucked in her cheek and turned back to JI. “Forget about my problems for the moment. You say you have too little brain space? Can I touch you, please?”
This was how a physician worked, by touch.
She’d touched him before, and it’d fed into her, told her things, if after some delay. Or so she surmised. She might be wrong.
“I don’t see how knowing more can help me, but of course, you may touch me.” He lifted his large hand and extended a finger.
Her fingertip met his.
The touch of flesh to metal unrolled visions, revealing a newer, smaller space of existence.
JI.
A world within.
Blind. Eyes shut. She saw.
Schematics raced in brilliant paths, cobwebbed, froze and raced onward. Names were written. Text shunted, dribbled downward. Everywhere connected in strands of fire to everywhere else...except...where it halted, jammed into a space, accordioned and dying. Atresia of the mech brain. His tendrils of thought peeled off, brown and necrotic. Nothing lived at the boundary. Everything screamed.
She flinched and fell backward.
“Oh! JI. You are not you. You’re in a...mech baby?”
Hands had caught her as she fell and now lifted her until she sat on the ground. Sawyer’s hands, she realized. He straightened and loomed above her.
I’m property, remember. Do not hurt the property. Dismissing him, she looked to JI.
“I am not me, yes. This body is that of my baby mech. My aux-mech. You see, Sawyer? She is telling the truth. She sees me. All of me.”
“Hmmm. Maybe. She couldn’t have known all that, true, but she doesn’t talk to you, here?” He tapped his head.
“No. Not like that. Only you and other humans seem to do that.”
“What?” Mouth open, she looked from one to the other.
“Don’t say more,” Sawyer snapped at JI.
“It is too late to hide this from her. She is smart, maybe smarter than you.”
Ari grinned. Oh hells, she liked this mech.
Sawyer snorted. “But can she fix you?”
“I doubt this. Can you, little one?”
Good question. She looked at her hands. A physician healed, and she was at best a poor physician. On the other hand, was it normal to be able to feel the ills of a mech? Maybe? No other Scav or grounder physician could ever have been in this situation.
Maybe she would be as bad at healing JI as she was at healing people?
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I wish I did.”
“You are sad at this? Don’t be. I will only deteriorate with time, this I have discovered after much self-diagnosis. If I cease to exist because of something you do, you will only have terminated me a little early.”
“Oh. I see. But...” She frowned. “But everyone dies eventually. That’s still the same as killing you.”
“Fuck it.” Sawyer crouched beside her. “He told you it was okay. I need to get at the data concerning Fern, my sister. You will do this. You will.” The muscles of his jaw tensed and flexed.
His face was a blotchy red, especially around his eyes, his forehead. The man was being emotional.
Damn. She stopped herself from smiling. Was he going to cry?
That was...yeah, she couldn’t do it, couldn’t celebrate. A man getting this teary, even a man who’d abused her...it still bothered her.
JI was wrong. She wasn’t smart. She was totally stupid after all.
“You can’t ask JI to risk himself.”
“Can’t I?” He stared at her, past her, then stood and paced away. “You’re right. Do what you can.” He returned, took the leash end from her and gave it to JI, whose fist closed over the metal with a grinding of metal on metal.
“You wish me to hold her?”
“Can’t you? For me? I don’t trust her not to vamoose, and I guess we need her.”
She huffed. What a lovely thing to say about her.
“Considering she will be in my head, Sawyer, I strongly suggest you lock this to one of my anchor points. He pointed to a loop of metal on his leg. Sawyer took the chain and attached it, using the small lock at the end of the chain.
Great, so if JI ran amok, she’d get dragged with him.
He was going to leave her here, as is? For how long? Saying the next would be excruciating but Ari steeled herself to do it.
“I need to clean up.” Blushing hotly, she waved vaguely at her legs.
“What do you say?”
Confused, she rummaged for what he wanted. His name... “Oh. I need to clean up, Sawyer.”
He nodded then studied her, stone-faced. “You are a bit dirty. Lift your skirt so I can see if it’s needed.”
Her blush felt as if it scorched her face. He wouldn’t budge, though. Resigned, she inched up the front of her skirt and waited. Exposing herself like this was just...was...nothing more than another of the many disgusting things he’d made her do.
“Wait there.”
She sat on her heels. A few minutes later, Sawyer returned and dropped a wet cloth in her lap.
“When I return, I expect progress.” He stalked off, long gun in hand.
“Well.” She puffed out her lips. “Hope he brings me lunch.”
Would the anchor point hold if she found something heavy to smack it with? If it didn’t, where would she go with an entire clearing full of Scavs? JI likely wouldn’t allow her to whack at his leg with a metal bar.
She picked up the cloth and began to wipe herself. No one was here to see, thank the gods.
JI let out a small blurting sound. Her hand jerked, and she suppressed a squeal of alarm.
There was no one here except for JI.
“You people are perplexing. The drying fluids between your legs worry you? I suppose your skin would rot if you left it dirty for long enough.”
She kept cleaning herself then put the cloth aside.
“You are not answering, Ari?”
“Some things we don’t share.”
“Because?”
“Embarrassment, JI. That I’d rather not discuss with you what he makes me do.” This was like talking about sex with a child...or an adult who simply had never had the chance to learn. And...she still wasn’t telling him anything. It was excruciating talking about what Sawyer did to her. Reliving it all.
“I watched from here. I saw the sex. You did not like it?”
“JI!” She dropped her head into her hands, tugging at the roots of her hair. “Off limits, please.”
“Okay. I will ask on another day.”
“Yes, please stop, now.”
The reality that made this worse was that she had enjoyed it, in the end, even after all the humiliation.
Maybe...something flipped on and insisted to her...because of it.
She shivered with imaginary cold – as if creeping past a monster in the dark and it’d brushed a talon down her spine.
No, oh no. That was not her. Her soul, her subconscious, whatever lopsided and maimed part of her had unearthed that dark logic, that part of her was plain wrong.
“You want to touch my hand again, Ari.”
“Yes.” She raised her head, shook off her dumb thoughts. Back to work. “Please.”
She touched his warm metal, and the sense of him radiated into her. She became JI and dived into the miles-deep labyrinth of his mind. Her task: to find the scars, the wounds, the dying parts of him, and h
eal them.
With people, everything slipped about from under her. With JI she could see what she needed to do, and wash him with her presence. What a marvel to sense him healing and coming alive.
It wasn’t enough, she soon understood. Part of him was, essentially, pushed against a wall and it was being crushed – there wasn’t room for all his data and his data was him. The end was inevitable, no matter what she achieved.
What she could do today would help delay the end, though as she’d already said, everyone died. For some it took longer, was all.
For JI? Weeks? Maybe months. In the meantime, he was going to slowly go insane.
The death of a child, a friend, a close relative might make you feel sad, but a mech? Inconceivable, only yesterday. Yet she knew that when JI died, if she were unfortunate enough to witness it, she would be sad.
Chapter 16
If he needed to do anything, it was to heal, to get fitter, to become fighting ready. That wasn’t going to happen by itself. He found Sassik sitting in a circle of other warriors – both male and female.
“You’ve recovered, Saw, from your fit of fucking?” The others chuckled or eyed him curiously. “Though I see you bleed again.” He touched his brow.
When he wiped a finger above his eyebrow it came away red. “I’ll see Largo.”
“You might want to be less enthusiastic for a few days. Sit?” He patted the concrete block he sat on – yet another remnant of the destruction wrought here, long ago. The entire clearing was littered with random pieces of the buildings.
“I hoped we could go look above, climb.” He raised the gun to indicate the tiers of the most collapsed building that lay slanted at a forty-five degree angle. The direction Zarr planned to go in soon, he’d heard, yet beneath it through an underground tunnel.
Sassik turned and looked. “There? If you want to hunt, there are brays prancing about above. Always a few.”
Brays? He studied the building slope and spotted a leaping creature the size of a deer. From his implanted language memory, those were something like goats in their habits and happily climbed mountains, as well as buildings that looked like mountains.
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