by K. D. Jones
Lindy screamed for just a moment before Nautilus was there in front of her again. He made her stop. “You will walk beside me to my shuttle. You will get inside, sit, and will not scream or try to get away.” He turned and started walking toward a shuttle she had not noticed until now. Lindy’s body responded against her will. She followed him over to the shuttle. He helped her get inside and she sat down. The whole time Lindy was screaming at herself in her mind to break the pull he had on her. But nothing she did worked.
“I won’t be with you willingly. You will have to force me. Is that what you want?” Lindy was trying to reason with him. There was no way she would be with anyone but Talon.
“You’ll do as I order, Lucinda May Stamos.”
Shivers ran down her spine, stirred by a deep fear. He knew her full name.
*****
“Talon, you are free to say whatever you want here. This is a private counselling session and everything said in this room is protected by client confidentiality.” The female counsellor was a halfsie Empar. The profession was perfect since Empars were empathic, they could sense others’ emotions.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to talk about. I shouldn’t be here at all.”
“You came willingly. Your friend Lesak set this up for you. He is concerned about you.”
“I’m fine.”
“He told me that you tried to get yourself killed in your last match. Let’s talk about that.”
Talon didn’t deny it. He had wanted to die, still did. He had a hard time feeling sorry about it. Just because he agreed to come to the rehab facility, did not mean he was going to open up and talk. He planned to bide his time until he was released.
“You’re feeling a tremendous amount of pain. You’ve tried to bury it deep down, but I can sense it. I want to help you, but I can’t do that if you don’t open up me.”
“Stop probing my feelings!”
“I apologize if I offended you, but I won’t hold back with my abilities. The admission release form you signed stated the counselors are free to use their gifts to assist each patient as needed.”
Talon turned to look out the window. He did read that and he had signed it. Damn it! “What do you want to know?”
“How about let’s start at the beginning. How did you meet this woman?”
Talon spent the next hour telling the counselor about the start of his relationship with Lindy. The counselor didn’t ask him to talk about the fight they had or about Lindy leaving him. She stuck to the surface of their relationship. He was surprised. The more he talked, the easier it became for him. He saw it all play out in his head from a distance, as an observer.
“From what you have said so far, it sounds as if you were forming a bond. That’s rare between a halfsie and a pure human.”
“My mother and father had a bond. When my father died, the loneliness and depression slowly ate away at her.”
“How old were you when your mother died?”
“I was ten.”
“You must have been angry with her for leaving you, instead of fighting to live for you.”
“I loved my mother!”
“Of course you did, but a ten year old would have still felt bitterness for being left alone.”
“I wasn’t alone. I had Lesak. He was the closest thing I had to a father and he was always there for me”
“I am sure that having Lesak in your life was a great comfort. I’m just asking if, being only ten years of age, that you could have felt some kind of resentment. If you had been angry, it would be perfectly normal to feel that. You can be angry at someone and still love them.”
Wasn’t that the truth. Talon nodded his head. “Maybe I had been angry a little. I missed her every day. I still miss her.” He hadn’t really thought about his mother’s death. His memories seemed to have been selective, only remembering the happy times.
“Well, I think we are off to a good start. We’ll meet every day after your morning practice. In two weeks, I want to introduce you into our group sessions.”
“Okay.”
“One little bit of homework for you, Talon. I want you to think about what you would say to your mother if she was here.”
Talon frowned. “I don’t see how that is going to help me.”
“It’s a process, Talon. Do your homework.”
“Fine.”
*****
Lindy had been taken to a huge gated compound. There were male security guards everywhere on the compound grounds. She felt her hopes for an easy escape fade away. It would take a miracle to get through all that security. Her captor didn’t bother blindfolding her. He was completely confident in his hold on her. But slowly, she was building up her resistance to him. She would move an inch or two away from him when he wasn’t paying attention. It worked more when he was preoccupied. If he touched her, she would have to start all over again. She made mental notes of what worked and what didn’t.
The guards on the inside of the mansion were all female. They were rough looking full breeds of all types. She tried to speak to a few in hopes of pleading for their assistance. However, the look of disgust on their faces proved that they hated humans and wouldn’t be lifting a finger to help her. She was on her on.
A young woman with her brown hair put up in a French braid was waiting in the hallway. She greeted Nautilus with her head down. “I have prepared her room, Master.”
“Very good, Tala,” Nautilus dismissed the girl as he ushered Lindy inside the bedroom.
“Look around, let me know if there is anything that you would want to change.”
“I want to go home.” Lindy watched him as he walked around the room touching the four-post bed with a lace canopy, the silver antique hairbrush on the dresser. He stopped walking and pulled one of the drapes back revealing bars on the other side. It was an exceptional room, but it was a prison for her. It was a beautiful cage for his new pet.
“This is your new home, get used to it.” He walked over to stand in front of her. She looked down at her feet so she wouldn’t be trapped in his hypnotic stare. “You have your own personal washroom and will be provided three meals a day.
“You are going to be put through a training phase. For the first few days, you will not be allowed out of your bedroom. All your meals will be brought to you. Only Tala and I will be allowed to come here to see you. When you have shown me that you are agreeable, I will allow you to take walks inside the mansion with Tala or me. In a few weeks, I think you’ll want some fresh air and I will allow you to take walks through the gardens. There will be security guards watching your every move. There are female guards inside the mansion and male guards on the outside.”
Lindy listened to him. It sounded like she’d be spending a lot of time with this Tala person. Perhaps the slave might help her get away. She’d have to work on winning the other woman’s trust. She hated it when Nautilus clasped her chin and lifted her face up so that she had to look at him.
“This will be our first night together, love. I am going to go to my own room to prepare. I want you to wash yourself thoroughly. Shave your underarms, your legs, and your pussy. I want it bare down there. I have a lovely white nightgown hanging in the washroom for you to wear.” He leaned forward to kiss her but stopped. “I can still smell him on you.” He released her and walked to the door. “Wash his smell off or I will.” He slammed the door behind him.
Lindy wanted to ignore his commands, but her body was moving to do his bidding. He had hypnotized her again. Those damn freaky eyes of his. The washroom was large and extravagant. She turned on the shower and undressed. Her hand shook as she tried to stop herself from reaching for the razor. Why couldn’t she break his hold on her?
She finished cleaning and shaving. Then she put on the white gown that Nautilus wanted her to wear. Lindy paced her pretty prison back and forth. She looked around the room for a weapon, any kind of weapon. She picked up the hairbrush, looked at it but put it back down. It probably wouldn’t knock him
out, just piss him off.
The door unlocked and opened. Lindy looked sideways trying to keep her gaze away from his eyes. “Good evening, pet. You look almost virginal in that white gown. I am very pleased. I can tell from here that you showered. His smell is gone.” He walked into the room and closed the door.
“Please let me go,” she begged, looking at the door. Could she make it there and out of it before he caught her? How far would she get before the security guards captured her?
He shocked her when he suddenly appeared in front of her. He moved so fast she hadn’t seen him at all. Now he locked gazes with her and she knew she was in trouble. His eyes glowed.
“You will remove the gown slowly. Then walk over to the bed and lie down on your back. I want your legs open for me.” He stepped back so that he could watch her as she followed his commands.
“Nautilus, please. I am in love with another man.”
“I like my name on your lips. I thought to train you to say Master, but my name sounds—right. Say it again.”
Lindy shook her head side to side on the pillow trying to keep her from following his demand. It was pointless. “Nautilus.”
He smiled, pleased with her. His gaze took in her completely bared body. He lightly touched her shaved mound. “Lovely.”
Lindy felt nausea building within her stomach. He looked at her with lust and his unwelcomed hands roamed her body. She knew what he planned and was devastated to know that she wouldn’t be able to even put up a fight. It tore at her to feel so utterly helpless, at the mercy of a madman. When his fingers opened her feminine folds and penetrated her with his forefinger, something inside her broke and she screamed and screamed.
“Talon!”
*****
Talon was dreaming. He knew that he was. He hadn’t dreamed for what seemed like days. He was fighting in the cage and he looked over at the VIP section. Lindy was there cheering him on. She had a smear of his blood on her face. It was the sexiest thing he had ever seen. He won his fight and everything morphed. No longer was he in the cage fighting. He was dancing with Lindy at a galactic nightclub. Someone was playing a sexy jazz number in the background. He held her close as they swayed to the music.
“You look beautiful tonight,” he whispered in her ear.
“You do, too.” She smiled up at him.
Her smile set off another morphing in the dream. Now they were in bed making love. Nothing felt as good as being inside of Lindy. He suckled her nipple making her moan. He plunged over and over, hard and harder. Then she screamed.
“Talon!”
He woke up in a sweat. He felt a deep hole within his soul caused by her absence. He ached for her. No matter what it took, he was going to seek her out when he finished this rehab. Talon needed to know why she left him.
Chapter Eleven
The first week at the rehab facility was probably the hardest for Talon. Several times he’d walked out the front door with intentions of never returning. But something always stopped him from carrying out that plan. He would see a brown-haired girl walk by or he would scent a fragrance that reminded him of Lindy. As soon as his mind turned to Lindy, he would choke back tears. After a good minute or two, he would collect himself and go back inside to his room. He finally realized that he needed to get himself together. Even if he found Lindy, he was in no shape to confront her.
His sessions would never start or end the same way. One day he would go in expecting to talk about his relationship with Lindy, but the counselor would ask him to talk about his father. He had laughed saying it would be a short talk because he never met his father. Somehow, the session lasted a whole hour.
He was grateful the rehab facility was private. It was gated and had security to keep prying eyes out. Unfortunately, some of the female patients recognized him and he was constantly watched. Women approached him offering to share their beds with him. He wasn’t interested. He slipped up in counselling and mentioned this. That turned his whole session into talk about the sexual relationships he had.
He wasn’t allowed to have contact with anyone from the outside for two weeks. So he couldn’t check up on Lesak’s progress in hunting down Lindy. He trusted Lesak to do what he promised. It was nerve-wracking to leave things in other people’s hands. However, he had to learn that some things were not in his control. He had to learn to let go in order to move forward.
*****
Lindy woke up after that first night with Nautilus in a completely different environment than she had started out in. She was no longer in the lavish bedroom, but a dank dark dungeon. She wore no clothing and she was chained to a wall. The chain stretched out ten feet in three different directions, but it came nowhere near the door.
Nautilus had flipped his lid when Lindy screamed out for Talon. He definitely was jealous that Lindy was in love with someone else and for her to call out another man’s name while he was touching her; it was more than he could handle. Nautilus out of control was the scariest thing she had ever seen. She was still determined to fight and get herself free, but she would do everything she could to not push him past his limit like that again. She might suffer a worse fate than what had happened.
He slapped her only once, but the force behind the hit knocked her across the room, onto the floor, and unconscious. Now she found herself in his dungeon. Who had dungeons anymore? Psychotic Draculs, obviously.
The other girl, Tala, came to wash her gash on the side of her face from where he hit her. Lindy tried talking to her, but the other woman ignored Lindy. Tala left and only came back to bring her something to eat. The first days she spent in the dungeon, she had lost a few pounds. She was fed three times a day, but it was the dungeon rations of bread and water. If she had any doubts that she wasn’t a prisoner, those doubts were completely gone.
Her only hope of getting free was to try to gain Tala’s trust and have the other woman help her to escape. Every time the other woman came down to the dungeon, she made an effort to talk to her. Tala wasn’t very receptive, but she did inform Lindy the Master would bring her back upstairs when she learned her lesson. She also made the snide comment that she thought Lindy wasn’t worthy of the Master, like the other women and the other women never made it out of the dungeon. Lindy took advantage of the moment while she had Tala talking to her. She had so many questions for the slave.
“Tala, where are all the other women? I have only seen you and the female security guards.”
The slave woman gave her a slightly angry look. “The Master got rid of them all. All except for me.”
“What do you mean by—got rid of them?” Images assaulted Lindy of the Dracul draining women until they had no blood left in them and then disposing of the bodies. There was no evidence that Draculs drank blood, but Lindy’s imagination was getting away from her.
“The Master sold the other slaves to new Masters. I was kept because I have proven to be the most loyal to the Master. He will not allow me to give him pleasure any more. He only wants you.”
Lindy looked at the woman in shock. Tala actually seemed upset that she wouldn’t get to serve Nautilus sexually. For the first time, she noticed that she shared similar features as Tala. They both had brown hair and brown eyes. Lindy’s natural complexion was more tanned. She felt as if she was looking at what she would be like in a few years. Would she be brainwashed to the point where she wanted to be enslaved by Nautilus?
She was more determined than ever to get away. She wanted to live, and would fight whatever obstacles he threw her way to stay alive.
*****
Three Months Later
Talon was frustrated. He wanted to search for Lindy. However, Lesak had promised him that he had someone working on that. Lesak was pretty tight-lipped about it and he wasn’t going to be available to train him for the next circuit.
Lesak convinced the rehab facility to release him earlier than they wanted, on the condition that he continued to see a counselor while on the GCFA circuit. Talon knew this was a test
for him. No one knew about his stay in rehab except for Lesak. Everyone thought he had taken some time off to travel.
Though he had trained some at the rehab facility, it wasn’t the same. He realized this after his first training session inside the cage with Rage. He got his ass kicked big time. Coming out, he felt different. He wasn’t one hundred percent yet, but with time, he knew he would get there. Lesak set up the counselling sessions to be discreet so no one would know. The counselor would travel on the GCFA circuit ship and had to sign a confidentiality contract. Talon would meet with the counselor twice a week prior to breakfast. Putting him back into is real life was going to be a true test to his mental state.
He was grateful to be back on the circuit. He had learned to channel his frustration, anger, and hurt into his fighting. Also, it was good to be around his friends again. He still missed Lindy with every breath that he took, but fighting helped him deal with the pain, not hide as he had done before.
He had two issues that he had to deal with. The first was that he had not heard from Lesak in a couple of weeks. That worried him. The second was a new team member the GCFA hired and he was not happy about it.
Rachel Starr was her name, and she was human. This was the first human to fight at the GCFA circuit level and the GCFA publicists were marketing her like crazy. Talon didn’t have any interest for the human, but his friend, Rage, couldn’t keep his eyes off her.
Rachel turned out to be quite a surprise in more than one way. First, when he was thrown in situations where he had to interact with her, he found himself opening up about Lindy. Rachel had been the first person outside of his counselor that he allowed himself to open around.
Then she surprised him again. He found out that Rachel was actually an IDJ agent. She was there undercover, investigating the disappearances of eight women that had last been seen at a GCFA circuit match. One of those women was Lindy.
