by Bertina Mars
“I suppose you must, but it is all frightfully tedious,” the Prince Consort said in a bored voice. “Though she does show some fiery spirit, it would be a shame to snuff it out. If she were a little less rounded, I’d buy her myself. No matter, her death will make an amusing diversion. Carry on then, captain.”
“Wait,” Vron’s voice cracked like a whip, making all three of them flinch. He loosened his grip on Maya by just a fraction. “I will bid for her.”
The Prince Consort’s eyes became wide as saucers and Maya had a feeling she looking equally shocked. Her mind whirled at these sudden turn of events and she wasn’t sure whether she wouldn’t prefer death over slavery.
“You want this little firecracker, Vron?” the Prince Consort asked in a surprised voice. “You never take part in the slave auctions.”
There was a pregnant pause before Vron answered. “She . . . interests me. My bid will be six thousand rubies. I doubt you will get a better offer.”
“No, that is most generous sire,” the slaver captain said gleefully. “She’s yours for that price.” He shot an anxious look at the Prince Consort. “With your permission of course, your Excellency.”
“I give my permission,” the Prince Consort chortled. “You always continue to surprise me, Vron. I was beginning to worry it had dropped off. You can have your buxom beauty with my blessing. Now captain, if you have finished being humiliated, let us continue the auction, shall we?”
With a sweep of his cape the Prince Consort marched back towards the watching Blood Sharks, with the slaver captain hurrying after him like an obedient mongrel. Maya and Vron were left standing alone next to the flying bike.
“If I let you go do you promise not to run off again?” Vron asked in a flat voice.
Maya swallowed hard, still tingling at his body against hers. She knew she had to escape, but this moody, powerful man exerted an irresistible power over her. She was too tired and confused to resist.
“I won’t try anything,” she said stiffly.
“Good. Because if you did you’d be hacked down in minutes by the guards and I would have wasted a season’s salary for nothing.”
He let her ago abruptly and she spun round, shooting him a sharp look. The ghost of a smile vanished from his lips a fraction too slow for her to miss. Swiftly though, his expression became serious and grim again. His stormy, silvery eyes brushed over her face and she felt her chest tightening. His gaze moved down to her leg.
“That wound will have to be seen to,” he said flatly.
She frowned at him in confusion, completely forgetting the wound she’d obtained in her wild escape attempt. She looked down and saw that the blood smeared her leg and had oozed between her toes. Without a word, Vron ripped a strip of material from his uniform sleeve and kneeling down he tied it round the wound as a crude tourniquet.
Maya stared down at the top of his head, painfully aware that she wasn’t wearing any panties. Finished with the leg, he stood up abruptly almost brushing against her again. Her skin tingled at his closeness and she couldn’t help from shuddering.
“That should check the bleeding for a little while,” he said in a serious tone, seemingly oblivious to the effect he was having on her. “I’ll attend to it when we get inside.”
“Inside?” Maya asked numbly. “You mean in the ziggurat?”
“The palace,” Vron corrected. “Yes, we’re going in there, unless you want to stay out, here being ogled for the rest of your life?”
“No,” Maya said.
Vron gave her a curt nod. “Good.” He hesitated, and gave her a hooded look. “Come on then. Do you want me to help you walk?”
The thought of having his hands touching her again was too much to cope with. Her hormones were already doing crazy cartwheels. “No,” she said defensively. “I can walk on my own.”
Vron nodded. “Good,” he said again in a clipped voice. “Come.”
He turned his back on her and started walking briskly toward the palace. Surprised at his apparently trust in her to follow, she did just that. Any thoughts of escape right at this moment disappeared.
She would have to come up with another strategy when she’d learnt more about this mysterious Vron character. The thought both frightened and excited her.
The flagstones were warm beneath her bare soles and she hurried to keep up with him. A few yards away the auction was carrying on, and Maya felt the knife twist of guilt for leaving the other girls to their fate. It couldn’t be helped though.
She had enough problems of her own to deal with. As they neared the men, several of them turned and leered at her. One of the Blood Sharks licked his lips and winked at her.
“Fuck her hard, Vron!” he called out.
Vron froze in his tracks as if he’d been physically struck. Maya’s heart jumped into her mouth as she watched him slowly turn his head and shoot the man who had called out a look of pure frozen anger.
The unlucky Blood Shark flinched at the icy gaze, and, looking decidedly cowed, quickly turned back to the auction. Vron lowered his eyes and the storm clouds gathered in their silver depths again, erasing away the raw power he’d just unleashed.
Its intensity still lingered with Maya though, and she found herself hoping that he never turned that devastating gaze on her for any reason.
What’s wrong with you? She asked herself angrily. You’re supposed to be figuring out a way to escape this nightmare, not worrying about offending this scary guy. Correction, she should not be worrying about offending this scary and sexy guy.
Maya let out a deep breathe. This was just getting too intense to bear.
* * *
The interior of the palace was all blood red stone and gold trim and was as heavy and foreboding as its exterior. She could literally feel the dark presence of the Blood God, its cyclopean, bodiless head exuding a miasma of dread and oppression.
She read it on the faces of the downtrodden servants they passed, and the red-liveried guards on duty. The Blood God was a tangible, malevolent presence controlling their lives.
Only Vron seemed unaffected. He remained stoic, moving with the grace of a great predator. This was a man used to the role of command and to violence. Maya knew that mark only too well.
She’d recognised it in her dad and his buddies when she was only three years old. Vron might be an alien from a barbaric planet that was light years away from Earth, but he was made from the same stuff. He was a warrior through and through.
“These are my quarters,” he said sullenly, showing her into a Spartan looking set of rooms near the rear of the palace. “I’ll make arrangements with the House Matron for you to have your own apartment when I finish my duties.”
“That’s very gallant of you,” Maya drawled. “I thought as your sex slave I’d be chained to your bed?”
A pained look flitted across Vron’s face before his impassive expression quickly returned. “I’ll need to dress that wound,” he said as if he hadn’t heard her. “Sit down on the bed please.”
Maya found his reserve rather appealing. It made a change from the cocky chauvinism she’d encountered both on this planet and on Earth. She went over to the slab of dark wood with its weave mat covering and sat down on its hard surface. “Wow, you sleep on this?” she asked incredulously. “No wonder you’re so grumpy.”
Vron pursed his lips and headed over to a cupboard next to the wall. He opened it and took out what looked like a medical field kit. Maya watched as he took out various jars and wadding. When he’d gotten what he needed he padded back to the bed.
“The wound isn’t deep,” he said as he knelt down in front of her. “It shouldn’t take much to patch you up again.”
“You should have let them kill me,” Maya said blackly, feeling the stress of her situation bubble up inside again. “I don’t think I can take much more of this.”
Vron looked up at her and frowned. “Is being owned by me such a terrible thing?” he asked, a sliver of hurt in his voice. “Would y
ou prefer to be the plaything of one of those oafs outside, or the Prince Consort? Believe me, you would pray for death if that was the case.”
“I don’t want to be owned by anyone!” Maya snapped. “I’m not a piece of meat to be passed around by a bunch of thugs! I want to go home!”
“We all want things that we can’t have,” Vron said in a world-weary voice. He frowned and suddenly looked up at her. His silver eyes speared her for a split-second and her heart did a flip-flop. Damn! Why was he having such an intense effect on her?
“I’ve just realised, I don’t know your name,” Vron said.
“Does that really matter?” Maya snapped, feeling a flush of anger at how she was turning to jelly in his presence. “I’m just your property, aren’t I? You can call me whatever you like!”
“Please, just tell me your name. There is no need to be antagonistic.”
The respectfulness of his tone now made her guilty for snapping. She fumed at how easily he was manipulating her feelings. “My name’s Maya,” she said, softening her voice. “Maya Callahan, for what it matters.”
“Maya,” he repeated the name, and the sound of it in his deep, rich voice made her tingle. “It is a beautiful name.”
She resisted the urge to thank him. He might be all old world charm and gentlemanly manners now but it didn’t change the fact that he was still her captor, and men were jerks no matter where in the universe they came from.
“It’s just a name,” Maya said with a shrug. “You’re called Vron, right?”
“Right,” he said. “Please, could you straighten your leg and I’ll take off the wrapping.”
She did as she was instructed and his long fingers began untying the blood soaked material round her wound. The throbbing pain was counteracted by his soft touch. “Vron,” she repeated this time. “You have a second name, Vron?”
“We don’t have second names the way you have in Earth culture. I am named after my tribe which is called the Yu Shaj.”
Though she already hated this planet with vengeance, they sure did have pretty sounding and exotic names. “I see, and what’s the name of this place?”
“Raja-kell, but didn’t the slavers tell you that?”
“I know the name of your world, but what is the name of that city out there?” Maya elucidated.
She had figured that if she couldn’t physically escape then she might find some kind of deep space communication device somewhere in this creepy joint. If she could make contact with a passing ship or nearby friendly outpost or planet she’d need to know where she was for a potential rescue party.
“The city is called Blood-ui-Krarn, the Throne of the Blood God,” Vron explained, pausing in his unwrapping of the makeshift bandage.
At the mention of the giant head suspended above them she went cold all over.
“The Blood God, that . . . thing floating above the palace, you worship it?”
“The Blood God is the heart of Raja-kell,” Vron responded flatly. “He guides all our destinies.”
“But it’s not a real god?” Maya asked edgily. “It can’t be . . . can it?”
“It is not advisable to discuss what the Blood God is or isn’t,” Vron said in a voice of thunder.
“To do so, earns instant death on this world and I have already only just managed to save your life once today. I doubt I’ll have the good fortune to do it a second time.”
Maya fell into a sullen silence, knowing this line of questioning was getting her nowhere.
Vron continued removing the material from around her bare leg and she winced as he pulled it from the crusty mess of dried blood. As soon as it was off, he opened a jar from his medical kit and smeared his fingers into the pale blue goo inside it.
He smeared it into the wound and the fresh blood coming out of it was absorbed by the strange substance. A cool sensation ran up her leg and the pain quickly dissipated.
“What is that stuff?” she asked.
“It is the sap from the ayuliop plant,” Vron said rubbing the sap in circles round the puncture the bayonet had made. It seemed to knit the skin together in seconds.
Maya felt herself relaxing and Vron’s slow almost sensual motions and the gentle touch of his long fingers began to cause a tingling heat to gather between her legs.
“The ayuliop has immense healing properties,” Vron went on in his deep voice, its rich timbre only heightening the arousal she was starting to feel. “The wound will quickly cover over and only leave a faint scar.”
Maya nodded and swallowed hard. “So,” she said, desperately trying to focus her thoughts on something other than her libido, “what do you do around here? I’m guessing you’re something pretty important if you are hanging around with that Prince Consort guy?”
“I am the Chief of Security,” Vron replied without any real enthusiasm. “My main duty is to make sure the Prince Consort is not assassinated, so I suppose that constitutes as important.”
“Yeah, that’s a lot of responsibility. Does that mean you’re one of these Blood Sharks? Like those guys outside? What does that mean exactly?”
“The Blood Shark Society is the political and military elite of Raja-kell. It maintains order and enforces the Imperial Laws and defends the people from enemies, helping them in their time of need. You are correct in assuming I am a member of this august body.”
“You don’t sound very happy about it,” Maya observed. She was getting the impression that he was very much an outsider in this society and she could relate to that. On Earth she was rootless and without purpose. Maybe they were both lost souls?
Vron didn’t answer. He continued applying the sap, and Maya found her cheeks begin to blush at his feather-light touch. She tried to clamp down on the wild feelings he was stirring up in her.
“You’re not like them,” she said at length. “You don’t act the way they do. I get the feeling you don’t approve of the way they act either.”
“I am a Blood Shark,” Vron said firmly.
“My loyalty is to the Society and the Blood God’s chosen elect, the Prince Consort. It doesn’t matter if I approve of them or not.”
He kept his voice controlled but Maya could literally taste the seething anger struggling to break free. She shivered at its intensity and her pussy thrummed with wet heat.
Goddammit! What is this guy doing to me?
“Does it matter if those other women approve of them or not?” she retorted, turning her desire into anger. “You remember them? Those other unfortunate innocents from Earth that just got auctioned off earlier? How are they going to be treated?”
Vron’s body stiffened. “You shouldn’t think about them any more,” he said warningly. “There is nothing you can do for them now.”
“What about Tia? That poor kid who the Prince Consort bought? Do I just forget about her? How can I? She’s absolutely terrified!”
Vron looked up at her, his silver eyes burning brightly. The fire in his gaze stole her breath away.
“You are to forget her,” he ordered in a voice that brooked no argument. “You must look after yourself now. That is the only way you will survive on Raja-kell. It is the only way any of us survive on Raja-kell. If your friend is lucky he’ll forget he bought her in a couple of days’ time.”
Maya stared into the deep mercury pools of his eyes, unable to form an argument. He was like a deadly serpent and if she kept provoking him further he was liable to lash out and bite her.
She dipped her eyes and he lowered his head. An electrifying silence filled the air and he continued to tend to her wound. After he had smeared on the ayuliop sap, he got to his feet and went over to a basin and poured out a small bowl of warm water.
Coming back with a patch of wadding he retuned to his kneeling position between Maya’s legs and started very tenderly to wipe away the dried blood that now crusted her lower leg and foot.
As his gentle attentions returned to her body, the fireworks between her legs went off with a bang. She could no lo
nger resist the primal urges that were governing her. Her lips parted and her chest flushed with heat.
With his hard, powerful body so close to her, she trembled like a leaf, desperate for him to touch her more intimately. She couldn’t believe this was happening or how easily she had lost control over her emotions.
Usually, she had enough discipline to not fall for anyone as easily as this, but Vron had destroyed all her defences without even knowing it.
He seemed oblivious as he slowly cleaned her skin. He kept his gaze on her leg and carefully removed every inch of blood. She watched him with a fiery intensity and let out a sharp breath.
Without meaning to, she widened her legs a little, desperate for him to explore her further. His face remained impassive, but she seemed to sense a stirring inside him too.
With almost imperceptible motions, he brought the wadding higher up her leg, and then abruptly he dropped it on the floor. She stared at him, surrendering to feral heat. Keeping his eyes downcast, he slowly moved his hand upwards until it reached her inner thigh. It stayed there, a hot, irresistible power on her bare skin, sending spikes of pleasure upwards between her legs.
Maya let out a small moan, no longer able to pretend that nothing was going on here. She longed to reach under her flimsy skirt and tease the swelling bulb of her clit, hungry now for climax, but she kept both her hands on the bed, balling the weave mat in her fists.
She wanted him to slip his hand under her skirt, to sink his fingers into her wet heat and bring her to a shattering climax. She wanted him to dominate her, to make her his and take her body and soul. At that dizzying, fragile moment, he could do whatever he wanted with her.
Vron did not move a single muscle though. He kept his hand on her thigh, and slowly squeezed the flesh beneath his fingers. His breathing was ragged and his mouth was a firm line.
His arm was tensed and with excruciating slowness, he began to move upwards. Maya bit her lip and felt the tension building. The pressure of pleasure was becoming unbearable, and she quivered under his touch. She started panting hard and her back arched as an intense climax ran through her.
