To the accompaniment of constant fire, Steffania worked to disarm the access door as blasts scorched the walls inches from her. She heard grunts from Ramsey and Tok as they maneuvered the heavy units to provide better cover and once a sharp cry from Pansy. Miraculously, the panel lights changed from red to green and she slid the door open.
“It’s open, come on!” she screamed over the blasts filling the small hallway.
Pulling the gleaming metal shells with them, Ramsey, with Alessa draped over his shoulder, and then Tok and Pansy, scuttled crab-like toward the open door. Steffania whipped through after them and slammed the door. As soon as the door closed, Ram hoisted Alessa back over his shoulder and Tok slung Pansy onto his hip like a mother with a toddler amidst her protests of “I can walk,” and all three pounded toward their only remaining exit.
“Humph. I saw you stumble, little female. You can’t put any weight on your ankle.” Tok jogged along with Pansy clinging to him. His thunderous footsteps resounded against the walls and drowned out the rapid footfalls of Ramsey and Steffania.
“Time?” Ramsey huffed, holding DeAlbero balanced on one shoulder as he ran.
Steffania held up her wrist and steadied it with her other hand so she could read the digital display on her timer. Shit. “Four minutes.”
When the trio reached the portico overlooking the broad green expanse of Narr’s southwest lawn, bright orange tracer fire illuminated the black outline of the small transport broken by a loading ramp extended onto the ground like an enormous tongue. Beside her, Ramsey labored for breath, sucking in air like a marathon runner. Steffania admitted that last all-out sprint had her gasping, too, and she wasn’t carrying one hundred and sixty-five pounds of dead weight. Only Tok was his normal self.
“No time. You must run for the ship. Tok and I will cover you to keep the wolves off. We don’t have time to argue, DeKieran. Get DeAlbero on that transport,” she hissed urgently.
Ramsey grabbed a fistful of her suit collar and jerked her to him, planting a savage kiss on her mouth. “I’m not leaving you here, vixen. I’m coming back for you. Do you hear me? I’m coming back for you.”
She smiled into his grim eyes. Her lips still pulsed with the ferocious imprint of Ramsey’s. “You do that.”
Ram shifted Alessa to a better position and looked at her, intense emotions she couldn’t identify twisting his face. “Ready?” He looked toward Tok. “Ready?”
The colossus grinned and nodded. “Run fast, Verdantian.”
And all holy hell broke loose. Narr’s security forces were everywhere.
Steffania and Tok laid down a furious barrage of cover fire as Ramsey darted and dodged in a broken line to the spacecraft.
“You stay with me, small female.” Scooping up Pansy again, Tok separated from Steffania to give them a broader field of fire. Steffania almost cried with relief when she saw the outline of Ramsey stagger and fall up the loading ramp and then scramble into the transport. He made it.
Immediately, the ramp retracted and the ship’s doors closed. A blast of energy from Narr’s pulse cannons lit up the area around the vulnerable transport with explosions of brilliant light. Dazzling phosphorescent flares broke in cascades around the invisible barrier protecting the ship as the ground opponents fired frantically at their departing target. Steffania prayed they got out of there soon. Their shields would not withstand many of those direct hits. As if in sync with her thoughts, the transport’s thrusters lit up the night with an orange/blue burn and it thundered slowly into the air, gaining speed and altitude until it was only a speck. Narr’s pulse cannons ceased their ear-splitting detonations as the ship climbed out of range. The villa grounds took on an eerie quiet. The shouts of the security forces seemed almost muted in comparison.
Slinking back into the night’s shadows, she sought a place to hide until the LFP arrived in full-force. She snorted inwardly. She wouldn’t put it past Lord Ramsey Melborn DeKieran to force the LFP transport captain to come back for her. And the passion in his last kiss – gods – that had shaken her. She swiped at the tears she couldn’t keep from forming. Damn, I love that man. But it just didn’t seem permanency would happen for them.
The low snarling growl of a fell wolf spun her around in a crouch, weapon at the ready. The wolf wasn’t alone. Four of Narr’s security force flanked him.
“Put your gun down,” one of them said as he held her in the sights of his own weapon.
With a grim sigh, Steffania laid her 88K on the grass in front of her. “So...now what? You kill me?” She waited while one of the men spoke through a communicator and then murmured in the ear of their leader.
“No, Veacon Narr wants you in the ‘quiet room’.” The man motioned with his weapon. “Rise, slowly.”
She swallowed back her sudden nausea. Death might be preferable.
~ ~ ~
Ram tripped up the loading ramp and sprawled into the small transport. He could feel the heat of bare misses scorching the area on either side of him. A scrambling crawl got him inside. The inert body of Alessa DeAlbero rolled off his shoulder into an undignified heap at the base of a small command console. We’re moving! Gods, Steffania! I can’t leave her there. He whirled to plunge back out the craft’s doors only to smash into slick steel. The doors were closed.
Ramsey screamed at the crewman closest to him. “Open these. I must go back. I left a woman behind. I must go back.”
“You’re too late,” the ship commander snarled. A heavy explosion shook the small craft and the whoop, whoop, whoop, of a warning claxon had crew scurrying for the fire controls and backup systems. Another detonation rocked them and blackness enveloped the interior, broken only by the green glow of the console displays, the spitting arc of sparks and the sudden dim glow of red emergency lighting. In the darkness, the lieutenant yelled, “Full vertical thrusters, full auxiliary shields. Get us the hell out of here while we’re still in one piece.”
“No!” Ram screamed. “Fuck you! No!” Scrambling for balance in the bucking ship, he stumbled toward the commander and grabbed him by the shoulder, jerking him around. “Land this thing. Go back. Gods damn you, man! We can’t leave her.” In desperation, Ram wrestled his 88K from its holster and held it to the captain’s head. “Land this gods damned ship!”
~ ~ ~
Tok followed the squad of men escorting Steffania until he was certain their destination was the ‘quiet room’. He found stealth difficult, but when required, he could manage to move without making the ground tremble. He spoke over his shoulder to the female who adhered to his back. Her tenacious hold put him in mind of the infant arbor-glider clinging to its mother as she swooped from tree to tree in the towering forests of his planet.
“Wee female, how long before permanent brain damage in a CP bed?”
“It depends on the programs used,” Pansy whispered. “Narr runs a modified personality wipe that affects the prefrontal cortex with a side program that alters the limbic system, both of which…” She sighed. “Too technical. That’s not what you are asking, is it?”
“How long before the Verdantian’s woman is beyond recovery?”
Pansy didn’t answer for a moment. “We have four to six hours before we must get her out.”
The Khlossian grunted. “I need to find somewhere safe to put you, little female. Then I go hunting.”
“Get me into the ‘quiet room’. I know a place to hide.” Her voice trembled.
He stopped for a moment and with a crackle of protesting gristle, craned his neck to look at her. Even out of one eye, he could see her distinct pallor. “You would go back there, little female?”
Pansy took a deep, shaky breath. “Yes. It is the last place Narr would expect a slaaf to hide, and I might be able to help Steffania.”
Tok could feel the tremors in the small body pressed close to his and in the delicate arms that wrapped his neck. “You are certain?” Feeling her nod, he reached back and patted her with great care. “You have the soul of a Khloss
ian in that miniscule body.”
A soft whisper tickled his ear. “Angelica. My name is Angelica. Just...promise not to leave me there.”
Tok grunted. “I will not, Angelica.”
~ ~ ~
Steffania would be damned before she let that piece of slime see her fear. She stood in the ‘quiet room’ restrained by two of Narr’s security as Narr eyed her. A man decked in a white lab coat holding an inoculation gun and a datapad stood at his side.
“You have made a mess of my lab, my dear, and it seems my pet, Alessa, is missing. Did your barbaric dominus take her?” Narr smiled pleasantly. “Was that what this evening’s hubbub was about? Get the Verdantian woman, DeAlbero? Curious that he left you behind.” Narr walked up and stroked her cheek. “I wager that was unplanned. He seemed...enamored.”
Steffania gathered the saliva in her mouth and spat in his face. Her head rang from his return blow. Her eyes streamed involuntary tears. The bastard had held nothing back.
Narr pulled a pocket linen from the inside of his jacket and with icy composure, wiped his face. “Strip her. Put her in a bed.” He turned to the white-coated man at his side. “Nissler, I want her wiped. Don’t bother with the niceties – just leave her alive enough to know fear when I fuck her.”
In her violent struggles, Steffania barely felt the pressure of the inoculator against her shoulder. A melting lassitude overwhelmed her and her muscles no longer responded to commands. Unfortunately, her mind remained all too aware. Crude hands roughly fondled her naked body, pinching her nipples and finger fucking her as the men stripped her. Coarse comments accompanied by lewd laughter assaulted her. Narr barked at them and she was lifted and arranged in a CP bed. The white-coated man wired her in with dispassionate calm. Steffania had never felt terror like that spawned by the multiple pricks of the probe needles as they entered the flesh of her skull – needles that would strip her of personality and intelligence. Tears leaked from eyes she could not close as she watched the lid of the clamshell descend and entomb her in silent terror.
~ ~ ~
Tok noted with satisfaction that Narr left the ‘quiet room’ together with his doctor and the security team. Ramsey’s woman remained behind. Just the quiet before the storm, Dominus Narr. He chuckled to himself. The heavens are going to fall on you – Tok checked his timepiece – in one hour and fourteen minutes.
He waited until silence cloaked the empty hallway and carefully lifted the lid on the CP unit he had been hiding behind in the corridor. No one had bothered to return the CP beds to the lab and they provided an excellent vantage point for hidden observation.
“Come, little one.” He assisted Pansy from the interior of the unit. She shuddered as she delicately tried not to smash the unconscious woman already occupying the majority of the space. “Good thing you are a small female.” He grinned at her shudder of revulsion and shrugged. “You have an hour, and then I will come for you and Ramsey’s woman. Be ready. We must be well away before the warships of the League of Federated Planets descend on Veacon Narr and the heavens rain fire on this hellhole of a planet.”
She nodded her understanding. She tested her bad ankle but gasped in pain and resorted to wiggling her way on her hands and knees into the ‘quiet room’. Tok closed the door behind her before he followed Narr.
Tok made little effort toward stealth, knowing his presence in the tumult above in the household would remain unchallenged; he was an honored guest, after all. While Narr’s security forces were well organized, the rest of his household retainers milled in uncertain disorder. Most recognized him only as the Dominion Games’ champion and allowed him unfettered passage, unaware of his role in the disruption of their household.
The firefight on the southwestern lawn had raised alarms and dignitaries and their entourages thronged the villa’s passageways with luggage. Narr’s distinguished guests completed the confusion and chaos already rampant as they scurried to depart. Gods forbid they become embroiled in something distasteful.
Tok made his way into Narr’s inner chambers with relative ease and scanned the opulent room with disgust. Narr had created a sadist’s heaven. Tall bondage racks of every conceivable shape and size dotted the space. Tools, stretchers, whips, hooks, knives—some articles he could name no function for, thank the gods—hung arrayed for ready use. And women. At least a dozen naked women knelt motionless in submissive poses, silent but for their breathing. He heard the voice of Narr in an adjoining room and walked toward the sound. Not one of the living female statues slid even a glance his way.
Tok slid his over-sized handgun from its holster. With a deep breath, he steadied himself then stepped into the room and sprayed fire in a deadly arc. In seconds, every man in the room but Narr lay dead. For once, Narr looked discomposed.
“You.”
Tok grinned and nodded. “Me.” He motioned with his gun toward the room he’d just come from. “In there.”
Tok stepped back to let Narr through the door, then pressed his gun into Narr’s back. “There, that rack.” Tok shoved Narr toward a massive X and watched as the man pressed his back to it. Narr lifted his gaze to Tok, once more the self-possessed, congenial host.
“What can you hope to accomplish, Khlossian? Obviously, your Verdantian friend got what he wanted and abandoned you. Your limited intelligence cannot possibly devise a way off my estate. Your best hope is to release me.” Narr smiled benignly. “You have my word of honor I’ll let you leave unharmed. I could not allow anything to happen to the champion of our games. Could I? I’ll sweeten the offer. Take any of these women you want. Take two. My gift to you.”
Tok merely grinned and patted the head of the woman who knelt beside him. “Little slaaf, please fasten Dominus Narr into the cuffs. Go behind him. Don’t interfere with my aim.”
Intelligent, deep blue eyes glanced up to hold his ever so briefly. She nodded silently and did as he asked, buckling the cuffs around Narr’s ankles and wrists so tightly Narr grimaced, then she stepped away and stood with head bowed.
“What to do with you, Dominus? Not hard, I think.” Tok removed a razor-edged knife from the wall, and systematically cut the clothes from Narr’s body. “I would be very still, Dominus. This blade is very keen and detail work is not my forte.”
When Tok had reduced Narr to complete nudity, he chuckled and bounced Narr’s penis on the blade of the knife. “My limited intelligence says you won’t miss an appendage this...insignificant.”
Narr gasped as Tok cut a shallow slice into the base of his organ. Tok focused intently on Narr—so intently that the light touch on his arm startled him. He turned and looked down into the deep blue eyes of the slaaf who had bound Narr into the bondage X.
“Please, Dominus?” The beauty ran her hand down his arm to the knife and took it from him. Something in her tone made Tok turn. Every woman in the room was on her feet, eyes intent on the bound figure of Narr. Tok bowed and stepped back.
“Sisters?” the woman commanded.
In voiceless silence, each woman crossed to the walls where the tools for the torture of living flesh were arrayed, selected one for themselves and then glided toward Narr. Now their vacant eyes held expression and the malevolence made even the thick, swarthy skin of the Khlossian crawl.
“Release me and I’ll make you the wealthiest man on your planet. Whatever you want, name it. Khlossian...you are a male...don’t let them do this. You’re a male, just like me, Khlossian!”
Tok shook his head slowly. “I’m nothing like you.” The blue-eyed slaaf looked at Tok with an unspoken question. He nodded and smiled in return. “No need to make his death pleasant or quick. Take your time.”
She bowed her head in obeisance. “As you command, Dominus.”
Tok turned and left the chamber, closing and locking the soundproofed doors. Even so, Narr’s muted screams followed him down the hallway.
When he got back to the CP lab, he drew his gun and entered cautiously, scanning for any threat. “Angelica?” he rumbl
ed when he saw no one. “Come out, little female.” The door to a cabinet along the wall cracked open and then Pansy slithered out onto the floor. She grasped the cabinet handle and pulled herself to a standing position.
“Steffania is here, Tok.” Pansy hopped over to a CP unit. She depressed the white button and the lip released. “I stopped the program running and she is conscious, but not able to move. Narr used a muscle paralytic. It should wear off in a few hours, but she is helpless until then.”
Tok walked over and carefully picked Steffania up. “Did you find her clothes, little female?”
Pansy nodded.
“Dress her quickly, and then we must go.” Tok rumbled in a soft laugh. “I will be your mule.”
“What is the plan?”
“We have ten minutes until the LFP battleships and cruisers start a full-out invasion. My people will land just outside the perimeter fence on the east side by the gun towers. We will meet them there.” Tok paused and shrugged. “Hopefully Narr’s guns will be occupied with the LFP.”
~ ~ ~
Ramsey regained consciousness and lay motionless for a few minutes, trying not to vomit from the spike of pain rending his skull in half. He was reluctant to open his eyes but he needed to know where he was. Last thing he remembered was...oh, gods...Steffania. He cracked his eyelids a slit. Shit, the light. He held his hand up to shield his eyes. He lay in a bed in some sort of med-bay. A force cuff shackled his other wrist to the bed frame.
“Doc, the Verdantian is conscious.” A young male voice sounded close to his left and he rolled his head to see. He made out an LFP naval uniform before he closed his eyes in surrender to the pain. An involuntary groan left his lips.
“Give him twenty milliliters Colusol for nausea and ten of Dortrol for pain.”
Hers To Cherish (Verdantia Book 3) Page 19
