In fact, there were several. I even had an old sensitivity tank back at my ship, if I remembered correctly. I had won my ship, The Celesta, in a hand of double-blind-Trill from an old bastard who’d used to be a science officer for the Assimilation before it had been defeated. Though I had cleaned it out and outfitted it for smuggling, there was still quite a bit of obscure medical equipment left in the hold that I thought I might sell to a collector some day. It would be worth a pretty credit if I could ever find the right buyer. Now, maybe I could put some of it to use. It certainly couldn’t be as painful as what the Commercians had in mind.
“But—” Char’noth started to protest.
“Let her go,” I growled. “I’m taking her now—I have no more time to waste on you lot.”
“Master, don’t forget her documentation!” A.L., still in travel mode, fluttered on my shoulder. He had also come with the ship and his mainframe was located aboard The Celesta. I found it useful to take him with me during trade negotiations. His compact travel form could fit into some very tight spaces so he was good at gathering information and watching my back.
“Right—documentation,” I said.
“It will be sent directly to your ship,” Char’noth said sullenly. “But first—”
“First, nothing. Unstrap her.” I made my voice low and commanding, glaring at Char’noth until he acceded.
“Do as he says,” he snapped at his underlings.
Muttering angrily in their high voices, the Commercians set about freeing the female. I was fairly certain they’d wanted to do more than just test her sensitivity—they wanted to find a way of identifying other rare and valuable assets like her before transporting them to their base. If they could pinpoint which females were La-ti-zals before they transported them, their profits would treble. Well, too bad—the female was coming with me. I’d lingered long enough around this tiny, benighted blue planet. I needed to get to Tazaxx and make the trade before it was too late. Before he—
I pushed the thought aside as the little Pure One was finally freed of her bonds. She collapsed on the floor, her breath coming in tight gasps. I could tell she was trying hard to hold back her tears.
“Come,” I said, lifting her by the arm. I felt a tingle and there was a quick flash of color behind my eyes but it was nothing compared to the jolt I’d experienced earlier. The inhibitor was doing its job—barely. I reminded myself to check it later and see if I couldn’t find something stronger for her to wear in The Celesta’s stores of medical equipment. She had an immense untapped talent—good thing she was still latent or she might have fried my entire nervous system when we touched.
“I can’t.” Her legs wobbled and she nearly fell.
“What do you mean, you can’t? Will your legs not work?” I lifted her more firmly. She was tiny but substantial, I noted. I liked that—no male wants to be with a female he fears he might break. Not that I planned on being with her, I reminded myself sternly. She was for trade purposes only.
“I mean, I can’t go with you. I can’t leave my home and my friends and family. I won’t.”
She struggled in my grasp, much to my amusement. It may be true that females are equal to males in intelligence but when it comes to physical strength, we have the upper hand. In this case, I used it.
Swinging the struggling female into my arms, I headed for the exit where my short range shuttle was docked. My ship was in orbit around the fourth planet from this system’s sun—Mars I believed the Earthlings called it. It was only a short trip in the shuttle to get there and it was far out of reach of any immediate pursuit from Earth. Not that the ignorant Earthlings knew I was here or even that their planet was being harvested. But even if they had, there was nothing they could do about it.
For a moment I felt a stab of pity, remembering all the innocent, unknowing faces I’d seen on the AMI. None of those females knew they might be taken and transported at any moment. Stripped of their identities and sold to the highest bidder—the male with the most credit looking for an expensive, exotic plaything or a bride with the finest pedigree the Universe could offer…
Then I pushed the emotion away. There was no point in feeling bad for the Earthlings—they’d done this to themselves. Dissolved the lock around their planet little by little until finally the Commercians were able to take not just one or two people but as many as they liked and as often as they liked. There were going to be a hell of a lot of disappearances down on that little blue ball—soon the inhabitants would be paying for their carelessness.
But that had nothing to do with me. The little Earth female I had picked, however, did. And she was currently doing her best to wriggle free of my grasp.
“No! No, put me down! I said I’m not going with you!”
She beat against my chest with her little fists and her eyes were bright with unshed tears. Because of our proximity, I could see her in her natural tones—her hair was a deep shade of red like Proxian rubies and her pale, lovely skin was dusted with little specks of pigmentation that should have been detrimental to her appearance. Instead, I found them charming—I wondered what they were called. They were especially thick across the bridge of her petite nose which was currently wrinkled in anger.
“I said let me go!” she cried, struggling in my arms. I liked the feel of her soft body close to mine and the way her full, bare breasts heaved as she moved. Her nipples were a soft, innocent pink and the little patch of curls that decorated her mound was the same color as the flaming strands on her head. I felt my shaft harden as I considered if she had other pink areas I might like to explore.
Before my lust could carry me too far though, one of her flailing hands caught me across the face, causing me to jerk back with a growl.
“Careful, little Pure One,” I told her, tightening my grip. “My patience isn’t limitless.”
She stopped struggling abruptly and contented herself with just glaring at me.
“You… you Devil-looking son of a bitch!” she spat.
I tried not to smile. It amused me that she compared me to the fallen deity that tortured her people after death. My own version of damnation was The Pit and I had long ago accepted that I would go there after death. A male can’t commit the acts I have and not have a soul so stained even the Goddess of Mercy would turn her face from him. I was probably adding to my burden of sins at the moment but I told myself I didn’t care—I was doing what was necessary. What was right, even if it might not look that way to an outsider.
“Call me what you want,” I told her, going through the airlock and settling her in the interior of my shuttle. “But the fact is, you’re coming with me, little Pure One. And there is nothing you can say or do to stop it.”
Chapter Four
Zoe
Sarden got me settled in some kind of a spaceship looking thing—at least that was what I assumed it was. There was a complicated looking control panel with lots of blinking instruments that looked like a high-tech plane cockpit.
I considered grabbing them and pulling as many levers and pushing as many buttons as I could but two things stopped me. The first was that I could see space outside—cold, dead, empty space. (Well, empty except for the moon floating by. It was way bigger than I could ever remember seeing it which made sense—I’d never been this close to it before.)
What if I accidentally pushed the wrong button and opened the window? I would freeze and my eyeballs would bulge out and explode. At least, that was what happened on that awful scifi horror movie my ex-boyfriend had made me watch. He’d said it was a classic—what was it called again? Oh yeah, Event Horizon. Don’t get me wrong—I actually love science fiction but I’m not a big fan of horror movies. Especially horror movies where people’s eyeballs explode.
The second thing that kept me from trying a little space-sabotage was the fact that Sarden strapped me into the seat—and I do mean strapped. As in, he made sure the weirdly modified seatbelt harness—which seemed way too big for
me at first—fit over my arms, fastening them securely to my sides. My bare boobs stuck out between the straps and I thought I had never felt so exposed.
Then he reached between my legs.
“Hey!” I kicked out, trying to get free. “Don’t touch me, you big red pervert!”
“What’s the problem now?” he growled, looking irritated. Which at least was an improvement over his general air of amusement when I’d struggled to get free of his arms earlier, with absolutely zero results.
“What’s the problem? I don’t know how it is on your planet but on Earth you can’t just grope somebody like that!” I snapped, pressing my thighs together as tightly as I could.
“Grope you?” He looked at me as if it was honestly the last thing on his mind. “I’m simply trying to fasten you into the shuttle so you aren’t injured during our flight to my ship.”
“Yeah, right—by strapping me down naked and reaching between my legs?” I demanded.
He glared at me. “Should I assume you’d rather be strapped to the Commercians’ testing table?”
Well, that shut me up—almost, anyway. It was true that he’d made them stop the testing. But then, I wouldn’t have been in a position to be experimented on by a bunch of blue alien worms if he hadn’t told them to snatch me in the first place!
“Fine,” I muttered. “But just don’t make the straps so tight. And don’t touch me, uh, there.”
“You mean here?” His voice dropped to a soft growl and his long fingers stroked the tops of my thighs, making me squirm.
“Stop,” I whispered, wishing my voice didn’t sound so breathless.
“Little Pure One…”
“Zoe,” I interrupted him. “You abduct a girl, you should at least ask her name. My name is Zoe—not ‘little one’ or ‘Pure One’ or anything like that. Just Zoe.”
“Zzzoooeee…” He rolled my name thoughtfully on his tongue. “I like it. It fits you, somehow.”
“Unlike this damn harness you’re putting on me,” I snapped.
“It has to be tight to withstand the forces the shuttle will undergo during our trip,” he said. “But I’m just strapping you in—I won’t harm or molest you, Zoe.” His golden eyes grew hard. “I may be an evil, half-breed son of a bitch but I’m no rapist.”
“How do I know that’s true?” I demanded, and realized I’d said the wrong thing when his face went darker red and his eyes flashed.
“You don’t,” he growled. “You’ll just have to trust me. Or not—I don’t care. Now spread your legs and let me fit the straps to your body. I don’t want to hurt you by forcing them open—your flesh is so delicate I’m sure it bruises easily and—”
“And Tazaxx doesn’t take damaged merchandise. Right, I got that,” I finished for him.
He looked somewhat surprised. “Exactly. So will you open for me or not?”
The look on his face told me I had little choice in the matter.
“Fine, you big, red pervert,” I muttered. “But I swear if you so much as touch me, I’ll…I’ll…”
“You’ll what?” He sounded amused again which pissed me off even more.
“I’ll wait until you’re not looking and kick you so hard you’ll be wearing your balls for a bowtie—if you even have balls, that is!” I snapped.
“In fact, I do,” he said, conversationally. “Since I, like yourself and many sentient species in the universe, am descended from the Ancient Ones, I have much of the same anatomy an Earth male would have, including balls and a shaft.”
Okay, we were getting into uncomfortable territory here—both literally and figuratively. But I couldn’t help asking,
“If you’ve all got the blood of the Ancient Ones, why is Earth so special?”
“Because as we told you earlier, only on Earth has their original DNA been preserved. Not only preserved but sown with seeds of greatness—hidden talents like your own.”
“About that…” I shifted uncomfortably as he started to reach for the straps between my legs again. “I think you must be mistaken. I don’t have any hidden talents. Like, I don’t have visions of the future or hear people’s thoughts and I can’t move things with my mind—I mean, I’m not a freaking X-man, okay?”
He looked at me as if I was crazy.
“Who said anything about your talent affecting you, Zoe? It’s the way in which you affect others that makes you so damn special. Now be still and let me finish getting you in the harness before the Commercians think of some legal way to get you back on their testing table.”
I shut up then and let him finish strapping me in, though I really didn’t like it. Or I told myself, I didn’t.
I should have hated his touch on my skin—this was abduction and it might turn into something a hell of a lot more in a minute, despite his claim that he wasn’t a rapist. Still, the way he was leaning over me, I could feel his warm breath against my bare breasts. And despite his harsh words, the touch of his big hands was gentle. There was a scent around him too—a warm smell, like a campfire burning. And under it was something else—some musk that was clean and crisp and somehow completely male. I didn’t know what it was but it made me feel dizzy to breathe it in.
I told myself I didn’t care—that I hated him. That I hated this. I tried to hold absolutely still as he fastened the straps, not moving an inch even when his knuckles brushed against the soft curls on my mound. I did gasp at that point though—even though I tried not to.
“Sorry.” He shook his head and muttered to himself. The only words I caught were ‘extremely sensitive and ‘testing,’ which made me go rigid in my seat, like I wasn’t stiff enough already.
“What?” I demanded in a voice that came out in more of a squeak. “I thought you weren’t going to let them test me!”
“I won’t let the Commercians test you, no,” he said, frowning. “But you will have to be tested before I can trade you. Don’t worry—I’ll manage it myself.”
This hardly made me feel any better. I couldn’t help wondering if he had a scary, pointy testing table of his own back at his ship. I kept quiet through the rest of the harnessing process, even though the metal buckle was pressed right against my crotch in a very cold and uncomfortable way.
“There,” Sarden said at last, looking pleased with his handiwork. “You’re secure.”
Secure my ass. Trussed up like a Christmas turkey was more like it, but what could I do?
He settled himself in his own seat, getting his own harness fastened much quicker than he’d done mine. Then he did something to the controls and a rush of cold air blasted through the small cockpit, making me shiver uncontrollably.
“Oh m-my G-God,” I gasped out, my teeth chattering.
“What’s wrong? Why are you trembling?” he demanded, frowning at me.
“B-because it’s suddenly f-f-freezing in here, that’s why!” I exclaimed. I couldn’t even get my hands up to rub some warmth into my arms and legs. Everything seemed to be going numb and cold.
Sarden frowned, a look of concern coming over his sharp features.
“It’s simply the ship’s drivers warming up. But I see that you’re more delicate than I had hoped. Very well—here.”
He pulled his shirt over his head, baring an absolutely mouth-watering torso. Forget a six-pack—this guy had an eight-pack of pure, hard muscle. Not that I could enjoy looking at it when I felt like I was getting frostbite in all my extremities—not to mention my nipples which felt like they had turned into little pointy ice cubes.
“What are you—” I started but then he draped the black fabric of his shirt over me, making sure to cover as much of me as possible.
Immediately, I felt a wave of warmth rush over me. It tingled from my neck all the way down to my toes, even though the shirt didn’t reach that far.
“Better?” Sarden demanded, frowning at me.
“Yes, but how?” I looked down at the shirt. It was a sleeveless t-shirt looking thing
and the fabric was thin. Any of his body heat it had held should have dissipated almost immediately in the chilly cabin. Yet it continued to radiate warmth that seemed to penetrate my entire body.
“It’s made of temp-fabric,” Sarden explained, seeing my confusion. “It retains and radiates heat during conditions of extreme cold. It also cools the wearer off when it gets too hot.”
“Sounds like something we could use in Tampa,” I murmured, looking down at myself. “But won’t you be cold?”
He shrugged, his broad, muscular shoulders doing that sexy, yummy roll I really needed to ignore. He was my captor and kidnapper, after all, the big, dumb jerk.
“I’ll be fine—it’s just a short trip to my ship. We’re only going to the planet you call Mars.”
“What?” I nearly choked. “We’re only going to Mars? Do you know how long it would take to get there from Earth? Especially if the orbits aren’t aligned. Months and months—I mean—”
He looked at me pityingly. “It might take that long for your puny Earth vessels but not for my shuttle.” He patted the dashboard fondly. “And my ship is ten times faster. The Celesta has a hydrogen scoop hyper-drive.”
“Meaning what?” I demanded. “Sorry but quantum mechanics wasn’t offered as an elective at my school.”
“Meaning that it’s capable of faster than light travel. Much faster than light.” He grinned, showing white teeth almost as sharp as the horns growing out of his temples. “Which further means I’ll be trading you to Tazaxx before you know it.”
“Um…Master.” The golden dragonfly, which had fluttered up and out of the way when he took off his shirt, settled on his shoulder and fanned its wings in agitation.
“What is it, A.L.?” he growled. I wondered what the initials stood for but before I could ask the dragonfly fluttered again.
“About the hyper-drive, Master,” its voice said.
“Yes?” Sarden’s voice was dangerously quiet.
“Well…it…I hate to be the bearer of bad news…”