“Well let me tell you what I’m going to do about those nasty words, boys,” he said, glaring into Ari’s defiant, tear-filled eyes, his hot, fetid breath blowing in her face. “I’m going to wash that pretty mouth out with my cock. Right before I take his pretty virgin ass,” he snarled, squeezing Ari’s face until she cried out in agony. It felt like he was breaking her face all over again! “And then I’ll turn you over to the Serpents and let them get their revenge,” Tapper finished. “Now what do you think of that, pretty boy?”
Ari couldn’t even answer. She was in too much pain, tears leaking from her eyes to sting her torn cheek. How had things gone so wrong so quickly, she wondered dimly. She’d had what she thought was a fool-proof plan and now she was about to be raped and killed without even seeing Jak again. How had this happened?
Hanna was right—I never should have come here. I underestimated this place and overestimated my own skills.
Well now she was going to pay for her hubris—pay with her life.
Goddess of Mercy, she prayed as Fenrus and Gorn grabbed her firmly by the arms. Please, I know I was stupid coming here but I wanted so badly to save Jak. I know I haven’t prayed to you since I was a little girl but could you please help me now? I’m in so much trouble…oh please…please…
There was no answer and no way out. Amid the cheers and mocking shouts of the other inmates, she was dragged away towards the direction of the cell blocks as the indifferent Horvath guards watched and did nothing to save her.
Ari was sure she was going to die.
Nine
Lathe heard the shouting as he neared the Mess Hall and wondered uneasily what in the Seven Hells was going on. He scanned the hall quickly as he came to the wide double doors leading into it, but he couldn’t immediately see the cause of the ruckus. Inmates were talking animatedly and gesturing but for once there was no fight going on, which was surprising.
He made his way to table 13—the one designated for neutral parties who refused to affiliate themselves with any of the many gangs—and looked for Ari.
The boy wasn’t there.
Lathe swore under his breath as he looked around and registered the fact that Ari wasn’t anywhere in the Mess Hall. Where could he have gone? If he was thinking he could get out by the large exit located perpendicular to the entrance from the holding area, he was wrong. You needed trustee status added to your ID tag or the presence of one of the Horvath guards to get through the huge double doors which shut once all the inmates were accounted for each mealtime and only opened when the designated hour was up.
So where could Ari be?
“Greetings, Medic,” burbled Xolox, waving one of his eight tentacles at Lathe. He was a Sporran from Gibbous Seven who had been imprisoned for the offense of killing one of his Yonnite Mistress’s favorite slaves. But it had been a crime of passion and he was usually genial enough and more worth talking to than most of the humanoid inmates, at least in Lathe’s opinion.
“Greetings, Xolox,” he returned. “Excuse me, but have any of you seen a new prisoner—a boy with black hair and dark blue eyes here today? I told him to come to table 13 to eat but I don’t see him anywhere around.”
“A boy? Apologies, Medic, but almost all of you humanoids look the same to me.” Xolox shrugged his tentacles apologetically.
Drumph, the orange-skinned exopod sitting across from him simply gibbered and typed something into his toy com-link. He was clinically insane and never said anything that made sense, though Lathe had heard he had once been a charismatic though extremely dishonest, leader among his people.
But Gumper, who was sitting beside Xolox raised his heavy head.
“He might be talking…about the boy…Tapper took,” he said in his slow, ponderous voice. He was chemically dependent on sloth, a drug which caused his skin to turn green and his bulk to balloon to enormous size.
“What?” Lathe demanded, turning to him. “What did you say? You saw the boy and Tapper took him? Took him where?”
“Took him…to his…cell…I think.” The drug, which was constantly delivered to his spinal canal via permanent injection sites in his spine, also made Gumper’s thinking and speech agonizingly slow.
“Why? Why did he take him?” Lathe demanded, then shook his head. “Never mind.” He didn’t have time for Gumper’s labored explanation and anyway, he didn’t need it. There was only one reason Tapper ever took a newbie prisoner up to his cell and it wasn’t to play a friendly game of cards.
“Damn it!” he swore as he left table 13 and ran for the exit doors. He’d been afraid something like this would happen—afraid the boy’s unique beauty would draw Tapper’s attention. And once the crime boss had someone in his sights, it was over for them. As the ranking gang leader with syndicate connections, Tapper’s word was law in BleakHall. There was no way to get Ari back from him now.
Still, Lathe had to try.
Swearing again, he ran faster, hitting the exit doors so fast they whined in protest as their ancient mechanisms slid open to let him out. Then he was pounding up the stairs towards the cell block where Tapper and the rest of the trustees—himself included—had their cells.
Goddess, he prayed as he ran. Goddess, please—help me save him! I don’t know why it’s so important, I only know it is. I have to save Ari—please!
Ten
Ari knelt nude on the rug in the middle of the well-appointed cell. It was so nicely decorated it could almost have passed for a high-priced single unit domicile on Phobos, where she came from. Except for the clear plasti-glass walls on either side, of course.
It actually was a very nice rug, she noticed dully, as she looked down. A deep red pile worked with golden threads that formed all kinds of marvelous patterns. She ought to know—she’d been studying it ever since Fenrus and Gorn had brought her in here and stripped her. It probably wouldn’t even show any blood.
Her new prison jumpsuit was lying in a crumpled heap near the foot of Tapper’s bunk and her hands were bound behind her back with some kind of sticky tape. Her look/touch device was still working well, projecting the male chest and genitalia which appeared to be dangling between her thighs—but that was a small comfort at this point.
She’d been afraid of what the inmates at BleakHall would do to her if they found out she was female instead of male—now she knew they would rape and kill her either way.
Please, Goddess—don’t let it hurt too much, she prayed dully. And don’t let Jak find out what happened to me. He’ll feel so bad if he knows I got myself killed trying to save him.
“Well, well—look what we have here. Supper’s over and it appears to be dessert time, lads!” a voice over her head said.
Ari felt a chill go through her naked body. Tapper was here. Which meant her brief respite was over.
The hairy gang boss swaggered over, his rubber slippers whispering across the deep nap of the lush carpet. He came to a stop, looming over Ari with his hairy belly almost right over her head. It looked like a practiced pose.
How many others has he done this to? she wondered, looking up with a wince, since the motion made her swollen left cheek throb with pain. How many innocent victims has he raped and killed just because he felt like it?
The thought made her angry and she glared defiance at Tapper, who was still looking down at her like she was a prime cut of meat and he was wondering where to take the first bite.
“Now, now, pretty boy—none of that scowling,” he said, giving her a deceptively gentle smile. “It’s time for your punishment, so it is. And as I recall, I promised to wash your filthy mouth out with my cock, so I did.”
Reaching under his pendulous belly, he unfastened more of his green and blue striped jumpsuit, revealing what appeared to be a short, stubby root vegetable growing out of a huge patch of thick black hair.
The smell of sour, unwashed male flesh hit her nose, making Ari want to gag and the sight of his member, growing and twitching like an overeager worm, turned her stomach too.
>
“I swear by the Goddess of Mercy,” she said thickly. “If you put that thing anywhere near my face I’m going to bite it off and then puke all over you. When’s the last time you had a bath?”
The reckless words poured out of her mouth before she could stop them—she’d never been good at holding her tongue. Jak used to laugh at her about it but it was no laughing matter now.
Tapper’s face grew dark with rage.
“Bite it off, will you, pretty boy?” he snarled. “I don’t think so. Fenrus, Gorn—one of you fetch me some pliers. Let’s pull those pretty white teeth out and then we’ll see how bitey our little friend feels.”
“I’ll get them, Tapper—so I will!” Fenrus hopped from one foot to the other eagerly. “Can I have a pull? Can I? Can I?”
“So you can, Fenrus my lad. And Gorn too. And you’ll both have a taste of his ass and mouth once I’m finished with him, so you will,” Tapper promised. “We’re going to make this pretty boy wish the Serpents had finished him off before I got to him, so we will.”
So that’s what’s worse than being raped and murdered, Ari thought dully. Having all your teeth pulled first and then being passed around—
“Stop!” The new voice came from the open door of Tapper’s cell and Ari looked up to see Medic standing there. Beside him was Mukluk, idly twirling his pain-prod in one scaly hand.
“Stop? What’s that you say, stop?” His hairy member still clutched in one pudgy hand, Tapper looked up to the door of the cell. “And why should you be telling me what to do with my property, Medic?”
“Because he’s not your property—he’s mine. I claimed him in the infirmary,” the big Kindred said.
“Well, I claimed him before he was even processed—out in the waiting hall,” Tapper retorted. “I put him on my list—top of the list. Gorn, show ‘im.”
“Right you are, Tapper.” Gorn pulled out his tablet and tapped on it before showing the results to Medic and Mukluk.
The Horvath guard took a look and shrugged.
“It zzeemz correct.”
“It’s not,” the big Kindred growled. “He’s mine—Ari is mine and I won’t allow anyone else to touch him.”
“Oh, and how are you gonna stop me from ‘touching’ ‘im, ay, Medic?” Leering at the big Kindred, Tapper shoved his crotch in Ari’s face.
At the overpowering sweaty stench of him, her gorge rose. Though she hadn’t had much to eat in the past twenty-four hours, a wave of nausea gripped her and she threw up what little she had all over his short, stubby member.
“Gods of Crime and Lords of Damnation!” he swore, jumping back and swiping at his now-wilting shaft. “You’ll pay for that, pretty boy!”
But the moment he jumped back and Fenrus and Gorn were distracted, Medic seized the opportunity to rush into the cell and pull Ari back outside.
It happened so fast her head was spinning as he shoved her behind him, keeping his muscular bulk between her and Tapper.
“And just what do you think you’re doing, Medic?” the gang boss snarled, stepping forward as he finished wiping his member with the dirty sleeve of his jumpsuit. “How dare you take what’s mine?”
“I told you, the boy is mine.” The big Kindred bared his double set of fangs and seemed to grow twice as large, somehow.
Tapper shrank back somewhat but the look on his face remained mulish and defiant.
“He insulted me—he’s mine to punish, so he is. And after that, the Serpents have dibs on him.”
“The Serpents?” Ari could hear the disbelief in the big Kindred’s voice. “What do they want with him?”
“He sat at their table—in the Grand Jiho’s chair—so he did!” Gorn exclaimed. “They’re going to kill him just as soon as Tapper here finishes with tasting his mouth and ass, so they are.”
“Goddess, Mother of All Life, give me strength,” Ari heard the big Kindred mutter to himself. Aloud he said, “No one is ‘tasting’ Ari or touching him or doing anything else to him. He’s mine—under my protection from now on. Anyone who even gets near him will answer to me.”
The menace in his deep, rumbling voice made Ari shiver even though she knew it wasn’t directed at her. Tapper looked cowed as well—but not enough to give up.
“This ‘ent fair, so it ‘ent,” he said, turning to Mukluk. “I had ‘im first. Medic can’t just take another man’s property and get away with it!”
Mukluk flickered out his black forked tongue and swiped one slitted yellow eyeball thoughtfully.
“Izz true—Tapper hazz a point,” he remarked.
“And I have plenty of credit too,” Tapper said temptingly. “I can pay you handsome-like, Mukluk, old son—you know I can.”
“You can’t do that,” Medic said quickly. “You own me a debt, Mukluk. If I hadn’t told you about the boy’s condition, you would have gotten injured—all your scales would have fallen out by now.”
The Horvath licked his other eyeball.
“Alzo true,” he admitted.
“What condition?” Tapper demanded. “What is he talking about?”
“Zamwer’s syndrome,” the big Kindred said. “Very destructive.”
“To zzaurian life formzz only,” Mukluk added.
“And I saved you from getting it—you owe me a debt,” Medic repeated. “A debt of honor,” he emphasized.
Apparently this was important in Horvath culture because the lizard-guard nodded regretfully.
“Izz true. The boy stayz with Medic.”
Tapper swore angrily but no matter how much pull he had with the other inmates, it appeared that the Hovarths reigned supreme here at BleakHall.
Ari felt a surge of relief and then wondered if she was being premature. Yes, the big Kindred had saved her from a fate worse than death—and death itself for that matter—but she still didn’t know why. If he just wanted her for the same reason Tapper did, she could be going out of the frying pan and into the fire.
“Spread the word.” Medic pointed at Tapper and his two henchmen. “Tell everyone—the boy is mine. Anyone who touches him—including you, Tapper—will get a taste of my fangs. And you know how well Harner and Tulk the Bullroar did after I finished with them.”
“They shriveled up and died,” Fenrus said in an awed whisper. “I saw Tulk the Bullroar myself—he died all black in the face and foamin’ at the mouth after you bit him, Medic, so he did.”
“Shut up, Fenrus,” Tapper snarled. He glared at Medic. “We’ve never had a problem before, Medic, no we ‘ent, but now we’ve got one all right. You’ve tooken what’s rightfully mine, so you have. Which means you’ll need to watch your back from now on.”
“Do your worst.” The big Kindred’s voice was a soft growl. “Anyone you send against me dies. Also, I will no longer treat your men in the clinic if you declare war on me.”
“Hey, that’s not fair-like!” Gorn protested. “What if one of us gets shivved in the Rec Yard?”
Medic shrugged. “Too bad. I took an oath to preserve life but I won’t do it at the expense of my own.” He gazed at Tapper and his men steadily. “Anyone who comes against me or mine will no longer have access to medical care.”
“You’ll be sorry for this, so you will, old son,” Tapper promised. “And you—I’ll not forget you,” he said, pointing at Ari, who was still mostly concealed behind the big Kindred’s back. “Medic might be protecting you right now but the minute he gets tired of you, you’re mine, pretty boy. Do you hear?”
“That’s not going to happen,” Medic growled. “As of tonight, Ari is moving into my cell as my permanent bunkmate.”
There were murmurs from Fenrus and Gorn at this announcement.
“Well, well, a trustee sharing his cell—he must really fancy the lad!”
“’Ent he got it bad, then! I thought Medic didn’t go for males but I guess I was wrong.”
The big Kindred bore this quietly but Ari, looking up at him, thought his face was redder than it had been before. What exactly was
the significance of Medic moving her into his cell? Was it like announcing some kind of prison engagement? Was he going to carry her off to his cell and finish what Tapper had started? Oh Goddess of Mercy, would this nightmare never end?
Suddenly the overhead lights flickered and a harsh chime sounded over the com-link system.
“Lightzz out zzoon,” Mukluk commented. “Go to your celzz now.”
“Let’s go.” Taking Ari by the arm, the big Kindred propelled her down the long balcony-hallway which ran the length of the trustee cell block.
But he had one last word for Tapper, who was glaring after them malevolently.
“He’s mine,” he growled and then he pushed Ari into a cell, just a few doors down, and the plasti-glass shield door slammed shut behind them. “Mine.”
Eleven
“Goddess, that was close.” After stripping the hold-tight tape from the boy’s wrists, Lathe sank onto his bunk and put his head in his hands.
What he had seen when he came to Tapper’s cell had shaken him more than he wanted to admit. The sight of Ari kneeling naked and helpless at the gang lord’s feet about to be raped and abused had twisted something inside him—something Lathe had thought couldn’t be twisted anymore.
He’d seen so many atrocities—so much casual violence and even torture—since he’d first come to BleakHall, that he’d thought himself completely desensitized to it.
Well, he’d been wrong.
The thought of something happening to Ari made him feel angry and sick—the threat of violence against the boy felt like a threat against his own flesh and blood.
Is that why he affects me so much? Does he remind me of Thonolan? Lathe asked himself. But no—his brother had been almost as tall as he was himself with the pale blond hair and ice blue eyes of a regular Blood Kindred. Ari, with his slender build and dark, delicate looks was nothing like Lathe’s younger brother.