Still, Brynn tried to dig in to her food anyway.
The disk had expanded to a flat white plate holding what appeared to be a thin, spongy, light brown cake. The cake smelled of savory herbs and looked pretty good…until she cut into it and found long, purple, hair-like filaments running all through it like a network of veins.
“Ugh—what is this?” Brynn picked at the thin purple hairs in disgust.
“Don’t know.” Varin was already eating from his own plate, which held a kind of thick stew with chunks of what looked like green meat and blue and purple vegetables in bright pink sauce. “Sorry if you don’t like it. Want to trade? This stuff tastes better than it looks.” He indicated the stew.
“No, that’s okay.” Brynn sighed and pushed her plate away. “I’m not hungry after all.”
Varin frowned. “You have to keep your strength up, Brynn. I have to know you’re safe and strong in case I—” He stopped abruptly and looked down at his plate.
“In case you what?” Brynn felt a shiver of fear run through her. “Varin, what is it? Tell me!” she demanded. “What’s wrong?”
He sighed and also pushed his plate aside.
“All right, I wanted to wait until after we ate but I guess there’s no putting it off. Remember how I told you I have a slave chip in my back and if it’s not changed at least once a year I’ll die? Well…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m getting close to my annual change time but I don’t have any chips.”
“Oh my Goddess…” Brynn put a hand to her mouth. “Varin, no! I can’t lose you again! I won’t!” She jumped up and ran around the table to put her arms around his neck. The low chair he was sitting in meant that for once, since she was standing, Brynn was taller. “Please!” She was so panicked she grabbed him and pulled him close, pressing his head to her chest. “Please, Varin, don’t leave me again! Don’t die! Please!”
“Take it easy, little one. I’m not dead yet.” His voice was somewhat muffled and Brynn realized that, in her terror, she was pressing his face right between her breasts. She could feel the scratch of his whiskers against her tender slopes and realized that the v-necked dress shirt had gaped wide, showing her bare skin. But she was so upset, she didn’t even care. She just kept seeing him in chains down in the dungeon, hearing her mother say that he would die, that Brynn herself had killed him just by showing him affection…
Just as I’m doing now, she thought and felt a surge of guilt. Only she was acting much more forward than she had when her mother had labeled her a “slut.” She was not only showing Varin her bare breasts, she was pressing his face right in between them!
The Blood Honey surged inside her and she felt her nipples harden. Goddess, if he would just turn his head and take one of her aching pink peaks between his lips. He could suck her nipples into his hot mouth, laving them with his tongue, making her pussy throb with need…
No! I can’t give in to these thoughts—these feelings. Have to fight it!
“I…um…” She pulled back in confusion, grasping hastily at the sides of the shirt to cover herself. “I just don’t want to lose you again,” she whispered, looking at him with eyes that stung and burned with tears. “Please, Varin…”
“I’ve got a little time,” he said, clearly wanting to reassure her. Brynn would have stepped back some more, but he put his arms around her hips, linking them loosely behind her to hold her in place. “That’s what I wanted to talk about—what to do in the time we have. Which way to go.”
“We need to go to the nearest habitable planet and buy you a new slave chip,” Brynn said at once.
“Yes, well…about that.” He sighed unhappily. “I’m afraid this ship I stole is pretty noticeable and extremely expensive. Just about any port we put in to that’s big enough to have a slave market that sells the right chips is also big enough to have notices posted and people looking out for it. Add that to the fact that the slavers I escaped from will be looking for me and the Hive will be hunting for you and that makes a whole lot of people we want to avoid.” He shrugged. “I honestly don’t know if there’s a safe port for the two of us anywhere in the known sectors.”
“Well then, what are we supposed to do?” Brynn felt a surge of despair but she refused to let it drown her. She lifted her chin. “We can’t just give up, Varin. We can’t. We need to find you help—get you a new chip!”
“That’s true,” he said simply. “And there might be a way to do that.”
“How? I thought you said all the known sectors are too dangerous to dock in,” Brynn objected.
Varin took a deep breath.
“In the slave ship I was on after your mother, the Queen, sold me, I was chained next to a Tempath. He had information about the Hive—it’s the only way I was able to come get you—he told me exactly what to do. But he also knew about my people.”
“You mean the Kindred?” Brynn asked. “Where are they? Can we get to them in time to get you some help?”
“I believe that we can, but—and this is a big ‘but’…” Varin raised an eyebrow at her warningly. “The majority of them live on the other side of the Blind.”
“I…I didn’t think there was anything on the other side of the Blind,” Brynn protested. “I thought it was just an immense cloud of cosmic dust that goes on and on for millions of light years in every direction and anyone that goes in never comes out again.”
“That’s why it’s a problem,” Varin said. “But the Tempath had star charts stored in his memory. He gave me coordinates—the right place to enter the Blind in order to get through to the other side and also the location of the other Kindred.”
“That’s amazing,” Brynn exclaimed. “Then we should go there—as fast as we can!”
“Even if it means going through the Blind?” Varin raised an eyebrow at her.
“Even so.” Brynn nodded decisively. “I trust you, Varin—if you think you can get us through, I know you can.”
“Little one…” He let his arms drop from around her waist and looked down. “Gods, I hope I can be worthy of your trust. More worthy than I have been in the past.”
“What are you talking about?” Brynn demanded. “You came and saved me from the Hive! I don’t know any other male who would have been brave enough to come in even if he had an army at his back but you…you rescued me all by yourself! That’s amazing, Varin.”
“I couldn’t save you in the dungeons of Galen Prime,” he growled. “Couldn’t help you when you needed me most.”
“Oh…” Brynn realized he was talking about her deflowering and she felt her cheeks get hot with shame. “I don’t blame you for that,” she said in a low voice. “It wasn’t your fault. It was my parents’ greed that…that…caused what happened to happen.”
She couldn’t say it out loud—couldn’t make herself talk about the silver club that had pieced her so painfully, no matter how hard she tried.
“It shouldn’t have happened, though.” Varin’s voice was low and angry. “I felt your pain and violation…but I could do nothing about it. Nothing.” He looked at his hands—the one normal and strong, the other still gloved. “I’ve been a slave all my life but I’ve never felt so helpless as I did at that moment—seeing you about to be hurt and not being able to stop it. I’m sorry, Brynn.”
“Oh, Varin…” For a moment she thought she might cry but Brynn swallowed her tears. “It’s all right,” she said, trying to keep her voice from trembling. “It’s in the past and it’s never, never going to happen again.” She clenched her hands into fists. “I’ll never let anyone do that to me—put anything in me there, ever again.”
A look of sorrow came over his strong features. “I can understand why you would feel that way, little one. I just wish I could have spared you that pain. Wish I could have protected you.”
“Maybe…maybe I don’t want you to always have to protect me,” Brynn said, lifting her chin. “Maybe I want to learn to protect myself so I’m not so helpless and dependent.”
&nbs
p; To her surprise, he nodded in agreement.
“That’s true—if we don’t find me a new slave chip you might be on your own.”
“No—don’t say that!” Brynn exclaimed.
“I’m just saying, I want to prepare for the worst, little one,” he said in a low, even tone. “Which is why I want to teach you to pilot. You need to know how to fly this ship as well as I do. Would you like to learn?”
“I never thought about it but piloting would be a useful skill.” Brynn made a face. “Especially now that I’m not a Princess anymore and I can’t depend on people flying me around.”
“You’re still a Princess to me—my Princess,” Varin said quietly. “My Mistress.”
“Oh, Varin…” He was looking at her steadily, his bronze eyes burning into her. Brynn could feel herself blushing, the heat in her cheeks rising steadily as she tried to meet his intense gaze.
“Brynn,” he murmured. “Little one…”
The edges of Brynn’s vision were tinged with red and she could feel the familiar throbbing starting in her nipples and pussy again.
“Varin—about what I wanted to ask you earlier,” she said quickly, desperate to change the subject.
“Yes, little one?” he murmured.
“I…” Brynn licked her lips, trying to think how to put it. “I don’t want to be a victim anymore—I want to be able protect myself. I want to learn how to fight. Will you teach me?”
He looked at her long and hard and seemed to be sizing her up. At last, he nodded.
“I will. Can’t teach you how to shoot a blaster in a ship, of course, but I can teach you some defensive moves and how to use a knife.”
“That sounds good to me.” Brynn nodded. “I want to feel safe even when…if…” she bit her lip, almost unable to go on. “Even when you’re not with me,” she finished at last. “But you will be, Varin—because I know we’re going to find your people in time. I know it.”
“If we are, then I need to go set a course,” he said. “We’ll head straight for the Blind but it’s going to take a couple of weeks to get there, even with the hyperlight drive on this ship.”
“Well…that should give us plenty of time to practice—fighting and piloting,” Brynn said brightly. But inside, she felt as though her stomach had just fallen down to her toes. How could she hide the effects of the Blood Honey from Varin if the two of them were going to be cooped up in close quarters for so long?
Maybe it will just go away. Maybe the effects will wear off, she told herself. But deep down inside, she was less and less certain that would happen.
Chapter Twenty-seven
The next few weeks were tense for Varin. For one thing, he was aware that he was rapidly running out of time. He estimated he had three solar weeks left on his chip—give or take a few days. Even if they made it to the Blind on time, it was still going to be touch and go.
He might make it—if he could find the Kindred Mother Ship the old Tempath had told him about and if they would agree to help him and Brynn on no other basis other than that he was a Kindred too…if they had the right kind of chip to implant him with…
If, if, if—too many fucking ifs! Varin told himself angrily. He didn’t like cutting things so close to the wire and he really didn’t like the idea of Brynn being left alone in a cold, uncaring universe with no one to take care of her if he died.
There was so little time and so much he needed to do to prepare her in case they didn’t find the other Kindred in time. He spent hours a day teaching her to pilot and whenever Brynn announced that her head was too full of facts and figures and flight paths to concentrate anymore, he put the ship on autopilot and the two of them sparred.
Varin converted the living area of the ship for this purpose—which wasn’t hard to do. All of the rich furnishings were attached to the walls. With a wave of a hand over the room’s reconfigure button, the chairs and couch and even the small end tables would fold up into the walls behind them, leaving a fairly large area which had probably been meant to be a makeshift ballroom. But since Varin and Brynn were over and done with Court activities like dancing, the area made an excellent training room instead.
Brynn progressed steadily in both piloting and fighting although she was better at the former. In hand to hand combat, she was at a distinct disadvantage because of her tiny size. Varin tried to teach her to dart forward, strike, and jump away quickly, avoiding direct contact with her opponent as much as possible. He was afraid that if she got close enough to someone to grapple, she would be killed or captured. Though she was strong for her size, there just wasn’t time to train her to be deadly—though she was quite quick.
Varin fought her with his right hand only, the two of them using the bottoms of expensive yadra-wood hangars that he had broken in two to serve as training daggers. His left hand had yet to regrow completely and he didn’t think it ever would. It was a misshapen thing, missing most of the fingers and only useful for small tasks because it had no strength.
He didn’t like that either—he’d been hoping he would regrow his hand completely. Not for cosmetic purposes but because it was damned inconvenient to have only one really good working hand. Also, it made him a less effective fighter, which was never good. But there was nothing he could do to make his hand grow faster—just as there was nothing he could do to make the ship go faster towards the Blind.
He kept his hand covered with the glove and every time Brynn asked about it, he deflected the question or changed the subject. It was better she didn’t see or understand what he’d had to do to get to her. Varin didn’t want her to feel bad, his Princess…his Mistress. For so he still saw her, despite the fact that the planet she’d been Princess of was now nothing but an empty ball of rock spinning through space. He was still devoted to her—still loved her—though he knew she might never return his feelings.
The other thing that bothered him, aside from his still-mangled hand and his rapidly aging slave chip, were the bad dreams Brynn continued to have but wouldn’t tell him about. She slept in the small but opulent master bedroom and Varin took a side room which was much smaller, beside hers. Through the thin inner walls of the ship, he could hear her thrashing and crying out as the nightmares tormented her every night.
Yet every time he came to wake Brynn, she would deny having bad dreams. Even though at first she would cling to him and bury her face in his chest, sobbing, soon enough she would push away, swiping at her red, swollen eyes, and claiming everything was fine and she didn’t remember a thing she had dreamed—or if she had even dreamed at all.
It was this bizarre behavior which made Varin worry about her. She had told him her bad dreams before, why was she so hesitant now? And why did her scent change so drastically and her skin get so hot when she had the nightmares?
He’d been vividly attuned to her from the moment she’d stepped foot back in the Galen royal palace after her lifetime of exile at the convent. So these changes—the difference in her scent and body temperature which another guard might have missed—were extremely obvious to Varin.
When she woke from the bad dreams that troubled her each night and he came in to hold and comfort her, her skin felt as hot as a furnace. And her scent…her scent was what really bothered him.
Unlike the males he had been raised side-by-side with on Galen Prime, Varin had an excellent sense of smell. In fact, he’d been called “the Beast” sometimes in the Arena—not just because of his fighting skills but because of his ability to scent weakness and injury. It leaked from the pores like sweat when an opponent was in trouble and Varin could always detect it.
But it wasn’t the smell of injury or weakness or even pain that he scented on Brynn. It was heat…need…desire. Almost the scent of a female animal going into rut. The Princess smelled hot—hot and needy in a way that made Varin’s cock stand up at attention and throb in his tight black leathers.
He wanted to ask Brynn about it. He knew she still tried to touch herself sometimes at night—and he a
lso knew she wasn’t getting any satisfaction. He could feel her frustration growing through his link to her. But it was just when he started to smell the heat on her that Brynn pulled away and said she was fine.
She wasn’t fine—she was getting worse in fact. But Varin didn’t know how to broach the subject—wasn’t sure what to do for his Mistress.
Until finally one night, he had enough.
* * * * *
Brynn hated the dreams that tormented her every night but even more, she hated the way they made her feel.
They were, without a doubt, nightmares of the worst kind. In them she relived over and over the horrors she had seen in the Hive. Amalthia crooning through red-stained teeth…her belly bursting open as she birthed the seething mass of green, sharp-toothed grubs…her screams as they ripped her to shreds on their way out.
Again and again, Brynn saw the sentry biting off the crewmember’s head…felt the insect worker shoving its tongue down her throat to inject her with the sweet, meaty Blood Honey…saw Sovereign X'izith take off first his hands and then his face, revealing his true, awful form… And worst of all, she saw his breeding barb, long and sharp and pulsing…dripping with venom and ready to plunge inside her.
What she saw was monstrous—enough to make her scream and sweat and cry out in the night, desperate to be free, desperate to get away, to get anywhere but the black, stinking hole of horrors that was the Hive.
And yet, when she awoke with tears running down her face, her body was throbbing with desire.
Her nipples ached and her pussy was so wet she often had to go to the fresher afterwards and clean herself up. In fact, the first time she woke up from such a dream, she was certain she had started her monthly cycle because her thighs were slippery with moisture. But she hadn’t…and she didn’t. Though it was long past time for her to have her cycle, Brynn didn’t see her monthly blood.