“What is it?” she asked. “Are your shoulders aching again? You need another massage?”
“No. Nothing like that.” He looked both angry and uncomfortable.
“Well then…” She shook her head. “I can’t help you if you won’t tell me.”
“I need to use the fresher, damn it,” he finally blurted.
“The fresher?” Realizations suddenly hit. “Oh, you mean the bathroom.” It must have been all the juice he’d had. Actually, she was beginning to feel the effects herself.
“Whatever you call it,” he growled. “You’re going to have to uncuff me—now.”
“I’m sorry.” Nina took a step back from him, her hand going reflexively to the locking mechanism still hidden in her front scrub pocket. “But I don’t trust you—not enough to let you go.”
“I swear I won’t hurt you,” he said through gritted teeth.
Nina put a hand on her hip. “And will you promise to fix the ship and take me straight back to Earth if I let you go?”
Reluctantly, he shook his head. “I can’t promise that, no.”
“Will you at least trigger the emergency beacon if I let you up?”
Reddix frowned. “I don’t want interference. If I can fix the ship myself, things will be much…easier.”
Nina felt cold all over. “Easier for you to take me off to wherever it is you were taking me before we landed,” she snapped. “Easier for you to do…whatever it is you want to do to me.” God, she’d been such a complete idiot, letting herself care about him.
“Yes,” he admitted heavily. “Exactly.”
“Then I’m not letting you up.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“You have to,” he growled. “That damn Vanerian sweet juice…” He nodded at the big green bottle, which was still standing on the compact kitchen counter.
The bottle gave Nina an idea. It wasn’t something that would have occurred to her if she hadn’t been slightly buzzed and feeling brave because of the alien alcohol in her system, but at the minute, it seemed like the perfect solution.
“Just a minute.” She snapped her fingers. “I can handle this.” Of course, exactly what she was going to have to handle, she didn’t allow herself to think about. She went to rummage in some of the various compartments.
“What in the Seven Hells are you looking for?” Reddix sounded thoroughly exasperated as she dug through the ship, checking every storage locker and compartment.
“Gloves.” Nina pulled back from the cabinet she was rummaging in. “Do you know if they have any on a ship like this? Otherwise, I’ll have to touch you with my bare hands, and I know you don’t want that.”
Not that she exactly wanted it either. But again, she wouldn’t let herself think about it.
“Where exactly are you planning to ‘touch’ me?” he demanded but just then, Nina found what she was looking for.
In a small square box with alien writing on it, she found several bottles, tubes, and sprays that looked like medicine. Clearly, it was a first aid kit—something she should have thought about looking for before, when she was cleaning the cut over his eye. Well, she could worry about that later. For now, she hopefully examined the contents of the box. Aside from the medicines, there was also something that looked like a tourniquet made out of snakeskin, some dark blue silky squares that must be the Kindred version of gauze and…
“Bingo,” Nina muttered to herself, pulling out the thin pair of dark purple gloves. They seemed to be made of the same silky material as the “gauze” patches but they would prevent skin-to-skin contact, which was all she needed. The gloves were much too big for her hands but to her surprise, the minute she put them on, they shrunk to fit as though they’d been made for her. Perfect. Now to do what had to be done.
But as she turned back to Reddix, he had a mutinous look on his darkly handsome features.
“What in the Seven Hells do you think you’re doing, sweetheart?”
“Helping you.” Nina got the empty wine bottle and settled between his legs. “I’ve got on some gloves so you don’t have to worry about skin-to-skin contact. See?” She held up one gloved hand to show him.
“Skin-to-skin contact isn’t the only thing that bothers me—this is fucking humiliating.” Reddix glared at her. “Just let me up to use the fresher. I swear I’ll come right back and let you cuff me again when I’m finished.”
“No.” Nina shook her head firmly. “We already ruled that out. Look, I’m sorry—I know this is embarrassing, but look at it from my point of view. You practically admitted you still intend to do me harm, and you won’t even agree to set off the beacon so we can get help—if whoever comes looking can even find us this far out. So this is your only option. Other than wetting your pants.”
Reddix glared at her but finally nodded. “Fine. But I’m not happy about this, and I promise you, Nina, you’re going to pay for it sometime in the future.”
Nina felt a shiver run down her spine, but she was determined to stay strong. Lifting her chin, she stared into those blazing silver eyes.
“I’m not afraid of you,” she said in a voice that wobbled only a little bit.
Reddix gave a humorless bark of laughter. “Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.” Then he nodded between his legs. “Well, go on—do it.”
“Right.” Leaning forward, she started to open the front of his tight black trousers…or tried to, anyway, because the damn things wouldn’t come open. There was no zipper, no buttons—the trousers seemed to be seamless.
Nina was beginning to feel panicky, and the buzz she’d had earlier from the Vanerian sweet juice was almost gone, taking her bravado along with it. She could sense Reddix’s growing impatience as she fumbled around, feeling like a complete fool.
“Goddess damn it,” he swore at last, “You’re going to give me a whole other problem if you keep on like that.”
“I’m sorry…” Nina glared at the pants as though she could force them to part with the strength of her irritation. “They just…won’t open.”
“They have magnetic tabs. Just run your finger along the inside edge and you’ll see.”
Nina did as he said, unable to help noticing how rock-hard his abs were as she ran her fingers along the inside of his trousers. His skin was warm against the back of her fingers, and she tried very hard not to come in contact with anything she shouldn’t. She felt kind of like an inept actress in a porno vid—a low budget one that wasn’t very good. Finally, she located the tiny, hidden row of magnetic tabs he’d told her about and was able to pull his trousers open.
In the back of her mind she’d been wondering what kind of underwear Kindred wore. Now she could see the answer was…none. At least, in Reddix’s case.
“Oh…my,” she muttered as his shaft was abruptly revealed. Even only half hard it was bigger and thicker than anything she’d ever seen before—and that included Mitch’s equipment, which he had been extremely proud of.
“Well?” Reddix demanded, and she realized she’d just been sitting there, staring at him. “Are you going to do this or not?”
“I…of course. Of course, I am.” Feeling like an idiot, she reached between his legs. I can do this, she reminded herself desperately, despite her growing embarrassment. I can do this—I’ve done it before. Which was true—she’d helped patients to use a male urinal before when she worked in the nursing home. But all of those men had been old and feeble and mostly out of it. None of them had been huge muscular Kindred warriors glaring at her while she handled their…business.
She forced herself to take his hot, hard length in her gloved hand, noting as she did that she could scarcely wrap her fingers around it. God, he was huge all over! She felt really sorry for whatever girl had to accommodate this—it was simply too big. It seemed to pulse in her hand and she felt like a porn actress all over again.
“Hey—are you gonna jerk me off or help me out?” Reddix growled.
“I…uh…” Nina’s face was so hot she felt li
ke her forehead was about to set her hair on fire. “Help you out, of course. I’m not…fondling you was never my intention.”
“Could have fooled me. Get on with it.”
“Of course.” Nina fit the broad, flared head to the mouth of the wine bottle and looked away as he did his business. It was possibly one of the single most embarrassing moments of her life, though it really shouldn’t have been. I am a medical professional, she reminded herself over and over. I can handle this. It’ll be over in a minute.
Finally, it was.
“Finished,” Reddix said gruffly. “You can take the damn bottle away.”
Nina did. Quickly she rose and carried the bottle to the bathroom where she disposed of the contents in the commode. She stripped off her gloves, washed her hands, and came back out into the main part of the ship feeling relieved. At least that was over.
Then she saw Reddix still sitting there with his pants open and realized she’d left him hanging—literally.
“Well?” He raised an eyebrow at her. “Forget something, sweetheart?”
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry!” Nina dropped to her knees before him. Feeling like a fool, she fumbled the gloves back on and began trying to put everything back in place—only it didn’t want to go.
“Goddess damn it!” Reddix growled as she tried to stuff his long, thick cock back into his trousers. But the more she tried, the harder and larger he got. Nina tried tucking the thick monster inside the black flaps, but it kept springing out again, and the magnetic tabs wouldn’t stay closed around it.
“This is ridiculous,” she muttered, beginning to feel panicky. “It’s like trying to stuff a python into a pair of pantyhose. It just won’t go.”
“It’s going to go all right, if you don’t stop it.” Reddix’s deep voice sounded slightly strangled. “Look, just stop trying for a minute. Stop…stop touching me. It’s only making things worse.”
“I’m sorry.” Nina sat back on her heels, feeling absurdly like she was going to cry. This had seemed a simple enough exercise when her slightly drunk brain came up with it just ten minutes ago, but now she felt like a fumbling idiot. “I’m really, really sorry,” she said again, almost ashamed to look him in the eyes. “I never thought…I mean, I never meant to…”
“Not your fault.” He sighed. “It’s mine. Just can’t help getting hard when I’m being touched by such a gorgeous female.” He barked a laugh. “And it doesn’t help that this is the most action I’ve seen in about ten years.”
“Ten years?” Nina looked at him in disbelief. “Did you take a vow of celibacy or something?”
“Something like that.” He cleared his throat. “You should probably put the med kit back. We might need it sometime in the future.”
“Oh, right—the first aid kit. I will. But first, which one of these is an antibiotic cream? Something to fight germs? I need to put some on your forehead.”
“No you don’t.” He frowned. “Kindred are fast healers. You cleaned the cut—that’s enough.”
Nina opened her mouth to protest, but a closer look at the cut over his eye revealed that it was, in fact, healing nicely already. Wow, the Kindred must have really excellent immune systems.
“I’ll put up all but the gloves,” she said, closing the med kit. “I’m sure I’ll need them in, uh, in the future.” She could feel her cheeks getting hot as she said it, but it was already out. Of course she was going to need them—to put him back in place. If his shaft ever went down, that was. But a quick, sideways glance at his crotch told her that particular task needed to wait a while longer.
He saw the direction her eyes went and shrugged. “Sorry. Not ready yet.”
“Uh, I guess not.” Nina hurriedly gathered the square first aid box and rose, meaning to put it back exactly where she’d found it. But when she opened the cabinet she’d thought was the right one, she saw something else instead. “Wow,” she muttered. “What’s this?”
“What’s what?” Reddix wanted to know.
“This thing I found.” Lying on what looked like a black velvet pillow was the strangest piece of jewelry Nina had ever seen. It appeared to be some kind of choker necklace made of filigreed black metal and set with red, green, and blue lights. The lights blinked slowly, almost sleepily, as though the thing was resting—although why Nina would get such an idea about an inanimate object, she didn’t know. Lying beside the black velvet pillow was a small rectangular object that looked to Nina like something that might belong on a key ring. It was made of the same black filigreed metal as the choker, and it had three lighted buttons, which seemed to correspond to the lights on it—red, green, and blue.
“What is it? What did you find?” Reddix asked again.
“This.” Nina was strangely reluctant to touch it, but there was no other way to show him what she was talking about. She was glad she was still wearing the gloves. Setting the first aid kit down on the floor, she carefully lifted the black metal choker from the pillow and pulled it out of the cabinet. “See?” she asked, bringing it closer to his face.
“Holy Goddess!” he growled and threw himself backward, as far from the black metal choker as he could. “Get away from that fucking thing, Nina! Put it down and don’t touch it again!”
Nina didn’t ask why—his reaction was strong enough to override any sense of curiosity she might have about the necklace. She put it back on its pillow at once, noticing as she did so, that the lights seemed to be blinking faster now, almost as though she’d woken the thing up by handling it. But that was another silly thought—wasn’t it?
“What is it?” she asked, turned to Reddix when the choker was safely back in the cabinet with the door closed. “And why did you get so upset?”
“It’s a Goddess damned Hurkon agony collar.” He shook his head, his face pale. “What in the Seven Hells is something like that doing on board this ship? What kind of a monster were they transporting that they needed a Hurkon collar to keep the fucker down?”
“And agony collar? What’s that?” Nina asked.
“Exactly what it sounds like, sweetheart,” Reddix growled. “You put it on your prisoner and press the pretty shiny buttons. It activates all the pain centers in the brain—causes extreme physical pain and anguish.”
“So…another restraining device. Kind of like the cuffs?” She nodded at his wrists.
“No, nothing like them,” Reddix said. “The restraints are specially made to fit snug to a prisoner’s wrists and restrain them without actually hurting them. I never would have used them on you, otherwise. I’m not into causing pain.”
“Oh.” Nina bit her lip. “And the collar?”
“The Hurkon collar is all about pain. It’s designed to cause the maximum amount of agony and unlike the cuffs, it’s sentient.”
“Sentient?” Nina frowned. “You mean it can actually think and reason and…?”
“And enjoy inflicting pain? Oh, yeah.” He nodded grimly. “The Hurkonians imbed a gasher inside each collar—a tiny tele-empathic creature that wants to cause agony because it feeds off extreme emotions.”
“Ugh. That’s horrible.” Nina shivered.
“It gets worse. Hurkon collars have been known to…well, let’s just say problems arise when they get hungry. You’re damn lucky you had on gloves when you handled it.”
Nina looked down at her still gloved hands, remembering the strange feeling she’d had that the choker thing was somehow aware of her.
“I guess I can thank you for that.” She gave Reddix a small smile.
“Yeah, guess so. Speaking of which.” He nodded down between his legs. “I don’t think you’ll have any problem, uh, putting things back in place now.”
Nina followed his gaze with her own. “Oh, you’re all, uh, unexcited now,” she said, feeling her cheeks get hot again.
“Yeah, well…” Reddix shrugged. “Having a Hurkon agony collar shoved in my face tends to kill the mood for me. Now how about helping me out, sweetheart? But first, make sure that
cabinet is shut tight. I don’t like the idea of that thing having any way to get out.”
Chapter Thirteen
Reddix still couldn’t figure out what kind of prisoner his brother Kindred might have been transporting who would have rated a Hurkon agony collar. Whoever he was, he must be one evil son-of-a-bitch. The collars were mercifully rare and very expensive, not to mention being notoriously hard to handle. They could be placed in a state of suspended animation, but once awoken, they tended to be hungry and restless. Hopefully it would go back to sleep now that Nina had put it back in the dark.
He wished there was a lock on the cabinet door where the damn thing was kept. To think that he and Nina had been sitting here all this time with no idea of what was sharing the ship with them… It was fucking unnerving to say the least.
After Nina finished putting his shaft back in place and closing the mango-tabs on his flight trousers, Reddix sighed and tried to put the collar out of his mind. After all, it wasn’t like the collar was the first darkness he’d had to deal with. His bargain with the swamp witch leapt nimbly to mind especially now that her mark on his inner wrist had been activated. The blood red lthss was growing larger every hour now that it had tasted Nina’s blood when he first grabbed her. He hadn’t thought of it earlier, but the burning on his wrist and the encounter with the Hurkon collar reminded him. The swamp witch’s words returned to him…
“You’ll have a few solar weeks to get back to me. If you take longer than that, the lthss will begin feeding on you. Now that wouldn’t be pleasant, would it?”
Reddix sighed and shifted restlessly. How long would they be stranded on this planet, wherever it was? Forever unless he somehow convinced Nina to trust him enough to let him out of the cuffs. Although to be honest, he didn’t blame her for keeping him restrained—not when he’d admitted he still had plans for her. Guilt tried to rise in him at the thought, and he shoved it back down mercilessly. He had to think of his little sister Minda, already big with child. Had to think of his people embroiled in another bloody civil war if he couldn’t do what had to be done. And in order to do that, he needed Nina…needed her to trust him.