“I’m safe then,” I said, “because I don’t want you. At all. I want Thuliak. So you can go.”
“No,” he said, and then his armor started reforming. I sighed relief when it covered his cock again, because I’d been staring at it despite my best efforts not to. “I’m taking you with me.”
“I thought you just said—”
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, “and I’m not going to breed you until you beg me to—”
“That isnotgoing to happen.”
He grinned and laughed. His laugh was like music. As terrified as I was of him, his laugh did something to me. “Love, you don’t really have any say here. I’m taking you, and I bet you…what do you women typically bet on?”
“What?”
“Horse races? Do you bet on horse races?”
“What’s a horse?”
“We have got to update this fucking Lexikon,” he growled. “Anyway, I bet you a big pile of your most precious metal that youwillbeg for my cock in due time, until such time, I’m taking you with me. Just think about it like this, Love, Thuliak’s already got you locked up against your will. I’m going to lock you up against your will too, but I promise you I’ll make it a lot more fun than this.” He looked around and shook his head. “This room is honestly depressing as shit.”
I made a break for the door. I ran as fast as I could, and I screamed. I figured that maybe the ship would detect the emergency nature of this situation and allow me through, or that it might alert someone to—
The wall in front of me opened, and three teal aliens burst through. They fanned out, and—
Holes appeared in their foreheads, and they all dropped like flies. Like big, 2-meter-tall flies that hit the ground in a big, boomingthunk.
Little bits of metal slid out of the holes in their head and flew back toward Tschenkar. The metal bits melted against his armor and disappeared inside of it. He sighed. “If you come with me now, I might not have to kill any more of Thuliak’s pack. What do you say, Love?”
I screamed and started running toward the hole in the wall, but after just a few steps Tschenkar was already on me. His big hands grabbed me by the tiny waist, and the next thing I knew I was in his arms. His armor started melting and spreading over me like liquid metal. I screamed as it spread up toward my neck, and then I pressed my mouth closed and pressed my lips tight together when the liquid wave reached toward my mouth. It slid over my mouth, but it didn’t try to drip down my throat. It just covered my mouth and hardened, and then it was creeping up toward my eyes, which I closed. When I dared open them again, I couldn’t see anything.
“You’re in my armor,” Tschenkar’s voice boomed. “You’re safe, unless one of Thuliak’s goons hits me with a big enough gun. Something tells me though that none of them are going to risk shooting me, not with you inside me, Love.”
“I thought I was going tobegyouto be inside me. Now you have a woman inside you. Isn’t that emasculating?”
I could speak even with the armor all over me. It must have left just enough space for me that I could still move my mouth, though I couldn’t see a thing.
He laughed, and it was even more genuine and warm than before. He was an evil fucking bastard, and his laugh should have been some kind of evil cackle, instead, it was this beautiful music. I reminded myself to avoid trying to make him laugh anymore, because I wanted to hate him, and his laugh was impossible to hate.
“We’ll be in the boarding pod soon, Love, then you’ll be aboardHarbinger. It’s a much nicer ship thanWrath.”
“Thuliak said I couldn’t survive in a boarding pod.”
I doubted he was just going to suddenly call off the whole kidnapping plan when I pointed that out, but it was worth a shot.
“Not at such high acceleration as he needed to beat the pirates to Eden,” Tschenkar said, “but don’t you worry your pretty little lips, Love, I’m going to make it a nice, slow, and gentle ride for you. And I don’t mean the breeding. That won’t be a slow and gentle ride, because I can tell just by looking at you that you like it hard and rough, yeah?”
He eyed the red marks on my throat from where Thuliak had choked me, and I blushed.
Okay, so maybe we’d move slow enough in the pod that Eriok could catch us? Or hell, maybe even Thuliak would be back in time? I had been angry at him for leaving me alone, but now I wasfuriouswith him. Thuliak was “dirty” enough without the dirty mouth, but so far Tschenkar was absolutely perverted.
“I can’t see anything in here,” I said. “I get really bad motion sickness—”
“You’re lying, Love,” he said. “According to the Lexikon, humans get motion sickness when what they are seeing doesn’t line up with what they are feeling. If you can’t see anything, you’re not getting motion sick.”
“We are moving,” I said. “So I don’t get whatever the medical definition of motion sickness is, but I get really nervous and scared when I’m blinded.”
He sighed, and suddenly I could see, but still I couldn’t move.
“I’ve plugged a view of the outside into your retinas,” he said, “you’re still behind a thick sheet of armor, so even if I get shot trying to take you, you probably won’t die.”