“Oh, Your Lordship!” R’xs began, licking his thin lips nervously. “Please forgive this insolent little slut for using your sigil. I’m her pimp but I don’t know where or how she got it—possibly she robbed a customer for which Ipromiseyou she will beseverelypunished!”
But it wasn’t R’xs the Baron was looking at—he was frowning at the asshole customer who suddenly had a sheepish expression on his face.
“Azz’lx,” he said. “Thought I might find you here. Why was the girl running from you?”
“Why because she…she didn’t want to give up the sigil!” the customer, whose name sounded like “Ass-licks” blustered. (I thought the name suited him extremely well.)
“More like I didn’t want to getraped,”I snapped back. I was probably going to die for what I had done, I thought, but I refused to go down without a fight.
“Raped?” The Baron’s brow furrowed into a frown. “Azz’lx, I never took you for someone who would take a female against her will.”
I looked at the asshole customer, wondering if he was going to try to deny it. Instead, he tried to play it off.
“I mean…what’s the big deal?” he protested. “She’s nothing but a Blood Whore, after all—you can’t rape awhore. And I was going to pay her pimp for her services.”
“Those particular services arenotfor sale—which I told you last night!” I said tightly. “Ionlysell my blood—not anything else.”
“And I toldyouthat you’ll sell whatever the hell I want you to sell, girly!” R’xs snarled. He grabbed me by the wrist, his long fingers biting into my already bruised arm and making me wince in pain. “Begging your pardon, Your Lordships,” he said to the Baron and Azz’lx. “I promise this little slut will pay for her impertinence!” He glared at me. “Now give the Baron back his sigil and let’sgo!”
“No!”I yanked back against his grip. I knew if I let him drag me off down the tunnel I was done for—R’xs would kill me slowly and probably enjoy every minute of it, the sadistic bastard!
To my surprise, the Barron said,
“Let her go.”
“I’m sorry—what, Your Lordship?” R’xs didn’t seem to understand him.
“I said let the little femalego.”
The Baron’s face was like a thundercloud as he glared down at my pimp. Since he was at least seven feet tall, he towered over R’xs, even though the pimp was usually the tallest guy in the room.
“But Your Lordship, Iownher,” he whined, still not letting go of my wrist. “She’s one of my girls—I’ve been running her for six solar months now, ever since she first came to O’nagga Nine!”
“I never signed any agreement with you,” I snapped at him. “You just met me and declared that I was ‘yours’. You don’t own me—no onedoes!”
The Baron looked down at me, mild surprise on his face.
“Feisty little thing, aren’t you?” he remarked.
I glared back at him.
“I’m fighting for mylifehere. If R’xs takes me away, he’s going to do something…something horrible to me.” The words choked me as I remembered what R’xs had done to Ger’tha and how she had to wear a hood now to cover her mutilated face. “He was going to let Ass-boy there rape me,” I added, pointing to the asshole customer. “Which was what he was trying last night—that’swhy I used your sigil. I know I shouldn’t have, but I didn’t have any other way to protect myself from him!”
Of course, I’d had the can of “Get Off” but I hadn’t been able to find it, so that was beside the point, I thought.
“She’s lying!” Azz’lx exclaimed in a high voice. “Baron Vik’tor—who are you going to believe? Me or a dirty littlehsh’fruxBlood Whore?”
I could see by the look on Ass-lick’s face that he knew he had said the wrong thing the moment he said it. A glance at the Baron’s face confirmed it—his glowing blue eyes narrowed and his sensual lips turned into a thin, white line. But when he spoke, his deep voice was deceptively mild.
“That’s not a term you usually use around me, Azz’lx,” he rumbled, staring at the smaller male.
“Oh, er, you know what I mean!” Azz’lx backpedaled quickly. “There was no disrespect intended, of course. I just meant, well, you’ve known me foryears,Baron Vik’tor.”
“Maybe,” the Baron rumbled. “Or maybe I onlythoughtI knew you.”
Ass-licks (sorry, that’s what I’m calling him from now on) stared at him in disbelief.
“But…but the girl is nothing but a common whoreandshe’s been using your sigil without your permission! We don’t even know where she got it! She might have robbed one of your trusted friends or companions.”