Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
“That’s right—I came back. Did you really think I would forgive the offense you offered me last night?” he said, frowning. “Are you going to try to deny that you refused me what I was trying to buy from you last night?”
“You were trying to buy something I’m not selling,” I said evenly, glaring at him.
“His Lordship here says he wanted a fuck and a suck, Natalie,” R’xs snarled at me. “And he says you turned him down and then waved the Baron’s sigil in his face. That true?”
I felt myself go cold inside. The Baron’s sigil—was that what this was about? Was I about to get into trouble for using it? And I’d been so sure the rich customer I’d turned down would never bother me again—I’d even told myself there was no way he could know my pimp. But of course, how hard could it be to find out who I “belonged” to? All he had to do was ask who owned the hsh’frux Blood Whore—I was pretty much the only one that I knew of in the whole damn city.
“I…he…you and I agreed that I would only sell my blood,” I said to R’xs, trying to avoid his question about the sigil, which was still in my pocket. “I told you that was all I was willing to sell and you agreed!”
“Well now I’m changing the agreement,” my pimp snarled at me. “You’re gonna give this nice male what he wants and you’re gonna give back that sigil, too, before you get you and me both into trouble!” He gave the rich customer a servile nod of his head that was almost a bow. “Will that be sufficient, Your Lordship?”
“That will do nicely.” The rich customer nodded regally. “First, hand over the sigil, girl and then we can go down in your hole and get to business,” he added, leering at me.
I stood there, my heart beating sickly in my throat, feeling utterly trapped.
This must be how the rabbit feels when it sees a pack of wolves on its trail, I thought. I couldn’t give in and let this bastard rape me, but if I didn’t, R’xs was going to hurt me—possibly even kill me. And there was nowhere to run and no way to get away.
No—to hell with that. I can’t give in—I can’t let him! I thought wildly. The very idea of letting that bastard touch me made my stomach roll. I had to get away from them—but how?
“All right, just don’t hurt me” I said, lowering my eyes as I dug in my coat pocket for the slim wire of the sigil. I moved slowly and tried to look defeated, hoping to put them off their guard.
“There now—you see, Your Lordship? She’s going to behave like a good little whore,” R’xs said to the rich asshole who was standing there with a smirk on his face like he’d won me as a prize. “And it might please you to know you’ll be the first between her legs. Six solar months she’s been here and the only customers she’s had have been blood only. So you’ll be her first fuck and suck.”
“Excellent.” The asshole’s smirk widened. “I’ll be more than pleased to break her in for you. I—”
At that point I pulled the sigil out of my pocket and shoved it in their faces.
“Here’s your fucking sigil!” I shouted at them.
Both men recoiled instinctively—though the sigil didn’t have any heat like a real sparkler from Earth would have, it was still extremely bright in the dim tunnel. Clutching it tight, I turned and ran down the far side of the tunnel, pelting as fast as I could. I had only one chance to get free of these two and I was taking it!
Inside, a little voice was whispering that I was doing an extremely foolish thing. Even if I got away for now, they could always hunt me down by the chip R’xs had implanted in my neck and I was certain to get a horrible punishment for my disobedience. But I couldn’t stay there and calmly allow myself to be raped—I just couldn’t.
I ran down the tunnel, my boots echoing on the stone floor, wondering how far I could get. Maybe I could run away to see Mar’ra and hide with her for a while. But no—that would get her into trouble and I didn’t want that. Well then, maybe I could cut out the tracking chip somehow and find some kind Naggian who was willing to take me back to Earth.
The problem with that was, while the Naggians do have faster-than-light tech, they don’t do much with it. They prefer to stay on their home world which is “cleaner” to their way of thinking. That’s because they think all the other people in the universe are dirty infidels. So the odds of finding a nice, sympathetic Naggian pilot willing to take me away from all this, were slim to none.