Sex Slaves 2: Waiting For Yesterday Page 15

  A dark object came at her from the side, almost hitting her. Her blurred vision, and her hair whipping around her, had made it impossible for her to notice anything until it almost hit her.

  Dree yanked the handlebars in a panic, sending the glider on a sideways suicide plunge, almost causing her to fall off.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  Again she screamed, the wretched sound tearing at her throat, the air flying past her seizing the sound, ripping it from her mouth. She couldn’t regain control. And the dark object was coming at her again.

  She doubted any of the gods would give a thief the time of day, but she had no choice. She was going to crash and burn and all she knew how to do was pray.

  Somehow in her wave of panic, she got a better look at the dark object. Borna flew alongside her. Watching in horror, the clear dome on the woman’s glider slowly raised. Borna flew close to her, too fucking close. The dome lifted and the woman extended her hand, yelling something at her that got lost in the wind.

  Dree shook her head. Once again she was blinded and felt her glider flip sideways. She held on to the machine underneath her with everything she had. Her fingers sliding over the handlebars as her palms grew too sweaty to hold on. Her hair slapped at her face, tangling and blinding her while the ground seemed to be speeding past the side of her. She had no idea what kept the thing airborne.

  And she would never know how Borna’s strong hand managed to grab her arm and pull her free of the flying contraption.

  “Shit. Fuck. No!” Dree clung to Borna, realizing suddenly that the glider was no longer underneath her.

  Nothing was underneath her. She was flying through the air, mere feet off of the ground, while a strong grip cut the circulation off in her arm.

  “I’m going to kick your fucking ass.” Borna’s words hissed in her ear at the same time that Dree slapped up against the other woman’s body. “Sit still before you get both of us killed.”

  Dree couldn’t stop herself from shaking. Somehow she managed to situate herself on the seat with Borna behind her. She couldn’t think and she didn’t dare look up. The whoosh of the wind slowly disappeared when the clear dome moved over them, closing them into the safety of Borna’s glider.

  A long time seemed to pass that the two of them flew in silence. Finally Dree started combing her hair with her fingers, working to detangle it, and took a look around her.

  “Where are we going?” she dared to ask.

  “The note you left, that Marla showed me while crying,” Borna hissed, her anger quite obvious in her sneering tone, “said you couldn’t wait any longer to see if your people were still alive. You want to go to King Sorale’s fucking castle then that is where I am taking you.”

  Dree couldn’t turn around to look at Borna’s face. The woman’s muscular thighs had her pinned, and the way her arms grasped the handlebars, like steel braces holding her in place, she could barely move at all.

  “Why are you doing this?” Dree had to know. It would seem more likely that Borna would land and beat the crap out of her, or simply turn around and drop her off to face the wrath of Marc, or Marla and Trev, or all of them.

  “Because you can’t do it by yourself. And because I owe Marla my life and the woman was heartbroken that you would run from her.” Her last words sliced through Dree like a knife.

  The last person she ever wanted to hurt was Marla. Last night would never have happened if she hadn’t been so loyal to her previous owner.

  Dree wanted to cry. She wanted to bury herself in Borna’s chest and beg for her forgiveness. She wanted Marc of Torin’s arms around her, comforting her, and she knew that would never happen.

  Looking ahead of her, she fought to bury her emotions, to toughen up, to not let her confused feelings show. “I had to do this, Borna. I don’t expect you to understand.”

  “Good. Because I don’t.” Borna was furious. “You had nothing when you arrived at Kopah-Torl, not a fucking thing. You’ve been given the easiest of jobs, helping Marla, and your own place to live. They feed you well, gave you clothes, and this is how you repay them. I didn’t expect this out of you, Dree.”

  “I didn’t steal from Marla. And I didn’t mean to break her heart.” Now she had to defend her actions. Borna’s accusations were too harsh. “You don’t know how my people were living though, how they were being treated. Our home on Poltar was destroyed, our way of life stolen from us. We were homeless, deserted. And things have only gotten worse since arriving on Benox. There was no way I could continue to live at Kopah-Torl knowing the rest of them could be suffering a fate worse than death. I have to go see if any of them are still alive.”

  “And if they are?” Borna asked. “Then what?”

  “Then I have to get them out of there.”

  Borna didn’t say anything. Instead she swerved the glider, forcing it to lean slightly, while they made a wide curve around the houses underneath them.

  “I look forward to hearing how you plan to do that,” she finally said, after they had left Lengorc behind them.

  Open countryside again flew by underneath them. They would be entering the kingdom soon.

  Dree sat straight on the glider, refusing to touch Borna anymore than necessary. The woman’s words had been cruel, slicing through her, stabbing at her heart. All of them thought her helpless, incapable of taking care of herself, good only at offering her body.

  Her skills in other areas might be lacking, but she would learn, damn it. She would learn how to defend herself, go from one place to the other by herself, and make her own decisions without being ridiculed for doing so.

  The panel in front of her beeped, a light suddenly flashing. Borna didn’t move a muscle.

  “What is that?” Dree studied the board, determining that it looked like someone was contacting them.

  “I’m not answering it.” Borna sounded like she spoke through gritted teeth.

  Dree didn’t dare try to turn around and look at her.

  “Who do you think it is?” She stared at the blinking light, the shade of red blurring the longer she looked at it.

  “I don’t care who it is. You want to talk to them, you fucking answer it.”

  Borna didn’t say anything else, and eventually the light quit blinking. Dree noticed King Sorale’s castle appear ahead of them, standing tall and regal on top of one of the larger hills in the kingdom, its magnificence on display for all who cared to look.

  Dree held on to the seat in front of her when Borna turned the glider hard, making the machine lean deep to the right as they circled around the kingdom. They approached the castle from the back, the smaller buildings surrounding the incredible structure coming into view the closer they got.

  The first thing she noticed was the streets weren’t as full of people as they had been before. Merchants didn’t line up along the front, passing the time away either waiting to unload their product, or waiting for their opportunity to sell what they had. A sinking feeling settled in Dree’s gut. An unsettling feeling that her people were either dead, or long since hauled off from their tiny corner in the castle.

  “Can you get me close to that back patio?” Her mouth had gone dry, fear consuming her that she would find the worst.

  She cleared her throat and pointed to the paved area where so many nights had passed standing around the burning trash and talking to whoever had time to stop and share the gossip.

  Dree watched while Borna pulled back on one of the handlebars, while twisting the other handle toward them. One way or another she would learn how to make one of these gliders work. But her landing lesson wouldn’t begin today. She swore the distance between them and the ground was swallowed up, Borna dropped in elevation so quickly.

  “Oh, shit.” Dree grabbed Borna’s arm without thinking while her stomach rose up to her throat. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard chuckling in her ear.

  Borna landed the glider just as the beeping began on the panel again. Turning off the motor, she hopped off
as soon as the dome lifted.

  “Where are these people that you must rescue?” she asked, those dark eyes glancing around her like an angry animal ready to attack anything that moved.

  “We had a closet where we stayed.” She pointed to the door that led toward the back pantries, and then into the kitchen.

  Nausea rose inside her. There was no mistaking the smell of rotting flesh. Climbing off the glider, her feet seemed numb, unable to feel the ground beneath her as she approached the area where trash was burnt.

  “Dear gods.” Her hand went to her mouth, the disgusting taste of bile reaching her throat as she stared in horror at the mangled bodies piled high in the hole where the fires had burned.

  Nothing burned there now. But the humming of insects rang in her ears. She stood frozen until Borna pushed her on.

  “Don’t look. I doubt we will find anything pretty here.”

  Her firm hand gripped Dree’s arm, feeling cold against her skin. Anger slowly welled inside her. More than likely, everyone she knew lay in that mound of death. But she had to check. She had to go inside and see for herself if anyone remained alive.

  She tugged on the large door, pulling it open while another door seemed to close inside her. If she had been here, she would have been dead with the rest. There was no use pretending she could have been some kind of hero.

  The kitchen was dark and quiet, way too quiet. The usual buzz of activity was no more. In fact, it looked as if no one had used the kitchen in a while. The counters were bare, the sinks dry. No one moved around and long shadows gave everything a morbid look.

  “Our room was over here.” She whispered, although she wasn’t sure why. Everything seemed completely deserted.

  Borna followed behind her while Dree searched the place with her eyes. Nothing appeared disturbed, just left, as if everyone who had once clamored through the area had just walked away. She pushed open the thin door to the small room that had once been her home. There was no one inside, no clue as to what had happened to them, nothing.

  She turned when she heard Borna leave, walking away from her as if satisfied that their mission was complete. Dree had to admit she wouldn’t know where else to look for them. She hardly knew the entire castle, and she couldn’t imagine any of them taking refuge anywhere else.

  Dree stopped in the doorway, panic rushing through her when she spotted the Bortan standing at the glider. Tall thick men, the silver metal embedded in their skin shining from the suns’ light, moved slowly around their only means out of here.

  “That doesn’t belong to you.” Borna didn’t hesitate, her comment sounding insulting.

  Dree couldn’t believe it. This woman may be a warrior, and her claim to being Bortan might also be accurate. But those two men, who now looked in their direction, were almost twice her size.

  One of them headed toward her, his beady red eyes a gross distraction. Dree wanted to turn back into the castle and run for her life. She froze in place though when Borna fired her laser, severing the man’s arm. Blood spewed everywhere while the man screamed, an electronic vibrating sound that chilled her to her bones.

  Borna shot the other Bortan too, and then ran to her glider. “Get your ass over here,” she yelled. “Those aren’t the only two.”

  Dree ran to the glider, climbing on behind Borna. At the same time, the woman shoved a laser in her hands. “Lessons are over. You better kill them with your first shot.”

  Dree stared at the weapon in her hand, the cold metal weighing heavy against her skin.

  Loud thudding footsteps grabbed her attention at the same time Borna started the glider.

  “Hold on,” she yelled, and forced the glider to accelerate so fast, Dree almost fell off.

  “Hold it right there.” Another Bortan had appeared.

  “Take them down,” a fourth Bortan yelled.

  The glider left the ground while Dree clung to Borna, daring to look over her shoulder at the many Bortan suddenly appearing.

  “This isn’t going to be pretty,” Borna muttered, as the glider flew faster than Dree knew that it could.

  “Will we get away?” Dree didn’t see anyone taking to flight.

  She looked behind them at the castle, her heart pounding so hard she could barely breathe. Landing in the hands of the Bortan would mean a torturous death for both of them.

  “I doubt it.”

  Borna began speaking in calmer tones, and Dree realized she had signaled for help. “Requesting backup over the castle at the kingdom.”

  Dree studied the side of Borna’s face, her black hair streaming down around her high chiseled cheekbones. Dree still held on to her, even with the dome up, and could feel Borna’s slow, steady breathing in comparison to her own. The warmth of her firm body saturated Dree, somehow making her feel safer. Her soft ass and the roundness of her thighs pressed against Dree’s legs, while the firm concentration on her face gave the impression that there were no problems.

  Several beeps came from the dash, followed by several lights flashing. Dree looked over Borna’s shoulder. “What does that mean?”

  “We are being instructed to land.” Borna veered the glider, leaning them hard to the left while she circled around and lowered the machine toward the ground.

  Dree looked around them frantically. “And you are going to land?”

  “Yup.” Borna’s lips pursed, while her dark eyes scanned the ground beneath them.

  “But why are you landing?” Dree slid her hands from Borna’s waist, turning to get a better view of the streets beneath them.

  There was little life in the kingdom. The area beneath them was streets and houses. But then she noticed several men exit one of the homes, looking up at them, weapons in hand.

  Dree ran her sweaty palms over her trousers, feeling like a trapped animal inside the small domed area. Her heart raced while a lump formed in her throat. More than anything, she didn’t want to die.

  “We’re landing because Marc of Torin orders us to do so, and his wrath is worse than that of the Bortan.”

  Borna’s words made Dree freeze. She stared down at the men who walked toward them while they moved closer to the ground. Chills rushed over her body. They were landing around Marc’s warriors, so they were safe, right?

  Chapter Fourteen

  The ground came up hard underneath them, slapping Dree’s ass against the thinly padded seat of the glider.

  “Don’t say a fucking word,” Borna hissed at her as the dome slid up and then disappeared in the space behind them.

  She jumped off of the glider before Dree could say a word. Dree felt a bit queasy when she put her feet on the ground. At the same time the rumble of a carrier coming down the street caught her attention.

  Three large warriors had walked out of a house with a large yard around it, and open field behind it. They must have landed on the very edge of the kingdom. The men moved closer to both women as a Bortan exited the carrier. He smiled a silver smile while his red eyes moved to take them all in. Dressed in all black, the short sleeves of his uniform showed off powerful-looking human biceps, no surgical operation hindering the fact that this Bortan was well-built, tall, and scary as all hells.

  Dree took a step backwards, the hard laser in her pants pocket brushing against her leg when she moved. She attempted a swallow, but her mouth was suddenly too dry.

  “Sorry to bother you.” The Bortan addressed the men. “We simply come to collect this thief.” He raised a gloved hand and pointed at Borna.

  The men looked at her. Dree looked at all of them, remembering Borna’s threatening warning to stay quiet. She opened her mouth to speak and Borna glared at her.

  “What has she stolen?” One of the warriors studied Borna, his gaze traveling down her, looking anything but unimpressed.

  “Her charges go back to our home world.” The Bortan seemed quite satisfied as he moved closer to Borna, extending his hand to grab her.

  “If this woman has committed a crime on your planet then certai
nly there are papers.” The guard closest to Dree spoke. His deep baritone sounded anything but friendly.

  “I haven’t taken anything that wasn’t mine.” Borna didn’t move out of the Bortan’s reach, but put her hands on her hips, as if daring him to touch her.

  She was being a fool. Dree saw now that this woman would fight to her death, even if outmatched. Maybe it was her Bortan blood, born to be a warrior. There were times though when good thinking should precede the desire to fight.

  “She is with me and I’ll vouch that she is no thief.” Dree spoke up in spite of Borna’s warning.

  Borna didn’t look at her but continued to glare at the man in front of her. He reached to take her arm and Borna finally took a step backwards.

  “Let us know the charges and your commander can take it up with Marc of Torin. If she has committed some offense against the Bortan, we will see to her punishment.” The warrior, almost the size of the Bortan, took Borna by the arm, pulling her behind him.

  “She is Bortan.” The Bortan’s metallicized tone came through when he lowered his voice. “Her charges will be handled among her own people.”

  The warrior who held Borna’s arm released her, but continued to look down at her. The suns caught a glimpse of red in his light brown hair. Tall and well-built, Borna appeared dwarfed next to him.

  “You are Bortan?” he asked her.

  “I can vouch for her.” Dree stepped forward standing next to Borna. She looked over toward Marc’s men. “She’s done nothing wrong.”

  The warrior who had stepped forward looked her over, his soft green eyes showing either compassion or pity, she couldn’t tell which. Did this man know who she was? Had Marc mentioned her to them, or had some of the other guards discussed her? Guards weren’t all that different from servants, gossiping in their idle time.

  “I told you to be quiet.” Borna’s look was stern when she turned on her.