“Don’t talk to me like that! I had a deal with B’Rugh. I knew it was risky but it was a risk I had to take. And it’s not like I went in unarmed or unprepared.” She lifted one hand where a thin gold wire ring was slipped over her slim index finger. There was a tiny green light on the underside of the ring glowing a steady green. “See? A toxin sensor. I just don’t understand why it didn’t detect the poison that man with the steel teeth put in my cup.”
“It didn’t detect it because passion berries aren’t really a poison even though they act like one in the wrong doses—they’re an aphrodisiac. A very deadly aphrodisiac,” Thrace told her.
“An aphrodisiac?” Trin struggled to sit up and get out of his arms.
Obligingly, Thrace helped her, sitting her on the side of the fold out bunk where he’d been holding her. Hopefully some of the drug was leaving her system. At least, she no longer looked like she was going to freeze to death—for now, anyway. Later on might be a different story.
“An aphrodisiac?” she said again. “But I don’t feel…sexual.” Her creamy cheeks flushed a bit. “I just feel cold.”
“Because you only took the first sip,” Thrace said. “The rule of passion berries is the first sip makes you cold, the second makes you hot and the third makes you dead.”
“What?” She frowned.
Briefly, he described the effects of the passion berry laced wine if a second and third drink of it was taken.
“Goddess.” Trin put a hand to her mouth and her face grew so pale it worried him. “So you’re saying B’Rugh—”
“Was taking no chances,” Thrace said grimly. “He wanted you and he meant to have you, whether you agreed to his ‘deal’ or not.”
“Ugh…” Trin shivered again and this time it clearly wasn’t from cold. “I still don’t understand why he would want such a thing from me! We’re clearly not compatible species.”
“I believe he said it was the color of your skin that drew him,” Thrace murmured, eyeing the creamy light brown tones of her cheek with admiration. “In that I can’t say that I blame him. You are unique, Trin. And fucking gorgeous, as I think I mentioned before.”
She drew away from him, eyeing him uneasily.
“Why are you saying this to me? You want the same thing B’Rugh did? I told you—I won’t be penetrated by a male. Ever.”
“It was a compliment. An ill-timed one, apparently.” Thrace sighed and held up his hands in a gesture of peace. “Look, I didn’t save you from getting raped just to rape you myself. I’m not like that—I’ve never taken a female against her will and I don’t intent to start now.”
“They why did you say all those things to be back aboard The Alacrity?” Trin demanded. “Why did you tell me all the things you…fantasized about doing to me?”
“I was bored,” Thrace growled. “Bored and horny out of my fucking mind. You had me chained up, treating me like a pet you could wash and feed and play with while you walked around in your panties and nightdress exposing yourself like I wouldn’t care.”
“I told you, I didn’t know you’d care,” Trin protested. She sighed. “Look, I realize you hate me for what I did to you and for not believing you when you said you weren’t a slave. It’s clear now I was wrong about your past—you couldn’t have been a slave if you were off fighting B’Rugh and his kind for control of your planet.”
“Well…” For a moment he actually considered telling her about his past—about what had happened when he was sixteen cycles old and he and his Sire had been taken by slavers. But only for a moment. “It’s all right,” he said roughly at last. “You had no reason to believe me.”
“I had no reason to disbelieve you either—other than my fear of your physical strength and my distrust of your sex,” Trin said. “I treated you as inferior because you’re male. I’m sorry for that but I can’t change the past.”
“What’s done is done.” Thrace made a chopping gesture with one hand. “It’s over now.”
“Why did you come for me?” She wrapped the thermal blanket more tightly around her slim shoulders and looked at him uncertainly. “After what I did to you? Chaining you up…treating you like you were one of my pets…”
“Because before you did all those things, you saved my life,” he said roughly. “That fucking slaver at the Flesh Bazaar would have killed me with the pain collar and why not? I was pure profit and no loss to him since he scooped up me and my friend Solar at a dirty little portside bar on Padge. He could have killed me and not lost a moment’s sleep about it but you…you cared. Even though you don’t like males and I was a stranger to you, you cared enough to stop him. To save me.” He looked into her eyes. “That matters, Trin.”
She held his gaze for a moment, her dark eyes wide and uncertain.
“So…a life for a life? We’re even now, is that it?”
“Even?” Thrace got off the bunk and started pacing. “Ha. Not even close.”
Trin shook her head. “I don’t understand. What more do you want me to do? Obviously you can have your freedom—with my apologies of course. And I can take you wherever you want to go—”
“No, you don’t understand.” Thrace turned to her. “We’re not even because I still owe you.”
“Owe me what?” She looked completely confused now.
“Don’t play dumb,” Thrace snapped. “I know how much you paid for me—fifty thousand credits. It nearly bankrupted you, didn’t it? That’s why you decided to go into the Demon’s Eye alone—you were desperate.”
She lifted her chin, fire flashing in her dark eyes.
“I’m never desperate. I told you, I took a calculated risk.”
“One that almost got you raped and killed,” Thrace pointed out harshly.
“I’ve thanked you for saving me and given you back your freedom,” she flared. “What more do you want?”
“I’ll tell you what I don’t fucking want,” Thrace growled. “I don’t want my freedom. Not yet, anyway.” He took a deep breath. “I’m going to continue being your slave until I make this right—until I pay the debt between us.”
“What?” She looked at him blankly. “But that could take years. You don’t know what you’re offering.”
“Yes I do. Gods…” Thrace shook his head. “I never thought I’d volunteer for slavery willingly but I don’t see any other way—a Havoc always pays his debts. And besides, it won’t take years. It’ll only take until you can sell these.” Reaching into the pocket of his tight leather trousers, he produced the small black bag filled with Jaxite crystals.
“You got them?” Trin jumped up from the bunk, shedding the thermal blanket in her excitement. “You got the crystals?”
“Of course I did,” Thrace said roughly but he couldn’t help liking the excitement and joy he saw in her eyes and knowing he was responsible for it. “Had to blast some big holes in a few of B’Rugh’s thugs to get both them and you out of there but I got them.”
“That’s wonderful!” Trin actually laughed, a low, musical sound that he liked a hell of a lot. “Amazing.” She frowned. “Now that I think of it, the last thing I remember before I blacked out was that we were surrounded.”
“Not for long. I rigged the blaster’s power switch and turned it into a heatbeam—little trick I learned in the war with the Lud’oms. Cut a few of B’Rugh’s thugs in half and blasted a few more to puddles of twitching ooze…they got out of the way pretty quick after that.”
Her eyes widened. “You overrode the safety setting? You could have blown your hand off!”
Thrace shrugged. “It was a calculated risk—like the one you took. Just so happens it paid off. You complaining?”
“No…” She looked thoughtful. “I guess I don’t have room to complain considering the results. It’s something I never would have done myself but well…”
“But your new slave is crazy,” Thrace growled. “So he does whatever the hell it takes to get the job done.”
* * * * *
“I’m glad you do,” Trin said seriously. She was still stunned that he’d come for her—she really couldn’t complain about his methods. “Listen, about this slave business,” she began. “You really don’t have to—”