Handling the Hybrid Read online

  Vrox was acutely aware that he was almost as exposed as his friend. He still had on the slave trousers himself but luckily he was also wearing the black loincloth over them, so at least he was mostly covered—if not very secure. Still, if things got dicey with the gelding knife, he was going to have to be careful to protect his equipment.

  Speaking of the gelding knife, he saw Mistress Tornflesh raise her right hand and brandish a short silver handle for the crowd to see. She thumbed it on with a flourish and a glowing red blade, about a foot and a half long, suddenly sprouted from it like a menacing flower.

  “This slave,” she announced, “Has displeased me for the last time! I thank you all for being present today to witness his punishment and disgrace.”

  Vrox, who had been creeping on his belly, up behind the chairs of the visiting Mistresses, saw his friend stiffen at the buzzing sound of the knife. Dannen struggled against the restraints but it was clear he couldn’t break free. In another moment he was going to be in big fucking trouble.

  Mistress Tornflesh leaned over and grabbed Dannen’s shaft in one fist. Holding it out of the way, she raised the knife, aiming for the heavy sack that swung between his thighs.

  That was it—the time for sneaking around was done. Vrox jumped to his feet and aimed the blaster at her.

  “Let him go!” he roared and fired a warning shot over her head, right through the elaborate purple and gold hairdo in the process.

  “Oh! My hair!” Mistress Tornflesh jumped up and raised a hand to her head to feel for the injured coif. Unfortunately, it happened to be the hand that was holding the laser knife, which was still on.

  As she reached for her hair, the buzzing red blade swept right through the top of her skull.

  Her eyes rolled up in her head and then, from the eyebrows up, the top of her head, including the elaborate tower of gold and purple hair with the smoking hole in the center, slowly slid off and landed on the wooden stage with a bloody smack.

  As Mistress Tornflesh crumpled to the ground, the other Mistresses began to panic.

  “Oh! Oh my Goddess—he killed her! He shot Mistress Tornflesh!” one of them shouted and then they were all screaming and running every which way.

  Vrox took the opportunity to run up on stage to his friend, who was still tied and blindfolded, no doubt wondering what the fuck was going on.

  “It’s all right, Brother,” he said roughly to Dannen. “It’s me, Vrox—gonna get you out of here.”

  “Thank the Goddess.” Dannen’s deep voice was hoarse with relief. “That female is crazy! She was going to cut my balls off because I didn’t bow to her fast enough when she said to.”

  “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that now,” Vrox said dryly. Stooping, he pried the still-buzzing laser knife from the slack hand of the dead Mistress and used it to cut his friend’s bonds. Then he stripped off Dannen’s blindfold.

  His old friend blinked, his eyes getting used to the light as he looked around at the Mistresses running and screaming. Then his gaze flickered over the supine form of Mistress Tornflesh who was missing the top half of her head.

  “What in the blue fuck is going on around here?” he demanded, shaking his head.

  “Tell you later,” Vrox said shortly. “Right now we need to get the Seven Hells out of here.”

  He didn’t even need to use the blaster again. The Mistresses were all too eager to get out of his way. And though several of them were calling to their bodyslaves to attack him and Dannen, none of the slaves was armed. And none seemed too eager to go after the two large Kindred who were armed, since Vrox still had his blaster and Dannen was now clutching the glowing knife.

  They made it to the ship unharmed and took off not five minutes after Vrox had landed in the first place.

  “Thank the Goddess you came in time.” Dannen relaxed in the passenger seat and wiped sweat from his brow. “I thought I was a goner for sure—or my balls were, at least.”

  “Glad I could save your ass—and your balls, partner,” Vrox growled. “But now I have to get back to my lady so we can figure out a way to get out of here.”

  “Your lady? What are you talking about?” Dannen frowned. “And why can’t we get out of here now and then come back later?”

  “For one thing this is a short-range cruiser—it can’t handle wormhole jumps so it would never get us back to where we parked The Lady Fair,” Vrox told him. “And in the second place, I’m afraid me crashing your ball-cutting party is going to cause some serious problems for my female, who I left back in Opulex. As soon as word spreads that one Kindred slave rescued another and somebody looks around and sees that I’m gone, they’re going to start asking some pretty uncomfortable questions.”

  “Who is this female you’re talking about?” Dannen demanded. “Don’t tell me you found your soul mate in the last three days while this damn collar was shocking me within an inch of my life every time I put a toe out of line!”

  “Not my mate exactly—you know I can’t bond,” Vrox growled. “But the female I want to spend my days with anyway. Her name is Tandy—Mistress Sweetbottom.”

  “Wait a minute—is she the one who bought you? The one who put that pain collar and cuffs on you?” Dannen asked, motioning to the collar and cuffs he still wore.

  Vrox nodded shortly. “The same.”

  “What?” his partner exploded. “How could you let yourself fall for the female who took you? Are you crazy, Vrox? Or does she just have you brainwashed? What’s wrong with you?”

  “There’s nothing wrong—we made a deal that I would act like a well-broken slave and she would pay me for it,” Vrox told him. “And then, well…it became more than a deal. I’m crazy about her, Dannen—she’s fucking amazing.”

  “And you’re fucking crazy,” Dannen declared. “You can’t trust any of these Yonnite females! The minute they get you in a collar, they shock you within an inch of your life and then bend you over and fuck you up the ass!”

  Vrox could feel his cheeks heating at this—he had to admit—extremely accurate assessment. But he wasn’t about to tell his best friend what he and Tandy had shared. Dannen definitely wasn’t in the right mood to hear about it now—if ever.

  “It’s not like that with her,” he said shortly. “I told you—we made a deal and then we fell for each other. She’s going to come and live on The Lady Fair and travel around the galaxy with us.”

  “The Hell she is!” his friend exploded. “Don’t forget I’m half owner of The Lady Fair, partner, and there’s no fucking way I’m letting one of those Yonnite females set a single foot on the Lady’s gangplank—let alone come inside and live there.”

  This was a problem Vrox hadn’t expected, though he guessed he should have. It was clear that Dannen’s experience being a slave here on Yonnie Six hadn’t been nearly as pleasant as his own had been. Which wasn’t surprising considering who had bought him and the way he’d nearly lost his balls.

  “We’ll talk about it later,” he growled. “After I get her. I don’t want her to get into trouble because I kidnapped a Mistress, stole a ship, and came to save your ass.”

  “Fine.” Dannen looked like he wanted to say more but they were approaching Opulex now and Vrox had to work on keeping the ship hidden by using the finicky stealth tech.

  At last they got to the Justice Hall to find an unpleasant surprise—it was crawling with Mistresses and their slaves.

  “What the fuck is going on down there?” Vrox muttered, looking at the viewscreen as they hovered to one side of the hall, just out of sight. “This place was practically deserted just an hour ago. And now it looks like everybody and her sister is here.”

  “Are those camera drones?” Dannen asked, leaning closer to get a better look. “Is there some kind of news event going on?”

  “Goddess, I hope not.” Vrox suddenly had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach—a very bad feeling.

  “Does this thing get news vids?” Dannen tapped the viewscreen. “Let�€