Chained Read online

  Maggie tried. But she’d been kneeling in the same position for so long that everything was numb. Her arms were all pins and needles and her legs felt like rubber. She stumbled and would have fallen off the raised pedestal she’d been displayed on for so long if the man hadn’t caught her.

  “It’s all right,” he said again and lifted her easily into his arms, cradling her like she was a baby. He looked at Zamir. “I’m taking her. Is there anything else I need to know about this fucking implant?” He nodded at the jewel blinking slowly in Maggie’s naval.

  “Nothing,” Zamir said sullenly. “Just go. I will tell my patroness that she has been purchased by a suitable male.”

  “If by suitable you mean a mean son of a bitch more than willing to come back and wring your skinny green throat, you’d be right,” the man growled. “Fuck off, slaver.”

  And turning, he carried Maggie away.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  He carried her through the crowded marketplace and into a small, twisting corridor that seemed to be leading outside. Maggie lay still in his arms, too frightened to say anything. She belonged to the man in black now—he had bought and paid for her, implant and all. Would he be a kind and compassionate master, as Zamir seemed to think? Or would he hurt and abuse her as soon as he got her wherever it was that they were going?

  He could be anyone—could be a serial killer! whispered a little voice in her brain. He could just buy slaves so he can take them away and torture them to death.

  Of course, even if he wasn’t, even if he was a completely nice guy, the fact remained that he was a stranger and he owned her now. And what if she somehow managed to get away from him? Everything was just a big blur. How could she ever get back to Earth? And even if she did get back, she still had the implant lodged firmly in her belly button. An implant she still knew almost nothing about. What even was it? Some kind of animal? Some kind of machine? Zamir had said that it was bred and engineered. Did that mean it was some freaky hybrid thing that was half living and half robotic?

  As if the implant knew she was thinking about it, Maggie felt it begin pulse more steadily again. She bit her lip and moaned silently as the unwanted pleasure between her thighs began to grow. The need it evoked in her wasn’t unbearable…yet, but she knew eventually it would be. God, this was torture. What was she going to do?

  “Here we are.” The man’s low voice broke her train of thought and Maggie looked up to see that they had reached the end of the twisting corridor and were facing a white panel that might be a door—it was hard to tell when everything was so blurry. The man pressed a button on the wall with his elbow—he was still cradling Maggie to his chest like a baby—and the white panel in front of them whooshed silently open. The man stepped inside and the door shut behind them, leaving them in a small white box of a room.

  “Hang in there,” he told Maggie. “Just have to wait for the airlock to cycle.”

  There was a whirring noise and a second white panel slid open. This time they entered a much larger room filled with many colorful blurs. Maggie wished desperately that she could see where he was taking her. What was this place? His private apartment? The secret lair where he tortured his victims? Without her glasses she felt absolutely helpless—lost and vulnerable and afraid.

  The second door whooshed shut behind them, trapping her alone with him in a strange place. Maggie shivered, wondering what was coming next. Was this the moment he dropped his nice guy act and pulled out a knife? Was this the moment she died?

  The man set her down on a soft surface and took off his gloves and cloak. Then he knelt in front of her.

  “Are you all right?” he asked her directly. “That bastard of a slaver back there, did he hurt you?”

  “I…he…” Maggie shook her head. “Who are you?” she blurted.

  “Who am I? Don’t you know?” He slid off the black mask and tossed it aside. “Well?”

  Maggie looked at him but his face was still a blur. “I’m sorry, I lost my glasses. Well, I didn’t lose them—they were broken. And without them I can’t really see much of anything.”

  “Oh, that’s right—your oculars. I forgot. He leaned closer. “Open your eyes wide and look straight at me.”

  “All right,” Maggie said, obeying his orders. “But I’m afraid that really doesn’t help much. You’re still just a big blur and—”

  Suddenly a burst of red light came right at her, so quickly Maggie didn’t have time to shut her eyes. She felt a pressure sensation against both eyeballs—the same feeling she got when the optometrist did the air puff test for glaucoma when she had an eye exam.

  “Ugh!” She jerked away, closing her eyes reflexively. She’d always hated that test! “What did you do to me?” she demanded, forgetting for a moment to be afraid.

  “Open your eyes and find out.”

  Maggie blinked and opened her eyes, expecting to see the familiar colorful blurs which had been her whole world since Lady Pope’nose had spitefully broken her glasses. Instead, everything around her jumped suddenly into focus.

  She was sitting on a gold brocade couch with intricate scarlet patterns embroidered all over it. The room around her seemed to match the couch in opulence and elegance. And kneeling in front of her was…

  “How about now, blondie?” he asked. “Do you know me?”

  Maggie could have cried as his familiar features came into focus. “Kor?” she asked in a small, trembling voice. “Is that really you?” She reached up a hand to touch his cheek…then pulled back at the last instant. “Where have you been? Why didn’t you come for me? And what did you do to my eyes?”

  “Fixed them.” He grinned. “You can see now, right?”

  “Yes, but how did you do it?”

  “I’ve been mastering my, uh, talents for lack of a better word.” He tapped his temple, indicating his eyes. “I’m safe now—I won’t hurt anyone by accident.”

  “That’s great.” Maggie crossed her arms and looked down. “It sounds like you’ve been putting your time to good use. Meanwhile, I’ve been locked up in some kind of stasis tube while Lady Pope’nose grew this…this thing in me.” She looked down at the ruby implant in her belly button.

  “Yes, that thing does seem to be a problem. Let me see it.” He leaned down to examine the implant but Maggie covered it quickly with her arms.

  “Don’t. Please.”

  “All right.” Kor sat back. “I’m sorry I didn’t come for you sooner but I thought you were fine—thought you got away safely. I had no idea that bitch Pope’nose had gotten free and come looking for you.”

  “When did you find out?” Maggie asked.

  “One solar week ago. I’d been cruising towards the Black Planet, looking for answers, and then I had a dream—the same kind of dream we shared before. I saw you in a dark room with Pope’nose and that slimy green slaver.”

  Maggie’s heart jumped. “You saw that?”

  “The same way you saw me chained up before you came to rescue me,” Kor said softly. “The least I could do was return the favor. I knew you were in trouble so I came back to find out what was going on.” He frowned and cracked his knuckles. “I had to get a little rough with one of her slaves but he finally gave up the information. I came to find you as fast as I could.” He looked at her earnestly. “I got here in time, didn’t I? Nobody hurt you, did they? Please tell me you’re all right, sweetheart.”

  “Nobody raped me if that’s what you’re asking,” Maggie said bitterly. “Unless you count being implanted with an alien device that makes you—” She broke off abruptly. “Why did you come in disguise? I thought…I didn’t know who you were. I thought some stranger was buying me to take me away and do God knows what to me!”

  “I’m sorry about that, blondie,” he said gently. “But I’m a wanted male and I’m known in the Hub. Don’t forget I used to be a slave myself—I was bought and sold to my last master not fifty feet from the place that slimy green bastard had you displayed. I couldn’t risk show