Enslaved Read online

  “Yes, that’s where we met him,” Thrace said impatiently. “How in the Seven Hells did he get aboard?”

  “My fault.” She passed a trembling hand over her eyes. “There was a distress call and he put up a false image. Trin left me in charge while the two of you were on Yonnie Six and I let him in. He’s already killed Terra and Jola is wounded… Oh Goddess of Judgment, what have I done?” Her eyes filled with tears but Thrace had no time for comfort or consolation.

  “Listen to me.” He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook once, briefly. “What’s done is done. However he got aboard, he’s here now. What I need to know is, where is Trin? Has he hurt her?”

  Sidna sniffed and swiped at her eyes.

  “Two has her on the bridge. I don’t think he’s harmed her physically but there’s definitely something wrong with her. She keeps complaining of being hot…says she can’t breathe and she’s so thirsty but Two won’t let any of us give her a drink.”

  “The bastard.” Thrace started off down the metal hallway in long strides but Sidna hurried after him.

  “Be careful! He said if you try to take her away or shoot him, he’ll kill her!”

  “I’ll be careful,” Thrace snarled. “And that son-of-a-bitch had better be careful too. If he’s harmed Trin in any way I’ll fucking kill him!”

  As he spoke the last words, he rounded the corner that led into the control area of the ship. Sure enough, there was Two, standing with one arm wrapped around Trin’s slim waist. With his other hand, he held a deadly looking snub-nosed dissipater to her temple.

  “Two,” Thrace spat.

  “In the flesh.” Two nodded genially.

  He looked much the same as he had when Thrace first met him in The Demon’s Eye except that his skin was considerably paler and the blackish brown spots on the exposed part of his brain seemed to have grown, like some kind of rot spreading in the gray, spongy tissue.

  “You’ll kill me, will you?” he drawled, grinning widely to show all his metal teeth. “Yes, I expect you will at that. But not yet, my dear Havoc. Not…quite…yet.” He nodded down at the female in his arms. “First you might want to have a look at your mistress.”

  His heart in his throat, Thrace looked more closely at the slender figure still draped in the deep green dress with its white lace panels. Trin didn’t look well at all. In fact, the dissipater Two was holding on her barely seemed necessary. She was sagging in his grip, her cheeks flushed and her lips parted as she tried to breathe.

  “Trin? Trin!” Thrace felt a shock of fear and desperation race through him.

  “Th-thrace?” Her eyelids parted a crack and she looked at him with dull eyes.

  “Trin? Baby—are you okay?”

  “No.” She shook her head weakly. “So hot and so…so thirsty.”

  Thrace glared at Two. “What’s wrong with her? What did you do to her?”

  “Why, I have no idea what’s wrong with her.” Two shrugged his boney shoulders eloquently. “She was like this when she got here.”

  “Trin listen to me—what happened?” Thrace leaned closer to her but Two drew back, pressing the muzzle of the dissipater hard against her temple.

  “Ah-ah-ah, my dear Havoc. Keep your distance for now.”

  “But what happened? What’s wrong with her?”

  “He…he gave me a drink.” Trin’s eyes were heavy-lidded and she seemed to be struggling to get the words out. “Back on…on Yonnie Six. After I ran…ran away from you.”

  “Two gave you a drink?”

  “No…” She shook her head sluggishly. “Lord…Lord X. He gave me a drink. Made my lips numb. Started feeling…funny. And now I’m so…so hot. So thirsty.”

  Thrace was beginning to get a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling.

  “It made you hot, you say? What did he give you?”

  “Don’t know.” She shook her head weakly.

  “Well, I do,” Two said brightly. He turned to Trin. “But that doesn’t matter. What matters is how thirsty poor little Trin is now.”

  The long boney hand wrapped around Trin’s waist snaked down out of sight and returned holding a flask. Two popped off the lid and waved it enticingly under her nose.

  “Wh..what is that?” Trin’s eyes opened a little wider. “So thirsty…something to drink?”

  “Something delicious,” Two promised with a sneering smile. “Something that will quench your thirst forever.”

  “No!” Suddenly it all clicked into place for Thrace. “No, don’t Trin! Don’t drink it—it’s poison!”

  He lunged forward but she was already grasping the flask Two held to her lips and gulping thirstily.

  Shoving the dissipater Two held to one side, Thrace tore the flask away from Trin’s lips. But it was too late—he could see the blood-red ribbon of wine sliding from the corner of her mouth. Drugged wine, and he knew what it was drugged with.

  “Ah-ah—step back for just a moment, if you please.” Two had regained his grip on the dissipater and was holding it on Thrace now. “Just give it a moment to take effect.” He looked down at Trin. “Better now, my dear?”

  “I…think so.” Trin straightened up, her eyes looking clearer than they had before. But her cheeks were still flushed and her breathing was rapid and shallow. “What happened?”

  “Why, you took the third drink, my dear.” Two smiled at her nastily. “The third drink of passion berry wine. Don’t you remember? The first drink makes you cold…the second makes you hot…and the third drink…”

  “Makes you dead. Oh my Goddess!” Trin put a hand to her mouth. “But, that’s not possible! I was sure the first drink was completely out of my system.”

  “It would have been…with normal passion berries.” Two grinned. “But you see, these are a special strain I’ve been developing in my spare time. You know, between killing people for B’Rugh, tracking down the two of you, hiring the most deadly assassin in this galaxy or any other for another little side project I have… He shrugged modestly. “It’s just a hobby, really.”

  “You bastard, you’ve killed her.” Thrace felt like he was going to die himself. He couldn’t bear to lose Trin—not now that he was aligned with her, not when he finally knew his own mind and heart and knew that he loved her.

  This is why the Havoc don’t bond, he thought dully, watching her flushed cheeks and rapid breathing. Because tying yourself so closely to a female rips your fucking heart out. But it was too late—he was tied to her. Tied so closely that if she died, he knew he would want to follow her into death.

  “No, I haven’t killed her.” Two smiled, showing his metal teeth again. “She can still be saved, as you well know.”

  “Not by you,” Thrace snarled, feeling sick. “Get your fucking hands off her, now!”

  “Gladly.” Two removed his hands from Trin’s waist and shoulder and gave her a little push towards Thrace. “Now that she’s had the third drink, she’s all yours, Havoc.”

  “Thrace?” Trin looked up at him as he pulled her against his side.

  “It’s all right, baby,” he murmured, stroking her shoulders. “Everything is going to be all right.” Which was a complete lie and he knew it. He glared at Two. “Why did you do this?” he demanded. “Why target us in this way? Is it revenge for what happened in The Demon’s Eye?”

  “Well, that is the nominal reason, yes. I promised B’Rugh that I would make you both suffer—which is why I arranged for Trin to see your past using the nightmare vapor. I wanted her to know exactly what kind of male you were—wanted her to know what had been done to you.”

  “So you’re the one who pumped the gas into our room,” Thrace growled

  “No, no—I said I arranged for it to happen. I had hoped that when faced with Lady Tam-tam’s request, Trin would…ah violate you in the same way you had been hurt in the past. Such an event would surely have triggered a most violent and interesting reaction.” He sighed deeply. “Unfortunately she refused to do so and I was forced to resort to pla