Chained Read online

  She got to his door, expecting to find it locked. Instead, it opened easily with only a little creaking. Wow, Lady Pope’nose was really confident in her security system. Either that or some careless slave had left the door unlocked.

  Somehow Maggie doubted that. Considering that even a minor infraction could result in mind-bending agony, it didn’t make sense for the slaves to be anything less that super scrupulous about every task they did.

  No, it was more probable that the door was unlocked for the same reason that Lady Pope’nose left the key to the prisoner’s chains inside the cell with him—it was just another form of torment. A way to taunt him with the freedom which was so close and yet so maddeningly out of reach. A way to—

  Maggie’s thoughts cut off abruptly when she got a look inside the cell. The prisoner was sprawled on his back with his head in the stream, unmoving.

  “Oh my God!” Quickly she closed the door and ran to kneel beside him, almost tripping over her high heeled shoes. “Hey,” she whispered as loudly as she dared. “Hey, you. Uh…” She didn’t know what to call him. “Hey, wake up!”

  To her intense relief, his eyelids fluttered open, revealing those strange, pale blue eyes.

  “You,” he murmured again, just as he had when he first saw her.

  “Yeah, it’s me,” Maggie told him. “And I’m going to get you out of here if I can. Just hold on a second, okay?”

  She hopped up again, nearly tripping on the shoes again, and ran to get the key. When she got back to him, she realized she would have to roll him over since his hands were chained behind him and he was lying on his back. But this was easier said than done.

  “Oof,” she gasped as she shoved at one broad, muscular shoulder. “You weigh a ton! And I thought I ate too many cupcakes.”

  “Haven’t eaten…much of anything lately,” he groaned and gave a hoarse laugh. “Sorry…not much…help.”

  “It’s okay,” Maggie told him. With a final shove she rolled him up on one side, exposing his bound wrists. A very tight, muscular ass was also exposed and she realized, to her embarrassment, that he wasn’t wearing any kind of underwear under the ragged loincloth. Well, what did you expect—silk boxers? she asked herself, quickly pulling the cloth back in place. It’s not like Lady Pope’nose’s dungeon is a five star resort hotel! He’s lucky to have anything on at all.

  Trying to put the glimpse of his naked flesh out of her mind, she got back to the problem at hand. His wrists were chained together and connected to the wall behind him by an even longer, thicker metal chain. But there didn’t seem to be any kind of keyhole or locking mechanism in either part of his restraints. Maggie looked at the chains and then at the strange, knobby key in her hand. How the hell was this supposed to work?

  Experimentally, she waved the gray metal knob key over his bound wrists. To her relief, the chains parted immediately and simply fell off with a clank and a clatter.

  Perfect—now to deal with the collar.

  Maggie was a little afraid to touch it after the huge jolt she’d gotten earlier but she set her teeth and forced herself to reach for the latticed metalwork with its blinking yellow lights. To her relief, she felt nothing but a mild tingling in her fingertips as she touched it. It had a complicated series of rods and levers holding it closed but Maggie loved puzzles. After a few moments of fiddling with various components, she found the pattern and was able to pull the horrible thing off him. It fell with a clatter and a splash into the little brook and the blinking lights went out.

  Good riddance! Maggie turned back to the prisoner and noticed that he had yet another collar on. This one was a plain, flat black leather one with no lights but it still made her fingertips tingle when she touched it. Hmm…well, that one would have to go too.

  “Wouldn’t do that,” the prisoner growled softly as she set to work, trying to find the opening to it. “That’s my…inhibitor. Dangerous…without it.”

  Maggie paused but only for an instant. “Is it giving you pain?” she demanded, still tugging on the collar.

  Slowly, he nodded. “Always.”

  “Then it has to come off.” She reached into the pocket in the folds of the ridiculous green dress and produced a small, sharp pair of nail scissors. She hadn’t had any idea what she would do with them when she stuck them into the hidden pocket—maybe she’d imagined using them as a lock-pick of some kind. But now she was glad she had them.

  “Hold still,” she warned the prisoner. “I don’t want to slip and cut you.”

  “All right.”

  “Uh…” She hesitated again, the scissors poised to cut.

  “What?” He looked up at her, one eyebrow arched in question.

  “It’s just…I mean…you’re not going to kill me once I set you completely free, are you?” Maggie blurted. “I mean…I really don’t want to die. I’m only twenty-five and—”

  He surprised her by laughing hoarsely. “Don’t you think… you should have thought of that… before you started stripping off my chains?” He spoke haltingly, as though his tongue was too thick in his mouth.

  “I…I guess so,” Maggie whispered.

  “You must think I’m a real bastard. No, blondie, I won’t…won’t hurt you. I’m…in your debt…” He looked up at her, his eyes meeting hers. “And you…you’re in my dreams.”

  “I dreamed of you, too,” Maggie whispered as she snipped the black leather collar from his neck. Was it her imagination or did those strange, pale blue eyes turn briefly red? “For the past few weeks. I…I don’t know why.”

  “Neither…do I.” He coughed weakly. “Water…please.”

  “Oh, of course!” Remembering how thirsty he had always been in her dreams, Maggie cupped one hand and scooped up some cold, refreshing water from the little brook. Then she tilted it carefully into his mouth…or tried to anyway. Because try as she might, the water wouldn’t go past his lips. It slid past his mouth and over his cheeks but something always seemed to keep it from going in. Maggie tried again and again until he shook his head.

  “No use. Must…break the barrier.”

  “There’s a barrier around your mouth?” Then she remembered what the evil Lady Pope’nose had said. “Of course, it’s this damn dust, isn’t it?”

  She stopped trying to tilt the water into his mouth. Instead, she scooped up a handful of water and tried to wash the verium dust off his face.

  It didn’t work. Though she tried first with her hand and then with one of her dress's ridiculously trailing sleeves soaked in water, the silver-gray dust wouldn’t come off.

  “What the hell is going on?” she muttered at last in frustration. “Why won’t this damn stuff come off?”

  “Told you…must break the barrier.”

  To her alarm, his voice sounded weaker again and his eyes were fluttering closed.

  “Break the barrier? But how?” she begged, patting his cheek. “Hey, come back to me. Tell me how to help you!”

  His eyes opened again, their strange, oval pupils so much like a cat’s looking into hers. “Kiss…of life.”

  “I don’t understand. You want me to kiss you? Why?”

  “Must give water…mouth to mouth. Only skin unpolluted…by the varium… can disrupt its field.”

  “Mouth to mouth? You mean you want me to take a mouthful of water and then…” Maggie couldn’t finish.

  He nodded weakly. “It’s…only way. Please…so thirsty.”

  It seemed like an incredibly strange and intimate act to be performing with a stranger but Maggie didn’t know what else to do. Kneeling down, she got a big mouthful of the cold, clear water. Then she pillowed the prisoner’s head in her lap—which wasn’t easy because all of him was heavy—and pressed her lips to his.

  The moment she let the water rush from her mouth to his, she could tell it was working. He drank from her thirstily and not a single drop was spilled from the side of his mouth.

  When she finally pulled away from the strange kiss, he looked up at her, his eye