Abducted Read online

  In fact, there were several. I even had an old sensitivity tank back at my ship, if I remembered correctly. I had won my ship, The Celesta, in a hand of double-blind-Trill from an old bastard who’d used to be a science officer for the Assimilation before it had been defeated. Though I had cleaned it out and outfitted it for smuggling, there was still quite a bit of obscure medical equipment left in the hold that I thought I might sell to a collector some day. It would be worth a pretty credit if I could ever find the right buyer. Now, maybe I could put some of it to use. It certainly couldn’t be as painful as what the Commercians had in mind.

  “But—” Char’noth started to protest.

  “Let her go,” I growled. “I’m taking her now—I have no more time to waste on you lot.”

  “Master, don’t forget her documentation!” A.L., still in travel mode, fluttered on my shoulder. He had also come with the ship and his mainframe was located aboard The Celesta. I found it useful to take him with me during trade negotiations. His compact travel form could fit into some very tight spaces so he was good at gathering information and watching my back.

  “Right—documentation,” I said.

  “It will be sent directly to your ship,” Char’noth said sullenly. “But first—”

  “First, nothing. Unstrap her.” I made my voice low and commanding, glaring at Char’noth until he acceded.

  “Do as he says,” he snapped at his underlings.

  Muttering angrily in their high voices, the Commercians set about freeing the female. I was fairly certain they’d wanted to do more than just test her sensitivity—they wanted to find a way of identifying other rare and valuable assets like her before transporting them to their base. If they could pinpoint which females were La-ti-zals before they transported them, their profits would treble. Well, too bad—the female was coming with me. I’d lingered long enough around this tiny, benighted blue planet. I needed to get to Tazaxx and make the trade before it was too late. Before he—

  I pushed the thought aside as the little Pure One was finally freed of her bonds. She collapsed on the floor, her breath coming in tight gasps. I could tell she was trying hard to hold back her tears.

  “Come,” I said, lifting her by the arm. I felt a tingle and there was a quick flash of color behind my eyes but it was nothing compared to the jolt I’d experienced earlier. The inhibitor was doing its job—barely. I reminded myself to check it later and see if I couldn’t find something stronger for her to wear in The Celesta’s stores of medical equipment. She had an immense untapped talent—good thing she was still latent or she might have fried my entire nervous system when we touched.

  “I can’t.” Her legs wobbled and she nearly fell.

  “What do you mean, you can’t? Will your legs not work?” I lifted her more firmly. She was tiny but substantial, I noted. I liked that—no male wants to be with a female he fears he might break. Not that I planned on being with her, I reminded myself sternly. She was for trade purposes only.

  “I mean, I can’t go with you. I can’t leave my home and my friends and family. I won’t.”

  She struggled in my grasp, much to my amusement. It may be true that females are equal to males in intelligence but when it comes to physical strength, we have the upper hand. In this case, I used it.

  Swinging the struggling female into my arms, I headed for the exit where my short range shuttle was docked. My ship was in orbit around the fourth planet from this system’s sun—Mars I believed the Earthlings called it. It was only a short trip in the shuttle to get there and it was far out of reach of any immediate pursuit from Earth. Not that the ignorant Earthlings knew I was here or even that their planet was being harvested. But even if they had, there was nothing they could do about it.

  For a moment I felt a stab of pity, remembering all the innocent, unknowing faces I’d seen on the AMI. None of those females knew they might be taken and transported at any moment. Stripped of their identities and sold to the highest bidder—the male with the most credit looking for an expensive, exotic plaything or a bride with the finest pedigree the Universe could offer…

  Then I pushed the emotion away. There was no point in feeling bad for the Earthlings—they’d done this to themselves. Dissolved the lock around their planet little by little until finally the Commercians were able to take not just one or two people but as many as they liked and as often as they liked. There were going to be a hell of a lot of disappearances down on that little blue ball—soon the inhabitants would be paying for their carelessness.

  But that had nothing to do with me. The little Earth female I had picked, however, did. And she was currently doing her best to wriggle free of my grasp.

  “No! No, put me down! I said I’m not going with you!”

  She beat against my chest with her little fists and her eyes were bright with unshed tears. Because of our proximity, I could see her in her natural tones—her hair was a deep shade of red like Proxian rubies and her pale, lovely skin was dusted with little specks of pigmentation that should have been detrimental to her appearance. Instead, I found them charming—I wondered what they were called. They were especially thick across the bridge of her petite nose which was currently wrinkled in anger.

  “I said let me go!” she cried, struggling in my arms. I liked the feel of her soft body close to mine and the way her full, bare breasts heaved as she moved. Her nipples were a soft, innocent pink and the little patch of curls that decorated her mound was the same color as the flaming strands on her head. I felt my shaft harden as I considered if she had other pink areas I might like to explore.

  Before my lust could carry me too far though, one of her flailing hands caught me across the face, causing me to jerk back with a growl.

  “Careful, little Pure One,” I told her, tightening my grip. “My patience isn’t limitless.”

  She stopped struggling abruptly and contented herself with just glaring at me.

  “You… you Devil-looking son of a bitch!” she spat.

  I tried not to smile. It amused me that she compared me to the fallen deity that tortured her people after death. My own version of damnation was The Pit and I had long ago accepted that I would go there after death. A male can’t commit the acts I have and not have a soul so stained even the Goddess of Mercy would turn her face from him. I was probably adding to my burden of sins at the moment but I told myself I didn’t care—I was doing what was necessary. What was right, even if it might not look that way to an outsider.

  “Call me what you want,” I told her, going through the airlock and settling her in the interior of my shuttle. “But the fact is, you’re coming with me, little Pure One. And there is nothing you can say or do to stop it.”

  Chapter Four

  Zoe

  Sarden got me settled in some kind of a spaceship looking thing—at least that was what I assumed it was. There was a complicated looking control panel with lots of blinking instruments that looked like a high-tech plane cockpit.

  I considered grabbing them and pulling as many levers and pushing as many buttons as I could but two things stopped me. The first was that I could see space outside—cold, dead, empty space. (Well, empty except for the moon floating by. It was way bigger than I could ever remember seeing it which made sense—I’d never been this close to it before.)

  What if I accidentally pushed the wrong button and opened the window? I would freeze and my eyeballs would bulge out and explode. At least, that was what happened on that awful scifi horror movie my ex-boyfriend had made me watch. He’d said it was a classic—what was it called again? Oh yeah, Event Horizon. Don’t get me wrong—I actually love science fiction but I’m not a big fan of horror movies. Especially horror movies where people’s eyeballs explode.

  The second thing that kept me from trying a little space-sabotage was the fact that Sarden strapped me into the seat—and I do mean strapped. As in, he made sure the weirdly modified seatbelt harness—which seemed way too big for