Children of Steel (16 page)

"This much? What were the odds?"

"Two to one, one to one, Three to one, and
that little act you put on gave me an extra side bet." She stood
up, "Time to move, let's go."

I stuck my winnings in my pocket, and looked
around as I got up. There were a couple of people heading our way,
the first of whom was Rolf.

"Hey, you're not leaving now are you? I got
you another fight."

"Sorry Rolf, Raj's had a long day, so we're
calling it quits. Anyway, I only promised you three." Then she
added crossly, "You shouldn't have wasted that first one."

"Hey, you know how it goes, you gotta make a
buck when you can. Only this time it didn't work out as well as I
expected. I haven't seen too many people take that many of Torc's
punches to the head and not go down.

"Sorry fella's" he said turning to the two
with him, a Bull Mastiff, obviously my next match and a Badger who
looked pretty tough himself. "You heard them, they're packing it
in."

"What's a matter," said the Badger looking at
me, "Scared?"

"Nope," I put my arm around Herza,
"Horny!"

The bar broke up laughing at that, and we
started to walk around them.

"Hey, just hold on a second now," he grabbed
Herza's arm, "I got my boy all ready to fight. You ain't going
yet."

I had my eye on the 'Boy' so I didn't see it,
but I heard a snap and his yelp of pain.

"Next time you grab me," purred Herza, "I'll
cut your balls off!"

I turned to see him holding his wrist, which
didn't look too good.

"Oh, did I forget to mention that she's horny
too?" I said trying to sound innocent.

He turned red and the bar was in hysterics. I
had my knife in my hand by then, just in case. He looked us up and
down, and holding his arm got out of our way. As we left the bar I
couldn't resist saying loudly to Herza

"You've just got to learn to be more careful
dear, those little people break too easily." Okay, so it wasn't the
best insult in the world, but I could hear him screaming insults
back from the bar as everybody continued to laugh at his
discomfort.

We walked a few blocks over to a nicer
section of town, found a quiet little place and went inside. We sat
down and ordered a couple of drinks; I needed something a little
stronger than beer to cover up the aches.

"You did pretty well in there," Herza purred
while sliding her chair next to mine. "And you handled that guy
pretty well too. That's usually when the big fight starts, but
nobody wants to mess with somebody when they're off to get laid!"
She laughed.

"If I'd known we could make so much cash I
wouldn't have complained." I said abashed, "That's more than I lost
playing poker."

"Well don't expect to do it again anytime
soon. You'll have a reputation around here by morning. The only
reason we got such good odds is that while you're big, you're
young."

"So, what does age have to do with it?"

"Most young people who are big never learn to
fight well. They just rely on their size and strength."

"Oh, I never knew that. But why did you set
me up for this anyway?" I looked quizzically at her.

"Like I said, to get you some real fight
experience."

"But why are you worried about it? Banner's
my fight instructor."

"Not anymore," she purred through that and
started to run her hand in between my legs. "I am now."

"Oh?" I tried to keep my composure, this was
supposed to be a respectable place, even if her hands were getting
a little adventurous. "Why the change? Not that I mind," I added
quickly.

"Balizar decided it. You do know that I am
higher ranked than anybody in the ship except for some of the
tigers?"

"No" I said surprised, "I hadn't realized you
were that good. But I kind of guessed you were better than Banner,
after watching you two practice."

"Well, Balizar thinks you've got talent, and
I agreed. So now you're mine. Banner is going to take over
Terease's training and I'm going to get you for two hours a day!"
Herza was starting to rub her body up against mine now and people
were definitely beginning to look. I signaled the waitress for the
bill and asked her to call a cab.

"Is it the thought of beating up on me
everyday that's doing this?" I asked as we headed out the door.

"No, fights always get me going. What about
you?"

"I'm not limping because I'm hurt." I
admitted.

We made it into the cab then.

"Oww, let me see!" laughed Herza.

How the cab driver got us back without an
accident was beyond me, he kept trying to watch us and drive. I was
hard put to keep her from doing it right there in the cab. As it
was we ran to my room with our clothes in our hands, and while
there's nothing wrong with a Leopard not wearing anything, in my
state of obvious excitement I'm still glad we weren't seen.

Sex with Herza turned out to be as much of a
workout as sparring with her in the gym. She gave as good as she
demanded, and she demanded quite a lot! She wasn’t at all afraid to
teach me what she liked and considering my level of experience
wasn’t that great I was an eager and interested student. If I had
thought I’d learned a lot from Katrine and Mist, Herza quickly put
that notion to rest. And I took what I learned and used it on her
to a rather great, and obviously enjoyable, effect.

I only hoped that if I survived the night my
ego wouldn’t become insufferable.

I didn't get up until eight the next morning.
That's one of the nice parts about leave, sleeping late. Herza
joined me on my trip to the gym, I already knew that she was as big
a fanatic about exercise as I was. I did my usual workout, but I
was still pretty sore from the fights, so I got Herza to give me a
massage before we hit the showers.

We made it to the meeting place early and sat
around waiting for the others to show.

"Where are we going anyway?" I asked
Herza.

"Beats me, I didn't ask. How're you feeling
anyway? Still sore?"

"A bit. The left side of my face is pretty
tender too. Can you see any swelling?" I asked while feeling my
cheek.

"Only if you look closely," She giggled,
"want me to kiss it and make it better?"

"No, please." I winced as I hit a tender
spot. "Got any pain killers instead?"

"You know the company frowns on that kind of
thing!" She motioned with her hands that the walls might have
ears.

"Ah, we're on leave now. I'd go see the local
Doc, but I don't want to miss the trip." She quietly tossed me a
pill and I caught it with a smile. "I guess I'll survive though” I
said and popped it into my mouth and swallowed it.

Over the next ten or so minutes, the rest of
the clan showed up. Sheen had brought her boyfriend Clint, and
Balizar introduced a lifemated pair of Jaguars from the ship that
he had invited along. We then headed out to the airstrip where
Balizar had requisitioned a large copter.

"Well, at least we know it isn't local," I
said to Herza.

"Balizar was stationed here about twenty
years ago," she replied, "so he knows some nice spots."

We all climbed inside then and I looked in
the back, but didn't see any equipment there. The deck was not only
clean however, but padded too. So I decided to lie down and relax.
Balizar and Sharazad took the pilot and copilot spots. Katrine,
Mist and Lyle decided to stretch out in the back with me.

"What happened to you?" asked Katrine quietly
after Balizar had started up the motors.

"Ouch!" I winced as she touched the side of
my face, "Easy, it's still pretty tender."

"Herza took you down to one of her bars,
didn't she?" Asked Lyle grinning.

"What bars are those?" Katrine asked, giving
Herza's back a dirty look.

"A 'fight' bar is what she called it," I said
to Katrine, and turned to Lyle and Mist who were both grinning,
"and yes she did. Has she dragged either of you to one?"

"Not me!" smiled Mist.

"Once," smiled Lyle. "It was an experience
I'll admit, but I got beat up a lot worse than you. Balizar had a
fit."

"You should have seen him," added Mist, "he
bounced Herza off a bulkhead. Till then I didn't think anybody
could touch her."

"Why'd he get so mad?" I asked.

"Her and Banner used to do it all the time a
while back. One time when they went, they took a new guy along and
he came back on a slab."

"How'd that happen?" I was pretty alarmed at
that.

"I'm not sure, it was before my time. But I
got the impression that somebody cheated during the fight, pulled a
knife or something. So that was when Banner stopped going. She told
me that she's just a lot more careful about which places she goes
to now."

"It seemed okay to me, but there were some
tough characters there."

"That's probably why she took you on a
weekday, less of a crowd and easier to deal with. So how'd you
do?"

"I won all three fights," I smiled feeling
good about that. "And made back the money I lost at poker too!"

"Not bad, you going to do it again?" asked
Mist.

"Maybe, but not here."

"Raj, how could you even think about it?"
hissed Katrine.

"Easy, the money's good and I realized after
getting this," I pointed to the side of my face, "that I do need
the experience. So don't tell on her okay?"

"I suspect that Balizar's already guessed,"
replied Lyle, "he's got a good eye and nothing gets by him."

“I’m surprised Herza’s afraid of him though,”
I said quietly, “Isn’t she higher rated then him in fighting?”

He shook his head, “Balizar doesn’t spar with
anyone other than Sharazad, and they only practice in private. So
they’re not ranked.”

“That sounds strange,” I commented.

“As security head he probably likes to keep
people guessing,” Lyle said.

“Yeah and after he bounced Herza she stopped
trying to push his limits,” Mist chuckled. “He even made it look
easy."

I nodded, Herza was definitely the type to
push limits if she didn’t respect you. Or fear you.

"So does anybody know where we're going?" I
looked around changing the subject.

"Of course," answered Katrine, "that's my
job."

"So? Are you going to share?" I asked looking
at her.

"Well you've been kind of a stranger lately
so I don't know." she started to act coy and looked at the
ceiling.

"I keep getting this impression that
everybody only wants me for my body," I said with an exasperated
sigh.

"But it's such a
nice
body!" Katrine
purred.

"Yes Mamm," I said reaching for her
waistband, "do you want I should start now?"

She knocked my hand away laughing, "No, but
maybe you should hold that subservient attitude."

"Hmmmn, maybe I should go sit up front with
Herza. She just gets me beat up." I started to rise a little
bit.

"Don't you dare!" Katrine laughed and jumped
on me. We rolled around a little bit wrestling. Eventually Lyle and
Mist joined in, and we all pinned Katrine to the deck.

"Okay, Talk!" I said grinning.

"Never!" she laughed, and we all started
tickling her. Everybody up front looked backed when Katrine started
to howl, but they just laughed and ignored us, a couple of minutes
later she broke.

"Okay, Okay, I'll talk!" We stopped tickling
her, "Just let me catch my breath!" We waited expectantly while she
took a minute to calm back down.

"Okay, we're going to a resort, of sorts, in
the mountains."

"What do you mean 'of sorts'?" asked
Lyle.

"No humans, Cats only. It's about a two hour
flight away."

"Cat's only?" Said an amazed Mist, "I never
heard of such a place.”

"It's kind of low key," Admitted Katrine,
"but it's actually common here. Each of the different groups has
one, though it's not run by any of the clans."

"What do the humans have to say about it?" I
asked.

"They consider them to be retreats, and
actually think it's a good idea. Balizar said its pretty spread
out, and usually there aren't too many people there."

"Sounds like fun actually," said Lyle, "not
having to worry about accidentally pissing off some human." He
smiled and lay back putting his head in Mist's lap. "Just think of
it, being able to relax and be a cat all the time."

"If you start going 'Meow'," said Mist, "I'll
beat you black and blue, or at least 'til your face is worst than
Raj's."

"Actually, I was thinking more along the
lines of trees." He responded, and Mist got kind of a strange look
in her eyes.

"What's this about trees?" I asked Katrine.
Both Lyle and Mist started looking real embarrassed at that.

"Oh," she said with a wink, "these two seem
to have regressed back to our tree loving Ancestors."

"But trees? I don't think they did it there,"
I could see the both of them start to fidget. "I mean, you
really
have to be weird to ..." I suddenly found myself
being held down and tickled by the three of them. It continued for
quite a while then, with the object of the attack changing every
few minutes. It looked like it was going to be a fun trip.

We arrived at the resort smiling and panting.
As we disembarked from the copter Herza laughingly said something
about childish behavior and suddenly found herself at the bottom of
the pile being tickled herself. When we had finished we started to
look around for another victim, and as Banner had his back to us we
got him next.

We were working on Terease when Balizar
walked up to us.

"Come on, people are beginning to stare, and
we still have to check in." He looked at all of us
reproachfully.

Of course
everybody
jumped him next,
even his mate Sharazad. It was a good ten minutes later when we
finally made it inside the main building.