The Demon Master's Wife (Fantasy, Space Opera, Science Fiction Romance) (FORCED TO SERVE) (20 page)

“Now—you are safe from him,” Ania said, meeting and holding the female’s gaze, the bloody severed limb still in her hand now dripping onto the floor. “Will you help us?”

“May I have that?” the female asked, holding out her own hand and motioning.

Ania handed over the severed limb, noting the female didn’t flinch at all. She held it up to her gaze and looked it with fascination and a kind of morbid pleasure as she spoke.

“My name is Boca Ador. I was captured and forced into slavery to serve this male as his mate. No females are born into this culture. It is punishment for their transgressions against the creators of all. At the request of the Peace Alliance, several females of my planet volunteered to come and see if amenable matches could be made as a solution to their problem. Instead of receiving us in peace and friendship, Fener Sel enslaved us all and forced us to say we were content in our lot. The penalty of disobedience is pain or death. After death, they just mate with another female that is brought here by traders. Your female crew member is even now being prepared for Fener Sel personally. You were tricked into sending her.”

On hearing this, Ania turned to Dorian.

“Here,” she said, tossing him back the bloody knife. Fener Sel was dead anyway. She was not going to be able to keep Dorian from taking the deceitful male’s life.

Dorian caught the knife and walked back to Fener Sel.

“Which hand were you going to use to control her?” he asked.

When Fener Sel just glared and didn’t answer, Dorian looked back at the female who had been talking to Ania.

“I do not know which hand. As ruler, Fener Sel keeps more than one mate. It could be either or both,” Boca said, lifting her chin and glaring at the male in the chair, pleased to see him finally getting even a fraction of what he deserved. “He can only manage a few at a time, so when he tires of one, Fener Sel kills her so no one else can have her. It is high sport to torture a mate until she dies. They celebrate the event with a feast, and we are forced to watch. They killed your male crew member for trying to stop them from killing off another female last evening.”

Dorian reached out and lifted one of Fener Sel’s hands.

“You made a grave mistake in your greed this time,” he said, pulling an arm taut and lifting the knife in the air. “Commander Jet is
my
mate. You sealed your death when you had the first thought of hurting her.”

Bringing the knife down, Dorian cut off the first hand with a single swipe and threw it down in front of the chair.

Fener Sel’s scream broke the silence of the room, causing the rest of their captives to flinch, and Dorian waited until it had echoed off the walls for a moment to make sure their point was being made.

Then he spoke a word and pushed between Fener Sel’s eyes watching his head slump forward as he went silent.

Dorian then lifted the other arm and cut off the other hand, knowing the unconscious male did not even know it happened. Dorian’s mercy at rendering Fener Sel unconscious was only to spare the females who had already suffered enough.

“Now where is my mate being held?” Dorian asked softly, looking at the females.

“I will tell you all you wish to know and even help,” Boca said. “Just do not leave us here.”

“Agreed,” Ania said firmly. “Consider yourself rescued. Now show us before we are forced to kill more. My demon longs to be set free. He is not so merciful.”

Boca bowed her head respectfully.

Ania looked at the remaining row of females. “There is a shuttle just outside the walls of the city. Go there immediately and wait for us.”

They hurried from the room without asking any questions or even looking behind them as they fled.

Ania watched them go and then looked back at the males. “Are they worth your lives?”

“Take them,” one male said, his voice threatening despite his conciliatory words. “We have no wish to die.”

“Wise choice,” Ania said. It took her and Dorian several minutes to restrain the men to make sure they wouldn’t be followed in their search for Gwen and the ambassador.

“This way,” Boca said firmly when the last male was unconscious.

Ania watched as Boca lifted her chin. She carried the gruesome hand of her mate at her side as she walked in front of them.

“The ambassador is in a holding cell waiting to be collected. Fener Sel sold her to a neighboring group for a large sum of money. We have been checking on her because we were ordered to keep her calm. She seems frightened, but alive,” Boca said.

“And where is Commander Jet?” Ania asked, feeling Dorian grow more anxious as they walked.

“We’re going there first. She is in medical being wired,” Boca said, frowning. “I know this because we are not sedated while the process is done. They push wires through your body along which they can send electrical pain. Control pads are installed in the hands of your chosen owner. Curling their fingers presses the pads and sends the signal. I do not know how long the range is because we are never allowed to be more than one residence apart from the one who controls us. My guess—my hope is that we will be unaffected on your ship.”

“When we find her, I’m going back to kill him,” Dorian said, shortening his steps to follow Boca across the compound, even though he was angry enough to kill everyone he saw.

Chapter 16

“When I get free,” Gwen told the man who was sending electrical current through her legs. “I’m going to cut you into a million pieces.”

“Yes, yes. So you’ve told me over and over again. When I get your arms wired,” the doctor told Gwen, smiling at her outrage, “you will wrap them around me and hold me while I avail myself of the charms of your young body. It is my special price to Fener Sel for working through the sleep cycle to prepare you. Your legs are almost complete. They are the most challenging. The arms take no time at all.”

“I swear I’ll still kick you to death no matter how much it hurts me,” Gwen said viciously, grimacing as he dialed up the current and made her legs shake. “You have no idea how resistant I am to be controlled, you self-righteous piece of Klageldon dung.”

“I can vouch for how resistant you are,” Dorian said, coming in and deflecting the attempts to stop him by flicking the men in lab coats away like they weren’t even there. “And I have never been more thankful about anything. I’m sorry it took us so long to get here.”

The sight of Gwen naked and strapped to an upright table with wires protruding from her thighs was enough to bring on a killing madness. It was only the words from her acid tongue that stopped him. If she was being this disrespectful, it meant she was mostly okay. Killing everyone in the room might make him feel better, but it wouldn’t help her.

Dorian lifted the doctor from the console chair and held him in the air. “Is there any reason we need this one alive?”

“Yes—the sick bastard needs to tell medical how to get these blasted things out of me without destroying my legs. It’s taken him hours to put them in me,” Gwen said tiredly.

Boca and Ania rushed over and began working to unfasten the straps that held her. “Wait—,” Gwen said. “I can’t feel my legs right now. He said I wouldn’t be able to walk. Zade, put the doctor down and catch me.”

Dorian shoved the nervous male into the chair again, spoke and hit him between the eyes, watching the doctor’s shock as he realized he couldn’t move.

He walked to Gwen then and braced her body with his, feeling her arms come around his neck when they were free. That’s when Dorian realized he wasn’t feeling anything else. His energy was gone from her.

“What have they done?” Dorian asked, his voice quivering with emotion. “How is this possible? I don’t
feel
you.”

Gwen knew what he meant but was unable to comfort him when they needed to rescue the ambassador and get out of the place before the group came to collect the ambassador.

“They called it a ‘mate cleansing.’ It was the first thing they did to me. I’ve got to say, Zade, it took them a long damn time to extract it all,” Gwen said, closing her eyes at the pain in her legs. She’d have to think about the rest of it later. It had been worse than the wires and she had wept the whole time.

“Gwen,” Dorian whispered roughly, catching her carefully to avoid the protruding wires when the ankle restraints were removed. “My body grieves its loss of you.”

“Zade—we can’t talk about this now. We have to save Ambassador Onin so she can tell the Peace Alliance about this situation. They’ve sold her to some controlling bastard who’s supposed to come get her today,” she said, feeling him sweep her naked form gently up in his arms. “I think all the females here are being controlled by the same kind of devices they were putting in me. I don’t know exactly how they work.”

“Fener Sel has been dealt with. We freed the females in the main building. They’re waiting at the shuttle. The fate of the rest we will have to turn over to the Peace Alliance,” Ania said. “This is Boca Ador. She has told us all females on this planet are hostages. They did a good job keeping that secret from the Peace Alliance.”

“You got Fener Sel already? Good. Saves me the trouble,” Gwen said. “If my legs didn’t hurt like hell, I’d kick the damn doctor until he was dead.”

“
Hell?
” Boca repeated, looking at Ania.

“Earth term—a form of swearing,” Ania answered absently.

She looked at Zade, who was just standing there holding a still-naked Gwen who was going into shock. “Can we move on to finding the ambassador?”

Dorian turned to leave, but stopped in front of the doctor. “How can these be safely removed?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never been asked to remove them,” the doctor said quietly, looking up into the giant male’s eyes and seeing his death. He hoped the truth would bring mercy. “She will walk once her body adjusts to their presence. The technique was taught to us by slave traders. Rarely does a female suffer long. You have my word that your female is not permanently harmed.”

“Are you saying you are not useful to us anymore?” Ania asked, coming to stand in front of the now quivering false healer.

“Do not touch me. Your energy is dark—like a demon’s,” the doctor said fearfully, trying to pull back from her.

“Your intuition serves you well in this case. Too bad it didn’t help you not to put your energy into helping enslave females. Is there anything else you can tell us?” Ania asked.

Boca spoke up as she stooped to retrieve her controller’s severed hand from where she’d dropped it. “What is the range of the power to control?”

“Right,” Ania said. “Tell us the range.”

He quoted a measurement that did not extend far.

“So the females at the shuttle are not in danger and neither is the ambassador,” Ania said. “Dorian, take Gwen to the shuttle and load the rescued females. Let Synar know what’s going on. Boca and I will rescue the ambassador.”

Dorian nodded. “I wish to kill the doctor.”

“There is no time,” Ania said gently. “You have to see to Gwen. Malachi and I will see to it that this is never done to another female in this lab.”

“What are you planning to do?” Gwen asked, her head rolling on Zade’s arm. Now that the current wasn’t jolting her awake every few seconds, exhaustion was setting in.

“Rest, Commander,” Ania said. “We will soon be gone from this place and you’ll need that sass for dealing with the medical team on the Liberator.”

“Just remember who’s the damn first mate,” Gwen said, rolling her head back and resting it against Dorian’s chest.

“If we forget, I’m sure you’ll remind us,” Dorian said, forcing himself to walk away from the male who had harmed her. “Ania, could you send Malachi along to protect us. I don’t want to put Gwen down to fight.”

It would be my pleasure
, Malachi sent.
I’m quite enamored of the young commander.

Ania snorted, not surprised.
When they are safely boarded, return here and destroy the building. Spare none that remain inside this wretched place. Then go back to Fener Sel and finish him. Afterwards, cut off the controlling hands of all the remaining males, but leave them alive as a warning.

Malachi quivered in delight at her orders.
Did I once bemoan being put into a female as a host? Forgive me, Ania Looren. You are as bloodthirsty as any male and more creative. All you command will be done.

Outside the facility, Malachi left her, travelling around Dorian and Gwen like a cloud. Ania suspected that none they passed would even see them.

“You going to keep carrying that bloody stump around even though now you know it keeps you in range,” Ania said, looking at Boca.

Boca smiled, but it wasn’t the pleasant smile of a happy female. Ania thought it made her look like a predator.

“I’m going to keep it until we get to your ship. Your medical team might need it to understand how to help future females who are rescued—or even your commander.”

“Good thinking,” Ania said, nodding. “What kind of work did you do before you were captured?”

“I was a healer,” Boca answered. “Now I am broken myself and of no use to anyone.”