“So you think they’re people who lived on Earth?”
“Not these ones,” he answered. “The original humans would have been irradiated, then over the years they bred, somehow. Evolved—or devolved, may be a better description—in their own way. That’s what these poor creatures are.”
Nera shuddered. “If I get bitten, kill me.”
He turned to look at her. “No. I couldn’t do it.”
She blinked. “You’d condemn me to that?”
“No. I’d contain you, and work until I had a cure to turn you back.”
Something warm bloomed in her chest. She leaned over and pressed her mouth to his.
He made a noise, his arms wrapping around her. He took control, kissing her in that all-consuming way that made every nerve ending light up.
He pulled back, breathing heavily. “This isn’t really what I had in mind when I fantasized about seducing you.”
“I don’t need silk sheets and simulated candlelight.” She’d had that once. Silk sheets still made her shudder.
“But you deserve more than dust, an enviro shelter, and irradiated zombies.”
She stared at his face. They might not make it out. What if she lost him, before she’d ever had him? Emotions swirled inside her, messy and chaotic. Everything she’d avoided her entire life.
Maybe she should give him what he really seemed to want from her. Now, her heart thumped so hard she was sure it was twisted into a knot. She stared blindly at the mass of movingshadows below. Was she really going to bare her soul to him? A soul far uglier than the zombies beneath them?
“I was born on Luvanoi. A moon of Klavinoi.”
He stilled and was so quiet she couldn’t even hear him breathing.
“All the moons and planets in the system pay tribute to the Klavinoi overlords every year.” She swallowed. “A tribute in slaves. My looks became apparent when I was very young and I was earmarked as a tribute.”
“How old were you when they took you?” His voice sounded rusty.
“I was eight.”
She sat quietly for a moment. The memories had been dulled by time. In the early years, she’d tried a great many things to dull them, eradicate them, or replace them…until she’d learned that she had to just learn to live with them. They didn’t hurt so much anymore, but they weren’t pretty.
“My mother cried when they took me. But really, I’d been gone to them from the day I was tribute-marked. I think my father thought of me as just an extra mouth to feed. I was taken to the harems of Vina, Klavinoi’s capital city. I was beautified, trained, educated. The sex slaves of Klavinoi are the most skilled in the galaxy.” She looked at him now, trying to see his face in the shadows. She sensed the tension in him, and finally, he muttered a curse.
“It doesn’t matter how beautiful and pretty they make it, it’s barbaric. All slavery is. No one can ever belong to someone else.” His hands grabbed hers. “Unless they choose to give themselves. And even then, that isn’t slavery. And no one—no one—has the right to turn a child into a sexual toy.”
“It’s not just about the sexual acts. The most skilled are trained in everything—dancing, combat, household skills. You’re a bed partner, a valet, a bodyguard.”
“Slaves in every sense.”
“Yes. You give them everything.” They took your individuality, your soul.
“Was your…master kind?” Nik’s words sounded like broken glass.
“I had a master and a mistress.” She shot him a thin smile. “They weren’t the cruelest of all slave masters, but they weren’t kind either.” Oh, no, they’d had a sadistic streak a mile wide. And they’d demanded obedience in everything.
Nera stared at the zombies. They weren’t free, either. They were slaves to the desires that drove them. They had no choice, and for so long, she’d had no choice either.
“I’m sure I don’t need to go into the details.” She’d been used, shared, expected to service guests with a smile, endure pain. “My duties were varied and they included acting as bodyguard to my master and mistress. To protect their lives with my own.” Even now, the thought burned her. She had taken a laser for them once. “Nothing like having a beautiful slave who can suck cock and fight off an assassin at the same time.”
Niklas slammed his fist into the enviro-shelter wall. The clear dome wobbled under the impact.
She stared at him and swallowed. No one had ever been angry on her behalf before. “Niklas, I’m not telling this to upset you?—”
