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But inside, he was still trying to push that little voice away—the voice that whispered that he liked the role he’d played as Sky’lar’s bodyslave…as her submissive…and that he’d liked giving her control of his body and obeying her orders when she told him to kneel and kiss her panties…
NINETEEN
SKY
“I still think I ought to go with you,” Torin insisted, hovering over her shoulder as Sky prepared to leave the ship. “This is a bad part of town—anything could happen!”
“What’s going to happen is you’ll scare the poor girl to death if I let you tag along,” Sky said impatiently. “You’re as big as a mountain, Torin! She’ll never open the door to me if I have you looming over my shoulder.”
“But—” he began.
“Look.” Sky turned on him abruptly. “I know you Kindred have a protective instinct when it comes to females, but I can take care of myself. I’m armed—remember?” She nodded at the blaster on one hip and the stun-stick on the other. Not to mention the dagger she always had in her boot. “Plus, I’m used to going into dangerous situations on my own.”
Torin frowned, his face like a thundercloud.
“I don’t fucking like you going off alone, Darlin’. Especially where there might gangs of cast-offs anywhere around here.”
“Cast-offs?” Sky raised her eyebrows.
“Ex-bodyslaves that were thrown out or discarded by their Mistresses,” Torin explained. “They hate females because they were abandoned and abused by the women who owned them.”
“If they bother me, I’ll blast them,” Sky said simply. “Now let me do my job.”
The big Kindred didn’t look happy about it, but he lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender.
“Fine—go on ahead. Just promise you’ll shout for help if you need me.”
“I’ll be fine,” Sky said shortly. “Just stay here and I’ll be back soon—hopefully with Mistress Mirabella.”
Without waiting for a reply, she slipped out of the ship and made her way down the darkened street.
The address Mistress Hottalot had given them really was in an unsavory part of Opulex, she mused, as she walked stealthily through the shadows, her blaster in one hand. The buildings were decaying and there were piles of refuse on the corners that seemed to indicate the trash service didn’t dare to run here. A rotten odor lingered in the air, making her sensitive nose wrinkle.
Well, every city had bad spots, Sky told herself. In Hx’lss—the capital city of Portex Three—it was Region Three. That was where the criminals—mostly scale thieves and skin cloners—hung out.
Because the different clans of Serpentines could be told by their scale patterns, much of their security was based on scale recognition. But if a clever thief could steal a few scales or even an entire shed skin from one of the High Clans, he could grow himself a fake skin to wear. This enabled him to commit the Serpentine version of identity theft, which cost the financial institutions of Portex Three billions of credits annually.
Sky had been on plenty of raids to Region Three, busting up criminal clans and confiscating their skin-growth vats. And yet, there always seemed to be more, no matter how often she and her squad—
She stopped, straining her ears. Was that a footstep behind her?
She whirled around but there was no one there—nothing but the ever-present shadows.
Sky told herself she was being jumpy—letting the giant Kindred’s words get to her.
I’ll be fine, she told herself, tightening her grip on her blaster. She was coming to the turn which led to the building that housed Mistress Mirabella’s hide-out. When she reached it, she saw it was a blind alley between two of the oldest, most decrepit buildings in the whole area. There was no light visible—just a mass of shadows that clustered ominously in the long, narrow space.
Thanks to her Kindred blood, Sky had excellent night vision but even with her superior ability, the alley was dark. Still, this was the only entrance to Mistress Mirabella’s “safe house.” So she lifted her chin and stepped into the shadows.
She made her way down the narrow alley until she came to a thick, metal door in the side of the building on her left. She almost missed it—it was painted gray and the building was made of crumbling gray stones—only the brown patches of rust blooming on the metal showed where the door was.
Taking a deep breath, Sky pounded on the metal panel.
Boom…boom…boom! echoed through the alleyway, making her wince at the noise. Still, how else could she reach the missing Mistress? Mirabella wasn’t answering vid calls from anyone, according to Mistress Hottalot. A fact which had been proven since they had tried several times without success to reach her from Torin’s ship.
“Mistress Mirabella?” she called, hoping the woman inside could hear her. “This is Special Agent Sky’lar from Portex Three. Mistress Hottalot gave me your address. Please, I need to speak to you!”
