The first and only indications they had of the danger was a deep vibration that felt like something had hit the hull of the ship.
Torn, who had been avidly watching his brother lap the little Elite’s pussy, jerked his head up.
“What the fuck was that?” he growled. “Asteroid?”
“Don’t know.” Bound looked up, frowning. Lorelei had finished coming for the fourth time—or was it the fifth—and she looked at both of them, like a female coming out of a dream.
“Is everything all right?” she asked, her voice husky from all the moaning and crying she’d been doing.
Gods, she was beautiful, Torn thought, his heart swelling with protectiveness and desire. Already he was more than half in love with her. Bound had chosen well!
“Fine, Little Mistress,” he assured her, stroking her long, wavy hair with his one free hand. Now that they had a break in their love-play, he really needed to get her to free his metal arm. He might hate it and the ones who had put it on him, but at least it was functional. Also, it was Goddess-damned awkward to be using only one arm all the time…
Just as he was thinking that, the Genoshian slavers burst into the room.
There were three of them. As they came into sight, Torn was instantly enraged.
Blue-skinned, six-armed, bug-faced bastards, he thought, savagely. I’ll fucking kill them!
Two had blasters in their dominant hands and multiple smaller weapons in their smaller, secondary hands. The third carried a kind of whip made of long, silky white fibers that swished through the air in what seemed like slow-motion.
“What—?” Bound was just starting to look up when the slaver carrying the whip flicked his wrist, causing a net of white filaments to surround his head.
“What the fuck are you doing to my brother?” Torn demanded.
The slavers didn’t answer him, but spoke to each other in their buzzing, insectile language.
“Do it quickly—there are more than we thought.”
“Three and two of them Kindred. A good haul. As for the lush little female—there will be a bidding war at the Flesh Bazaar for her! Quickly, Yrrrth—are you finished with the first?”
“The Memory Thief is fast but it must have time to work,” the slaver with the whip growled. “I will get to the second male as fast as I can.”
“Who…what are they?” Lorelei’s big brown eyes were wide with fright. She might not understand the slavers’ language—which defied even the Kindred translation bacteria—but Torn knew it well enough. The Genoshians had been frequent visitors to the caves of the V’radors—both species made a living off the sale of other sentients.
“Get your fucking hands off my brother,” he growled menacingly and thrust Lorelei behind him, protecting her with his body as he reached for the whip.
“Watch out!” one of the slavers buzzed as Torn ripped the pulsing white filaments from Bound’s head and rose to stand before them. “The dark one is up—he looks dangerous.”
“You’re Goddess-damned right, I’m fucking dangerous,” Torn growled.
“Get him!” shouted another slaver. “Take care of him and leave the female for last. She’ll fetch a high price at the Flesh Bazaar!”
“You won’t fucking touch her!” Torn roared. And then the nanites took over, crowding his vision, making it dark red, as though someone had dipped his eyes in blood. Protect the Mistress, they whispered in his ear. She is in danger—protect her—protect her!
Torn was vaguely aware of screaming—perhaps from Lorelei—as well as grunting and cursing and the eruption of blasters going off. One of slavers tried to throw the whip with its white floating fibers over his head but Torn grabbed it and snapped it in half, one-handed. He was going to kill them all but the bastards had an advantage on him—each of them had six hands and he had only one.
Doesn’t matter—protect the Mistress—protect the Mistress!
Then the red Rage overtook him and he knew no more.
* * * * *
Lorelei watched in horror as the blue, bug-like creatures with six arms and bulging compound eyes crowded into the bedroom. They seemed to be everywhere at once and while Torn was fighting them as hard as he could, Bound just lay there on the bed, a vacant expression in his deep blue eyes.
What’s wrong with him? she wondered frantically. She wanted to grab him, to shake him and demand he get up but there was no way to get to him and soon it would be too late.
For Torn, despite fighting like a madman, was losing the fight.
It’s not fair, Lorelei thought as he shook off one of the bug-creatures who was trying to grab his shoulders and punched another. He only has one hand! How can he beat them with only one hand?
“You know what to do, daughter,” whispered that soft, feminine voice in her head. “You know where the key is. Go get it—now!”
There was no time to think or analyze where the voice was coming from this time. There was only time to obey.
Lorelei saw her chance—an opening between the blue bug-things and Torn—a clear way to the bathroom. Rolling off the bed, she dashed between them and fumbled in the pile of dirty clothes she’d left on the floor before she took her shower. The key—where was the magnetic key the Countess du’Montrive had given her what seemed like a thousand years ago?
At last she found it and fumbled it out of her pocket.
“Simply be holding the key against the metal restraint belt for a full second and it will be unlocking,” she heard the Countess telling her as she looked at the tiny, flat thing—not much bigger than a large coin. “This will be unlocking the restraint and the male will be freed.”
Lorelei grasped the thin key tightly in her hand and turned back to the bathroom door. What she saw made her heart sink.
The blue alien bug things had Torn down and his one good arm was behind his back, bent at an unnatural angle—it looked broken. He was still snarling and fighting them but it was three against one because Bound still wasn’t moving. He just lay on the bed quietly while one of the blue aliens fastened a collar around his neck, not even fighting when they pulled the collar tight…
What’s wrong with Bound? Lorelei thought despairingly. And how can I help Torn with those awful bug things in the way?
“Have courage, my daughter. The time to despair is not yet,” whispered the voice in her ear. “Simply get close enough to Torn to do what must be done.”
Sometime after this was all over, Lorelei told herself, she was going to have to go to a doctor and get a complete check-up. Hearing voices in your head—no matter how good their advice was—wasn’t usually a good sign.
But for now, she decided to do as the voice commanded.
It wasn’t easy though. The blue beetle-looking aliens were absolutely terrifying with their long, chitinous arms and bulging, compound eyes. Lorelei hated bugs and being confronted with bugs who were easily twice as big as she was made her feel like puking and screaming at the same time. She would rather do almost anything than get close enough to let one of them touch her.
But what else could she do? They had hurt Bound somehow—making him completely non-responsive. And Torn had gotten his arm broken trying to protect her. Even now he was fighting and struggling with all his might. She had to help them—had to help the men she cared about.
Taking a deep breath to bolster her nerves, she ran into the bedroom, straight for Torn.
“Torn, what did they do to you?” she gasped, throwing her arms around his prone form.
The blue beetle aliens started buzzing at once in agitation. Lorelei couldn’t understand their words but she got a very general idea of what they were saying.
“Here now—don’t let her! Stop her! Get her!”
Horrible alien bug hands, bristling with spiky bluish-black hairs, were suddenly latching onto her bare skin. But before they could pull her off, Lorelei had a chance to slap the magnetic key-coin onto the frayed metal restraint belt that held Torn’s mechanical arm to his side.
As the aliens pulled her off the big Kindred warrior, she shouted as loud as she could.
“You’re free, Torn! Your arm is free!”
“What?” He half turned over and with that movement, the belt parted, dissolving and fizzing away like an Alka-Seltzer tablet dissolves in water. His eyes, which had been blank and filled with rage, just as they had been when she first saw him in the cage on Femalah, suddenly filled with understanding.
He drew back the newly freed metal arm and punched right through one of the alien’s compound eyes.
Black ichor sprayed in a sudden gout and an unearthly screeching filled the air as the huge blue beetle writhed and jerked frantically. The others let go of Lorelei and tried to restrain Torn again but the huge Dark Twin was unstoppable. He was still fighting one-handed—his wounded arm dangling uselessly by his side—but the metal arm was a deadly weapon—faster and stronger than anything Lorelei had ever seen before.
It seemed to move in a silver blur as he gripped one alien by the throat and broke its neck with a single squeeze, then punched the other in the thorax so hard that the entire arm disappeared inside its armored shell and came out the other side, covered in black and green guts.
Lorelei shivered in disgust and fear. She had scrambled to the far corner of the bed and huddled there, wishing she could look away from the carnage but unable to close her eyes, even for a second.
In a matter of minutes all three of the blue beetle aliens were dead or twitching on the floor and Torn was standing there, one arm dangling useless and the other dripping, the black fist clenched at his side.
He turned to face her, his gaze still wild and blank. The shadows were gathered around his blazing green eyes and for a moment Lorelei was so frightened she could hardly breathe.
The nanites have taken over again! He doesn’t know me! He’ll kill me too!
“Call him by name, daughter.” The warm, comforting voice filled her mind. “Claim him and he will know you.”
“T-torn?” Lorelei whispered in a low, stuttering voice. “Torn, come back to me, please? It’s Lorelei. It’s your…your Mistress.”
“Mistress?” The shadows cleared as the nanites dispersed. “Lorelei!” The huge Kindred went to her, coming to the side of the bed to fall to his knees beside her. “Gods,” he groaned and dropped his dark, shaggy head to her lap. “Oh Goddess…I should have heard them coming! Fucking Genoshian slavers…”
“No, Torn! It’s not your fault.” She cuddled him close, feeling tears rise to her eyes as she stroked her fingers through his wild hair. “You were so brave!” She whispered. “You saved us!”
“Maybe not.” He rose with another groan, his broken arm still dangling, and reached for his twin. “Bound!” he growled, shaking the other warrior’s shoulder. “Bound, what the fuck is wrong with you? Wake up, Brother!”
At the sound of his name, Bound blinked and finally stirred. But when he looked up at Torn, his face was blank.
“Who are you?” he asked, his voice puzzled as he looked from Torn to Lorelei and back again. “And…who am I?”