“Don’t touch it, little Mistress.” The growling voice over her left shoulder made Jillian jerk her hand away from the grample and whirl around.
Kalis was standing there, a stormy look in his silver-green eyes.
“Don’t…fucking…touch it,” he repeated, his voice a low growl. “If you take a gift from the big bastard, you’ll owe him one in return, according to Market Law. And you don’t want to owe a Trollox.”
The Trollox snatched the grample out of sight, both heads glaring down at the big warrior.
“Who asked you?” the yellow-eyed head snarled in its strange, high voice. It sounded like the Trollox had been sucking on a helium balloon, Jillian thought.
Kalis didn’t answer. He only nodded at Jillian.
“Come, little Mistress—let it go and we can get another one later. The tram’s about to start.”
“Um…all right.” Feeling shaky—as though she’d barely avoided something really bad—Jillian turned away from the enormous Trollox and headed for the tram.
But as she stepped aboard, she looked over her shoulder and saw that the two-headed monster was still staring at her balefully with both sets of eyes. As she watched, the Trollox held up the grample between one massive finger and thumb and crushed it until purple juice splattered on the dusty ground.
Shivering, Jillian turned hastily away and looked towards the other side of the market, trying to ignore the angry eyes she could still feel on her back until the tram pulled smoothly away.
4
After the situation with the Trollox, everything was fine. In fact, the trouble hadn’t really started until after they got the thaelite into her shuttle, Jillian thought…
The rest of the trip on the tram had been uneventful. They hadn’t really talked much—Jillian wasn’t sure what to say to the huge warrior—though she did thank him for helping her with the Trollox.
“You don’t want to fuck around with a Trollox,” he’d said darkly as they stepped off the tram and headed for the Buy-All-Sell-All’s exit. “They’re always on the lookout for lush, curvy Elites like you, little Mistress.”
“And…you think he would have demanded a ‘gift’ in return, if I’d accepted the grample from him?” she’d asked, doing her best to ignore his compliment, which made her heart flutter a bit, she had to admit.
“Absolutely. And you wouldn’t want to know what he’d ask,” Kalis said grimly. “Something fucking horrible, probably. Excuse my language, little Mistress.”
“Please, don’t apologize.” Jillian had waved a hand dismissively. “I’ve worked in professional kitchens most of my life—I’ve probably heard every swear word you can think of and then some.”
Kalis nodded, an easy smile playing around the corners of his mouth.
“Yeah—same for the Blood Circuit. Lots of swearing and knives flying.”
“Pretty much exactly like a kitchen then,” Jillian said, laughing a little.
“Except you don’t usually fight to the death making Last Meal,” Kalis rumbled. “This your ship?” he added, nodding at the sleek sliver Kindred shuttle in front of them.
“This is it.” Jillian had felt the impulse to ask him more about the Blood Circuit—was it some kind of Ultimate Fighting thing? But she thought it was probably better to let things go. After all, she was never going to see him again after this and it didn’t matter if there seemed to be a sexy little spark between them—he was a bodyslave, owned by the Yonnite Mistress—absolutely nothing could come of any kind of mutual attraction.
She pressed her hand to the side of the shuttle and the door slid obligingly open.
Kalis peered inside and nodded approval.
“Nice. You got an antigrav compartment I can put this in?” he asked, nodding down at the brick in his cupped hands.
Jillian frowned.
“Um…an antigrav compartment?”
He nodded.
“They usually have one in a shuttle like this—helps with carrying heavy, dense, or fragile objects you don’t want getting bumped around. Mind if I look?”
“Help yourself,” Jillian told him. She couldn’t help thinking, as the big warrior climbed into the shuttle and looked around, that it seemed built to his larger proportions. Was he some kind of a Kindred? It seemed rude to ask so she kept her mouth shut.
“Here you go,” Kalis called and she came to see what he was looking at.
“Oh—I thought that was some kind of safe or strongbox for storing valuables,” she exclaimed, looking at the small black metal door on the side of the shuttle wall.
“Well, it kind of is,” Kalis remarked. “Only you’re storing whatever the valuable is in antigravity. Do you mind opening it up?” He winced and nodded at the brick of thaelite in his cupped palms. “Even for me, this stuff is getting damn heavy.”
“Oh, sorry!” Quickly, Jillian pressed her palm to the black metal door and it opened with a soft click. Inside was a shiny silver compartment about a foot square. She frowned. “Are you sure that’s a, uh, antigrav chamber?”
“Just watch.” Carefully, Kalis put his cupped hands into the silver compartment. Then, slowly, he opened his fingers, as though he was releasing a wild bird.
Jillian watched in amazement as the incredibly heavy, ultra-dense brick of thaelite drifted quietly inside the shiny silver walls, as though it was lighter than air.
“Wow,” she murmured. “That’s amazing.”
Kalis shrugged his broad shoulders.
“Nah—just antigrav. Looks like magic if you’re not used to it, but it’s not really a big deal.”
“I guess I’m going to have to warn whoever gets it out of there how heavy it is,” Jillian remarked.
“You don’t have to worry about that, little Mistress—I’ll get it out for you,” Kalis rumbled.
“Uh…” Jillian looked at him uncertainly. “But…you’re not coming with me to the Kindred Mother Ship. I have to get you back home to your, uh, Mistress.”
Kalis frowned at her.
“But you are my Mistress now—my old Mistress sold me to you.”
“No, she didn’t!” Jillian protested. “She only, uh, rented you to me in order to transport the thaelite. Like I would rent a moving truck back on Earth,” she added, and then felt bad about comparing him to an inanimate object. But wasn’t it true, though? Wasn’t that what her deal with the Yonnie Mistress boiled down to?
Apparently the big bodyslave didn’t think so.
“I hate to contradict my Mistress,” Kalis rumbled. “But I was included in the price of the thaelite—I’m sure of it.”
Jillian took a deep breath, trying to think how to defuse this situation.
“Look—I can totally understand you wanting to get away from her. I mean, she seems awful. But I’m really sorry, I am just not the one to smuggle you out of here! I’m not allowed to bring back strangers to the Mother Ship for one thing—the Kindred High Council forbids it. And—”
“That’s all fine and good, little Mistress,” Kalis interrupted her, though Jillian thought she saw a flash of hurt in his silver-green eyes. “We can go back to my old Mistress and you can try to return me if you want.”