“If you need to piss, better do it now,” he said. “No shower.”

Were they leaving? He wasn’t packing up. He wasn’t even wearing his boots.

Raven hobbled into the bathroom, leaning on the wall and taking arthritic grandma-steps. It took forever to get there.

In the bathroom mirror, Raven paused long enough to look at herself. The studs in her breasts and the rings in her nipples actually looked pretty good. They were a little red, but not puffy at all. They looked as healed as her belly button ring had looked a whole week after she’d gotten it. The same went for her eyebrow rings and her stomach-hoops. Her pussy, though. God, that hurt.

Raven washed her face and dabbed under her arms with soap, trying to take off just a little of the sweat-smell fogging around her. She scrubbed up with the corner of a towel, then ran cold water over it, wrung it out good, and just touched it to her sex. Nothing down there could possibly feel good, but the cold towel made it at least less bad. A little. When she took the towel away, there were tiny spots of red here and there.

The door opened and Kane leaned in. He cocked his head at the towel in her hand. “Is that blood?” he asked.

“Are you surprised?” she asked irritably.

“No.” He laughed a little, and then came all the way in and dropped to one knee. She felt him fingering carefully at each metal setting. “Nothing looks torn.”

“Better luck next time.”

He glanced up at her with a particularly wry smile, but said nothing. He continued his inspection, and when he was finished, he stood up and washed his hands. “I’ve made you something for the pain,” he said. “Hopefully, something a little more your taste.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He gave her hip a pat and left her.

Raven finished cleaning herself up and shuffled back out to the main room. He was waiting by the table, loading his injector, and it was more than just the pain of movement that made the trip across the room a long one. What were those drugs he was putting into her? She’d done just about everything that could be done in her short street-life, but at least everything she’d popped, smoked or swallowed came from Earth. Kane didn’t even know how to open a can of pop, and he was making drugs for her?

But when he snapped his fingers, her feet took her to him without hesitation. She had misgivings, but they were all intangible. Pain was real, and as much as she hurt now, she knew he could always hurt her more.

She held out her arm, wincing away from it as though trying to physically separate herself from it. She felt his hand enclose her wrist and then the cool head of the injector pushed down on her skin and spat something into her. It stung, but only for a second. Then there was warmth, blushing out through her entire body and nestling in her brain like a bunch of happy baby snakes.

Kane was still holding onto her, staring up into her face with an expectant expression while he rubbed his thumb over the point of injection. She wasn’t sure what he was waiting for, but she found herself strangely agreeable to being petted. He could be gentle when he wanted to be. It was almost enough to make her wish he wanted to be a little more often.

“How do you feel?” Kane asked.

Raven ran her hands down her body. “Like skin,” she told him, and giggled. “God, that shit works fast!”

“Yes, it does. Can you walk?”

Raven obligingly stepped over to the door and back again. She finished with a twirl and would have tried a curtsy, but she got dizzy and needed to fall into Kane to keep her balance. He caught her, which was thoughty of him. “Whoops!” she said brightly, and bit him.

He tensed, his hands clenching on her briefly. “I wish I knew what was making you do that,” he murmured.

“Mm. You taste good.” She wriggled against him more fully, twining her arms around his neck and nibbling all over his chest.

He shivered, still holding her, and growled like thunder. Far-away thunder on a warm summer night, with stars coming out and a full moon rising and crickets singing, maybe a little smoke hanging just under the smell of impending rain. Yeah. He growled just like that.

Raven closed her eyes and moved her mouth over him. Every slow bite brought a new bloom of pleasure from muscles that she knew should be sore. She began to dance lazily in place, just to feel her pierced nipples press and slide against him.

Kane growled sharply and suddenly pushed Raven to arm’s length. “We’re not playing this game again,” he said severely.

Raven put her hand over his groin and rubbed at the growing bulge he constrained. “Who’s playing?”

“You need to heal.”

“I need to fuck.” She started to touch herself, but Kane caught her wrists and held them up at shoulder height. She leaned forward and licked his chest instead. “I feel fantastic.”

“I cut that dose in half,” Kane muttered. “Maybe a little less chozo.” He bent with an air of real reluctance and grazed his teeth along her shoulder as she bit and sucked at him. “Maybe not.”

Raven leaned into him and slowly, grudgingly, he allowed her to move against him. The salt of his sweat was the greatest rush she’d ever had, the tang of blood, orgasmic. She ground her hips eagerly at his, letting his hardness act as catalyst for brilliant euphoria as her bruised sex pressed into him.

“Don’t!” he snarled, and shoved her back again. “You’re never going to get better if—”

She dropped to her knees, wrapped her arms around his waist and bit him on his inner thigh. Whatever else he was going to say vanished under a hoarse roar. His hands flew to her head, pulling her hard against him, not just encouraging her but damned near commanding her. She bit and bit at him, but the feel of the strange material of his pants wasn’t satisfying. She raised up and scored at his abdomen with her teeth, rubbing her cheek against his groin and tugging hopefully at his iron grip.

He raised her wrists over her head, but let her bite. Slyly, she slid around to grind her hips at his leg, riding him like a badly-trained bitch. He yanked her to her feet at once, and then pushed her away. The back of her knees struck the bed and she fell onto the mattress, bouncing like a little kid.

Kane approached her, smiling crookedly. “Close your eyes,” he said. “Count to ten.”

She started to obey, but she only got to three before she realized he was tying her up again. She started struggling at once, howling dismay, but Kane had her bound hand and foot in less than a minute.

She lay glaring at him, twisting ineffectively at her restraints. “You’re mean.”

“Ah, I’m just misunderstood.” He sat down beside her, his eyes running scorchingly down her body and back up again. “Look at you,” he growled. “You look like someone shot you.”

She writhed on the mattress, pulling at her bonds one at a time, her face contorting with frustration and ecstasy. “Can I fuck you, pleeeeese?” she whined.

“No.”

“Can I blow you?”

“Not a chance.”

She pouted for a second or two, still struggling. “Can I have breakfast?”

Kane glanced toward the door, his eyes narrowing. “I suppose so. Where do you keep the money?”

“I don’t know.” She grew crafty. “Why don’t you search me?” She snapped her teeth at him.

His nostrils flared and half his mouth drew up in a smile. He leaned over and put his hands on her shoulders, and then swept them down, cupping her breasts. She arched up, moaning happily, and his hands continued down over her ribs to her belly, her hips, her thighs, and finally up again to stroke and tease at her sex. Pleasure blew out and out until it enveloped her completely.

“Nope, no money.” Kane stood up and backed away as Raven surged against her restraints.

“No! Come back here! You jerk!”

He laughed as he fished through her skirt pockets. He came up with the cash and then climbed into his long coat.