“Five?” Daria pressed. “Ten?”

“Many,” said Tagen. He picked up the tuning controls for the tee-vee and brought the picture on again. His law program was on, but he found it difficult to concentrate. A chemist’s pack with only the most rudimentary supplies would not be much larger than his own supply pack. What would E’Var need but a harvester, an analyzer and extractor module for a chemist’s computer, and a few empty containers for the processed Vahst? “Many.”

“Then do me a favor and watch the damn news.” She picked up his glass and stalked back toward the hall. He heard her mutter, “Many,” as she retreated.

Tagen watched her go and then scrolled down through the channels until he reached the media programs. He listened as he moved slowly through the different feeds.

“…dead in a Shiite mosque this morning after an attack by a suicide bomber. The official death toll is estimated to be over three hundred…”

“…mysteriously collapsed. Investigators have confirmed foul play…”

“…making him the youngest person ever to be accused of first-degree murder. A spokesperson for the district has said the seven-year-old will be tried as an adult…”

“…shot and killed seven co-workers and injured eighteen others…”

“…the seventh school shooting this year…”

“…stabbed last night…”

“…dead this morning…”

“…no suspects…”

“…no clues as to the victim’s identity…”

After a while, it just all ran together.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Twelve

Raven swam in a haze of light, surrounded by invisible colors. She still knew they were there, somehow, but at least they had become invisible, so she knew she had to be coming down. She also knew she was in the hotel and tied to the bed, which was in itself a marked improvement over earlier, when she had honestly believed she was swimming. Breaststroke and everything. Yeah, he was a heavy-handed bastard and a murderer, but give the Devil his due, Kane made some nice shit.

And speak of the Devil…

Kane unlocked the door and came inside, one arm curled around a bucket of Colonel Sanders’ finest. He glanced at her, grunted, and closed the door. “How do you feel?”

The question sparked a strong sense of déjà vu. He must have asked her before.

“Pretty good.” When he only arched a brow at her, she added, “Nothing hurts.”

“Really?” He put the food down, tossed his hat on the table and shrugged out of his coat. “Nothing?”

“Well, okay, my arms hurt, but that’s from being tied up, you jerk.” Oops. Shouldn’t have called him a jerk. She guessed she wasn’t as sober as she thought she was.

“I wouldn’t have to tie you up if you’d behave,” he replied mildly, coming to her side. “You don’t have a wide stripe of self-control.”

And oooh, did she want to answer that.

Kane fingered the metal ornamenting her breasts and belly, then parted her pussy lips and stroked cautiously at her labia. His hands were completely impersonal, his expression merely academically interested. “This doesn’t hurt?”

“A little, but only when you touch ‘em. And it’s not so bad.” Raven nibbled at her lip, debating the wisdom of her next words. “Please untie me.”

He raised his eyes to meet hers.

“Please.”

“I think one more night will do you good,” he told her.

He was serious.

“Kane, please!” Raven cried. “My arms are killing me!”

Kane reached up to enclose her arm in his hands. He rubbed slowly, kneading at her biceps with the rough pads of his fingers. Her strained muscles came unlocked, much as Raven wanted to resist, and in the end, she shut her eyes and just tried to pretend she was somewhere else. It wasn’t hard. Not in the state she was in.

He went to work on the other arm, chuckling. “I don’t know why I do these things to myself,” he said conversationally. “I’d love to have you untied. And grateful. But, damn me, I love to torture you even more.”

His hand strayed down to the crux of her splayed legs and stroked past steel and into secrets. She winced at the bruisy ache his touch awakened, and he growled low in response. “I’d have to be a lot more careful than I know how to be,” he muttered, and then grinned at her. “But you’re healing up fast.”

“Untie me,” she said. “There’s things I could do.”

“Oh, I know.” He laughed softly, his finger driving slow up inside her, teasing her with uncustomary gentleness. “And I want you to do them, that’s the hell of it. Am I hurting you, Raven?”

“A little.” And behind the hurt, there was that glowy good-will that was the echo of his waning drug, a thing that made the pain easy to endure.

He adjusted the angle of his thrusting hand. “And now?”

“No,” she whispered. She closed her eyes.

“You look so unhappy,” he observed. “Your face is a liar, Raven. You know you like what I do to you.”

“When the sun gets hot, you get hard,” she said, and his hand stopped moving. “Do you like it?”

Silence.

Stupid drug-addled thing to say. She didn’t much care. Colors were everywhere.

Then laughter, low and genuinely pleased. His hand resumed its lazy rhythm on and inside her. “Mm, I like that. Kanetus E’Var y tantanka Vahst. Ha.” His fingertip began to rub in tiny, rapid circles as he thrust and Raven ground up at him with that sleepy-brained pleasure before remembering she hated him and trying to pull away.

“No no no,” Kane crooned, leaning over her as he rubbed. “Ge-sa en Vahst. I don’t care. And I don’t let you care. I am Heat. Ahhh.” The sound came from him as he arched against her, his bare chest pressing against hers. He grazed his sharp teeth along her shoulder and then whispered, “You’re wet, Raven. You are. Listen. You don’t have to open your eyes if you don’t want to. You can hear it.”

She could. She could hear the sucking, greedy sounds of her body wanting what he gave her. “So what?” she said. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

“No, you’re right, it absolutely does not.”

He took his hand from her suddenly, and Raven’s eyes flashed wide. She bucked her hips, but he was already standing and walking away, leaving her keyed and empty. She stared after him in disbelief and then struggled, really struggled, against the sheet binding her ankles. Kane leaned against the wall, chewing on a piece of chicken. He watched her, smiling.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Since that very first time at the rave on the beach, there had only been two kinds of sex for Raven: either it was good and she came, or it was business and she didn’t. Kane had proved he could make her cum whether she wanted to or not. He was a king and a country all his own, but that didn’t give him the right to do this, to make her hot and then shut her down. It wasn’t fair. It just…wasn’t fair!

But an endless bout of pitching, kicking and pulling got her nothing but a burning sensation where her bindings chafed. Exhausted, she fell back, capable only of writhing in weak futility. Her efforts had sent her heart to racing, and that in turn only stirred up the quasi-intoxication of her brain, loosening her lips even though she was just sober enough to understand the un-wisdom of what she was about to say.

“What are you waiting for?”

“I never know with you,” he replied seriously. “Maybe I’m waiting for you to ask me nicely.”

“You untie me right now, you son of a bitch!” she screamed.

He burst out laughing.

She lost it. With her inhibitions firmly out the window for now, she unleashed a rage of truly volcanic proportions. She bucked and banged the headboard. She cursed him until she ran out of profanities and was reduced to wordless tantrum-screaming. She managed to knock a picture off the hotel wall and tip the lamp on the nightstand over, but that was it. Ultimately, she wore out and sagged into the bedding, choking on the rawness of her throat, sweaty and trembling with strain.