Page 70 of Savage Union

“Leave me alone!” I jerked my arm around from him at last. “Captain Turk won’t like it if he catches you bothering me again.”

“Well, who says he’s gonna catch me?” Suddenly Jerx grabbed me by both shoulders and dragged me close to him. “Damn, been wanting to do this ever since that night in the shower,” he informed me. His breath, blowing in my face, smelled like sour ale and unbrushed teeth. “Now I’m gonna stretch out your tight little ass on my cock.”

“Stop it! Leave me alone!” I gasped, twisting in his grasp. “Do you want to get whipped again?”

“Nah, I’m not gonna get whipped.” Shoving his face into mine, Jerx leered at me. “Because as soon as I’m done with you, you’re dead meat. I’ll slit your fucking little Catamite throat and throw you in the trash. Captain won’t ever know what happened to his pretty boy.”

“No! Help!” I struggled to get away but his grip on me was too tight. Desperately, I tried to remember some of the moves Turk had shown me.

Think!I told myself desperately.What did he say to do? What did he teach you?

Reaching up, I gripped both of Jerx’s brawny forearms in my hands, I braced my feet and rocked backwards, pulling him off his center of gravity. He lurched forward, toward me, and I allowed myself to fall onto my back, still pulling him with me.

“Ooof!” he gasped as I kicked him in the stomach as he came down. “You’re…gonna fucking…pay for that…you little bastard!” he panted.

But I was already twisting away from him. I had a brief, hot moment of excitement—I had done it—I had gotten free! Istarted running…only to feel a strong hand wrap itself around my ankle and pull me down.

It was my turn to gasp as the wind was knocked from my lungs. I kicked backwards but Jerx must have dodged because my foot didn’t connect with anything.

“I’ll…have you…yet,” he panted and began dragging me towards him. “Just…hold still…and it’ll be over…soon!”

“No!” I shouted, and kicked again. “No, leave me alone! Leave me?—”

My words were drowned out by a deafening roar and then a scream. Twisting my head around, I saw a sight that froze my heart.

The spiker that had been chained up outside the whorehouse was now on the loose and it was right on top of Jerx. It was huge—a mountain of angry beast— and it was digging its claws into his back and growling.

“Oh my Goddess!” I gasped. Jerx had let go of my ankle so I could have crawled away or even gotten up to run, but I felt frozen to the spot, watching as the horror in front of me unfolded.

Jerx wasn’t frozen. He was screaming and writhing under the massive beast, trying to get away. But he was pinned down—he might as well have tried to get out from under a stone wall that had fallen on him. The massive creature had him and wasn’t letting go.

“That’s right—get him!” I heard someone shouting. “Bite him—tear him! Do it, Fluffers!”

Looking up, I saw the sex worker that Jerx had stiffed (in more than one way) cheering the spiker on. She must have let it off its chain to attack him, I thought dimly. And had she really named it “Fluffers?”

These were the thoughts that were going through my head as the giant spiker opened its jaws and bit off Jerx’s head.There was a ripping, crunching sound and then blood spurtedeverywhere.

“Oh my Goddess,” I breathed in horror.

Finally, my paralysis broke and I was able to scramble up on my hands and knees. But my actions drew the spiker’s attention. Still crunching on Jerx’s head, like a kid with an extra-large piece of candy in his mouth, it turned its orange gaze on me.

I froze again. Oh Goddess, was I going to be next? Was I going to die here, like Jerx had?

Suddenly I heard a familiar voice say,

“Jessina—don’t move!”

I couldn’t have moved if I had wanted to. I was trapped now—caught in a staring contest with the enormous spiker and unsure of how to extract myself from the situation.

“Hey, don’t point that blaster at my Fluffers!” I heard the sex worker saying.

“Get him away from my crew member then,” the deep voice demanded. “He’s already killed one of them!”

“Only ‘cause he wouldn’t pay,” the sex worker shot back. “Used both my twats, he did and didn’t give me so much as a trimblub for my trouble.”

I didn’t know what a “trimblub” was—maybe one of those weird square coins they used here? But I was sure that the deep voice belonged to Turk.

“Get him away from my crew member,” he insisted again.

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