Page 70 of Rescued

“Dirty or disgusting? What are you talking about?” Davrik frowned. “Why would I think that?”

“I guess because…because that’s how I feel.” She shook her head and looked down, not meeting his eyes. “My skin still burns where he…where he shot his stuff on me. I scrubbed and scrubbed but it still hurts and I feel like I’ll never be clean again!”

“Oh, baby girl…” Davrik felt like his heart was breaking. Poor little female! She’d been through so much that his own Sonya had never had to endure. “Come here,” he murmured, putting an arm around her and pulling her close to him. His fangs were producing Essence—he could taste the faintly sweet flavor on his tongue and he knew what he needed to do.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered again, pressing her face to his chest. “I didn’t want to let him do any of that and I sure as hell didn’t want to put that nasty metal thing inside me! But I was so afraid I’d be sent to The Box if I didn’t do what he said…”

“Shhh…” Davrik stroked her hair. “None of it was your fault. You’re stuck in this horrible fucking place and you had to do what he told you to do. But you won’t be stuck here for long—I’m going to get you out of here, baby girl. I swear I will.”

She looked up at him and he saw hope warring with fear on her tearstained face.

“I hope you can, but it might already be too late.”

“Too late?” Davrik demanded. “What do you mean?”

“I mean Grox told me that Oozle had already agreed to sell me to him. He said…” She swallowed hard. “He said that after my week with you was up, he was taking me away and he was…was going to impregnate me with his ‘heir’.” She shivered with apparent disgust. “I don’t know if it’s a lie or not, but just the thought of that…”

“Gods!” Davrik clenched his jaw. It was clear she was frightened of belonging to the Trollox—as well she should be! But he didn’t think she knew the whole story, or she would be Goddess-damned terrified.

When a Trollox took a humanoid mate to “bear his heir”, it meant the end of her life. Because as soon as the monstrous fetus he implanted in her grew to full term, it chewed its way out of the mother, inevitably killing her in the process.

Of course, he couldn’t tell Sonya that. It would upset her even more than she was already. But he knew now that he had to get her away from this place—even if it meant stealing her instead of buying her.

But he would try the legitimate way first—it would be much simpler.

“He’s not going to get you,” he told Sonya, who was still looking up at him anxiously. “I’ll speak to that fucking Sluggorn again tomorrow—I’ll offer him everything I have, which is a considerable sum. I’m going to get you out of here, baby girl, and take you far away from here.”

The hope began to grow in her eyes, edging out the fear.

“Where will we go?”

“Someplace you can live and love and thrive,” Davrik promised her. He didn’t want to talk about taking her back to his own universe yet—the universe where all of her family was still alive because the Kindred had come in time to stop the Scourge invasion. He didn’t want to get her hopes up or explain about the other Sonya yet. First things first—he had to get her out of here.

But even before that, he had to heal her.

“I want to go with you—I really do,” Sonya told him. “I’m just afraid that Oozle has already made some kind of deal with that horrible, nasty Grox!”

“Don’t worry about that—leave it to me,” Davrik told her. “We can’t do anything about it until morning, anyway. But there is something we can do tonight.”

“We can?” She looked puzzled. “What?”

“I can tend to your wounds, baby girl—the places where you scrubbed yourself raw, trying to feel clean again,” Davrik told her. He could taste the Essence on his tongue as he spoke. “So tell me…where does it hurt?”

THIRTY-SEVEN

SONYA

Sonya looked up at him uncertainly.

“You mean you…you want to, uh, lick me everywhere he…everywhere I scrubbed myself?” she asked.

“Of course.” Davrik spoke as though it was the most natural thing in the world. “Come on, baby girl—don’t be shy. Show me where it hurts so I can heal you. And I do mean everywhere,” he added, giving her a stern look.

“But…are you sure you want to put your tongue where he…where his…” Sonya couldn’t make herself finish the words.

“I want to heal the places that are burning and stinging—I want to ease your pain,” Davrik told her. “You’re mine, baby girl and I need to look after you.”

Sonya didn’t argue about the idea of belonging to the big Kindred. She would much rather belong to him than to the horrible Grox. Besides, she liked the idea of being healed—the places where she had scrubbed herself really were sore and stinging and extremely painful.

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