24. Thrax

24

THRAX

T hrax turned quickly, squinting in the sudden brilliance. He managed to make out two familiar figures—Queen Pantyitch and his old Mistress were standing there in the door of the milking room and neither of them looked happy.

"Just what do you think you're doing here at this hour?" Queen Pantyitch demanded.

"I'll tell you what they're doing—they've stolen our prime stud. Look—the Kindred giant is gone!" Mistress Stoneheart's voice was cold with fury.

Though he didn't want to react, Thrax felt his insides turn to ice. In the past, when he had been at her mercy, that tone of voice almost always meant he was heading for a session with the pain whip or the branding irons.

He straightened up and forced his voice to come out clear and strong.

"We didn't ‘steal' anything—we rescued the innocent male you've been sucking dry like a couple of fucking vampires! He's coming back home with us to the Kindred Mother Ship where he belongs."

"The Kindred Mother Ship? Is that where you're really from?" Queen Pantyitch demanded. She was wrapped in a sleeping robe and her face was going dark with fury. Luckily, neither woman appeared to be armed and they didn't have any guards with them either.

"We're Agents of the Warrior Location Agency," Andi said, clearly deciding that secrecy didn't serve them anymore. "If you mess with us, you're going to have the entire Mother Ship to deal with."

"So you're not even a married couple, is that right?" Mistress Stoneheart asked, narrowing her eyes at them speculatively. "You just work together?"

Thrax didn't see why that mattered.

"Andi and I are partners," he said shortly. "Not that it's any of your fucking business."

"Oh, I think I'll make it my business," his old Mistress retorted. "And I'm also going to make it my business to replace the Kindred stud you stole with another one—with you in fact." And she pointed at Thrax. "Since you let Kier escape, you can take his place."

"Fuck you," Thrax growled at her. "I'm not staying one more minute in this fucked up hellhole you two have created!"

But Andi seemed even angrier than he was.

"You're not touching him again, you bitch!" she spat, stepping in front of Thrax, her brown eyes blazing. "Come near him and I swear I'll kill you!"

Thrax was touched by his partner's protectiveness but all he wanted to do at the moment was get out of there.

"Andi and I are leaving now and there's not a damn thing you can do about it," he informed his old Mistress.

"Oh, is that so? Nothing at all, you say?" A cruel smile curved the corners of Mistress Stoneheart's thin lips. "What if I commanded you to stay?"

"You don't own me," Thrax snapped. "Not anymore!"

"Come on, Thrax—let's go right now." Andi had gotten an uneasy look on her face and she tugged on his arm. Thrax started to go with her but Mistress Stoneheart's voice still tugged at him.

"You may tell yourself that I don't own you anymore, but it's simply not true," she purred, her violet eyes narrowing. "Thanks to the conditioning I put you through all those years ago, I'll always own you my beautiful boy."

Thrax felt his body go rigid and out of his control—it was like he was a puppet and someone else was pulling his strings!

"Wh…?" he began, but couldn't get anything else out of his mouth.

"That's right, my beautiful boy —this time I want you awake as you do my bidding," Mistress Stoneheart said. "Now let me see, I suppose I could just order you to go stand against the wall and hook yourself to the milking machine, but first I think I want to have a little fun."

"Thrax? Thrax, are you okay?" Andi snapped her fingers in front of his face but Thrax found he couldn't respond—not even to blink. He had a vague memory of the Mistress doing this to him before—a memory he had buried more deeply than any other. But he couldn't remember how he had broken her hold on him—if he ever had. For now, he seemed helpless to do anything but just stand there awaiting her orders.

"Now then, what kind of fun can we have with these two?" Mistress Stoneheart mused, speaking more to herself than her partner.

"You could order him to give her the ultimate humiliation," Queen Pantyitch remarked. "That would teach this lying little bitch a lesson about sneaking into my house under false pretenses!" she added, nodding at Andi, who was tugging urgently on Thrax's arm, though of course she couldn't move him.

"What did you do to my partner?" she demanded. "Let him go right now or I'll?—"

"You'll what , my dear?" A blaster suddenly appeared in Mistress Stoneheart's hand. "Oh yes, I'm always armed," she said, clearly seeing the look of dismay on Andi's face. "But I really don't need a weapon in this case—your partner—my beautiful boy— is completely under my control."

"He…he is not," Andi denied, but Thrax could see the uncertainty in her face. "He can't be!"

"He is," Mistress Stoneheart said. "Believe me the conditioning I put him through was extremely thorough. He'll do whatever I tell him to—including murder or rape or any number of unpleasant things he wouldn't normally do. Why, he was an excellent enforcer—even as a boy. I had him kill one of my greatest rivals before he somehow got away from me."

Her words brought back horrors Thrax couldn't bear to think of. Memories that had been buried more deeply than the ones he'd tried to suppress suddenly came rushing back. He saw his own hands wrapped around someone's throat—a woman's throat, he realized with revulsion—and he was choking the life out of her…

No, can't think about that now! Can't—I have to snap out of this! I have to move—something, anything…

But he couldn't so much as twitch a finger. He was frozen to the spot until the Mistress gave him a command.

"So how shall we punish these two?" she said now, turning to Queen Pantyitch. "I believe you mentioned the ultimate humiliation?"

"What's that?" Andi asked warily. "Whatever it is, you'd better remember that the Kindred Mother Ship knows where we are and they won't be happy if they find out you've hurt us in any way."

"We're not scared of the Kindred," Queen Pantyitch snapped. "They're not here to protect you, now you lying little bitch!"

"And since you asked, the ultimate humiliation for any female is allowing a male to penetrate her," Mistress Stoneheart said. She cocked her head to one side. "Speaking of penetration, I can't help noticing the size difference between the two of you. My beautiful boy has grown up so big and strong and you…well, you're a tiny little thing, aren't you, my dear?"

Andi's face went suddenly pale.

"What…what are you implying?" she demanded.

"I'm not implying anything. I'm saying I want to see your partner penetrate you." Mistress Stoneheart's cruel smile grew even wider. "And not gently, either. I think some nice rough fucking might teach you a lesson about sneaking into other women's homes and pretending to be something you're not."

"What?" Andi cast a glance at him and Thrax's heart twisted in his chest when he saw the look of fear in her clear brown eyes. "Thrax wouldn't do that to me," she said in a voice that wavered too much to sound certain. "He would never hurt me—he's my partner and my best friend!"

"But not your lover, correct?" Mistress Stoneheart stared at Andi intently. "Ah, I see that I'm right—you haven't allowed him to penetrate you before. So much the better! Thrax, my beautiful boy ," she said, turning to him. "I want you to fuck this female—penetrate her to the core and fuck her hard . Take her like you hate her."

To Thrax's horror, he found he was reaching for his partner, his shaft already rising to do his Mistress's bidding.

"No!" Andi skipped nimbly away from him. "No, Thrax—you don't want to do this!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, but he does," Mistress Stoneheart hissed. "He wants to do anything I tell him, don't you my beautiful boy? " Her voice cracked like a whip. "Now get her!"

And though he hated himself for doing it, Thrax found himself reaching for his partner again…and this time he caught her.