Hidden Rage: Kindred Tales

“He’s sick! He gets off on hurting women,” she shouted, pointing at Zerlix, who was glaring at her from his slitted greenish-yellow eyes. “And he sold Keelah into a horrible situation just because she’s my friend! Because he wanted to hurt me!”

“He sold her because he was tired of her, I imagine,” Res. Tizlah said coldly. “I told you this might happen. I warned you not to get too attached to a mere Pleasure Girl.”

“Will you listen to yourself?” Bobbi demanded. “You’re acting like she’s nothing but dirt because she’s a ‘Pleasure Girl’—as though she chose that life for herself! But it could happen to any of you!”

She raised her voice and pointed at the other Saurian women, who were all looking at her like she had gone crazy.

“Because women don’t have any rights here and none of you seem to care! What happens if your husbands get tired of you? They can sell you, the same way Keelah was sold! But you act like that’s just fine—like it’s all you deserve. You act like it’s normal!”

Of course, here on Saurous the way Keelah had been treated was normal—Bobbi realized that. But she was fed up to the teeth with this nasty place—so sick and tired of the horrible, misogynistic Saurian society she just couldn’t stop.

“Don’t you care?” she demanded, looking around the room, trying to catch their slitted yellow eyes with her own. “Don’t you care what happened to Keelah? She worked with us—lived with us—don’t you give a damn that she’s going to be gang raped just because Zerlix is a sadistic asshole?”

“I think you’d better go now, Son,” Res. Tizlah said stiffly, to Zerlix, who was still smirking in the doorway. “It appears that your brother’s bride-to-be has taken leave of her senses.”

“It’s not just him,” Bobbi said recklessly. She pointed at the older Saurian woman. “You’re complicit, too! You raised him to think it was all right to hit and use women any way he wanted to. How could you do such a good job with Dragon and fail so miserably with your biological son?”

“How dare you?” Res. Tizlah breathed.

For a moment, Bobbi was certain she was going to slap her—which would have been pretty painful, considering the Saurian’s long, curving claws. But the older woman just stood there, her hands clenched into fists, and her eyes flashing. When she finally spoke, it wasn’t to Bobbi.

“Take her away from here until she calms down,” she snapped at two of the Saurian wives. “Get her out of my house—out of this compound! At once!”

“We’ll take her to the Market to buy Rep. Dragon his wedding day present,” one of them—Res. Leezah—said quickly.

“Yes, yes—good idea!” another wife—Res. Jynah answered in a nervous voice.

The two Saurian women each took Bobbi by an arm and hustled her out the door of the women’s room as quickly as they could. Bobbi thought of yanking away from them, but she wanted to get away from the house as badly as Res. Tizlah wanted her to.

As she passed Zerlix, he gave her an ugly, sneering smile that exposed all his long, needle-sharp teeth. Bobbi was fed up with him too. Taking a deep breath, she spit at him—spraying his flat, scaly face.

The Saurian jerked back, swiping at his eyes and nostril slits.

“You little mammalian bitch,” he snarled, glaring at her. “You’ll pay for that!”

“And you’ll pay for what you did to Keelah, you bastard,” she snapped back. “I don’t know how, but I’m going to make you pay!”

She wanted to say more but the two Saurian women on either side of her gave each other frightened looks and dragged her hurriedly down the hallway. Bobbi had no choice but to go with them, even though what she wanted more than anything in the world was to run back and claw Zerlix’s slitted yellow eyes out.

He was going to pay, all right. She didn’t know how, but somehow she was going to make him pay!

54

“Please! Please, just let me see Dragon! Please, I have to go see him!” Bobbi begged.

Her rage at Zerlix had given way to fear for her friend and desperate urgency. She knew that if she could only talk to Dragon, he would go and buy Keelah for her. If she could just see him for a minute and explain the situation, he could go get the Saurian girl before anything awful happened to her.

And awful it would certainly be. Keelah had spoken in frightened whispers of the “Spike Parties” that some of the Clans held for their enforcers. According to her, they were rough affairs where a single Pleasure Girl was passed from male to male all night until she expired—literally spiked to death.

It was a horrible fate and Bobbi was determined it wasn’t going to happen to her friend.

“Please,” she begged Res. Jynah, who was holding her right arm. “Please, just let me go see him!”