Well, this was one transaction he was going to stop. There was no way he was leaving this innocent female to the tender mercies of Biter. It was a well know fact that once a Trollox implanted its unholy “heir” in the belly of a humanoid female, it was a death sentence for her. Once the fetus reached maturity, it chewed its way out, inevitably killing the female host that had gestated it in the process.
Just the thought had Bard seeing red—was he going into Rage? That was impossible, he told himself—he didn’t even know this little female. A Kindred warrior didn’t go into rage for a female he didn’t know and care for. Regardless, though, he felt fury rising in him like lava as he shouted again,
“I said let her go! She’s coming with me!”
“The fuck are you talkin’ about?” the Trollox growled, his small, piggy eyes narrowing to slits. “This is Biter’s female, so she is! Bought and paid for and stretched just for Biter’s shaft. You can’t have her!”
“Oh, yes I can,” Bard growled. He pointed the muzzle of the blaster at the center of Biter’s broad chest. “This says she’s mine! Now give her here!”
The little female looked up at him with wide, uncertain eyes. For the moment, she had stopped pulling at the Flesh Peddler’s grip on her arm and was trying to cover herself instead. But her efforts to pull the ragged remains of her gown back around her were largely unsuccessful as her full breasts could still be seen.
Biter’s bulldog face took on a mutinous expression and his thick jaw jutted out, thrusting his sharpened tusks forward.
“You can’t have her!” he roared! “Gonna plant my heir in her belly, so I am! Biter’s heir!”
“Oh, no you’re fucking not,” Bard growled. He waved the blaster at the Trollox’s face. “You think I won’t fire? I know what your kind does to females. I’ll be more than happy to blow a hole in your guts, Trollox.”
“Now, look here,” the Flesh Peddler began.
But at that moment, Rarev stepped up.
“I think you’d better listen to my friend,” he said softly, his low, purring voice filled with menace. “If he wants the girl, it’s best to just give her to him.”
He pointed his own blaster at the Flesh Peddler as he spoke and the orange-haired male gasped and loosened his grip on the girl’s arm.
The moment she felt her captor’s hand go slack, the dark-haired girl ran. She jumped from the low front porch of the Pleasure House and made a bee-line right for Bard’s chest. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she looked up at him with wide, dark eyes and let loose a babble of words he didn’t understand, which was surprising since Kindred were usually expert linguists.
“Hey, come back here, you little bitch!” the Flesh Peddler shouted.
At the same time the Trollox let loose with a full-throated roar.
“Get her back—she belongs to Biter!”
He started to charge forward but Rarev fired a warning shot over his head.
“I don’t think so,” he said evenly. “Not another step—the next shot goes in your belly.”
The Trollox stopped in his tracks, his ugly face twisted in fury.
“Fucking Kindred!” he growled angrily. “Used all my savings on her, I did!”
“Too fucking bad,” Bard growled. He was still holding his blaster in one hand, but he had the other wrapped around the girl, who was still clinging desperately to him. A powerful feeling of protectiveness had come over him the moment she had run to him, clearly begging in her unknown language for him to save her. There was no way he was letting her go now—he would fight or die to protect her.
“Forgive me, Sir Biter, but I think there’s nothing we can do,” the Flesh Peddler said tentatively.
Angrily, the Trollox turned on the other male.
“You set this up! You brought the fucking Kindred here to steal the girl from me!”
“No, no!” The orange-haired Flesh Peddler put up his hands and began backing rapidly away, clearly trying to get back inside the Pleasure House. “That’s not how I do business at all!” he protested. “I have a good reputation with all my Trollox customers!”
“Fucking liar!” Biter roared and charged at him.
“Come now—while they’re distracted,” Rarev murmured. He and Bard had been backing away, still holding their blasters on the Trollox and the Peddler. Now he jerked his head towards the area where their shuttle was parked. “We need to run!”
“Agreed,” Bard growled. He looked down at the girl. “We need to run, baby girl. You understand?”
He wasn’t sure if she got what he was saying or not but it seemed like she thought he was going to leave her because her eyes went wide and she let loose with another stream of unintelligible words. Then she gripped the front of his uniform shirt and actually began to climb him like a tree.