Dragon in the Dark (Kindred Tales)

Iyanna shook her head as the two men continued to discuss their plans. Apparently they had multiple births here and it wasn’t uncommon for a stranger or a friend or even a bunch of coworkers to help with the impregnation!

The pleasure slave said nothing at all—what could she say? She simply stood there with her legs spread, letting her Master’s friend fuck her as long and as hard as he wanted to.

Once more, Iyanna couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Was this kind of thing really considered normal on Lix’dor Prime? If so, she and Dra’vik really needed to get the pleasure plants and get out of here! She didn’t want to be caught in some kind of social situation where Dra’vik was supposed to “share” her with anyone—the very thought made her skin crawl!

At last they came to their stop and not a single other male had attempted to grope her. Dra’vik kept close by her side, glaring warningly around at the other males as they disembarked from the crowded silver tram.

He got a lot of dirty looks from the Lix’dorians and Iyanna guessed that what he was doing—keeping his “pleasure slave” to himself—was probably considered unspeakably rude. She didn’t give a damn about that, however. She was just glad for the big Drake’s protection and the fact that no one else had the nerve to grope her when he was on guard.

They went up a long ramp with another moving walkway that carried them out onto the street above. Once out of the dark and noisy tram station, Iyanna breathed a sigh of relief. The sidewalk, while still crowded, wasn’t nearly as jam-packed as it had been below and she felt in much less danger of being grabbed.

“All right, little girl?” Dra’vik asked, looking down at her.

“Thanks to you,” Iyanna told him gratefully.

“Told you I wasn’t gonna let anything happen to you,” he rumbled. “Now where in the Seven Frozen Hells is this hotel we’re looking for? Ostensio said it should be right by the undertram station.”

“There!” Iyanna pointed up ahead. “That must be it—look how tall it is!”

The Grand Lix’Dorios was hard to miss. The tall, slender building rose so high into the pale purple sky she couldn’t see its top. It was made of some ruby red metal that caught the late afternoon sunlight, making it blaze like a finger of flame and it took up a whole city block.

“That’s it, all right,” Dra’vik agreed. “Come on, little girl. We need to get cleaned up and I have to heal those wrists of yours.”

“My wrists?” Iyanna had almost forgotten about her wounded and bruised wrists, though now that she thought of them, they started to hurt again.

“Come on,” Dra’vik repeated. “We only have a little while until that fucking banquet tonight—let’s make the most of it.”

THIRTY-TWO

The lobby of The Grand Lix’Dorios was lavishly decorated with gold and silver statues. Crystal droplet lighting fixtures hovered in midair, emitting beams of rainbow light that danced and scattered across the white marble floor. Important looking people—the Lix’dorian males wearing long dark robes and their women dressed in jewel tones and pastels—lounged on padded chairs that looked more like beds. Some of them were fucking, as casually as they talked, and Iyanna saw a Master offer his pleasure slave to another male the same way you might offer someone a seat on public transport or a drink of water.

Before she could see if the offer would be accepted, Dra’vik was pulling her towards a long bank of what appeared to be elevators with golden doors.

“C’mon—let’s get up to our room,” he growled.

“But don’t we have to check in first?” Iyanna nodded across the lobby to the vast desk which seemed to be carved of one enormous piece of black marble. Hotel employees were standing behind it to help the guests who were lined up waiting their turn.

“Why should we? Already got our key.” He pulled out a black button with a flat, golden tag attached to it. The tag had the number 2777 stamped on it.

“Are we really on the two thousandth floor?” Iyanna asked. “We’re not, are we? Isn’t that just the way they number the rooms?”

“Not sure—it seemed like a pretty tall building from the outside, though.” Dra’vik shrugged. “Why—is two thousand floors a lot where you come from?”

“The tallest building on Earth has less than two hundred floors,” Iyanna told him. “So this is crazy tall compared to it.”

“I was thinking that it reminded me of the Sky Palaces of Hex’or Six back in my home ‘verse,” Dra’vik remarked. “The Lix’dorians must have some excellent anti-grav construction tech to make it work.”

“You’re not kidding. If every story is around ten feet tall that would make it…” Iyanna did some quick mental calculations. “Almost three miles or six kilometers high!”