Dragon in the Dark (Kindred Tales)

Here she was on a new planet and yes, the natives had some strange customs that weren’t very nice, but she was determined she wouldn’t let that ruin her enjoyment of being someplace she’d never been before. She would—

Suddenly the back wall of the hallway was looming up before her. Iyanna gasped—she’d been so involved in trying to win the race, she’d forgotten to look at the numbers on either side. Now she saw number 2999 on the door at the end of the hall—a door she was about to run into if she didn’t stop!

But stopping wasn’t nearly as easy as going on the little foot tram. Easing up on the right handle didn’t do much to slow her down. Iyanna tried twisting the left handle very carefully—she didn’t want to stop so suddenly she threw herself over the handlebars.

She finally came to a halt, the front of her scooter thumping heavily against the door of room 2999.

“Ooof!” Iyanna gasped, catching herself with both hands on the door. Wow, she had overshot their room by over two hundred doors! She really needed to watch where she was going.

Suddenly the door she was leaning on opened, nearly spilling her off her scooter as she lost her balance. She grabbed desperately for the handlebars and managed to catch herself before she fell off—barely.

“What’s this? What’s all this ruckus?” an angry voice demanded.

The voice belonged to a Lix’dorian male who looked like he was almost as tall as Dra’vik—though he was considerably thinner. In fact, he looked nearly skeletal. He had pale, ashy skin that was more gray than blue and he was completely bald, which only enhanced his bony appearance. But perhaps the oddest thing about him were his eyes and teeth—both of which were bright orange.

“Oh, er, excuse me!” Iyanna said quickly. She started to back the scooter up but the tall Lix’dorian man reached down and caught it by one of the handlebars.

“Well, well,” he murmured, looking down at her. “Aren’t you a tempting little morsel! Are you the pleasure slave the front desk was supposed to send up to me?”

“What? No! No, I’m not—I’m really not!” Iyanna backed away. She would have just left the scooter in his hands, but her gold suitcase was strapped to the luggage rack on the back of it.

“Well, what are you doing at my door, then, my lovely little pleasure slave?” he asked, giving her a wide smile that revealed even more of his bright orange teeth.

Like a jack-o-lantern in reverse, Iyanna thought numbly.

“I…I didn’t mean to knock on your door—I had a, er, scooter accident. I mean, a problem with my foot tram—I couldn’t get it to stop,” she explained.

“Maybe fate brought you to my door,” the Lix’dorian male remarked. “I did ask for the front desk to send me something exotic.”

“The front desk didn’t send me,” Iyanna said, frowning. “Do you mind letting go of my scooter? My Master will be upset if you don’t,” she added pointedly.

“Your Master, hmm?”

As he spoke, Iyanna heard heavy footsteps in the hall behind her.

“Iyanna?” Dra’vik’s deep voice called. “What in the Seven Hells are you doing? Get back here!”

“I would, but he won’t let go of my scooter.” Iyanna looked over her shoulder and was relieved to see Dra’vik coming up to meet her.

“What the fuck?” the big Drake growled, frowning at the Lix’dorian male. “Let it go,” he said, nodding at the scooter pointedly.

“I don’t think so—this little female of yours made a terrible ruckus outside my door. She woke me up from my nap—I’m in town for a very important banquet, you see, and I need my rest. I gave strict orders at the front desk that I was not to be disturbed.” The tall, thin Lix’dorian male kept a firm grip on the scooter as he spoke.

“I explained that I lost control of the scooter, er, the foot tram and that I knocked into his door by accident,” Iyanna said quickly.

“You heard her—it was an accident,” Dra’vik told him. “Now let the damn thing go!”

The orange grin turned into a petulant frown.

“You know, here on Lix’dor Prime when one male’s pleasure slave bothers someone, it’s considered common courtesy to allow the person who was inconvenienced the use of that slave—if only for a little while.” He looked down at Iyanna and licked his thin lips hungrily. “If I could just have this little one for a few minutes—half a standard hour at most—I’d be happy to forgive the inconvenience and return her to your room when I finished with her.”

“What? Hell, no!” Iyanna exclaimed, backing away from the scooter. She looked up at Dra’vik, who seemed to be having a hard time controlling his temper. His eyes were glowing once more as was the patch of scales over his chest.

“You might have noticed that we are not Lix’dorians,” he growled, his voice coming out hoarse and angry. “Iyanna is mine and she’s not for anyone’s fucking use.”