I did not know how I had done it. All Manticores relied on the rapture to hold their victims in thrall while they used their fangs to drink. My resistance to it had been unusual.
By the madness in his eyes, and the concentration of fang marks in certain key locations, Senaik had not been as resilient as I.
A fact confirmed by Brentoq’s smirk. Her forked tongue slid over her needle-sharp fangs. “Drakes are sodelicious.” She slid claws down Senaik’s chest. “Your friend will die with a smile on his face, begging for more.”
Senaik moaned and dry humped the air with a surprisingly rigid member. “Pleeeease…” His eyes were focused on her fangs. He wanted her to feed, for the rapture to bring him to culmination, even though it would not last.
Anger pulsed through me and I looked away, to the male harem members lining the far wall. “You always seem so hungry,” I pointed out. “Perhaps you should start breeding your males with more substantial equipment. And with better endurance.”
The males, standing in their own little cloud of aroused stench, stiffened. But if the statement had not hit home, they would not be so defensive. And maybe their females would not have to go hunting for their culinary satisfaction.
“No… wait, my perfect one. Please…” Senaik protested as she moved away from him and approached me. Close enough that her new burst of rank scent swept over me.
I nearly gagged.
“It takes ten manticore males to satisfy a female,” she hissed, “the way one Drake can. Our breeding program cannot keep up with the demand. Raptor Clan has recently provided us many fresh volunteers for it. Maybe when I’m done with you, I will keep enough of you undamaged to contribute.”
Breedingprogram? Her reference to my clan burned through me—but I had known that some would have fallen prisoner during that debacle. The thought that they were treating them like livestock sickened me, and I fought to keep my lips from peeling back into a snarl. “If you wanted more Drakes, your people should not have killed our females.”
The manticore shrugged. “You are a fine one to talk, considering the experiments your people are doing with the humans. Although I hear that you have finally found something that works…”
She had a point there. How had she heard about our success with the human serum? I shot a look to Senaik, and her grin widened. Her tail arched higher, and on another burst of pure stink her pupils expanded, almost covering the yellow. “Time to get this process started. You have no idea how often I have dreamed of this moment.”
“Oh, I have dreamed of you, too,” I managed, but only by breathing through my teeth.
She stepped right into my space, and trailed her clawed hand over my pectorals, before leaning in to lick from my collar to my ear. “You want me. You all do, after you’ve had a few doses of my venom.”
“In my dreams,” I allowed my lip to curl, “my dragon shreds you.” I flexed my fingertips.
“Oh, that wouldsoruin the fun.” Brentoq’s hand slid down across my ribs as she paced around me. “Although I have fed on dragon energy. Your lust amplifies along with your body. But it resists the rapture. Too bad, there’s enough there to feed an entire hive.”
The comment confirmed that somewhere, the Nirzks had captive Drakes. It meant little at this point—not much I could do to help them.
I could not even help myself.
At the moment, it was all I could do to not crane my neck to watch her as she prowled around behind me, her tail lowering and swaying back and forth. It fired every instinct I possessed, and I called upon my dragon scales—only a partial transformation. My body lacked complete protection in my human form, and I could not maintain the scales for long, nor produce many of them while I wore restraints.
She knew it too, emitting a coarse chuckle as she came around and then back up beside me. Even though I was prepared for it, her tail moved so fast I could not have dodged it even if I were not strung up from the ceiling. Too fast to even see, it was a blur as it shot forward, the stinger at the end finding the bare skin between my scales and sinking deep into the muscle of my inner thigh.
I could not stop arching away from the strike, but there was no escape. The venom burned as it pulsed into me.
She pulled it out and leaned forward to whisper in my ear. “I want you nice and hard and aching for my fangs. We have seven hours until we get to Givnia. Four or five more stings will ensure your compliance. And then—I have invited a few of my hive sisters to share. They are eager to meet you.”
Brentoq paced closer to me, and she stroked along my wings between the metal bindings. I shuddered, but not with pleasure.
She interpreted it otherwise. Her tongue flicked out. “Soon, my pretty one. I hunger for the taste of you.” Her eyes dropped low in perusal. “You may no longer be a virgin, but you should, indeed, provide a feast.”
With a final long expulsion of gas, she left. I allowed my eyes to close. The venom was burning its way through my veins. I would need every ounce of my resilience to endure what was to come.
None of it mattered. Because Rhodes—he was not here with me.
And that meant he had escaped…
22
Jaz
Thinnerwas a relative term when it came to asteroid belts.
