“Ugh. That’s horrible.” Nina shivered.
“It gets worse. Hurkon collars have been known to…well, let’s just say problems arise when they get hungry. You’re damn lucky you had on gloves when you handled it.”
Nina looked down at her still gloved hands, remembering the strange feeling she’d had that the choker thing was somehow aware of her.
“I guess I can thank you for that.” She gave Reddix a small smile.
“Yeah, guess so. Speaking of which.” He nodded down between his legs. “I don’t think you’ll have any problem, uh, putting things back in place now.”
Nina followed his gaze with her own. “Oh, you’re all, uh, unexcited now,” she said, feeling her cheeks get hot again.
“Yeah, well…” Reddix shrugged. “Having a Hurkon agony collar shoved in my face tends to kill the mood for me. Now how about helping me out, sweetheart? But first, make sure that cabinet is shut tight. I don’t like the idea of that thing having any way to get out.”
Chapter Thirteen
Reddix still couldn’t figure out what kind of prisoner his brother Kindred might have been transporting who would have rated a Hurkon agony collar. Whoever he was, he must be one evil son-of-a-bitch. The collars were mercifully rare and very expensive, not to mention being notoriously hard to handle. They could be placed in a state of suspended animation, but once awoken, they tended to be hungry and restless. Hopefully it would go back to sleep now that Nina had put it back in the dark.
He wished there was a lock on the cabinet door where the damn thing was kept. To think that he and Nina had been sitting here all this time with no idea of what was sharing the ship with them… It was fucking unnerving to say the least.
After Nina finished putting his shaft back in place and closing the mango-tabs on his flight trousers, Reddix sighed and tried to put the collar out of his mind. After all, it wasn’t like the collar was the first darkness he’d had to deal with. His bargain with the swamp witch leapt nimbly to mind especially now that her mark on his inner wrist had been activated. The blood red lthss was growing larger every hour now that it had tasted Nina’s blood when he first grabbed her. He hadn’t thought of it earlier, but the burning on his wrist and the encounter with the Hurkon collar reminded him. The swamp witch’s words returned to him…
“You’ll have a few solar weeks to get back to me. If you take longer than that, the lthss will begin feeding on you. Now that wouldn’t be pleasant, would it?”
Reddix sighed and shifted restlessly. How long would they be stranded on this planet, wherever it was? Forever unless he somehow convinced Nina to trust him enough to let him out of the cuffs. Although to be honest, he didn’t blame her for keeping him restrained—not when he’d admitted he still had plans for her. Guilt tried to rise in him at the thought, and he shoved it back down mercilessly. He had to think of his little sister Minda, already big with child. Had to think of his people embroiled in another bloody civil war if he couldn’t do what had to be done. And in order to do that, he needed Nina…needed her to trust him.
An idea about that began to surface, a way to gain her trust without lying to her…But no, that was crazy. He couldn’t risk—
“Well, it’s late. I guess…guess I’ll turn in.” Nina’s soft voice broke into his tumultuous thoughts.
He sighed. “Yeah, you do that sweetheart. Go ahead—there’s a sleeping compartment in the back of the ship. You should be comfortable there.”
“But…well…” She hesitated, biting her lip. “Is there anything I can do to, uh, make you more comfortable? I mean, do you want a pillow…”
Reddix barked a laugh. “There you go again—being nice to me when I’m a kidnapping son-of-a-bitch. You ought to stop, Nina. I’m nothing but trouble for you—nothing but pain.”
She lifted her chin, and a defiant look came into her lovely blue and gold-flecked eyes. “I know that. But I told you—I can’t stand to see anyone hurting. It…bothers me.”
“Get over it,” Reddix said harshly. The fact that she was still concerned with his comfort while he was plotting to take her to the swamp witch gave him a sharp stab of guilt he couldn’t repress no matter how hard he tried. “Go to bed. Get some sleep.”
“Fine.” She crossed her arms over her breasts and frowned. “I guess I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Fine. Whatever.” He looked away, forcing himself to keep his eyes off her ass this time as she went to the back of the ship. Why did he feel the need to provoke her? To push her buttons? To warn her that he would cause her nothing but pain?