Three Days of Dominance (16 page)

The man was so solid it only knocked him half skidding against the side of a shrub. He scrambled to get balanced again, snatching for the weapon at his side as he did so.

She grabbed his hand, twisting. God! As skin touched skin, a familiar tingle shot all the way to her womb.
Ignore it, girl
! She executed a finger lock takedown, forced him to the boards. Finger locks worked on the big boys too. A crunch as his pinkie finger fractured, then she was off and running again. No yelp of pain—she’d expected him to wake the rest of the neighbors who hadn’t heard her yell. No scream. Nothing. Just run! she told herself. Run!

Even in a sari she could easily beat the other one to the nearest house.

Until something hit the back of her neck and wrapped around her, so tight…and getting tighter. She choked, tried to cough, but barely a wheeze came out. Oxygen deprivation hit the body fast after sprinting. The world went spotty and blurred. Tearing at the thing—she bumped into something hard. The ground, her knees told her.

A boot thumped into her shoulder, kicking her onto her face. But the thing at her neck loosened. A little. She sucked in air. Great huge lungfuls of it.

“You used a snake collar on her, Pahua? Why? It’s just a damn human girl.”

“She broke my finger.” Pahua. This one was angry, she thought, despite the near monotone of his voice. “Get that exit open. Fast.”

“Then you bring
her
. Is she the right one?”

A heavy sack dropped over her head, blocking out the night. Someone yanked it closed around her neck. A bare palm slapped onto her naked backside. In one fleeting instant, she knew the sari had flipped up in the struggle, and the juddering shock hit her—felt like it lit her up from the inside, so close were the egg and the man’s hand.

Pahua chuckled. “Yeah, this is her all right.”

Fuck. That egg was getting to be a liability.

Crackling sounded behind her.

A hand closed on the sack and her hair, twisting them tightly together, then hauling her to her feet and shoving her backward. She stumbled and fell into nothing. Something frizzed across her skin.

Moments later the sack was loosened and pulled from her head. She blinked.

Night had changed into day. No…it was merely a small well-lit room. How? How was this possible? She sprawled on her stomach on a carpet, quietly checking out the mess she was in. Outnumbered and God knew where she was.

An odd square room—burnished gold walls, two plate-sized translucent red domes in a corner on the floor, a single chair with armrests and what looked like straps to tie down any occupant, and a man-size metal cross on a stand. Nothing else. She hadn’t blacked out, had she? Where in hell was she? Some sort of kink club?

A woman stood before Danii. A ruffled mass of black hair fell past her waist, and she was garbed in a long-sleeved plum organza gown of ragged hemline. Dark leggings ended at her ankle. She had her boot propped on the chair’s seat, and her deep blue eyes were fixed on Danii’s—calculating eyes. A tattoo wove along one side of her forehead like an intricate and beautiful fringe. One loop of it made its sinuous way across her right eyebrow.

That tattoo gave Danii pause.
A fae—has to be.

“Goodness, what have you found, Pahua?” she said wryly. There was an echo, a resonance behind her words.

“Heketoro’s conquest, Justice Emana Tatu. As you requested.” said Pahua, growling deep and doglike. “Take care. She bites, a little. Hence the snake collar.” He planted a foot on Danii’s back, forcing her flat and jabbing her chin into the carpet.

Emana Tatu
—she knew that name from somewhere. Heketoro had said it.

“A collar? She’s no slave, Pahua. But…I see the need. Strip her and make her stand.”

At that Danii tried to wriggle out from under the man’s foot, but to no avail. The man was as solid as a tank.

“Wait.” Looking up from under her brows, Danii saw the woman raise her index finger. “Leave us. Go get that finger fixed. Both of you, go.”

The foot removed from her back, Danii climbed shakily to her feet. “Thank you.”

The woman, Emana Tatu, gestured, and the snake collar tightened a second. Danii jerked her hands up to grab hold, only to find it already loosening. They’d called her a human girl.
Are they all fae? Where am I? Is this even Earth?

“Just so that you understand exactly what I can do,” Emana said, as lightly as if she’d merely suggested a way to button a shirt. “Oh, and welcome to Rarohenga. Not many humans have ever come here.”

Rarohenga, a strange name. Danii craned her head back and realized why there was an odd resonance in her voice. No ceiling. This room was surrounded by a vast series of empty terraces. How far back they went, she was unsure, as the bright white lights at four corners of the room burned white blotches into her retinas. A door shut behind her. Pahua and company were gone. She lowered her gaze, staring at Emana. The numbers had improved substantially.

A morsel of hope blossomed into existence and she strove to keep that hope from showing, kept her face unmoved.
But
—she fingered the snake collar—
there is this
. And truly, its surface felt like interlocking scales. She swallowed, wondering if it was possible to tear it off before it strangled her.

The woman smiled at Danii, as if she read her thoughts. “Take care you don’t make me angry. Oh, yes. Dresk!” She’d shouted as if somewhere out there past the lights, someone listened. “In case I get distracted, do watch this one for me!”

Like Heketoro, this woman gave off a different aura to humans. Yet with him, she’d still sensed something of his true self, perhaps because he’d let her. With Emana, nothing showed. Humans, compared to the fae, forever roiled with emotions, and the most obvious of them, the rawest ones, flailed about on the surface and tortured her as much as them. Emana was unreadable. With Heketoro, the difference enhanced his attractiveness and her need for him, but with Emana, she felt adrift.

She’d not allowed herself to follow the facts to their conclusion. But now it burst on her like a tidal wave. Rarohenga must be Heketoro’s world. She stood in the very place he would return to after the curse was defeated. If she stayed, he’d never get here. If she went back home, he’d come here without her. And this woman, Emana Tatu, was she friend or enemy to her, and to Heketoro?

“Of course I’ll watch her,” drawled a man hidden beyond the lights. “Please continue, Emana, I’m quite looking forward to this.”

“Ignore him, for now. Master Dresk just likes seeing naked women. I’m Emana Tatu. A Justice. And your name is?”

What possible harm in a name? “Danii.” Yet she realized she’d instinctively set her feet shoulder-width apart, with knees flexed, lightly balanced, and ready to react to any attack from any direction—a basic martial arts posture. Emana bothered her. The woman was like a coiled reptile waiting to strike.

“Danii?” She rested her chin on her fist. “I have a proposal for you. We need to take some measurements, and you need to get back to where you came from. Do as I ask, and I guarantee you’ll be back very, very fast.”

“And you need me naked? But we’ve only just met. I’m sure in other circumstances…but here?”

“You mock me? Because, of course,” Emana continued, frowning. “If you don’t do this, we can make you, and…I’d rather not do that.”

Danii shut her eyes, half expecting everything to vanish when she opened them. But no, Emana was still there, confident, like she knew she would win, eventually.

“You’ll send me back to where I came from? And here is? You do know I’m a police officer.” The blank stare she got in return unnerved her more than anything else had. She didn’t know what a police officer was? The world jarred askew on its axis before she caught herself and made it settle back where it should be.
Damn, damn and damn. Looking bad.

“Whoever you are there, right now you’re here.” The frown intensified. “Come, it’s not that hard. Strip. Stand against that”—she indicated the cross—“and we’ll have this done in seconds.”

A measurement. What could they possibly want to measure? Sweat stood out on her brow. This was so impossible, she didn’t know where to start being logical. Slowly she raised her hands and untied the sari and let it fall. The cloth whispered against her skin. She resisted the impulse to cover her crotch and breasts with her hands.

“Ah.” Emana smiled. “Good.” She took her boot off the chair. “Now the cross. Would you like me to help you?”

“I can figure it out,” snapped Danii.
Well, maybe I can. Damned if I’m asking this woman
. Slowly, she walked to the cross and pressed her breasts to it and raised her hands to each side, along the horizontal strut. Something hummed as she touched each of her wrists to it.

Footsteps behind her—she recognized the click of Emana’s boots. “Correct, but you need to press against it more. Here.” And she put the flats of her hands to Danii’s bottom and pushed.

“Oh.” That shock again.
It isn’t…just…men
. She panted through her clenched teeth. As her pubic mound flattened against the cross, it was as if something had abruptly suctioned her onto the steel, all along where her bare flesh contacted the frigid metal.

In front of her, one of the iridescent domes on the floor extended multiple legs, then, like a mechanical spider, it crawled stealthily in her direction. Every muscle in her body knotted with cold and tensed. She couldn’t do a thing to stop the creepy thing. Her eyes nearly revolved in their sockets as she tried to keep it in view. Skittering, scratching noises behind…and it climbed her right leg, across her buttocks, to the small of her back. She shuddered. Something tiny and sharp lanced into her. Pain flared, and she stiffened.

“Very, very well done,” Emana whispered in her ear. “Such a nice bottom, and, my my, look at that.”

“What’s the reading?” yelled the hidden man.

Danii heard Emana step back. “She’s almost off the scale. A little powerhouse. Heketoro has definitely found someone who may be able to break the curse. If she survives. If we let her go.”

Face squeezed against the cold metal of the cross, though alarmed, Danii could only manage to breathe. There was no part of her she could move.

“So what’s your opinion on this matter?” asked Dresk. “If he succeeds, we’ll have him returning within, oh, a day or two? We could remove the egg instead. If it’s almost charged, it would offset the power we’ve used today. An excellent conservation of energy!”

“And then again, there is the law. My opinion? We have to let him do this.”

The tap and click of boots as Emana approached again. “We let her go back—with the curse distorting her memories and a small amount of glamour, she won’t ever remember this. We let whatever is fated to happen, happen. If Heketoro returns, or Aroha, the political power rebalance will be most interesting to see. But most of all—”

Something soft, Emana’s finger perhaps, stroked Danii’s neck, then drew a wavering electric line all the way to her bottom. And she couldn’t stop herself stirring, the smallest amount.

Emana’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Most of all, I get to see if this one can be seduced away from the great Heketoro. And I do believe she can.”

“Get your fingers off me!”

A second’s pause, and the finger lifted.

“You misunderstand, Danii. Let me show you something of your own nature. Bear with me while I cover your eyes.”

A soft cloth went over her eyes and was tied firm. What was the point of this?

“You know of the egg inside you. We call that a toah. When a man or a woman handles you anywhere…” And again she put a finger on Danii’s back. Knowing it was coming, Danii managed to hold herself completely immobile.

“Ah, control. Very impressive. For the little things, that will be enough. That exquisite sensitivity, you may imagine, is the egg making changes to your body, but no, it only allows your own susceptibility to come to the fore. Your own self.”

With a click, the cross released her. Danii staggered a little and went to pull off the blindfold. Not knowing what this woman was doing was an agony.

“Wait, Danii. I’ve not finished. Stand there a while longer.”

Emana was circling her. And simply standing there, having to be still and listen, was conjuring something in her she feared, and her pulse quickened.

“I, myself have had a toah inside me, but it did very little. For others, well, we have a special name for using a toah on your enemy. It is called
Anaha Kenet
, which means ‘sweet revenge.’ For one such as you… In the hands of the right person, it can mean nirvana. Would you like me to show you what I mean?”

There was a silken edge to her tone, as if she knew how much this both terrified and tempted Danii. She cleared her throat. This woman was so wrong. “No.” Unsteadily, she moved to remove the blindfold.

This time Emana’s voice held the rigidity of steel. “Stop!”

Her hands arranged Danii’s shoulders, drawing her arms slightly back. The snake collar unwound, slithered cold and swift down one arm. As though attracted by magnetism, her wrists came together at her back and the collar whipped around, tying them. Emana pulled down on the snake collar until Danii was arched uncomfortably backward.

Aghast, Danii wondered why she’d done nothing to resist. Magic, she told herself. Some occult power, surely.

“Ah. Better. You think more than you should. But obey very nicely. This is what you are meant for.”

Emana’s lips covered hers at the same moment her hand covered her mound, and though there was no more than the gentlest of pressure, it was enough to shatter Danii’s every conscious thought.

“That is what I wished to show you.”

The blindfold was gone. She lay on the floor, released from the snake binding, remembering that only seconds before she’d been moaning and writhing in Emana’s arms. She blushed and rolled trembling onto her side. What had she done?

Emana knelt and caressed the side of Danii’s face with her knuckles, then tilted her chin. “Though you will not remember me, I shall not forget you, Danii. In this world, if you come to it again, you are a rare prize, a source of immense magical power. From the markings on your body, I see that you have blood from us as well as from the humans. You’re a human-faerie hybrid. It is in your nature not to resist.” She smiled, her eyes half hooded with passion and anticipation. “Perhaps you know that Heketoro is water? I am earth fae. Fire is subjugated by earth as easily as it is by water. You will be possessed by the strongest of us, and I plan for that to be me. Depend upon it.”