“Um…I can have it cooked up in no time.” Shani forced enthusiasm. She snatched out ingredients, turned on the stove and the fan, and threw the meats on a small frying pan. Then she waited, wondering if he’d get weird and start growling or something. Sometimes steins did that. “So, um…have you always lived in San Francisco?”
Royce didn’t answer her question, instead peered toward the front of the van, surveying the dashboard. “What time did you say it was?”
“I’m not sure.” She tapped at her pocket, but had left her cell phone in the front seat. “I’ll check in a second.” Shani slid the food onto a couple small plates made of the same kind of recycled material as the bathroom doors—bits and pieces of color all rolled together in a mess. She placed his food in front of him, along with a spoon.
His eyes were pink and a little damp, his nose red. “Uh, yeah. Can I have some water?” His neck muscles stood out and his fingertips pinched the fabric and foam of the bench cushions.
“I’ll grab you some.” Shani wondered what was wrong, and hoped she didn’t have to deal with some kind of medical problem. She twisted the faucet, but nothing came out. “Aw, crap. I forgot to connect the water. I’ll be right back.”
She hopped out and rounded the side of the van to dig the hose out of a storage compartment. Worries of Royce’s condition niggled in her mind, made her lose track of which end of the tube to connect to the spigot. Some awareness prickled her consciousness and that ever-annoying voice in her head muttered,
Shaniqua! How could you have turned your back on that slippery fucker?
Chapter Three
Royce hit the ground at a sprint. Stolen phone in hand, he dashed into the brush. Crunching sounds of the bushes filled his ears, battling with the rasps of his breath. It was starting. The fucking cuffs were activating—he could tell. Pricks of nerve pain shot from his taint to the tip of his cock. He clutched himself with his free hand, trying to counteract the electrical jolts, but he was numb already. His skin and flaccid cock felt nothing but dull pressure and a building ache.
Limping as he ran, Royce fought back tears of pain and frustration.
This wasn’t his fault!
On Shani’s phone, a single bar struggled valiantly. But a few steps later, a second bar appeared, giving him hope. Ignoring the sound of Shani crashing through the woods behind him, Royce punched in the number. His hope soared when he heard the reassuring ring.
“Call number, please?” the voice directory asked.
The pain in his groin radiated down the insides of his legs and up his back, worsening by the second. “5271-025,” he shouted. Royce’s feet met pavement and he brushed twigs and leaves from his body as he ran. A hot beat of arousal started up low in his body—a side effect of the device, or maybe its main purpose.
“I can’t hear you, sir. Could you repeat your call number?” the answering-bot droned.
Royce swiveled to check behind him but didn’t see Shani anywhere. He pressed his middle finger into the space behind his balls, trying to dull the thrumming ache. “5271-025! I report to Brenda, and…”
“If you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency involving a stein and a human, please call 9-1-1. For all other stein-related problems, please hold for the next operator.” Royce yelled a curse into the night as the answering machine changed to another part of the phone system. “Your wait time will be three minutes.”
A body flew out of the shrubbery and a foot in an untied high-top sneaker kicked the phone out of his grip. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Shani grabbed the front of his shirt with one hand and shoved him so he fell. She held the phone to her ear. Her pitch changed to friendly and she fought to cover her heavy breathing. “Oh I’m sorry. I must have dropped it!” As Shani spoke into the handset, she lifted a pistol in Royce’s direction.
Bruised in the place she kicked him and pissed as hell, Royce rose to standing. He raised his hands and put them behind his head. Something hard and cold filled his emotions. Royce hadn’t thought he had any pride, figured he wasn’t programmed with it. But
man
, he wanted someday to be the one in charge, making her hurt.
“Is this Comtel?” Shani asked the voice on the other end of the line. “No? Uh…wrong number.”
Royce could tell she’d screwed up. He smirked, ignoring the electrical currents numbing and scorching his dick. “I heard free steins had trouble with emotional control. I guess it’s true.”
She shoved the phone in her track pants and stepped up so close he could smell her. “By ‘control’ you mean that crap my makers planted in my brain? Why the fuck would I want to keep that shit?” She drew out the last word to two syllables, like shee-it.
“How could you do anything else? I heard about steins who escaped, tried to change how they’re wired. But you can never shake that initial programming, can you?” Without warning, a fresh bout of pain stabbed his crotch. Royce bent in two, resisting the urge to cover his dick with his hands and dig his fingers into that spot behind his nuts again to make it stop.
“Uh…you okay?” Shani took a step back, but hovered. She stepped from foot to foot, confused by the sudden change. “You hurt or something?”
Royce gritted his teeth. He started counting backward from twenty, struggling to force back the tide of sensation. “Nah.” He dragged in a ragged breath. “Just a little hitch in my nervous system.” He turned around and started walking in the direction they’d come while Shani followed behind. She didn’t seem as if she was going to punish him. At least not anywhere near as bad as his makers were.
His mind halted that train of thought. It wasn’t punishment. It was…how he was designed. They had to protect their assets, and he was valuable. Shani, on the other hand—her group was probably composed of steins no one really wanted.
Something fired in the inner crease of his thigh—so sharp that his body crumpled with pain and Royce fell to the ground. Both his hands shot out to squeeze the spot between his legs. “Fuck! Ah shit! I’ve gotta…” He’d meant to beg to go back, to literally cower at her feet and plead. But Royce’s jaw set in a hard line. No. Fucking. Way.
With shaking limbs, he shifted his weight until he was upright.
“I…” She sounded scared. “Uh…I gotta call my boss. See if he knows what to do.”
Royce scowled—an ugly expression he was pretty sure he’d never made in his life. “Yeah, you go do that.”
* * * * *
“It’s no use bringing him back early. Frank won’t be home from that conference until late tomorrow.” Q-ter sounded apologetic, not that it helped her one bit. “I could get started on his scans, but… You know Frank does the actual cutting. I wouldn’t want to cripple the guy.”
Shani peered in the window of the van, at Royce curled in the fetal position on the bed. She felt horrible—the guy looked a total mess. “But you have more meds there. I could keep him doped.” She thought about the remaining sedatives she had stashed in the med kit in front. She only had enough to keep him out a couple more hours.
“Maybe…” Q-ter hedged. “But we don’t know if the booby-trap is distance-dependent.” When Shani argued, Q-ter cut her off. “They could shut down his breathing or heartbeat. Then we’d have to keep him on ice and hope he wouldn’t rot before Frank could work on him.”
She pressed two fingers into the spot between her eyes. “Well, should I head south and stay closer to San Francisco?” The very idea made her sick to her stomach. Lingering close to Synadate Headquarters seemed like asking to get caught.
“No. The interference device on the van only works on 278 frequencies. They may have some signals outside those closer to their offices. Maybe even in their cars if they’re out looking for him.”
“Fuck, Q!” Shani pounded her fist into the van’s siding. “Why did I have to get him tonight then?”
“Because this was the only night we knew they’d let him in public!” Q-ter had raised his voice, something he almost never did. After a long moment, he cleared his throat. “Does the guy seem in danger? Is he dying or anything?”
Shani peeked in the window again. Pained? Yes. Dying? Not so much. “No.” She exhaled a long rush of frustration. “Not right now at least.”
“Okay.” Q-ter sounded as frazzled as she felt. “Just…do what you can to keep him comfortable, but stick to the schedule.” He paused. “Can you do that?”
“Of course I can,” Shani snapped. “But I’m dropping him off at the office by afternoon tomorrow. And if Frank’s not back yet, the boy can be your problem!” Ignoring Q’s squeak of protest, Shani hit END on the call and then swung open the van’s back door and climbed inside. Royce winced when she shut the door, as if slamming made it worse.
“Is there something you need? Like, that I can do for you?”
He lifted his head from the bed and glared at her. “Fuck you.”
Shani shifted back a half step. Then she fussed around, setting aside the forgotten plates of food. “Why don’t you tell me what’s wrong and maybe we can come up with a medication plan to tide you over until we get back?”
Royce didn’t look at her, just muttered through clenched teeth. “Did you grab my bag?”
She closed the cabinet door too hard, a tendril of fear winding down her spine. “Your sex bag?” She’d checked his duffel for clothes or other useful items during the drive, but it only contained vibrators and stuff. Shani reached instinctively for the stunner in her pocket, since she’d stowed the gun in the safe-box under the front seat.
“Yeah.” Royce slid his torso up so that he rested on his elbow. His face screwed into an expression of grim determination. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I can do this…”
Shani ran her fingers over the device in her pocket, not pulling it out. She lowered her voice so it wouldn’t shake, and reminded herself that he wasn’t that big or that strong. He couldn’t force her. “I don’t know what you think is gonna happen here. But I’m not interested. Not in the least.”
Royce flashed her a withering glare. “I’m not talking about you, lady.” He swung his legs around until he sat up and then started unbuttoning his pants. “Now, do you have my bag, or am I going to have to dig through those drawers to find something?”
She should have opened the door and locked the lunatic in the back of the van, driven all night with the safety locks on, and dropped him off on the ZU’s doorsteps duct-taped and with a note. Instead, she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off him as he rolled his leather pants down his legs to his knees, and then pulled his shirt up over his head.
His body was…well…she lost the ability to form a coherent sentence. Shani had never seen a guy so buff up close. And the non-grafted trouser snake that lay half-hard between his legs suggested he must be a shower, not a grower. At least she hoped so. Otherwise that boy would be fucking his clients from the other side of the room.
“Take a picture, it would last longer,” he grumbled, obviously uninterested in her attention.
“Um, here—” Shani pulled his bag out of a cabinet and climbed through the dinette to lay it at the foot of the bed. Curiosity crashed over her like a wave, washing away her fear. She stood staring, one foot on the ground, the opposite knee on the bench, probably a little too eager to figure out what the boy was going to do next.
“Go away.” He flipped over, so he faced down on the bed.
Shani hesitated. Maybe he was a secret electronics whiz and planned to build a weapon out of a couple vibrators and a violet wand. “I can’t leave you alone.”
Royce looked at her over his shoulder. And
oh mah gahd
his back looked pretty when he lifted his head and twisted like that. She’d managed not to look at his ass up to this point out of pure strength of character, but now that her eyes had landed there…
“Aw, fuck this noise.” He flipped over, cock flopping against his leg as he reached out for the bag at her feet. “You know what?” He pulled out a black dildo and a bottle of lubricant. “Go ahead and watch.”
“But, you’re just gonna…? On your own?”
Royce poured some lube into his hand and reached back, smoothing the slick liquid over his pucker before pressing inward. The nerve block that numbed his groin didn’t extend to his ass. The firm pressure felt like heaven. Within his body, muscles tensed and firmed, massaged him from the inside. He let out a small sigh of relief.
“Uh, if you don’t mind my asking.” The bitch broke through the happy, relaxed haze. “What exactly are you doing?”
He didn’t look at her, just dug his fingers in deeper, reaching up to that bundle of nerves before adding more lube. “What the hell does it look like I’m doing? I’m trying to get off.” Royce’s hips started pumping of their own accord. “Hey, toss me a hand towel, will ya? My dick might be numb, but that doesn’t mean I won’t spew all over the sheets.”
“What? Oh!” He heard her shuffling around and then a cloth landed by his face. “So the problem was… I mean is…” Her voice shifted between harsh and soft. He could tell she wasn’t sure whether to be sympathetic or disgusted.
“Cuff on my pudendal nerve. Causes hyperarousal combined with paresthesia and neuralgia.” He winced at the scientific explanation his makers had given for the phenomenon. Then Royce opted for a more straightforward description. “I can’t feel my cock, but my balls are so blue they may as well be glowing.” He eased back his hips, using the leverage to stretch his sensitive tissues. “Oh, and I feel like I’m being zapped by a million little electrocution devices.” His fingers didn’t quite reach the spot that would get him off, but the fullness felt good. Satisfying. Better yet, held the promise of satisfaction. “But that’s not so bad unless I’m standing.”
“Oh.” The bed dipped a bit as she sat down.
“It’s mostly to stop us running.” A lump rose in his throat. He wasn’t being punished, Royce reminded himself. Just forced to stay still. “But… Well, it hurts.” He pressed his face into the mattress, channeling his energy back to his fingers and away from the conversation.
“I’m…” Her hand touched his ankle. He wasn’t sure at first if it was accidental, but her fingers wound up to the back of his calf. “I’m sorry.” Shani said it as if she were dead serious, and Royce had to respect that. She’d probably experienced her fair share of suffering, after all, especially since she must have been abducted at some point too.
“Yeah well…” He slid his fingers from his body, feeling awkward now that he thought of her as a real person. “I’ve had this happen once before.” It had been ages and ages ago, the day they brought him to life. Sometimes Royce thought they’d let him get away—so he could learn what would happen.
She didn’t make some snide remark. Royce was glad. How long they’d let him suffer was his own business. Since then, he’d heard whispers and rumors from other Synadate steins saying an orgasm made the pain go away for a while. That was, if you could manage to climax.
He reached back again, swiping his fingertips around the ring of muscles at his entrance. Royce lifted his head to look for the dildo. When he reached for it, Shani put a hand over his.