“It says here that he can’t be freed. Not ever? Why?”
The girl had already had enough of Evan; it showed in her clipped speech. “Ferals have shown that they can “pass” for human. Society can’t allow that. So, they can’t be
freed. They’re
not
human and they have already stolen part of a
life as a citizen from real human beings. That can’t be allowed to continue.”
Blindsided by
this particular bit of nonsense that
Evan
sat silently,
shaking
with rage.
The clerk avoided meeting his eyes. “Well, I see your wire transfer cleared. Here’s your bill of sale. You can collect him at the loading dock outside on Water Street. His tags will be mailed to you from the Registry. Did you bring a collar? No?” She reached under the desk and pulled out a cheap black plastic collar, and a chain leash in a package. “I’ll give you this one. You can’t take a slave outside in public without a leash and collar. There’s a whole lot of other information in this packet that you should take a look at as soon as possible.”
Chapter Six
Evan
snatched
the packet and the bill of sale and stalked out of the showroom to get his car. He sped around the corner of the building to the loading dock and joined a line of cars picking up “merchandise.” When he reached the head of the line he gave his bill of sale to one of the workmen and minutes later, Jeremy was hauled out by three men and thrown to the pavement. He landed heavily on the side of his face and one shoulder. His hands had been secured behind his back with plastic restraints
so
he couldn’t break his fall
.
Evan feared that
Jeremy's
nose or cheekbone might have been broken. Evan propelled himself from his car and ran to Jeremy before anyone else could touch him.
*****
Jeremy lay, unmov
ing, with his face turned down concealing it
against the pavement. Evan laid a gentle hand on his shoulder
.
“Jeremy
?
Jeremy
?
It’s Evan James. I bought you.”
Jeremy turned his face very slowly up and looked at
Evan and burst out weeping in relief. He had been expecting the Fat Man and the sight of Evan
...
Evan James, his friend and his only gay crush, reduced him to incoherent gratitude
,
followed almost immediately by crushing embarrassment. For Evan to see him reduced to this degradation almost made him want to kill himself as much as if it had been the Fat
Man who bought him. Almost
.
*****
Evan smiled a twisted
smile at Jeremy.
“
Are you that
disappointe
d to see me?”
H
e winked so that
Jeremy would understand he was
teasing.
E
van pulled a pocket knife out and cut the plastic binding
his friend’s hands. He tore open the package with the collar and the leash and helped Jeremy sit up. Evan noticed that Jeremy moved carefully and appeared to be experiencing a lot of pain. He slipped the cheap plastic collar around Jeremy’s neck and fastened it loosely. He felt foolish attaching a leash to a man with an MBA from
Stanford, but he did it. He leaned in and whispered, “Can you get up? I know you’ve been hurt. I’m going to take you to, uh, a…health care provider and then we’ll go home. Do you think you can walk for me?”
Jeremy flushed and nodded. Evan helped him get to his feet and put him in
the car in the passenger seat. The loading dock workers all hissed in disapproval.
“That one there is feral. You should put him in the trunk or something. There’s no telling what he’ll do.”
Evan gave the man a frosty look. “I’ll be fine, thank you. If you hurt him any worse shoving him to the ground like that, your boss will be getting the bill for damages.”
T
he man glared at Evan and then
spat
in his general direction. Evan got in the car and drove to the all-night veterinary clinic recommended by the woman at the auction house payment desk. Jeremy sat in dead silence head hanging, tears running down his face. The auction house
had
dressed him in white linen drawstring pants and a
thin white shirt. When Evan helped Jeremy get out of the car in the parking lot
at
the
clinic, he back of his pants showed fresh bleeding. Evan felt irrationally guilty over not getting to Jeremy sooner. He helped him walk inside. He was sorry immediately. Screams came from all directions. He put a comforting arm around Jeremy and looked wildly at a nurse.
She smiled at him. “First time at a slave clinic?”
“
Yes. Why all the screaming?”
“Most owners won’t pay for anesthetic or painkillers. But they still want the repair or treatment.”
Evan swallowed back bile for what felt like the millionth
time that day
“I want any pain relief you can give my…slave. He has been used by a man who didn’t use any prep. He’s bleeding. I need the damage repaired and aftercare instructions.
T
he nurse looked at him oddly. “Okay
.”
“Can I stay with him?”
“If you want. Or you can just leave him. We have empty
cages.
You
can just come back and get him in the morning.”
Evan dry swallowed his anger.
Cages?
“No. I’ll stay with him. I want to take him home with me.”
“It’s your time.” S
he led them back to a room that
looked like any examination room Evan had ever seen. “Strip him and get him
lying on his back on the table. Cover him with that sheet folded there at the foot of the table.” The nurse flipped up stirrups at the base of the table “If you can get his feet in the stirrups that would be great. Do you need help to restrain him? A whip?”
“Uh, no
."
After the nurse left, Jeremy finally spoke to Evan for the first time.
“Evan? Why…? He began pulling off his clothes and
Evan turned his back, before he answered.
“Why did I buy you? That’s a long story. Let me get you
home and feed you. I bet you’d like a shower or something too, wouldn’t you? We’ll talk in the morning. I haven’t ever owned a slave before so they gave me a refresher disc for masters. Since you haven’t ever been a slave before we should probably watch it together.
"
“Something tells me that I’ve been very, very, lucky tonight.”
Maybe I have, too.
Evan thought, realizing that he was actually having emotions other than grief
,
even if most of them were in the anger family
,
and he hadn’t thought about Justin at all, for several hours. He turned and looked at Jeremy and they exchanged genuine smiles.
The vet bustled in through the door, looking at the notes the nurse left for him. He noted immediately Jeremy’s size and impressive musculature; then he saw the leash hanging loosely down by the examination table and turned deathly pale.
“Sir, please get your slave under c
ontrol.” He backed up until he
hit the closed door.
“Please secure the leash and the restraints.”
Evan stared at him blankly
, and huffed.
“He won’t hurt you, he’s…”
“
I’m not going
to
examine him until he’s properly
restrained.”
Evan looked apologetically at Jeremy who shrugged slightly and gave him a little smile. Evan clumsily put the leather restraints already affixed to the table on Jeremy’s wrists and fastened a
strap around his chest. He noted some straps on the stirrups, so he secured Jeremy’s feet as well. As a final touch, and with a wry look, he fastened t
he leash to a clip on the wall
evidently there for that purpose. He looked at the vet and raised
an eyebrow.
“Yes. Thank you. What happened to him?”
“I’ve just come from the slave
auction on Water Street. One of
the customers
damaged him during sampling. I need him
repaired.” Evan tried to sound bored and put out.
The vet pulled on latex gloves and got an anal speculum out of the drawer, along with a large tube of KY jelly. “I hope you negotiated a discount.”
“Is what you’re about to do painful?”
“It would be for a human.”
“I told your nurse, but I don’t know if she wrote it down
.
I want this treatment to be as pain free as possible for Jeremy. I will pay whatever extra money that might cost.”
T
he vet paused. “Really? You know they don’t really feel pain like we do. Most of the screaming and what-not is anxiety and attention seeking; not real pain.”
E
van ground his teeth. “Humor me. Let’s pretend that Jeremy is an actual human being for this, shall we?”
“Oh, Lord, you’re one of
those
,” the vet mumbled.
“Excuse me? One of what?”
The vet looked him in the eye sternly. “You know
...
one of those nuts that think animals have the same rights and feelings as
humans. Want to put pants on their dogs and the like. If you want to waste your money, that’s fine with me.”
E
van couldn’t really believe what he was hearing. But…as long as the vet took care of Jeremy and didn’t hurt him that was all that was
important to Evan right now. He watched as the vet backed
off, and got another tube of cream and an IV set up. He waved the materials at Evan.
“This is a lidocaine based numbing cream, and I’m going to give him some valium and versed IV. The versed is an
a
mnesiac. He’ll be able to cooperate with the treatment, but he won’t remember anything about it afterward. He may even sleep through it. That good enough?”
"I
s this what a doctor would do for a human patient in this condition?
“Exactly the same.”
“Okay, then.”
T
he vet gave Evan another disturbed look and got Jeremy hooked up to the IV. Evan noted that at least he seemed to know what he was doing. As he watched, Jeremy’s eyelids drooped and he fell into what looked like normal sleep. The vet grunted and, after cleaning away most of the dried blood, smeared the inside of Jeremy’s still distended anus with the cream and waited five minutes. He tucked Jeremy’s penis up under the sheet, laying it along his thigh. Rolling a light on a flexible neck over, he inserted the anal speculum and began examining the inside of Jeremy’s rectum. Evan stood by Jeremy’s head, keeping his eyes on Jeremy’s face, slowly carded his fingers soothingly through the thick dark blonde hair.
“There’s a large tear in here. It’s going to take at least eight stitches. Shall I proceed, or do you want to trash him?”
Trash him!
Evan glared. “Will he heal well enough to become functional again?”
“Should. It will be at least two months before he’s up to intercourse again. And he certainly should eat nothing but liquids for the next seven or eight days. You’ll also have to be sure that he uses an antibiotic anal douche daily for the next three days and that antibiotic cream is applied directly to the inju
ry, twice a day for two weeks.”