Discovery (Hybrid Book 1) (22 page)

Tamas smiled as he acknowledged the advantage Connor had handed to him on a plate.

“But my dear Mr. Temple, we both know that she’s not human, so what else would you classify her as? Anyway, back to the science. The experiment consists of an un-aroused male ‘stimulating’ her to see if the effect is produced simply by being touched by a male, and then we’ll introduced an obviously interested male to see if that is the trigger.”

“Of course, we wouldn’t want to run the risk of a pregnancy from what you say, so the experiment will end as soon as we’re sure she’s in discomfort. I’ve purchased the services of another young lady, so the poor chap isn’t made uncomfortable for too long.”

Connor was glad he’d had the interrogation training as he gazed impassively back at Tamas as if he didn’t have a care in the world. No more points for the enemy, not yet anyway.

“I know you can’t risk physically harming her, so a little frustration is hardly going to upset me. My duty is to keep her able to perform her healing functions for the Federation. Nothing more.”

Tamas stroked his immaculate beard as he walked closer.

“I’m not sure I believe you, Mr Temple. But still, it’ll be an interesting experiment, don’t you agree?” Connor maintained his silent poker face.

“You may be wondering why I’m not ‘personally’ supervising the study. To be honest, I don’t think she likes me very much, and I’d have to play the part of the ‘un-aroused’ male. Females have never held a great deal of interest for me. You, however interest me immensely.”

Tamas sighed as Connor still didn’t react. Homosexuality was a major taboo on this planet, but it wasn’t on the majority of worlds. Connor wasn’t that way inclined, but it didn’t bother him.

“I had been hoping for a little more reaction, but never mind. You may be interested to know that apart from having sex with fit young men I also enjoy torture, although thinking about it, it usually amounts to much the same thing for me.”

As he spoke, Tamas pulled a small cloth case from his inside jacket pocket and unwrapped several thin, bright metal blades.

Connor couldn’t prevent himself cringing away from Tamas as he drew uncomfortably close, and gently scraped a blade down his cheek. It left little more than a scratch, but it gave Connor something to think about, other than what was happening to Chesara.

Slowly and carefully, Tamas cut off Connor’s shirt, running his fingers softly over his skin as it became visible.

“You certainly keep yourself in shape for a baby-sitter,” he murmured.

“Does your nephew share your ‘hobbies’?”

“Trying to distract me, Mr. Temple? I’m afraid it won’t work. I’m quite skilled at multi-tasking.” He said as he carried on cutting away Connor’s clothing, and was now onto his trousers.

“As to your question, poor Tenset has no idea about my preferences, the boy thinks my devotion to the cause is the reason I’m celibate. You have no idea the strength of will I’ve had to employ over the years, having such a beautiful young man under my roof and not being able to touch him. I was genuinely quite jealous of Chesara last night. Maybe I’ll think about him while I’m playing with you.”

Connor tensed as he felt his genitals fondled. He tried to focus on anything other than what was happening. He was almost relieved when he felt the sting of a blade being drawn across his chest. The blood dripping down his abdomen felt hot. Tamas was completely absorbed in his task as he made a series of slow careful cuts on his chest and abdomen, almost as he was trying to draw a chequered pattern.

“Blood is such a wonderful lubricant.”

Connor ignored the taunt, and its implications as he continued to recite Federation Regulations to himself. The cuts were shallow; they probably weren’t even reaching his muscle layers, although it was possible that blood loss might eventually be a problem. However, he had to admit, they probably looked quite dramatic.

Connor managed to remain silent throughout, determined that he wouldn’t give the bastard any satisfaction. Although he couldn’t stop himself tensing each time the blade bit.

After a time Tamas seemed to get bored, either with his design or Connor’s lack of reaction. He frowned and reached back into his pocket, drawing out a six-inch long spike. He smiled his crocodile smile as Connor’s eyes widened and then pushed the implement slowly and carefully through his right bicep. Connor gasped and then cried out as Tamas twisted the spike in his flesh.

“There we go Mr. Temple, at last a satisfactory reaction. I was starting to wonder if you were going to be any fun at all. Let’s see if we can let Chesara know just how much we’re enjoying ourselves in here.” The smile he directed at Connor was pure evil, and Connor settled in for the long haul.

He heaved an inner sigh of relief as Tamas was disturbed from his fun by a soft knock on the interrogation room door. So far he’d managed to keep it fairly together, and after the shock of the first spike being shoved through his bicep, he hadn’t cried out again.

Tamas called for whoever it was to come in, and Connor gritted his teeth to keep silent as Tamas withdrew his instrument from his flesh. Lifting his hanging head as he vision cleared, he saw an older man in green livery walking over to them.

He now had blood dripping from numerous deeper wounds now, and he was starting to weaken from the constant adrenalin and steadily lowering blood volume.

The faint sound of Chesara angry noises improved his spirits a little. If she was that angry, nothing too bad could be happening to her. He was too tired to concentrate enough to access the implant.

“Lord Tamas, your instructions have been carried out, and although I’m not as you know experienced with females, she seemed unmoved by my efforts.”

The man looked at Connor with considerable interest as he let out a growl on hearing that Tamas had indeed had someone touching Chesara. The fact that it was this man, who looked old enough to be her grandfather made him feel more than a little sick.

“Well done, I know it wasn’t a welcome task. As a reward would you like to take a turn with Connor tomorrow? Please send in her next appointment.” The way the man’s eyes lit up at Tamas’ words made Connor shudder in revulsion. He wondered just how much they could both endure before being rescued. Perhaps his initial plan to wait it out wasn’t going to work quite as well as he’d thought.

As the servant left the room, Tamas turned back to him.

“Well Mr. Temple, it seems our little playtime might soon be at an end, so let’s get to it, we need to make you pretty for your girlfriend.”

Connor zoned out as he tried to concentrate enough to check his implant to see how Chesara was doing.

“Torture is a very misunderstood art, my dear Mr Temple. It isn’t the barbaric, crude procedure that so many people think it is. It takes a great deal of finesse and control to keep your subject conscious, whilst maximizing the suffering. It’s taken me a lifetime of dedication to achieve the proficiency you are having the privilege of experiencing. Having your little alien friend will hopefully bring a new dimension to the experience. Usually I have to wait for days for a subject to recover sufficiently for another session, but which time they have also mentally recovered.

It’ll be interesting to find out how long it takes to break you when I can have you made as good as new, any time I wish.”

“Now do you think some broken finger would add to the puncture wounds and cuts, or do you think they would detract from the ‘blood experience’ I’ve created? Tell me Mr Temple, can the little alien’s regenerated eyes or amputated limbs?”

C
hesara waited. There wasn’t a lot else she could do after Melton had dragged her out of the office and stuck her in this cell instead of putting her back in with Connor or letting her stay with Tenset. The last thing she’d seen was him going to his knees as his uncle had touched him with what looked like a cattle prod.

As much as she hated to see him being hurt, it also made her heart swell to know she hadn’t been entirely wrong about him. Deep down, Tenset Shamir had his heart in the right place, he’d just been influenced by the truly evil man than had brought him up. Unfortunately, just as with Connor, being her friend was proving to be a distinctly unhealthy option.

The two guards hadn’t been deterred by her struggles and foul language from removing the robe and tying her to the bed, stark naked. The lecherous ‘see you soon pussy cat,’ from the younger one didn’t reassure her in any way.

She tried to remain calm, not thinking about why she’d been tied spread eagled by listening to the pitter patter of a shower outside the window. Strictly speaking, it was a hole in the wall with bars, from what she could see by straining her neck back and sideways. The thought that things would continue to grow and thrive whatever happened to her was comforting.

The shower grew heavier and then slowed before the sound of shuffling footsteps in the corridor and a rattle of keys indicated that she was about to have a visitor.

The door opened to reveal the elderly waiter who’d served in the dining room. As he came in, he gave her such a look of disgust, that she felt dirtier than she had when she’d been sitting in that muddy puddle. She had a vague hope that someone had remembered she hadn’t eaten since breakfast and had decided that it was a good idea to keep the new, important acquisition fed.

“Hey arsehole, I don’t want to be here anymore than you do. How’s about letting me loose so I can eat whatever you’ve brought? Then you can bugger off and whatever the walking dead do when they get time off.”

Instead of producing a tray, he looked at her as if she was something he’d scraped off his shoe and pulled a clean white cloth from his pocket. Leaning close to her, he forced it into her mouth as she started to curse him, struggling against her bonds. Lunch was clearly not on the menu.

What the fuck was going on? Chesara couldn’t work out why this disgusting old pervert, who obviously wasn’t in to her at all, was cutting off her shift and touching her. Her skin was literally crawling as he robotically ran his hands over her body, occasionally painfully squeezing a breast, or fiddling between her legs with a disgusted expression on his face.

After unsuccessfully trying to get him to stop, by making as much noise under her gag as she could, she decided to endure the unwanted attention in the same way she did a doctor's exam.

Luckily, the rain had started up again, and she focused on the noise, and the occasional whinny of a horse from the stables. She imagined herself grooming one of the majestic black horses, calmly and steadily, the scent of fresh hay and horse, the creak of leather and the odd snuffle took her far away from her physical body.

After about thirty minutes, that both of them clearly wished hadn’t happened, the man simply stood up from where he’d sat on the edge of the bed and left.

Well that was fun, not, she said to herself. If he’d been a medical professional he’d have been far more systematic. It had seemed like a weird, clumsy attempt to arouse her, by a man that had been as disgusted by her as she was by him.

She couldn’t for the life of her work out what Tamas was up to. The old git hadn’t even covered her over, and the evening rain had caused the temperature to drop making her develop goose bumps all over. So much for missing lunch, it looked as if she’d missed dinner too.

She froze when she heard a man roar in pain. She’d never heard the stoic Connor make a noise like that before. Without thought, she started screaming at them to leave him alone, although the threats she yelled were pointless given her current position and the gag.

The noises from Connor had faded, although she didn’t know whether that was good news, or exactly the opposite.

Chesara sighed as her door opened again. More fun and games with the geriatric, oh goody. However, the man that walked in to her cell wasn’t disinterested, or old. It was the second guard from the first night, and he grinned at her in a way she didn’t find reassuring.

“Hello sweet thing. Guess who’s got the job of keeping you entertained?”

The grin on his face reminded her of a cat who’d got the cream. She decided that, with her talented vocabulary, she’d probably be able to put him off, and she mentally rehearsed a few choice phrases such as ‘is that it, pencil dick, or I’ve seen better bollocks on a rabbit’.

Unfortunately, with the gag still in place, her only option was to lie here like a dead fish, and hope that he too would get bored and leave. Composing herself, she closed her eyes.

“Do you really think that pretending I’m not here will make me go away? I already know what a sexy, needy little thing you are, the shower scene was terrific, but you begging Lord Tenset to fuck you had me coming in my hand. I was so disappointed when you didn’t carry out your threat to go see the guards; I was ready and waiting baby.” He laughed as her eyes shot open.

“You didn’t know you were providing entertainment to the entire staff did you? Getting this particular job cost me most of a month’s wages, so you’d better make it worth it.”

As he spoke he took off his shirt, revealing a broad pale chest, heavily muscled with several prominent scars. It looked as though he took his role as a guard seriously.

He sat down beside her, and grinned as she closed her eyes, but this time her body was tense. She stayed with her eyes closed for around a minute, but apart from a little rustling noise, nothing happened. Straining to work out what he doing despite her resolution not to care, she opened an eye, and fervently wished she hadn’t.

The man was now fully naked and sported a large erection that he was gently caressing as his eyes roamed over her naked body. He smiled as her eyes widened at the sight, then shut tightly again. ‘Oh Shit, that actually looked pretty good,’ she thought to herself, and started to panic, she could not, would not, respond to this abuse.

“Want some sweetness? I promise you’ll enjoy it. I won’t make you wait like Tenset did. The guy’s a dick, it was clear what you needed, and he still didn’t give it to you.”

Chesara shook her head, keeping her eyes screwed up tight. The gentle contact of a finger with her belly made her jump, and she began to recite nursery rhymes to herself as a distraction. The finger moved slowly up until it he cupped her breast gently. A thumb rubbing over her nipple. As he leaned over her to treat her other breast to some attention with his lips, she felt his hard manhood press against her naked thigh.