Varia was awakened by a powerful hand clutching her throat, cutting off her air. The voice that murmured to her was Xader’s, and she smelled whiskey on his breath. “There’s a knife in my other hand,” he said. “One sound and you’re dead.” He let go her throat then, threw the blanket aside, fumbled with the drawstring on her breeches and began tugging them down. She could sense the knife an inch from her throat; it move to her belly as he got her breeches off her buttocks.
“Idri will crucify you for this,” she whispered.
Xader chuckled, seemingly without rancor. “Idri’s over by the creek bank, bobbing up and down on that sergeant’s pole. And when she’s done with him, she’ll sleep like a sow—like the sow she is.” Again he chuckled. “I know.”
Her breeches were down to her knees now, down to her ankles. She struggled, twisting from side to side, intensely conscious of the knife. Idri pushed you too far yesterday, she thought panting. When she wakes up, I’ll be dead and you’ll be gone. Sarkia will chain her in a Tiger barracks for that, but it won’t do me any good. He pricked her waist with the knife tip then, numbing her will, and using a bare foot, freed her of her breeches. Then, bare from the waist down, he forced himself between her knees. The Sisterhood must be in bad shape, she thought, or you wouldn’t dare do this. Sarkia would set Tomm himself on your trail.
Once more he chuckled. “Put it in for me,” he said. His face smirked in hers, his breath reeking. “I’ll show you what a good man’s like.”
She might have cooperated—it seemed her best chance for survival—but his boast was an affront to Curtis. Reaching down as if to comply, she found his testicles, and willed a powerful jolt of electricity through them. The knife which had jabbed her waist, she fully expected to plunge into her guts, but in his agony, he lost it. As he screamed, she squeezed, with hands that had milked cows for years.
With all her strength, she rolled him off, still clutching, willed another jolt, then tore his scrotum half off, cords stretching and giving. His body doubled with spasm, then went slack. She didn’t entirely trust his unconsciousness, and held on grimly while scanning with her cat vision for the knife. Someone, a sentry, had grabbed a torch and hurried over, stopping a few yards off to stare. Glancing back over her shoulder, Varia’s large green eyes caught the man’s and held them, dominating him even as she crouched over Xader with her buttocks bared. “Never try to rape a Sister,” she hissed at him, “or you’ll end up like this one.”
Round-eyed, the sentry said nothing. The whole camp had wakened at Xader’s scream, but they kept back. Except for Idri, who arrived only partly covered by the sergeant’s long, unbuttoned tunic, his saber in her hand. Xader’s eyes were open again, wide and glazed with shock, and sweat greased his forehead, though the night was chill. Varia sent another jolt through him, not as strong, bringing a thin whinny of pain.
Idri cursed. “Let him go!” she ordered.
Varia did, snatching her breeches from the ground. “Go ahead, Xader,” she said. “Here’s your chance to tell her what you told me: that she’s a sow in heat.”
Psychically Varia felt the crackle of Idri’s rage, but it wasn’t aimed at her. The Sister stepped and thrust, the saber striking Xader beneath the ribs and riding in. He squawked like air released from a bladder, then went slack again, and blood stained his twill shirt, purchased at J.C. Penney’s in Evansville, Indiana, in another universe. Idri wiped her blade first on his bare thigh, then on his sleeve. “Leave him here,” she told the wide-eyed sentry. “Let the vermin clean his bones.” She turned her gaze to Varia. “Put your breeches on. You have my apologies, for what they’re worth. I should have known he’d try something like this.”
Their gazes met and briefly locked, and it was Idri’s that turned away. Yes, Varia thought as she pulled her breeches on, you knew what he was like. Probably he’d been in trouble for bothering local women at Ferny Cove, and you saved his skin. You’d love having power over an oversexed fool like that.