Jeanne G'Fellers - No Sister of Mine by Jeanne G'Fellers (reading tree TXT) 📗

spittle, “I would have done the very same thing. We’d be a good pair, you and I.”

“No.” LaRenna shook her head. “We’re nothing alike. I would never forsake the Kinship.”

Cance fell forward, so close her chest pushed painfully into LaRenna’s ribs. Her face was devoid of emotion. It was Brandoff’s cold look and Brandoff’s voice hissing in her ear, Brandoff’s form pressing her down and pulling her head back by the hair. “You will keep a well-mannered tongue and learn when and where not to speak. You’re my property. Do you hear that? Mine!” Cance forced rough kisses on LaRenna’s face and neck until LaRenna wriggled free enough to slap her.

“You might as well kill me, you branded bitch,” she wailed. “Because I will never, NEVER be yours in any way. Not of my own free will. No amount of violence or drug can convince me anything about you is right.” LaRenna spat at Cance again. “Slow death is preferable to spending one more second with you. Fuck off!”

“I believe the young woman dislikes your company.” Talmshone glanced through the window at the approaching first dawn. “Time grows short. We must keep our schedule.”

“Screw you and your schedules! It’s time I teach my new bride about obedience!” Cance tore off LaRenna’s blanket and remaining underskirts. “This is what happens when you mouth off, girl. I command respect and I will get it each and every time.” LaRenna mustered her strength to roll from beneath Cance, landing, gasping, a few inches away. Cance grabbed her, dragging her back to the pallet. “A filthy mouth prompts filthy actions. Take your punishment and learn from it.”

“NOOO!” LaRenna fought to keep the second assault from occurring. She kicked with her good leg, trying to throw Cance’s phaseless blows off balance. Trazar fought against Talmshone, desperate to come to his sister’s aid. The Iralian pinned him to his seat with a solid hand to his shoulder then did the same to Bane, gripping the old man’s shoulder so tight it audibly cracked. A mere turn of his flaring red eyes kept Starnes at bay.

“I do not condone this unfortunate incident, gentlemen,” he said. “But if you interfere, Cance will kill you all out of pure rage and I will be without transportation home.”

“Damn you!” Cance pressed her hand to LaRenna’s throat. “When will you learn?” LaRenna growled her response, striking Cance with her splinted hand. Cance grabbed her outstretched arm and pulled, sending searing pain down LaRenna’s side. “Very well, a proper lesson it shall be.” She pulled a second and third time. “Rule one, the harder you fight, the rougher I become.” LaRenna screeched as Cance repeated the process with her other arm. “Shut up, LaRenna Cances.”

“I’ll never be known as yours!”

Cance twisted LaRenna’s right breast. “I said shut your fuckin’ hole!”

“Never!”

Cance released the bruising pinch, doubled her fist, and smashed it into LaRenna’s abdomen. LaRenna’s eyes rolled back, but she still wriggled to get free.

“Stop it!” cried Trazar. “You’re killing her!”

“She just wishes I would.” Cance bashed LaRenna again. “Isn’t this how you Auts treat your wives? Or is it this?” Cance brought her knee up, ramming it into LaRenna’s crotch until she ceased moving. “Rule two, LaRenna, always, always obey me.”

“No one should be treated like that.” Bane pulled the hidden dagger, plunging it into Cance’s shoulder. “The lady said no!”

Talmshone plucked him up by the scruff of the neck and held him suspended midair. “Now where were you hiding that?”

Cance sprang up, took a controlled breath, and removed the imbedded blade. “It takes more than that to stop me, old man.” She peered down at LaRenna, whose breaths had become ragged. “Lesson complete, my love.” Cance traced LaRenna’s side with her toe. “Time we made things official.” She laid her hand onto her shoulder, then to LaRenna’s right shoulder, leaving a perfect red palm print. “There.” Cance cleaned the blade and passed it to Talmshone, who belted it beside Brandoff’s blade. “That’ll lay my claim until I have my symbol inked on you.”

“No . . .” LaRenna never opened her eyes.

“She even defies you in catatonia,” observed Talmshone. “What about the Autlach senior?” He held Bane out a second time. “I am not a cloak hook.”

“Break the fucker in half.” Cance watched as the Iralian squeezed Bane’s frail neck until it cracked.

“Done.” Talmshone tossed the remains into a corner. “Next?”

“I’ll take care of Starnes.” Cance centered an intense stare on the cringing barman, anger and frustration venting into her phase. Its powerful broadcast caused LaRenna to shriek, Starnes screeching discord with her cry. Cance pared the phase until it excluded her fairer hostage then held it, toying Starnes’s mind into insanity. He rocked back and forth, babbling incoherently.

“You are going to leave him in that manner?” asked Talmshone.

“Does it bother you, scaly?” Cance grinned at him as she drew her blade across Starnes’s throat. “I’m done. Let’s go.”

“Not yet.” Talmshone’s disapproving expression lingered. “How are we moving the girl?”

“We’re not.” Cance undid Trazar’s bindings. “Get your sister ready to move. Attempt to run or engage me, Commander, and I’ll do all the nasty things I can think of to her. TWICE!”

Trazar moved to LaRenna’s side. “She needs clothes.”

Talmshone rifled through Starnes’s clothing cubicle, pulling out a knit sleep shirt. “This will have to do. There are no clean leggings.”

“They wouldn’t fit anyway,” said Cance. “Put it on her.” She tossed a strip of torn underskirt to Talmshone. “Bandage your hand.” She tore two more strips and folded a panel of the remaining material into a tight roll. “Hurry up, sentry. We haven’t got all day!” Cance tossed the rags to Trazar. “Put that roll where it’ll catch her bleeding. Sick enough it’s all over my knee, but I won’t have her staining up my craft.”

“We are more likely to succeed if we proceed separately.” Talmshone descended the stairs. “I am going.”

“So are we.” Cance passed Trazar a blanket that he wrapped around LaRenna and scooped her up. “Stick to the side