Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79603 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79603 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
“Thank you, your honor.” Imani looked up at the big Kindred, who was still held in place by the chains attached to his collar and the bolts in the floor. “Could you please have the guards unchain J’are so I can take him home with me?”
At a nod from the judge, one of the Horvath guards came forward and started to unlock the chains. But the moment the scaly lizard man came close, J’are’s eyes flashed and he bared his teeth, showing his fangs again.
Imani frowned. She had heard reports of how badly the Horvaths mistreated prisoners under their care. They were a sadistic, cold-blooded people who enjoyed torture. She didn’t need the guards triggering J’are again and forcing back into his feral state.
“Stop!” she exclaimed, frowning at the guard. She held out her hand. “Give me the key. Let me do it,” she demanded imperiously.
The lizard man looked at her dubiously and then up to the judge who nodded her head.
“Give the Defender the key, guard.”
With a shrug of his scaly shoulders, the Horvath guard dropped the key—a smooth metal disk with a burnished copper stud sticking out in the middle—into Imani’s palm.
“You pressss it to the locksss,” he explained and then took a step back.
“Thank you,” Imani said stiffly. Then she turned her attention back to J’are. “All right now. All right,” she murmured in a low, soothing voice. “Come down here please—I can’t reach you way up there.”
The big Kindred relaxed his defensive stance at once and bent towards her. Imani pressed the round disk to the locks that ringed his pain collar. One by one they popped open and the chains slithered, clinking and clanking to the floor, where they lay in piles like defanged snakes.
“Good.” Imani caressed his cheek again. “Excellent, J’are.”
As soon as she got him home she had to get that shiny black stuff off of him, she thought. It felt slightly tacky to the touch and had a strange, unpleasant chemical odor. But despite that, she didn’t want to draw away.
“That’s good, J’are. You’re free now,” she told the big Kindred.
“Not free yet,” he rumbled and nodded down to the thick leather harness which strapped his arms to his body and kept his hands and wrists bound in front of him.
“Judge Thoughtgood?” Imani looked up at the judge who was watching with a wary expression on her face. “May I please have the key to J’are’s harness as well?”
“You may have it,” the judge answered. “But you may not use it until you get the Kindred back to your own domicile and the doors are safely locked,” she added firmly. “This male is far too dangerous to roam around unrestrained. And I want him locked up in that harness again when you bring him back into court tomorrow. Do you understand?”
“Yes, your honor.” Imani nodded respectfully and looked up at J’are. “Sorry, big guy—I’m afraid you’ll have to wear it just a little while longer until I can get you home. Okay?”
Slowly, he nodded.
“All…right.”
“Okay.” Imani stroked his cheek again. It occurred to her that she was touching him way more than was proper between an attorney and her client. But it seemed to calm him down and besides, she found she liked touching the big Kindred—even if he was covered in some kind of weird black tar-paint.
One of the Horvath guards handed her another kind of key—this one a slightly larger disk which was hung on a metal chain.
“Wear thisss clossse to you,” he hissed at her. “When you wish to use it, pressss it to the locking mechanism by his wristssss.” He nodded at the thick manacles which extended from the heel of J’are’s big hands all the way up his forearms.
“Thank you,” Imani said stiffly. She took the harness key and slipped it over her head. Then she looked at J’are. “All right—are you ready to go?”
“Not without a leash! And the remote to his pain collar!” Lady Bittlebum spoke up for the first time. She gave Imani a withering look. “How in the world do you expect to control the beast otherwise?”
At the sound of her voice, J’are’s eyes blazed and he turned on the lemon-haired Mistress with a low growl.
“No, no!” Imani said quickly. Reaching up, she captured his chin and pulled gently but firmly. “Look at me, J’are,” she said urgently. “Don’t pay any attention to her—just look at me.”
Slowly, the big Kindred turned back to face her.
“She likes pain,” he said simply. “Being with her hurts.”
Imani felt as though he was squeezing her heart with his words. She had a sudden flash of what life with Mistress Bittlebum must have been like. She’d been the first one to own J’are after the kind but eccentric Lady Hownow, who had apparently treated him like a son. Then her niece had come along and introduced him to the pain collar and who knew what other torture devices the Yonnites used on their male bodyslaves?