The female guard nodded and pulled out a bright pink, fluorescent writing instrument. She wrote quickly and neatly on the side of the silver camera-ball and then tucked it into the chest, among many others, before shutting the lid carefully.
“Well, Mistress, that’s quite an honor,” The Beast purred, eyeing Cassie. “His Slimefullness never adds a new vid to his viewing chest unless he really likes it. And I have to say, I can see why he liked it.”
“Have you ever had a vid added to the viewing chest?” Cassie asked him. She didn’t like the way the big bastard was looking at her—like she was a juicy steak and he was starving—and she wanted to change the subject. But then, he had just watched a porno starring her—which had probably given him ideas. Which made her doubly glad for Stone’s arm around her shoulders.
“I did—once.” The Beast nodded. “It was the scene I told you about—with the girl I injected with the new aphrodisiac his Greatness was trying out? The one that makes females want pain instead of pleasure?”
Cassie sat up straighter in her chair. The snuff film! It’s in the viewing box!
“That’s interesting,” she said, trying to keep her voice level. “And what did he name yours?”
“Deadly.” The Beast flashed a white, murderous smile at her that made Cassie sick to her stomach. But she refused to be intimidated.
“That makes sense, I guess,” she said. “Where does his Slimefullness keep his viewing chest, anyway? I suppose it’s always near him, so he can rewatch the vids he likes easily?”
“It’s stored backstage, I think,” The Beast said, nodding at the female guards who were carrying the huge chest away, behind the long red curtain. “His Slimefullness likes to be able to look at his favorite vids night and day.”
“Doesn’t he ever sleep?” Cassie asked innocently. “I mean, does he stay up on his, uh, platform there all the time?” She nodded at the rectangular platform the Slimerian was laid out on.
“Slimerians don’t need much sleep,” The Beast said. He frowned. “I’d say he sleeps…oh, two or three hours a night, maybe. It’s pretty much the only time his guards get to rest, too. They’re always grateful to get a reprieve, since watching his favorite vids makes his Slimefullness horny and he wants to penetrate them.”
Ugh! Cassie thought but didn’t dare to say aloud—not when she was so close to Gozeriam.
“That’s interesting,” she said coolly. “Do you know how much longer the public viewing goes on?”
“Oh, it’ll be over in a minute. His Slimefullness just has to dismiss us,” The Beast said. “Say, after he lets us go, what would you say to spending a little time at my place? We could, er, work on some techniques—maybe you could teach me some of your moves.” He gave her a hungry look and Cassie felt her stomach roll over in disgust.
Stone glared at the other male, a low growl rising in his throat, as he pulled her even closer to his side.
“Uh, without your body-slave, of course,” The Beast added, eyeing Stone doubtfully.
Cassie wanted to say something cutting but she reminded herself again that they were trying to reel The Beast in. At some point she had to get him to follow her back to their ship, so they could take him back down to Earth to stand trial. So she made herself smile at him, even though it made her want to puke.
“Of course. But I have a better idea,” she purred. “Why don’t you meet me a little later on and we can go to my ship? I have some, uh, special equipment I bet you’d like to try out on me. And of course, there’s more privacy that way.”
The Beast’s fake-gold eyes lit up with a hungry glow.
“That sounds fucking perfect, Mistress. When do you want to meet?”
“When is his Slimefullness usually asleep?” Cassie asked. “We’ll want to be able to sneak out of the palace without anyone seeing us,” she added.
“Between the hours of one and three is when he usually snoozes,” The Beast said, nodding.
“Good! Then you can meet me at two,” Cassie told him. That should hopefully give her and Stone time to destroy the Pain Fruit plants and grab the snuff film while everyone else was asleep. Then Stone could wait out in the ship while she lured The Beast outside. And then…
And then we’ll go home, Cassie thought to herself. The thought made her sad for some reason—not because she liked this crazy porn palace, of course. But because she and Stone would have to go back to just being friends.
But that was how her partner wanted it and that was how it was going to be, Cassie told herself stoically. There was nothing she could do to change it—nothing at all.
Forty-Six
“I do not like the idea of you being alone with The Beast,” Stone growled, the moment they were back in their room. “You swore to me that you wouldn’t be.”
“He’s not going to come if he thinks you’re there!” Cassie protested. “Besides, this gives us time to destroy the Pain Plants and scoop up the snuff film. Then you can go hide in the ship and once I lure him out there, we slap the cuffs on him and take off.”
Stone frowned.
“It sounds like a perfect plan. Except the part where you are alone with the Beast.”
“Stone…”
“All right, all right.” He sighed. “I know we agreed this would be your part of the mission. But I don’t like the way he looks at you, Cassandra—as though you were something delicious to eat.”
“Believe me, I don’t like it either—he’s repulsive.” Cassie shivered. “But we have to do our job, partner. And there’s no way he’s coming out to the ship with me if you’re anywhere he can see you.”
“Is that all this is? Just a job to you?” Stone suddenly gathered her into his arms and looked at her intently.
“Oh, well…” Cassie was flustered. “I mean, that’s what we agreed, right? That we would get the job done and then go back to normal once we got back to Earth?”
“Yes.” He sighed deeply. “We did agree that. We will go back to being partners and friends only for the rest of our lives.”
It was on the tip of Cassie’s tongue to ask if her partner wanted to change his mind. To say that if he wanted to be more than friends, she would certainly agree.
But what if she was wrong? What if Stone looked at her like she was crazy for suggesting such a thing? What if he had no interest in being more than just friends?
I’d feel like a fool, Cassie thought ruefully. And things would be awkward between us forever afterwards.
No, she couldn’t risk it. She would just have to accept that her handsome Kindred partner was only ever going to be her friend and that was it.
“Come on,” she told Stone, wriggling out of his embrace. “Let’s talk about how we’re going to do this. What if the door to the plant lab is locked—can you get us in?”
“I believe I can but I’ll need you with me, in case we are discovered,” Stone said. “A body-slave never goes anywhere without his Mistress.”
“All right.” Cassie nodded. “Let’s game it out. Now what if we do get caught?”