Page 42 of Condemned

“Yeah, with her cunt. Though you plowing her mouth didn’t help...”

Avalon curled up, eyes closed, being gently rocked as the mauleon walked. It was like being in a ship. She’d been in one, once upon a time.

Her eyes snapped open. What had just happened?

She thought about wriggling to get down from whoever carried her. It was Zo. Zo of the blade-like eyebrows, and the black braid that currently wound past his neck and over her breasts. Zo with the zendokai tattoo of planetary circles and stars on his temple.

Yeah, him.

She reconsidered. She was comfortable, snuggly, happy even, though her jaw and lower parts ached as if she’d been reamed by a tree... an amazing, sexy tree.

So she sighed and shut her eyes. Just this once. Well, maybe a few times.

“Tell me, did you really intend to kill Timin?”

His question was unexpected and uncomfortable.

“I need to know.”

Telling him the truth would be like laying out her soul. She never, ever did that.

Revealing her true self was making herself vulnerable. It gave the enemy her weak points, told them where to hit her to do the most damage. She done that enough when young, and learned.

“I...” She paused, drew a breath for strength, and looked up and saw Zo looking down. Those eyes. Arrgh. This was agonizing to say. “Yes and, ummm, no? I knew I should, but I couldn’t.”

“Couldn’t? Because it was wrong to?”

That was the crux of it. Was she the sort of person who killed the vulnerable, or was she the weak one who inevitably suffered?

She said the only answer that came to her, that made sense. “Yes?”

“Good. You’re excused then.”

He began walking again.

This time she leaned up and squinted at their destination. “A water trough?”

“You know you have to get clean.”

“Not—”

“I am a sadist.” He dumped her in it.

Her screams were the loudest of the night.

The blanket and cuddling afterwards was lovely. The soap and scrubbing before that, not so much.

In the morning Takk beckoned to her with a crooked finger. She’d learned. She went to him, if reluctantly.

“Pull your leggings down and bend over that log.”

Wide-eyed, she regarded the log then Takk. “Ummm. Why?”

He dragged off his gloves and tucked them into his belt before he answered. “You don’t ask me why. Not unless you want extra punishment.”

Fuck.Only scowling slightly, as in for about one millisecond, she trudged to the log, shuffled down her leggings to just below the crease of her butt. At the raising of his eyebrow, Avalon sighed and pulled them lower, to below knee level. When he nodded, she leaned over the log and found a spot on the ground to place her palms that wasn’t covered in small stones.

“Good.” Takk grunted in satisfaction.