Meadows of Heaven (18/23)
Chapter 18
Jensen felt the cold of the metal long before he opened his eyes and saw the cage. It pressed against every inch of his body: the front of his legs to his knees, his buttocks, along his back and the sides of his arms. They'd put him in a cage sized to his body, so he couldn't move. The bastards had even cuffed his wrists to the sides, and attached his collar to the square opening, so that his head hung forward without any support.
He tried to pull back, to at least rest his chin on one of the bars, only to gasp at the feel of a dildo pressing against his opening. The only way he could get some relief for his head would be to risk his ass. In the right situation, he thought giddily, this might actually be fun. But someone had taken him, locked him in this cage, and who knew what else they had planned? Jensen thought back, trying to remember the last person he'd seen, and his scattered memories came up with an image of Peter in the garden.
Almost as if he'd conjured him up, one wall shimmered, dark gray stone disappearing as Peter crawled into the dungeon room. Peter moved with feline grace, his long limbs extended perfectly as he pulled himself forward. He had a serene kind of beauty, miles of pale skin, and Jensen knew doms who'd love to break him in, though it seemed it had already been done.
Peter crawled because he had to; Jensen caught a glimpse of the bars that kept his balls pulled back behind his legs, stretched across the tops of his thighs. With that thing on Peter could not physically stand. Twin weights hung from the rings in his nipples, and black rope formed a twisted pattern around his cock.
"I'm sorry, Jensen," he said softly, coming so close his face was only inches from Jensen's. "My master ordered me to."
Jensen scowled at him. "To what? Kidnap me? Does he honestly think no one will notice I'm gone?" He knew all Jeff had to do was give the order, and the tracer in his navel piercing would lead them right to Jensen.
"He made it seem that you left on your own," Peter whispered. "So your master thinks you betrayed him."
Jensen closed his eyes for a moment. They'd activate the tracer once they'd figured out he hadn't left on his own, though he had no idea how long that would take. Damn Adrian. He lifted his head to snap at Peter and his collar clanged suspiciously against the metal. That wasn't the leather collar he'd left home in.
"He took my collar?" Jensen blurted. Then, horrified, realized the only metal collar he'd ever seen on 328 was the golden lifetime band. He couldn’t see his own neck, so he had to ask Peter. "What, what color did he put on me?"
"It's grey metal," Peter said, looking at Jensen with his earnest blue eyes.
"What does this mean?" Jensen snapped, the fear still coiling in his gut.
Peter looked away as he answered. "It's the collar of the unwilling. It's similar to the one used on prisoners. My master is the only one who uses it."
"Fucking prick," Jensen muttered under his breath. At least he wasn't locked into some lifetime deal with Adrian. "Peter, what the hell are you doing here?"
Peter lifted one hand and Jensen flinched, only for the other man to grab on to one of the rungs of his cage. "He doesn't let me speak, and I wanted the chance to explain to you."
Jensen clenched his hands into fists. "Explain how you abused my trust and helped abduct me. Thanks Peter, thanks so fucking much."
"Jensen," Peter hissed, "You don't know what he's like, please, don't fight him."
That was all Peter had time to say, the wall blurred again into a door and two of Adrian's guards entered the room. They walked with a swagger, both strong hefty men, dressed in a uniform similar to the guards in the Royal district, only in silver and blue instead of red and gold. Something in the way they carried themselves made Jensen think of every asshole who'd harassed him in the past, when all he wanted was just to be accepted like any other soldier.
"Looks like we found the duke's favorite slut," the taller of the two guards said, slapping the other on the arm.
Peter stiffened, and then his shoulders dropped, and he just looked resigned. He backed away from Jensen, and towards the door, but one of the guards grabbed Peter by his hair and forced his head back. "Our lucky day, he hasn't been used yet. You want the front half or the back?"
The other guard began unbuckling his belt. "I'll take his ass. You had it last time."
"Mmmm, and that was a sweet ride." The first guy freed his own cock and pushed it past pale pink lips, just as his partner lined himself up behind Peter.
Jensen swallowed as he watched, unable to look away as the two guards took Peter between them. If this were Misha, Jensen knew the scene would be different - Claudia would be nearby and Misha loved being used. But Peter's master was nowhere to be found, and these assholes didn't even talk to him, just about him, like he was nothing more than a living sex toy. He'd seen rape before, Jensen wasn't a stranger to the darker sides of sex and what passed for sex.
He could be wrong, he knew. The tears that squeezed through Peter's shut eyes could be nothing more than an emotional release, Jensen had seen it in subs before, hell, he'd been the one to cry.
But he'd also been on the other side of an unwilling fuck. His vision hazed over for a moment, and then he was back on Station 73, selling his body as just another trick in the night. Fuck, he'd hated that mission. His cover had to be tight, so Jensen had to live off of what he actually earned while hooking. For the first few days especially he couldn't turn anyone down, no matter how dirty or disgusting they seemed to him. And then once he fulfilled the first objective - got himself hired by Madam Heidi - he never had the choice to say no. He had to fuck who she told him.
This brought him right back to that, being passed around at a party, arms bound behind his back, his ass sore and leaking, drool running from his swollen lips. He remembered how it smelled - stale sweat, the sharp pungent spice of the lube, the musk of the semen covering his body. Jensen couldn't scrub himself clean, not that night, not for years afterward.
And this was Peter's life? Had been his life for the past five years? This resembled nothing like how the subs were treated in the palace. For a moment Jensen wondered if the joke had been on him, if Harmony was much crueler than he'd thought. He couldn't call this safe, sane and consensual. You're already forgiven, Peter, he thought, wishing he could get the chance to tell the boy so. In his place, Jensen would have done the same.
Now he'd have to survive Adrian.
The guards finished up, the one in the back pulling out with a squelch and slap on Peter's ass. "Where's your plug, boy?" he asked, the first words spoken directly to Peter, who couldn't even answer, his mouth still choking on cock.
The other guard pulled out with a groan, his come falling on Peter's nose and cheeks. "Mmm, someone's going to be punished, leaving his cage without a plug."
"Don't say I never did anything for you," the first guard chuckled and pulled out a thick metal butt plug from somewhere, probably midair for all Jensen knew, and shoved it where his dick had just been. Peter twitched slightly, but otherwise didn't react, and at that Jensen knew this scene was all too common.
"Too bad we can't fuck this one, Van," And at least Jensen had a name for one of them.
"Not yet." Van leered and Jensen had to suppress a shudder. "Look at those eyes, the duke wasn't kidding."
The other guard whistled. "Never seen a sub with green eyes before."
Van snorted. "You can't fuck his eyes. Come on, we're already late."
Jensen held still while they opened the side panels of the cage. He wasn't intending on resisting, he saw the gleam in their eyes, how they were just itching to take him down. They pulled the dildo out first, and he relaxed in relief. When they released the cuffs around his wrists, Van pulled both of Jensen's arms behind his back, holding him there while the other one undid the clasp on the front and allowed Jensen to pull his head back through. He stumbled when they forced him to stand, his muscles screaming at being held in that position.
"Don't worry, you'll be crawling soon enough."
"You know you guys just ain't that funny," he snapped.
Van grabbed his hair - that seemed to be his favorite move - and pulled Jensen's head back, exposing his throat. "Subs don't talk without permission. Remember that."
Jensen bit back a response, the last thing he needed was to give these bastards an excuse to go on a power trip. When Van threw him forward Jensen caught himself, hard to do with his hands bound behind his back, and managed to keep walking. He forced himself to stay calm, to observe his surroundings, to use every tool at his disposal to survive relatively intact and do anything he could to alert Jeff to his location.
Adrian's castle was nothing like the palace, it lacked the filtering of light, the bright colors, the sense of joy that pervaded the queen's domain. Dark stone, like that in the dungeon where they'd punished Misha, made up the floors and the walls. Jensen didn't feel any give on his feet here, no, this stone looked and felt like rock. Adrian didn't seem to be the type to make things easier for a sub.
The guards pushed Jensen into Adrian's great hall, with a ceiling just as tall as the one in the queen's palace. People-sized cages hung from this one instead of chandeliers, with subs bound inside. Subs were also bound to the pillars that lead up to the throne, set slightly above the rest of the room on a raised altar. Adrian sat on the ornate seat, made of wrought iron twisted into a grotesque pattern. A sub knelt on all fours at his side, a tray with drinks on her back.
It took Jensen a moment to notice, as he tried to take in every detail of the room, that every single sub other than Peter wore a gray metal collar. The collar of the unwilling Peter had called it - did that mean all of Adrian's subs were unwilling?
The guards pushed him to his knees just before the dais, but he remained stubbornly looking up at Adrian. This man wasn't his master, Jensen didn't owe him any respect.
"Come here, Peter." Adrian ignored Jensen's presence totally, which had Jensen gaping stupidly up at him.
Peter crawled past him, and Jensen had no idea how the other sub had kept up on his knees the entire time. He watched Peter move, his ass plugged, his balls stretched and restrained, the weights swinging from his nipples and realized that Peter must be in constant pain. No wonder he hadn't cried out after the whipping.
"Did anyone see you in the gardens?" Adrian asked.
Peter shook his head no.
"And you left the slate I gave you?"
Peter nodded.
Adrian smiled, a slow smile that had fear curling in Jensen's gut. "Good boy. I think for bringing Jensen to me, you deserve a reward." His eyes met Jensen's as he spoke.
It didn't take a genius to figure out what Adrian was trying to do. By rewarding Peter for kidnapping Jensen in front of Jensen, he was hoping to grind the last bits of friendship they might have between them. Hadn't Peter said that once, back at the palace? That subs couldn't have friends?
"I think I might let you come," Adrian said, as if musing.
At the way Peter's head shot up, Jensen wondered how long it had been since he'd been allowed release. He'd worn a chastity device the entire time they'd been at the palace, and that had been for weeks. Adrian seemed like the sadistic bastard who'd keep his sub caged for months.
"Over my lap, ass up first," Adrian ordered.
Peter obeyed, draping himself over Adrian's legs, his ass and sore looking balls prominent. Adrian undid the locks on the device that held Peter's sack captive, rolling them slightly between his fingers before releasing them. Peter gave a sigh of relief, his eyes rolling back in his head for a moment.
Adrian released him. "Turn over."
It took some maneuvering, Peter wasn't a small man, but soon he sat on Adrian's lap, both legs thrown over his master's, one arm curled around to hold on to the throne for balance. Adrian pulled off the cage, undoing the lock and releasing it one metal ring at a time. He fondled Peter like a pet, stroking upwards until his cock was straining thick and proud. "Would you like a special reward, pet?"
Again, Peter didn't speak, just nuzzled against Adrian's neck. It made Jensen feel vaguely nauseous.
"Sub Leela," Adrian called. "Present. Ass up."
A young woman crawled from her place, a group of subs Jensen noticed out of the corner of his eye. They weren't tied to anything, but all of them wore some kind of spreader bar or chain to keep them kneeling or otherwise occupied. Leela had a thigh spreader strapped to her legs, making it impossible for her to close them. She turned when she reached the throne, facing Jensen and presenting her lower half to Adrian.
"You may have her." Adrian pushed Peter off of his lap. "You have permission to come."
Although Peter seemed grateful for the opportunity, Jensen tasted bile. A reward should be given by a master's hands, or so he always believed. And why should another sub suffer to reward the first? This seemed just how Adrian did business, pitting subs against each other, and everyone else against the subs. Disgusting, Jensen thought, their loyalty was worth nothing.
Adrian spread his legs as Peter moved off of him and towards the girl. His erection stood straight and thick between his thighs, evident through the loose fabric. One hand stroked it idly, almost as if bored. He kept smiling, staring right at Jensen.
The girl made tiny gasps as Peter entered her, he wasn't small and Jensen bet she wasn't prepared. Peter held on to her waist, and Jensen could see him fight not to come too quickly. But after that torture for so long, any man would shoot as soon as he was surrounded by tight slick heat. Peter cringed, his entire face crumbling as he came, probably more in pain than pleasure right now. Some reward.
"Clean yourselves up, then to your places," Adrian ordered as Peter finished. He rose from his throne, finally, coming down the steps to greet Jensen. "Welcome home, green-eyes."
Jensen glared at him. "You're not my master," he bit out. "You'll have to answer to Commander Morgan . . ."
Adrian laughed. "Commander Morgan isn't your master, boy. Both of you just pretended to fool that ignorant bitch calling herself queen right now."
"What?" Jensen choked out.
"Isn't that what you told Peter, when you were half-conscious with pain medication?" Adrian asked, raising an eyebrow. And damn him, but Jensen didn't remember, he very well could have.
Adrian shook his head, turning his back on Jensen as he walked away, pacing a bit. "Weak. Pathetic. Needing pain medication of all things. It took me years to break Peter of that. Wonder how long it'll take to break you."
"You're insane," Jensen blurted. "No matter what you think about me and Commander Morgan, you're threatening the agreement with the UP."
"That stupid little treaty? What can your UP do for us that Harmony cannot? I've made you disappear, after all. If I wanted, none of them would be even able to find this city."
Jensen shook his head, unbelieving. He'd met Harmony, he'd been the worthy sub, the sacrifice she needed to shield the city. There was no way she'd let Adrian do all that. "You're lying."
"Does it matter?" Adrian turned back and shrugged. "Would you even know? You obey my rules now."
The slap came hard and unexpected, setting Jensen's ears ringing and his eyes watering. He blinked back the tears furiously, not wanting this man to see a shred of weakness.
"How lovely the green looks." Adrian forced Jensen's face up, gripping him by his chin. "I can't wait to see it when I get full tears out of you. Maybe I'll breed you, start up a trade in green-eyed subs."
"No," Jensen gasped before he could think. Another slap came crashing down against the opposite cheek.
"First rule, you do not speak unless I give permission. Perhaps you need something to remind you." Adrian forced a ring gag against Jensen's lips, and he bit down on it, unable to do otherwise. Locking it in place, Adrian stepped back, admiring his handiwork, how Jensen must look with his lips forced wide and open. He unlaced his pants and Jensen knew what was about to happen.
And stars be damned, but he was hard, his cock curved against his thigh, already leaking a stream of pre-come. Jensen closed his eyes in shame. He'd feared this, even back in the Academy, feared his submissive nature and he needed to be subjugated, controlled, mastered, to the point where it didn't matter who.
Jeff deserved better than this, than some slut who'd get it up no matter who fucked him.
As Adrian stuffed his cock into Jensen's mouth, it turned out that he didn't have to do very much to get Jensen to cry at all.
***
"Stars, it's incredible."
Chikezie laughed and Maggie knew her reaction to actually being in the city might be a bit over the top. Maggie knelt on one of the cushy tram seats, hands pressed against the glass as she watched the city speed by, the twisted spirally towers, the bridges, the other trams winding through the sky. She couldn't imagine what it would be like once they got down there, the short glimpse before hopping on this vehicle wasn't enough to get more than an impression of cobblestone streets and stone pillars.
"Wait until you see the palace," Chikezie said, patting the crate that held the bio scanner absently, as if double-checking that it was still there.
"So far I’m not impressed," Whitfield said, though he didn't stop staring out of the window.
Chikezie rolled her eyes. "Just watch the attitude once we get inside. You don't want to pull a Dr. Johnson on us."
Whitfield let out a barking laugh. "The Doc's gonna love us using his name like that. Even if it is true."
"And don't forget it. Let me do all the talking," Chikezie said.
Maggie wasn't looking forward to being greeted by half-naked subs in leather collars. She knew she wouldn't be able to help thinking about her brother, and she really didn't want to picture Jake in similar circumstances.
But when the tram landed, or rather hovered next to a terrace on the side of one tower in the palace, a man in a standard black UP jumpsuit waited for them. It wasn't until they got off the tram, all of them wheeling crates of various sizes, that Maggie learned who the man was.
Chikezie greeted him with a brief hug, to everyone's surprise, even the man who pinked slightly at the attention. "Dr. Johnson, I'm so glad to see you."
He ducked his head. "Ah, Caroline. It's good to see you too."
"Where's Major Tappen? I thought Commander Morgan had succeeded, that's why you were coming home?"
Johnson gave a little shake of his head. "Tappen is staying behind. It's complicated. I'll explain later. Right now we need all of you to set up the bio scanner and find Lieutenant Ackles."
Chikezie nodded. "Is Commander Morgan inside?"
"Yes, you can go in. A little warning, he's a bit frazzled. We've been up all night before Devine recalled you."
Before following Chikezie and Whitfield into the palace Maggie stopped to introduce herself. "Corporal Gyllenhaal, sir. I've heard a lot about you."
Johnson gave her a weak smile, the corners of his eyes wrinkling. "Probably not the impression I wanted to give. Pleasure to meet you, Corporal. Are you new to the reclamation project?"
"No, sir. I'm a tech on the Mercury. Lieutenant Ackles requested my presence on planet." She narrowed her eyes. "I will do all I can to help find him."
"Good girl," the other man murmured, more praise than insult. Maggie shrugged it off and walked through the archway that led inside.
Places like this didn't exist outside of vidbooks, she thought, trying not to gape and stare at the pale marble flooring, the stone sculpture in the center of the room, or the waterfall fountain built into one wall. Instead she focused on Commander Morgan, sitting hunched over on one of the chairs surrounding a low wood and glass table.
"We'll set the scanner up in here, sir, if that's all right," Chikezie was saying. "Unless you'd rather someplace else?"
"Here is as good as any, as long as the damn thing works," Morgan snapped.
Maggie didn't know Morgan well enough to say anything, so she didn't make her presence known, just quickly got to work beside Chikezie and Whitfield, unpacking the equipment out of the crates. She'd brought along all of her hand tools, certain to be prepared for any eventuality. Between the three of them, they had the scanner set up and calibrated in little under an hour.
Chikezie stood before the holographic display, narrowing down the search area from the entire planet to the squared out area of the city. Maggie watched over her shoulder, fascinated as the other woman programmed the scanner to search for Ackles's unique biorhythms. Like everyone else in the Corps, his had been placed on file from the moment he enlisted.
"Commander Morgan," a female voice said, and Maggie looked over at the woman who entered the sitting room. At first glance she reminded Maggie of the captain, the way she carried herself, all eyes moving to her automatically. And then the eyes stayed because she was absolutely gorgeous, blonde curls piled on top of her head, dark eyes, and cheekbones any model would and did pay for.
Morgan looked away from his scrutiny of the scanner. He stood at her approach. "Any word?"
"Claudia and Misha are on their way back here, although she's set her guards out into the district, looking for any sign of Sub Jensen." She placed her hands on the back of one of the chairs. "And then I spoke to Duke Adrian. He seems to think Jensen left on his own."
"He wouldn't," Morgan insisted.
"No, I don't think he would either." She frowned, the expression on her face looking so defeated for a moment. "Commander, you may have to face the possibility, if Harmony can't find him, then perhaps he's dead."
Maggie frowned, because then the bio scanner wouldn't work either. There would be no biorhythms to find. It was a shitty thing to consider, especially after everything Lieutenant Ackles had done for her, when she was just getting to know him. And they might never find out what had happened to him.
"Even if that were true," Chikezie burst into the conversation, looking up from the scanner monitor. "I would have located the signal being emitted from his piercing tracer."
"Piercing tracer?" Morgan repeated. "Of course. I'd forgotten. Lieutenant, can you find him?"
Chikezie gestured to the device. "It should have lit right up. The fact that it hasn't concerns me. Is it possible someone could be jamming us?"
The woman looked at Chikezie, measuring, and then she weighed the rest of them. Maggie felt herself blushing under that regard, like she was split open for all to see.
"Before, I would have said impossible. But now," she shook her head. "Clearly something is interfering with our technology."
"Could it be the Confed?" Maggie asked, worried. Maybe they hadn't left after all. It would be just like them to have left an operative behind, making everything think they'd gotten fed up with the UP.
Morgan blew out a frustrated breath. "Your guess is as good as mine, Corporal. If it were the Confed, that doesn't explain how they could affect the city's tech."
"Hey," Whitfield interrupted, "Gyllenhaal, can you make our scanner work with theirs? Like you did with the Raleigh?"
Maggie felt herself blushing deeper as all eyes were intent on her. "I, uh, I don't know. With the Raleigh it was just a matter of twisting wires and adding a new connection. I wouldn't even know where to begin here."
"But such a combination could be enough to thwart whoever is hiding Sub Jensen," the woman mused.
Morgan nodded. "Corporal, you up to trying at least?"
Maggie swallowed. "Yes, sir."
He smiled at her, the first smile she'd seen since they'd arrived. "Thank you. I suppose I should introduce you all to the queen."
"The queen?" Maggie repeated, jaw dropping in shock. Of course, it made sense, with the way she carried herself, this woman had to have authority. And somehow Ackles had gotten under even her skin to have the queen of this city personally looking for him. It didn't surprise Maggie at all.
It just made her even more eager to get to work.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Epilogue