Unleashed by the Defender: A Kindred Tales Novel, стр. 14
J’are’s blazing green eyes looked into hers for a long moment.
“I’m yours now,” he repeated in that hoarse, deep voice of his. “Yours and not hers.”
“Mine,” Imani agreed. “Come on now—you’ll be all right. Just focus on me. Stay with me, all right?”
“Yes.” He nodded slowly. “I’ll stay with you.”
“I must agree with Lady Bittlebum, Councilor,” Judge Thoughtgood’s voice cut in again before Imani could take the big Kindred’s hand to lead him away. “You’ll need the remote to his pain collar to keep him under control. And you cannot take him out without a leash—it simply isn’t proper.”
Imani wished she could argue that she wasn’t afraid of the big Kindred and thus didn’t need to use the pain collar. And also, putting him on a leash was dehumanizing. But right at that moment, she just wanted to get out of there before the judge changed her mind.
“All right,” she said evenly. “Give me the leash and remote.”
Another Horvath guard stepped forward and handed her a long black leather leash and a small black rectangular box that looked like a mini TV remote.
Imani took them but when J’are saw the small remote in her hand, he at once began to growl.
“No, no—look at me. Look at me,” Imani told him, reaching up to stroke his cheek. “I’m not going to use this,” she said, showing him the remote. “I promise—not even once. I have to take it because they won’t let me take you with me otherwise. But I’m not going to use it.”
Slowly, his green eyes cleared and the animalistic rage leaked away. He frowned.
“You swear by the Goddess?”
“I swear,” Imani said firmly. She tucked the remote into the front of her bra, since she had no other place to put it. “See? Out of sight, out of mind.”
“Mmmm.” J’are agreed, but his pale green eyes were fixed on the tops of her breasts, cupped snugly in the white lace bra.
Uh-oh… Imani wished she had some way to cover herself, but she couldn’t exactly put her blouse back on at the moment—she would risk offending the judge.
She tried to ignore the big Kindred’s interest and turned her attention to the leash instead. She didn’t like using it on him but again, she didn’t see any way around it.
“I have to put this on you now,” she told him. “I’m sorry, J’are—I don’t want to but I have to.”
He nodded with surprising acceptance and lifted his chin, baring the thick black collar with its metal rings. Imani wished she could take that off him as well, but she knew better than to ask. She would have to see if there was some way to remove it once they got back to her hotel room.
She clipped one end of the leash to the front ring of his collar and held the other end awkwardly. It seemed so strange to be leading a grown man on a leash like a dog, but there was no way around it—not here on Yonnie Six.
“All right, now we’re ready to go,” she told J’are.
“I’ll see you here this time tomorrow, Councilor,” Judge Thoughtgood said, drawing Imani’s attention away from the big Kindred for a moment. “And remember, you are not to take his leash and harness off until you are safely in your residence. Am I understood?”
“Completely, your honor,” Imani said, nodding at her. Then she looked at her new charge. “Come on, J’are,” she told him. “Let’s go home.”
Ten
She was the One and she had come for him, to Claim him. So many nights dreaming of her—dreaming of her warm brown skin and big dark eyes. So many nights seeing her luscious curves when he closed his eyes at last to the torments of the hole and was able to drift away for a few precious minutes of sleep.
J’are followed her willingly. He was aware that his feral side was still more than halfway in charge—his senses on high alert as long as they were out in the open. Seeking danger and finding it, when he saw the Horvath guards (Gods damn them to the Seven Hells and let them burn there for all eternity!) and the Cruel Mistress who had first shocked and hurt him.
But even with danger all around, she was unafraid. The feral part of J’are wanted to fight—wanted to kill the guards who had harmed him, wanted to hurt the Cruel Mistress the way she had hurt him. But she said he must not and the sentient part—the thinking part—also said not to. So he listened and followed her out of the cold, echoing room full of danger.
Followed her out into the open and away from all the bad people towards home.
Eleven
Imani hadn’t arrived at the legal building until late afternoon and the trial—if you could call it that—had taken several hours. By the time she and J’are emerged onto the sidewalk outside the tall black building, twilight had fallen.
The big Nightwalker Kindred looked like a vast shadow in the deepening gloom—all except his eyes, which glowed eerily in the gathering darkness. He didn’t seem too happy to be so close to the heavy traffic, still whizzing by.
He whined uneasily as an especially large vehicle whooshed past, flattening Imani’s skirt and blouse(which she had put back on as soon as she left the courtroom) against her body with the force of its passing. If he had been a dog, she thought, his ears would have been flat back and his tail would have been tucked.
“Come on now, J’are.” Imani could feel the tension in the leash as she tugged it gently. She was well aware of the awesome physical strength on the other end of the black leather strap she was holding. If the big Kindred decided he didn’t want to go