Read The Bid for Free Online

belong here,” she said with conviction. “This House is a covenant, Vejhon Mach. One that cannot be broken. One that, once you enter it, you will not want to abandon. You stand on the threshold of a new life. All you need to do is accept it, and it will be yours.”
    She withdrew something from the jeweled collection and made her way back to him. He stiffened instinctively at her approach. This time she did smile at the reaction, the expression just a little too wicked for Vejhon’s peace of mind. He let his eyes dart to her hands and the thing that she carried. It was a thick band of platinum or white gold, he couldn’t immediately tell which, and it had the figure of some kind of catlike creature carved into it. Set in the creature’s eyes were two lone gemstones, amethysts of a deep and unusual violet…or a stone very much like them. Jewels and precious metals were the only common currency between the worlds that were part of the spaceways, but no two planets bore all of the same type, making the value of the gems rise and fall between locations. There were a few universals, though, something that could be found most anywhere, and those maintained a steady value. The purple gems in the band appeared rare enough to hold great worth.
    She stopped near his left side and reached out to touch his clenched biceps. Her fingers gently ran over the veins and contours of his arm until she reached the manacle at his wrist. Vejhon ought to have protested violently, rattling his bonds with all of his strength and anger, but he knew it was a waste of energy at this point and decided to save it for a more effective opportunity. This woman was going to find her lush backside on the shit side of his list right along with all the others who had brought him to this point. He would satisfy himself with that knowledge and his surety in his ability to eventually escape this nightmare.
    She snapped open the band, making him realize it was hinged so cleverly he hadn’t even noticed the utilitarian accent. Reaching for his arm again, she moved to snap the band in place.
    “If you put that thing on me, I swear to all the gods I will rip your fucking head off.”
    The threat didn’t even make her hesitate.
    “No, you will not,” she answered matter-of-factly. “In fact, once this band is in place, you will never be able to hurt me without hurting yourself. It is a safety measure, so you will forgive me if I find it wise to use it, since you take such comfort in threats and in your own wrath.”
    She snapped the band on easily, Vejhon helpless to do anything but growl at her with ferocity. Then she pressed both of the gems simultaneously and he felt a series of sharp, needlelike stings zipping into his skin around the entire circumference of the band.
    “Gods! You bitch! What did you do?!” he roared, his voice echoing with resonance off of the stone walls.
    “I told you. It is to assure that you cannot cause me harm. It does not subvert your will in any other way,” she reassured him. “You can be as angry and violent as you like, so long as you don’t combine it with laying hands on me with the intent to hurt me.”
    “I can’t touch you, period! You have me chained to the wall like an animal! What more reassurance can you possibly need? Are you truly that afraid of me that you need to manipulate an already helpless man?”
    “Actually, I am not afraid of you at all, Jhon.”
    He would have laughed in her face at that obvious lie, only her eyes were so serene and seemed so believably honest. She gave off no clue that she harbored any fear of him, and that was simply something he wasn’t used to. Everyone feared him. His enemies, his troops—every one of those bastards who had traded him from ship to ship until they had brought him to this end. Even though he’d been caged and bound, he had seen the fear behind the greedy excitement in their eyes. He had seen how they had stood back from the force fields separating him from