Blood on Sand

SKINNY-DIPPING

Zoe heard a growl but he was too tired to care. Everything hurt, even the soft light from the ceiling lamp felt like icicles to his eyes. Why couldn't Wojtek just have turned them off? There was some more growling followed by the screeching sound of the iron gate. Zoe managed to get up into a sitting position and leaned against the brick wall, cradling his head in his hands. He tried to get away from the sound, but moving would joggle the thorny cotton in his head, so that was out of the question. His skull had grown too tight, and he needed a bath in the worst way. Needed to let his skin soak for a day or two, nothing less than that would cure the desert that had overtaken his mouth.

"Get up." There was a kind of anger in Satul's voice he hadn't heard before. He couldn't quite remember what he'd done, but he remembered that his goal had been to annoy the top dog—he hoped it had worked. "Zoe, get the fuck up off the floor."

"I think he's drunk."

Huh, that was someone he hadn't heard before. He squinted in the direction of the sound.

"Or maybe not. Here is an open bottle, but I can't tell if he drank from it, seems like maybe a mouthful or two is missing."

Zoe blinked a few times to clear his vision and almost choked, right there in front of his eyes was a nicely shaped cock nestled in a shock of fiery red pubic hair. With a wince, he turned his head away. Couldn't these monsters at least put on some clothes before they came down here?

"Shit. He could've killed himself with that corkscrew; take it away." The urgency in Satul's voice made him groan. He hadn't even thought of that. God, he was bad at committing suicide. "Half a glass would probably be enough to knock him out." At least Satul had the decency of covering up his bits by wrapping a towel around his waist.

"How could he become this drunk on a mouthful of wine?"

"Lizards don't drink."

"No one drinks until they've tried it and they see the benefits of being mellow."

"You're so fucking daft, Koray. They don't drink anything, not even water, unless they're ill."

"How can anyone survive without water?"

Zoe tried to tune them out but their voices were like glass shards in his brain.

"They live off the humidity in the air," Satul muttered. He seemed to know a lot more about lizardians than anyone else around here, and yet they failed so miserably at taking care of their... Zoe had always considered himself a warrior, a fighter, but slave probably was the correct word for what he'd become.

Satul bent down and pulled Zoe up on his feet. The room shifted, queasiness hit, and Zoe gagged. He managed not to puke all over the place, but it was a close call. Cold sweat came in waves, timed with each unstable step he took—as if he wouldn't have been sluggish enough from the cold, he'd just had to swallow that tannic shit.

"Stop the jibber-jabbing and get moving." Rough hands grabbed and hauled him up into a fireman's carry. Zoe's stomach lurched but he clamped his lips together and swallowed down the bile. He would not vomit all over that gorgeous bum. Koray was still as naked as the day he'd been born. Werewolves were born naked, right? Or did they come out hairy?

Zoe presumed Satul went before them up the stairs, but he really couldn't tell—it took all his attention to keep from puking.

"Take him to the bathroom. He needs to bathe."

"Shouldn't we search the house first? The boss will be home any minute and he'll hand us our arses if we haven't figured this out."

"I'll bathe him. You search the house." Satul's tone was clipped, and Zoe started to realise that something must have happened, something other than him having a sip of Wojtek's wine. He could feel how tense they both were, and though he didn't know Koray he guessed that something had to have happened to make him come down to the cellar without Wojtek present.

"You search the house, dude. I think Tedor's right. You're getting too attached."

"Fuck you!" There was a snarl that couldn't have come from a human. Zoe tried to see over Koray's shoulder, but a strong hand held him in place. He was carried into the bathroom, where Koray turned on the faucet. Hot steam billowed from the water as Zoe tried to find his balance.

"I'll go into shock if it's too hot."

"And how hot is too hot?"

"I'd say that about thirty degrees would be great on a normal day, but I'm figuring I'm about twelve degrees now." Koray's eyes widened. "Maybe a little more since you so graciously lent me some body heat on the way up here." He winked—he just had to when Koray wrinkled his nose in a repulsed manner. "So maybe fifteen to begin with, not over twenty."

"You can't regulate your body temperature? Like at all?"

Zoe rolled his eyes, for someone owning lizardmen this lot really didn't know shit about them. "How can you know so little about us? I've been here for more than three years, and you already had fighters in the pens then."

"I'm not involved in that part of the business. I just follow Wojtek around like a glorified groupie. So, as long as no one tries to rip him to shreds and the money comes in every Friday, I'm good."

Zoe slumped down on the rim of the bath. "You can leave. I promise not to drown myself." He'd probably fail anyway.

Koray studied him for a while, almost as if he was seeing something he hadn't before. "Give me your clothes." He looked down at his dirty, blood-stained, tunic. He'd been wearing it for a week now, and it didn't smell too good. But to be naked in front of the werewolves—

"What the hell are you waiting for?"

With a deep breath, he untied the leather armour, pulled it over his head, and then did the same with the thin linen tunic. He didn't try to shield himself. If Koray wanted to see what their kind of treatment did to their slaves, then let him look.