Bastien laughed at the thought as the two men behind him began to whimper and whine like babies.
Dancer ignored them. “Let me go and I’ll leave here without any drama.”
The blonde woman tsked at him. “It doesn’t work that way, cutie. You have too big a bounty on your head. Eat the others if you must. You’re worth a lot more than they are.”
Bastien arched a brow at her nonchalant offer. Fabulous. They were assassins as well as slavers. Just what they needed. Only good news was that they hadn’t realized Bastien was worth as much, if not more, than Dancer.
Dancer glared at the women. “Iwillget out of here, and when I do—”
“Don’t make me kill you, Andarion. While you have one hell of a bounty on your head, I’m thinking there are a lot of people who’d pay a fortune to have an Andarion slave.” She raked his body with a hungry smirk. “Now be a really good boy and I might send you off with a smile on your face.”
He exposed his fangs to her. “You’re really going to let me eat your heart?”
She scoffed. “Watch them, Pheara!”
Dancer grabbed the bars over his head and used his entire body weight to kick at the door again.
Bastien cringed and braced himself for impact as he realized what Dancer intended.
The other two women took three more steps back.
Eyes wide, the woman named Pheara gulped. “I don’t think that’s going to hold him, Telise.”
“If he kicks it open, blast the shit out of him. Price-wise, given the scars and wounds already on him, it won’t matter if he’s banged up a bit more.”
Dancer took that insult with a roar. He pressed his face between the bars to glare at Telise. “When I get out of here, I’m going to feast on your organs.”
She pressed the prod to his stomach and blasted him.
Dancer growled and somehow managed to stay on his feet, glaring at her.
That succeeded in putting fear in theharita’s eyes.
Unsettled, she stepped back and turned toward her friends. She handed the prod to the smaller of the two. “If he gets out, open fire and call for backup.”
Oh yeah, ’causethatalways worked. Especially against an Andarion.
Dancer fanged them again. “Hey!” he called to the two who eyed him like the vicious predator he was. “There was a woman with me. Where is she?”
Pheara cleared her throat. “We took her weapons and left her where she fell. Why? Is she yours?”
“My niece, and if any harm comes to her, I swear by every god who protects Andaria that I will rain down a hell on you so severe you will beg me for the mercy of death.” He kicked the door again.
They backed up.
“I’m going for more guards.” Pheara took off running, leaving the other woman to watch them with a bug-eyed stare that would be hysterical if Bastien wasn’t so enraged.
Dancer turned toward the men behind him. They shrank away from him as if terrified he really would eat one of them. Dancer grimaced at the typical human reaction to his kind.
Bastien shook his head at their unwarranted fear. “Don’t worry. We fed him earlier. He’s not hungry. Right, Hauk?”
He glared sullenly at them all. “Feeling a bit peckish, suddenly.”
That only frightened them more.
Bastien sighed at his irascible companion. Must be an Andarion thing. Fain was the same way, and Jullien set the universe’s record for the shortest fuse—as most likely to agitate any situation, anywhere, anytime.
Returning to the door, Dancer eyed the woman with menace. When he went to kick it again, Bastien stopped him. “Why don’t we try something a little less violent and more productive, my large Andarion friend?”
