Prince of Luster by Candace Sams Page A

called out encouraging words.
    Finally!
    This was what the people needed. Someone who could take them from the depths of despair, motivate them out of their hopeless state, and join them together again. Instead of acting selfishly, they began to speak with one voice and heart. More cries came, and she saw the human fighter continue his taunting game with the oversized, slimy savage.
    As Codge repeatedly attempted to regain a position of power, Green Eyes removed each effort with one expert blow after another. Soon, Nova saw the huge slug begin to tire. He became clumsy, and his ill-timed strikes were further misdirected because of his uncontrolled anger.
    “I thought you said you could fight,” Green Eyes taunted. “I’ve scraped things from the bottom of my boot with more class than you.”
    Enraged by the insult, Codge bellowed and lunged uncontrollably.
    Green Eyes knelt on one knee, letting the slug’s blade miss him by inches. And before the creature could recover and deliver one more strike, Green Eyes turned his blade sideways and cut deeply into the mucous-coated body. Gray blood gushed forth.
    Green Eyes stood, backed away, and kept his sword up. But the fight was over. Codge was down on both knees, his sword lay on the ground, and his appendage-like hands gripped his ugly wound.
    Prometheus slowly stood. He walked toward his fallen comrade and looked down. “Codge … get up and finish him.”
    “I-I can’t, my leader. My wound prevents it.”
    Prometheus snarled, withdrew another sword from a sheath on his back, and swung it once.
    Everyone watched as the slug leader’s minion lost his head. It rolled in the dust of the street. Women near Nova screamed in horror; she wasn’t one of them. Green Eyes had surely sealed his fate in the most horrifying way. Prometheus would never kill him quickly now, not when the embarrassment of such a defeat had been witnessed. And not when the leader of the slugs had to slaughter one of his
own
cutthroats to reassert his position.
    Prometheus circled the body of his comrade while glaring at the crowd. He slowly turned his attention back to the human who’d succeeded in rallying the people. He pointed the tip of his sword at Green Eyes. “You’ll pray for death, human. You’ll know the meaning of agony before this day is done.” He looked at the other slug present and issued a severe order. “Cell disrupter—on stun.”
    Nova and the crowd quickly backed away once more. She stared at the helpless green-eyed warrior and sent a prayer for him to the Creator Goddess. Their hero turned to face the slug to which Prometheus had spoken.
    Green Eyes bravely charged the second slug, but not before that gray hulk pulled a side arm and fired. Nova flinched and physically lurched when the hero’s entire body convulsed. He’d received the full brunt of the electrocuting stunner. In an instant he lay quite still. There’d be worse done to him this night. Tears filled her eyes.
    The courageous, green-eyed combatant would indeed wish himself dead, and very soon. She and everyone around her knew what would happen. They’d all seen it before. In this instance, however, the horror would be inflicted on someone who’d stood up for someone
else
. Just as her parents had.
    Prometheus turned on the crowd with his cellular disrupter drawn. “No one leaves. No one.”
    Nova watched as the slug leader and his assistant dragged the limp human fighter by the arms to two granite support columns located in front of one of the stores Like all the others on that block, the columns had been charred by similar activities as what would soon take place. The unconscious man was pulled into a standing position. His wrists were then strapped to the columns.
    “Wait until he regains his wits. I want him awake,” the slug leader commanded.
    Nova put her hands to her face when Prometheus grabbed the front of the green-eyed stranger’s shirt and pulled it off with one swift move. She still couldn’t