Chapter Six
It was several hours later before Vegeta woke from his deep slumber. The Mozart had silenced itself. Only the sound of gentle, muffled breaths could be heard.
The prince yawned and rolled onto his back, his heavy eyes still closed. His bunk smelt different; oddly sweet, in the most appealing of ways. It took a moment for him to recall why. Then, in the darkness, a sly and rather satisfied grin spread across his face. Lithia! How could he have forgotten the first step towards his victory?
He reached out sleepily to pull the girl towards him, finding he craved the sensation of her soft flesh against his muscles. Yet his woman was not there.
With a rush of panic and anger his eyes snapped open, quickly scanning the dimly lit room. She was definitely not there.
The prince sprung out of his bunk, grasping sleepily at the garments he had cast aside hours before, and, hastily, he pulled on his pants and boots.
"Damn her!" he hissed, trying to shake off his drowsiness. "Little floozy! I should have known better than to trust a-"
He stopped mid sentence. Lying on the floor, right next to his discarded training shirt, were the outer layers Lithia had shed earlier. The girl had been lying in his bunk in nothing but her under garments. Why, then, had she not the decency to over up before leaving?
Vegeta's mind began to race, along with his heart. He knew Lithia would not even have teleported next door without dressing first. Hurriedly, he stalked across to his bureau and picked up the spare scanner he stored in his cell. He tuned his gaze to the wall that separated their rooms.
"She's not in there," he muttered to himself, frowning a little. Where else would she be in the middle of the night, undressed? What would be so important she'd leave without her clothes?
The answer struck him like a blast to the chest. She hadn't left- she'd been taken. Throwing down his scanner furiously, he stormed to the door, stabbing angrily at the "open" button. Zarbon was waiting in he corridor outside, lounging against a wall with a bemused expression across his face. He eyed the half-dressed prince before announcing scathingly:
"I suggest you move fast if you want her to stay in one piece. Lord Freiza's not too pleased with you man-handling his goods."
"The girl is mine," Vegeta spat, seizing Zarbon by the throat. "You better remember that."
He threw the sycophant to he ground. There was no time for rough-and-tumble with the sub-ordinates now. If Frieza had the girl, then he had to act fast. Concentrating, he located the most powerful ki on board and teleported to its side.
The overlord was in his usual chamber, sitting high above the room, sneering down at the new arrival.
"Vegeta, I did wonder how long it would be before I saw you this evening," Freiza drawled, red eyes glittering with vindictive pleasure.
"Give her back," the prince snarled simply. "What use is she to you? For fuck's sake!"
The reptilian dictator threw back his head and laughed, flashing his many sharp, white teeth.
"She is of plenty use to me," he hissed. "She is the perfect bargaining tool! Forgive me, how rude…bring the girl in!"
Vegeta whirled round to see a side door opening, and two armoured soldiers emerge, carrying a scantily clad and rather limp figure roughly by the wrists. Lithia could only just raise her head to meet her prince's disgusted gaze.
"What did you do to her?" he demanded. How had this happened? This was the very thing he'd feared- the female becoming his weakness. How had the damned lizard known?!
"It's a simple drug, nothing more," Freiza explained airily. With remarkable speed, he jumped down from his perch and glided to the side of his guards, still eyeing Vegeta cautiously, as though this were simply a game.
"Vegeta, it's come to my attention that both of you have been pushing my boundaries a little. You have been throwing your weight around…and I don't like that. You forget your place saiyan- beneath me!"
He paused to leer in Vegeta's face, who was trying his best to refrain from lashing out. His very nature urged him to crush the bastard like a bug, yet he knew better. He was not powerful enough. Not yet.
"Your female fellow here," the lizard continued, now pacing circles around them both, "has taken it upon herself to train up. Not only has she disobeyed my wishes regarding her schedule, she also commandeered a portion of my ship to complete her illegitimate activities."
Again, Freiza paused. He bent, only slightly, down beside the semi-conscious form of Lithia. Then, slowly and very deliberately, he ran a clawed hand across the girl's heaving chest. A wave of sickly hot anger rose in Vegeta, an emotion that must have shown in his face for the tyrant laughed.
"Losing your touch, aren't you saiyan?" he sneered. "She's quite under your skin, this little gem. My, how the mighty fall!"
"Perhaps you're just losing your ability to read people," Vegeta snapped, unable to hold back.
"Oh dear, more insolence," Freiza sighed with mock disappointment. "You two really are akin to each other. Well, now I am going to punish you both."
Vegeta watched his nemesis smiling at him from his crouched position. Then, in a single swift movement, the lizard raised his hand and brought it down powerfully across the left side of Lithia's face, slashing her skin from her brow down to her cheek. The girl let out a shriek of pain, quickly snapping out of her drugged state, and clasping her hands over the wound that was now gushing blood. For the first time in his existence, Vegeta nearly wretched at the sight of carnage.
"Bastard!" he roared. He pushed forward, knocking the closest guard out of the way and pulling his screaming companion into his arms.
"Get the hell out of my sight," Frieza spat. "Both of you! And let this be a warning, Vegeta, a pact, if you will! You keep your word to me, then you keep the girl. If not, then I'll do with her as I see fit. And I promise you, I will not be so lenient again."