“Marlon …” My voice cracked.
Marlon’s jaw tensed. “Sorry, Rogue, I need to go pound into Killion. Now. I suggest you steer clear of everyone for a few hours.”
But it was almost lock-up time. My eyes widened at the realization, and Xavier’s gaze flew to mine. We were both thinking the same thing.
I was about to be locked up with Vex while reeking of sex, and it was gruel time.
“Shit.”
9
The gruel sat uneaten on the table, and Vex paced the room, hands on hips, his body a mass of rippling muscle. It had been like this for the past half hour. Me sitting on the bed unmoving, barely breathing, trying to keep my pheromones in check with force of will alone, and Vex prowling the cell like a caged animal, and damn if I didn’t feel like the prey. He hadn’t looked in my direction for the past ten minutes, and his body was rippling with golden scales that appeared and then melted back into his skin.
At least I wasn’t uncontrollably horny anymore. Xavier’s attentions had taken the edge off, but at everyone else’s expense, it seemed. This was all to do with the damn fertility drug the Trads on Tradacyh had pumped me with. They’d taken my ability to have kids, altered my genes, and turned me into a horny beast once every month. We needed out, and we needed it now.
Thank goodness there was hope. Thank goodness there was something else for everyone to focus on aside from me. It was what they were all holding on to. The possibility of escape. The possibility of sticking it to the man.
Vex came to a standstill, his back to me, and his shoulders relaxed inch by inch. When he finally turned to face me, his sharp-angled face was serene and composed. He pulled back his long golden hair and secured it into a knot at the top of his head, and then walked over to the bed. I shuffled over to allow him room to lie down.
The thin mattress sank in with his weight. He was breathing shallowly, and it was freaking me out.
“Are you all right?” My voice was a whisper.
“I’ll be fine. I just needed to acclimatize to your scent. I have it now. Go to sleep.”
He closed his eyes and lay still. His lashes were dark blond and thick, fanning out across his high cheekbones, their golden hue set off nicely against his bronze skin. He looked like he’d been dipped in gold and then brushed off. The shirt they’d put him in looked like it had been painted on and left nothing to the imagination; every bulge and dip of his body was visible, and my fingers ached to explore the expanse.
He exhaled sharply. “Stop. Stop thinking whatever it is you’re thinking.”
Crap. “What will you do when we get off this rock?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you have a home back on Tradacyh, a family?”
He snorted. “I told you before. I don’t do bedtime stories.”
“I had a cat, Milo. My parents are dead, but I have a brother. I’d go back for him. We were never close, but we loved each other, and he’s the only family I have. I like to paint. I have a studio, and I usually spend hours in it. I had an exhibition coming up you know, my first. It was a big deal. I was so excited, and I went out to celebrate and I …”
“You met a Trad and were reeled in.”
I closed my eyes. “No. I was out with my boyfriend of almost a year. He took me for dinner, and then I felt ill, so he took me upstairs to a room he’d reserved for us. I lost consciousness, and when I woke up he was gone, and there was another guy there. A Trad.” My throat was suddenly dry. “Liam, my boyfriend, had sold me. I’m not sure how much they paid him, but I guess it was getting harder to snag a human female, especially as we were getting more wary by the day.”
His gaze was hot on my face, but I couldn’t look at him, not yet. Because I hadn’t told anyone this before, and now that I’d started, the need to finish was a tightness in my chest.
“He didn’t force himself on me. He didn’t have to. I wanted him. He made me want him, but there was a part of me that knew it was wrong, that it wasn’t what I wanted, but my body wasn’t my own, it belonged to him. He was like a puppeteer, and I was the puppet, and when it was over he led me into the balcony and there was a bright blue light, and my world was gone.” I cleared my throat. “I don’t recall much of the journey to Tradacyh. I guess they must have kept me sedated, and the rest … The rest is stuff I’d rather forget.” A small laugh bubbled up my throat. “Funny thing is, I didn’t even know the Trad’s name.”
Something touched my cheek, and I flinched before realizing it was Vex’s thumb, that he was wiping away a tear I hadn’t realized I’d shed.
“I’m sorry for everything you lost,” he said softly. “But not all Trad are the same. We don’t all believe in what the world leaders have decided to do. We don’t all condone it, but the threat of extinction has driven our world mad.”
In that moment, his harsh face was gentle, and his gaze was soft, and the need to know what crime he could have committed to find himself in this place was a poignant desire.
“Why are you here, Vex? What did you do?”
His expression shut down. “Get some sleep. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”
He lay back down and closed his eyes.
Shit, me and my big mouth. I wiped the moisture from my face and then settled down beside him. After a moment, he raised his arm in invitation to snuggle in. I pillowed my head on his chest and closed my eyes. His chest rose and fell evenly, his heartbeat thudded steadily and slowly, and sleep gradually pulled me under.
* * *
My body awoke a few minutes before the rumble of the machinery, and once again, Vex was wrapped around me like a blanket, his breath on my neck, his huge hand curled into a loose fist on the bed by my abdomen, and his morning glory poking me in the spine.
Was this what it would have been like with Anton if we’d had time? My throat tightened, and I swallowed against the constriction. Anton was gone, and because of him, I was still alive with hope of freedom.
Vex rubbed his stubbled jaw across the sensitized flesh of my neck and gathered me close. “Mina …” The word was filled with soft longing. “Love you …”
Mina?
His body tensed, and I quickly closed my eyes and faked sleep, breathing slow and even. He slowly extracted his arm from around my waist and then cool air kissed my back as he withdrew from me. I cracked my lids to see him walk past and disappear into the small washroom.
Shit. Mina? A lover? His wife? Who had she been?
The rumble of machines started up, and I rolled onto my back and stretched. Vex re-entered the room a moment later. His chest was bare, and his hair was wet, and his face and neck were beaded with water. His shirt was clutched in his hand. He shook his head, dislodging droplets. I shrieked and leapt off the bed, and his lips quirked slightly.
But then the buzzer was going, and his expression sobered. He bridged the gap between us, grabbed my shoulder, and shoved me back onto the bed. He came with me, landing on top of me, his hands sliding into my hair, his mouth descending on mine. He nudged my legs apart, settling between my thighs. My gasp was swallowed by his mouth, and the moan that came after turned into a yelp as he bit down on my lip hard enough to draw blood.
Somewhere in the periphery of my consciousness, I was aware of soft laughter saturated with malice, and then something slammed against the bars, and Vex broke the kiss. He looked down on me, right into my eyes, and then swiped his tongue across my bloody bottom lip in a leisurely fashion, a move that said he owned me, before raising his head to pin his gaze on Marick.
The house master looked ecstatic at my disheveled, abused state. “Get up,” he said, more to me than Vex. “House Ryzer will be working the mines today. Eat your gruel.” This time his attention was on Vex. “And enjoy the hour before you’re taken up to Sector Four.”
He stepped back, and then two bowls were shoved through the hatch. Vex sagged against me, his head resting in the crook of my shoulder. “I’ll have to eat the food, or he’ll get suspicious. Also, be
cause I’m hungry.”
I nodded jerkily.
He raised his head. “I won’t hurt you. I won’t let myself. I give you my word. Besides, you don’t reek as bad now.”
“Bad?”
“You know what I mean.” He climbed off me and headed for the hatch and the gruel.
I sat up as the full impact of what Marick had said hit. We were all headed out of here, and if we pulled it off, then none of us were coming back.
10
“We stick together,” Xavier said. “We stay in sight of each other.”
I was seated on the workbench this time, and even though he was crouched beside it, his head reached my shoulder. His silver hair was tucked behind his ears as he leaned in to speak quick and urgent as the others gathered around. The air was ripe with expectation and fizzing with nerves.
“I’ll find a spot to activate my comm,” Xavier said. “I’ll get word to the others, and once they have a lock on me, all you need to do is be touching me, and they’ll beam us out.”
It sounded so simple, so why was my stomach quivering?
“If anything goes wrong, then we may not get another shot at this,” Marlon pointed out.
Xavier’s mouth was a determined line. “Nothing will go wrong.” His attention was on me. “We’re getting out of here today, and we’re never coming back.”
Don’t get excited, don’t pin all the hopes on this. Wait until it’s a reality, and then,
then you can weep with joy.
I drew a shuddering breath. “We need to act natural, but not too laid-back because hey, being allowed out of the cell block is a new thing, and so we’re allowed to be a little expectant.”
“Marick said Sector Four,” Vex pointed out. “Let’s just hope that’s close enough to the surface for you to get a signal to your team.”
Xavier nodded, his expression reflective. “I hope so, because if I don’t get in touch soon, protocol dictates they head back to base and file a report.”
“They’d leave you here?” Marlon asked.
Xavier nodded. “We’re trained to wait seventy-two hours in the absence of contact, and then we have to assume the operative has been compromised. Sticking around could put them at risk. For all they know, the Trads that run this place have figured out who I am and are torturing me for information about my mission. For all they know, their cloaked ship could be discovered at any moment.”
“Seventy-two hours?” Killion was doing the calculations. “That’s—”
“Tonight, yes.” Xavier’s smile was wry. “I’m sorry, I should have told you that yesterday, but we needed the hope without the ticking clock hanging over it, and it worked out, we have our shot. We have to take it.”
“We should act natural and work out as usual now,” Killion added. “Just in case they’re watching.”
Vex snorted. “They don’t watch. There are no cameras here. Just the intercom for them to speak to us.”
“And possibly listen in?” Killion added.
Vex snorted again. “Marick is an exception to the rule. Trust me, what happens in cell block, usually stays in cell block. They don’t want to know about the shit that goes on. They just want us to fight and entertain them.” He smirked. “They won’t see this coming.”
There was real confidence in his tone, and then his gaze grew hooded. “And neither will your comrades. There are three Trads here, and Trads and Athions don’t have the best of history.”
Xavier nodded slowly. “True. Which is why I won’t tell them who they’re transporting. They’ll be locking on to me and whatever organic matter I happen to be in contact with. I can explain the rest to them when we get on the ship.”
Vex nodded curtly. “If you’d said anything else, I would have known you were lying.”
How long did we have left? A half hour? Less? “We should maybe—”
The buzzer ripped through the air, and I jumped, hand on heart. Shit. Vex pressed a hand to my shoulder, and I reached up to cover it with my own and caught Marlon’s eye. He raised a pointed brow.
Crap, what was I doing? How could it feel so natural for Vex to touch me when a few short days ago, the thought of him had frozen my brain with fear? It was something I could ponder when we were free. Right now, it was time to jet.
I dropped my hand and stood. “And so it begins.”
* * *
The guards herded us down the corridor and up the metal steps to the upper level. The rumble of the machines that drilled and dug into the asteroid’s core was louder here, and the vibrations traveled through the soles of my feet and up my legs.
“This way.” The guards nudged us past the usual set of steps that led to the arena cages and toward the set of double metal doors barred to us. This door didn’t use a swipe card. It required a retinal scan and a thumb print from the guard.
The doors slid open achingly slow, and then the main guard stepped through. His six-armed companions ushered us through with jabs from their guns, probably set to stun, but still, compliance was the only option right now.
Marlon growled when the guard shoved him in the back and received a blow to the back of his head for his trouble. Killion took a threatening step toward the guards, but I grabbed his bicep and squeezed in warning, prompting him to check himself.
Vex kept his head down, silent and deadly, as we walked through the metal doors into the space beyond. Another corridor, and then another, and then a final set of steps. Was the air sweeter here?
Vents, so many vents. A breeze brushed my hair back, and the whirr and grind of machinery surrounded us. The guard pushed open another set of doors, and we were on the main shop floor. The place was crawling with workers. They were dressed in rust-colored jumpsuits, thick boots, and hardhats that molded to their heads. Some wore gloves and others had mech hands clipped to their arms. The clomp clomp of mech bodies controlled by flesh-and-blood workers filled the air as the robotic extensions carried barrels filled with fuel from one end of the shop floor to another. This was the hub of the operation, the center where the fuel was brought to be packaged and then distributed. The air here was fresher, more oxygenated, and for a moment, my head felt light with it.
But we were on the move again, skirting the action to be herded into a locker room.
“Suit up.” The main guard pointed to a line of lockers.
Ten minutes of swapping suits and boots followed as we tried to get the right sizes. Vex’s suit was too tight to zip up, so he left it open to reveal his black shirt underneath. Mine was too big, but a roll and a tuck made it manageable. The helmet had a built-in bulb and covered the whole of my head and my ears. It was claustrophobic and heavy.
Another guard entered as I was lacing up my slightly too large boots.
“What the fuck?” Killion muttered.
I straightened to find the guard holding up what looked like a silver collar. The main guard took it off him and held it aloft.
“These are detonator collars, which means one false move and we blow your head off. Got it?”
Xavier’s body tensed.
“Once on, they cannot be removed without the passcode. Attempt to run, attempt to fight, and we will remotely detonate. Do you understand?”
So, this is what Marick had meant when he’d said there would be no escape. They were strapping bombs to our necks. My heart sank.
Xavier crossed his arms and lifted his chin. “Detonators? As in long range?”
The guard smirked. “Long enough. If you’re on this rock, then we’ll find you.”
Xavier sighed, and his shoulders slumped, but it was an act because now we knew what we needed to know. The detonators wouldn’t work once we were on the ship. The distance would take us out of range. Now, all we needed to do was get away before they hit the button to pop our skulls.
The guards passed out the collars. The silver was smooth in my hand, metallic but lightweight. I slipped it around my neck, hesitation a palpable force in my chest. Beside me, Vex clipped his on. Xav
ier went next. Taking a deep breath, I clamped mine shut. It hung around my neck like a metal ring, but on the guys, it was snug, flush against their skin.
The guards waved their guns, and we clomped back into the hub. Back into the noise. Several doors led off the hub, each marked by sector one to twelve. Four was opposite the locker room, the number blinking green above the entrance.
The guard swiped open the door. “Go through and report to the foreman. Look for the green hat.”
We stumbled into the darkness, onto a wooden platform, and the doors closed behind us. A sharp tang hit my senses before the noise drowned out everything else. My hands went to my ears to block it out.
Someone pressed something into my hands, a set of earmuffs. I slipped them on and the world was pleasantly muted. A stocky Trad in a green hat stood on the wooden platform before us waving his arms, and I caught sight of Sector Four for the first time. It was a cavern, a huge hole that descended into the core of the roid. The platform spiraled around, hugging the rock face in what was basically rickety scaffolding that was linked by metal steps, but the platform had ropes of different colors. Blue on one side of the pit, orange on the other, and yellow and green in between. No idea what the colors meant. Spots of light were visible in the cavern—torches fixed to hats, hats like ours. Vex reached up to tap his hat and the torch fixed to it switched on.
The workers were down there, hanging by harnesses with baskets strapped to their backs, while they chipped and drilled into the walls.
The man in the green hat tapped his ear furiously. I reached up and tapped mine and a voice filled my head.
“Finally. Damn, you lot are dumb. I hope you work faster than you pick up shit. This is Sector Four, the walls are rife with mineral deposits that we need to extract to grind down to make Parsilic. We may not be employing the heavy machinery like the other sector, but make no mistake this job is just as important as the rest. No Parsilic means that the Obrium and the Irideal can’t be chemically bound. So look for the crystalline lumps of black shit and extract it. Go deep if you have to. Grab a basket and tools, get on a harness, and get to it. You fill up, you come back up and empty.” He pointed at a line of troughs set against the wall by the exit. “Troughs up here, and troughs below. Find the nearest one, empty your load, and then go back for more. It’s not hard, it’s just fucking terrifying.” He cackled and then his face sobered. “You fall, you die. So don’t fall.” He pointed at the Trads. “You two orange.” He looked at Vex. “Take blue.” He waved at me. “You too. Blue. The rest of you can cover yellow.”
Rogue: Survivor’s Heart book 1: Planet Athion Page 7