Fyefa and I retreated to opposite ends of the circle. We stood loose, knees soft, readying to strike first.
“Just a moment,” Ednis called, eyes glued to her pactputer screen.
I eased my stance. Fyefa didn’t, but I needed to stretch my weary limbs. Again. I could have used a few more hours of sleep. Fighting while sore meant it would take longer to recover. None of this was ideal for me, but I was never one to complain. Actions spoke louder than words, and I was strong.
I straightened my disheveled ponytail and tank top. A bloodstain on my combat trousers caught my eye; it was Claire’s. We weren’t using weapons, but drawing blood wasn’t against the rules.
The clicking from Ednis’s keyboard stopped. I almost missed it over the other groups’ shouts, but I heard her loud and clear when she said, “Start.”
CHAPTER 7
LISETTE
IT took me less than a second to resume my stance, but by then Fyefa was moving. Dodge! I commanded my body and feinted left. Fyefa read me and intercepted. She rammed her palm into my chest hard enough to bruise. I choked out air, but I didn’t stumble backward as she was expecting. I snatched her arm, dug in my feet, and tossed her over my head.
Instead of slamming down onto her back, she caught herself with her feet in a backbend and yanked me down with her. My weak knees failed me. This wouldn’t have happened under normal circumstances, and Fyefa knew that. I was the one who ended up on my back.
Fyefa rolled out of the way rather than let me crush her, and then she was on top of me. A quick jab to my windpipe flushed my vision with black. I cranked my knee in toward my body, smacking Fyefa in the ass so that she stumbled. I scrambled out from underneath her and got to my feet, hopping several steps backward to put some distance between us. Fyefa was already up and running.
My knees shrieked with my final backward hop. I didn’t trip or fall, but it slowed me down. Fyefa reached me. I aimed a fist at her stomach, but Fyefa danced past; she skimmed my blow with an inch-thin air pocket. I contorted my body and twisted away, avoiding the chokehold she would have locked me in.
But I was so much damn slower than usual.
She kicked the back of my right leg, and this time my knee blew out. I found myself kissing the dusty ground as a sharp pain shredded down my back: Fyefa’s nails. She tore through the black fabric of my tank tap as if it were brittle, peeling paint.
Before I could retaliate, pain crippled me. It stemmed from my throat. Suddenly, I was on my knees. Fyefa’s nails were cutting into my throat. Hot liquid raced down my skin. She locked my arms and yanked me flat onto my stomach. Then she sat on my legs. There were no holes in her defenses to exploit.
“Dead,” she hissed, the heat of her breath blowing against the shell of my ear, moist like my blood.
She didn’t stop there. Her nails dug farther into my neck, cutting through each layer of flesh slowly, deliberately. I gagged. Blood soaked my breast, poured down my stomach. It burned.
“Enough!” Ednis shrieked.
Fyefa released me, stood, and stepped back.
I collapsed forward, rounding my back into a protective ball. I clutched my neck as if that would be enough to stop the profuse bleeding. Fyefa sliced my carotid arteries. Dry dirt scratched my cheek. When I tried to move, I inched forward and fell lower. I imagined this was what a fish out of water felt like. I was certain it was what I looked like. I wasn’t sure if I was breathing anymore. Everything blurred to black.
For a timeless moment, my senses vanished.
So, this is what death feels like, was a fleeting thought that passed through my mind. Then something pleasantly warm zapped my tongue. Instinct took over. I sealed the offered bleeding wound with my lips and vigorously sucked. I wasn’t aware of what I was doing until my senses returned. The blood was savory but also sour. The slate-gray skin I clung to was soft, untouched by constant beatings. I withdrew my fangs and noticed the glare of circular wire-rimmed glasses. Ednis the Wise just offered me her blood?
“Forgive me for my rudeness,” I said and bowed low; I pressed my forehead into the ground hard enough to abrade skin.
Those same soft fingers probed my neck, which had sealed up.
“You won’t die, but you shouldn’t intake any more blood today,” Ednis said. “To be on the safe side. We were lucky that worked while you’re in the cooldown stage. You have a strong system. If I had any doubts about your full recovery before, I don’t now.” Her voice had a different timbre. It was a low, gravelly tone that grated on the ears. My body was hardier than most, but Ednis’s was weaker.
“That was a reckless move, Ednis the Wise. What about blood for you?” Fyefa said and pointed at Olive. “Get a canteen.”
Olive bowed her head and dashed away, using her top speed to leave the rest of us in a cloud of sand. She must have had nutritious blood for breakfast.
“She would have died if I hadn’t acted,” Ednis informed after overcoming a slight coughing fit.
Fyefa folded her arms. “Would that have been so bad for a disobedient? You’ve heard what she’s done, haven’t you?”
My heart beat painfully, but I dared not rise nor move to dull it. The pain worsened as my heartbeat quickened, as if the two were feeding off each other. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the cooldown combined with the new blood I had digested and used, but I wasn’t sure what else it could be. These uncomfortable sensations were alien to me. Since seeing Tuel dead on the battlefield, I couldn’t stop them from rearing their ugly heads. I assured myself they’d stop when I had fully recovered. I had to repeat that mantra to cope.
“Oh, I don’t question your methods, White Leader,” Ednis said. “You must keep your team in line somehow, and normally I’d let you decide the outcome. However, Queen Maud and I have something different in mind for Lisette.”
“I wasn’t going to kill her,” Fyefa replied.
“You could have fooled me.”
“It was a simple reminder of who’s in charge. She won’t do anything… odd like that again. She’s still a valuable asset to this team. She hadn’t intended any harm. It was a lapse in judgment.”
“You needn’t defend her. I know how valuable she is. She is one of our very best. The queen and I simply think a change of pace would do her well, and we’re currently in need of her. It’s hardly a punishment. Some might even be jealous of this opportunity.”
Ednis’s shiny black flats were not suited for rough terrain, not the even dirt covering the arena either. I stared at them as she hovered over me, but I refused to emerge from my shell.
“We can discuss this now, in fact,” she said.
A change of pace? I wondered. I had trained my whole life as a warrior, and this didn’t bode well. It made my jaw clench.
“Stand up, Lisette,” Fyefa ordered. “A superior wishes to speak to you.”
I quietly did as I was told. Vertigo almost sent me back to my knees, but I stayed upright by sheer force of will. And defiance.
“Lisette Cheriz,” Ednis began, “you have served Silver Hollow well, but you have a rebellious streak. While nothing you’ve done has been to hurt your fellow vampires—we recognize this—you tend to take certain… liberties. Queen Maud feels it best to relieve you of your slayer duties for a time. From warrior duties entirely. You aren’t being punished, however. Your assignment will grant you new insight. It is a privilege.
“Your lineage makes you the perfect candidate to couple with our newest of-age vampyre, Adano Vice. Along with complementary genes, the queen feels you’ll be able to handle him. He’s a bit rambunctious, but he’ll sober up with you, a slayer, as his first coupling.”
My jaw tried to drop open, but I sealed it shut. I had discipline. I knew how to use it, too. It appeared I should have kept myself on tighter chains before now, because I found myself in quite the predicament. I wanted to argue, to explain all the many reasons why this was a bad idea. I was one of their best. She said so. We were going to storm the Schengs, defeat th
em once and for all. They needed me now more than ever, and they were reducing me to a vessel. I knew vessels were highly valued and important, but I was a slayer.
“You need only bear one scamp,” Ednis continued, “and then you will return to your life as a slayer.”
My breaths came in shallow as Ednis kept talking. I couldn’t hear what else she said. I wouldn’t. This was the ultimate punishment.
I glanced at Fyefa, a silent plea. Surely she would be the voice of reason. This was all a test, a show. At least, that was what I wanted to believe.
Fyefa said nothing, and Olive returned with a blood canteen. Ednis took it and drank slowly, her lips trembling on the metal rim. After she swallowed, she said, “The rest of you are excused.”
CHAPTER 8
LISETTE
ORDERLIES rushed around the medical wing of the reproduction center. They wore pale-blue scrub suits and were almost always escorting vessels in various stages of pregnancy. The vessels wore filmy white gowns and little slippers. I didn’t like looking at them or their bulging bellies. I didn’t want to think about this at all, but here I was, destined to be one of them.
The artificial lights were too bright and too cold. A shiver rippled through my body, and I wanted to wrap my arms around myself, but I didn’t. I didn’t display weakness.
Relief chased the shivers away when the next door Ednis led me through ended with a private examination room. The room had a stainless-steel table in its center, a desk with a sink attached, computer screens, and that unmistakable electronic hum of medical machines on standby.
“Change into these and leave your clothes in that corner there,” Ednis said and deposited her pactputer on the well-organized desk. “They will be taken care of for you.”
Ednis exited the examination room, leaving me alone. I took off my boots first, my socks, and pressed my soles against cold concrete. Concrete was the foundation of this building as with all others in Silver Hollow, but it had none of the flourishes of the castle. It was all based on efficient four corners. Every area had a purpose and wasn’t allocated more space than necessary to fulfill that. This small examination room was a good example of that practical pattern. Everything was so tightly compacted I almost felt claustrophobic. It didn’t help that the walls closed in around me. They didn’t stop their pursuit and return to their proper place until I faced them head-on.
I chill crept through me when I dropped my casual clothes at my feet, underwear too. My long black hair was damp from the quick shower I had taken before Ednis escorted me out of the coliseum. I didn’t think the clothes Ednis provided would make this distinct naked feeling go away. The gown I was to wear was as filmy as it looked. It was soft and thin, hardly sunlight-resistant on its own. It was plain, draping, flowing. I was given underwear but no support for my breasts. As I didn’t have significantly large breasts, it wasn’t something that I strictly needed, but I was used to everything being held in. My leather armor was breathable, flexible, but it was armor. When off duty, I tended to wear clothes that replicated that sensation.
I stretched the gown’s thin fabric as far as it would go without tearing and stared at the almost-blue glow coming through as it filtered the artificial light overhead. White. I hate that it’s white. Why couldn’t it have been blue? I let these thoughts wash over me, and then I proceeded to pull the thing over my head. The loose fabric reached my shins. The billowy sleeves stopped at my elbows. I saved the padded slippers for last. I’d never worn anything so fluffy in my life.
The absence of my aassu made my hands itch. What would happen to them? Would everything in my room at White House be kept in its place or would it be given away? If I did what the queen wanted here and returned to my warrior duties as Ednis said, would I have to start over and work my way back to White Team?
The bottom dropped out of my stomach as I envisioned my carcass on the battlefield. Bloody and forgotten. I wondered if this was any different. This, being stripped of my rank as White First and even as a warrior, was worse than death. Ednis said I needed to bear one scamp and then I’d return to my life as a slayer, but was that really true?
I fingered the too-low collar of my gown. My three-coils badge was nowhere to be found.
Ednis returned and sat down at the desk as an orderly appeared in the open doorway. Her skin was as black as coal with a warm undertone that held too much color to belong to a vampire. She bowed and began gathering my discarded clothes. She was a thrall, then, a slave dressed in a dingier version of the scrub suits the vampire orderlies wore. If her human skin and lesser clothes hadn’t been telling enough, her scent would have been; it was equal parts savory and sugary sweet.
“Hireh,” Ednis said.
The thrall stood with my clothes bundled in her arms. She didn’t make eye contact and her head remained slightly bowed, chin tucked just so, as was most often expected of a slave.
“This thrall will be your slave, Lisette,” Ednis said. “Should you require anything, you can tell her. She’ll be able to do almost anything you wish. The comms panel in your room has her contact listed, and she has a portacomm with her at all times. When you’re pregnant, you’ll appreciate the pampering—or so I’ve been told.”
“Understood,” I answered in monotone.
“Hireh, leave us.”
The thrall bowed low and then exited the examination room, shutting the door behind her. The hum of machines suddenly seemed much louder.
“Sit on the table,” Ednis instructed. Her fingers flew as she typed on the keyboard attached to her pactputer. She was as proficient at typing as I was at barakor.
“Why?” I asked. “I’ve already had my monthly scheduled checkup.”
“We must ensure we have your records as up to date as possible before we introduce you to Adano. You may also think of this as a baseline, what we’ll compare to as you go through the various stages of reproduction.”
“What if I’m infertile?” I asked. It was a false hope to hold on to but hope nonetheless. “Have I been checked for that?
“Infertility isn’t always something that can be ‘checked’ beforehand. Sometimes it’s a fluke we can’t fully explain with our current technology. But don’t worry about that. You are fertile as far as we know. If bearing a scamp reveals itself to be an impossibility, then you’ll be returned to the slayers in a couple of months—assuming you haven’t let your body deteriorate. If you can’t keep up, you can’t keep up.”
Noted, I thought. It seemed they were “serious” about reinstating me—after our war with the Schengs will have already been won. If things went according to our queen’s plans, that was. I should be there on the front lines. I ground my teeth together but kept my lips sealed tightly so Ednis wouldn’t see.
“The chances of you being infertile are slim,” Ednis continued. “However, we won’t know with one hundred percent certainty until you’ve been with Adano. Warriors aren’t taught much about reproduction, so you’ll be attending an overview class that highlights the most important details for vessels.”
Ednis filled out the last field of the document on her pactputer screen. “You’ve never indulged in sex, Lisette?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I prefer to spend my time honing my skills.”
“You aren’t attracted to other vampires or female thralls, are you?”
“No.”
“Have you masturbated?”
“No.”
“No sexual inclinations to speak of. Well, luckily that isn’t required for you to get pregnant. And I’m sure it’ll change after Adano makes you bleed. You’ll crave him more than anything.”
Ednis rose. She washed her hands in the sink, dried them, and pulled on plastic gloves. She touched my neck without warning, and I had to actively hold back my lethal reflexes. I didn’t let others touch me. Last night in the garden with Fyefa had been the first time in years.
“You’re stiff,” Ednis noted.
I forced mys
elf to relax. “Warn me next time you intend to touch me. I almost broke your wrist.”
“Very well. I’ll be touching you several times throughout this examination. Open your mouth.” I did and she pressed a metal stick against my tongue to hold it down. “You have excellent teeth, sharp as blades. Good. I need a venom sample. Bite down on this.”
Ednis held out a pink sponge just large enough for me to bite down on. I did and released my venom as she wanted, even though I had already performed this routine for the month. I was irritated, but didn’t let it show. Ednis dropped the wet sponge into a glass container.
“Your mouth is clean, too,” she said. “Anything you’re concerned about?”
“No,” I replied.
“All right. Pull up your gown and lie down on your side. Lift your top leg, bend your knee. Yes, like that.”
I loathed thorough examinations. Every slayer did. Allowing someone to touch us anywhere vulnerable was in direct violation of our training. I wondered if our queen thought this through when she demoted me, reduced me, to a vessel. Vessels were poked and prodded often, based on what I’d seen so far.
And then there was sex. What Ednis said was true. I hadn’t taken a male thrall during any of my recreational periods, though plenty of warriors did, slayers too. Creating and choosing one was a privilege granted to the best among us—which meant I qualified at one point. Thralls were sterile, therefore perfect playthings.
I didn’t know how they could stand it, though. Warriors bragged about their exploits, how they maintained control at all times, how sex supposedly felt amazing, but all it would take was one disobedient thrall to change that. I knew the chances of a thrall killing a warrior were basically nonexistent, but they weren’t zero. Fear kept our thralls docile, not devoid of free will. It was an unnecessary risk as far as I was concerned.
Since I had no experience with such intimacy, I wondered how I’d convince myself not to shatter Silver Hollow’s precious Adano. The very idea of allowing the male inside of me was repulsive.
Vampire Captives (From Blood to Ashes Book 1) Page 4