“Will the team even welcome you back? Will Fyefa welcome you back?” I asked no one and no one answered.
Fyefa’s words echoed in my ears. “If you do anything like this again, where everyone can see you acting… strange, I’ll kill you. I know you, so I know you care for this team, but this showed weakness, a weakness that makes all of us wonder if we can trust you. Cage your wild heart or it’ll end all of this.”
My chest ached as if a hole had been punched through it.
Fyefa and I had been through everything together until now. I had gone too far, and I found I couldn’t bear it. I wouldn’t have taken Tuel’s body home if I had known this would be the outcome.
I wouldn’t have.
But I’d get Fyefa back. I’d get it all back and soon. I swore it.
CHAPTER 14
LISETTE
Hireh led me to metal double doors that were held open by doorstops. She stretched out her arm, bowed, and announced, “This is the cafeteria.”
I stepped inside the large rectangular room. More concrete and harsh white lights matched the rest of the reproduction center. It was bustling with life and hectic in a way that the rest of the reproduction center wasn’t, though. There were vessels and orderlies, of course, but well over one hundred casually dressed slaves made up the majority. There were a few female thralls as well as some humans, but male thralls were the most common, wearing identical trousers and button-up shirts.
Metal screeched as a door swung open, bringing my attention to the booths lining the northern and southern walls. A vessel and a male thrall exited one of them. The male hooked his hand on his bloodied neck as an orderly came to greet them.
I ignored the subtle sweetness permeating the air and turned my attention to the camera hiding in the corner of the evacuated booth. There were no cameras in my room or the bathhouse, but there was one per booth here, the same model as the ones in the performance chamber. This place was set up for more than feeding.
Hireh clasped her hands and inched to my side. “You can—”
I cut her off with a wave of my hand, because a white lab coat caught my eye. Too-long light brown hair swished around the vampire’s hips as she turned her face toward me, revealing round glasses and a pactputer tucked under her arm.
“Ednis the Wise,” I said when I was close enough she could hear me without shouting.
“Lisette. Call me doctor.”
“Doctor Ednis,” I amended.
Her amber eyes swept me from head to toe. “I’m glad to see you well.”
“Adano’s venom wore off quickly with some blood.”
Another booth opened, this time with a loud BANG. A thrall and a vessel tumbled out of it while the door swung uneasily on its hinges.
“Get off of me, asshole,” the vessel said with a slippery smile.
The spent thrall hit the concrete. His pants were tangled at his feet, where he was missing a shoe. His skin was pale and transparent in a way I recognized as bloodless.
He didn’t breathe.
Ednis sighed. “You are allowed to do with your chosen meal as you please—except kill him.”
Orderlies gathered around. Some went into the booth with cleaning supplies while others took the thrall. A couple of orderlies restrained the vessel, who was too drunk on excessive blood to hold a conversation or even walk in a straight line. Once she threw up, she’d feel better.
Weak.
“Take your pick,” Ednis said. “And if you wish for more privacy, please take one of the unoccupied booths.”
Privacy. Cameras are hardly private. “I want to ask you about Adano,” I said.
“Now?” Ednis raised a thin eyebrow. “Surely you’re thirsty.”
“Blood is blood, and I had a glass of it not long ago.”
Ednis scoffed. “Lisette, you know blood is not simply blood.”
“In this case, it is.”
“The nutritional value, perhaps, but not the taste or experience. You’ve never indulged in this either?”
“I saw no reason to.”
“For one so strict in her warrior practices, it’s a wonder you retrieved Tuel from the battlefield.” Ednis canted her head. “Shirking your duties in favor of sex and drink is a much more common delinquency, but you brought a comrade’s carcass to White House. For what? To bury her in the earth like a human. That is bizarre behavior.”
Red flashed in my vision, but I refused to grind my teeth together as I saw Gala’s smug face in my mind’s eye. I hoped an accident would befall the Crimson Caves snitch and that she’d be unable to return to Silver Hollow, though I realized that would also mean no reinforcements. I supposed that was an unacceptable outcome—but here I was in the reproduction center instead of with the slayers, where I’d be of use, killing Schengs.
“Adano’s behavior is what’s bizarre,” I replied.
Ednis nodded. “I thought you’d be able to handle him.”
“I can handle him. I didn’t want to paralyze him with my venom and miscalculated. It won’t happen again. If I were you, I’d be more concerned about how difficult it is to arouse him. That’s the real issue here, isn’t it?”
Ednis squeezed the pactputer under her arm and adjusted her round glasses.
“I mean no disrespect, but if you want me to do my job, and do it well, you need to tell me exactly what’s going on with him.”
“Your inadequate bite excited him, and that means you have compatibility. You’re the first one to have it.”
“Shouldn’t all vampires have compatibility with all vampyres? Science has revealed inbreeding to be an issue, metabolic disorders being a common result, but our bodies aren’t selective.”
Ednis rolled her thin lips. “Indeed. Any fertile vampire and vampyre should, in theory, be able to pair and produce young, but there have been cases of infertility, same-sex attraction, and even erectile dysfunction due to… emotional strains.”
“Which one applies to Adano?”
Ednis’s lips twitched. “Officially, same-sex attraction is curable, and none of my tests suggest he’s infertile, though we won’t know that with certainty until he performs.”
“You’ve decided it’s emotional, then,” I concluded. “Why is he so angry?”
“We haven’t decided that, and your question is complicated, one that, while answerable, has no solution.” And she saw no reason to tell me more than that. “What matters is this: you’ll make Adano perform. Once you’ve coupled, and you bleed, we’ll know all we need to in time.”
“It seems I could have used more than a single class of sex education,” I muttered.
“This whole situation is unideal, I concede it. But Adano hardly left us much of a choice, and then you so kindly volunteered your services.”
I didn’t like Ednis’s type. Slimy and silver-tongued. She played mind games. I wanted her to say things as they were and to give me the information I needed, but she wouldn’t do it, and I couldn’t force it out of her or I’d look suspicious. Irritating.
“I’ve decided Adano will be bound to the bed while you figure out how much venom to give him,” Ednis informed.
Another vessel emerged from a booth, momentarily stealing my thoughts. The thrall following her was alive, and his hand was plastered to the wound on his neck. Savory-sweet blood wafted into my nose as a stout woman came to his aid. I thought he might lean on her, but he jerked downward and buried his fangs into her neck, sucking violently. Orderlies stood by and then ripped them both apart as if on a timer.
Thralls didn’t thrive solely on blood like vampires, but they still needed it; they could often get half of their needed daily intake with human food. This was why a delicate balance had to be struck between our two types of slaves. Werewolves would have been included as slaves too, but they were more trouble than they were worth and difficult to take back alive.
Hireh rushed to the stout woman’s side. When she proved she wasn’t going to act on the open blood temptation, the orderlies allowed h
er to take the woman. They probably preferred it.
Ednis tapped her fingers against the glass face of her pactputer. I wondered if she was taking note of everything happening here or if she was zeroed in on my behavior.
“Have you bound Adano before?” I asked.
“At times, to protect our vessels, yes. As I said, you’re the first vampire to have any sort of compatibility, chemistry if you will, with Adano. No one else could get a reaction out of him. They couldn’t arouse him in the slightest. He wasn’t bound today because I didn’t think it necessary. You are a slayer after all, though things didn’t go quite according to plan. You did, however, succeed in getting a reaction out of him. Binding him now shouldn’t change that, though most vessels would tell me it makes coupling much less exciting. Adano isn’t the first vampyre we’ve bound, but he has been the most trouble. However, that doesn’t change his value. Or yours. I can’t risk your life any more than I can risk his, Lisette.”
I bristled. This proved it. They had no intention of letting me return to the slayers. All of that talk about bearing a single scamp was just talk.
It’s imperative to act, or I’ll never get out of here.
Ednis continued, “I came up with a theory that Adano falls into a category of occasional attraction rooted in gene compatibility, which is why I chose you, and I’m glad I did. You’ll prove my hypothesis correct.”
“Which means?”
“While most vampyres would easily get hard at the mere sight of a naked vampire, Adano won’t unless that vampire has shot her venom into his system and is then deemed suitable. Same-sex attraction, emotional instability, none of it should have any effect on his ability to perform as long as the vampire he’s paired with is suitable.”
I had to fight to keep my expression blank. “Sounds complicated.”
“It is. Sex, while straightforward enough, isn’t always so straightforward in execution. Attraction is finicky but important when physical stimulation alone won’t do the trick.”
“Unless you can be artificially inseminated. That doesn’t sound very complicated at all.”
Ednis’s lips lifted into a semi-smile. “You’d still need the sperm.”
“So, you’ll bind Adano next time I meet him?”
“Yes. Tomorrow.”
I could work with that. He’d have no choice but to hear me out. I hadn’t learned what Adano wanted, but this whole conversation had been very educational.
“Why don’t you take some time to practice and drink your fill?” Ednis nodded toward one of the male thralls. “As a vessel, it’s your duty. Look at it that way if you aren’t curious.”
I’m not a vessel.
To appease Ednis the Wise, I glanced at the available thralls. My eyes settled on one with light hair. His hair was blond, not white like Adano’s. The thrall’s eyes were blue, but not icy, and his inner flame had been snuffed out while Adano’s was a raging wildfire.
What drives you, vampyre?
CHAPTER 15
LISETTE
“You like that one?” Ednis gestured to the blond thrall, who came at her beckoning with his head bowed so low he could see nothing but the floor. “Take him to a booth if you want some privacy. Of course, if you choose to have your way with him out here, that would also be acceptable.”
I ignored her and claimed a clean booth, the thrall on my heels. “Shall I shut the door, vessel?” he asked; his voice was an airy whisper.
“Yes.”
Suddenly, it was quiet. The air pressure changed too, as if we had moved through some sort of vacuum before reaching this nothing space. The booths were soundproof. If they hadn’t been, the cafeteria would have been loud. I’d heard a vampire taking a thrall before. It was unseemly, the way she screamed and whined, oblivious to everything but her orgasm. She was out of control. If the thrall had been a trained killer, he could have killed her then.
Unlike the performance chamber, this booth was remarkably small. I was almost forced to touch the thrall by standing in it. All the booth contained, besides the camera, was a single square of plastic embedded into the ceiling that emitted a dim light. It gave me a headache. There was a switch to shut it off and I did so, bathing us in absolute darkness.
The thrall flinched as I figured he would. A thrall’s eyes didn’t adjust as quickly as a vampire’s. My vision immediately switched to infrared only, washing his eyes with a vivid white. I didn’t like feeling his heat against me. I had to actively reject the reflex to jam my knee up into his crotch.
My warrior-forged instincts told me this tight space was dangerous. I knew the thrall would be stupid and an exception if he tried to hurt me. He didn’t raise his eyes to mine nor did he speak; this was normal for thralls. I knew this too, but this kind of submission was foreign to me. On the battlefield, I had seen many things. This was not one of them. I wished he’d curse me, fight me, do anything except for stand there as if already dead.
I didn’t know what to do with an opponent who didn’t fight back.
Pushing aside the unease, I pressed the thrall against the wall and went for his neck. I met no resistance, and then my fangs were buried deep into his flesh. I didn’t release my venom. There was no reason to waste it here with such docile prey. Even calling him docile was awarding him too much credit.
I sucked and drank and sweetness washed over my tongue and coated my throat. A moan left the thrall’s mouth, one likely born of pain. Injecting him with my venom would have numbed or excited him. It would have been a mercy. However, even through the pain and a clear head, he didn’t fight back.
Werewolves gave me trouble when I drank their boiling blood. It was all a part of the battle as their liquid life force filled me up, a shot of pure ecstasy when they were full of moonlight. It was kill or be killed, and every warrior understood that. I had to fight for everything I got. Fire roared through my veins in those times. I tried to find it now, something familiar, but drinking this thrall’s blood didn’t offer heat; it froze.
When I had my fill, I withdrew my fangs. The resulting mark ran deep as it always did. Blood poured down the thrall’s neck. His hands trembled at his sides, fighting the reflex to cover the wound with the false hope of alleviating the pain. And oddly enough, he was hard, or at least somewhat hard; his pants bulged.
I didn’t see the appeal to this. It seemed he’d perform and I could have all the blood I wanted, but he was lifeless. He may as well have been a doll.
Ednis said she wanted me to practice. I pretended to consider it. The thrall’s button-up shirt and loose trousers would be easy to tear through, which was the point, I was sure. But I had no interest.
What could Ednis do? Throw me into a performance chamber with Adano? She was already going to do that. I’d tell her I wasn’t feeling well, that Adano’s venom was affecting me after all.
But would she believe me?
Could I risk it?
The last thing I needed was Ednis suspicious of my every move.
I turned on the dim light as a shiver racked the thrall’s body. For the first time since I’d laid eyes on him, he returned my gaze with eyes a dull blue. Then he quickly deflected as if to erase the action.
“I’m done,” I said and wasn’t sure why I did.
The thrall’s stiff shoulders relaxed some, and he risked meeting my gaze again, holding it this time. I didn’t understand this look. It was fear mixed with something I didn’t recognize. The dullness gave way to a flicker of light too cool to be fire.
I let myself out of the booth. Every part of my body buzzed with warnings: never turn your back on an enemy, never underestimate an opponent, show no mercy—
I faced Ednis and spoke before she could. “I’m not feeling well. I think Adano’s venom is to blame.”
Ednis looked up from the pactputer she balanced on her arm. “Then you must rest. Hireh.”
My slave was still fussing over that human she’d grabbed. She was cradling the human in her arms, dabbing her sweaty forehead
with a clean cloth. At first, I thought she might ignore Ednis, but she tore herself away, rising from the bench they shared. The human watched her back with that same flicker of light in her eyes.
The light wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t hot either. It was vaguely warm. That was when I realized I did recognize this look, or more accurately the feeling it evoked. When a teammate was in a bind and I swooped in to save her, her eyes held this light too. It would always spur me on, a boost like condensed blood in a way. It urged me to fight harder.
Fyefa would fight harder too. Whenever I was in a pinch, she’d come for me. She must have felt it too, but what was it?
Why had I taken Tuel’s body home to bury? Why did thinking about Fyefa constrict my chest as if someone had wrapped her strong arms around me to break my ribs? I thought Fyefa would always have my back. I never thought she’d let them take me like this. She was supposed to fight for me. She tried, halfheartedly, but it wasn’t enough. We gave each other everything. I thought that was what a team did. We took care of each other first.
No, the kingdom came first. I knew that.
I knew that.
I’d play the part I was supposed to. I’d hide my treachery, and my team would take me back. No one needed to know how I’d do it. Not even Fyefa.
Fyefa had known everything concerning me. Now I couldn’t trust her to. Besides, I wouldn’t want her or any of the others to be blamed for how I planned to deceive Ednis and our queen with Adano. It was an act worthy of death, but if it worked, I could reclaim my rank as White First.
It would have to be enough.
It would be better than this.
I could live with one lie.
For the first time in my life, I realized I was alone. Something inside of me fractured, but I paid it no mind. I knew what I wanted, what I was doing. I always had.
Or so I had thought.
Vampire Captives (From Blood to Ashes Book 1) Page 7