CHAPTER 16
LISETTE
“Remember, Adano will be bound,” Ednis said as we walked the hall lined with performance chambers. “Bite him, physically stimulate him any way you can, and take him. But remember, the mind and body are intrinsically linked. If I’m not entirely correct, you may need to unite both to succeed.”
“Understood,” I replied. It seemed to me Ednis needed an Adano-compatible vessel well versed in sex and psychology, but she had a slayer—an insubordinate slayer. Ednis wasn’t worried, though. She was almost certain she had Adano figured out and that this physical match would be more than enough. In the coming days, I’d either confirm it or deny it.
Hireh bowed as Ednis unlocked the door to chamber fifty-seven. There was no need to usher me inside this time. I waltzed in, heard the click of the lock behind me, and took in the sight before me. The large bed in the center of the chamber held Adano’s prone form flat against it, back-first. He was entirely naked. The black ropes were so tight his skin reddened around the edges, ruining the natural blue undertone. No, it wasn’t the ropes. It was his struggling. Even now he struggled. He flashed his almost-white eyes my way; they held only rage.
I tugged on a loop of the intricate silvery wreath knot holding my robes together. The two layers of my robes split down the middle and the chilly draft of outside air raised my skin. Then the chill was eclipsed by a familiar heat. My body reacted to Adano by simply laying eyes on him. I didn’t have an explanation for it. I was certain my mind and body weren’t in the same place. Sex with Adano was the last thing I wanted, but the attraction was undeniable.
I traipsed a slow circle around the square bed to take note of where and how Adano was bound—and to calculate the best angles to hide things from the two cameras. My robes would stay on. That wasn’t a foul or they would have stripped me before allowing me inside the chamber. They didn’t need to see our bodies connect. I’d bleed as proof of it.
Or not bleed and prove infertile. Somehow.
“Get it over with already,” Adano said when I completed my circle. “Or try your best to.” His lips quirked up into that wild smile, the one where he showed all of his teeth. His fangs were impressive. I recalled them cutting my flesh, drilling large holes. They were lethal weapons that could cause one to bleed out if he struck precisely and with that intention.
Had his inexperience or the quick actions of those observing caused him to fail with me?
Either way, he was no Fyefa.
Careful not to touch him, I jumped onto the bed and hovered directly above him. I planted my hands on the firm white mattress, framing his head; my stance was wide enough apart he wouldn’t be able to turn and bite me. My robes draped down, covering his body and my own. The two layers together were opaque enough to hide my naked form, but the light shining through likely showed our silhouettes. I spread my knees and lowered my hips to his. He wasn’t much taller than me, so we easily lined up. When his hot body met the sensitive flesh between my legs, it was as uncomfortable as it was pleasant.
He was soft, though, without a hint of hardness preluding to a complete erection. It didn’t matter. Now was the time to talk. He had no choice but to listen.
I lowered my head, allowing my loose hair to cover our faces like a dark curtain. I kept my voice low and said, “You don’t want to do this and neither do I.”
Adano’s icy eyes narrowed.
I paused, considering the words I thought he’d want to hear. “Listen and I’ll explain. I can get us out of this arrangement.”
He hissed, “Shut up.”
“Don’t turn your head to bite me and I’ll whisper in your ear instead.”
“Shut up,” he repeated. He blinked rapidly as a strand of my black hair attacked his left eye.
“I’m serious.”
“Then move your hips and pretend to fuck me while you talk. Be very quiet, vessel, unless you moan or scream.” He smirked. “They like that.”
Right. I had to play the part and sex usually involved plenty of those things. I moved my hair to spare his eye and rolled my hips against him. I hadn’t expected anything from it. I hadn’t expected the simmering heat between my legs to burn hotter. The way Adano’s wild smile twitched meant he felt something too, though I doubted it was fire. He stayed soft as I moved, adopting a certain rhythm that my body could maintain without thought while I pressed my lips to his ear. He didn’t turn to bite me, so that was progress. From the outside, it probably looked like I was biting him. I was glad I had kept my hair long.
“There must be some agreement we can come to,” I said. “You’ve been nothing but trouble for them, and I’m their last resort.”
Adano silenced a laugh. I offered my ear to his lips so he could speak. “You’re funny, vessel. And a liar.”
I bore my weight on one hand as I grabbed his snowy hair with the other. “I’m a slayer, vampyre, and apparently we’re compatible. I’m the only one they’ve found who’s compatible with you. I can make you come.” I moved my mouth to his neck. My hold on his hair ensured he couldn’t turn, couldn’t do anything but wait and feel as my fangs grazed his soft skin. His veins lurched as if trying to flee.
The heat between my legs was distracting, but I pressed on. I kept my hold on Adano’s hair and offered him my ear.
“I’m not impressed,” he said. “The only way I’ll play with you is if you’ll play with me. I want out of Silver Hollow. Bypassing the single, and frankly inconsequential, hurdle of you fucking me isn’t good enough.”
Unbelievable.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have expected any less, but this complicated things.
“That’s impossible,” I stated.
“Then we’re done talking. What do you think they’ll do when I tell them you want out of your duties as a vessel?”
“They won’t believe you.”
“They won’t have to. You’ve left them plenty of evidence. They’ll hear it for themselves if they boost the audio. They record every session, you know. It’s not a live feed that gets thrown away after the fact.”
“Bastard.”
I didn’t think his grin could get bigger. “Quiet, vessel, they’ll hear you. I mean, slayer. Why the hell would they demote one of their very best warriors to the duties of a vessel anyway? You can’t be that unique.”
I had to fight to keep my teeth from grinding together as I said, “I have a name.”
“I don’t care.”
“It’s Lisette, and you will care, because I’m the one who will free your sorry ass. Play with me, wild.”
“Wild?”
“It suits you.”
This time, when I rolled my hips, the fire between my legs exploded. I panted out the need and was hyperaware of the wetness between my legs. I didn’t think. I ground myself against him. The slickness made the sensation brain-numbing.
Adano’s smile fell away in place of a grimace. “I thought you didn’t want to do this.”
I didn’t, but I had never felt anything like this either. It begged me to keep going. It promised more if I did. This was why so many warriors enjoyed male thralls.
“I don’t,” I ground out, “so say you’ll play with me.”
“Fine.” Adano’s delicate white eyelashes fluttered; they could have been snowflakes. “But we wait until next time to discuss this properly. You’ve already said way too fucking much. You have no finesse. Brute strength won’t get you everywhere, brawler.”
Brawler. He knew more about me than I had thought.
“That means you have to come for me, wild. I need them to trust that I’m doing everything I can to make you perform. We have to leave some evidence.”
Adano bit his bottom lip, fangs piercing through. The trickle of sharp, savory—sweet?—blood hit my nose and burned a path to my skull. “No. They’ll believe you tried. They all tried.”
“Not good enough. Ednis knows I can make you come. The way you reacted last time proved it. She won’t accept anything less. I’
ll make it quick.”
His voice cracked. “No.”
“Then you aren’t getting out of Silver Hollow.” Rolling my hips in that methodical rhythm I had set was starting to grate on my nerves. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tear into Adano and rip out his throat or if I truly did want to fuck him. The possibility of losing control was real, and it pissed me off.
You’re a slayer. Get a grip.
Adano squirmed underneath me. He pushed so hard that the ropes binding him cut into his flesh and more rummadies-scented blood flooded my nose. It shot fire into my fangs, causing venom to drip and burn on my tongue. It begged me to lose control.
And I did.
I sank my fangs into Adano’s neck and injected my venom little by little, focused on how hard he grew against my body. Adano grunted and writhed. It took seconds that felt like minutes, but it eventually worked. When I released him, his eyes were dilated, an unnerving amount of black against the rest of his paleness. I grabbed his thick shaft to coax him further. Then I altered my position so he’d have been inside of me if I had lined us up correctly. I didn’t have to do much more than that. He jerked and his cum painted my pelvis. I wouldn’t bleed—as long as a vampyre’s sperm were as fragile as Ednis had claimed.
Adano panted as if he couldn’t breathe and his eye roved the room. He wouldn’t look at me. Couldn’t. I was the first offense he couldn’t deny, because he came. He came hard.
I had shredded the last of his dignity.
My stomach flopped. It turned and twisted and I thought I might be sick, but I pushed it away. I pushed it all away. It didn’t matter.
If I could command Adano’s body like this, I didn’t need him to cooperate with me at all. But if he tattled on me and they amplified the audio recorded during this session…
“Next time,” I whispered in his ear. “Remember, I’m your only chance if you want out of here.”
His reply was slurred, but I understood it. “Fuck you.”
I agreed. “Fuck me.”
Adano scowled and closed his eyes, nostrils flaring.
I hoped I hadn’t sealed my fate. I had hardly been able to reconcile what my body wanted from Adano with what I wanted from him. I had been getting through to him before I went feral. I was sure of it.
Damn it. I’ve never lost control like that before.
“I’ll get you out of here,” I reiterated and silently prayed to Yessma Adano would hear me.
Slowly, I moved from the bed, acutely aware of the sticky heat Adano had marked me with. It dripped down my inner thighs, mixed with my wetness. The door clicked and opened, revealing Ednis.
“Very good,” she said, fussing with her glasses. I made sure to give her a good view of Adano’s hardening cum. “Yes, excellent. You should start bleeding within the hour. If not, we’ll try again tomorrow.”
She was practically beaming. Ednis usually wore dull expressions, but this smile… Satisfaction oozed off her in waves. It seemed Adano’s anxiety over our whispering was ill-founded. For now. As he said, if they boosted the audio, they’d have all the evidence they needed.
Hireh appeared in the doorway, bowed in half. “Please come with me, Vessel Lisette. I’ll get you washed.”
I went to her without sparing Adano a second glance. I had come out unscathed today, but the war was far from won. I told Adano I’d free him. I had no intention of following through, but I needed him to believe the lie long enough for me to convince Ednis to write me off as an incompetent vessel. Then I’d find a way to erase the incriminating evidence we left behind. It would work out.
Everything would return to normal.
CHAPTER 17
LISETTE
As Hireh dried my hair, I stared at my reflection in the mirror. I needed a better routine than working out in my room. Weights would be nice. The lull in my vigorous training schedule was visible—likely only to me and other slayers, but I resented it.
I spent much more time washing these days than I would have liked. At White House, a shower went as quickly as possible. That was true here in the reproduction center as well, but I had Hireh, so I didn’t have to lift a finger.
This was the epitome of laziness.
Hireh’s deft hands left soft impressions on my skull. I would never admit that this pampering felt nice, but it did. A wave of tiredness made my eyelids heavy. I let them close. The warmth from the hairdryer complemented Hireh’s touch. If not for the incessant roaring, I would have fallen asleep.
Look how quickly you’ve fallen, I mused. Not that any of these flabby vessels would pose much of a threat.
The vessels seated to either side of me were happily chatting away with any vessel willing to join—or they were screaming at their slaves because they could. Such ease. I could claim this simple, cushy life and demand Hireh do everything for me.
Like hell.
Talking, talking, talking. They never stopped talking, adding to the hairdryers’ noise pollution. The frequencies stabbed my ears, so I focused on something much more soothing: mumbling.
Interest piqued, I listened harder.
To the east, salvation
Ignite the fires of hope
For atop the claw o’re savage seas
An answering flame doth burn
I glanced over my shoulder and caught Hireh’s mouth moving. What an odd little poem, I thought.
Hireh shut off the hairdryer. “All finished. Would you like to return to your room, Vessel Lisette?”
“I want a tour,” I said. “I haven’t seen much of this place.”
“Yes, of course.”
“And I want something to wear other than this gown.” The gown was bad enough, but I hated the padding lining my underwear most of all. Ednis expected me to bleed, so I was dressed this way after Hireh had finished scrubbing off the sex in the shower.
“How about that tour?” Hireh said. “I may be able to show you something you’ll like, and it comes with a change of clothes.”
The tour was mostly uneventful. There were two areas of note. The recreation room was one of them. It stored tech, pactputers and the like, and had an outside garden attached to it. I mentally logged away that bit of information and decided to check it out later. The gymnasium was what I wanted now. It was the second area worth remembering because it was exactly what I had been craving. It wasn’t as impressive as the coliseum, but it had weights and machines for resistance training.
Hireh escorted me to the changing room and showed me to the locker I’d be using while here. It contained a fresh pair of shorts, a tank top, a wrap for my chest, and a pair of athletic shoes. Hireh even let me dress myself. I savored the moment, the most normal moment I’d had since being stripped of my rank. I could almost pretend I was with White Team again. But Hireh was waiting for me outside the locker room when I had finished, ruining the pathetic illusion.
“You can leave,” I said. “There’s a comms panel on that wall if I can’t find my way back to my room.” Of course, I remembered the way back, but I was willing to say almost anything to make her leave.
“I won’t get in your way, Vessel Lisette.”
I replied with a glare. It wasn’t worth more of a fight.
I took off at a jog, following the blacktop track circling the gymnasium. True to her word, Hireh didn’t get in my way as I proceeded to work every muscle in my body—but she watched me like a hawk.
A few vessels shared the gymnasium with me, but they conveniently stepped out of my way whenever I changed sections. It seemed they were intimidated by me, which I thought natural. I was a slayer, after all. And I preferred it this way. I had nothing in common with vessels and despised small talk.
I did my best to ignore it, but Hireh’s watchful gaze eventually wore me down.
“Surely you have something better to do,” I said as I snatched the towel she’d been holding as if hanging it on a rack wasn’t adequate. I wiped the sweat from my face and neck and waited for a reply. It didn’t come quickly. She scrutini
zed me as if I had transformed into something unrecognizable since returning from my workout.
“You didn’t break him,” she said.
“What?”
“The thrall you chose in the cafeteria. You didn’t drink more blood than necessary, and he said you didn’t have your way with him.”
My fangs peeked through as my lips curled back. “What are you trying to say, slave?”
“We made bets. We thought life here would change with a slayer around. We thought you might torture us for fun like the others, but in worse ways. You don’t. You don’t torture us at all. You’re different. Almost… soft.”
“You’re too soft, Lisette.” Soft. Fyefa had used that same word to describe me when I was burying Tuel’s body.
Suddenly, my head was spinning. I teetered but planted my feet firmly on the ground so I wouldn’t fall.
“I am a slayer,” I said and stepped forward. Hireh stumbled back, and the whites of her eyes revealed themselves. Good, I thought. She fears me.
Hireh’s back hit a concrete wall as my hands shot out, pinning her against it. I knew how to end conflict. I had killed more werewolves than any vampire my age. White Team knew I was formidable. Every member dreaded facing me, even Fyefa had. If I hadn’t been weak because of the cooldown, I would have made her work for each blow. I would have bruised and cut, and she wouldn’t have been able to pummel me like that.
I was not weak, and I certainly wasn’t soft.
Hireh shivered as her lower lip trembled. Maybe I wasn’t a perfect slayer, but I was plenty fierce, a force to be feared. The prickles of heat underneath my skin cooled when Hireh whimpered. Schengs never cowered. They were monsters who thrived on war. The way Hireh and that male thrall trembled killed my fighting instincts. If there was no opponent, why should I engage in combat? Why should I strike down someone who was already beaten?
I fought to protect my team, my home, and for nothing more. I knew some enjoyed the thrill and violence as much as the Schengs. I wasn’t naive, but I had my own way of doing things. I always had.
And yet I had lost myself with Adano. My stomach twisted at the thought. Adano would get his revenge. He was too wild not to, but I hoped he’d consider “using” me first. If he didn’t, I was fucked.
Vampire Captives (From Blood to Ashes Book 1) Page 8