“That’s weird,” I commented. I was more focused on not blinking. I wanted to record everything about this bird’s flight pattern. It was too far away to see clearly, but that didn’t hinder me. It didn’t stop me from knowing just how fast its heart was beating.
Ivy folded her soft, round arms and huffed. “You could at least pretend you’re impressed. It was really hard to find this information, you know. I had to restore broken digital archives. This stuff is ancient! Oh, and their flying tech was destroyed with them of course. Kind of.
“I learned more from recent records. There are humans from Glory Valley with tech called swarms. One swarm is made up of one hundred tiny metallic orbs that fly and sting like bees, but anything big enough to pilot and ride in like a glider is gone. If something like that showed up again, it’d be targeted and destroyed like before. That means all flying tech is ‘safe’ and restricted by the range of its tech field.”
“Safe?” I asked.
“If gliders flew through the air as they drive on the ground, we’d constantly have bombs falling on our heads. We’d all be dead! That’s essentially the warning I read at the end of those archives.”
I lowered my hands and scowled at Ivy under the shadow of my hood. I didn’t like that I couldn’t see her eyes, so I adjusted my position until the angle revealed familiar violet. Ivy wore the mask that was attached to the collar of her sunlight-resistant faux-leather shirt. It covered up to the bridge of her nose, but her eyes shone, revealing her smile.
I said, “There has to be someone out there who’s flying.”
She shrugged. “Maybe there is, but the rest of the world isn’t aware of it.”
“Your story is dumb.”
“It’s not my story. It’s forgotten history.”
“I see how flight works. I could build a vehicle for the sky.”
“I know you could, but that’s already been done, Addy. Do something no one’s done before. Break past the sky, go farther than any bird and reach the stars.”
I considered it, looked at the sky and the world barrier I knew was there. “That isn’t possible.”
“You haven’t even tried.” Ivy shook her head. “I’ll prove you wrong.”
“You won’t. You are of Prime, so you stay with Prime.”
“Gods, I hate it when you talk like some old sage. Tell me, Great Addy who knows everything, what are stars?”
I wrinkled my nose. “I don’t know.” Stars weren’t of Prime, so how could I know?
“There. I proved you don’t know everything.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
Ivy grabbed me from behind and tickled my ribs. I became a shaking, non-responsive mess when she tickled me like that and right there. Tears streamed down my cheeks. I was completely at her mercy, and then my laughs became contagious. Ivy laughed just as hard.
“Ivy, stop!” I gasped for air.
“I’ll never let you go, Addy,” she whispered through her giggles.
Ivy collapsed onto her knees and I fell onto my ass. If she hadn’t been behind me to catch me, I would have fallen face-toward-the-sun. My limbs were jelly, but it didn’t matter. Ivy held me close, her body full and warm, as she pressed her face into my shoulder. I never wanted this moment to end.
But it did end. And my memory of it had to end too.
Gods, I missed Ivy’s laugh. Thinking about her made my eyes sting. I rubbed away the discomfort and drew in a shaky breath. Then I grinned. It was my trick, the thing that kept me sane. After what happened today, maybe it wouldn’t be enough anymore.
The Sadist Queen. Ednis the Wise. All the females they paired me with. I won each time because they couldn’t make me perform. I had resisted and hadn’t needed to try.
I wasn’t interested.
I still wasn’t interested.
But that slayer.
Lisette.
She fucking undid me.
I shook my head, bit my lip, and pressed my sweaty palm to my forehead. I couldn’t remember how to breathe. Suddenly, I was hugging my knees to my chest, gasping and gagging. Shivering.
Breathe, I commanded. Smile.
My lips quivered, but they held their position. The shaking stopped and I reclaimed control.
Until the slayer got her hands on me tomorrow.
My body and mind were in danger. They were the two things that were mine, that they couldn’t take away, and she obliterated them.
My fangs cut through my bottom lip. I quickly wiped away the blood and flattened myself on my stomach to make sure my back was to the cameras. The Sadist Queen would get off on this little meltdown if she saw it.
What is that slayer’s game? I wondered.
She had said she “didn’t want to do this” but then proceeded to ravage my body anyway. She got me hard. The disgust threatened to morph my smile into a grimace, but I resisted. The important thing to note was that she didn’t want me inside of her. She didn’t want to fulfill her duties as a vessel and even said she’d play with me. I doubted she had any intention of helping me escape, but I could use this. Her. This could be my chance to hack into the Silver Hollow system.
It could be my chance to take back what was rightfully Ivy’s and mine.
What did she call me? I mused. Wild. That’s it. My grin widened, threatening to leave me with sore cheeks. I’ll show her wild.
The door to my prison swung open. I flipped over and rolled the back of my skull against the rug to see who was there, though I needn’t have. It was the Sadist Queen. Instead of a bright layered dress, she wore sheer robes much like the ones I had worn earlier today in the performance chamber.
My lips twitched.
“You’ve been holding back,” she said as the guard shut the door behind her. No click followed, meaning the door was unlocked. The Sadist Queen liked to be alone with me whenever possible. But at least one guard was always nearby.
The Sadist Queen crossed her arms, scrunching up the delicate sleeves of her robes as her manicured nails dug into her aged skin. Her fangs peeked out from painted-red lips as she said, “What did she do? Why her? You’re so obedient for me, but you never come.”
I wondered that, too.
The almost-pleasurable heat washed over me, a memory of coming undone, like being out of control. The thought of bare skin on mine, hot and wet and smothering.
I swallowed before my breaths shortened too much.
The Sadist Queen undid the silver sash tying her robes together and sat on my hips. I was wearing synthetic-cotton trousers, but I lurched. She caught my shoulders, pressing me back down into the white rug. Her nails pinched my neck. That was when I went limp and returned to the scared twelve-year-old scamp she first abused. I couldn’t shake it. I fought and fought, but I couldn’t fight her, the one I hated most of all. I froze, but my lying grin froze with me.
She cupped my cheek. “I know why. Ednis explained it to me, but it doesn’t make me happy, Adano.” She pressed her lips to my ear, hot and wet but nothing like how the slayer felt after she injected me with her venom. Every part of me shriveled. “You’re mine. I am the only one who can tame you, but she can control you. We’ll have to do something about that.”
She tore open my shirt and cut into my chest, carving in bit by bit, painting bloody murals. She marked me like this when she was pissed. It was never very deep or permanent, but it always hurt. I bit back a scream and useless tears until everything went white.
CHAPTER 20
ADANO
The silver sliver was gone. The marks were gone, too; they had disappeared when I had awoken, as I knew they would. The memory of the marks didn’t fade as swiftly. I wanted to rub my chest at the phantom sensation, but I was bound with synthetic fibers braided into ropes to the square bed in a performance chamber. Fifty-seven. It was chamber fifty-seven. I recognized the creases in the plastic cover lining the north wall.
A lot of good that did me.
I tried to twist my wrists, but the ropes scratched ag
ainst my skin as if they had millions of little claws. Damn, these restraints are tight. If they had been any tighter, my blood circulation would have been cut off.
My eyelids fluttered at the milky-white plastic overhead. I pretended the light cast was warmer, brighter, the sun. It wasn’t burning me because I imagined running outside with Ivy, covered in sunlight-resistant gear. Those were simpler times. Happier times. Though they were few and we were always accompanied, watched at some distance, by a guard or two.
The door clicked open and a cool breeze pricked my exposed skin. I almost missed the second click, because a shadowy figure lingered in my peripheral vision: the slayer. Her rich, bitter scent crawled inside my nose, and I tasted salt.
I turned my face toward her. She was lurking, steps so light I couldn’t hear them. I bared my fangs in an unrestrained smile.
“Hello again,” I said.
She didn’t blink and she didn’t speak. Her face never strayed from blank.
“Come along, slayer,” I droned. “There’s no point in dragging this out.” And I want to speak to you, so come here.
She flitted along the edge of the bed like a butterfly before ruining the illusion by jumping. She landed softly, hovering over me as her black hair and silvery robes tickled my skin. Otherwise, she didn’t touch my naked body. She slid back on her knees and pulled loose the silver wreath knot. She tossed the fine fabric onto the padded concrete floor. Then she settled, hips against mine, hands to either side of my head. Her hair curtained our faces.
I swallowed, pushed away the sensation of her body smothering me. This wasn’t so different. I could handle this. It was when she bit me. That was how she undid me.
“You didn’t tell on me,” she whispered.
“I thought about it,” I replied, matching her tone and volume, “but then we wouldn’t get to play, and I want to play with you, monster.”
“Good.” She opened her mouth, closed it. Opened it. “I’m going to move, so prepare yourself.”
I didn’t know why she bothered to warn me.
She rolled her hips against mine and let out the softest groan as hot, wet, swollen flesh made my skin crawl. She was turned on, but I wasn’t.
This is the same, too. Breathe. Smile. Say what needs to be said.
“I didn’t tell and whoever’s in charge of the observation tower didn’t pick up on our last conversation, meaning we’ll probably get away with talking like this for as long as we appear to perform,” I said. “Lucky.”
“With what you said last time, I thought you might have a better solution to this than that,” Lisette replied.
I hummed. This slayer was more than a brute after all. Ivy would have told me, “Of course she is. She’s female. Males are the brutes.” Well, I was male, and trying to be a brute hadn’t suited me. It was time for brains over brawn, the stuff I was good at.
“About that, monster. How good are you with tech?”
“A user, but nothing beyond that, wild.”
We had assigned words to each other. I hoped that was progress, but the derisive way we used them suggested the opposite.
“All right,” I said. “I didn’t expect anything more than that. We can work with this. Do you have access to a pactputer?”
Lisette showed her fangs. “Yes. Spit out what you’re trying to say.”
“First, what exactly are you hoping to get out of this? You think you can ‘take’ me as you did last time, over and over, and that Ednis won’t catch on?”
“After you make me… bleed, yes, because I won’t get pregnant. She’ll write me off as infertile and send me back to the slayers.”
“I see. That could work.” If she could resist me and put on the same show as yesterday, during the time a vampire should want me most, Ednis might believe it—if I kept quiet.
“It will work,” Lisette said and closed her eyes as she rolled her hips harder. It wasn’t possible, but it felt as if she dipped inside of my bones, melding herself to me.
I clenched my useless hands into fists. The black ropes cut into my wrists. I wanted to claw at the slayer’s waist and toss her. I wanted to scream too, but I held it in.
Lisette wasn’t here by choice, so we had that in common.
I licked my lips and took a deep breath. “I’m going to give you control of the entire Silver Hollow system.” As long as they hadn’t created a new system since Ivy’s death, but why would they have? Ivy and I built the best system Silver Hollow had seen. None of their technicians knew its depths, but they thought they did and were thrilled with what it could do. Ednis was more cautious, preemptive, but she let them keep it. She must have. I was never around tech, so they had no internal threats, and external tech-based threats were best met with SH system ver.10.0.0.
The system should have had a different name. It wasn’t a version. Ivy and I had trashed the old system, because it had too many holes, and started from scratch.
Yessma, let it be this simple. After all this time, let a puppet user be enough.
“What?” Lisette said flatly.
“What version is the Silver Hollow system?” I asked. “It’s the numbers on the top right corner of your pactputer screen when you log in to your account. The first number is all I need to know.”
“Version ten dot eight dot three.”
Show off. So you have a decent memory. My grin cut into my cheeks. Excellent news. Perfect.
“Okay, monster. Listen carefully and remember what I say. I helped build this system and its MC, master controller. Silver Hollow’s technicians think they have the MC, but they don’t. You take this login information, log in to the system as the MC, and Silver Hollow is at your fingertips, nice and user friendly.”
It was more complex than that, but the user interface was all Lisette would need to deal with because she’d have a guide to assist her. “You log in the way you normally would. Name and birth date. Username is Yavadoni Cenistiv. That’s Y-A-V-A-D-O-N-I, Yavadoni. And C-E-N-I-S-T-I-V, Cenistiv. Password is the 5th Month of Summer, Day 145. 2381.”
I didn’t stutter on that damn date, that horrible fucking date. I deserved a reward.
But Lisette said nothing, did nothing.
“Get all that, monster? Or was it too much for you?”
“Got it, but what do you want me to do with this?”
“Blow things up. Let loose all of Silver Hollow’s prisoners. Shut down the system. Whatever you want, really. Flex your creative muscles. Just get me out of here.”
“No. It won’t work.”
“I thought we were past this.” I sighed, “Okay,” and I tilted my head as far back as I could. I knew one of the cameras was mounted over there. “Then I tell them everything we talked about, they boost the audio, and we’re both fucked.”
“You’re suicidal.”
“No. I’m desperate and have nothing to lose. You do.”
“They’ll pin it on me.”
“That’s the beauty of the MC. No one will know. They can’t trace it. It isn’t registered. The Silver Hollow technicians are barely average and don’t know it exists.”
“They’ll pin it on me anyway. It’s too convenient. They know I don’t want to be here.”
“They can try, but you’re smarter than that, aren’t you? Log in to the system as the MC and Silver Hollow is at your mercy. That isn’t enticing? You can’t think of the possibilities?”
“You’re giving your tech too much credit.”
“You aren’t giving it enough. Decide. We’ve been at this too long. They’re going to wonder why you haven’t succeeded in taking me yet.” I spat out those last words.
“I need time to figure this out. You’re forgetting the vampires who live in Silver Hollow. You won’t get out unless they’re dealt with too. I’ll log in to the system and send you a sign that I did, so don’t give us away.”
She knew how to play the game. She knew how much I wanted this and that the only thing I physically had over her was our recorded conversations.
If she could subdue me for now and eliminate the evidence, she’d feel better. It would be safer, but I could get Ednis to listen to me if I tried hard enough. Lisette wouldn’t be free until I was. If I couldn’t get freedom, she’d join me in hell, fulfilling her duty as a damn vessel. She was committing treason over it, so it was hell enough.
“All right,” I said, “but don’t underestimate my tenacity or you’ll regret it.”
Lisette bared her teeth, all of them. Gods, her fangs were huge. My neck throbbed with the memory of them tearing into my flesh.
“Will you make me bleed today, or will that have to wait until our next session?” she asked.
My brow furrowed. “You’re giving me a choice?”
She blinked but otherwise didn’t give me any facial cues. She had to be sick of rolling her hips against me by now. I was sick of it. I was ready to jump out of my skin to escape the heat. It couldn’t feel good after this long for her either. She hadn’t come, but she was wet, wet, wet. She made me sweat. I was drenched, suffocating.
My tongue twisted in my mouth, refusing to form words, but I got them out. Eventually. It had to be done. “Just do what you have to do. I’m not going anywhere.”
She didn’t draw it out after that. She sunk her fangs into my neck, injected her venom. My veins became fire, that strange arousing fire that I’d never fully understood. My cock was at attention. It skipped half hard for a full erection. I grimaced and moaned at the same time. My body was chaos as my fingers clawed and I tried to move. The black ropes drew my blood. This slightly wrong savory scent flooded my nose, my mouth. It wasn’t in my throat, but it felt like it was. Hot and thick and ready to drown me.
Lisette’s hands were around me, and then she settled on top of me. I slid down her slick sex until I met her entrance. She eased me inside. Too fucking slowly. She’d almost get it over with and then she’d spring to her knees. Her chest bobbed up and down. The muscles in her stomach flexed, softened. Her eyes were more violet than red. Was she always this pale?
Vampire Captives (From Blood to Ashes Book 1) Page 10