That was when it hit me. Something I had never considered. Was this slayer a virgin? Was penetrative sex new to her?
This is unheard of.
I wanted to laugh, but the dissonant signals shooting off in my brain demanded I feel her as she lowered herself. Inch by inch she took me until I didn’t know the difference between us. Hot and wet. Just hot and wet and her weight on top of me, her body fusing with mine. And building pressure. It was released so quickly last time, the way Lisette wanted. This time it was buzzing, waiting for the slayer to command me.
She hunched over me, shaking. “Adano, I need you to come.” She halfheartedly rolled her hips.
With her next stilted movement, I burst. Molten liquid consumed sensitive nerve endings, and I screamed. Lisette wasn’t far behind me, but her scream cut off at a whimper. She collapsed on top of me, chest heaving. My eyelids were heavy. I meant to blink, but I couldn’t force my eyes open again.
The door clicked, muffled and far away, as Lisette’s venom took me under.
CHAPTER 21
LISETTE
My muscles weren’t responding correctly. It wasn’t from a lack of exercise. I’d made sure not to fall into that trap. It was because of what I had done with Adano a half hour before. There was no other explanation, but there was no proof either: I wasn’t bleeding.
I was sore as hell, though.
I hissed when Hireh touched my naked inner thigh and swatted her hand away.
“Forgive me,” she murmured.
She had cleaned me more times than I cared to count since coming to the reproduction center, but I couldn’t take it. The water rushing out of the showerhead was like needles; I was almost convinced it would drill its way into my skin rather than roll off in insect-crawling waves.
Hireh turned off the water.
I didn’t move.
The steamy air was cold, like ice droplets. I trembled. Hireh wrapped me in a fluffy towel, but I continued to shiver after she had thoroughly dried my body and my hair.
I didn’t say a word. I couldn’t think about much of anything either. I replayed what had happened in performance chamber fifty-seven, repeated it. I had let that vampyre inside of me. I had forced it when it was the last thing I had wanted—but I had to. I would return to Fyefa and White Team no matter what the cost.
Adano wouldn’t make that easy for me.
Who is this vampyre? Would the strange login information he provided work? Did the name and date have significance or were they random?
I’d find out.
Hireh’s worn hands skimmed my waist as she dressed me in one of those filmy gowns. I bit my tongue, but I didn’t recoil. My body reacted as if I were covered in bruises. The padding lining my underwear reminded me of what should come, and it was more uncomfortable than last time because my flesh was so damn sensitive.
“Would you like to rest in your room, Vessel Lisette?” Hireh asked.
“No. Take me to the recreation room.” I could request a pactputer be brought to my assigned room, but I needed new scenery, some kind of distraction.
“As you wish.”
Hireh mindfully stepped forward, always aware of her surroundings so she wouldn’t cause anyone trouble, when a couple of vessels jumped out of their seats, giggling and squawking about something inconsequential, oblivious to where they were going. Hireh was caged in and my reflexes were slow. A vessel stumbled into my thrall and screamed, “Watch it, slave!”
The vessel raised her hand to Hireh, about to slap her across the face, but I caught the vessel’s wrist and squeezed. She yelped and tugged, but I wouldn’t let go. I was immovable when I took the fundamental barakor stance.
“You watch it,” I said. “It was your fault.”
The other vessel had her hands clawed in Hireh’s dingy scrub suit. She retreated when I glared at her.
“No one touches my thrall.” Hireh was easily better company than these vessels. If I had been required to associate with them, someone would have gotten hurt by now.
The vessel squirming in my grasp squeaked and nodded. I let her go, and I didn’t wait for Hireh as I exited the bathhouse. I knew she was behind me.
When I opened the metal double doors and the steam followed us in a huffing, puffing cloud that mimicked my insides, I stopped. “Lead the way, Hireh. I know you like to.”
She didn’t move, so I glanced over my shoulder. She was staring at the floor. Always staring at the floor. I preferred to see the truth in her dark brown eye.
Hireh had more spirit than all of these vessels combined.
“Cowering doesn’t suit you,” I said and recalled when she had cowered in front of me. When I had threatened her in the gymnasium. Yet she continued her duties with me as if nothing had happened.
“Why did you do that?” Hireh whispered.
“I don’t like bullies,” I said. “They attack those weaker than them to feed their misplaced and inflated egos.” I had also hoped the vessel would fight back so I would have an excuse to put her in her place, but she was the lowest kind of bully. A fight didn’t happen. A pity. The adrenaline would have knocked the pain out of my system.
Hireh covered her mouth with her hand, but she couldn’t hide the way her skin tightened at the corners of her eyes.
“The recreation room?” I pressed.
“Right, yes, of course, Slayer Lisette.”
That ghost of a smile danced across my lips. It had never made an appearance for anyone but Fyefa.
The recreation room was in use. It was full of vessel-and-thrall pairs where the thralls were like shadows, seen but not heard. A handful of orderlies were present too; they assisted wherever needed and oversaw the bounteous supply of pactputers. The room was that efficient, long rectangle shape with a primarily concrete base tinted blue with the bright lights overhead. However, the east wall wasn’t concrete. It was reinforced, heavily tinted glass that stopped harmful sunrays from leaking inside. The garden beyond it was a good size, as big as the indoor portion of the recreation room, but no one was out braving the sun.
Concrete benches, chairs, shelves lined with pactputers, lockers, and two mounted cameras. There were likely two more cameras in the garden.
I thought it interesting this room warranted cameras when mine didn’t. They were for overall surveillance, based on how they were placed. Perhaps their primary purpose was to keep track of the pactputers. Or perhaps they were used to observe fights; this many vessels pact together was a lit fuse.
Vessels laughed and conversed, that incessant hum of conversations amplified because of the numbers.
It crunched in my ears.
“Can I get you started on anything?” Hireh asked me.
“What’s in the lockers?”
“Sunlight-resistant gear should you wish to explore the garden. You have a locker here, too.”
I turned toward the shelves. “I’m taking a pactputer.”
“Take any pactputer you please and log in with your personal account information. You’ll have access to everything you had access to before.”
“Understood.” I rolled my neck to stave off a creeping ache, though it was concentrated in my core. My reflex was to squeeze my thighs together, to fall into a crouch and press my hands into my stomach, but I didn’t do it. I refused to show weakness.
I grabbed one of the pactputers lined up on the shelves. It was spotless; not a single fingerprint marred its metallic back or glass face. An orderly came through with another in hand, wiping it down before placing it in an empty space. “Keyboards are there. Headphones are there,” she said and pointed to another shelf stacked with them. I retrieved one of each.
After attaching the keyboard, I said, “Hireh, I’d like to go outside.”
She bowed. “As you wish.”
I stood by the east wall and scanned the garden while Hireh gathered my gear. When she returned, I placed my pactputer on the square surface of a small table.
Leathers and a white cloak too similar to t
he ones I wore as White First were bundled in Hireh’s arms. There were fewer layers and the materials used were different, though they were labeled and looked much the same. The difference in fabrics was their grade. Both were technically synthetic materials that resembled leather and twilled cotton, but these were F-grade as opposed to the A-grade I was used to; slayer and warrior gear were reinforced.
A new ache weighed down my chest as if a heavy stone were stuck inside my rib cage.
I pushed all unpleasant sensations aside and let Hireh dress me. The leathers were loose; they fit over the filmy gown. The boots Hireh brought were limp and thin, much like the gloves. I pinched the fabric and rubbed it between my fingers to ensure it had been treated with blackout paste; when it was dry, blackout paste was almost undetectable.
Hireh let me tie my flimsy cloak as she dressed in similar gear. When we had pulled our masks over our noses and adjusted our large hoods over our eyes, Hireh led me to the almost-seamless tinted-glass door embedded in the east wall, where she entered a code into a small keypad. Everyone around us stood clear as the door opened. Sunrays dusted our feet, overpowering the artificial lights. The warmth seeped in through my layers, but the blackout paste did its job; I didn’t burn.
Hireh stepped inside first and found a concrete bench to sit on. “I’ll be here if you need me.”
Good. She wouldn’t be hovering over me.
The garden was blocked off from the rest of Silver Hollow with a large concrete fence and a latticed canopy that allowed sunlight to shine through in square-shaped beams. That was all new, but a familiar fruity scent permeated the air, and I spotted pink rummadies. A crisp breeze rattled through the flowers and signaled fall was well underway. The brownish tint most of the plants had taken on meant death would soon follow. One bush was a saturated red, but I guessed the garden wasn’t at its best this time of year. Still, it was a garden. Someone had taken the time to haul in rich soil from Shade Forest. There were plants everywhere, and I couldn’t name any of them except for the rummadies. Tuel would have appreciated it.
More rocks tried to drop into my rib cage.
Sharp, savory blood with a sweet and fruity undertone filled my head. It didn’t exactly match the smell of rummadies, but it was too close. I inhaled too deeply as if he were here. My body demanded it, and my muscles spasmed. When I closed my eyes, he was there. A vision of ice and snow. A chill creeping down my spine when he spoke in that snarky tenor. Hot where his skin touched mine. Addicting when his blood drowned my tongue.
Stop.
I opened my eyes and pressed my fingers into the cool metal of the pactputer. Then I stepped toward the rummadies and crouched down as if to inspect them, but I did a quick sweep for cameras instead. Two. As I had thought. The patches of thick foliage made them less effective than the ones inside. It would be easy to hide my screen here.
Settling down on the concrete path next to the rummadies, I placed the pactputer on my lap. After turning it on, I increased the screen’s brightness, and the login page stared back at me. I input the information Adano had given me.
Username: Yavadoni Cenistiv
Password: The 5th Month of Summer, Day 145. 2381.
The Silver Hollow system opened the way it usually did. The user interface was intact, but I wasn’t forced into the digital library as I would have been if I had logged in to my account. The MC had a homepage filled with navigation options. And more.
I jolted when a chat window pinged and hastily muted audio. The hell? A message appeared on the screen.
DA: Welcome back, Yavadoni. Would you like to execute ESCAPE?
I wasn’t sure what DA stood for. I plugged in the headphones in case I needed them later and typed a reply.
Yavadoni: Who is this?
DA: I am your digital assistant ver.1.0.0.
Yavadoni: Digital assistant?
DA: I am an AI designed by Yavadoni Cenistiv.
I knew what AI stood for. Claire had talked about it before. Artificial intelligence. She said it was outlawed. Giving tech that much power… creating life, of a sort, like the Gods.
Blasphemy.
And yet, it was incredible. Tech. This tech could communicate the way I did.
Yavadoni: What’s ESCAPE?
DA: ESCAPE is a sequence you prepared to ultimately disable the Silver Hollow system.
Adano hadn’t said anything about this. Was he unaware of this? He helped build the Silver Hollow system, so it was possible.
Yavadoni: Who is Yavadoni?
DA: Yavadoni is my creator.
Yavadoni: But who is Yavadoni?
DA: Yavadoni is my creator.
This AI could have used more intelligence.
DA: I have completed an update by crawling through the current Silver Hollow system. It has been six years and ten days since I was last operating. According to a log created on the 5th Month of Summer, Day 145. 2381., Ivy Tins is dead, and a video has been unlocked. Would you like to watch it now?
I hesitated.
Yavadoni: Yes.
DA: Please confirm identity.
Yavadoni: Yavadoni Cenistiv.
DA: Incorrect identity.
Yavadoni: Adano.
DA: Incorrect identity.
Yavadoni: Adano Vice.
DA: Incorrect identity. If identity is entered incorrectly one more time, the video will be permanently deleted.
Yavadoni: Save the video. I’ll view it later.
DA: Video is saved. To view, please request “Last Message” and input the correct identity.
Yavadoni: Can you show me ESCAPE?
The pactputer screen blinked out. I thought it had died, but then lines of green and streams of code filled the screen. I scrolled through it, but I had no idea how to read it. There wasn’t a single familiar word. Then I had trouble finding the hidden chat window. I spent several minutes searching for it and still couldn’t find it.
Against my better judgment, and the protests I imagined coming from Claire, I tapped everything in sight, smudging the pactputer’s glass face with the touch-screen-friendly fingerprints of my left glove. Finally, the chat window emerged.
DA: Would you like to save your changes?
Yavadoni: No.
Shit. What did I do? The code screen closed, apparently because of something I had tapped, bringing me back to the more familiar user interface. It’s fine. I told it not to save changes.
My neck prickled with an uncomfortable heat. It was different from my current and persistent body aches.
I was out of my depth.
Could I do anything with this? Could I give Adano a sign as I said I would?
Yavadoni: Can you shut off all the pactputers in the recreation room inside of the reproduction center? Except for this one.
The screen changed as if I had tapped on the Silver Hollow map icon. It showed the entire kingdom in thin green outlines resembling the coding screen and zoomed in on the reproduction center. It locked onto the recreation room and zoomed in again. It showed all device locations in real time and selected all pactputers but mine.
DA: You want to shut down all pactputers except for unit 13 in the recreation room inside of the reproduction center. Is this correct?
Yavadoni: Yes.
DA: Commencing shutdowns.
I leaned to the right so that I could get a good view inside of the recreation room. The pactputer-filing orderly accepted two glowing pactputers from a couple of vessels too lazy to shut them down themselves.
The orderly placed the pactputers on an empty table and the screens blinked out as if she had thrown them. The orderly jumped back and the vessels turned their heads. Then everyone with a pactputer was moving. I couldn’t hear anything from the garden, but their exaggerated expressions and wide-open mouths promised shouting.
It worked.
CHAPTER 22
LISETTE
Hireh hadn’t noticed the commotion inside. She was sitting on that concrete bench with her eyes closed. I left my
tech and made my way to her. I spoke more loudly than strictly necessary when I said, “What’s going on in there?”
Hireh startled, eyelids fluttering. “In where?”
I tilted my head toward the tinted-glass wall. Hireh slid off the bench. “I have no idea.” She hesitated, then she went to the door, disappearing inside. I feigned my lingering concern and then shrugged. I returned to my sun-warmed spot on the concrete path in front of the rummadies and stared at the pactputer screen as I replaced my headphones.
Logged in as the MC.
An open chat window with an AI.
A map of the recreation room and real-time updates on the tech inside.
The pactputers I had had the DA turn off were being turned on, meaning I hadn’t done anything permanent—which was a relief because that hadn’t been my intention.
I had questions. They would have to wait until my next session with Adano. Unless I could get more out of the AI first.
Yavadoni: Can you show me live video feeds?
DA: Yes. Which live video feed would you like to view?
Yavadoni: The vampyre hall.
The screen zoomed out of the green-outlined map of the recreation room to the entirety of the reproduction center. It selected the vampyre hall, zoomed in, and the DA messaged me.
DA: Please select a camera.
I tapped one of the devices lining the hall and a live video feed consumed the top half of my screen. There was one gray guard per door. At least one hundred of them. That was a lot of vampires. If the Silver Hollow system was disabled, I doubted they’d move from their posts.
After closing the live video feed, I tapped on one of the doors. The map altered to show a vampyre’s quarters. I selected one of the cameras, and another live video feed consumed the top half of my screen. It revealed a vampyre with dark features, who lay on a puffy bed with a pactputer propped up on his raised thighs. He had luxuries upon luxuries, items piled on the floor, on the shelves, a separate room with the door open because it was overflowing with wood shavings. The silhouettes of sculptures lurked inside.
Vampire Captives (From Blood to Ashes Book 1) Page 11