Her manicured nails traced my throat, and I froze. All defiance fled my body because I knew this would be over faster if I gave in, because I knew it wouldn’t be as bad if I gave in.
“There we go. You used to only do this for me,” the Sadist Queen said. “But now you do it for that slayer, too. So much trouble all the time, Adano.”
When the Sadist Queen flicked her eyes, some sort of silent communication with the thrall, I noticed his hold on me went slack. A micro tremor scaled his body. I would’ve run then, but my limbs were lead.
Just let it be over. If you don’t fight, it won’t be as bad.
It won’t be as bad.
It won’t be as bad.
It won’t be as bad.
The thrall’s breath tickled the top of my head. He made this funny sound, almost like a whimper, but then it was a quick intake of air as if breathing had become a struggle.
“I don’t have to remind you of what happens if you don’t do this, slave, do I?” the Sadist Queen said while inspecting her perfect nails.
The thrall didn’t move.
“Your precious little sister—was her name Hireh?”
The guard at the door nodded.
“You’re one of my favorites, so I keep her alive, but if you don’t cooperate, I have no reason to.”
The thrall threw me, crushing me against a concrete wall. My hips and shoulders creaked, but the way the concrete tore up my left cheek was worse. The thrall jabbed his elbow into my back. I lurched and my cheek rubbed harder against the concrete, skin scraping off. I grinned through the pain and glimpsed the Sadist Queen out of the corner of my eye. Her hand went to the silver wreath knot tying her sheer robes together, but her dilated eyes were on me.
“Strip him bare,” she said.
The thrall shredded my half-open robes. The cold air assaulted my backside, and my skin prickled. The thrall leaned in, sending shivers up my spine. His skin was hot and he was hard.
Gods, he was hard.
He smooshed me against the wall with his steel-trap arms and snuggled his hips against my ass, spreading my ass cheeks, pushing against my asshole.
I hadn’t known what would happen with this thrall. The Sadist Queen never shared me. She never let anyone else touch me until the day I turned eighteen and Ednis the Wise did everything she could to find a vampire that would “suit” me.
I had thought the Sadist Queen had tortured me every way possible, but she’d never violated me like this before. It wasn’t worse than anything else she’d done, but it was different, and I didn’t think it was possible to feel a new kind of pain. I didn’t brace for it the way I’d learned to.
I cried and fought, rubbing down my cheek, my shoulders, my hips, until my bones ground against concrete.
I cried until there were no tears left.
CHAPTER 29
LISETTE
Once inside the recreation room, I grabbed a pactputer and headphones. I told Hireh beforehand that I wanted to go out to the garden, so I was dressed accordingly. She entered the code for the tinted-glass door, a blue light flashed, then the sun and a chilly breeze greeted us in full force. We were the only ones who took advantage of this place, it seemed, as I didn’t see anyone else out here. There were plenty of vessels inside the recreation room, so it was likely a matter of preference. Or perhaps they waited until nightfall to “enjoy” the garden.
I found a comfortable seat on a concrete bench speckled with sunlight. It was ideal for the camera angles, so I equipped the headphones and powered on the pactputer. I could have done this in my assigned room without cameras, but I was cooped up all day. I had never appreciated “fresh air” the way I did now.
Hireh wandered around, studying the different plants as if seeing them for the first time. I doubted she was allowed outside on her own. A soft smile took her lips when her glove-covered fingertips brushed the tiny pink petals of rummadies.
Just like Tuel.
We hadn’t been close, but I thought about Tuel a lot since her death. It was something about her not being here anymore, but it wasn’t about me missing her. Because I didn’t miss her. I realized that each time Tuel consumed my thoughts, though each time she did I thought I must have missed her. Fyefa thought I did.
Fyefa left me.
They all left me.
This isn’t how a team works.
I rubbed the left side of my face. I hadn’t realized my jaw had locked. After soothing the twinge, I returned my attention to the pactputer and entered the MC’s username and password. The DA greeted me before I could enter the digital library.
DA: Welcome back, Yavadoni.
Yavadoni: Copy my login and logout times to Lisette Cheriz’s account so it appears she has logged in and out at the same times. Record random activities too.
DA: I have logged in to Lisette Cheriz’s account and will keep it active with random events until you log out, which will log me out of Lisette Cheriz’s account. Is this acceptable?
Yavadoni: Yes. Check the schedules for chambers 57 and 56. If chamber 56 doesn’t have sessions scheduled at the same time as chamber 57, link the microphone inputs from a chamber that does match the sessions scheduled for chamber 57 to chamber 57.
DA: Chamber 56 meets these requirements.
Yavadoni: Good. Now I want to change my password.
DA: Please type your desired password.
I paused. Changing the password seemed like a good idea, but I wasn’t sure how helpful it would be. I figured Adano would be able to crack it easily enough. The Silver Hollow technicians… perhaps not. I needed something good, then. Something they’d never guess. If it wasn’t a date, the password would be stronger. Every user had a date as their password, but the DA was allowing me to type anything.
I’ve got it.
Yavadoni: NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND
DA: Your new password is “NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND.” Is this correct?
Yavadoni: Yes. Now show me a list of all files tagged Adano Vice and arrange them in chronological order.
The screen blinked to the digital library and the DA’s searched files filled up the screen with a user-friendly icon list. The article at the top had the oldest date: the 5th Month of Summer, Day 143. 2369. Eighteen years ago. Adano was eighteen. This record was made on his birthday.
I had questions that needed answers. Where better to start than the beginning?
The 5th Month of Summer, Day 143. 2369.
A vampire of unknown origin was found half dead and in labor inside Shade Forest. She was brought back to Silver Hollow alive but died in childbirth. She wore clothes made of pure, natural fabrics. No synthetic materials were found, and she didn’t have a piece of tech on her. Is it possible she came from a small coven hiding away from the Prime War? I can’t verify it, but that is what I’ve guessed.
Tests show she and the newborn scamp have no blood relation to Silver Hollow. As the scamp is male, it would seem Yessma is smiling on Silver Hollow this day. To honor her and the scamp’s mother, we have given him the name his mother uttered on her dying breath: Adano Vice.
- Ednis the Wise
Adano truly was valuable, more so than any of Silver Hollow’s other vampyres. No wonder Ednis was frustrated. He was the perfect match for any of the vessels in Silver Hollow, but he wouldn’t perform—until me.
My current situation was never about Tuel. Ednis the Wise would have found some excuse to take me as a vessel. But why did she need an excuse? Why keep this fact about Adano secret?
An article with “Ivy Tins” in the title drew my attention next.
The Month of Fall, Day 12. 2372.
Adano will be assigned a nurturer: Ivy Tins. She is smart, too smart. At age eight she’s a more competent technician than many of our actual technicians. But she often foregoes the rules in favor of discovery and has broken the Silver Hollow system more than once. Usually, her efforts better it, but she leaves us vulnerable in the process. We can’t simply allow her to do as she pleases.
Queen Maud would have had her killed, but I convinced her otherwise.
Ivy is young to be assigned as a nurturer, but it will keep her busy, and I want to see how her and Adano’s minds mesh. At my request, Queen Maud has also agreed to allow Ivy some tech privileges under my supervision. I believe her brain is still useful to us.
Adano is three years old. His purpose is to grow into a breeder, the same as any vampyre, but he’s different. Today he was scheduled for his regular checkup, which I performed in an examination room with a one-way mirror. He couldn’t have known that apprentice physicians sat on the other side, but he kept glancing at the mirror.
“What are you looking at, Adano?” I finally asked him.
He said, “No one, but maybe someone’s looking at me.”
“Why would you say that?”
“It’s a window on the other side.”
How could he have known that the other side of the one-way mirror is transparent when no one told him that? But he must have known. This isn’t the first time he’s demonstrated uncanny insight.
I wonder what he’ll understand when Ivy shares her knowledge of tech. She must prepare him for the day he becomes a breeder, but she’ll use the pactputer provided to do more. I know her and the liberties she takes.
I anxiously await the outcome.
- Ednis the Wise
The file listed after this article was a video. Ivy and Adano’s first meeting. I selected it and pressed play. The point of view was from one of the wall-mounted cameras in the main body of his quarters. At three years old, Adano’s bed was too large. He lay in the center of it, rolling around as if the motion would stop it from swallowing him up.
He looked different.
Yes, of course he was much smaller, but his eyes were also brighter, perhaps bluer. The smile he wore was genuine when he grabbed a pillow and tossed it into the air and then to the side as if wrestling with another scamp.
He sat up straight, tugging down on his disheveled black shirt, when the door to his quarters opened, revealing a rather round young vampire wearing a frumpy gray dress. Her features were dark, suited to the night.
This must have been Ivy.
“Hello,” Adano said.
“Hi,” Ivy replied. The door shut behind her, likely a guard’s doing, and she moved forward, placing the pactputer she carried on a desk that didn’t exist inside of Adano’s quarters today.
“Who are you?” Adano swung his little legs off the side of the bed.
“Ivy. You’re Adano.”
“Are you going to play with me?”
She shrugged. “Sure.”
Adano slid off the bed and scrambled over to her. He stopped in front of her, looked up at her, head canted. “Your body is wrong.”
Ivy bared her fangs. “There’s nothing wrong with the way I look, little brat.”
“The inside. Blood doesn’t go through you right.”
“It’s called a metabolic disorder, and you’re very rude. Who told you about it?”
Adano shook his head.
“You shouldn’t lie.”
“Play with me.”
“All right, but you asked for it.”
Ivy held up her hands and wiggled her fingers. Adano squeaked as he turned to run. He was faster than her, bouncing like a rabbit all over the room. Ivy didn’t waste her breath. She waited until Adano got close to her and then snatched him up.
“You better be ticklish,” she said and went for his stomach, ribs. The ribs were the place, because Adano started laughing hysterically. It was a fluttery sound, joyous like a trilling flute.
Ivy snorted to hide her own laugh. “Maybe you aren’t so bad.”
I closed the video and resumed where I’d left off scanning the list of files, hundreds of them. There was too much to go through in a day, in a week. Perhaps this was a waste of time, but I wanted to know more about Adano. Needed to.
I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know if I wanted to return to the slayers anymore, but I knew I didn’t want to be here.
Does any of it mean anything? What have I been fighting for all this time?
Files flashed across the screen, but I wasn’t seeing. One of them had a strange mark. I almost missed it, but I stopped my endless scrolling in time. It was encrypted, viewable only to Ednis the Wise—and the MC.
The 5th Month of Summer, Day 143. 2381.
What has she done?
Our queen is a competent, powerful ruler, but she let her lust blind her.
Adano was already hardly receptive, hardly interested in his destiny to become a breeder or in sex at all. Now she’s shut him down completely. Barely twelve, and she forced herself on him. There was no purpose to it, not to mention the psychological damage!
He cried for hours. Ivy was the only one who could console him.
- Ednis the Wise
My heart skipped a beat. Ivy tried to free Adano after the queen had raped him. Twelve years old with no one to protect him and no ability to protect himself. Ivy had tried and failed. Died for him.
Adano had been alone for six years.
I was alone, had been for less than a week, and I couldn’t stand it. It was worse than if Fyefa had died. She had left me and buried a knife in my kidney to kill me slowly.
I scrolled to the last of the listed files. The most recent article had yesterday’s date.
The Month of Fall, Day 5. 2387.
An alliance with Crimson Caves is unavoidable. We can’t survive in the Prime War without them; they’re the largest and most influential vampire kingdom. If they aren’t monsters already, condensed blood will make them more so. I understand all of that, and their interest in our vampyres, but I worry about their newfound interest in Adano.
Our initial talks with Crimson Caves, days back, were about exchanging information, to essentially see if we were a good fit as allies. Crimson Caves had heard of my success with condensed blood, so I’d like to think that was what made these talks possible. Of course, during these talks, we told Crimson Caves about Adano and his fresh DNA as well. Naturally, they requested to know his origin and name. We told them the truth. They said nothing at the time and eventually sent Gala Uur to shadow White Team.
Gala has returned this morning with a message from Crimson Caves, a message written and signed by Queen Vesne la Demunet herself. Crimson Caves has records of Adano’s surname. It comes from them, but it had been purposefully forgotten because it is the name of a group of deserters who fled east a thousand years ago and were never found even though Crimson Caves had combed the east coast for them. All they left behind was a poem.
To the east, salvation
Ignite the fires of hope
For atop the claw o’re savage seas
An answering flame doth burn
I’ve heard this poem before, whispered among our slaves before the man who spread that nonsense was silenced. Now I wonder where it originated from. Even Queen Vesne la Demunet of Crimson Caves does not know. Surely she knows Adano holds no answers for them, but I fear there’s more they aren’t telling us. Queen Vesne wants Adano for herself. Queen Maud is furious, but she must comply for the sake of her kingdom.
Then there was that mess with the Silver Hollow system yesterday.
It’s as if Ivy Tins has come back to haunt us.
- Ednis the Wise
CHAPTER 30
LISETTE
I was quiet, numb to everything except for the boiling need that bleeding had awakened in me. I’d never let it control me again, but I couldn’t put an end to it. It would run its course and fade eventually.
Objectively, it was the least of my problems now.
I marched to chamber fifty-seven, Ednis in the lead and Hireh at my back. Ednis matched my quiet as if she had become a void. It was different from Hireh’s disciplined silence. Dangerous.
Ednis adjusted her glasses when there was nothing wrong with their positioning. Instead of that neutral expression she most often wore, there was a permanent creas
e between her eyebrows. I didn’t know Ednis well, but I was willing to bet this was her angry. The question was why.
Did she know about the audio trick between chambers fifty-seven and fifty-six? Had she connected it to me and Adano, or did she think of it as an aftereffect of the system’s “malfunction” a couple of days ago?
“Is everything all right?” I asked.
Ednis said nothing as she stopped in front of the heavy metal door to chamber fifty-seven. The guard there stepped aside, and Ednis entered the code using the keypad.
“Doctor Ednis,” I said.
She jerked her head toward me and blinked. “Yes?” She almost missed the last number in the code. A blue light flashed and the door clicked, signaling it was unlocked. Instead of opening it, Ednis held the handle tightly and pulled as if someone were tugging on the other side.
“I asked if everything was all right,” I said.
“No.” It was such an abrupt answer. Curt. It left no room for further discussion, because Ednis flung the door open.
I could take a hint.
I stepped inside, and Ednis slammed the door behind me. The action didn’t produce much of a sound beyond a dull thud, but she had used all her might.
No vampyre stood at the wall opposite of me. In fact, Adano was nowhere in sight. I eased forward to see beyond the large square bed in the center of the chamber, and then I saw him. Adano was in a corner, curled up as small as he could be, knees raised, face buried in his knees.
My heart rate quickened.
This was abnormal.
“Adano?” I realized my lips were on camera and closed my mouth. I didn’t know what had Ednis on edge, but I had to assume that my audio trick was still in place.
Adano’s silence was worse than Ednis’s. It was virulent, crawling outside of him as a living shadow groping along the floor with flat arms and hands. It wasn’t true. The darkness around him was a lie, but I swore I saw it, and I felt its heaviness.
I circled the bed, wary, hyper-focused on any sudden movements he might make. I didn’t know if this was a new game, if he planned on attacking me, or if it was something else. His body language was too closed. The sheer fabrics of his robes were layered over, cocooning him.
Vampire Captives (From Blood to Ashes Book 1) Page 15