by Lili Zander
But my mind quickly returns to the three vampires that sponsored me.
My emotions have seesawed all over the place today, but now that I'm alone, I can't hide that I find them very attractive. Even though they are vampires. I shut my eyes, and I see Nero and Saber spar. I remember the weight of Saber’s erection when I sat on his lap. I feel Zeke’s rough hand squeezing my breast, his thumb brushing my nipple. I see the heat in Nero’s eyes as he watched me respond to their touch.
My body feels heavy with desire. What would it be like to sleep with the vampires? To be a creature governed only by her needs and nothing else? To be their plaything, to undo my braids for them?
Will they be gentle, or will they be rough? I don’t know. They’ll be skilled, of that I am sure. I don’t know the three men at all, but so far, they’ve done everything with an air of effortless ease.
My hand has moved between my legs. The moment I realize what I’m doing, I snatch it away. I’m fantasizing about three vampire soldiers when the Shayde Empire was responsible for the death of my parents. Shame fills me, and I close my eyes, clenching against the sudden grief in my heart.
I'm sorry, mother and father. I will not fail you again.
I’m falling asleep in front of the holos when there's a quiet knock at the door. Glancing at the monitor, I see a familiar face outside. Joanna.
Has something happened to Ma Kaila?
I undo the locks and pull the front door ajar. “What’s going on?” I whisper.
Her eyes dart around. “Can I come in?” she asks, sounding nervous. “I told the patrols that I had a delivery for Colonel Hafsson.”
There’s a small chance that this is a trap. It’s possible that Joanna’s bought Mical’s freedom by telling the Overlord that I’m the woman that was bitten by the rogue vampire.
Then again, if the Overlord already knows, why send Joanna to get me? Why not send armed enforcers?
My intuition tells me I can trust her. I step aside, and she enters. Her eyes go wide when she sees the main room. “Three fireplaces,” she marvels. She moves in front of the nearest one, undoing her cloak and holding her hands out to warm herself.
“What are you doing here, Joanna?” I want to bring up our history teacher, but the words freeze in my throat. If she’s been killed… I’m a coward, I know, but right now, I don’t need to find out she’s dead. It will only paralyze me.
She chews her lip. “Can I trust you, Raven?” She gives me a searching look and seems to make up her mind. “I'm going to break Mical out of the re-education camps.”
That catches my attention. She’s insane. “No one has ever escaped Glacis before the end of their term,” I say flatly. “The only other way out is death.”
Joanna looks unperturbed. “There's always a way out of every prison,” she replies resolutely. “And I'm determined to find it. I have resources.”
“What kind of resources?”
“I’ve already said too much.” She takes a deep breath. “I came to ask for your help.”
“I can't get him out, Joanna.” I stare at the fire, trying not to remember the endless misery of the re-education camps. “I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm being hunted myself.”
“I'm not asking you to participate in the rescue. I just need you to get a message to Mical. You’re going to be on the ice. One of the flags is only an hour away from the camps. Tell him that help is on the way.”
I gaze at the determined woman, my heart troubled. Hope is foolish in Glacis. Then again, Joanna helped me when I needed it, without question and without any thought of gain. If it is within my power to aid her, I must do it.
“When are you thinking of doing this?”
She shrugs cagily. “One of these days,” she says. “Next week.”
She’s wise to be wary. If I don’t know the exact date, I can’t betray her.
I don't know what to say. My priority is the tournament. Will I have the time to embark on such a dangerous errand?
“I can't promise anything,” I tell her honestly. “There are hundreds of people in the camps. Even if I could get there without being seen, I might not be able to find Mical.”
“But you'll try?”
I can’t fault her for wanting to give her brother something to hold onto. “I'll try.”
She exhales in relief. “Thank you, Raven.” She hands me a small parcel. “This is for Saber Hafsson.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know,” she replies. “Lula Kenner gave it to me. She was there at the choosing, you know. She said she wanted to sponsor you.”
Lula Kenner is the female vampire who’d stepped forward before the Overlord’s disapproval sent her back in line. “She knows you’re coming here during curfew?”
She looks confused. “Of course. Lula’s an old family friend. She’s the one who bit both my parents.” She looks sad. “She tried to stop Mical’s sentence, but on Boarus 4, Klaus Zimmer controls everyone.”
“Do you really believe that?” I can’t keep the skepticism out of my voice. A vampire helping a human? That just doesn’t happen in my experience.
Saber, Nero, and Zeke helped you today.
“Yes, I do,” Joanna replies promptly. “Despite what Ma Kaila would have us believe, not all vampires are bad, Raven, and not all humans are good. You know that as well as I. The person that betrayed your parents was most likely human.”
Fourteen years after it happened, their death is still a raw wound.
Joanna seems to realize she’s on thin ice and changes the topic. “I’m really glad you’re being sponsored by Colonel Hafsson. Lula thinks quite highly of him—of all three of them—and she’s not the only one. Everyone in the outer sectors is singing their praises.”
“Why? Because they sponsored a miner?”
“Not just that. You know the gangs in the outer sectors that the Overlord kept ignoring? Well, when the three men found out, they insisted that the enforcers do their job and protect the population, human and vampire. The enforcers patrol the area now during the day.”
“They do?”
She nods enthusiastically, and her cheeks turn pink. “Have they… you know… touched you? Don’t get me wrong, I love Hamed, but if one of them ever propositioned me…” Her voice trails away and she giggles. “I want to lick all those muscles. And more, if you know what I mean.”
I know exactly what she means; that’s the problem. I want to lick those muscles too. And more. “I should go to bed,” I murmur.
“Of course, Raven,” she says at once. She gets to her feet. “Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. My uncle is in charge of supplying the Overlord’s dungeon with food. I’ve seen Ma Kaila. She’s fine. For the moment.”
My knees go weak with relief. Thank the Great Spirit.
“But,” Joanna adds, “That could be simply because the Overlord is distracted by the tournament. Once it’s over…” Her voice trails off.
I swallow hard. My best-case scenario involves me winning the Night of the Shayde and leaving for Starra before the Overlord realizes I’m the woman he’s searching for.
But even if I win, nothing really changes for anyone else. Joanna will still toil in the mines. Children will still be sent to the re-education camps. Ma Kaila will still rot in the Overlord’s dungeons.
Joanna stands up. “Good luck,” she whispers. “We’re all cheering for you.”
No pressure at all.
When she leaves, I return to the holos, but the programs can’t hold my attention. I’m thinking of Saber, Zeke, and Nero, remembering all the things they’ve done so far. Saber sponsored me. Zeke picked up on my nerves in the arena, and he’d tried to calm me. Nero taught me how to fight.
Not all vampires are bad, Raven, and not all humans are good. You know that. The person that betrayed your parents was most likely human.
Joanna had said it so blithely, as if it was a self-evident truth, but her words have shaken the foundation of my world.
15
Zeke
Boarus 4
Sundown, SixthDay of FourthMonth
I’m the only one in the house when Raven wakes up at sundown. She walks out to the living area, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and stifling a yawn.
She’s got dark circles under her eyes. “You didn’t get any rest, did you?”
“No.” She slumps into a chair. “Nightmares.”
I hand her a steaming cup of coffee. “Most humans I know are addicted.”
She’s too exhausted to be surprised. “Do you know many humans?”
Most of our team had been human. Adam Masev is another long-time friend. Like Nero, I feel more comfortable around them, especially in Starra. In the capital city, every vampire is jockeying for power, and they’ll run a sword through you if they thought they could get away with it.
“Some.”
She sips the hot beverage, her eyes still closed.
I read her file yesterday; we all had. Zimmer’s father, who had been Overlord before him, had burrowed deep into the ice. Miners were being lowered into the core of the planet in a quest for more boarium. They were breathing noxious fumes. Falling sick. Dying.
In secret, Raven’s parents had organized a protest for fair working conditions, but they’d been sold out by a colleague. They were arrested and condemned to death for treason against the Empire, and Raven, their only child, had been sentenced to ten years in the re-education camps.
She’d been ten.
Saber had looked at the screen for a long time. I could feel his rage building. “Children aren’t supposed to grow up in prison,” he’d said, and then he’d walked away.
“What were the nightmares about?”
I don’t expect her to answer, but she does. “The enforcers kept dragging away my parents.” She runs her hands over her face, and stares at me, her eyes haunted. “And there’s never anything I can do to stop it.”
Fuck.
“I’m going to leave,” she continues in a whisper. “If I win, I’m going to Starra, and I’m going to start over. There are too many sad memories here.” Her hands tremble as she brings the coffee cup to her lips. “I swore I’d avenge their deaths. I swore I’d find the person responsible and make them pay. Instead, I’m running away.”
She doesn’t know? “What do you mean, the person responsible?” I ask carefully, not wanting to get her hopes up.
“Someone betrayed them to the authorities.”
I’ve broken into Boarus 4’s systems. All their records are laid out in front of me. I can’t take away the past, but I can give her this small measure of comfort.
“I know who did it.”
She lifts her head up. On her face, caution wars with hope. “You do?”
Zimmer has terrible infosec. Any half-competent hacker could waltz in here, which is a double-edged sword if there was ever one. I spent some time looking for anything that could prove Levitan’s complicity, but large parts of Zimmer’s systems had been wiped.
The clean-up has already begun.
All the more reason that our priority is keeping Raven alive.
“I have full access to Zimmer’s systems. I can show you what you need.” I get to my feet. “Come on.”
I saw the clip yesterday, a vid attached to Raven’s file. It’s not long.
A hooded human man talks to a vampire in a bar. “I can tell you who’s organizing the strike,” he says. “For a price.”
“What do you want?”
“Two things,” he replies. “I want my family to be bitten. Me, my wife, and my son.”
The vampire lifts an eyebrow. “And the second condition?”
“A job out of the mines. Something safe. A tax collector, maybe.”
The vampire considers the offer and then nods. “Very well. Lower your hood, human, and receive your bite. And then, I will have their names.”
Raven leans forward, tense and intent. On the screen, the human’s face is exposed for the first time. When she sees him, she gasps in shock, and her face goes pale.
I pause the vid. “You know who that is.”
“Yes.”
16
Raven
Boarus 4
Sundown, SixthDay of FourthMonth
One of my earliest childhood memories is of crawling onto Birkin Hento’s lap and tugging at his whiskers. My mother had pulled me off with a rebuke, but Uncle Birkin had just laughed.
Birkin and Paru Hento were my parents’ friends. They cooked together. Ate together. Arnie and I played together as children. I thought of them as family.
Birkin Hento had betrayed my parents. He hadn’t been tortured; his family hadn’t been threatened. He’d volunteered the information. All for a bite from a vampire.
It wasn’t a difference in ideology that had doomed my parents. It was greed. Petty fucking greed. My parents had trusted the wrong people, and they’d paid the price with their lives.
I don’t cry. I never cry. Tears streak down my cheeks, unchecked, uncontrolled. “Raven,” Zeke murmurs, sounding helpless. He pulls me into his arms. “I’m so sorry.”
Everyone involved is gone. My parents were executed. Birkin and Paru Hento are dead. Only Arnie is alive. He would have been ten when it happened, same as me.
I sob my eyes out, and Zeke holds me. He doesn’t tell me to stop crying. He doesn’t tell me it’s going to be okay. He just offers comfort.
He’s a vampire. I’m human. At this moment, it doesn’t matter.
I don’t know how long I weep. A long time. My parents died so that Arnie could become the tax collector for Sector 23. I want to laugh hysterically. I want to march over to Arnie’s pod and demand if he knows what his father did. I want to scream and rage and hurl things.
I cry at the futility of it all. At the fucking pointlessness.
Eventually, the tears dry. The sobs ease. A storm of emotion has passed through me, and in its wake, it leaves calm and a strange, unexpected peace.
Zeke keeps his arm around me. I don’t pull free. I’m snuggled into him, my head on his shoulder, my body pressed against his chest. It’s nice. I’ve never been held by a man like this. I’ve never had someone to lean on.
“Birkin Hento’s dead,” I whisper. “He died six years ago. Lung complications brought on by too many years in the mines. Isn’t that ironic?”
Zeke doesn’t say anything. He strokes my back, gentle, soothing strokes that make me want to purr. Every nerve ending in my body is alive, keyed to his touch.
I haven’t been touched in a long time. Not since the re-education camps. There’s been no one I’ve wanted enough. No one who made my insides weak with longing.
My insides feel like mush right now.
I swallow hard. “Thank you for showing me the vid. I owe you a debt I can’t repay.”
“You owe me nothing, Raven,” Zeke says quietly. His comm beeps. He reaches for it, and I pull away. He reads the message on the screen and then turns to me. “Get ready,” he says. “Nero and Saber are on their way back. It’s time for more self-defense training.”
17
Saber
Boarus 4
Sundown, SixthDay to Sundown, EighthDay of FourthMonth
The next two days, while Raven trains with Nero and Zeke, I work on bringing about regime change on Boarus 4.
The parcel from Lula Kenner turns out to be an encrypted comm with a number pre-programmed into the settings. Wondering why she’s being so cloak-and-dagger, I call it that evening.
It’s answered immediately. Lula Kenner’s face fills the screen. “Colonel Hafsson,” she says. “Thank you for calling me. You’re probably wondering what this is about.”
She certainly gets right to the point. “Would you care to enlighten me?”
“You’ve been on Boarus 4 since SecondDay. That’s not a very long time, but it’s surely long enough for you to see that Zimmer rules with an iron fist.”
Zimmer. She’s omitted his title. The lack of respect is telling, but n
ot a free pass. Every single vampire on Boarus 4 has watched Zimmer enslave the humans. Every single vampire has stood on the sidelines for too long, while hundreds of innocent people languish in Zimmer’s dungeons and in the re-education camps.
Nobody said a word when a traumatized ten-year-old child was placed in a re-education camp in the middle of an ice desert.
Every vampire here is complicit.
“Why haven’t you done anything about it?” I ask bluntly.
She flushes. “I have my reasons.”
I don’t relent. Kenner’s reaching out to me because she wants something, but she’s going to find that my cooperation will come at a cost. “Which are?”
She hesitates and then seems to reach a decision. “Zimmer has put the woman I love in the re-education camps. As long as she’s being held captive, I dare not act.”
The Overlord won’t put a vampire in the camps. “She’s human, this woman?”
“Yes,” she replies, her chin in the air.
She’s wasting her defiance on me. I don’t care who she’s in love with, human or vampire. Hell, as far as I’m concerned, she’s welcome to shack up with the Oensi.
She leans forward. “You have a reputation, Colonel Hafsson, and so I’m going to trust you. Prince Ragnar’s arrival is an opportunity I won’t waste. I’m going to break my partner out of the camps, and then, I’m going to tell the prince everything that’s been happening here. I cannot turn a blind eye to what’s happening any longer.”
“You think Ragnar will make you Overlord.”
She doesn’t deny her ambition. “I hope so, yes. The people of Boarus 4 deserve better than Zimmer. For a long time, I’ve been too afraid to act, but things may never line up this well again. The Overlord is distracted by the tournament, by his financial woes, by the presence of the Empress’ own half-brother on his colony. This is my best chance to get Karina out.”