“What?” The girl frowned. “How can that be? Everyone gets it at least once a day—twice for those considered more likely to rebel against the oppressors.”
“Oppressors? You meant the Kru’ell Ones?” Alli asked.
“Shhh! Keep your voice down.” The girl looked around, her large, beautiful dark eyes darting from side to side. “I don’t think there are any around here but they’re so quick and silent they can sneak up on you before you know it.”
Alli thought of how quickly Kane could move and had to agree.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’m Alli, by the way. I’m here with Kane—my Master, I mean.”
“I’m Rachel,” the girl said. “So you’re already a concubine?”
Alli nodded. “My, uh, Master and I are just here for the feast.”
“That must be why you have a Peace Cloak on.” Rachel looked longingly at the royal blue cloak and hood Alli wore.
“Kane made the guard give it to me before I came down here,” Alli said. “But I wasn’t exactly sure what the significance of it was.”
Rachel’s dark eyes widened.
“You must not be from around here. A Peace Cloak is a sign to everyone that you’re off limits. Wearing that, you can go anywhere and do anything and none of the Kru’ell Ones will bother you.” She shook her head. “Your Master must truly care about you if he made certain you had one to wear.”
“I don’t know about that,” Alli said, frowning. “I didn’t think he did, but now I’m beginning to revise my opinion.” She stared intently at Rachel. “So the resistance to Calm is hereditary?”
“It seems to be.” Rachel nodded.
“But…how do you keep it hidden?” Alli asked. “I mean, can’t the Kru’ell Ones read your mind? I know my own, uh, Master seems to know my thoughts a lot of the time.”
Rachel shook her head. “Those who are resistant to Calm are also resistant to being probed. The two traits seem to go hand in hand, thank goodness! Otherwise they would have killed us all off long ago.” She leaned forward. “But tell me more about your Master—does he feed from pleasure or pain? Or a combination of both?”
“Uh…pleasure, I guess. That is, he’s never really hurt me. I mean, aside from uh, tying me up to Sting me,” Alli confessed, feeling her cheeks get hot with a blush as she remembered her many sessions strapped to the Stinging Frame.
“You’re so lucky!” Rachel sighed. “Kru’ell Ones who feed only from pleasure are so rare. I only hope my first Master is one of those.”
“So a lot of them feed from pain, then?” Alli asked.
Rachel nodded.
“Most feed from pleasure-pain—from sexual spankings and floggings, the use of nipple clamps and clit-torture—that kind of thing.” She spoke as though this was no big thing—a commonplace occurrence. “But then there are the others—the pure sadists.” She shivered.
“Meaning they feed only from pain?” Alli asked, frowning. “They must be sociopaths too, then.”
Rachel’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“Having a Master who feeds only from pain can break you for life—especially if you’re an Immune and you don’t have even an ounce of Calm in your system to dull the effects of their torture.”
“It can? Do you know someone that happened to?” Alli asked.
The other girl’s lovely dark eyes were sad.
“It happened to my big sister. She was taken by a pure sadist—a Kru’ell One who lived only to feed on pain. Because she had no Calm in her system—or rather, the Calm she did have wasn’t affecting her—the torture made her crazy.”
Rachel’s voice wavered. “He Stung her, you see—their Stings still work on us, even if their drugs don’t. Stung her and made her beg to be tortured—beg for the pain. It broke her. She…she took her own life when he was done with her.”
Rachel swiped at her eyes, which were suddenly filled with tears.
“That’s terrible!” Impulsively, Alli took her hand and squeezed. “I’m so sorry, Rachel.”
The other girl squeezed back gratefully.
“Thanks. It was a few years ago now but I still miss her so much. And…and I’m so afraid the same thing is going to happen to me.” She shook her head. “I thought I would be passed over because my family serves here now—we work in the Overlord’s gardens. In fact, my father is the Head Gardener.” There was a touch of pride in her voice but then she looked down at her hands. “Turns out I wasn’t passed over after all, because here I am.”
“Hopefully you’ll be okay,” Alli said, wishing she could say more to comfort her. “Maybe you’ll get a Master like Kane. One who only feeds from pleasure.”
“I hope you’re right.” Rachel swiped at her eyes again. “I just hope I don’t get someone like the Overlord himself.”
“He’s a sadist, is he?” Somehow the news didn’t seem too surprising—especially since Kane had told her that the head Kru’ell One had killed twenty other warriors to get his position.
“I was in the kitchen once, bringing in a basket of fresh vegetables. It’s right below his bedchamber and I heard one of his concubines screaming.” Rachel shivered. “She was begging him to stop whatever he was doing but he was just laughing and laughing that deep, hoarse, horrible laugh of his. I kept hearing it—laughing and screaming and begging and no one else in the kitchen was even batting an eye because they were all Calmed.” She put her arms around herself and held herself tightly. “I had to pretend it didn’t bother me either, but inside I was screaming right along with that poor girl. I wanted to run and hide, but I knew the guards would wonder why I was acting so frantic.”
“So you had to hold it all in—everything you were feeling—and just pretend to be a zombie,” Alli guessed. “That must have been so hard.” She squeezed Rachel’s arm comfortingly. “I’m so sorry!”
Rachel sighed.
“If only I could get away from here—go and find the Resistance. My big brother and I were going to leave, but the day before we had planned to sneak away, I was swept up and taken down here.”
“But can’t you get away?” Alli asked. “I mean, isn’t there anywhere to run to once we get out of this bunker? The Harem Compound, I mean,” she added, seeing the other girl’s look of confusion. “You must know this whole area pretty well since you work here, right?”
Rachel looked indecisive.
“I know my brother would want me to try. He told me he wouldn’t leave without me when the guards came to take me away. But I don’t see how it’s possible now that I’ve been singled out as a prospective concubine.”
“Maybe nobody will choose you,” Alli said hopefully.
“Then I’ll be stuck down here forever, pretending to be Calmed like all the rest of them.” Rachel nodded to the many blank faces of the women sitting around them.
“Well maybe once you do get chosen and they take you back up, you’ll have a chance to get away,” Alli suggested. “You must know all the ways in and out of here.”
“I do but…” Rachel shook her head. “I wouldn’t get far, I’m afraid. Especially not if I’d already been chosen—my Master would come looking for me. I’ll just have to take my chances and hope the Kru’ell One who takes me isn’t a pain-only feeder and that the feeding is short.”
“Do they let you go then, once it’s over?” Alli asked.
“Oh yes—a Kru’ell One doesn’t feed on the same concubine more than once,” Rachel said. “Sometimes they let you go afterwards—back to your regular life. Of course sometimes…” She hesitated.
“Sometimes what?” Alli asked.
“Sometimes they send you back down here—to wait until another Kru’ell One takes a liking to you. I’ve known some girls who stayed down here for months or even years until every single one of the Oppressors has had a turn at her.” Rachel shook her head. “If that happens to me, I think I might do what my sister did. I won’t be able to stand it!”
Alli didn’t know what to say to that. She wanted to protest
that the other girl shouldn’t even think of suicide but Rachel was right—it would be a horrible life, being passed from warrior to warrior, being tortured and fed on multiple times. Especially since the Valium-like Calm wouldn’t work on her to dull the pain.
“I just think—” she began.
But just then the elevator door dinged and the silver panels slid open to reveal seven or eight large Kru’ell Ones—including one which could only be the Overlord himself.
Twenty-Seven
Kane was among the group, Alli saw with relief. He was standing silently behind the others and his silver eyes scanned the room restlessly until they found her. Alli started to go to him but a quick shake of his head stopped her. Instead of running over, she sat quietly with her hands in her lap and pasted a calm, slightly vacant smile on her face.
But it wasn’t easy to pretend to be calm—or “Calmed” as Rachel had called the hazy, drugged state—with the huge Kru’ell One warriors prowling around inspecting everyone.
The one she assumed must be the Overlord was the most frightening. He was seven and a half feet tall—a head taller than all the rest—and absolutely huge. His full black beard reached almost to his waist and it had been braided and knotted at the end with what looked like a bone. He wore a fur cape which made his broad shoulders look even wider and his eyes glinted not black and silver like Kane’s, but black and red.
Blood red, Alli thought with a shiver.
The Overlord stalked silently among the seated concubines, looking closely at each one like a man in a butcher’s shop looking for just the right cut of meat. There was a plump, grandmotherly-looking woman with him—Alli hadn’t seen her earlier, possibly because she’d been hidden behind the massive warriors.
“Is there anything in particular you’re looking for, Sire?” she asked anxiously. “A particular kind of girl I can get for you?”
Alli wondered who she was—the Madam of the Harem? Or was she just the Overlord’s personal assistant, in charge of getting him whatever he wanted—including concubines?
For the first time, the Overlord spoke.
“I’m looking for the Immune.”
Had she thought that Kane’s voice was gravelly? The Overlord’s tones were like boulders rubbing against each other in a dry creek bed.
“An Immune?” The grandmotherly lady frowned and shook her graying head. “I don’t understand, Sire. How could we have an Immune here in the Harem without me knowing it?”
“Nobody knows it,” the Overlord growled. “Except me. I can fucking smell her, though she’s shielding her mind from me. The Immune—that’s the one I want.”
His words made Rachel jump visibly and a look of terror crossed her pretty face. The next minute, though, she concealed it and looked just like all the others.
But it was too late—her sudden movement had caught the Overlord’s eye. Like a cat that catches the flutter of a bird’s wing and goes to investigate, he prowled over to the corner where Alli and Rachel were sitting.
“Hmmm…both so pretty,” he rumbled in his boulders rubbing together voice. “One of you is the Immune—I’m sure of it.” Leaning down, he inhaled deeply, as though trying to decide which of them he wanted.
Alli’s heart was pounding madly in her chest. She had to fight to keep the frozen smile on her face and not flinch back and away from the massive warrior. Beside her, she could feel Rachel doing the same.
The Overlord’s black and red eyes flickered over them both. He was so close Alli could smell him, a strange, thick, sour odor that turned her stomach and made her want to gag. He smelled off somehow, she thought—like something that had once been good which had gone deeply rotten.
His odor was so different from Kane’s warm, spicy scent that she couldn’t help longing for her Master. Her eyes flicked up to find him and she saw that he was standing just behind the Overlord, his eyes narrowed and his teeth bared.
“The one with auburn hair is mine,” he said, speaking to the Overlord’s back. “See—she wears the Peace Cloak.”
“So she does,” the Overlord gave Alli a penetrating look. “Have you decreased her levels of Calm to the bare minimum, Kane?” he asked, never taking his eyes off her. “She smells remarkably fresh. And her little mind is racing like a rabbit’s—though I can’t read her thoughts.”
“I prefer my concubines without Calm,” Kane said, his big hands clenched into fists at his sides. He looked ready to fight, Alli thought but he kept his voice calm and even. “It mutes their emotions too much. Besides, I mostly feed from pleasure which is hard to evoke once a girl has been Calmed.”
“Ah, yes—you always were a soft-hearted one. Feeding only from pleasure.” The Overlord shot Kane a contemptuous look over one broad shoulder. “Feeding from pain—ah, now that’s when you get the best flavor! The taste of a female’s screams as you skewer her on your cock—especially if she’s never had Calm or if she’s immune to it—are better than the finest wine.”
He licked his thick lips with a shockingly red tongue and Alli felt her stomach do a slow, forward roll of disgust.
He’s no better than a serial murderer or serial rapist, she thought, fighting to keep her expression neutral. He rapes women and then savors their agony! Horrible!
“Well, maybe you’re the one I smelled that I thought was an Immune,” he said to Alli and straightened up with a frown. “So she’s never had Calm at all, Kane?” he asked, throwing the question over his shoulder.
“Never,” Kane growled shortly. “But she’s mine.”
“Of course she is.” Turning, the Overlord slapped him on the shoulder. “How long are you feeding from her? A few days? A week?”
“A solar month,” Kane said. “But after I’m done with her, I have promised to return her to her home.”
“Is that so?” The Overlord looked at Alli with a lecherous gleam in his black and red eyes. “What a shame. Well…” He sighed and shook his head. “It seems you’re off-limits, my dear,” he said to Alli. “Truly a pity—we could have had such fun together.”
Alli resisted the urge to gag. The idea of “having fun” with the Kru’ell One Overlord turned her stomach. But thank goodness it seemed like he was going to leave her alone and not pick a fight with Kane. She felt like she’d had a very narrow escape—and she wasn’t out of deep water yet. Still, she could breathe a little easier without his eyes watching her so intently and his strange, rotten-sour stench blowing in her face.
The Overlord started to turn away. From the corner of her eye, Alli saw the high, tight set of Rachel’s shoulders slowly relax.
“Well, if I can’t have you, then I guess I’ll have to have to settle for your pretty friend,” he said. And turning back, he struck like a snake, so quickly his huge body was a blur.
In a moment, he had his long fingers wrapped around the hapless girl’s arm and was dragging her up to face him.
“Well, well,” he said, giving her an evil smile. “Look what we have here.”
Twenty-Eight
Rachel gave a frightened gasp, unable to hold the blank expression on her face in such circumstances. Still, she said nothing, though Alli could see the fear in her large, dark eyes.
“I knew it,” the Overlord growled. Leaning down, he pressed his face to the side of Rachel’s neck and inhaled deeply. When he pulled back, his eyes had gone a pure, blood-red. “I knew I smelled an Immune in here somewhere. You’ve been holding out on me, girl.” He shook Rachel and glared at her fiercely. “You have, haven’t you? Admit it!”
“I…I…” Rachel was clearly striving to keep her face neutral. “I don’t know what you mean, Sire,” she said in a trembling voice.
“Yes, you do—you’re lying to me even now! Well, never mind.” A slow, cruel grin spread over his coarse features. “I have you now, girl, and there are ways to punish you for your deception. Oh yes, so many ways…”
“Please!” Rachel’s voice was a choked sob. “Please don’t—please, just let me go,” she whispered
.
“Yes, let her go!” Alli’s legs stood up under her and she found that she was glaring the huge Overlord in the face. “You have no right to hurt and abuse her!” she exclaimed, her own voice shaking with rage.
There was a collective gasp from everyone in the room—well, everyone who wasn’t Calmed anyway, Alli thought—and Kane was suddenly at her side.
“Allisandra, no,” he growled, taking her by the arm.
“No, no—it’s all right.” The Overlord looked at Alli with some interest. “You might be wearing a Peace Cloak, my dear, but that doesn’t mean you should press your luck with me. I am, after all, the Overlord.”
“You’re nothing but a bully!” Alli snapped, still glaring up at him.
She knew her temper was getting the best of her but she couldn’t help herself. On Earth, before she had joined the Kindred team, she’d often taken pro bono cases, defending abused women from the husbands or boyfriends who wanted to hurt them. She couldn’t just stand by and watch as Rachel was dragged away by the huge asshole to be tortured and raped!
The amusement in the Overlord’s red eyes died.
“Enough.” His voice was low and angry as he looked at Kane. “Control your concubine, Kane, or I’ll control her for you.”
“Come on, Allisandra.”
Kane took her by the arm and dragged her towards the elevator. As they left, Alli heard the Overlord saying, “I’ll take this one, Matron of the Harem. Have her things brought up for the feast and after that, take her to my private chambers.”
“Oh yes—yes, indeed, Sire!” The grandmotherly lady fluttered busily around, collecting Rachel’s personal belongings from another room while Rachel herself sobbed with fear.
“Let me go! Let me go!” Alli exclaimed as Kane all but forced her into the elevator and punched the single button which now had an up arrow on it.
The minute the doors slid closed, he took her by the shoulders and shook her.
“What in the Seven Hells is wrong with you?” he demanded, his voice a low, angry roar. “Are you trying to serve yourself to the Overlord on a silver platter? Do you want to be the next female he feeds on?”
Dark and Light: A Kindred Tales DUET Novel. Contains: Saved by the Drake AND Captured by the Kru'ell One Page 25