“Jak…Jak where are you?” he mumbled. “I can’t…can’t find you. Jak, please don’t leave me…”
Lathe felt a strange emotion he couldn’t immediately identify. Then it came to him—the feeling was envy. Who was this Jak that Ari called out for? What relationship did he have with the boy?
What’s wrong with you? he scolded himself fiercely. What does it matter who the boy cries for? Why should you care if he cares for another?
But the fact was, he did. Why?
Pressing the boy closer to him, Lathe buried his face in the riot of thick, black, almost-curly hair and breathed deeply. That scent…the boy’s scent smelled so strange…so good but so wrong somehow. Why?
He smells like a female, Lathe realized at last. But that was impossible—he’d seen the lad naked not once but twice. He was definitely male.
And yet he smelled female. Female.
A burst of understanding washed over Lathe. No wonder he’d felt compelled to save Ari even at the risk of his own life! The boy’s scent had been working on him, manipulating him the same way a Kindred’s bonding scent worked on a female he wanted to bond to him.
Of course, Lathe didn’t want to bond with a male. He had nothing against males who loved other males but the fact was, he wasn’t one of them. He’d never felt attracted to another male in his life.
Until now, whispered a little voice in his head.
No. No, it wasn’t real—it was the boy’s scent working on him—that was all. A Kindred’s first instinct was to protect any helpless female—no wonder he hadn’t been able to stop himself from coming to Ari’s rescue. The boy’s feminine scent had compelled him.
Lathe wondered for a moment if the boy was putting out the scent deliberately and then decided he couldn’t possibly be. He seemed so upset when Lathe came anywhere near him and his fear was genuine—such terror couldn’t be faked. So he certainly wasn’t drawing Lathe to him on purpose. No, the boy must not even know he smelled so good…so feminine.
Maybe it’s a trait of his people, Lathe thought. He’d have to ask Ari more about where he came from…if he ever got over his fear of Lathe enough to talk, that was.
Well, he’s certainly not going to get over it if he wakes up and finds himself cradled in your arms, whispered a practical little voice in his head. Better let him go before you go back to sleep.
Lathe knew the voice was right. Ari seemed warm enough now—as long as he kept the boy beside him in bed, near the heat of his own much larger body, he should get through the night well enough.
But it was surprisingly hard to let the boy go and turn his back when all he wanted to do was gather Ari to his chest and keep him close for the rest of the night.
It’s his scent—just his scent working on me, he told himself. But breathing in that warm, feminine scent made it very difficult to be still. Even with his back to the boy, it was a long, long time before Lathe at last drifted off to sleep.
Thirteen
Something smelled really good. Amazingly good. Warm…spicy… clean…masculine were the words that drifted through her half-asleep mind. Ari inhaled deeply and found that the source of the good smell was close—close and deliciously warm. Had Hanna put a new warmer-pillow in her bed while she slept last night?
But when she pressed her face to the warm thing, it didn’t feel soft like a pillow at all. It was firm and hard like a wall and it moved in slow, deep waves almost like someone breathing.
Someone breathing? Who’s in my bed? she wondered sleepily. And why does the left side of my face ache?
Putting her fingers up, she gingerly explored the area of pain and winced at her own touch. Ow, that really hurt. What had happened to her? Had she gotten kicked in a Ton-kwa combat? But she hadn’t been to any combats lately. Not since Jak had gone missing…
Jak! BleakHall! I’m at BleakHall! And I’m in bed with someone—with Medic!
Suddenly everything came rushing back: her horrible first day, the run-in with the Serpents gang, nearly getting raped and killed by Tapper and his crew, and then getting dragged away to the big Kindred’s cell.
And now I’m in bed with him. How did I get here? What’s going on?
She distinctly remembered falling asleep in the corner, wrapped in the blanket. But now she was in the bunk with the big Kindred—and worse, on the inside of the bunk in the part facing the wall.
Trapped, she thought wildly. I’m trapped between him and the wall. How can I get out? What am I going to do?
She lay stiff and frightened for a moment, her breath coming in short, terrified gasps. Part of her wanted to shove against his broad back and try to get away but she was afraid of what he might do to her if she did that. After all, he had those fangs…
Kill-All, whispered the voice in her head. Ari’s imagination wouldn’t stop. She could imagine the big Kindred pinning her to the bed…leaning over her, his fangs bared…
Would he bite her if she tried to run? Would he threaten her with his fangs and take what Tapper had wanted? Would he—
Abruptly a loud, blaring alarm came over the exterior com-link system. At the same time, a blinding light flashed on, flooding the cell with dirty gold brilliance.
Goddess! Ari’s heart jumped into her mouth and she could barely breathe. What was happening now? Was it some kind of drill? An attack?
To her surprise the big Kindred didn’t jump out of bed as he had the night before when she’d been frightened of the lasher. Instead he yawned and stretched hugely, his big body seeming to take up even more space for a moment.
Ari squeezed herself flat against the wall, trying to avoid him but his broad shoulder brushed against her bare breasts anyway and she jumped, realizing that the blanket she’d wrapped herself in the night before had fallen down around her waist.
“Oh, good morning.” He turned his head, frowning sleepily at her. “Why do you look like you just saw a ghost?”
“What…what am I doing in here? In…in your bed?” she managed to make herself ask. She also somehow kept herself from covering her bare breasts with her arm though it felt incredibly wrong to sit there in front of him completely exposed.
Of course, her look/touch showed only a flat, boyish chest but what if Medic realized that what he’d accidentally touched didn’t match up with what he saw? She held her breath when he frowned at her and shook his head.
“What you’re doing in bed with me is not freezing to death,” he growled. “And it’s where you’re going to sleep every night from now on. You’re too little to sleep on your own when the temperature drops—nearly lost you to hypothermia last night.”
“What? I don’t believe that,” Ari exclaimed. “It’s just an excuse to get me into your bed.”
“Look, Ari, let me make this very, very clear to you…” The big Kindred sat up and glared at her. “I am not interested in you in…in the way Tapper is. Sexually, I mean. I don’t…don’t desire you.” He cleared his throat, his face going ever so slightly red and Ari wondered who he was trying to convince—her or himself.
“Yesterday, in the Infirmary—” she began but he held up a hand to stop her.
“You had to be searched and it was either me or Mukluk doing the searching,” he said firmly. “I’ve seen the damage he can do with those claws of his—I didn’t want that to happen to you. But believe me I took no pleasure in…” He cleared his throat again. “In searching you.”
Ari glared at him uncertainly, wondering if she ought to believe him. The memory of his hands on her was hard to shake. The gentle way he had touched her…entered her…
No, I won’t think about it, she told herself fiercely. I won’t!
“I don’t like other males,” the big Kindred emphasized firmly, as though cementing the fact in his own mind. “I swear that to you, Ari.”
“I don’t think you have to like other males to want to do horrible things to them here,” Ari said, but she was beginning to feel cautiously optimistic that maybe she wouldn’t start her morni
ng by being raped after all.
“That’s true,” Medic acknowledged. “Nevertheless, I’m not interested in doing all the horrible things that were almost done to you yesterday.” His deep voice, still gruff from sleep, got softer. “I know how frightened you must have been.”
“I’m fine.” Ari looked away, pulling the blanket up over her chest. “I guess if you really don’t want that then I should thank you…Medic,” she added, using his name for the first time.
“Call me Lathe,” he said unexpectedly. “That’s my name. Medic is only my title.”
Ari thought of his other title. Kill-All…Did his fangs ever retract or were they always that long and sharp? She realized she was staring at his mouth and quickly looked away.
“All right, Lathe. Thank you for everything you did for me yesterday,” she said. “Though I still don’t understand why you did it.”
“That makes two of us, little one.” He sighed and ran a hand through his thick, dark brown hair, rumpling it into a sleepy halo around his head. “Well, time to get up.”
“All right—so what do we do now? Go straight to the Mess Hall?” Ari asked.
Lathe shook his head.
“Shower first. But I think we’d better skip that this morning.” He grimaced. “It’s a shame—I hate to start the day without a shower. But I don’t think it would be very wise of us to show up in the communal showers until the first strike is over.”
“The first strike?” Ari frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Someone’s going to try to kill me.” Medic—no, Lathe, she reminded herself—spoke matter-of-factly, as though he was discussing the weather. “Probably one of Tapper’s crew, but maybe one of the Serpents. Once I get that out of the way, it’ll remind the rest of them that I know how to defend myself and what’s mine.” He looked at her speculatively. “Need to put a little fear into them—then it’ll be safe for us to use the shower again.”
Ari felt sick.
“You really think someone’s going to try to assassinate you today?”
“Oh, I know it. The question is, will Tapper make it a private affair and try to hide it—or will he make a production of it and try to make an ‘example’ of me.”
“But that’s awful,” Ari exclaimed.
“No, that’s Tapper,” Lathe said grimly. “In his mind I disrespected him and now he has to retaliate.” He gave her a level look. “You’ve seen what he’s capable of.”
“Yes,” she admitted biting her lip. “I…I have.” Looking down at her hands, she tried to think of something else to talk about—anything else. The memory of kneeling on Tapper’s nice carpet waiting to be raped and killed made panic crawl up her throat like bile. “What…what can I wear?” she asked desperately. “I, uh, lost my jumpsuit.”
“Yeah, we’ll have to take care of that.”
Lathe was still wearing his own jumpsuit—the one he’d had on the night before. Ari wondered if he’d kept it on for warmth. He certainly didn’t seem to need it—his big body put out heat like a furnace. Heat which had presumably kept her from freezing to death the night before.
How close did I come to not waking up? she wondered. And how closely had she been pressed to the big Kindred before she had woken up and remembered where she was? She found the thought didn’t bear thinking.
“Let’s get you a new uniform.” Lathe got out of bed and went to a high shelf in the corner of the room. He took down a wooden box and opened it, shaking out two long, thin cylindrical objects which appeared to be made of dirty white paper, twisted at the ends.
“What are those?” Ari asked as he held them carefully in one hand and put back the box with the other.
“Nico-sticks,” Lathe said shortly. “Terrible for your health but they’re excellent barter here in BleakHall.”
Opening the front door of their cell, he went to the railing which surrounded the high balcony which ran the length of this upper floor block of cells.
From studying the blueprints of the prison as she made her plans, Ari knew that BleakHall was mostly vertical, with three sides of clear plasti-glass cube cells overlooking the Mess Hall and processing area for new prisoners. Other areas like the prison laundry, the kitchens, the factory work-halls, and the Infirmary were located on the bottom floor of the sprawling complex.
Looking out, Ari saw was a metal mesh net that extended from the waist-high top of the rail all the way up to the next floor above. She supposed it was to prevent suicides…or more probably murders from occurring.
When she took a tentative step towards the open front door and looked down, she saw that they were many floors above the Mess Hall, which Lathe’s cell overlooked. Vaguely she remembered being dragged up a seemingly never-ending flight of stairs but she hadn’t realized how high they were going. Of course, she thought with a shiver, she’d had other things on her mind at the time, like her impending rape and murder.
Other inmates were moving around on various levels now. Clearly the ravenous lashers had been locked up for the night and now it was safe to be out and about. Many inmates were swathed in towels or blankets, obviously going to the showers. Ari wished she could have one herself but then she thought of all the dangers involved—not to mention seeing so many strange men naked and up close—and decided she could do with a sponge bath in the sink instead.
Lathe was scanning the crowd and when he saw the person he was looking for, he gave a piercing whistle and shouted, “Wheezer! Hey, Wheezer—up here!”
The ancient little man with the cracked oculars was down a level across from them. He looked up and waved when he saw Lathe and then he rapidly disappeared from sight.
A few minutes later he appeared in front of Lathe’s cell, puffing and blowing but with a look of bright-eyed expectancy on his wrinkled face.
“Yes, Medic? What can I do for you?” he asked eagerly.
“I need two fresh jumpsuits from the laundry,” Lathe told him, giving him the nico-sticks. “One sized extra-extra small and one extra-extra-extra large. Oh, and some more small slippers for Ari here—he lost his.”
“Yes, yes—I heard about that, so I did.” The little old man turned his attention on Ari who shifted uncomfortably under his bright, bird-like stare. “Word is that Tapper’s out for blood after you stole the lad right out from under his nose,” he told Lathe.
“Yes, I’m aware,” Lathe said grimly. “And the Serpents will probably want a piece too. Do me a favor, Wheezer, put the word out that any male who comes against me forfeits all medical care for himself and his entire gang. All right?”
“Oh my—yes, yes—so I see.” The old man nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, that might make a few who’d take the job from Tapper reconsider.”
“It won’t make Tapper reconsider, though,” Lathe said matter-of-factly. “But I’ll be ready for him when he comes.”
His fangs flashed as he spoke and Wheezer took a step back and made a sign to avert the evil eye.
“Kill-All,” he whispered hoarsely.
“That’s right,” Lathe rumbled. “I will kill any and all who try to hurt me or mine. Spread the word, Wheezer.”
“That I will! And I’ll be right back with them suits and slippers.”
The little old man scrambled off and Lathe came back inside the cell.
“Well, that should get the word out that we’re prepared, at least. Wheezer’s like the town crier around here—he’ll let everyone know.”
It occurred to Ari that the big Kindred was basically preparing to go to war for her and she still didn’t know why. But there didn’t seem to be any point in asking him since he didn’t appear to know why himself.
“I’m going to wash up as well as I can in the bathroom,” she said. “If…that’s okay?”
Lathe shrugged and smiled wryly.
“My cell is your cell, Ari. Help yourself.”
That unreadable expression was back in his turquoise eyes as he looked at her. It made Ari feel hot and cold all over when the big Kindred s
tared at her like that. With a shiver, she disappeared into the bathroom to take the best bath she could in the limited facilities.
When she came out again, Wheezer had come back with the new prison uniforms—orange and blue for her and green and blue for Lathe—and the big Kindred was in the act of changing.
He already had the bottom half of the jumpsuit on but the top was dangling down his legs, much like Tapper wore his. But that was where the similarity ended.
Lathe’s broad, bare back was muscular and smooth, the heavy biceps bunching and flexing as he moved. When he half turned towards her, Ari could see that his chest was just as muscular, though he did have a little brown, curly hair around his well-developed pecs and the flat copper disks of his nipples. With his height and those intense jewel-toned eyes, there was no denying the big Kindred was a striking male specimen.
He looks like a god! The thought popped into Ari’s head before she could stop it. Then she scolded herself and made herself look away. After all, this “god” had fangs like a devil and she still wasn’t completely certain of his intentions towards her.
Lathe must have heard her behind him because he turned more fully.
“Oh, there you are. Here, Wheezer brought your new uniform—catch.”
He tossed the prison jumpsuit to Ari who nearly fumbled it. She returned modestly into the cramped bathroom to put it on and when she came out, Lathe was completely dressed too and sitting on the side of the bunk.
“What now?” Ari asked, coming out of the bathroom and laying the neatly folded blanket over the foot of the bunk. “Breakfast?” She wasn’t looking forward to stepping foot in the Mess Hall again, but the fact was, she hadn’t had anything to eat for over twenty-four solar hours now and she was feeling faint with hunger.
“In a minute.” Lathe rose, a frown on his face, and came towards her. He put out a big hand but Ari dodged away.
“What are you doing?” she demanded, heart pounding. Had he changed his mind about liking other males and now he wanted to make her pay for his protection?
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