Imprisoned

by Evangeline Anderson

  “Yes, I’m finding that out,” Ari said dryly. “But don’t worry, Jak—no one here knows I’m a girl.” Not yet, anyway, she amended to herself, thinking of her look/touch’s dying power source.

  “How can that be? How could you hide your, uh, femaleness?” he demanded.

  “I cooked up something in my lab to take care of that,” Ari assured him, although she wasn’t about to show him what the look/touch did. She was keeping it powered down as much as possible to conserve the power source and besides, she wasn’t about to open her jumpsuit in front of her brother.

  “You did, did you? My clever little rook.” He grinned at her. “But you still shouldn’t have come!”

  “I had to,” Ari protested. “I couldn’t leave you here in this awful place! What did you do to get yourself thrown in the hole, though? Your chart says you assaulted another inmate.”

  “You’re Goddess-damned right I assaulted him,” Jak growled. “Fucking Tapper tried to put me on his ‘list’ like he does all the young males who come in here. But I wasn’t fucking having it.” He frowned at Ari. “Speaking of which, you make a much prettier boy than me, little rook. How have you managed to stay off his list? You have—haven’t you?”

  He looked so anxious and upset that Ari hastened to reassure him.

  “I’m perfectly fine, Jak—Tapper can’t touch me. I have…protection.”

  “Protection?” His frown deepened. “What kind of protection, Ari?”

  “I…um…” For some reason she was reluctant to tell him. “Lathe—I mean Medic—has, uh, taken me under his wing.”

  “Medic? You mean the Kill-All?” Her older brother’s eyes widened incredulously. “I’ve been in the hole for over six months but even I’ve heard of him. You’re kidding, right? Please tell me you’re kidding, Ari!”

  “No, I’m not,” she said stiffly. “And don’t look at me that way, Jak. Lathe is a good guy and his fangs aren’t always deadly. He can also cure with his bite—not that he wants anyone else to know that,” she added quickly. “In fact, he cured me of an orbital fracture Tapper gave me when he punched me. He—”

  “Wait a minute!” her brother interrupted, his face through the bars looking angry and agitated. “Tapper punched you and the Kill-All bit you but you’re trying to tell me you’re ‘perfectly fine?’ I’ve heard what happens to men when Medic bites them!”

  “Well it didn’t happen to me, all right?” she flared, crossing her arms over her chest protectively and trying to block out the thought of exactly what had happened when Lathe bit her. The rush of pleasure…the instant orgasm so overwhelming it was like nothing she’d ever felt before…

  “I don’t buy that, Ari!” her brother’s angry voice cut through her guilty memories. “This is all wrong, having you here at BleakHall. What the hell have you been doing? “

  “Whatever I had to in order to survive, all right?” she snapped. “Don’t worry about me, Jak—you’re the one who’s locked in the hole! I was so upset when I couldn’t find you and when Wheezer told me you were down here—”

  “Wheezer?” Jak frowned. “So you know him too?”

  “He was my first boss when I came here—I was in the Laundry,” Ari told him. “Then I repaired the main clothes press and now I’m a fix-it—look.” She stood back and pointed at the broad leather tool belt that circled her hips proudly. “And supposedly I’m here to fix some faulty wiring down here—though I don’t see much to fix,” she added, looking around at the bare semi-circular room.

  “It’s probably the wiring that controls the locks to our cells,” Jak said. “It broke some time ago—started cycling open and closed without warning so the cells were locked one minute and unlocked the next. They couldn’t have that so now the damn Horvath’s have us locked in with old-fashioned padlocks. See?”

  He nodded down at the metal handle on the door of his cell. Sure enough, Ari could see a thick, heavy-duty, high-density metal lock swinging just under the latching mechanism.

  “Oh, right,” she murmured, examining it for a moment. For all its durability it was a simple lock. If only she had the key or some other way to open it!

  But what good would that do? she asked herself. How would it help to get Jak out of the hole when I don’t have any way to get the two of us out of BleakHall?

  She had no answers so she contented herself with examining the electronic locking mechanism just above the hanging padlock.

  “That’s not where the problem is,” Jak said. His own mechanical abilities were almost as good as Ari’s own so she listened to him when he spoke.

  “All right then—where?” she asked.

  “The box on the wall—it controls everything down here.” Jak pointed to a flat gray cover which hung on the black metal wall opposite his cell. “The lights in the lasher tunnel, the locks to our cells, the belt that brings and takes out meal trays… That’s been broken for a while—I’m getting pretty damn hungry down here, little rook—I don’t mind telling you. Wish I had some food.” He made a face. “Not that you can call the protein slop they serve here ‘food’ but anything starts looking good after two days of enforced starvation.”

  “Oh Jak, that’s terrible! I’ll get right to work on it,” Ari promised. She went over to the gray cover and pried it open with some difficulty since the hinges were rusted—then stared at the nest of wires inside in consternation.

  “Gods,” Jak muttered—he was also staring at the contents of the long, flat wall-mounted electrical box. “What a rat’s nest.”

  “Yes, it’s not pretty,” Ari admitted. “Which means I’d better get to work.”

  It took most of the rest of the afternoon but she managed to isolate which wires controlled which functions and at least fix the meal tray belt. She knew when she did because she heard a grinding sound coming from within the occupied cells and then Jak made a noise of disgust.

  “What? What is it?” she called to him since his face had disappeared from the barred window.

  “Two days worth of old food coming down the belt system—that’s what it is and it smells a hell of a lot worse now than when it was fresh—if that’s even possible,” her brother called back. “Don’t worry though—I can just send it back through the delivery system to the garbage chute.” He paused for a moment. “Mid Meal from today still looks salvageable though. Gods, never thought I’d be hungry enough to eat this protein mush cold but it’s better than nothing—thanks little rook.”

  “You’re welcome.” Ari felt her heart lift and she was twice as glad she’d gotten the courage to come down through the tunnel to get to Jak. No matter what else happened, she had been able to save her big brother from the fate of slow starvation—that alone was worth coming to BleakHall even though she still had no idea how she was going to get the two of them out.

  She started to fix the other wiring problems…and then stopped.

  “Jak?” she said, turning back to her brother’s cell. “Now that the food tray belt is fixed, I think I’m going to leave the other two issues for another time.”

  “Oh yeah?” He came back to the window, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Why is that?”

  “Because this way I can have an excuse to come down and see you again,” Ari explained. “Also, I don’t want to turn on the lights in the tunnel and wake up all the lashers when I have no place to run,” she added dryly.

  “Oh, lights don’t bother those big bastards,” Jak assured her. “They’d sleep through the midday sun—if any sunlight ever reached down here.” His voice held a note of bitterness in it. “It’s all about temperature with them. Gods, it gets so fucking cold here at night when the air starts to blow from the vents in the tunnels! Then it gets fucking burning up in the morning when they blow in the hot air to make them go back to sleep.”

  “I’m so sorry, Jak.” Ari shut the gray cover and turned back to her brother. “I wish so much that I could get you out of there.”

  “There’s no way out of the hole othe
r than serving your sentence and I’ve still got a month to go,” Jak said grimly. He cocked an eyebrow at her. “But after I get out, did you say you had a plan to get out of BleakHall?”

  “I’m still working on that,” Ari admitted. “I had a good plan worked out but circumstances…changed. So it’s back to the drawing board but I promise I’ll come up with something.” Though what that might be, she couldn’t imagine.

  “And how long will that take?” Jak demanded. “How long can you stay here without anyone finding out who you really are, Ari? If anyone found out you were a female—”

  “They won’t!” she interrupted him. “I swear they won’t, Jak.” Although how she could keep her oath with the power source of her look/touch running out she didn’t know.

  “I don’t like this.” He was frowning at her through the bars of his cell. “It’s too dangerous for you here, little rook. You should get out of here any way you can as soon as possible.”

  “Not without you!” Ari insisted. “And don’t worry about me—my disguise as a man—well, I guess I look more like a boy—is perfect. For all intents and purposes here in BleakHall I’m male, and nobody here knows any different.”

  “Now they do,” a deep, rumbling voice from behind her nearly made Ari jump out of her prison-issued rubber sandals.

  “Oh, my Goddess!” she gasped, whipping her head around. A strange face was peering at her from between the bars of the fifth cell.

  The hair was shaggy and unkempt and a full beard framed the man’s mouth. But it was his eyes that drew Ari’s gaze. They were mismatched—two completely different colors—one brilliant green and the other blazing gold.

  Then the man smiled at her and she forgot all about his eyes.

  When he parted his lips, a set of fangs was revealed. Not as long or as sharp as Lathe’s but long enough to make the gooseflesh crawl up her back and send a chilly hand between her shoulder blades as though it was reaching for her heart.

  “What…what are you?” she gasped, looking at the strange and frightening face peering out at her from between the bars.

  “A murderer,” came the reply. “And an arsonist. But I’m not a fucking rapist—that part’s a lie.” His face twisted in anger as he nodded down at the chart that hung on his cell door. “Oh, and I’m a hybrid. Nice to meet you, little girl.”

  “Jak?” Ari turned to her brother, looking for some explanation.

  Her big brother’s face was grim.

  “So help me Goddess, Slade,” he growled. “If you tell anyone about my little sister—”

  “Relax.” The other man made a soothing gesture with his hands behind the bars of his window. “Who am I gonna tell? I’m stuck down here for life, remember? And you don’t have to act like it’s such a big secret—I could tell she was female from one whiff of her scent.”

  “Jak?” Ari whispered again, looking from her brother to the strange male again.

  Jak’s mouth was tight.

  “It’s all right, little rook—just don’t get too close to him and he can’t hurt you.”

  “Wouldn’t hurt her anyway, pretty little girl like that,” the male with the mismatched eyes looked her over speculatively. “Anyway, aren’t you going to introduce us, Jak?”

  Jak sighed and shook his head.

  “Slade, this is my little sister Ari. And Ari, meet the Beast.”

  Thirty

  Lathe paced his cell, waiting for Ari to get out of the small fresher. He and the boy had barely spoken at Last Meal—Ari seemed like he had something on his mind. Lathe, for his part, had been thinking hard ever since their encounter in the Rec Yard. Thinking about what should be—about what must be.

  This isn’t how my time at BleakHall was supposed to go, he told himself as he paced. I was only meant to gather evidence and make a way out so I could rescue any other Kindred who might be trapped here.

  I wasn’t supposed to fall in love—especially not with another male.

  He wished he could deny the idea, even as he thought it. Wished he could pass what he felt off as a momentary infatuation. After all, he’d only known the boy for a little over two days. Surely “love” was too strong a word to use after such a short time together.

  But there was no denying the harsh reality before him. His body was making his bonding scent for the boy and he had been close on several occasions to going into Rage when Ari was in danger—the protective anger that comes over Kindred only when their intended mates are threatened.

  He’s mine, Lathe thought, feeling another surge of protective possessiveness rush through him. He was meant for me—to protect and love and cherish.

  Even though he’s male? whispered a cautious voice in his head.

  Lathe clenched his hands into fists at his sides. Yes—even though Ari was male and he had never believed he would or could want another male sexually—he still wanted the boy.

  But can you give him what he needs and deserves? Can you reciprocate the pleasure he has already given you?

  Lathe drew a deep breath and ran both hands through his hair, thinking. This question tormented him. Ever since he’d allowed Ari to suck him and watched as the boy eagerly swallowed his seed, he’d been able to think of nothing else.

  He refused to have a one-sided relationship—the kind the other inmates at BleakHall seemed to think was perfectly fine. The idea of him providing protection to the boy while Ari provided all the pleasure was wrong—unequal. And it turned their relationship—if that was what you could call it—into a business deal. Lathe didn’t want that.

  But he didn’t know if he could return what Ari had given to him out on the Rec Yard. Didn’t know if he could bring himself to take another male’s shaft in his mouth and suck—didn’t know if he could swallow another male’s seed.

  It went against every instinct he had and yet, Lathe knew he had to try. Had to try to give Ari the same pleasure the boy had given him. How else could he show Ari how he felt about him? How else to reassure him that they were in this together and he would never, ever abandon the boy to the likes of Tapper?

  I’ll do it, he promised himself. I need to show him how I feel—need to let him know he’s loved and desired and cherished. That I won’t leave him or let anyone harm him.

  Just as he reached his decision, the fresher door accordioned open and Ari came out, dressed in the overlarge top of Lathe’s own sleeping clothes. The faded shade of the fabric brought out the color of the boy’s large, dark eyes—they looked bluer than blue in the dim room. Ari’s face was freshly washed and droplets of water were clinging to his long, curling eyelashes. His full, pink lips were slightly open—so lush and sweet and kissable Lathe had a hard time looking away from them when he remembered what they had looked like wrapped around his cock.

  They boy’s beauty struck him all over again like a hammer, nearly making him groan aloud. He wondered again why his body had chosen to want to try and bond with another male. He had heard of it happening to other Kindred before but the phenomenon was extremely rare. Because their DNA made them almost 95% male, the Kindred were biologically programmed to seek out females in order to continue their race. Homosexuality—while not viewed as wrong—was simply not part of their physiological makeup.

  Yet here he was and he needed to deal with the situation at hand. Another male might have hated the boy for the wrong and frightening emotions Ari engendered in him. Lathe had known some males with hidden same-sex urges to beat or torment the ones who brought their latent tendencies to the surface.

  But he would never do such a thing. It would be shameful and cowardly to run away from what he felt—and wrong to blame it on Ari. The boy couldn’t help his beauty any more than Lathe could help the bonding scent his body made for him.

  No, he would just have to deal with it in the only way he knew how.

  “Ari,” he said, taking a step towards the boy. “There’s something I need to say. No—something I need to do.”

  “What?” Ari was looking up at him with
wide, uncertain eyes.

  Lathe tried to speak but no words would come. Unable to express what he was feeling through speech, he had to rely on actions.

  Falling to his knees before the boy, he encircled Ari’s waist with his arms. He felt Ari stiffen at first and then, one tentative hand crept into his hair.

  “Lathe?” Ari whispered. “What…what are you doing?”

  “Returning the pleasure you gave me today.” Lathe looked up at him, though he didn’t have far to look. Even with him kneeling and Ari standing, he was so much taller than the boy they were nearly eye-to-eye.

  “Lathe, really…” Ari’s other hand, the one not buried in Lathe’s hair, crept to his prison ID tag and began to tap nervously. “Really, you don’t have to,” he said, shaking his head.

  “Yes, I do,” Lathe insisted. “I have to…have to know if I can do this. With another male, I mean.”

  “I know what you mean but you really don’t—”

  But Lathe was already lifting the tails of the long shirt to bare Ari’s shaft. It was curled, pink and innocent, against the boy’s thigh, he noted. It wasn’t hard at all. Well, his own was similarly soft, so he supposed the two of them were even.

  But when he made himself lean closer, he caught the boy’s sweet feminine scent and his shaft began to rise.

  Never thought I could get hard just from getting near another male’s shaft, Lathe thought and felt a fresh wave of confusion sweep over him. Gods, was he really going to do this? Was he really going to take another male’s shaft in his mouth?

  Ari did it for me, he reminded himself grimly. Not only that, he sucked me and swallowed my seed—all of it. Which was saying something since he tended to come a lot.

  He forced himself to get closer, until his mouth was almost against Ari’s small shaft.

  “Lathe, please!” Both of the boy’s hands were in his hair now, trying to push him away. At any other time, Lathe would have understood that his advances were being rejected. But he had gone through so many mental calisthenics to nerve himself up for this moment and he was so completely focused on the task at hand, he was slow to understand.