“Attention,” a voice said.
“Well apparently, he wasn’t joking about this thing.” Rye moved next to him and stared up at the grate.
“You have entered a restricted area,” the voice explained. “It is a violation of world law for you to enter private property. Those found in violation may be immediately terminated under ordinance two five four of the asset protection division of this company. You are instructed to wait for a zone administrator to check your authorization credentials.”
“Time to go.” Sevrin grabbed Rye’s arm and pulled her toward the door that had shut on them.
“You’ve already tried opening the door,” she reminded him.
“You have any suggestions?” He looked around the room for another exit. “If we’re caught here, we may not live past the moment it takes to explain why we don’t have authorization.”
“Surely they’re used to derelicts wandering in out of the cold. I can’t believe they’d kill them for mistakenly using the place for shelter.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Besides, we went beyond the abandoned areas. We got inside their domain with a key.” He looked up at the ceiling. “Bring that chair closer.”
“What are you thinking?” Rye picked up the chair and sat it next to him.
“I’m going to go up and look around. You stay here and…”
“I’m going with you, Sevrin. I can take care of myself.”
“Hold up just moment.” He cupped her face and stroked her cheek with his thumb as he talked. “I know you can take care of yourself, probably better than I can do for you, but I need you to stay down here by the door and listen for anyone coming.”
“Why?”
“I need to see if there is a way out before we both disappear from this room. They have no reason to let us live if they think we’re proving to be too much trouble to keep contained.”
“All right. I’ll stay.” She pulled his hand from her cheek. “Be careful.”
“Don’t worry about me. I can handle myself.” He squeezed her fingers and then turned to the opening in the ceiling. “Up seems our best option of escaping this trap and if it is, I’ll let you know.” He climbed on the chair and pressed his hands against the panel overhead. The lightweight, aerated metal lifted. He slid it to the side.
“What do you see?” she asked.
“Not much.” He grabbed the steel grate rail the panel had lain on and hoisted himself up. The metal wasn’t as rigid as he expected and the rail bent under his weight.
“Don’t fall,” Rye instructed, as if he had such a plan.
He crawled over the rail and spread out on several of the struts suspending everything. Carefully, he rose, getting his footing in secure areas. Or so he thought before one panel fell and crashed to the floor.
“Sevrin?”
“I’m all right. Just stay back.”
He searched the area and found the ceiling was a dummy one beneath another, more solid one. As far as he could tell, there wasn’t any access to anywhere other than back down. He made his way to the hole he’d come up through and worked himself over the edge. Hanging over the chair, he dropped.
“No place to go. This ceiling is suspended between walls and above it is the floor to the next level.”
He turned at the sound of the door opening. Two men dressed in dark gray stood outside in the corridor.
“I’m Sevrin Renault and I’m here to see my brother, Dr. Zandt Renault,” he informed them quickly.
The men remained silent statues.
“Maybe they didn’t understand you.” Rye stepped forward.
The men parted and another man, much shorter, moved between them. He had short white hair and an expressionless face. “They understand but it’s not up to them to make decisions.” His gaze went from Rye to him. “If you’ll follow me, please.”
“I’m Dr. Renault’s brother,” Sevrin said, not liking the man’s cold stare.
“So I heard you tell the guards. I’m Dr. Creswell. Now please come with me.”
“Are you taking us to Zandt?” Sevrin asked.
“No. Because of security reasons, he’ll have to come to you. His department is in lockdown due to a chemical leak. I’m going to take you to a visitors room where you can wait for him.”
“Is this chemical leak serious?” Sevrin asked.
“They have it contained. Dr. Renault isn’t in any danger. However, they must clean up so that their spill doesn’t leave their area and contaminate other labs.”
Sevrin thought about years ago, his mother getting sick and dying. His father never said but he had a feeling she contracted some disease from what she worked on for the Wickstrom Group.
Sevrin didn’t trust the little man but then he didn’t have a choice. They walked out of the room and passed between the two goons. He felt Rye close, obviously nervous.
At the end of the corridor, he waited for Dr. Creswell to pass them and lead the way. He took them through a door they had not gone through because they didn’t have a key. The goons marched in a straight-line formation at the rear. With a starched, stiff appearance and weapons at their sides, they had an air of elite training in their background—government conditioning. He recognized it from his youth and the way his grandfather carried himself.
“I hope you find our accommodations comfortable.” Dr. Creswell waved them into the spacious room.
Sevrin glanced around at the sterile-looking room.
“You’ll understand that we must lock you in here, for your own safety.”
“How long?” Sevrin asked.
“I’d say by morning they’ll have everything cleaned up.”
Sevrin nodded, letting the man leave.
“You let him lock us in here?” Rye questioned his decision.
“I don’t think we have much choice at this point. Besides, this room is probably easy to get out of.” He ran a hand over the white plastic wall. “This flimsy stuff is for show, not security. We’ll wait until morning and then decide whether we should be concerned.”
Chapter Twenty
Rye rubbed the kink in her neck. A confining space was always a suitable sleeping place. She didn’t mind the dark or a small cramped space. However, the large, pristine room made her uncomfortable. This was out of her comfort zone, especially since she wasn’t able to leave. That trapped feeling put her on edge. She had no say in when or if she left the enclosure.
She searched the walls for weak points.
Sevrin slid his hands over his head, tunneling his fingers through his wavy hair. “I’ve already checked those. Looks flimsy but it’s not. This isn’t a room someone simply made secure, it was built to hold prisoners.”
His observation made her even more determined to find a way out. She walked around and looked at everything. Windows high up had the most promise.
Sevrin startled her by placing his hands on her shoulders. “Relax,” he said, kneading the taut cord of muscle running up the side of her neck. “Someone will come along eventually.”
Her regenerative body had no chance to relieve the ache because the stress kept her tense.
“Why leave us here?” She shifted around, sitting on the chair to encourage him to use two hands to relieve the ache in her shoulders.
“Maybe they don’t know what to do with us.” He leaned forward and rested his chin on her shoulder. “Or it could be this is a jail punishment and they’ll let us go when they think we’ve learned our lesson for trespassing.”
“Or they’re planning evil ways in which to torture and kill us.” She pulled from Sevrin and got to her feet. “I can’t help thinking this can’t turn out well. If they’re hiring humans to capture lamians, then what will stop them from—”
“We don’t know that’s what they’re doing,” he interrupted.
Suddenly, the only light in the room went out.
“Great, now we can’t even see.” Rye paced the small area, using both her feet and her hands to search out obstac
les.
She remembered the chairs, the small tables and the single-sized beds hanging on the wall, one above the other. The metal basin with a spigot in the corner had reminded her of how thirsty she was, but she wasn’t about to put anything in her mouth in that place.
“You’re going to trip and fall.” Sevrin placed his hands on her hips and stopped her. “How about you sit and get some sleep.”
“I can’t sleep. We need to figure out how to get out of here.” She took a deep breath as he pulled her back against him.
“We can’t see. When there’s light, we’ll try to get out of here again.” He slid his hands around her waist. “I know something to take your mind off our situation.”
“I don’t know that sex will make me forget we’re someone’s prisoner.” She rested her head against his shoulder, enjoying his attempt to calm her.
His caresses circled her belly. She raised her arms and let him slip her shirt over her head. He cupped her breasts and squeezed gently, massaging firmly with his palms and fingers. Her nipples swelled and hardened against the grating swirls. She wanted his mouth on them but she settled for the direction he chose.
“Do you think they’re listening to us?” She wiggled her bottom against his crotch, turned-on by his patient petting.
“Don’t know, don’t care.” He rubbed her belly again.
“I don’t know that I’d want anyone watching.” She moaned as his hands dipped beneath the waistband of her pants.
“Let’s not think about the voyeuristic pleasures of some creepy little man in a lab coat, all right?” He unfastened her pants and pushed them from her hips.
“You really think Dr. Creswell would do that?” She whimpered at the touch of his fingers between her legs.
“I told you, I don’t care.” He curled a finger and stroked her sensitive clit.
She reached back and grabbed the sides of his legs. Even as he aroused her with proficient fondling, her thoughts kept hovering around the idea of spies. Why did Sevrin have to suggest a creepy little man in a lab coat? She didn’t want the vision of a body attached to the potential listener.
“You’re still tense,” he whispered against her ear.
“You’re not doing something that exactly relaxes a body.” She turned, stepping from her pants.
In the dark, she undressed him. She circled, feeling her way around as she pulled his shirt off, pushed his pants down and caressed his back. He stepped in place, bending and kicking off his boots and his pants.
She glided around to the front of him. Holding her hand up and touching his face, she dragged her fingers around his lips, over his nose and along his brow. “It’s as if you’re a stranger all over again,” she said.
“We can never be strangers to one another, Rye.” He kissed her fingertips. “You’ve left an imprint on my soul.”
She took a deep breath and swung her arms around his neck. Naked, they came together, embracing and kissing.
Sevrin’s hands on the back of her thighs encouraged her to hop up and wrap her legs around his waist. He maneuvered her onto his thick, stiff erection. His fingers dug into the cheeks of her bottom, jerking her to him. He moved forward. Was it memory or instinct that guided him to where the empty wall was beneath the windows and near that spigot?
His erratic kisses skipped back and forth from one side of her neck to the other. A few times, his lips touched hers, briefly landing and then leaving. He thrust harder, driving his cock deeper. Friction from his back-and-forth motions stimulated her core. She clawed at his back, digging her fingers into his flesh at the first twinges of her orgasm.
While flattened against the cold unyielding surface, a burst of heat roiled through her. She bit her bottom lip and hugged Sevrin tighter. His hot breath dampened her neck.
Then he lifted his head and found her mouth with his. An enormous amount of energy flowed through her. It left her euphorically floating on the fringes of something too wonderful to describe. And then she was falling—her regenerative forces at work.
Sevrin didn’t ease up, lunging into her with hard succinct moves. His breathing heavy, his vigor immeasurable, he planted his mouth over hers at the same time she cried out with a welcomed, joyous release. Tense and shaking, she clung to him. He filled her with the wet warmth of his semen.
“Nothing is ever the same with you.” He panted, nuzzling his nose against hers. The bristles of his unshaven face scratched lightly against her cheek.
“Is that good or bad?” she asked, although she suspected it was good, judging by his reluctance to let her go.
“Extremely good, sunshine.” He kissed her lightly.
Excitement rippled from her toes into her chest, tightening the air in her lungs. She wasn’t one to be overly sentimental but his use of the endearment again, grabbed her heart. Did she dare risk believing they had something stronger between them than the desire to fuck?
He let her down one leg at a time and then stepped back. The separation ended her heightened emotional dependency.
“It’s going to be impossible to find our clothes,” she said, not sure where to start hunting for them on the floor.
Sevrin’s hand landed on her arm. “We don’t need them…yet.” He pulled her forward and kissed her deeply.
In his embrace, she let the dreams of love invade her senses. His strokes over her body touched more than her skin, they heated her soul. She heard sweet nothings in his hushed tone and saw his smile in visions her mind conjured.
“Sevrin,” she murmured, enchanted by the way his name made her feel safe. “Don’t let me go.”
He kissed her harder. His lip caught one of her fangs and he let out a groan but didn’t pull away. She sucked at the blood, savoring the sweet taste of his vitality.
Then Sevrin pulled her head to the side. He guided her face beneath his jaw and pressed her mouth against his neck. The unexpected, selfless offering spun her thoughts out of control.
Rye bit into his flesh with a need to quench her blood thirst. The creamy liquid flowed onto her taste buds. That first sample escalated her assertive senses. She swallowed repeatedly with ardent greed.
Sevrin’s low moans expressed his increased desires just as they had their first time in the steam-trekker. His grip on her head tightened.
Twinges of heat shot like sparks through her veins. She sucked harder on the throbbing vein. His energy filled her. The prickling sensations to her nerves increased, searing her insides with white-hot lust.
Sevrin’s violent shudder made her break free.
Before the words I’m sorry rolled off her tongue, Sevrin spun her around. He kissed her shoulder as he ran his hands up and down her body. When he slipped his fingers into her soaked cunt, she leaned her head back against his shoulder. He used his other hand to grasp her breast. His rough touch aroused her. The twists and tugs to her nipple created threads of pain and twinges of pleasure. When the piercing ring came free, it tore her skin and she let out a whimper.
Sevrin turned her about face and bent to capture her sore nipple in his mouth. He sucked the blood, using intermittent squeezes to produce more. His hungry suckling continued until the flesh mended.
Then he maneuvered her into a bent-over position. The bottom bunk of a bed became her support as he gripped her by the fold at her hip joints and thrust between her quivering cunt lips. His aim had the accuracy of someone skilled in such an arrangement.
It took him longer to climax than the first time. His grunts gave off a tone of exhaustion. She trembled from one orgasm to the next. Then Sevrin stopped. His hold tightened and the liquid heat spread.
He pulled her upright and held her against his chest, not pulling out but rather dropping free.
“I hurt you,” he said, rubbing her breast, fondling her healed nipple.
“Without the gateway of pain we would never find the purest of pleasures.” She turned in his embrace. “Isn’t that why you wanted me to bite you?”
“I don’t know why I did that.
It’s not rational. But something about you compelled me to give myself fully to you. Then once you were drinking my blood, I wanted yours. I wanted you like I was some primeval beast.”
“Our blood, the lamian part, flows with a chemical for bonding. When I drink yours, you feel the rush of that energy. Giving into it takes you to a place in yourself that may seem foreign but is very natural.”
“When I fed you in the steam-trekker that first time, why did you stop me? I couldn’t stop myself.”
“As much as it seems to be a beastly act to you, it’s an intimate act between lamians and I was embarrassed. I thought you were human.”
“So a human gets the same feelings?”
“Not exactly.” How did she explain the bonding with a human was sexual, where the bonding with a lamian was more a soul mating? “We should get dressed.”
“Rye?” His hold prevented her from moving. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She caressed his cheek.
He let go and she searched the floor for her clothing and found his first.
“These are yours,” she said into the dark, holding them out. His hands covered hers briefly as he took the clothing. Farther along, she found her shirt and pants and dressed.
The lights suddenly came on and light filled the room.
“You’re sure you’re all right?” he asked.
She pulled her shirt open to show him. He touched her breast and fingered her nipple. His expression showed his relief that he hadn’t left a mark on her.
When the door swung open, she snatched up the broken pipe she had already decided to use as a weapon. The man in the opening, showing quick reflexes, grabbed her upraised arm. Her prior fears of a plot to trap her rushed back into her thoughts when Sevrin seized her around the waist.
Chapter Twenty-One
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