by Lili Zander
“That’s the one.” I stretch my hand out for it, wincing in pain. Opening the stopper, I dab the liquid on my skin, and an immediate, welcome coolness fills me.
“Your skin,” she says, her mouth falling open. “It already looks better.”
“It's remarkably effective. Nothing but the best for the Empress’ army.” I hand her the bottle. “Use it on the others, will you?”
She does as I ask while I struggle to sit up. “Where are we?” I ask, looking around at the small one-room structure that seems to be made from blocks of ice.
“We called it a lean-to,” she replies. “The guards in the camp used to enjoy torturing us. Whenever we got restive, they picked about twenty of us at random, and they’d throw us out on the ice, warning us not to come back to camp for a week.” She shrugs. “We started building these cabins for shelter. It wasn’t warm, but it was out of the wind, at least.”
My lips tighten with anger. “This colony is an abomination,” I snap.
She lifts her shoulders in a shrug. “It’s just the way it is. The Overlord’s father set up the camps as a way to keep control, and his son is no better.”
Disgust fills me. Lula Kenner had better succeed in her rebellion because if she doesn't do something about Zimmer, I will. “Why make somebody a prisoner when they could be an ally?”
Her gaze is wry. “Not everyone thinks like you.”
“Fuck.” Saber sits up with a groan, his eyes darting around the room until he finds Raven. When he sees her standing there, safe and unhurt, a shudder of relief runs through his body. “You're alive.”
“Thanks to all of you,” she replies quietly.
She’s more than returned the favor. Had she left us on the ice, we would have died.
She swallows hard. “I’ve been mistrustful,” she says. “My parents were executed for plotting against the Empire, though all they were trying to do was speak up against the Overlord's brutality. When they died, I learned to hate the Shayde.”
Zeke is awake as well. “You don't owe us an explanation, Raven,” he says, his voice gentle.
“I want to give you one. You've given me no reason to doubt you. You saved me back there. Had you not come to my rescue, I would have died.” She takes a deep breath. “My friend Joanna told me that there were good Shayde and bad Shayde, just like there were good humans and bad humans. I didn't believe her when she said it, but I do now. I trust you. Thank you for saving my life.”
“You saved us too,” I point out. “Had you left us, the sun’s rays would've burnt us.” I wink at her. “Thank you for that.”
She smiles back, and for the first time, it reaches her eyes. “You're welcome.”
Saber clears his throat. “I saw what happened with Olaf.”
“You told me that I carried a weapon in my blood, and I didn't believe you.” A shiver runs through her body. “He bit me. He said he was going to drain the blood from my body.” A look of horror fills her face. “I killed him. Great Spirit, I killed him, and I killed the enforcer that was fighting Nero as well.”
Her expression is distraught. I get to my feet and wrap my arms around her. “The first one is the hardest, little human,” I say quietly. “If it helps, they were trying to kill you.”
She nods slightly. “That's what I've been telling myself.” She pulls away. Reaching into her pocket, she pulls out the gun. “Here you go,” she says, handing it to Zeke.
We all stiffen. “Umm, Raven,” Zeke sounds strained. “Can you not point that thing at me until you put the safety on?”
She blushes. “Sorry. It’s my first time.”
Zeke grins for a second, and then his smile fades. “Now what?” he asks Saber. “If he hasn’t already, the Overlord will find out soon enough that his assassination attempt didn't go as planned. And when he sees Olaf’s body, he'll know that Raven carries the disease they created in her blood.”
Saber nods grimly. “It’s time to put plan B into action. We have no other choice.”
Raven looks up. “What's Plan B?”
I answer. “We’re going to find the facility where the weapon was developed. A source told us that it was in the ice desert. If we manage to locate it, we can take a vid, and use it to blackmail the Overlord into letting you go in exchange for our silence.”
Saber looks at her. “You didn’t believe us when we said we wanted to help,” he says. “But we do. Will you let us, Raven?”
I hold my breath, but I don’t really need to. She nods readily. “Yes, I will.” She seems to remember something. “The Shayde who bit me told me to go to Starra and find someone called Ivar Karlsson. Do you know who that is?”
I don’t. I turn to look at Zeke, but he shakes his head too. “I’ll do some research,” he promises.
I’m about to ask Saber what our next step should be, when Raven’s knees buckle. I jump up to grab her, but I don’t reach her in time.
She crumples to the floor in a dead faint.
19
Raven
All day, I huddled in the small lean-to with the three vampires, not knowing if they were alive or dead, not knowing if their attempt to rescue me had ended up costing them their lives.
Twice, I heard the familiar thump-thump-thump of the choppers, and each time, I’d been paralyzed with fear. In that small room, I imagined every worst-case scenario. The enforcers finding Olaf's body, tracking me to this cabin, bursting in with their guns and killing me, the way they did the Shayde that had bitten me. The vampyrs, defenseless, trapped in deep slumber, unable to do anything about it.
Even worse was the idea of the enforcers turning their guns on Saber, Nero, and Zeke.
But though I waited, tense, nervous, almost dreading my discovery, they didn't come for me.
Which could only mean one other thing. If the choppers didn’t come for me, they came to rescue the contestants. Twice, I heard them. Two contestants are in trouble and have chosen to give up. Or worse.
Alone in the cabin, I’d been trapped with all my demons, unable to escape. My parents were torn from me. I’ve seen friends die, frozen to death. My first lover, Baird Shaw had been attacked by a pack of s’kal cats, mauled to death. We’d organized a search for him when he hadn’t come back at lights-out. I’ll never forget stumbling upon his body in the dark.
Is this what the Great Spirit has in store for me? To be stalked constantly by grim death, to be confronted by loss at every turn?
The tears had fallen unchecked, and not all of them for past friends. Most of the tears were reserved for Zeke, Nero, and Saber, who had put my safety above theirs. Who had resisted the tug of deep slumber, stayed awake even though the sunlight would burn them, and had saved my life.
When they wake at dusk, sheer relief and adrenaline carry me through for a while, but it all catches up with me. I start to shiver, and exhaustion claims me. I feel myself sway, my head throbbing, the room spinning around me. Nero shouts out, but I can’t hear what he says.
And then, it all goes quiet.
I'm warm.
I don't expect to be, not in Glacis. A thick blanket is covering me, and two bodies lie on either side of me, radiating still more heat. It’s Saber and Nero, I’m sure of it. Funny how in just one day, the lines of their bodies have become so familiar to me.
For a second, I sigh in contentment, savoring the feel of them against me, and then I remember everything else. The Night of the Shayde, the enforcers, Olaf’s dead body.
I open my eyes and try to sit up, and Nero’s arm tightens around my waist. “Take it easy, little Raven,” he says softly. “You gave us a bad scare.”
“What happened?”
Saber’s glacier-blue eyes rest on me. “You fainted, and you went blue with cold. You wouldn’t stop shivering.”
“Sorry,” I mumble, feeling like a fool. “I'm not really the fainting sort, normally.”
He snorts, and the sound is so strange coming from the always-controlled vampyr that it makes me giggle. “You loaded the thr
ee of us on your boat and dragged us to shelter. You saved our lives. Nobody doubts your strength, Raven Unnuk.”
My cheeks heat at his praise. I’m very aware of their bodies pressing against me. When I take a breath, their scent fills me, smoky and tantalizing and very male. Yesterday, I’d seen Saber naked, and the sight is seared into my mind. His tight muscles, his thick, beautiful cock, his impressive girth. He’d looked as if he’d been carved from stone. Pure, male perfection. Nero’s leaner than Saber, built like a runner. What would he look like naked? And Zeke? Hot desire runs through my body, and from the way their nostrils flare, they can tell I’m aroused.
“Where’s Zeke?”
“He was going out of his mind with worry, waiting for you to wake up, so I sent him to retrieve our skimmer,” Saber replies. “He came back an hour ago. He’s keeping watch outside.”
I realize I’m not in the lean-to anymore. “Where are we?”
“Our tent,” Saber replies. “We wanted to light a fire in the lean-to, but the walls started melting.”
I giggle again. “It’s made of ice,” I tell him. “It’s not meant to be warm. Just out of the wind.”
Nero’s lips graze my cheek. “You amaze me, Raven,” he says quietly. “You’ve survived so much harshness, and you can still laugh.”
Zeke enters, saving me from blushing again. “I thought I heard voices.” His eyes find mine. “You’re awake. Can I get you anything? Food? A hot soup to warm you, perhaps?”
“Soup? You have human food?”
“Of course.” He looks puzzled by my surprise. “Why wouldn’t we have food for you? Most of it is travel rations, unfortunately. Nothing too fancy, but the cook who prepared it for us assured me that the soup would be very tasty once it’s re-hydrated.”
There’s a lump in my throat. Zeke is looking puzzled, but he doesn’t get it. None of them do. They don't realize how surreal it is to be treated like an actual person. To be treated with care, as if I'm more than an O-positive human from the re-education camps.
I don’t want soup. I want them. I start picking at my braids. “On Boarus 4,” I whisper, “A woman only undoes her braids for a man she wants to bed.” I swallow my nerves away. “Or men.”
Their eyes lock on mine. “I remember,” Saber says softly.
“I’ve had sex before,” I continue. “I’ve bedded men for warmth, for an extra set of rations, for something to temporarily take me away from the re-education camps. But never just for pleasure.”
Nero’s breath catches. “That’s a shame,” he mutters, encircling me from behind, kissing the curve of my neck softly. “An injustice really. One that begs to be remedied right away.”
A sudden, alarming thought strikes me. “If we… When we… Will I pass on the disease?”
Zeke shakes his head. “No,” he says. “That would be reckless. The people that built this weapon were looking for power and control, not carnage. I’m absolutely certain that it’s only your blood that we can’t drink.”
Saber’s eyes glisten with a dark heat. “There’s one way to find out.” He stalks closer, standing so near me that we seem to breathe the same air. He gives me a searching look. “You don’t have to do this,” he says quietly. “Despite what you might think, you don’t owe us anything. I want your willing, enthusiastic consent.”
“I’m grateful that you saved my life, but I’m not going to bed you because of it,” I reply, staring back at him. “I want this.”
His tight expression relaxes into a smile. “Then you shall have it, Raven.”
He bends his head toward me, almost in slow motion. My heart hammers in my chest, but my insides clench with anticipation. I can’t remember wanting someone with this much aching need.
His lips meet mine, warm and firm. In the back of my mind, warning bells ring, reminding me of the way Olaf died, but Saber doesn’t seem afraid, not at all. There’s only heat in his eyes.
His hand rests on my waist, drawing me closer. I make a noise of pleasure in my throat and tilt my head up, pressing against him and deepening the kiss. His tongue slides against the seam of my lips, demanding entry.
Great Spirit, please let Zeke’s theory be true.
I open my mouth and kiss him back. Blood pounds in my head as Saber’s hand moves from to the back of my neck, and he deepens the intensity of the kiss. I whimper as his touch sends a shiver of heat through me.
He slowly pulls away. “See,” he says. “I’m absolutely fine.”
I wait, my pulse racing, my throat dry, but he’s right. Olaf’s reaction was instantaneous, his screams starting almost as soon as he bit me. Saber seems entirely unaffected.
“What if your fangs descend during sex?”
The three of them share a laugh. “Raven,” Nero says, his eyes dancing with amusement, “That’s only something that happens to Shayde in the first flush of manhood, those that can’t control themselves. Trust me, we’ll be fine.”
“Okay.”
I start to take off my clothes, and Saber’s hands stop me. “Allow us,” he murmurs. His fingers brush over the hollow of my throat, then he unbuttons my inner jumpsuit. Underneath, I’m wearing just my undergarment layer, and the dark outline of my nipples are clearly visible.
All three men suck in audible breaths.
“Lay her down,” Zeke suggests, ever the problem-solver. Saber obligingly presses me back on the bed, and his gaze rakes over me, slowly and thoroughly, taking in every inch of my almost naked body, and I feel myself blush in response to his scrutiny.
Nero’s more impatient. He surveys me with a wicked gleam in his eyes. “Take it off,” he says. “I want to see all of you.”
Zeke holds back, just watching with undisguised desire in his eyes. I slowly remove the last layer, feeling the heat of his gaze like a physical touch. “You are so beautiful,” he breathes.
“Please.” I want them to take me. I want to feel them sliding inside me, hot and hard.
“Please, what?” Saber removes his clothes. My throat goes dry as his body comes into view. I saw him naked back in the inner sectors, but I was half-asleep, and the memory has become faint. But this… this isn’t a sight I’m going to forget. He’s lean and tightly muscled, and when my eyes drift lower, I swallow, my throat going dry. He’s so large.
Zeke and Nero climb on the bed, on either side of me. Zeke rolls the nipple closest to him between his thumb and forefinger, and I whimper in pleasure. His eyes fill with dark promise. “This is just the beginning,” he murmurs. “We have all night.”
We probably don’t, but for the moment, I don’t want other concerns to intrude. Olaf, the tournament, the Overlord, all of that can wait. Just for a little while.
Nero leans forward and takes a nipple into his mouth. I bite my lip and bury my fingers in his hair, tugging him closer, and he chuckles at my eagerness.
Saber kneels between my legs and spread my thighs open. “What are you doing?” I gasp, as he lowers his head.
He looks up. “Tasting you, little human,” he replies. “You smell sweet and dangerous, and oh-so-tantalizing, and I’ve been aching for you since the moment I first set eyes on you.”
He slides a finger into my heat. “You’re soaked,” he says, his tone satisfied. He holds my gaze in his, and lifts his finger up to his mouth, sucking them between his lips. A shiver runs through me at the carnal gesture, and his tongue traces a path down my slit. “Better than anything I could have imagined,” he says, his voice ragged.
As Saber spreads my lips and licks my core, Zeke and Nero take turns kisses me, long and hard. As he rubs his face along my thighs and trails kisses there, Nero’s teeth tease my nipples, the sensation sharp and hot. Zeke’s fingers tighten in my hair, and he kisses me, hot, hard and possessive.
I’ve never felt this way. My arousal rises alarmingly fast. Zeke’s hand squeezes my breast, while Nero teases my other nipple, lazily rubbing his thumb over that tender nub.
Now, Saber’s fingers slide into my heat, whil
e his tongue pays relentless attention to my engorged bundle of nerves. My insides clench, and my vision goes blurry. Sharp pleasure fills every inch of my body, and my release hurtles toward me.
“Yes,” Saber hisses. “Yes. Let yourself go, little Raven.”
Wave after wave of bone-melting release wash over me. The muscles in my core tremble and throb, and my entire body goes limp. Saber’s tongue keeps flicking over me, and I whimper and let myself ride the waves, one after another, until my skin is damp with sweat, and I’m completely and utterly sated.
But not for long. “More,” I whisper. “I want to feel you in me. Everywhere.”
Nero kisses me, light and soft. “It can hurt if we take you at the same time,” he says. “There’s no hurry. We can find our release some other way.”
My cheeks flush. There’s not a lot to do for entertainment in the camps. “I’ve done it before.”
He grins. “In that case…” His fingers move lower, and he slowly pushes a finger into my anus. While he’s preparing me, Zeke looms over my body. He cups my breasts, bringing them together, and squeezes gently. He lowers his mouth to my nipples, sucking them, nibbling at them. Saber parts my folds with his finger and brushes a thumb over my clitoris.
They’re good at this. Faster than I’d believe possible, I’m ready for them. I reach for Saber’s cock and take it in my mouth, wanting to return the favor. Zeke and Nero position themselves at my entrances.
Zeke reaches for me. I turn on my side and wrap my leg around his hip, sighing in pleasure as his thick length penetrates me. Nero’s cock nudges at my bottom. I gasp as he penetrates me, filling me completely.
Saber’s length fills my mouth.
My body tingles as they start to move. I’m shaking with raw desire. I’m so close. Just a little more, just a little harder…
And I’m there. My release washes over me in a thunderous wave. They’re not too far behind. With groans of need, they claim their own releases.
20
Saber