by Kat Cotton
I wasn’t sure how I could talk to them without being zapped when I couldn’t call them. Maybe because thoughts of sex overrode any escape thoughts in my brain. Or maybe there was a flaw in the cuff logic, with the Council not expecting Nic and Kisho to actually turn up in person.
“I’m sure the pain isn’t that bad. Just persevere until you get out of here.”
Bastard Nic. He had no idea what that pain was like. Maybe he needed to find out for himself. I’d teach him to tell me to persevere.
“Come here, Nic. I need to tell you something.”
He stepped closer to the bars, and I reached out and grabbed his hand. Then I thought about escaping as hard as I could. The shock from the cuffs buzzed through me, jolting Nic against the stone wall.
He squealed. Probably not a good thing when he was trying to rescue me. My whole arm had gone numb, but it was worth it to prove Nic wrong.
Okay, maybe I should’ve been a bit more restrained.
Nic’s face turned even paler than usual. He stayed away from the bars, pressing himself against the wall, obviously scared that I’d zap him again. The thought was tempting, so he was probably right to keep back, but then it’d hurt me much more than it did him. He was a vampire, after all. He should appreciate the sacrifice I’d put into proving him wrong.
“Okay, maybe we need another way,” he said.
“What other way? I can’t get these cuffs off. As soon as I think about it, I get blasted. Believe me, I’ve tried everything. I’ve had nothing else to do in here.”
“We’ll think of something,” Nic said. “But we have to think quick.”
While we thought, Kisho grabbed both of my hands. Just touching him made me feel a million times better. Holding hands was good, but I wanted to touch his face and his hair and that bit where his shoulders curved to his arms. There wasn’t one single part of Kisho I didn’t want to touch, but I didn’t have time to touch them all. Not until I got out.
“It doesn’t matter if you accidentally zap me,” he whispered. “So long as you’re touching me.”
His fingers entangled with mine. I’d never zap him. Hell, with him touching me, my brain was way too busy thinking other things. He pressed his face between the bars so I could kiss him. Ah, that smell. I remembered now. I’d never forget it. Nothing made me happier than being this close to him.
“You’re freezing,” he said, and rubbed my arms.
“I know. This place is pure torture. It’s the middle of winter, for fuck’s sake, and they only gave me that skimpy blanket. If I pull it up to my chin, my feet peek out.” Then I remembered I had something to ask him. “Hey, Kisho, if I had to have sex with someone to get out of a situation like this, would it hurt your feelings?”
We really needed to have that talk, even if I was about to escape.
“No way. I’d rather see you free than frozen and alone in a place like this.” He smiled. “It wouldn’t be like you were cheating on me.”
“Stop with the love-love talk and think of a plan,” Nic said. “Anyway, he’s only saying that because he’d totally have sex to get out of jail. He’d have blown that guard by now. Not even to escape. Just for fun.”
“Shut up, Nic,” I said.
Nic could be such a bitch sometimes. I was pretty sure that damn guard wouldn’t let me out even if I gave him the best blow job of his life. He probably wouldn’t even give me a better blanket. He’d just let me blow him, then stiff me on the deal. And laugh, thinking it was a great joke.
Kisho shrugged his jacket off and squished it through the bars.
I was going to protest, but I remembered that he wouldn’t feel the cold. I put the jacket on and smiled.
“It smells of you,” I said. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“He should thrall you,” Kisho said, out of the blue.
“Huh?” Nic and I said together.
“Nic should thrall you. The cuffs work on your brainwaves somehow, right? But if your brain doesn’t know you’re escaping, then the cuffs won’t work. You’ll just think you’re doing something normal with us.”
That sounded like it’d work, but I had a few reservations.
“If I let Nic do that, it won’t do something weird like open a gateway between us so he can get into my mind anytime?”
He’d make me wear Barbie-pink dresses and fake nails. God, my entire life would be fucked up. It’d be all tea parties and shopping and not eating Nic’s cakes. I’d have to check my makeup every five minutes and sit with my knees together.
“Not possible,” Kisho said. “It’s a thrall, not mind control.”
“Can you do it instead?” I asked Kisho.
He shook his head. “I don’t have the skills.”
“You know, I could’ve thralled you at any time, but I’ve chosen not to,” Nic said. “I could’ve made you act like a pleasant human being and dress well and not eat my cake. Wait. Why have I not done that?”
“Because you’re a nice person,” I said, hoping my sarcasm wasn’t lost on him. “Now, shut up and thrall me.”
If it could get me out of this hell, I’d let Nic do it.
Nic looked into my eyes. I felt woozy. It wasn’t unpleasant. It was kind of like the feeling I got in the pit of my stomach just before we had sex. But maybe that was just the way he looked at me with those green eyes. God, every time I looked at that guy, his eye color changed.
I wasn’t sure if this thrall thing worked, though. It had no effect on me. It was all just nice fuzzy-wuzzies. Maybe my self-control was way too strong for me to be affected. But it did feel nice, like floating in a warm pool.
Wait. We were going on a picnic?
“Do you have cake?” I asked.
“No,” Nic said.
“But there’s no picnic without cake.”
“We’ll buy one on the way.”
He smiled at me. Nic could be so nice sometimes.
“Sweet. And maybe some brownies, too. And we need super-delicious little sandwiches.”
It struck me as strange that Nic was so obliging about buying cake without one complaint about me eating it all, but that thought disappeared as soon as I thought it. I wanted to keep floating in this nice fuzzy warmth.
Nic undid the lock. Kisho swept me up in his arms and ran. He sure was in a hurry to get to this picnic.
Chapter 5 Escape
I WASN’T SURE WHY WE were in such a rush to get to the picnic, but if there was going to be cake, then I was all for hurrying. I tightened my arms around Kisho’s neck, wanting to be as close to him as possible. If I could burrow into him, I’d do that. I loved his strong arms around me. I loved the smell of him and the way his hair tickled my skin. I loved everything about Kisho. I wanted never to be parted from him again.
“The door on the landing,” Nic hissed.
Kisho nodded even though we were behind Nic and he couldn’t see.
We reached the landing in no time.
The door was unlocked. Nic flung it open, and we hurried out to the cobblestone street. Soon, we’d be at the picnic. Kisho’s heart beat like crazy. I could feel it against my body. Strange, considering he was a vampire. Maybe it was because he was as happy to be with me as I was to be with him.
Even though the sun shone, it was one of those crispy winter days. It wouldn’t take long for me to get super-cold. Strange weather for a picnic, but then vampires didn’t feel the cold, and Kisho’s jacket would keep me warm. So long as I was having a picnic with Kisho, I’d be happy.
“Let’s get out of here,” Nic said.
What a weird thing for Nic to say. Of course we had to get out of here. You didn’t go on a picnic to loiter around in the streets. His voice sounded strained, too, but picnics were meant to be fun. Maybe he was stressed about the cake.
We’d only gone a few steps down the street when troopers swarmed out of the shadows and surrounded us. Shit. What was going on? Were they the picnic police?
Kisho dropped me from his arms. “Run, Clem.
We’ll fight them.”
I didn’t understand, but the urgency in Kisho’s voice couldn’t be denied.
I ran. A little. Then the pain hit me. Fire shooting straight up my arms. The metallic taste flooded my mouth, and it wasn’t just from the cuffs. Blood mingled with it. My blood. I’d bitten my tongue.
I fell to the ground.
My body tingled, and not in a good way.
Stand up, I told myself, but my legs didn’t obey my brain.
The thrall had worn off. There was no picnic. There was Kisho, Nic and me on the street with about fifty troopers around us. Troopers with a “kill vampires on sight” order. In riot gear, with batons and shields?
No, not batons. Stakes.
Kisho fought one of the troopers. Nic had taken on two of the others.
Two vampires, fifty troopers. I didn’t like the odds.
That idiot. Telling me to run. He was the one who should run.
I forced myself to my feet, steeling myself against the pain. I got one foot on solid ground, then the other, without any zapping. I needed to fix this mess. Save Nic and Kisho—that pushed everything else out of my mind.
The narrow lane limited the number of troopers who could fight at the same time. That gave Nic and Kisho a slight advantage. For now. As soon as the troopers surrounded them, though, they’d be totally screwed.
The only way out of this was to distract the troopers. Give Nic and Kisho a chance to escape. The troopers wouldn’t kill me. They’d torture me and do their weird tests, but they wouldn’t actually kill me. If I bolted for that side alley, I’d drive them well away from Nic and Kisho.
“Come and get me, you stupid troopers!” I called out.
I forced myself to run even with the weakness in my legs, even with the shocks shooting through my body. Once Nic and Kisho were safe, I could collapse into a heap, but not before then. I hoped those vampires wouldn’t do anything stupid.
I turned to see a trooper with a stake out, way too close to Kisho.
Oh, no, he wouldn’t. Not my Kisho.
I reached down and scooped up a rock from the ground.
The shocks worsened. This would not be good for my general health, and definitely not good for my hair.
I pelted that rock as hard as I could at the trooper. As it flew, I wanted to shut my eyes, woozy in the stomach in case the rock hit Kisho instead.
Yes! My aim was sure. The rock hit the trooper on the head. He rubbed the spot it’d hit but turned his attention from Kisho to me.
The troopers swarmed me now.
Kisho would be safe.
I focused on moving my feet, one step at time. Ignore the pain. Move the feet. Ignore the pain.
Big, meaty hands clamped onto my arms. Trooper hands. I didn’t stop running. The force of their own cuffs shot through me into them. That guy recoiled, letting go of me.
“Suffer, bastard,” I said under my breath.
If he thought that was bad, he should try being me.
Before I could get any farther, another trooper shoved the butt of a gun in my stomach.
“Back in the cell, bitch.”
“Whoa, watch your manners.”
But as I said it, I collapsed to the ground again, the zapping too strong to deal with. A couple of the other troopers propped me up and dragged me back inside.
If they hadn’t dragged me, I couldn’t have made it on my own. Every bit of energy had drained from my body, but Nic and Kisho had escaped and that was all that mattered.
The troopers heaved me down the steps and flung me on the bed, bashing my head against the hard metal frame. The door clanged as they left my cell, and the key turned in the lock.
I curled into a ball. Well, as much of a ball as I could on that crappy bed. We’d failed. We’d failed so hard. You couldn’t underestimate these Council bastards. Being that close to escape then failing was almost worse than being stuck in here.
But then, I’d seen Kisho. I’d kissed him. The impression of his fingers tangled in mine stayed with me.
I hoped they’d gotten away safely. Nic thought he could look after himself, but he was too cocky. Just marching in here like that as though no one would try to stop him. Well, I guessed he’d managed that. It was getting out again that had been difficult.
The sheer number of troopers freaked me out. Why had there been so many? I mean, I knew I was awesome and all, but they seemed to be putting a lot of effort and money into keeping me here.
I pulled Kisho’s jacket tighter around me and snuffled my nose into the collar. The leather had Kisho’s smell. I’d get out of here, and we’d be together soon. I had to believe that. I couldn’t just die in here. We’d all get through this, and we’d be back at the lair, eating cake, before I even knew it.
If I thought about that, I’d survive here. Maybe a red velvet cake with super-delicious frosting. A whole cake just for me. And I’d sit on Kisho’s knee to eat it with his arms tight around me. Nic would make some snappy comment, but he’d be happy to see me back there just the same. That guy. As much as he complained, he’d put his life on the line to rescue me. I guessed he did owe me, but still, it was nice of him to do that for me. It made me all warm and fuzzy inside. I might not have any humans who’d vouch for me, but vampires who’d help me escape were much better, even if they’d failed.
“Get up,” the guard said. “We’re going upstairs.”
Hell. Why? Was I going to get some special torture for trying to escape? Maybe Baldy would make me sit there listening to him talk about reverse sexism and how the ones really discriminated against in this world were middle-class white guys. He looked the type.
Or maybe they were ready to experiment on me.
They sure as hell wouldn’t let me get off lightly for an escape attempt like that.
The guard opened my door and dragged me up off the bed. He almost pulled my arm out of the socket. He could be a grumpy bastard, but he wasn’t usually that rough. Maybe I wasn’t the only one who’d suffer repercussions for the escape attempt. Letting a vampire thrall him was a total rookie mistake on his part. The Council wouldn’t be too happy with him, either.
Before we left the cell, the guard grabbed those papers out of the bucket.
“Don’t forget your stuff,” he said. “I’m not cleaning up your mess.”
Jeez, it was a few papers. But did that mean I wasn’t coming back here? Was that a good thing or not? If I went somewhere else, how would Nic and Kisho find me? And somewhere else would mean the research place.
The guard dragged me back up to that meeting room. Hell, what was going on now? It would not be good. Even if I wanted to believe that the research lab would be nice and have delicious food, that would be way too much to expect. Those Council bastards could do any shitty thing to me. I didn’t want to enter that room.
I walked in slowly, my head down. No point expecting any sympathy or leniency.
I sat down at the table without paying attention to the person sitting beside me until he turned.
“Well, hello, Clementine. Who’d have thought we’d meet like this?” He gave a little chuckle.
The mayor! What the hell was he doing here?
Chapter 6 Freedom
“MS. STARR, CONGRATULATIONS. You’re going to be released, for the short term, at least. Until our researchers are ready to see you, you’ll be in the mayor’s custody.” Baldy gave me a stern look.
Baldy was the only one of the Council suits at this meeting.
I folded my arms. Could they do that? This smelled fishier than a fish market on a hot day.
“Wait a minute, there. I’m not sure I want to be in his custody. You said a trustworthy human, and he’s far from that.”
“Clementine, I know we’ve had our differences in the past, but surely you’d rather spend some time with me than rotting in jail.” The mayor shot me a smile, but I wasn’t falling for that.
Baldy coughed. “It’s not a jail, and she’s hardly been rotting.”
“Still, fresh air and sunshine, that’s the very thing,” the mayor said.
The mayor seemed way too jovial. And what was he even doing here? All the alarm bells went off in my brain. What the mayor had said made logical sense. It would be better to hang with him than rot in that jail. But I had a feeling that things went deeper than that.
“What do you actually want?” I asked him. “You aren’t doing this out of the kindness of your heart.”
I didn’t look at him; I just picked at my fingernail. As much as I protested, one thing I’d learned from my time here was that if the shithead Council decided something, I had no say in the matter. That was pretty much the shittiest thing in the world. I liked autonomy and agency and all the other good “a” words.
“Clementine. As your mayor, I’m here to look after you. You’re gone off the rails a little, but I’m sure we’ll have you back on track in no time at all.”
I coughed. “That was a sarcastic cough filled with indignation, in case you missed my point.”
He tried to pat my arm, but I pulled away from him.
“She’s a little irritable now, but she’ll be on board in no time,” he said to Baldy.
Baldy smiled. Baldy’s smile was a horrible thing. I guessed that meant that Baldy was the one in charge around here. I’d been confused if it was him or Lycra Shorts.
“I’m not on board anything.”
Baldy’s smile changed to a grimace. And that grimace suggested untold horrors.
“Fine. I’ll go with him,” I said.
Like I had any choice.
“I’ll accompany you to the hotel,” the mayor said.
“You don’t expect me to share a room with you?”
A hotel. That would make escaping much easier.
“No funny business,” the mayor said. “Separate rooms, of course. I need to keep an eye on you, but I’m sure your new jewelry will make sure you’re safe better than I ever could.”
He was right about that.
Not only did these cuffs zap the fuck out of me, I bet there was probably some kind of tracking device in them. We’d barely gotten out of the building, and those troopers had been all over us. Even if Nic had thralled me, he couldn’t thrall a tracking device. I had zero personal freedom. Who knew what other crap was in these things?