by Seth Eden
But there were patrols there, too, and the women were all around them, in the audience, on the stairs, with the vendors, behind the stage.
I t was fast, it was bloody, it was over in a matter of minutes, but only a few of the women died.
"M assive!" the soldier beside Danton shouted.
A nother slammed Danton on the back and he himself high fived a number of the men in his unit, the same congratulatory movements humans made only slightly mocking.
T hey'd taken down a cell and this might mean across the country they could find other cells the women could be questioned, tortured if necessary, and then thrown into breeding cells. Such women with such spirit could be useful. Their children would be Vampyren. They'd have places of honor once they were properly turned.
O r they'd be slaughtered in the pits. Or turned to the games. Or given to the tank farm. He didn't care and it wasn't up to him. All he wanted to do was get back to where Cassi waited in his quarters.
A lone with Lan.
But he stayed for the cleaning up, overseeing the males as they tied and escorted the women, and so it was he saw the one woman, her head high and defiant, as she was led to the waiting vehicles.
Her hair was long and a curious and unpleasant shade of purple.
F or a second, Danton stared, wondering, and then he remembered. The day he and Lan had seen the pikes rammed into the city sidewalk, adored with heads on the Los Angeles street. The day he'd first spotted Cassi, her behavior unafraid and defiant.
Riding away on the bike, the star on her shoulder marking her.
T he girl on the back of the bike holding on tight.
T he hair coming out from under that girl's helmet a strange shade of purple.
I t was morning before he got back to his quarters, finding Lan asleep and Cassi sitting wakeful in his one chair.
He'd waited all night to get back to her.
N ow he didn't know what he was going to tell her. The women they'd taken were being turned over for breeding. If they weren't viable, they'd be put in the tank farms.
O r outright killed in the games.
O r just drained.
T hat was her friend. What was he going to tell her?
19
CASSI
She didn't like the way her heart pounded when he came through the door, or the momentary leap of happiness.
Relief, that she could understand of herself. But pleasure at seeing him? It was separate and apart from the growing excitement at seeing him. That she guessed was the chemical reaction again.
A nd it was growing strong.
T hat was crazy. His friend was passed out on the bed. Did she really intend to just get with Danton right there with Lan in the room?
But he was looking at her almost the same way, maybe more conflicted, but he would be, wouldn't he? The conquerors could take whatever they wanted but that didn't seem to be Danton's way.
She didn't like how she was thinking of him as Danton. As his first name. That she was excited to see him return.
I t was all bad news. She was on a mission. She need to find out more than how well the Vampyren could fuck and take that information back to the resistance. She needed to find Brecca. She needed to find her mom.
She needed – to feel his hands on her body and his tongue in her mouth and his hard cock inside her. She wanted him and she was glad to see him and he looked glad to see her, even if he'd started to speak and stopped himself a couple times.
Whatever it was he had to tell her, it could wait. Probably bad news. This wasn't a world right now where good news traveled fast.
She could be excused for wanting a few minutes of pleasure before whatever happened next.
Her arms went around his neck and she stood on tiptoe, trying to reach his mouth. Danton dropped his head down, covering her lips with his, kissing her hot and passionate. His tongue found hers. It didn't feel like they had any time to waste.
His hands went into her hair, freeing it again from the loose braid she'd knotted it into. She made a soft sound of pleasure as he stroked his fingers through it, and she arched up against him, pressing her breasts into his chest. She could feel his erection straining between them, hard and ready, and feel herself becoming hotter and slicker with every kiss, every lick.
She raised up next to him to whisper in his ear, to ask where they could go. Clearly Lan needed to rest, to heal, and they needed to be somewhere together. It wasn't just pheromones. She wanted to be with Danton.
Before she could ask him anything, hands circled her hips from behind, stroked upward, strong fingers kneading her spine along the top of her ass, pulled her backward to grind a similarly spectacular erection into the groove of her backside.
She gasped, let out a sound that was all protest as she looked up into Danton's eyes.
But he was watching her, something of hope in his expression, and she could smell Lan now, spicy and sweet, a different scent than Danton gave off and she decided that somehow, that was the smell of whatever chemical trace they gave off that made her want them.
Danton. Made her want Danton.
But Danton's face still had that longing and Lan's touch was fiery sweet, an imperative she wanted to answer as he stroked both hands up her back, twined them in her hair, then let go of it and wrapped them around her body, cupping her breasts, pinching the nipples and pressing them into Danton's flesh.
Danton stepped back and stripped off his shirt, stepped out of his pants, stood naked and hard, his cock jutting out, ready, and behind her, Lan continued to stroke, biting her shoulder, gently, no fangs, not even a hint of them or request. He pressed himself against her and when Danton stepped back to claim her, Lan stepped back and returned naked, pressed hard against her.
T he two males began licking and sucking her, Danton on her throat, fluttering kisses and licks and pricks of fang, he stopped to suck her blood briefly and then trailed it on his tongue down her throat, along her breasts, sucking, licking, kissing and biting, and behind her, Lan pressed himself into her, filling her even more than Danton had done, bending her so she leaned forward her mouth close enough to Danton's cock she took advantage of it, bending to lick the length of it, lapping at his balls, sucking the underside of his erection, every bit as sensitive as any human man's. She could only fit the head of his member into her mouth, so she did, while he played with her hair, and thrust his hips, and groaned with pleasure, and behind her, Lan pressed deep, deep into her, taking advantage of the position to push as deep into her as he could.
He came hard and unexpectedly, the heat spreading through her when he did, and Danton went backward onto the bed pulling her down on top of him and Lan followed, stretching full length to over her.
When Danton turned the three of them fell separate on the bed, on their sides, Danton facing Cassi and Lan, all three of them on their sides.
L an was hard again and she jutted her hips back at him, willing to take him again, while Danton held his own rigid cock, using the head to rub hard against her clit, making her breath catch and her orgasm trigger, until she felt like she was coming over and over, or maybe it was one long, continuous orgasm that had her screaming into the confines of Danton's mouth.
L an came again and rolled away from her. When she looked back at him, those ice gold eyes, so different from Danton's, the shorter hair and broader muscles, he nodded at her but held his hand to his side. He was leaking blood, the wound from the theater open again.
Before she could even suggest giving him blood, if she meant to, Danton had taken her, pulling up onto his body as he turned onto his back and held her up by the hips so she could slide down on his enormous erection.
C assi cried out in mingled pleasure and pain, her hips taking up a rhythm before she even knew she meant to. She rocked on him, seeking her own pleasure and bringing him to his, even as his hands kept her upright by playing with her breasts, her nipples, the sensitive undersides, and Lan reached between them and fingered her clit, triggering a m
assive orgasm that made everything inside her clench and clutch, pulsing rhythmically as it sucked at everything Danton had to offer her.
When they fell apart from each other that time, they stayed apart, all three of them breathing hard.
She had just started to wonder if she could find happiness in a relationship with the Vampyren and if that might mean hope for humanity's future, because she couldn't be the only one.
When Danton caught his breath and told her that he'd seen Brec.
T hat he'd seen her, and where.
T hat he'd seen her and she was part of the murderous armed female rebellion and that she now, without trial of any kind, had been thrown into the breeding pools, where she would be used up and killed, or allowed to die from untreated wounds or in childbirth, or where she would be used up and then discarded to a tank farm. Or to a commanding officer who would drain and discard her.
He went on as if he hadn't meant to, a verbal worrying she understood – the end of the mission had gone badly. Danton and his team brought back only about half the women.
T he other half were at large.
T hat was going to cause problems, he said, and when she pressed him, admitted it would make everything worse for the women still being held, too.
She wasn't aware of Lan getting dressed as she listened in growing horror to Danton telling her that all along Brecca must have been training with the rebels just to do what she was doing – to strike with teams of women, killing Vampyren and humans alike to drive them from the planet.
When she couldn't stand it, hearing him talk about her best friend being thrown into the breeding pools, she struck out at him, not realizing until he caught her hands and stilled them that Lan had run from the room.
"He's gone to report this. I can't protect you now! I can't protect your friend, there was nothing I could do! You have to go, I'll get you through the halls, but then you have to run."
But she couldn't leave Brecca.
A nd, damn her, she didn't want to leave him.
A nd it didn't matter anyway. Because Lan came back with help long before either of them would have expected it.
20
CASSI
I f she had expected the women in the breeding pools to have given up, she'd have been dead wrong, but word of the attacks had reached her.
She knew they were happening. She knew they were ongoing. And she knew they were perpetrated largely by women. She didn't expect to find a lot of women who had given up or were just marking time.
What she did expect, given the insanity of the bunker the high school had turned into was confusion. She thought the women would be milling around, maybe gathering in small groups to make plans, but given they were in a huge holding cell in the basement the Vampyren dug out beneath the school, she expected a kind of women's prison atmosphere from bad B movies.
Instead, she found militaristic precision, women training through their days, stopping for scheduled breaks when their captors brought them food or cleaning supplies, stopping on a dime when the sound of booted feet signaled one or more of them was being pulled out for breeding.
They were training in boxing, in mixed martial arts, in Taekwon-Do and Aikido, in self-defense techniques which were generally fast, deadly and easy to learn. They worked out, doing resistance training with anything they could press into service, doing plank and abdominal work, and running round and round their cell, gaining endurance.
In between, they exchanged information.
"School is definitely in session," Brecca told her, giving her a warm hug. She looked the worse for wear but her hair, the half-faded purple, was still vibrant enough it had attracted Danton's attention and brought the two girls back together.
"Rumor was you were with the Vampires." There was no judgment in Brecca's voice, only wonder.
"I was with one vamp. His name's Danton Trask," she said, loudly enough to be overheard, curious if he had done what he'd done with her with anyone else.
No one responded except to gather round her, so she told them everything that had happened and they exchanged stories until the evening dinner was brought.
By which time she knew everything about the women and a little about the attacks the teams of women were doing.
And whatever she knew, anyone listening in at the resistance knew, because there was no reason to expect the mic´s weren't working.
They'd become sore, though. All the sex and touching she hadn't expected had brought them up near the surface of her skin in her wrists.
The last thing she learned was that the lot of them were running out of time. The commander, the one who had questioned Cassi and was as low on the totem pole as she'd imagined, had determined he would be the one to stop the attacks by cells of women on Vampyren wherever they gathered. Another attack had just gone wrong, half the women running free, and the commander found out about it long before he was expected to.
"They're going to either move us all to a tank farm, if they think they can get us there, or they're going to drain us all in a free-for-all party," Bev said, pacing. She was older, graying, perpetually angry. Probably the best person to stay around.
Even Brecca seemed changed. She'd gone through the training with the resistance and never told Cassi and now she was part of a cell that had killed a number of Vampyren.
A new and improved Brecca.
"So how do we find out which it is?" one of the women asked, and others chimed in with questions until the basement rang with sound. There were close to a hundred women, well fed and angry.
If Bev hadn't seen the possibilities, Cassi would have.
"We can hold our own," Brecca said fiercely.
No one agreed or disagreed. They were trained but they were all new. All except Brecca, because the women who had gone on the attack runs weren't the ones in the pool – the Vampyren didn't want to mate with women warriors without knowing.
The discussion that ranged through the pool was like an old-fashioned game of telephone, where people pass a message on from one to the next, though with more accuracy, Cassi hoped. Because they kept up a level of chatter, keeping the room from falling silent, but while they planned, they settled in small groups, then passed the information to the next group, nearly silently, until it made its way through the entire room.
They needed to overpower the guards. They needed to understand the percentage of them that could be lost to the weapons the vampires carried.
They needed to get free into the school
They needed to free the women who had orchestrated the attacks.
They needed weapons if they could manage it.
And then they needed to run.
21
DANTON
Danton heard the rumors as facts. He was still one of the golden warriors, praised for bringing down the number of female rebels that he had.
"You'll have your pick at the fete tonight," the commander said. He looked tired and dispirited as Danton felt.
Neither of them would ever admit it.
Danton would never admit that the idea of slaughtering the women, the ones with the spirit and the daring, sickened him.
"Maybe even that little one you kept," the commander added and now Danton thought he was being watched. Tested. Golden warrior or not.
"I've been trying to get information from her," he said in turn. There wasn't a Vampyren among them who didn't jockey for power and position; getting info from her would have netted him a promotion.
"She's no longer with you," the commander said and that was a question.
"No. I should have said I was trying to get information."
"Did you?" the commander asked with suspicion.
"She didn't talk." He hadn't asked. "And besides – " might as well go for veracity – "It wasn't all talking."
The commander smirked. "If she know something, we should question her."
"She hasn't talked before." To you, he added, not letting his face reveal his thoughts. "But she might to me. If I brin
g her friend out. She was picked up in the raid."
That got the commander's attention. It was a gamble, one that might pay off and might get her killed and might get him killed.
It had to be worth it. Things were starting to spin out of control.
He had to do something and Cassi would never leave without Brecca.
"We'll set it up."
That sounded bloody. If Brecca got killed, Cassi would never forgive him.
"Bring them both here." He tapped his phone and Danton's photo went out to every soldier, every guard: Allowed in to the pens to bring out more than one of the women. "And then we'll question them and – "
But the far door to the office opened and one of the guards came in, talking fast, something about an insurrection in the tank farm nearest the school and the commander bolted, following the soldier, leaving Danton with permission to enter the pens.
The commander's keys.
And a lot of panic.
He ran for the breeding pools.
22
CASSI
Some of them might be lost.
She hated those odds.
Sitting side by side with Brecca, Cassi cut into her wrists, pulling the mic´s free of her skin, cleaning the blood off them, and then she and Brecca at the same time sent their code names and their locations and what was happening.
There was no more need for stealth. There were enough women here to pinpoint every Vampyren location anyone could want.
The time for pretense and sneaking was over. Time for the Calvary to ride in.
They sent their messages and hoped.
They didn't have to overpower the guards.
Because when the guard showed unexpectedly at the cell doors and simply opened them, then stepped back, they didn't waste time but surged for the exit.
