“Fuck,” I hissed. I bit my lip and drew trails of blood as my fangs pierced through fragile skin.
Lisette gave me her damn sign as she said she would, but who knew when she’d get me out. If she’d get me out.
The Sadist Queen would punish me for this.
I hugged myself, fingers bruising arms, and tried to remember how to breathe.
CHAPTER 24
LISETTE
Every inch of me was on fire. My stomach cramped, and I could hardly move without my muscles protesting. I didn’t remember Ednis saying that bleeding would hurt like this. I wondered if it was information she opted to leave out. It wouldn’t have been the first time. Good thing I was a slayer. Pain was something I was used to.
Power should have been returned to the vampyre hall by now, assuming it had shut off in the first place.
“Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable, Slayer Lisette?” Hireh asked.
“You can leave.” I had said this before, but Hireh hadn’t left yet.
“If you would allow me to give you a massage, it would subdue the cramps.” She had said this before, but I had refused her. If she wasn’t required to touch me, she wouldn’t.
Some non-slayer part of my brain was convinced it would feel good to have Adano inside of me, though. It was a thought I couldn’t erase. It was as if my mind had been hijacked.
I shook my head.
“No,” I said, in case Hireh hadn’t taken my silence for an answer.
“Very well.” Hireh leaned against one of the concrete walls since there weren’t any chairs and she wisely didn’t consider the bed where I lay. “I’ll be here if you change your mind.”
While I found her stubbornness endearing—sometimes—I wouldn’t close my eyes with a potential enemy staring me down. I wasn’t convinced Hireh wouldn’t slit my throat if given the opportunity. Why wouldn’t she? She was a slave, and I was… also a slave.
Slayer to vessel. Just like that.
The portacomm in Hireh’s pocket beeped. “Lisette is in her room correct?” It was Ednis.
“Yes,” Hireh replied.
“I’m coming in.”
Not a second later, my door opened. Ednis the Wise walked inside, white lab coat swishing against her legs and a pactputer under her arm. She pushed her round glasses up the bridge of her nose; the light glared off the glass lenses, hiding her amber eyes.
“Lisette,” she said.
I propped myself up with some pillows. My abs protested. I didn’t request the extra pillows I was currently using, but I didn’t begrudge Hireh’s insight.
“To what do I owe this honor?” I asked.
“I wanted to congratulate you. Hireh told me you were bleeding.”
I knew that. I had listened to the report Hireh gave when we had left the recreation room, but I didn’t know why Ednis was here.
“How are you feeling?”
“Hot, aching. Is this normal?”
“It can be. Each vampire experiences bleeding quite differently. Some feel almost nothing. Some become quite sensitive. Do you crave Adano?”
I clenched my teeth. “Yes.”
Ednis came to my bed. She smoothed her light brown hair over her shoulder and seated herself on the edge of the mattress. She placed her sleeping pactputer on her lap, dark screen face down, and ran her hands across the back of it as if to wipe away dust.
“Very good,” she said. “Those who react this way have a much higher sex drive. It can consume all thoughts and sensations. You’ll become pregnant within these thirty days. Of that, I have no doubt.”
Rotten luck, but I am a slayer. I can handle it.
Ednis continued, “At the start of the day, you had me a little worried. I was watching the live video feeds from chamber fifty-seven on my pactputer. You were taking a while. It seemed you were having some trouble.”
“It’s because Adano was bound,” I said. “He’d respond better if he wasn’t.”
“It was no detriment yesterday.”
“My venom works, but not as well as you think. It’s because of what you said before: I have to get his mind in the right place, too. That’s not easy to do when he’s bound. He was barely able to perform this morning, and then he passed out. What if that had happened before he was able to perform? Today would have been a waste. He won’t attack me again, so unbind him.”
Ednis folded her arms. “What are you saying?”
“I had to give him more venom to make him come because he wasn’t feeling it.”
“Why wouldn’t he attack you?”
“He won’t say it, but he likes being with me.”
“You sound confident, Slayer Lisette.”
I curled my fingers around the corner of a pillow. She’s playing dirty. “I’ve made him come, haven’t I?”
“Very well,” Ednis said. “But if there is an issue, as there was with your first session, he will be bound for the duration of this arrangement. For now, I will send a guard in there with you to supervise.”
“If you send in a guard, Adano won’t respond at all. He won’t be focused on me. Better to have him bound in that case.”
Ednis tapped her pactputer with short nails.
“I told you it wouldn’t happen again and I meant it.”
“Fine”—her eyes drifted to her pactputer—“but I’ll watch closely.”
Unfortunate. To keep the tampered-with microphones secret, I’d have to be sure not to let the cameras catch moving mouths. It was the best I could do. I didn’t know what kind of audio would be coming in from chamber fifty-six, and Ednis the Wise had nothing better to do than watch my sessions with Adano. Closely.
“You shouldn’t bleed for more than twenty-four hours,” Ednis said. “It might disrupt our schedule a bit, but as soon as you’re done bleeding, I want you with Adano.”
I hoped that disruption to our schedule didn’t include assigning us a new chamber.
Ednis stood.
“Why not do it now?” I hastily asked. I told myself it was to be preemptive, but it wasn’t.
I was burning, burning, burning.
It was need talking. A life or death situation, like breathing. The burning said I’d stop breathing if I didn’t have Adano.
“The bleeding must completely stop for the cycle to begin,” Ednis said. “Better to let your thirst grow than to sate it with a coupling that would serve no purpose.” A sly smile sliced through her thin lips.
I averted my gaze.
Gods, I ached. Needles shot into my back, the plush pillows too hard but softer than anything else available; it was needles or hammers. My core was hot enough to melt through my body, and I craved ice. Adano’s ice.
Ednis’s voice smashed into my ears. “You were in the recreation room when the pactputers shut down unexpectedly.”
“I was.”
“Yours didn’t.”
I hadn’t considered the logs. Ednis would know I hadn’t logged in to my account if I didn’t make up an excuse. Shit. “No, but it was acting strange.”
“Strange how?”
“My account was glitching.”
“I see. Well, I’ll let you rest. Do your best to.”
I wiped the sweat from my brow. “Understood.”
CHAPTER 25
LISETTE
When the bleeding had stopped, the pain had subsided. Hireh washed me for the millionth time, and I felt better. Mostly. That simmering heat in my core didn’t fade. I knew it wouldn’t, but that didn’t make dealing with it any easier. There was no outlet. My mind kept cycling back to Adano. Naked. Bound to the bed. It was all I thought about now as Hireh trailed behind me and Ednis stopped in front of chamber fifty-seven.
It was equal parts dread and anticipation.
“Are you ready?” Ednis shifted the pactputer under her arm as if she couldn’t wait to pull it out and watch the show.
“Yes,” I answered.
Using the keypad attached to the door, Ednis input the code, and t
he corresponding lock clicked its release. I wasn’t ushered inside. I took two steps, and Ednis closed the door with no ceremony.
Adano stood at the far wall. His arms were folded, creasing his sheer robes. He leaned against the plastic-covered padding hiding the concrete and pushed off when I stepped forward. His stance wasn’t defensive. He wasn’t crouched as if ready to strike, but his muscles were coiled tight. The whites of his eyes showed more than normal, betraying the grin he wore.
He was in a state of consideration. Fight or flight?
Neither, Adano.
I leapt over the bed, sprang up when my feet and hands hit the padded floor, and pinned him to the wall. I didn’t touch him. I slammed my hands to either side of his head, caging him in. He whooshed out air as if I had jabbed his lungs. My body roared, the simmering in my core igniting, the fire on full blast. My skin itched to touch his. Sweat trickled down my temples.
I was melting.
Adano spread his lips wider to hide any twitching. The natural paleness of his eyes amplified the wild undercurrent, promising chaos. He jerked forward, hands like weights hanging on to my elbows, and pressed his lips to my ear. “What did you do?”
I glimpsed the cameras out of the corner of my eye and decided this angle was good enough to hide our conversational lips. It looked as if we were being intimate, which better sold the drivel I had fed Ednis yesterday. To maintain the illusion, I nibbled his earlobe as I replied, “You’re welcome.”
He flinched, but my arms stopped him from retreating. He couldn’t get around me because I was too close to him. He’d have to bite me, but he didn’t. He applied more pressure to my elbows, fingers squeezing until the joints screeched. He may as well have been touching me where I needed him to touch me, because I had to hold back a groan. An impatient pulse swept my core. I eliminated the air between us, leaving thin layers of silky fabrics as the last barrier before skin-on-skin contact.
I licked my lips and continued, “You got my message, right?”
“Lights off in the vampyre hall,” Adano singsonged.
“I used your AI to mute the microphones in this room and linked the active microphones from chamber fifty-six so that nothing appears out of place. The words we exchange are no longer an issue, but Ednis is watching, so hiding mouths is our priority. I also told Ednis that yesterday’s outcome was nearly impossible because you were bound. That’s why you aren’t bound now. I convinced her you wouldn’t fight me.”
I resisted the urge to bite, to draw blood and inject my venom. Some feral part of me wanted Adano writhing underneath me. My body demanded I sate that hunger in my core. My body pulsed again. It was a tremor. My teeth chattered hard enough to crack. If I didn’t take him, my body would rip itself apart.
Ignore it.
I shuddered when Adano’s lips brushed my ear. “That’s one way of doing things.”
“What would you have done?” I hissed.
“Checked the chamber schedules for one. Hopefully, you did that and didn’t link audio to a dead room.”
“I was under some time constraints, wild.”
“I know you’re a brawler, but you’re supposed to be thorough, aren’t you? Use your head. I thought you wouldn’t have any problems with the DA’s assistance, but I overestimated you. You didn’t record fake login and logout times from your personal account either, did you?”
I fell silent.
Adano chuckled, short and sharp. “Gods, seriously? This is basic-as-shit stuff.”
“You’re an arrogant bastard. Did you forget I can kick your ass?” I raised my knee, pressed it into his stomach so his back was intimate with the wall. His muscles hardened to meet me, to push back on the pressure that would have been very uncomfortable if they had stayed soft.
Hard.
“Tell me about Ivy Tins,” I said.
His defenses faltered. My knee jammed into his soft stomach, and he heaved. “Where did you hear that name?” Adano wheezed. “Digging into my past, monster?”
He hadn’t known everything I’d find when I logged in as the MC. “Hearing” Ivy Tins’s name had been unavoidable.
Adano’s teeth grazed my ear. His fangs were oddly cold, like ice. “Back off if you don’t want me to puke all over you.”
I lowered my knee but grabbed the snowy hair at the nape of his neck and yanked, forcing his chin upward, exposing the expanse of his pale neck. I didn’t know why I did it. I wouldn’t give in to the urge to bite him and take him. I didn’t want to do that again. I couldn’t…
I swallowed.
The dry, scratchy sensation consuming my throat wouldn’t fade.
Adano tried to move his head, but I was stronger. When his resistance led to me ripping out strands of his hair, I grabbed the back of his neck instead, locking him into place. He didn’t stop smiling. I wanted to wipe it off his face. The cocky attitude, the arrogance. Was it truth or part of his facade? I told myself it didn’t matter. He was plenty smart and plenty serious. I was walking on needles around him. If I didn’t distribute my weight evenly, he’d skewer me.
I introduced my nails to vulnerable skin and Adano cringed.
My mind filled with fog. I couldn’t turn my eyes away from his neck. The pounding of his heart, there, beneath his skin. Piercing his flesh and injecting my venom would be enough to make him perform. It was enough before. Whatever I needed, he’d give me. And I needed.
This heat. Am I bleeding?
No, I wasn’t bleeding. I was wet and getting wetter by the second. My arousal coated my thighs, dripped down to my knees.
I snapped.
I bared my fangs and pulled on a loop of the silver wreath knot holding Adano’s robes together. The fabrics fell open, shimmering and silver, but I wanted them gone. My nails tore through them, shredding them to ribbons.
Adano caught my wrists. “We’re not done talking.”
I couldn’t process his words. I tore out of his grasp, assumed a proper barakor stance to block him, and pressed my right palm flat against his stomach. His muscles jolted underneath my touch. Hot breath puffed out of his mouth. I traced his pelvis to his soft flesh. Soft. How could he be soft when I was on fire?
CHAPTER 26
LISETTE
Adano’s clawed fingers darted for my throat, but I smacked his hands away. So, he kicked. He didn’t get his leg up higher than an inch before I jammed my knee into his thigh. He winced. I drilled in, though I knew I should stop. I’d break one of his bones at this rate.
Adano panted. “You said you’d be able to control yourself, so control yourself. Or do you want this to end before it even begins?”
An inkling of awareness found its way to me. I banged Adano’s wrists against the padded wall and pressed my mouth to his ear. “I deleted the evidence, too. Along with a cluster of other performance recordings. You have nothing on me and neither do they.”
“That doesn’t matter. You don’t think Ednis will listen to me if I raise a fuss? She will. Risk it if you want, but you’ll do worse than fulfill your role as a vessel.” He spat out these last words. “They’ll kill you. There’s no coming back from that, not even for a slayer.”
I knew that better than anyone.
“Don’t threaten me.” I tangled my fingers in his white hair. I held fast, twisting and pulling so much that I was sure Adano’s scalp was tender. He wasn’t fighting me, but I did it anyway. I’m losing my mind.
I steadied my breathing and added, “I have a plan, so listen closely. You said to blow things up. I will, and I’ll let loose all of Silver Hollow’s prisoners for added chaos. It’ll distract most of the guards, and I have the necessary skills to fight through the rest of them.”
“Fuck that.” Adano huffed. “You’re regurgitating what I fed you. How many times do I have to tell you to get creative? Besides, humoring you and your shitty proposal, how would that help you reclaim your slayer rank, huh? It wouldn’t. You’d still wind up dead unless you fled Silver Hollow.”
“If I
shut down the system, kill the necessary guards, wipe clean all evidence, it won’t ruin my plans. I’ll return to my rightful place as White First.”
“You’re lying, monster. You made up that haphazard scheme on the spot to appease me, but I’m not an idiot. You’re trying to hold all the cards in this game, but you can’t. You won’t.
“You doomed yourself when you brought me in on your intentions to escape your vessel duties. Now you have a best-case scenario, where you get what you want, but you also have a worst-case. The middle road has crumbled. Help me or die.”
I pinched his earlobe between my teeth. “You say that, but no matter what happens, if you want any chance at winning this ‘game,’ you’ll have to trust me. Because you want to leave Silver Hollow so badly and can’t accomplish that on your own, I do hold all the cards.”
My addled brain made conversation difficult, but I had enough sense to keep quiet about ESCAPE. If Adano had known about that, he would have brought it up. I was sure of it.
“Trust you?” Adano scoffed.
So defiant. His attitude made the heat in my core flare. The consequential smoke chased away my thoughts. I had to speak now and “perform” quickly before I suffocated.
I was breathless as I said, “You don’t have access to the information I have, so you can’t know if any proposal I make to free you is legitimate or not. Everything you’ve said is a bluff. You won’t fuck me over unless you’re positive I can’t or won’t help you. But will you ever know that for a fact? You’ll never pull the trigger. You’ve already decided to trust me.”
Adano worked his tight jaw until it popped. “I hate you.”
My tongue was cotton, but I managed to say one more thing. “I’m about to make you hate me more.”
I couldn’t resist anymore. I opened my mouth wide and clamped down on his neck, teeth cutting in deep. But I didn’t release my venom. My mouth was dry. No venom sizzled on my tongue. I tried to release it, but my venom wouldn’t come. I needed it to come or else Adano wouldn’t perform. My body buzzed, my gums heated up, but I couldn’t find my venom. Maybe I hadn’t had enough time to fully recover, but I should have had something.
Vampire Captives (From Blood to Ashes Book 1) Page 13
