Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

Vennkor

F or most of the day, Reke’s commentary on how he would slaughter every single member of our audience fills the hypogeum, and he is never short of subjects thanks to the continuous rotation of patrons to the viewing platform. He takes great time considering every aspect of the room, of the platform, of his subjects. He never once repeats a method, becoming more creative as he warms to the subject, feeding off the unease that rolls off our audience.

His storytelling is enhanced by the screams of the dying in the Arena overhead and the constant cycling of the cells as more gladiators are sent up.

Nina offers her own thoughts, telling us of the drop bear aliens of her planet, who hide in trees and wait for their victims to walk under them. Then they drop onto their heads and gouge out their eyes with their long claws.

Reke listens, his attention fixed on Nina as if she sits at the center of his entire world. I lean against the back wall of Nina’s and my cell, and let their voices wash over me. If I close my eyes, I can almost imagine the three of us are anywhere but prisoners of the Hov, and an uneasy calm settles in my stomach.

Uneasy because I know this cannot last.

Eventually, the floor of our cell will rise as the Hov send Nina and I into the Arena. And when that happens, I will do anything in my power to protect her. And if I die protecting her … Well, I must trust that Reke will look after her when I am gone.

But the Hov do not send us up this day. Nor Reke. And then the Arena falls silent, the viewing platform empties of patrons, and the three of us are the only ones left in the hypogeum. I might have thought the Hov had forgotten us except that they bring our dinner (indecipherable mush for Nina and me; raw meat for Reke), and then abandon us again to the silence of the night.

Something of my worry must be evident, even though I keep my face expressionless, for Nina crawls along the slippery floor and presses a chaste kiss to my bare shoulder, the highest part of me she can reach while on her hands and knees.

“You’re catastrophizing. It mightn’t be as bad as you’re imagining. Just because they’ve left us here again.”

“You cannot know that.” I wish each of her kisses would leave a scar so that I could trace the progression of her touch over my body, instead of being able to trace my own destruction.

“No, I can’t,” she agrees with a sigh. “But for now we’re together, and that has to count for something. ”

“You are right.” I lift her onto my lap. Even here, she is shorter than me, and she tucks her head under my chin. A perfect fit, except for my slave collar against which she has to rest.

Regardless, my body responds to her closeness. My cock hardens and my skin tingles where she touches. I wish we were skin to skin. I wish I could banish my collar and the cameras as much as I wish I could banish our clothing.

“I know what you’re thinking about.” She presses another kiss to my skin, this time to the underside of my jaw, shifting as she does so that she rubs her clothed leg against my aching and clothed cock. The corners of her mouth turn up. “Even though you rarely allow me the privilege of reading your expression I have realized there are other clues.” Another smile. Another wiggle. I cannot stop the single thrust of my hips, desperate to close all the remaining space between us. Desperate to know what it would feel like to push into her hot quim. Desperate to know exactly how she looks when riding my cock.

“Any emotion other than anger and determination are weaknesses,” I tell her, pushing the words out past the lump of need lodged in my throat.

“You don’t actually believe that.” She leans back a fraction so she can see my face. “Do you?”

“Yes.” All Ves’os know this to be true. We are taught as younglings what it is to be loved, and then we are taught to hide such feelings, for our enemies can turn such emotions into weapons.

“Is this a weakness?” Nina takes my hand and presses it to her chest. I can feel her breast and her beating heart and her breath. It takes me a moment to realize what she is asking, but as I hold my hand still, I feel the pulse of heart increase and I feel her breath catching and I can smell her desire as it pools between her legs.

“Yes.” I speak into her hair, burying my face in the top of her head so that everything I breathe is Nina scented. “But some weaknesses are worth suffering for.”

She does not answer. Instead, she reaches out a hand, and I know without looking that she is holding Reke’s hand through a gap in the bars. We sit like that for a long time, each lost in our own thoughts, connected by touch and anger and, underneath it all, fear.

Everything changed today when the audience laughed at Reke. He accidentally showed them a side of himself they had not seen before, that probably had not existed before Nina. They had laughed at him. Mocked him. Shared videos of him displaying weakness.

But how can I fault Reke when I am making the same mistakes?

A lock clicks, like a shout in silence, and the door to Nina’s and my cage opens. All three of us stare at it. Nina’s kissable lips are parted. My heart hammers against my ribs.

It is a test, my internal voice screams. The Hov are testing you.

Nina stands and takes a hesitant, slippery step toward the open door, and I think she is thinking similar thoughts to me, but those thoughts do not stop her.

Reke is as still as I have ever seen him. If I were to blink, I think he might just disappear into shadows.

“Has this ever happened before?” Nina’s voice is a whisper, but it sounds loud.

“Never.” I hurry forward, before I can let my fears overcome me. If this is a trap, I do not want her to be the first one out of the cell. I step into the passageway and pause.

Nothing happens.

“Huh.” Nina is beside me. Of course she is. “A malfunction, maybe?” And she reaches toward the viewing platform, her hand sinking straight through where the invisible wall should be. She waves her hand back and forth a few times, then heads for the hypogeum door. “I can’t find the lock.”

I try digging my fingers into the near-invisible gap between the door and the floor as if I could possibly slide the door open using strength alone.

“Maybe we can pick the lock. If we could find it. Do alien doors even have physical locks?” Nina runs her hands over the door, searching for a weakness.

“Each door creates a perfect seal,” I tell her. “If this space station were to be damaged, for whatever reason, the seal of every internal door would be strong enough to withstand the pressure of outer space. You will find no fault.”

“So I’m guessing we can’t break it down.”

“No.”

“And we can’t climb out the ceiling into the Arena. We tried that already.”

“I would not want to climb into the Arena even if that were possible.”

“I guess not.” She drops her arms to her sides. “How do the Hov open the door? I’ve seen them come in and out so many times. Surely there’s got to be some way we can open it. ”

“The—” I clamp my mouth shut.

“What?” She looks at me, examining closely, as if she is as determined to open me as the door. I think I do not show any of my thoughts, but she closes her eyes, resignedly. “Tell me.”

“The control panel is on the other side.” I hate that everything I have said since our cage opened has only been to deny her hope of escape. “Even if there were one on this side, neither of us knows the release code. Nina.” I touch the back of her hand, not quite game enough to interlink our fingers. “If there was any way to escape, I would not still be here, two years after my abduction.”

“Well … Fuck.” She turns her back on the hypogeum door to survey the rest of the room. “Is there no other way out? No other door?” And she slips and slides her way around the walkway, her fingers trailing over the bars of the cells with a slight tap, tap tap. “Nope. I guess there isn’t.” A sigh.

I stay where I am, watching her. It is strange seeing the room from this angle. Everything about it is sickeningly familiar yet different enough that I find my gaze moving from empty cell to empty cell, searching for … I do not know. Some sign to confirm or deny whether this is indeed a trap.

Then there is the click of another lock releasing. It echoes up the smooth walls and bounces off the ceiling, louder even than the first lock.

Keeping low to the ground, Reke steps out of his cell, the claws of his hands and feet clicking against the faultless floor. He is staring at Nina, his tail motionless.

Every muscle in my body tenses .

“Reke?” A furrow mars Nina’s brow, and she reaches toward him even as she glances back at me.

This is not the first time there have been no bars between Reke and I. That was yesterday, when most of the gladiators had been let into the Arena as the Hov had played congenial host to the Guild Ambassador, pretending the Arena was anything but a killing chamber. Yesterday he had needed me to help him protect Nina, although he never said or acknowledged as such. Yesterday, it had been Reke and Nina and I against the rest of the Arena.

Now, here, I am all that stands in his way of claiming Nina for his Mate. Now, here, it is him against me. And I already know which of us is going to win.

He stalks toward me, barely more than a dark silhouette in the shadowy hypogeum.

I want to move. I should move, but my feet feel as if they have been concreted to the floor. I knew this moment would come. I knew one day I would face Reke. Although I had always imagined we would be standing before a crowd of cheering patrons who had all bid on how long it would take him to slaughter me.

My memory takes this opportunity to present me with fragments of the film the Hov made of Reke’s early life—him chasing prey down the underground corridors, him tearing out their throats and consuming their flesh. Their lingering, blood-filled screams.

I swallow, swallowing down my fear.

This was a trap, and I am the bait.

And the Hov will be filming us.

“Reke … ” Nina’s breath catches, and her fear scent spikes.

I push her behind me. Her feet slide on the floor and provide no resistance.

“If you get a chance,” I command her, “leave.”

“What?” She tugs on my arm, trying to get my attention, but I cannot look away from Reke. The indignation in her voice is warmth and coldness alike, spreading through me. She does not want to leave me. But she has to so Reke does not kill her.

I should have pushed her back into our cell. Maybe if we had tried closing the door, it would have locked behind her, and she would be beyond Reke’s reach. But I did not think of it in time, and now he is getting closer, moving between us and the two open cells.

I back up, forcing Nina to back up too. I want to make her promise she won’t interfere, that she won’t watch, but before I can say anything else, Nina says: “Reke, whatever the fuck you’re doing, stop it right now.”

He does not stop. His eyes, one blue, one gold, glow softly. His ears twitch as he listens to our racing hearts.

“You do not need him anymore.”

“Of course I fucking need him. What are you talking about?” That is when Nina ducks under my outstretched arm. I try to catch her, but she must predict my movement and side-steps, using the narrow space to her advantage. One of my shoulders hits a cold bar, almost knocking me over.

“There are no bars between us.”

“This is nothing to do with the bars.” She stops right before Reke and does not even flinch when he grasps her by the throat, his claws pin pricking her perfect skin.

“No—” I begin, but Nina is still talking .

“I know you won’t hurt me, Reke.”

“Nina.” He stares at her unblinkingly.

“And you won’t kill Vennkor either. I know you won’t because I’d never forgive you if you did hurt him.”

His gaze flicks to me over Nina’s shoulder, just for a heartbeat, and for that heartbeat it feels as though I am once again standing under Nina’s spotlight.

I hate that she has put herself between us. But then I think of the words she carved into the wall of her cell in that strange writing I cannot read. Nina and Vennkor were here. I think of how she told me that she is a healer. I think of how she held my hand in the Arena, and I know with a certainty that nearly brings me to my knees that she will risk her life to save me as much as I am for her.

“Reke. Sweetheart.” She breathes his name, suddenly sounding utterly exhausted. All the fight seems to leave her body, and she rests a hand on his chest. I can see it rising and falling with each of his rapid breaths. “I want you both.”