Imprisoned Read online

  It was dark and bloody work but Lathe didn’t care. He was feeling in a dark and bloody mood at the moment.

  Lied to me…she lied to me. The litany went round and round in his head over and over—a broken recording that wouldn’t stop playing.

  Just like Talsa—she never really cared. She put me through a fucking emotional grinder, wondering what the hell was wrong with me…asking myself why I wanted another male sexually…how I could fall in love with someone of my own sex. And all the time she was probably laughing at me! ‘Look at the big, stupid Kindred—I’ve got him twisted around my little finger. The idiot loves me even though he thinks I’m male!”

  Deep down, Lathe knew this characterization of Ari wasn’t really fair. After all, it wasn’t like Ari had seduced him, the way Talsa had. In this case, he had approached Ari. Had gone running to save the boy—no, the girl—the minute he heard her voice begging not to be searched by the Horvath guards.

  That’s right I did—I saved him—no, her, damnit, her—saved her from Mukluk and Tapper and every other damn threat in this whole fucking place. I came running when Wheezer told me she was going to the kitchens and Tapper was planning a little “welcoming committee.” I put my life on the line for her and she played me like a fish on a line. Gods, what an idiot I am!

  The angry thoughts—mostly shame and hurt pride—continued to circle his brain relentlessly as he shoved first Fenrus and then Gorn through the meat grinder. There was really no other way to dispose of the bodies since someone was sure to notice if he started digging graves in the Rec Yard, Lathe thought dryly.

  And though it was tempting to leave them lying around as a warning to others, he knew it was in his best interest to try and make Tapper and his closest henchmens’ deaths a mystery. The rest of his gang were intensely loyal to their leader and if they figured out that Lathe was behind his death, they would start coming for him and wouldn’t stop until Lathe was dead or all of them were.

  Since he had no wish to take on fifty hardened criminals at once, Lathe disposed of the bodies and cleaned up the messy blood spatter around the grinder, making certain there were no shreds of fabric from the prison jumpsuits left in its teeth before he left the kitchen.

  It was supper time soon but for obvious reasons he wouldn’t be eating. After that was the Mistresses meeting where he and Ari were supposed to serve. And after that, he had to deal with getting Ari safely back to his cell before the lashers came out.

  But Lathe couldn’t think about any of that now. He was too angry…and too hurt. He went to his cell wondering what he would say if he found Ari there. But he needn’t have worried—she wasn’t there. His cell was empty—as empty as it had been before she’d come into his life, bringing her lies and deception and her big dark, pleading eyes and pretty face with her.

  Lathe felt empty too. Hollowed out and cold as though someone had scooped out his insides and filled his body cavities with ice instead. He collapsed on his bunk with an arm over his eyes and tried not to think.

  He would have to see Ari again eventually but for now, he just wanted to be alone.

  Thirty-Six

  Ari just wanted to be alone.

  Her nerves felt shredded and in her mind’s eyes, she couldn’t stop seeing the gory deaths she’d witnessed in the kitchen. Her head ached and the tiny scratch Tapper had made with his knife, just below her left ear, stung and throbbed.

  But it was her heart that hurt the worst.

  She huddled in a corner of the sub-basement, just outside the entrance to the tunnel which led to the hole. It was the only place she could think of in all of BleakHall where it might be safe to cry.

  Except in Lathe’s arms, whispered a little voice in her head. That made her remember the way he’d held her in the Rec Yard, shielding her body with his own so that no one would know she was grieving and think she was weak. The warm scent of his skin as he comforted her…his big hands stroking her hair and her trembling shoulders…the soft words he’d murmured in that deep, gentle voice of his as he soothed her…

  No, stop it! she told herself savagely. Stop wishing for something you can never have. He hates you now! And can you blame him? You should have told him the truth when you had the chance. Now there’s no chance at all—none—that he’ll ever want you again.

  Where was she going to go tonight? Where could she stay? Ari was almost certain she couldn’t go back to Lathe’s cell—could she? What would he do when he saw her? Probably tell her to take her things and get out. But get out where? Would she be moved in with the general population of the prison? Ari was certain if that happened her secret would be out inside of an hour and she would be dead an hour after that.

  When Lathe was in Rage she’d been afraid the big Kindred might kill her himself for lying to him, but then he had expressed surprise that she would even think that. Well, right before telling her to get out of his sight, anyway, Ari thought dryly. But he had come running to her rescue—she still had no idea how he’d known about Tapper’s attack on her—and he had claimed her over and over again as he fought Tapper and his minions.

  Ari is mine! She could still hear his deep, growling voice in her head and see the flashing red eyes, so terrifying in their fury. Would he really cast her aside so easily after killing for her and claiming her? Would he be willing to let her die even if he didn’t have an active hand in her death himself?

  Ari simply didn’t know. She had known the big Kindred for less than a solar week—although it felt like much longer. Their relationship, if you could call it that, had moved with break-neck speed from fear and distrust to love and longing and back to fear and distrust again.

  I should have told him, she thought miserably. I should have taken a chance and told him the whole truth last night.

  But it was too late for regrets now. Too late to do anything but try to deal with the situation at hand.

  And she had no idea how to do that.

  I should go talk to Jak since I’m down here—I could do that much at least. Say goodbye and explain why I probably won’t be back.

  But she couldn’t bear that—couldn’t tell her older brother whom she had just reunited with that she was probably going to be dead soon. And besides, she couldn’t explain to Jak how she felt about Lathe—about how she regretted fooling the big Kindred and lying to him and hurting him.

  About how she loved him even though it was far too late to talk about love.

  Ari cried herself out and sat in the dank subbasement through supper time, her head on her knees. She thought about just staying there indefinitely and not going back to the main part of the prison at all. Maybe snatching food at meal times and bringing it back down to her new lair. Although even the thought of ever eating anything again that came from the BleakHall kitchens turned her stomach. Still, she had to live…

  It would have been a good plan if not for the lashers. Every once in a while she could hear them stirring in their sleep, the deep, rumbling growls that reminded her of Lathe drifting up through the dark tunnel. If she was still here when the cold air started blowing and they woke, she was dead meat—literally. And while she doubted if being torn apart by a lasher could be more painful than going through the meat grinder like Tapper had, she still didn’t relish the idea of such a death.

  At last she got up and dragged herself to the long flight of steps leading up to the main part of the prison. She would have to go back—there was no other way. Maybe Lathe would let her sleep in the corner of his cell on the floor if she promised to stay out of his way. Maybe—

  Suddenly a large form blocked out the light from the top of the stairway.

  “Ari? Are you down here?” a deep, familiar voice called.

  “Lathe?” She could scarcely believe it. Looking up, she tried to see his face but since the light was at his back, it was still in shadows.

  “Ari, Goddess-damn it!” He came down the stairs three at a time and seized her by the shoulders. “Where in the Seven Hells have you been?” he