Imprisoned Read online

  “Thank you.” Malik nodded at her—then his nostrils wrinkled and he inhaled deeply, frowning. He turned to Lathe. “Why is there a female here among the male prisoners? That cannot be safe for her.”

  Ari’s eyes widened.

  “He knows? You told him?”

  “Of course not—I smelled your scent,” Malik told her. “There’s no mistaking the scent of a ripe female.” He frowned. “You’d better be careful, you know—I’m not the only one here who can sniff out a female. The lashers who roam these halls at night can get very aggressive if they smell a female’s musk. My Mistress Hellenix had to sign multiple statements swearing they were going to be used at an all-male facility and no females would be around anywhere.”

  Lathe sighed. How was it this other Kindred could tell at once that Ari was female while he himself had struggled to come to the realization?

  Maybe because I trusted my eyes instead of my nose, Lathe told himself. That damn solid-holo projector of hers had me completely fooled. In the future, he promised himself to remember which sense was more reliable.

  “It’s all right,” he told the Volt Kindred. “Ari is with me—I’m protecting her.”

  “See that you do.” Malik frowned. “And give my regards to Commander Sylvan. I hope you may be in time to save him.”

  “Who?” Ari asked, frowning but just then they all heard the strident voice of Mistress Hellenix drifting through the crack in the door.

  “Malik, where are you? I insist that you come here to me at once!”

  The big Volt Kindred made a face.

  “Duty calls.” He left the room swiftly and Lathe and Ari followed.

  “So it’s settled then,” Mistress Hellenix was saying as they came back into the room. She was lounging in her chair at the head of the dining table, looking like a cat that had gotten entirely too much cream. “There is already an operative in place to carry out our plan. I’ll send out the dispatch tonight, giving them the go-ahead. By tomorrow or the next day at the latest, it should be done.”

  “Here, here! To Mistress Hellenix—our problem-solver.” Mistress Jankypoo raised a delicate blood-crystal goblet and the other Mistresses copied her motions, cheering as they did so.

  Lathe pretended to go about the business of refilling wine glasses as the Mistresses chattered and talked but inside his mind was racing frantically.

  Tonight? She’s putting out the hit on Commander Sylvan tonight? We have to get out of here! I’ll have to give the nanites the command to finish the tunnel at once! We can’t wait any longer.

  Of course that would mean tripping the prison’s escape alarms but that couldn’t be helped. He would wait until he and Ari started down into the tunnel in the Infirmary before he gave the command for more rapid digging. Hopefully they could time it so they were exiting the tunnel before the Horvath guards were alerted.

  Hopefully.

  Thirty-Seven

  “Come on—hurry!” Lathe pulled Ari along faster, one big hand yanking her by the arm as he dragged her back down to their cell.

  “What’s going on? Why are we in such a rush?” Ari demanded. The big Kindred had been agitated ever since his private meeting with the other Kindred warrior—the one with the silver eyes. She wished he would slow down a little. She was so damn tired and the place where Tapper had scratched her with his knife, just below her left ear, itched fiercely.

  “I’ll tell you when we get to the cell,” Lathe ground out. “But for now, can’t you hurry?”

  “Are you worried about the lashers coming out?” Ari asked. “I thought you said Mukluk set the system so that the cold air wouldn’t start blowing until thirty minutes after the last of the Mistress’s ships has left. That should give us plenty of time to get to your cell.”

  “Yes, it’s enough time to get to our cell and let the sensors inside check us in for the night,” Lathe growled. “But we have a lot further to go than that before our grace period ends.”

  “What do you mean a lot further to go?” Ari asked but just then they got to Lathe’s cell and he pushed her inside.

  “All right,” he said, pulling her towards the door almost as soon as they’d gotten inside. “Come on—we need to get to the tunnel before the frigid air starts blowing to wake the lashers. Thirty minutes should be enough but I’d rather not push it.”

  He started to leave the cell but Ari was rooted to the spot.

  “Tunnel?” She looked at him, uncomprehending. “What tunnel?”

  “Damn it, the escape tunnel I’ve had nanites digging under BleakHall for the past six solar months,” Lathe growled. “I’m going out tonight and you’re coming with me. But since the lashers would like nothing better than to make you a midnight snack, we have to go before the cold air starts blowing.”

  Ari took a step back from him, her arms crossed over her chest.

  “I’m sorry Lathe, but I… I’m not going.” She couldn’t believe the words she was saying but she knew they were true. And she prayed she had the conviction to follow through with them.

  “What?” Lathe looked shocked. “What are you talking about? If anyone else finds out what you really are you’ll be dead or worse inside of five minutes.”

  Ari lifted her chin. “Don’t you think I know that? After Tapper…” But she shook her head, unable to go down that road. She swallowed hard. “I’m sorry, Lathe, but I’ll have to take my chances. I can’t leave here without Jak—I can’t go without my brother.”

  “Your brother?” His turquoise eyes widened. “You mean your brother is here in BleakHall? But you never told me that! Then again, you never told me a lot of things,” he added darkly, frowning.

  Ari sighed unhappily.

  “I know you’re still angry with me for deceiving you about who I really was but try to see things my way, Lathe—I didn’t come here for you. I infiltrated BleakHall to save my big brother. I even had a plan to get us out…” She grimaced. “You can probably tell that didn’t go very well, but I still won’t just leave Jak here to rot.”

  Lathe raked a hand through his hair distractedly.

  “Fine, you can bring him with you—where is he?”

  Ari bit her lip. “Locked up in the hole,” she said in a small voice. “But I can get him out—I know I can,” she went on quickly. “I’ve been working on the wiring that controls the locking mechanisms and it’s almost fixed.”

  “Almost fixed?” He shook his head. “Ari, I don’t see how this can work. Unless you can get down into the hole, free your brother, and bring him back to the Infirmary in less than half an hour, you’re both going to be lasher food.”

  “Then I’ll just have to stay.” Ari tried to make her voice calm and was proud when it only trembled a little bit. “Jak will be out of the hole in another month or so. If I can just make it that long…”

  “You won’t make it another day now that damn disguise of yours has failed,” Lathe said roughly. “What are you going to do the next time you go to the shower? Ask all the other males politely not to look?”

  “I’ll just keep washing myself in the sink.” Ari lifted her chin defiantly. “That way no one will see me, uh, without my clothes.”

  “That might work if you were allowed to stay here in this cell,” Lathe pointed out. “But you’re not a trustee, Ari. The minute I’m gone, they’ll bust you back down to general population. And believe me, there are no private bathing or toilet facilities there.”

  Ari thought of the open stalls with no doors and the round, stained fixtures that served as rudimentary toilets she’d seen in cell block E. Lathe was right, she realized with a sinking heart. Pretending to be male here at BleakHall was going to get a whole lot more difficult once Lathe wasn’t here to shelter and protect her and keep her in his private trustee cell.

  Still, she didn’t want to leave Jak.

  “Lathe please,” she pleaded. “Try to put yourself in my shoes. If your brother was still alive, would you want to leave him here? You told me he died here in B