Stolen Desire (Outlawed Realm) (6 page)

As though she could. “I’d rather not. I want to talk. I’m not tired.”

“I am,” he said simply. “I need to rest.”

Of course, he did. Paige’s cheeks went hot; she felt like a jerk. He’d just fought off guards, dodged monsters, ran the two-minute mile in thirty seconds and swum faster than an Olympic gold medal winner. It was a miracle he was still breathing. What if he’d hurt himself and was trying to hide his pain from her? “Are you all right?”

She went to him, then quickly lowered her hands before she cupped his face. He might have kissed her like a soldier about to be sent to war, but it could have been a knee-jerk reaction to having survived all the crap on the surface and in the water. It didn’t mean he really wanted her, or should. They were clearly from different worlds. Paige cleared her throat, giving herself a moment to calm down and hide her embarrassment. Beneath it was a building thread of desire. Ignoring it, she said, “Can I help in any way?”

“You can rest. Please. Eeete will help you out of what you’re wearing and will bring whatever you require.” He glanced past her at the sounds from behind. The metal floor rang dully from light footsteps.

A young woman approached, as naked as the others in the dining area, her mound smooth, a rosy glow to her complexion that appeared even more delicate beneath the thick waves of her chestnut hair. The ends hung to her waist. Her breasts were full, a C-cup at least, the areolas tight, the tips long, perfect for a man’s mouth.

She seemed unaware of Paige, her full attention on Zekin. Animal lust burned in her stunning powder-blue eyes, along with a longing so deep it had to be adoration or love.

Paige glanced at Zekin to see if he felt the same about this woman…Eeete. The way he pronounced her name sounded like Eat-eeeeee.

He hadn’t even looked at her. He regarded Paige as he spoke. “This is Eeete. I’ve taught her your language. She’ll do whatever she’s told.”

“Wait,” Paige called out as he strode away.

Zekin paused at the hall’s entrance but didn’t turn to her. Nor did he acknowledge Eeete, who continued to watch him with unashamed yearning.

“Will you be coming back here?” Paige asked.

He nodded.

“When?”

“Later…after I’ve slept.” He continued down the hall.

Only when he was out of sight and his footfalls had faded completely did Eeete approach Paige. Gone was her yearning, replaced by a servile expression, the same as the other pleasure slaves in the dining area.

Eeete ran her fingertips over a seam near Paige’s shoulder.

“Whoa.” Paige flinched as the garment trembled like something alive. However, it didn’t fall away or crawl off of her. “What’s it doing? It’s still on me. What’s happening?”

“I have your permission to speak?” Eeete asked.

Paige frowned at the odd question until she recalled what Eeete was, or had been before coming here. “Of course.” She spoke as gently as she could. “Talk as much as you want.”

The young woman seemed confused.

Paige explained, “It’s all right for you to answer my question. About what this suit—this thing on me—is doing.”

“It’s retreating.”

Finally. The material slid away, rather than morphing into the camouflage clothing that Zekin and his men wore. Apparently, what he’d given her was different from his gear. Within moments, the fabric had puddled at Paige’s feet, leaving her in her underwear. She should have felt chilled but didn’t. Embarrassment heated her body. Those other pods were too close. Eventually, the people who usually slept there would come back. Possibly the perfect pleasure slaves she’d seen, with them being able to look in here.

Right now, Eeete snuck peeks at her. She was an unbelievably breathtaking young woman, flawless in every way, except for her accent that was much thicker than Zekin’s, her words throaty. As though she hadn’t spoken for quite some time.

“Can you bring me some clothes?” Paige asked.

Although Eeete was on her knees folding the material, she pushed up without finishing the task, presumably to get the clothes.

“Wait.” Paige touched the young woman’s hand, not at all surprised at its silkiness. “You don’t have to go now. You can finish. I’ll help.” She sank to her knees.

Obediently, Eeete resumed folding the material, not waiting for Paige to help. She smoothed the fabric, then slipped her palm beneath it.

Paige frowned at the mark on the inside of Eeete’s left wrist. “What’s that?” At first, she’d thought it was a tattoo that looked oddly similar to a manufacturer’s bar code. “May I?”

When Paige lifted Eeete’s hand, the young woman didn’t pull away. She was as obedient as a corpse. Apparently ready for anything…good or bad.

Paige made certain not to make any sudden moves, keeping everything gentle and nonthreatening. On closer examination, she saw that the mark was a series of flat moles or freckles. Strange. “Is this a kind of birthmark?”

“I have your permission to speak?”

“Yeah. Sure. Always. There’s no need to ask again.” What in the world had Eeete been through at the Pleasure Palace and the outpost? “Is this a kind of birthmark?” Paige stroked the strange pattern.

“I don’t know what a birthmark is.”

“It’s a discoloration on a person’s skin. Maybe you refer to it by a different name.” Not knowing what that could possibly be, she asked, “What do you call this?” Again, she stroked the formation.

“My identity.”

Paige stared, then shook her head. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Zekin said it was my genetic code. It’s how the rulers know who I am from all the other slaves.”

Surely that wasn’t possible. “Didn’t they know you by your name?”

“I have no name.”

Paige’s pulse quickened. She felt the strong beat in her throat. “You’re Eeete. Zekin said that’s what you’re called.”

“By him.” She snuck a peek at Paige, then lowered her face once more. “It means woman in our language.”

As comfortable as the temperature was in this pod, surely seventy-five degrees or more, Paige’s skin turned cold and clammy. “How did you come to be in the Pleasure Palace?”

“I don’t know. I was always there. I have no memory of anything else. Zekin tried to explain it to me, but I didn’t understand much of it.”

What could he have possibly told her? “Please, look at me,” Paige said. She touched Eeete’s cheek lightly. It was as silky as the young woman’s hand. “It’s all right for you to do that.”

Eeete didn’t. “Slaves aren’t allowed to look at each other or anyone else for too long. We never speak to each other. It’s forbidden. We’re punished if we don’t obey.”

Paige recalled the slaves in the hologram, their odd behavior with each other, and wondered what kind of monster could have created such an awful world for them. “I’m not going to hurt you,” she murmured. “I promise. Look at me, please.”

A long moment passed as though Eeete needed the time to convince herself to do so. When she did, Paige saw genuine fear in her eyes.

She cradled her cheek. “It’s all right. No one’s going to hurt you. I won’t let them.”

Eeete’s silence, her continued caution, said she wasn’t certain whether to believe or trust. Apparently, she’d placed all her hope in Zekin, maybe because he’d saved her from the appalling world she’d known. She still didn’t move away from Paige. Even if it bothered her to be touched, she didn’t seem to believe she had the right to stop it.

Suppressing a sigh, Paige spoke as kindly as she could. “What did Zekin tell you about where you came from? Where you were born? What about your parents? Where are they?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Your parents,” Paige repeated, lowering her hand. “Your mother. Your father.”

Eeete murmured the words several times, then shook her head. “What is that?”

“I don’t know what you call them in your language.” Clearly, Eeete didn’t understand the English terms. Paige tried to explain. “Your mother and father were the people you loved when you were a child.”

A look of puzzlement remained on Eeete’s face.

“The woman and the man who held you when you were afraid,” Paige continued. “Who worried about you. Who smiled when they saw you.”

“No one did that.”

Huh? Everyone had someone. A mother who gave birth. An adult or adults who fed, clothed and protected the child.

Even as alone as Paige was, she’d had her father for a while, and then she’d hoped to have Johnny, with them building a family, making a baby she could pour all her love into. It was supposed to have made up for her brutal hours at the firm, the partners treating her like shit, as though she had no feelings or needs outside of making them happy.

Of course, it didn’t come close to the ugliness Eeete must have known as a pleasure slave. Her every thought, action, her entire life and future controlled by others.
Poor thing.
“What did Zekin tell you about your past?” Eeete had to be human. She couldn’t be a robot or a cyborg, if those things even existed outside of sci-fi films. She looked too real…while also being too perfect to be real. “How you came to be alive?”

Eeete suddenly brightened. “Our rulers have places where those important to the realm work. Those people study hard to learn all they can about people, so they can create and alter them so each one is different from the other.”

Was she talking about scientists and labs where they did genetic experiments? She reminded Paige of a student repeating a lesson by rote, not understanding much of it.

“My kind grew in artificial…” Eeete paused as if searching for the correct word or memory of what Zekin had told her.

“Wombs?” Paige asked. Seeing Eeete’s confusion, Paige described what she was talking about.

The young woman brightened once more, another rare show of happiness, as though she were pleased they understood each other.

Paige couldn’t comprehend any of this.

“After we were born,” Eeete continued, “the rulers immediately sent us to the Pleasure Palace. My first memories of it are when I was much smaller. I, and others in my group, cleaned the Palace and prepared the food until we came of age. A great time, our keepers said. It’s an honor for the rulers to use or punish pleasure slaves in any way they can. It was why we were born. Our only purpose in being alive. To serve. To submit.”

Chapter Five

Zekin found Qatar and Bruda—the first men Paige had seen here—in the dining hall. He gestured for them to follow him so they could speak without the others overhearing.

Their boots clanged against the metal flooring as they moved through the pods, stopping finally at the intake area where each of them had once stood naked and chained, helpless as the guards whipped them mercilessly, threatening worse if they dared cry out, preparing them for their life sentences here. Letting them know what happened to Vakar’s subjects when they defied him in the least.

The manacles that had once hung from the ceiling hooks were no longer present. Zekin had ordered them removed after he and the other men revolted, taking over the prison, disposing of the hated guards. They hadn’t killed those men with their bare hands, nor had they used weapons on them. There was no need. They’d simply forced the remaining guards from the safety of the prison and its life-giving air, then watched as they’d struggled to hold their breaths so they wouldn’t drown. None of them did. Within seconds, the water creatures were upon them, at first curious, then murderous. They attacked the guards, who could neither breathe nor move quickly enough to escape, tearing limbs from torsos, heads from necks. The feeding frenzy lasted for minutes. To Zekin, it seemed like days. He’d found less pleasure in the brutality than he would have guessed. Nor did he realize a lasting peace.

With his arms crossed over his chest, Qatar leaned against the tall metal counter. Bruda stood next to him, clasping his hands behind his back. Unknowingly, he’d placed his booted feet over the symbols on the floor where he’d once waited for the next lick of the whip that was to have been his only future. His fate. The same as Zekin, Qatar and so many others.

All of them were criminals. To their people, they were the vilest life form possible, men without honor or loyalty to Vakar, their realm’s leader. The populace held only the vampires—that they’d banished from E2 eons ago—in greater contempt.

Qatar was the first to break the growing silence. “Were you able to take out any of the guards?”

His pitch was similar to Zekin’s, the same as his features, though not identical as Paige had assumed, her startled reaction giving away her surprise. Even though all the men in Zekin’s realm looked alike, there were subtle differences, marking each as an individual. Zekin’s baritone was a bit lower than Qatar’s. The man had a mole on his neck but not one on his temple and arm as Zekin did. His hair was a bit wavier. Small distinctions that made each of them unique.

The same was true of Bruda. He was an inch shorter than Zekin and Qatar, a result of a problem with his mother’s pregnancy. His complexion, though olive, was a bit lighter, another mark of a gestational difficulty.

Paige hadn’t noticed the faint disparities. She hadn’t been here long enough to do so. She wanted to go home. She’d said he’d promised to take her there.