Page 10 of Meteor Storm

Once in the dark passage, two shikari guards with their shock sticks escorted me through the halls to the elevators leading below.

When the sliding doors opened into the habitat wing, I turned to bring the woman to my cell and was diverted.

“No,” one of the shikari said, turning me the other way.

I narrowed my eyes, certain that if they were bringing me someplace other than my private cell, it wasn’t going to be good. Pek-Tol was a cruel trader of rare things, and his sense of honor was as solid as water.

The guards led me into a stone cell with dim, yellow lights fastened to the ceiling and the moment the light hit the woman’s face, she began to stir. The softest whimper escaped her lips, and her eyes slowly began to open. She took in her surroundings as quickly as a barely conscious woman could and then her eyes settled on me, widening with surprise. She wriggled away from me with a yelp. I dropped her legs, letting her feet hit the ground before I coiled an arm around her from behind and grasped her chin, trying to still her before Pek-Tol delivered another shock that would put her back on her knees.

“Stop struggling,” I said.

I pushed her into the cell in front of me, pinning her back to my chest. On either side of me, the guards were ready to poke someone with their weapons.

The cell was primitive and bare save for the glass wall that spanned one entire side of the room. Behind it, Pek-Tol and four others stood peering in at us. When the woman saw them, I could feel her stressed heartrate slamming against my chest. The scent of fear bled from her pores as she raised her hands and clutched my forearm.

“You understand what we want, Tuross,” Pek-Tol said in his irritating language.

“I used my reserves to take her privately,” I argued. “Not in front of an audience.”

“Yes, well, the number of credits my clients here are willing to pay to see you fuck the human overrides your request. Don’t worry. I’ll allow you another one to use later. But she’s exempt.”

“And how can I trust you to honor that if you refuse to honor the request now?”

“You can’t,” he smiled. “But you have no choice.”

He tapped his neck, indicating the collars we wore.

I glared at the transparent barrier between us, wishing my enhanced strength was enough to shatter it so I could get to him. I’d wished it for a long time. I planned the ways I would harm him—the hundreds of ways I could do it to appease the sense of vengeance that had been building inside me. A vengeance I was not supposed to feel let alone act on.

I released the woman and approached the glass, fists coiled tight. When the sharp pain of my shock collar hit me, it would have been easy to drop to my knees, but I remained standing, challenging Pek-Tol to increase the voltage. I could take the pain. Pain was something all monrians learned to understand from a young age. Many times, it was an illusion. A distraction that made us weak. This was no different. Even as every muscle cramped in my body, I remained on my feet, only growing more livid with every pulse and Pek-Tol grew increasingly frustrated. The onlookers whispered among themselves, causing Pek-Tol to smile with pride.

“He’s a magnificent specimen. We have had to update most of our equipment to manage him. He’s engineered to perfection, but do not worry. We have control.” Then his gaze locked onto me again. “What is this pointless unwillingness, Tuross?”

My name sounded like filth on his tongue. I regretted that he ever discovered it because hearing him say it was more torturous than the collar around my neck could ever be.

I didn’t answer him.

When I saw the spectators silently talking amongst each other, I knew he was about to shock me again in an effort to feign control in front of his clients. I braced for the pain, but instead, I saw his oversized eyes shift to my left. I swept my gaze toward the corner where the female was standing. She stared at the glass and the plethora of unfamiliar species behind it, her chest moving with rapid breaths. When she caught me looking at her, I could see her trying to analyze my expression.

Then, like she’d been shot in the stomach, she gasped. Her hands flew up to her collar as a volt of electricity coursed through her body. She tensed for a horrible couple of seconds and then collapsed to the ground. She was given only another second or two of reprieve before her body convulsed again. I could smell burnt flesh in the air. The acrid scent made my nose wrinkle.

“Don’t worry about dirtying your bloodline, or whatever it is you synthetic freaks believe. If she’s even capable of getting pregnant, we’ll terminate the fetus.” He shrugged. “Maybe.”

The female was gasping on the floor, shaking through the pain. Her breathing had become ragged and uneven as she pushed up to her hands and knees. The fact she was still moving meant Pek-Tol had already adjusted the voltage accordingly, but it was still torturous to watch. Just as she was trying to stand, Pek-Tol hit her with another jolt.

Monrians were accustomed to war. Death. Fighting in the name of things that weren’t our own. But watching the female squirm and get brutalized in that way made me ill.

Not that what I was being forced to do would be any better for her. The only true guarantee was that I would not kill her and Pek-Tol very well could. Not because he wanted to, but out of pure ignorance.

I watched the female as another debilitating wave of pain seized her body. Once the shock had subsided, she let out a furious cry and rolled onto her side, helpless. Finally, Pek-Tol allowed her another brief respite, but his eyes weren’t on her. They were on me, waiting to see what I would do.

The woman screamed something in her own language. I understood a few useless words, but mostly it just sounded like she was spitting curses. Something furious and unrelenting. Finding a stone on the ground, she hurled it at the barrier, but it did nothing. The cell was for housing large beasts to use in the games. It smelled of animal filth and that’s all we were to all the prying eyes.

Her retaliation earned her another shock, though. Tears filled her eyes. Another one and she was on the ground again, her strength beginning to wane. Her lids grew heavy and though I imagined she was far from defeated, the collar’s constant abuse had nearly knocked her out again.

Part of me wished it had.

“Either you do it or I toss her to my clients to make up for the credits they’ve spent,” Pek-Tol warned.