Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
MARI
Another one of my fellow humans barrels into the side of me as they deposit another pile of plates into the sink, soaking me for the hundredth time and making me grunt in pain.
I’ve tried to ignore them for the most part since I was brought into the kitchens by a thin dragon man who grunted that he was the Commander’s assistant, so I’d better do as he said.
The severe, older human man who seems to be in charge, took one look at me and told me to start washing dishes.
I’ve been standing at this large sink for hours and the dirty crockery seems never-ending.
The others haven’t spoken to me, but when I notice the overseer leave a minute later from the corner of my eye, only a few seconds go by before one of the other girls approaches me.
‘So, you’re the Tribute.’
I nod once, not stopping what I’m doing.
‘Think you’re better than us since you’re mated to two of those monsters, whore?’
I turn to look at her, giving her the once over. She reminds me of the girls who made fun of me because of what my mom did with their dads back at home.
I know better than to give anyone, especially girls like this, any power over me at all.
‘You said it first,’ I mutter.
She splutters but can’t say anything else because the overseer comes back in. He looks suspiciously at us, but I ignore him, just washing dishes like he told me.
‘You. Tribute. What’s your real name.’
‘Mari,’ I answer.
‘You’re done on dishes. Go clean the rooms with Jesse there.’
The one who called me a whore. Great.
She rolls her eyes at me but beckons me to follow her as we leave the kitchen. She takes me to a closet with cleaning supplies.
‘Grab one of the baskets,’ she tells me. ‘I’m guessing you know how to clean.’
I nod.
‘Where you from?’ she asks, clearly curious in spite of herself
‘South. You?’
‘Here. Or at least not too far away. There’s a human trading post.’
I nod. ‘You were taken?’
She snorts. ‘Volunteered.’
I stop what I’m doing and look at her like she’s batshit crazy because why would a human come here of their own free will?
She just shrugs. ‘Get food here and a place to sleep.’
I turn away, wondering what kind of a shithole the human trading post is if she wanted to come to Assault & Abuse Central.
‘Did all the humans choose this?’ I ask.
‘Nope. Only a couple. A few others are third or fourth generation. Their parents and grandparents served here. And the rest got brought in or were traded for.’
‘No other Tributes?’ I ask, just in case the dragons were lying before.
But she shakes her head. ‘Nope. It’s like once every two decades or something like that and the last one died a few years after she got here from some sickness, I heard.
They wait for Tributes for years and possessing one is some kind of honor.
That’s why it’s such a big deal that you’re not being given to Aziel. ’
‘What does Aziel look like?’ I question.
I should probably know so I can stay out of that guy’s way.
But I guess she doesn’t hear because she leads me down one of the corridors and to one of the rooms without answering me. She opens it warily and raises a brow when she sees me clocking her movements.
‘Some of them get pretty pissed if you bother them at the wrong time. Like to take it out on your hide sometimes.’
When she’s sure there’s no one in the room, she leads me into the largest bedroom I’ve ever seen.
There are no windows, but there are old oil paintings and pre-Fall furniture including a glass desk with a computer monitor on it and a bunch of gadgets that I’ve never seen before and would have no idea what they do.
‘You clean the bathroom, newbie. I got the dusting.’
I nod and go into the equally opulent marble bathroom and get to work. Luckily, besides the shit stains in the bowl and the questionable tissues in the trash, it’s not too bad and it doesn’t take me long to finish. When I come out though, Jesse is nowhere to be found.
I frown and gather my basket closer, getting a weird feeling as I look around the room. I feel for Brax, an annoying habit I’ve developed over the past few days without realizing it, but he’s gone. The space he occupied inside me, strangely hollow. He’s too far away, I guess.
I try the door, and my heart skips a beat when I can’t open it. I can’t see a lock, but it won’t budge and there’s a weird little black slot that looks like something thin needs to go in it by the side. There’s a red light on it.
She locked me in here. Why?
Brax and Tor’s words to me only this morning come back to mind about not trusting the other humans and I’m a little annoyed that they were right, though more upset with myself that I thought I might know my own kind better than them.
I pace the room, feeling like a mouse in a cage, my eyes darting around to try to think of something. I look for air ducts just in case, but when I find them, they’re much too small for me to climb through.
I’m in there for thirty minutes. I know because I watch the glowing digital clock slowly counting the time. The door suddenly clicks, and I jump up from where I’m perched on the edge of the bed. The door opens and I tense.
‘What the hell are you doing in here?’ a terse whisper flies at me from the door.
It’s the overseer from the kitchen. The older man.
‘I got locked in,’ I say.
He snorts but then looks at me more closely. ‘You were with Jesse.’
I nod.
He mutters something, shaking his head. ‘You’re new so I’ll tell you this one time and one time only. Some of the humans are loyal to another dragon here. You don’t turn your back on any of ’em, girly.’
‘Like Jesse?’
He doesn’t say it, but his silence is telling. ‘Go to the kitchens,’ he mutters after a moment.
I do as I’m told, going back to the closet first and putting my basket inside. I walk quickly back to where I’m supposed to be, keeping my eyes open and feeling like there are enemies everywhere. Mostly because there are. I have no friends here.
I’m put back on dish duty, but at least it seems like the kitchen is a human area and none of the dragon people come in here.
I see Jesse enter a little while later and do a double take at me, but I ignore her, and she doesn’t say anything to me or ask how I got out of the locked bedroom.
I wash dishes for hours. I have no idea what time it is, or when I’m supposed to work until, but when I ask the overseer, he tells me in an annoyed voice that I work until the work is done. The other humans clear out long before I do though, and I’m left alone in the kitchens working by myself.
‘Maybe it’s like hazing,’ I mutter to myself, hoping that leaving me with the dinner plates is all they’ll do.
When the last dish is done, I realize that I have no idea how to get back to the Commander’s rooms. I poke my head out of the kitchen door and look both ways. They look the same.
When Dreythos’ aide dropped me off here this morning, he told me someone would come and get me, but of course no one has.
I look around the kitchen, wondering if I’m supposed to sleep here, but there aren’t any blankets or anything .
Plus, he told Tor and Brax that I’d be staying with him. I’m sure of it.
He promised he’d protect me.
I frown and pick a direction. Fuck it. I’m tired and this dumb dress they’ve made me put on is thin and cold. I just want to go to sleep.
I dart down the hall silently, glad that they didn’t give me any shoes when they told me to change into the ‘uniform’.
I don’t hear much at first, but then there are echoes of laughter and I find a massive door that I think I recognize.
I crack it open and see it’s the Great Hall I was brought to by that bitch, Raina.
I can’t believe that was today. It feels like forever ago.
I close the door and back away, bumping into something large, hard, and warm.
‘What do we have here? One of the slaves spying?’
I cringe as I turn around to find two of the dragon men. They’re peering down at me. One’s grinning darkly. The other’s eyes are narrow, and he looks angry.
‘I wasn’t spying,’ I answer. ‘I’m just trying to get to the Commander’s rooms.’
The one on the left sniffs. ‘You must be new. Dreythos doesn’t fuck slaves. If you’re found in his rooms, you’ll get a nasty beating.’
His friend nods. ‘Come with us to the Hall instead. We’ll make sure you have a good night.’
I look between them as the left one takes my arm in a firm grip. He doesn’t hurt me, but there’s no getting out of it.
‘You don’t understand,’ I try. ‘I’m supposed to be staying in his rooms.’
They both chuckle. ‘Sure you are. Come on. You’ll be riding my dick and gasping your thanks in no time, slave. You’ll enjoy our company much more than the Commander’s.’
The two dragon men full-on laugh this time and the one holding my arm pulls me. I dig my heels in and he stops.
His friend on the right rolls his eyes. ‘Why are you bothering to cajole her? She has to come with us anyway. Pick her up and come on before the beer is gone.’
He goes to do just that, but his friend puts a hand up. ‘Wait. Do you smell that?’
‘Smell what?’
He leans closer to me and gives a delicate sniff before his eyes widen and he drops me like I’ve burned him. ‘She smells like Brax and Tor.’
So? They must have fucked her first is all. What’s the problem?’
The one on the left smacks his friend upside the head. ‘Don’t you ever know anything that’s happening here? The Tribute was brought in today. Tor and Brax have claimed her. They invoked the Nesting Law. Everyone’s talking about it.’
They both stare down at me.
‘Are you the Tribute?’ the one on the left asks.
I nod hesitantly.
The one on the right pinches the bridge of his nose. ‘That was a close one. Let’s take her to the Commander’s rooms before we get accused of stealing a claimed female, human or not. I’m not getting on the wrong side of Tor.’
His friend laughs. ‘You mean Brax, right?’