CHAPTER ONE
Acid rippled through my veins.
Blood streamed from my nose.
I screamed and the sound echoed back tenfold.
This time they would finally kill me, I was sure of it. Pain was all I knew now—it was my only companion—but I was sure if given the chance, I would want something more than death.
“Again. His sedation is in full effect,” a voice said and another bolt of agony jolted through my veins.
My muscles burned and I snarled, baring my teeth through the muzzle they’d placed on me however many cycles ago. I could just make out the male closest and his light blue skin paled to a sheer gray. He jumped back a step as I screamed, my back arching off the metal chair I was chained to.
“Any more and we’ll kill him,” the male said to his superior.
The man I could not see hummed thoughtfully while I panted and tried to remember where I was and how to end this agony. It was simple, so fucking simple, and yet I could barely string two thoughts together.
“Once more just—” the rest of his words were lost in a series of sharp beeps. “Yes? What? Maker…Yes…Right away.”
The closest male turned his back to me and my teeth ached to bury themselves into the back of his neck. “What is it?”
“Senator Torion is dead. Hollumum is calling for an emergency meeting on level thirty-six.”
Senator Torion…Hollumum… The names pricked through the heavy fog in my mind, but I couldn’t find their meaning. But the other man did from the way he bolted to the door, the first close behind. Silence fell in the now empty room and I flexed my hands against the chains bolted to the floor.
I was alone.
A soft hum filled my veins, almost like a melody in time with the steady dripping of blood onto the floor.
I blinked and the room came into focus, the table of instruments near enough to tantalize but not close enough to reach.
But I eyed the syringes and small bottles full of whatever they’d been pumping into my veins through the port in my arm.
The scent of my blood was everywhere, mixed with a harsh chemical cleaner and the faint traces of the men who’d just left. No one else, but I knew there were others and that I was not the only one here. But I couldn’t quite remember where here was.
I took a deep breath, wincing at the pain radiating from the left side of my chest down into my arm.
Black, jagged markings marred my skin, starting from the inside of my wrist up to my sternum, mirrored on the other arm by the same pattern.
I blinked, trying to remember when it was I’d gotten them—long enough ago it was all a blur.
A hazy memory that came into greater focus with each moment.
I could barely recall the agony of that day, but still there was something there.
When they’d first tried to give me the ability to manipulate matter the first round had burned until I’d lost consciousness.
But the second and third had brought about those markings.
Manipulate matter.
I sat up a little straighter, groaning as the chains tugged on my wrists as more awareness trickled in.
I was on Prymar VII, a satellite planet orbiting Nycium that used their prisoners for the Federation’s less than admirable experimentations.
My hands flexed again and more memories slipped through the fog.
The pain, coupled with the hazy recollection of instructions, my screams, the tang of blood on my tongue.
Endless cycles of torture and agony until I barely knew who I was anymore.
It could have been minutes or hours later, but suddenly my head broke the surface of the fog.
Everything came rushing back, including what the drugs had been forcing me to forget.
The corner of my mouth curled up, the humming in my veins turning into something different, something dangerous, and it felt too damned good to ignore.
My fingers spread wide and I quickly clenched them into fists, focusing on where the cuffs connected.
As easy as breathing they fell away with a thunk onto the floor, splashing in the pool of my blood.
Slowly, I pulled my arms in, rubbing at the deep cuts on my wrists where they’d sliced through my skin, my grin growing as beneath my touch, they knitted back together.
I pinched the tube connected to the port in my arm they used not only to experiment on me, but also to feed me, and pulled it out, the port itself following a second later.
I closed the wound and shook out my arm to release the tingling numbness.
It took me a moment or so to rise since I was so rarely allowed to stand without shackles. I tested my weight on my bare feet, the cool metal humming beneath my skin, whispering secrets to me I shouldn’t know and yet I did. Because this power should not be mine, these abilities should not be mine.
Not that I gave a damn. I would take it and more before this was over.
I surveyed the room again. Nothing in here of use except for a few needles, but I grabbed the largest one anyway and stalked toward the door.
My palm flattened against it and I paused, closing my eyes and breathing deep.
Metal groaned and the panel to my right beeped before the lock disengaged and the door hissed open.
Silence greeted me as I moved into the empty hall and I followed my instincts, taking a right and following the narrow path.
Bright halo orbs lined the ceiling and I fought the urge to shield my eyes from the glare.
I turned left, noting the empty rooms filled with the same sterile metal chair and hooks for chains as the room I’d left had been. But there was no one else.
My grin returned when I found the turbo lifts, touching two fingers to the keypad and slipping inside.
What was it they’d said? Oh, yes. Level thirty-six.
Easy enough to program the request. I hummed under my breath, rolling the needle between my fingers as I dropped through the core of crafted planet.
The lift came to a smooth stop and I ran a hand through my hair, grimacing at how long it was, but that would have to wait.
Level thirty-six was much nicer than where I’d been.
The sound of Haptium music tinkled through the hall and I bobbed my head in time with the beat as I sauntered toward the large room at the end.
There were easily thirty to forty beings inside, all gathered around some sort of hologram.
I lifted my free hand and twisted my fingers, brows ticking up when no one turned at the sound of the doors opening, but no matter.
“…explosion in the early hours of the morning. No survivors,” the hologram said.
Forty-four in the room, not thirty. But these were all researchers and doctors, none of the hired security they used to transport me from one room to another. I leaned against the door frame, sighing heavily. “No survivors, what a shame.”
Heads jerked in my direction, soft screams slipped through thin lips, but maker was it music to my ears. I smiled and wiggled my fingers in the semblance of a wave. The ones closest to me stumbled back and I was just able to see the male I’d snapped at before.
I pushed off the door frame and threw the syringe, catching one male in the back of the hand right before he pressed a bright blue button on a wall panel beside him. His scream ripped through the silence and the blood in my veins thrummed with excitement.
This would be fun.
Another stepped forward, their translucent skin turning a lavender hue with their increased pulse. He lifted his hands slowly, taking a few steps closer. “How did you escape?”
I pursed my lips, tilting my head to assess him, this was Hollumum if my memory was correct—he oversaw the testing portion of my torture and modifications. “What an interesting question and not the one you should be asking.”
A furrow formed between his brows but his heartbeat gave him away, as did the bitter, acidic scent crawling through the room. Fear. So much fear I could fucking bathe in it.
“All right,” he said carefully. “Then what question should I ask?”
But he made the mistake of flicking his gaze to the left. I exhaled and the doors closed behind me, the quiet beep of the locks engaging pulling at the corner of my mouth. My tongue pressed into my cheek. “Try again.”
A small murmur broke out around the room and I wondered who would find their bravery first. Only a heartbeat later a younger Silomen male rushed forward, a growl slipping through his lips.
I smiled, flicking out my hand to catch him around the throat before twisting my fingers.
The sound of his spine snapping bounced around the walls and I flung him at their feet.
“Try. Again.”
Hollumum swallowed thickly. “W-what do you want?”
“What do I want?” I repeated thoughtfully, flexing my fingers. “There’s a lot of things I want but to begin…this.”
I lunged forward, catching the closest male and snapping his neck as easily as I had the first. The next attempted to run but I closed my hand over his shoulder, spinning him to face me before giving him the same treatment.
But it wasn’t enough. It was too quick, too clean, though I knew there was no way to savor the kill in a group this large.
So I culled the herd until less than half remained, the bodies piled up around us while the survivors slammed their fists against the locked door and pressed the emergency button to no avail.
I hummed the same, strange melody under my breath.
“I also want to leave this place,” I continued, finding Hollumum still frozen in the very same spot I’d left him.
I could see the entire golden orb of his irises. Sweat gleamed across his translucent skin, the gilded veins beneath pulsing in time with his frantic heart. “I-I can get you a sh-ship.”