8. Chains
EIGHT
CHAINS
Vivian
Folik takes me to the one place I haven’t visited in years, a place I haven’t even tried to enter because I have no excuse for being there without an invitation. Not only that but skulking the corridors of where my mother once worked would put a target on my back now that she’s gone and deemed a traitor. If Father finds out, he’ll assume I’m a traitor too.
Besides housing offices of the higher-level medical staff, this is also where soldiers went to be quarantined after their missions and to be debriefed by those same staff members. Syasku was briefly brought here after his arrival. For all I know, he could have been returned to one of those rooms.
Folik swipes his finger, and the door opens. He looks inside to check that the corridor is clear before turning to me. “There’s no one on the other side. You’re good for now.”
I nod stiffly and walk through the door he holds open for me.
When he doesn’t follow, I face him. “You’re not coming?”
“I’m not interested in risking my job. That would be pretty stupid of me.”
“Right.” Just like I’m doing right now. I shift nervously and glance over my shoulder and down the unfamiliar corridor lined with windows and doors.
“Follow the hallway and take the first right. Halfway down you’ll come across my office, and Laura’s shortly after. You’ll have to break in if you want to get inside. It shouldn’t be too hard since it was torn into and ransacked after she left. As far as I know, no one’s been back since.”
I twitch to run straight to Ursula’s office. “Thank you,” I tell him, not caring one bit about my mother’s old office and what might be hidden inside. I should care, knowing anything that could help me crack Yulen’s DNA code is invaluable, but I hardly think my mother has anything like that just lying around.
His lips twitch. “Remember to put in a good word with Ursula and your father.”
My word won’t matter, but he doesn’t know that. “I’ll remember.”
“If you get caught, this never happened.” He points his finger back and forth between us and steps back to release the door. When he’s gone, I turn back around. It’s quiet, the hallway empty except for the framed prints up on the walls.
Trying not to make a sound, I start down the hall, bypassing the first right to Folik’s and Mother’s offices except to briefly pause and peer down that way. Stamping out my curiosity, I move on and take a left at the next intersection, my gaze flicking across the names taped to the doors beyond. Some are new, but most are faded and peeling, and the names printed on them are difficult to read.
I check them as I walk by, keeping my ears open for any sound that someone might be coming.
When I come across Ursula’s name at the end, I do a double take, making sure my eyes aren’t lying to me.
Dr. Lynn Ursula.
There’s only one.
That was easy.
Here, like the rest of the doors, a digital code or keycard is needed to open it. My nerves crash back into me now that I’m standing before her door, wiping away any remaining courage. I waver, afraid Ursula will appear, and I’ll get in trouble for nothing.
Slowly approaching the keypad, I study the buttons on it, hoping there would be some tell for which are used most, and instead find them clean and intact. When that doesn’t work, I try the handle, hoping I’ll get lucky. Stepping back to look around for something to use to break in, I notice that the office next to Ursula’s is Shelly’s, Ursula’s executive secretary. I try to open Shelly’s door next, and it sticks.
Berating myself for not thinking this through better, I pause between the rooms, waiting for an epiphany.
I’m not going to get into either office, and if I start punching buttons, I’m going to trigger an alarm.
But I’m here, and even if I can’t get into the offices, I should still investigate. Leaving empty-handed would be disappointing.
Suddenly the doors to my left open, and Shelly steps out. “Wait here,” she says to someone in her office. “Let me make sure the way is clear before I take you down.”
I dash the way I came and duck around the corner. Flattening against the wall, I hide within the shallow alcove of another door. Shelly walks past my corner and continues down the hallway in the opposite direction. Creeping from my spot, I peek around the corner as she swipes her keycard at another door and enters the room beyond.
When she’s gone, I slump.
I suck in a breath. For weeks I’ve tried forgetting about Syasku. Nothing has worked. This isn’t going to work either. Closing my eyes, my hands clench.
I hear another noise and my eyes pop open. Shelly emerges again, and I’m forced back into my hiding spot. Still oblivious to my presence, she returns to the door she originally emerged from and pulls out her keycard. She opens the door and says something to the person within.
“All clear, let’s go. He’s waiting for you.”
Fleeing back to my alcove, I hold my breath as Shelly walks by again, this time with a woman wearing nothing except a silky black robe. She looks around nervously, and I push deeper into the shadows.
“Are you sure he won’t hurt me?”
“He hasn’t hurt any of the women brought to him. You don’t have to get close unless you want to, he can’t reach you if you don’t.”
He?
Syasku?
Leaning forward to watch them, I stumble and trip, catching myself with my palms on the floor.
Shelly jumps back and faces me, her hand flying to her chest. The woman following her takes a step back. Standing, my pulse wild as a flush rushes over my flesh, I meet their eyes, my lips opening and closing with no words leaving them.
Shelly’s brows furrow when she sees it’s me. “Vivian?”
Swallowing thickly, I look around for an escape route. There’s nothing that could help me, not even an excuse. I’m in trouble. I’m going to be punished. I’ll be put back into solitary with nothing except medical textbooks to keep me preoccupied—possibly for months on end with no closure or comfort, only my guilt and regret to keep me company.
Shelly walks toward me, the keycard pinched between her fingers. “What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be here.”
My eyes zero in on the card. Unable to look away, I know that whatever I do now doesn’t matter, I’ve been caught. But maybe I could still get some closure…
I dash toward her, and to her surprise, I snatch the card out of her hand. She jerks and loses her footing, stumbling to the side and against the wall. Nearly as old as Ursula but far less fit, Shelly huffs, her wrinkled face blanching with shock.
“I’m sorry,” I say, backing toward the woman with the silk robe. “I just need to know,” I whisper.
With the card gripped hard in my hand, I face the other woman. Confusion contorts her face, but she doesn’t stop me as I head to the door and keycard my way through.
Knowing my time is severely limited, I shut the door in her face and turn around.
I’m in a stairwell.
Running my hands over my face and hair, I try to get my nerves under control. Of course, he’s not in here… that would be too easy.
Why there’s a stairwell here, I have no idea. Most floors in this sector are connected by elevators. I approach to see how far down the stairs go. Winding in a circle, there are four floors between me and the bottom.
Clasping the keycard tighter in my hand, I descend. There are no doors between me and the bottom floor, leaving my options limited. I either take this to the end or go back—and I’m not going to do that, not now that I’ve already been caught. When I reach the door at the end of the staircase, I try Shelly’s card and it opens for me. I breathe a sigh of relief.
Expecting a back entrance to some morgue or long-forgotten storage room, I’m surprised to discover an entire corridor much like the one I left Shelly and the other woman in. But unlike the first, this one hasn’t been renovated in a very long time.
Open grates pit the floor, the walls are discolored, the metal rusted through, and the stickers left behind faded long ago. Electrical cords hang from the ceiling with pipework crisscrossing through them.
There’s one door to my right, while on the other side, there’s an abandoned conference room behind a shattered window that’s littered with rotting crates and large metal canisters. I step into the hallway for a closer look. A giant floor-to-ceiling glass view pane just beyond the first door to my right catches my attention. It’s the same type of pane used in interrogation rooms so onlookers could watch without being seen by those on the other side.
Shifting my eyes over it and the door directly beside me, I realize it’s only the left side of the hallway that hasn’t been renovated. The glass view pane and door to my right appear much newer, flawless without cracks, streaks, handprints, or rust. The farther down the hallway I look, the more I’m certain that the entirety of the right wall has been reconstructed. And recently.
I creep closer to see what’s on the other side of the pane. I’m expecting Ursula’s hiding a secret laboratory down here.
I stop dead in my tracks, my throat tightening around a gasp.
At the back of a barren large square room is Syasku. Chains hang from his biceps that attach to the wall behind him. The collar that was put on him the last time I saw him is still around his neck, also connected to the wall by a chain. There are large bands around the middle and lower part of his tail, linked to the wall as well.
I don’t want to believe it’s him, but it is. I step closer to the glass, my heart hammering like thunder in my chest.
His head hangs forward, and the hair that’s fallen forward hides his face. His arms rest loosely against the wall above his head, held up by chains. His tail is loosely coiled under him. He’s settled in the center of the wall and appears to be unconscious or sleeping.
He looks… unhurt. If I hadn’t seen his flayed skin myself, I would’ve never believed it had happened at all. It’s only been a month. His scales have all regrown. Taking another step closer, my lips part as I trail my eyes back over him.
He’s dirty. He seems leaner too, the muscles of his chest and stomach strained despite his tail partially holding him up, and I wonder when it was the last time he was given food and water.
He lifts his head.
I stiffen as his gaze shifts across the floor and upward, landing on me.
His eyes trap me where I stand, and my heart beats faster. Every dark thought, every erotic fantasy of his body pressing against mine comes tumbling back into my head. He would be possessive. He would be rough. Then he would be tender, gentle, and sweet.
He wouldn’t know how to kiss, but then again, neither do I. Heat spreads through me, and my skin warms.
Keeping his eyes locked on mine, he pulls his arms down from the wall and rests his fists below his pelvic region. My eyes drop to where his cock would be if it were out.
My chest tightens, fear returning to my heart, waking up my senses. I shouldn’t have come here; I made a mistake.
I’d hoped to find him but would’ve been happy just knowing he was okay. Seeing him again, dirty and chained up like an animal, is only going to make my punishment worse when I’m locked up for months inside a room, not unlike his. Only smaller, darker. Palms dampening with sweat as a blush burns my cheeks, I take a step away from the window.
“Vivian Volp, shame on you for scaring my secretary.”
I swivel at Ursula’s voice. “I?—”
I falter. Her expression is mischievous as she walks past me and stands in front of the pane.
“What have you done to him?” I whisper, following her gaze into the room and to Syasku in the middle.
I swallow. His eyes are still on me.
At half height, threatening by his mere size up against the wall, his upper body rigid, his tail loosely coiled under him, he’s intimidating. He makes me feel small. More so because his entire focus is on me like he knows it’s me and why I’m here.
He shouldn’t be able to see me, except he does. Despite being on the other side of the room and behind glass, he exudes danger, and I can feel his eyes boring into me. Is he mad at me?
“Nothing except trying to give him what he wants. He’s stubborn, our alien.”
Our… alien?
“Interesting,” Ursula muses, looking over her shoulder and then back at Syasku. “He’s looking at you.”
I shiver, staring straight into his eyes. “Can he see us?”
“He shouldn’t be able to, but I’m certain he sees something. He probably hears us too. I think he’s been waiting for you.”
I meet Ursula’s gaze in the glass, and as a coil of dread constricts around my heart, a satisfied smile forms on her lips.