Chapter 21
Danton
Danton heard the rumors as facts. He was still one of the golden warriors, praised for bringing down the number of female rebels that he had.
What they didn't know was that two of those rebels were currently in his quarters, or had been until he'd been forced to move them into the breeding pools himself, walking them down in plain sight as if they were just two more bodies for the program.
Hiding them in the general population. It was the only place left where the commander's eyes didn't reach.
"You'll have your pick at the fete tonight," the commander said. He looked tired and dispirited as Danton felt.
Neither of them would ever admit it.
Danton would never admit that the idea of slaughtering the women, the ones with the spirit and the daring, sickened him.
The commander's office smelled like blood.
It always smelled like blood. A carafe of it sat on his desk, dark and thick, the way the older officers preferred it.
Danton's stomach turned. He'd been drinking less.
He told himself it was discipline. Told himself warriors didn't need to feed as often as the rest of them.
He knew it was something else.
"Maybe even that little one you kept," the commander added and now Danton thought he was being watched. Tested. Golden warrior or not.
His expression didn't change. He'd spent a lifetime in the royal court on his home world learning not to react. His father had beaten that into him early. The court was full of predators. Earth's military was no different.
"I've been trying to get information from her," he said in turn. There wasn't a Vampyren among them who didn't jockey for power and position; getting info from her would have netted him a promotion.
"She's no longer with you," the commander said and that was a question.
"No. I should have said I was trying to get information."
"Did you?" the commander asked with suspicion.
"She didn't talk." He hadn't asked. "And besides — " might as well go for veracity — "It wasn't all talking."
The commander smirked. "If she knows something, we should question her."
"She hasn't talked before." To you, he added, not letting his face reveal his thoughts. "But she might to me. If I bring her friend out. She was picked up in the raid."
That got the commander's attention. It was a gamble, one that might pay off and might get her killed and might get him killed.
It had to be worth it. Things were starting to spin out of control.
The women in the breeding pools were training.
He'd seen it. The whole basement was turning into something between a prison yard and a military academy and nobody in command had noticed because nobody in command bothered to watch them.
They dropped food, they pulled women out for breeding, they counted heads.
They didn't watch what happened in between.
Cassi would have noticed. Cassi noticed everything.
He had to do something and Cassi would never leave without Brecca.
"We'll set it up."
That sounded bloody. If Brecca got killed, Cassi would never forgive him.
"Bring them both here." He tapped his phone and Danton's photo went out to every soldier, every guard: Allowed in to the pens to bring out more than one of the women. "And then we'll question them and — "
But the far door to the office opened and one of the guards came in, talking fast, something about an insurrection in the tank farm nearest the school and the commander bolted, following the soldier, leaving Danton with permission to enter the pens.
The commander's keys.
And a lot of panic.
The hallway outside the office was emptying fast, soldiers running toward the tank farm breach, shouting into communicators, the sound of boots on tile echoing through the school like gunfire.
Nobody was looking at him. Nobody was thinking about the golden warrior and his request to question two women.
This was it.
He knew it the way he knew a sandstorm was coming on his home world — the air changed. The pressure shifted. Everything moved toward a single point and the only question was whether you moved with it or got buried.
He ran for the breeding pools.