Chapter 10
Kiera
Morning sunshine on the newly fallen snow was blinding.
Some crèche matrons made their charges work out and spend the rest of their time primping to be beautiful for the Vampyren men to choose amongst.
The wizened one in charge of her crèche didn't appear to follow that philosophy.
What Kiera had taken the first day for being muscle and strength had in truth been a hard body that maybe had calcified and a spirit that definitely had.
If the girls under her charge wanted to let themselves go and become fat and useless to the Vampyren, she figured they'd escaped in a way.
Should they get away with it, good for them, though her ‘good for them’ was in an apathetic, couldn't be bothered sort of way.
The only time she cared was if one girl became special to a warrior or any of the Vampyren and then she worked that girl.
And only that girl.
It was a well-known secret to everybody but the vamps themselves and the girls kept it only because it allowed them to police themselves. Diets, make up, clothes choices and how desirable to be were up to them, the same as they had been in the "real world."
With the same results. Girls with initiative looked good and were healthy. The others weren't.
The other result was equally predictable, but tiresome, Kiera found.
Left to their own devices, cliques formed and bullies roamed.
Lily, Michelle and Davida were roommates and kind of friends, but not enough to provide protection against Sydney and her crew.
Sydney had chosen Kiera for her new chew toy, the scapegoat she loved to hate.
If there were some way to appeal to her sense of hatred and turn it on the Vampyren, she thought Sydney would be a good choice to start fomenting a revolution right under the vampires' noses. But all Syd wanted to do was be on top of her own minute and pointless kingdom.
Lily, Michelle and Davida were beaten. They only wanted to survive into whatever the next phase of the invasion would be.
Kiera wasn't sure that was a goal they could attain.
The Vampyren didn't like rebellions – no conqueror does – but they disliked lapdogs, too.
Yes men or yes women didn't go over with them.
Kiera's initial show of strength had caught the eye of both Loren and his brother, Sav.
She didn't know if she could do the same with the Council or any of the other space vampires or if she even wanted to try, but she kept it in mind that laying down and being passive annoyed her captors as much as standing up for herself did, so she might as well be true to herself.
Which worked for the time being.
Two days after her first time with Loren he came back. The time had been impenetrable and interminable, full of absolutely nothing but some concern that she'd done something wrong and he wouldn't come back.
She told herself she was only worried because obviously he was going to take care of her to some extent.
That was the only reason she cared.
He took her into one of the bedrooms but didn't touch her. By then her heart was pounding hard enough he could hear it. In the past that had been a cliché or exaggeration.
In the Vampyren-filled world, it was truth.
Loren reached across the distance between them and put one hand over her heart. It didn't still it in the least, but he smiled then.
"It beats faster when I touch you."
There was no way it was a good idea to admit to that. She did so anyway.
His smile deepened. His race didn't look quite right when they smiled. Like they'd learned the expression just to reassure – or pacify – humans. "I shouldn't touch you then. It's going quite fast enough."
The tension inside her burst. "Do you not want me anymore? Did I do something wrong? I thought that – I mean, for me it was – I mean – " She looked up and saw by his expression that though he made no sound, likely he was laughing at her. "Fuck!"
"You do it quite well," he said, both reassuringly and interestedly. "But now, I'm afraid, is not the time."
She almost asked him about pheromones but they'd been together and he hadn't used them and he could tell what she thought about him by eavesdropping on her body's autonomous systems. Instead, she said simply, "What's wrong?"
He nodded as if her guess didn't surprise him. "I have to go away."
Her involuntary movement carried her all the way into his arms. They were both surprised but he didn't let go. Instead, he pressed her against his chest where she listened to the beating of his double hearts and thought the sound shouldn't be this comforting.
"The council is sending me on a mission. It's to find more of the people who killed the warriors in Sav's unit."
"Why not send Sav?" The instant she said it she realized it was none of her business and less of her concern.
If nothing else, she should be silently rooting for those who had killed some of the invaders.
But they'd made everything more difficult.
Being separated from her family was torture.
Only once had her phone worked and then her mother had barely told her anything because she kept crying and her father was asleep and Kate and Will out scavenging so she was stuck with her overly emotional mother.
"You shouldn't just blurt things like that. The others will hurt you."
She held her chin up and tried to pretend she didn't care, but when he said, "And me, for not having had the sense to control you."
"I'm sorry," she said instantly.
He shook his head. "It hasn't happened yet. We'll worry about it if it does. Just, be careful, Kiera." He drew her closer, pressed her head to his chest again and played with her hair. "I want you here waiting for me when I come back."
The kiss he gave her was hotter than summer despite the coolness of his mouth.
It shouldn't have mattered to her that he was going away. It shouldn't have mattered that he wouldn't be there and she wouldn't see him, not at all except in the way that he was looking out for her.
Otherwise, it shouldn't have mattered to Kiera where the fuck Loren was. Or wasn't.
But it mattered.