He bent down to grab me.
“Wait!” I said.
He snorted and grinned as I struggled. He grabbed me by the ankles.
“Wait!” I said. “Let me make love to you the way I do it with Kren!”
Dreth paused and looked at me with a curious turn of his head.
“Like Kren? He will do it the same way I do. In and out. That’s all there is to it.”
“No!” I said, thinking fast.
This creature was as dumb as they came. Over his shoulder, his door sparked and opened an inch at the top, threatening to open completely.
It might be my way out of there.
But I would need to get past him first.
I scrambled for something I could say that would make the creature listen to me.
What did he want? What was his biggest desire?
Me?
Only right now. How about in the greater scheme of things?
“I can make you the champion!” I said.
Dreth’s scarred hands froze around my ankles.
“Champion?”
“Yes! I can make you the champion of all the other prisoners in here!”
“You? But you’re nothing. You’re only a Prize!”
“That’s what you think I am. You’re the only prisoner brave enough to choose me when the others know Kren always keeps me to himself. There’s a reason for that.”
“What reason?”
Yes, what reason?
“Have you heard of humans before?” I said.
“Humans? No.”
“I am a human and we have incredible powers.”
“You’re weak and puny. You cannot stop me.”
He pulled my dress up and jerked his hips back to slam inside me.
“My powers make others stronger!” I yelled.
The thrust didn’t come. Dreth stared at me intently.
“Go on.”
“Kren is not strong. He’s weak. He’s smaller than you. How could he possibly beat you in a fight? He couldn’t. Not without me.”
I had Dreth’s attention. I glanced at the door out the corner of my eye again but focused my attention on the fighter.
“Every day, he wins, and he chooses me as his Prize,” I said. “And every day, I give him powers that make him stronger so he will win the next day and the next day.”
“How?” Dreth said with his little piggy eyes.
He released my ankles and sat on the edge of the bed. The springs squealed.
I wanted to leap off the bed and bolt for the door, to squeeze my hands in that gap and force it open.
No. The door would crush me.
There. His armor. If I could ease that into the gap and leverage it, I might be able to force it open.
Maybe.
But he wasn’t exactly going to sit by and watch me while I did it. I needed to distract him or knock him unconscious.
How? I was too small and weak. I had no chance against him.
Worse, if I failed, and he realized he’d been tricked, it would make him angry.
Really angry.
Then he would treat me even worse than he had planned before.
“I can make you stronger,” I said.
“How? I want proof.”
“I will show you.”
I leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.
I felt revolted.
He touched where I kissed him.
“What was that?”
“It’s called the Kiss. It makes you much stronger. Can you feel it already? In your veins and your body? You feel like electricity.”
“Yes. Yes, I think I can. What do I do now? Fuck?”
He reached for my ankles again.
“No!” I said. “Not that.”
Never that.
“You need to use the strength I gave you,” I said. “Do something you could never do before.”
“Like what?”
“Could you destroy that wall with a headbutt before I Kissed you?”
And knock yourself unconscious in the process.
“Yes,” he said.
Really? Oh, crap.
“How about force that door open?” I said. “Get your hands in it and yank it open like tissue paper.”
He eyed the door uncertainly and pursed his lips. He got to his feet and cast me a wary glance.
I smiled back at him reassuringly.
I coiled my legs under myself to prepare to lunge forward.
If he could get it open, I could leap over him and escape.
He approached the door. It buzzed and the electronics crackled as it slid open. In a moment, it would slide shut again.
Dreth set his feet apart and grabbed the door. With an almighty heave, he forced the door open halfway.
My smile broadened.
This was it! I’m going to get out of here!
Then the door became too strong for him and it snapped shut.
Damn it!
Dreth turned to me.
“Did you see how strong you are?” I said, hedging. “Did you see how you opened it halfway before the strength I gave you wore out?”
“Yes. I felt it. This Kiss. It’s real.”
My shoulders sagged with relief.
“Then you’ll let me give you the power you need and you’ll let me go?”
“You’ll give me your power,” Dreth said with a nod. “But you won’t be giving it to anyone else ever again. Especially Kren.”
That lump of biological-metal hanging between his legs stiffened as he stamped across the room and threw himself on top of me.
Kren
Dreth.
That fat, useless turd.
He’d taken Ivy.
What did he think he was doing?
According to Lily, he left with Ivy about fifteen minutes ago. Then she suggested I choose one of the other girls, who looked up and smiled at me hopefully.
I wasn’t interested.
I had chosen my mate. And right now, she was with another fighter.
A two-bit piss-poor fighter I had beaten on countless occasions.
My blood was on fire and I was consumed with anger and hate. And more than a little jealousy.
There was only one thing I could do. But it wasn’t going to end well.
I approached the guards and turned as if I was about to head down the hall back to my cell the way I had done countless times before.
The first guard stepped forward to escort me. I used his momentum against him, slamming my fist into his helmet so hard it dented and collapsed in on itself.
The second guard raised his shock rifle, but I was ready for it, snapped out with a kick, and struck at his throat.
The trouble with having fighters as your prisoners was they got stronger and faster the longer they were incarcerated.
At least, the good ones did.
And I was the best.
The
