Outcast mine, p.17
Outcast Mine, page 17
He closed his eyes. The purpose of the exercise might have been to see the printed language, but it was easier—and far more enjoyable—to let Jasak’s voice wash over him. His cheek where it pressed to Jasak’s skin seared, while the gentle rise and fall as he spoke lulled Aleron into forgetting everything but whose bed he was in. Jasak shifted beneath him, and a strong arm curved around Aleron’s back, drawing him more tightly into Jasak’s body.
Aleron went willingly, hungrily. His hand stole across Jasak’s torso to complete the circle, and he turned his head the fraction he needed to brush a kiss across the nearest patch of skin.
“My father gave this to me to help me prepare for my first hunt. It’s actually not that popular anymore among the Athaki. Most of the copies are old. Like this one. It was my grandfather’s.” Jasak’s hold tightened for a moment. “When I took it with me, I didn’t know if I would ever read it again. I just couldn’t stand the thought of it being burned with everything else I left behind.”
“Is this the first time you’ve read it here, then?”
“Yes. Like I told you, it’s easier to block Belenia out of my mind.”
Guilt assailed him. It was more than a little selfish to have practically begged Jasak to pull it out. The last thing he wanted was to cause Jasak any more pain.
“If it’s too hard for you, you don’t have to read,” he said. “I can learn Athaki from Rosany’s books.”
“I wouldn’t ask Rosany if you could read his books,” Jasak said softly. “He’s a private person and he probably has personal reasons for bringing them with him. Besides, I don’t mind sharing this with you.”
“He probably wouldn’t let me lie on him like this to get the full effect, either,” he teased. To accentuate his point, he rubbed his cheek over Jasak’s chest, the friction between the hair and his stubble sending shocks down his spine. “Thank you, by the way. For sharing it with me.” Jasak ran his fingers through Aleron’s hair and down the back of his neck in a lazy, sleepy gesture. He closed his eyes, surprised by how content he felt in that moment. He was not the sort of man who took the time to relax with his lovers. They were essentially cuddling, and that was something Aleron never consented to unless he’d just had his brains fucked out and he was too tired to resist. But now he couldn’t think of anything else he would rather do.
“I’m your mate, too,” Jasak said softly. “That means something.”
Aleron swallowed. “What does it mean?”
“It means I owe you honesty. It means you have the right to question me. It means I’m an open book to you.”
He lifted his head and smiled. “You’ll never be an open book. There’s too much of you that you’d like to keep for yourself.”
“That’s one of the lessons I learned here. If you don’t keep something of yourself hidden away, you risk losing everything. But in the strictest sense, my life is your life now. Keeping something from you is like keeping something from myself.”
Aleron frowned. “Is that a two-way street? Am I supposed to tell you everything about me?”
“You mean you haven’t?”
“No, and I don’t know if you’d like what you’d hear.”
“I didn’t mean you had to tell me everything. We both had our own lives before Tantoret. I guess what matters now is the life we have here.”
Aleron rested his head on Jasak’s chest again and exhaled softly. For the first time, he wondered if he could convince Jasak to go with him. He would never want to exploit Jasak’s most personally held, sacred beliefs. But if the connection between mates was really as strong as he claimed, then wouldn’t he want to stay with Aleron? Even if that meant leaving with him? Could Jasak be convinced to escape with him?
Once the idea took hold of Aleron, he couldn’t shake it. It wormed its way into his brain, burrowing deeper and deeper until it was attached to everything, coloring every thought. A part of him knew it was nothing except a hopeless daydream. Another part of him still felt a twinge of horror at the thought of being tied down to one person for his entire life. Even if he did escape the prison planet, wouldn’t he still be a type of inmate? One forever bound to another person instead of literally bound to a rock?
Jasak ran his fingers through Aleron’s hair again, and Aleron realized it didn’t matter. Freedom wasn’t an objective concept. He’d never married. He’d never been willing to die for another person, or invest himself in another person’s happiness. He’d never had faith in anybody, and he sure as hell never allowed anybody to put faith in him. Aleron had been willing to betray anybody for any reason if it made his life easier. He lacked the concept of self-sacrifice, and he couldn’t quite imagine what it must be like to live in a tightly-knit clan, where a single bad hunt meant the difference between life and death for everybody. But Aleron didn’t live for himself anymore, and he wouldn’t be free if his mate was still imprisoned. His heart beat for Jasak.
***
Aleron headed for the common room, his steps measured and light. The labyrinthine corridors that had once presented such a torment now unfurled before him without trouble. He’d woken up after an unbroken sleep with a large, exquisite body bearing him into the bed, greeted by Jasak’s rough tongue licking away the sweat collected along his neck. They’d both had hard-ons, but Jasak had rolled away before Aleron could catch him. Then, the way he’d stretched to burn off the vestiges of sleep, the muscles in his broad back rippling, his buttocks clenching, had dried Aleron’s mouth to the point of speechlessness. Jasak gave his order before Aleron could contradict it. Deliver the bangle to Tias.
It didn’t matter. Because when he was done with his shift, he would return to Jasak’s quarters and pick up where they’d left off. That, alone, merited his good mood.
He paused in an entryway to the crowded common room, sweeping his gaze over the vista. Some semblance of order had been restored, but not much. Loose rocks stippled the ground. A set of table and chairs often commandeered by the larger, healthier inmates was turned over, a skinny olive-skinned man Aleron didn’t recognize impaled on one of the legs. More bodies littered the periphery, forlorn, forgotten.
A trio of guards stood near the exit that led to the kitchens, barking instructions to the prisoners. Not one moved a muscle to help cart the bodies out of the room, though all tracked the movements every step of the way. It wasn’t until the smallest dragged the back of his hand across his mouth that Aleron realized why.
They smelled the blood. Each second they remained was another test of their willpower. Even dead, the humans represented prey.
Aleron instinctively withdrew a step into the shadows.
He chose a different corridor to reach his destination, the primary pathway that led to the core. His skin tightened just at the memory of standing in its shadows. Jasak had given him the route to memorize, an exercise that made his thieving synapses shout in ecstasy, and he turned at the second left, following the path etched in his brain.
Within two turns, the walls glittered with unmined chojal. White and gold and pink clusters spangled the craggy surfaces, wilder in their beauty than what he’d seen when he’d been mining. These corridors felt untouched. The caverns the prisoners mined had been picked over for dozens of cycles, and he hadn’t been around long enough to be part of the crews that moved first to the richer veins. The guards always sent those on the verge of being medically dismissed to scout the next location, as if their lives were no longer valuable enough to spare. More than once, Aleron had seen men return from those missions, only to be released from duty completely.
Nobody had come through these halls yet, or at least, nobody human.
The distant thump of the core was oddly reassuring. Aleron didn’t miss it when he was in Jasak’s quarters, but here, knowing what he was about to face, it felt good to cling to something familiar. The few artificial lights came at long intervals, forcing him to rely on the chojal’s illumination, but the blanketing darkness calmed his suddenly skittish nerves.
The entryway Jasak described was a mammoth hole in the wall, with sharp, jagged edges ringing its sides that looked alarmingly like teeth. Everything about it screamed “Go away!” Considering the lack of guards or prisoners he’d come across to get here, it looked like it worked.
For the first time since arriving, he wished this place had doors. What he wouldn’t give to have something announce his presence, something that wouldn’t take the occupant by surprise. He didn’t really fancy getting his throat torn out because he’d woken someone from their nap.
Staying off to the side, he edged as close to the wall, out of view, as he could without letting the chojal come into contact with his skin. “Tias?” The core’s muted pounding ate away his voice. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Tias? I’m here for Macario.”
Invoking Macario’s name was his best hope at not getting attacked. Jasak had said Tias’s injuries had been severe, but he was still dangerous. He was stronger than Aleron, and worse, he would be in a foul mood. Aleron had to be very careful how he dealt with him.
A scraping sound emanated through the hole in the wall, growing louder as it approached. The guard who melted out of the darkness barely resembled the one Aleron had seen on his first day on Tantoret. His hair had been hacked away, leaving patches of his scalp bare and scabbed, and his broken jaw destroyed the elegant lines of his face, leaving his skull misshapen and lopsided. Over his bruised and swollen lips, the gleaming tips of his fangs were in full prominence. Aleron wondered if it hurt too much to retract them with the rest of his musculature so broken.
The scraping came from the leg he dragged after him. His pants had been cut away to allow a thick splint to brace an obviously shattered calf. More slices and scrapes disappeared beneath his clothing, but Tias managed to hold his head high, his glowing eyes narrowing when he spotted Aleron.
“You’re the new one.”
“Aleron.” He was a little surprised Tias remembered him. He’d only seen him that first cycle. “Macario asked me to find you.”
“Why?”
“To give you this.”
He held out the Lonan bangle on the palm of his hand, keeping his fingers flat and unthreatening. When Tias glanced at it, his nostrils flared, but he didn’t otherwise move to take it.
“How did you find me?”
Time for the lies to come out and play.
“I’m a thief.” Aleron offered his most charming smile and prayed it still worked. “Finding my way around mazes is my specialty.”
“Nobody knows I’m here.”
Which wasn’t exactly true, since Jasak had been able to give Aleron a very accurate map on how to find him, but he was pretty sure Tias referred to the prisoners.
“All right, I confess. It took me a little while. Macario gave this to me yesterday before the core shut down. But don’t tell anyone, okay? My rep will be ruined.”
His playful tone seemed to be doing the trick in keeping Tias slightly off-balance. But then the words he dreaded most came from his swollen mouth.
“You smell like Jasak.”
Though Aleron had done everything in his power to scrub away any lingering scents, Jasak had warned him their type of contact went deeper than skin. “You can’t hide the truth from an Athaki,” he’d said. “Even an injured one.”
Aleron had shelved the warm glow of delight at how much they’d absorbed each other to focus on the greater problem at hand. “So what do I do?”
Jasak hadn’t blinked. “Don’t hide it.”
Aleron kept his hand outstretched, waiting for Tias to take the circlet. “He claimed me to keep me from getting killed by the other guards. He said I was in danger, otherwise.”
He had no idea how much Tias knew about what was going on in the rest of the prison in his absence. Getting caught in deception would destroy any hope he had in gaining the Athaki’s trust.
Tias stalked closer. The scrape across the rough earth rattled down Aleron’s spine. His pulse leapt at the raptorial intent in the guard’s twitching muscles, but he stood his ground, unwilling to give Tias a reason to chase him. It was worse than anything with Jasak. Though Jasak scared him, he knew enough about the man’s honor to know it was stronger than his baser instincts.
Considering Tias was a traitor to his own kind, Aleron had no such belief he would act in the same way.
Tias halted an inch away. Aleron pressed his shoulders into the wall, trying to lengthen the distance between them, but that just put him closer to the tilt of Tias’s head, the audible snuffle when he inhaled Aleron’s scent. Hot breath washed beneath his loose shirt, wet and slippery. He could almost feel the fangs sinking into his flesh, though he knew that was his overactive imagination. Tias wasn’t touching him.
Not yet, anyway.
Aleron closed his eyes and waited for the inspection to pass. When it had been Jasak sniffing him out, desire had undercut his fear to make it bearable. With Tias, there was nothing to alleviate the blood-pounding terror. He wanted to run and forget about all of this, find Jasak, drag him back to bed and refuse to leave until they absolutely had to. But he couldn’t. They had no idea how much time they had left, not with traitors in their midst. He had to bear the beads of sweat springing from his pores, trying to escape when the rest of him was trapped. He had to fight his instincts, his muscles quivering from how tightly he kept them still.
“He hasn’t bled you.”
The accusation hissed in his ear. Tias hadn’t moved an inch to utter it. Aleron replied without moving, too.
“No. Why would he?”
“Because you’re human. Why else would an Athaki, even one as low as Jasak is now, take a human as a mate?”
“I told you why. It has nothing to do with…bleeding.”
“He must want to devour you. It must drive him crazy to be so close to something so easily taken. I bled my human.”
Aleron swallowed. “Didn’t that…didn’t that hurt him?”
Tias scoffed. “Hurt him? He was happy to give me what I needed. He gave me blood, and in return, his heart beat with an Athaki’s strength.”
“Is that a metaphor?”
“No, it’s the bond. One heart, one soul, two bodies. Perhaps he’s afraid to go that far with you. But he’s taken you in other ways.”
“Yes.”
“He’s a fool.”
Aleron held his tongue. There was no correct response to that kind of statement.
“Does he know you’re here?”
“No. I’m supposed to be on duty.”
“And why would Macario trust Jasak’s mate with anything, let alone this?”
On this, he curled his hand around Aleron’s, enclosing both it and the circlet within his wide grasp. Aleron’s bones ground together, drawing a whimper he couldn’t hold back, but thankfully, he felt nothing break.
“Because Macario doesn’t know about me and Jasak. He’s been in medical since the attack.”
Tias’s sharp inhalation brought goose bumps to Aleron’s skin. “It’s progressed that far?”
In that single reaction, Aleron learned something he hadn’t known before. Tias might have some sort of treasonous plan in place, but in spite of it all, Macario’s health mattered to him.
“Yes. I’ve been tending him. That’s how he was able to give this to me to give to you without anybody else knowing.”
Tias withdrew then, though Aleron took several seconds to open his eyes. The Athaki regarded him warily. “What did he say to you?”
“He asked me to make sure you got this. He made me promise. He wanted to see you, but he said you’d never go to him.”
A muscle might have twitched in his cheek. It was hard to tell with the broken jaw. But Tias loosened his grip, hooking a finger through the circlet to take it with him when he dropped his hand.
“What else did he say?”
“Nothing. There wasn’t time. The core turned off right after, and then everything was chaos.” He straightened his shoulders, daring to meet the guard’s eyes. “Is there a message you’d like me to give him?”
This had been Jasak’s idea. Nobody knew about Macario’s death. If Tias believed him still alive, they might be able to glean some information about whatever he was scheming.
Tias shook his head. “You’re Jasak’s mate.”
“And I’m still a prisoner, just like Macario. I’m human, just like Macario. I didn’t ask for Jasak to do what he did. He decided that all on his own. He doesn’t get my loyalties. He just gets whatever he can take.” He took a deep breath. “You should know that better than I do.”
The reference to Tias’s punishment did the job. Thank God, because Aleron didn’t know how long he could keep up the charade Jasak meant nothing to him. It was one thing to lie to humans. It was something else entirely to do it with a species that read body language as easily as they breathed.
“No message,” Tias said.
As disappointed as he was, Aleron accepted the answer with a nod. He couldn’t afford to press any more than he had. He slid along the wall to begin the route back, stopping when Tias held up his hand.
“Was…so he’s your mate?” Aleron asked.
“Yes.”
“Why did he need to send you this?”
“He’s trying to save my life,” Tias growled. “Now get out of here before I end yours.”
Aleron didn’t need to be told twice.
***
Snod had expected punishment for having a weapon, but the guards only confiscated his blade and knocked him around a bit. He had fresh bruises on his ribs and scrapes across his shoulders from getting tossed around like a ball, but once they got bored with their game, the guards left him alone. Jasak hadn’t been involved. He was distracted by the problems with the core for part of the time, yes, but there was more to it than that. More, in the form of a too-skinny, dark-eyed thief who moved like quicksilver around the edges of the prison.
