Changeling Winds: Episode Two (The Bachelor Battles Book 2) Page 4

  “Yes. We all sing.”

  A confusing jumble hit my ears and I blinked, looking around the table.

  “Again.”

  They were confused, but dutifully echoed themselves.

  "Yes, we all sing."

  Slightly out of harmony this time, I was able to understand the illusion that had distracted me. It was a defense they'd developed to temper our reaction to their voices. Clever.

  I could order them not to do it, put a stop to each thin shield they tried to throw between us, but why would I? I liked games. Wasn't I a contestant on one even now?

  I grinned.

  The males shrank back and I made myself reach for the cup instead of snapping my teeth at them like the need was advising. It would feel sooooo gooood to lose control!

  I shook my head at the green-haired Den Mother in the doorway, and was glad when she and her shit-shaded dreadlocks backed out of sight to resume hovering in the shadows of the next room. Wise, I thought. I was on the edge.

  I took a last bite, savoring the meal, and the bachelors went back to their own barely-touched bowls. Not wanting them to miss out on the good food, I lingered at the table, letting them have their fill. And I kept testing, pushing them and myself.

  “You're all registered breeders?”

  That was a question they couldn't answer as one and I braced myself… but not nearly hard enough.

  “I am.”

  There was shame in his voice, the pristine male on my right, but I couldn't help his pain. I was in shock at the waves of Change spiraling through me.

  So beautiful! Like a bell, the rolling tones of his voice slid straight into my guts and twisted the need up, sending a vicious flare of lust through my body. I shivered, slamming my eyes shut. If I looked at him right now, so close! I'd be lost.

  Just breathe - in and out. And I could, a bit, because of the fear. It was so thick, I could smell it radiating from their perfect bodies. I inhaled deeper of it. Better. It bothered me to see them so scared. In. Out. Much better.

  I opened my eyes, eased my grip on the fork as I braced again - much harder this time. “Who else?”

  The males shared twitchy, darting glances up and down the table in surprise.

  “I am.”

  “So am I.”

  Seated across the table, both of their voices pierced me, and then sank into that bubbling mix and caught fire. But I'd been ready this time and I went on. “Anyone else?”

  There was silence and I could feel them all wondering if that now made those three safe from me or more wanted. “I am not.”

  My words sent mutters around the table that teased, tempted. It was a surprise at all for me to have told them that, drastically different from the treatment they were used to, but I was after other ends than most of the females they’d had contact with. “It makes my control on myself much harsher than what I would be with a mate.”

  There as another round of shocked murmurs, and blasts of sweet pain. Tenderness coming from a warrior bathed in blood was another rarity in their world. “If I'm too… frightening, switch out.”

  None of them went to trade places with the few I hadn’t seen yet. I would have been surprised if they had, but two of them were solidly off my list. The relief on their pretty faces had been clear.

  “If you love someone, I'd also have you go.”

  Again, no movement, but another was eliminated by the indecision in his expression. It was very common for slaves to fall in love with their regular renters and try to avoid being awarded as a prize so that they could make it to the 25-year-old age limit for bachelors. After that, they were listed for sale to the public, and could be bought by their lover.

  Booom!

  Thunder crashed outside, almost loud enough to make me flinch in surprise, and it sent one of the bachelors from his chair to crouch on the floor. Terrified, the shivering skin-head ignored my frown, but the others took note and leaned away so as not to share his fate.

  I smoothed out my face and waved a hand. “Go back to your cell if it eases you.”

  He and his clean-shaven scalp were gone an instant later, and I met a Den Mother’s surprised face with a hard frown. “Aren’t they allowed to have a spine?”

  She shook her pink head, tone giving nothing away. “No. Switch?”

  “No.”

  I wasn’t ready to see a new temptation yet. I was still working through these.

  I continued with my questions as our hour passed, throwing the males surprises in forms that they had to answer for themselves, and with each stunning blast of their voices, I grew stronger, more immune.

  5

  “You have five minutes.”

  The blue-haired Den Mother retreated and I leaned over my bowl, lowered my voice. Like my infamous cousin, I was always one to encourage dissension among the ranks.

  “Singing has a very calming effect. All of you together might be very hard to resist, even for a Changeling.”

  Satisfied from their reactions that they would figure out the new defense I’d given them, I slid my chair back and stood up.

  Need flared from both sides of the table as they stared at my nearly naked body and I returned their looks with a desperate longing that all but two of the bachelors shied from. I let the huntress out again, scenting.

  That chocolate over hot coals aroma drifted into my brain again and started to burn. I inhaled deeper. It was intoxicating.

  “Good night, Bachelors.”

  “Have a nice evening, Angelica.”

  Even with all their voices together, hearing my name from a man took me straight into hell and I narrowed in on that scent again, breathing deeper. Which one was layered in that delicious odor? Was it natural or a spray? It was powerful enough to twist my brain into complete confusion.

  “No cologne next time I come.”

  “I’ll see to it,” a Den Mother, orange hair this time, appeased me from the darkness.

  My eyes went over them one last time, counting those I hadn’t mentally marked off the list, …lingering on gray eyes and silken black hair. I liked that one. I’d be sure to make him speak to me next time, so that I could judge the level of heat he brought out. Whichever drew me the hardest, was the one I would chose.

  It was hard to make my feet turn, but I did, proud that I could. One of those bachelors would be mine - after I executed more women who were suffering like I was.

  I lingered outside the cell door, seeing my guards, but still searching for threats while I regained complete control. I’d known it would be hard, but it was…

  I grunted bitterly. It was like sitting at a buffet and not being allowed to eat anything. Damn the old ones who’d caused this!

  Jason

  “She’s the one.”

  “Oh, yeah. She’s gonna win it all.”

  “Remember, whatever it takes to get her to go to the rebels - even if the Pruetts aren’t helping them.”

  “Right. We know how to service them and the Network gives full medical care to bounty hunters. Get listed as a member of the crew, be friendly, and find Baker.”

  Standing in the shadows of the doorway, I didn’t add a comment to the talk of the other bachelors, still thinking about how controlled Angelica had been. We’d agreed to try to warn the rebels as soon as we heard there was a Pruett listed, but with this one, I sensed that wouldn’t be an easy task.

  We hoped to manipulate our new owner into doing what we needed or even run away to accomplish our goal, but I didn’t think this one would let a mate out of her sight long enough to escape. She was burning too fast, which meant a lot of service time… and then there was the clear feeling that once bonded, a man might not want to leave her and that infamous family. It was an impression I was instantly terrified of. I already had one ghost that rarely left my mind. I didn’t want a new one. I also didn’t want the old one, but on my own, there was only one thing I could do - run and hope the odds fell on my side.

  The other males in this lot wanted to be fre
e, to fight in the growing rebellion with Baker. I did too, but there was another reason I had to get out. I was turning 25 in a month. If males in these Games didn’t get chosen by then, they were put into the renters program or sold - usually to a brothel. Those were the same thing in my mind, but I had something worse hanging over my head.

  Katherine Rankin, the Network’s new Head Defender, wanted me and it wasn’t casual. I’d been surviving her visits before she’d been more than a lowly Games guard and each time, her rage grew worse. Nearly all of the scattered, drop-shaped scars on my legs and back had come from her fondness for screams, for blood under her nails. Some nights, I hadn’t been sure I would survive.

  Despite the Network’s unforgiving hold on my body, my life, they’d been unable to erase the images I had of loving parents. My father and mother had cared deeply for each other, and that was the future I secretly longed for. Most males were kept away from their children, but my mother had encouraged our relationship. I’d loved him… mourned him when Rankin ripped his throat out. That was right after I’d found them in the barn and started screaming.

  I’d always assumed her lack of control over the Change had caused my dad’s death, but it hadn’t mattered. I’d attacked Rankin in my grief and she’d taken me, in more ways than one.

  I struggled angrily, not afraid of the bloody woman with the red hair. “You killed him!”

  She shook me until I was cowered against her arm and then jerked me off the ground. I was held in the air above her while she stared at me.

  “You look remarkably alike…”

  I saw her again, claws plunging into my dad’s throat… Fresh hatred consumed me and I kicked out, catching her in the stomach.

  The breath flew out of me as she let go. I slammed back to the ground, head smacking the dirt and I immediately started to cry. It hurt!

  A second later, there was blinding pain in my head and I shuddered, eyes rolling back…

  “No!”

  Hard fingers grabbed me, held me close as I shook.

  “Don’t die!”

  The pain slowly receded, but flared again as Rankin stood up with me in her arms. I cried out as she bounced me roughly onto the horse and swung up in time to keep me from going off the other side.

  She jerked me back against her and kneed the horse as a dark field rose in front of my eyes.

  “You’ll be okay. The Network will see to you or I’ll give up their dirty secrets!”

  I felt pressure on my head and the motion of the horse under us, but little else. As I surrendered to sleep, her words went with me.

  “In time, I’ll have my William back - through you.”

  For the 15 years since then, the complex and Rankin had been my home, my family.

  I’d gone through the normal bachelor training under Rankin’s supervision, her conditions. I knew how to please a Changeling, but I’d never been fully taken by one. I was listed as pure, something the other males disliked me for. I was spared their required time in the renter’s cells, I was fed better, given more medical care… and I was defenseless against Rankin whenever she wanted me to practice my newly-learned skills while she wore the cuffs.

  She was so cruel! I often suspected she had more than one whore-in-training and I pitied those other males on the nights she and her bloody claws left my cell unsatisfied. Rankin had only recently gotten the promotion to the top of the guard food-chain. She had no intentions of breaking the rules by taking me fully, but if I wasn’t picked in the next 4 episodes, they would list my number and Rankin would buy me. I looked a lot like my father now… and she’d waited a long time to have him.

  The other bachelors in this lot assumed one of them would be chosen. Their pretty faces and submissive demeanors were obvious, but in my heart, I hoped Angelica Pruett would be different than the rest of the women who blew through here with their bloody fists. I was hoping she was like her cousin.

  I was terrified of the duty waiting for me if I was picked, but I was desperate. Enough to lie to my new owner or service her needs for as long as it took me to escape. I had secrets the rebels might need to know, and in exchange, I hoped they would let me stay with them until I was stronger. I hated the Network and the thought of gaining my life back was one that would give me the courage to follow through with my plans.

  From the small door-hole, I watched Angelica run a blood-crusted hand through those short black spikes and wondered what her thoughts were right then. Was she wishing she could come back in and snap? Did it matter to her if the bachelors were abused slaves? Would she kill me when she found out what I was doing?

  It would make things easier if the Pruetts lived up to the rumors I was about to trust my life to - that they were honorable and hated male slavery as much as we did. The odds on something that wonderful were slim-to-none in this New Network world, but the restless fire in my heart had made the choice.

  I’d lived another life once, a free one, and I still missed it with all that I was. All I had now were the memories of my mother’s warm hand on my brow, the vague, haunting notes of my sisters giggling in the bed next to me. The fierce determination I’d nourished through all the years of Rankin’s cruel abuse would see me through. I would take my chances with the Pruett.

  Chapter Three

  Day 3

  1

  As I moved to my next scheduled place, two things happened to change the way I viewed the other contestants and the Game itself.

  The first was an assassination at the match I had just entered. The second was realizing it was Chelsea Bush standing over her remaining sibling, face tortured, wild in grief. With a dawning horror, I wondered if I could still battle her without showing mercy. I was forced to admit it might be a problem. I would have to hope someone else took care of the sisters, I decided, settling in for my one required viewing.

  But now that I'd seen it, I couldn't un-see it. Sisters killing each other for a chance at public redemption - brutally twisted. And then there were the ones who were like me - Network logo and My-eyes girl. We had our own drive, an endless hunger to sate. The rest were weaklings compared to us. Why would the Network make such unbalanced matches? And why hadn’t these weaker women tried to prepare?

  Candice and I worked out daily to keep in shape for runs, but we’d been doing it weekly for the ten years before that. I’d been barely out of rubbers when she’d dragged me to the barn and started showing me how to help her control the fire. Now, it was her patience that aided my rages, taught me to be careful with those I loved, not to make her mistake.

  Candy had scarred her mother’s face during a run. She’d been fighting with a convict and snapped into the Change. When her mother had tried to get her to come away from the trap, Candy had swung out with her Changeling claws. It was a guilt my cousin lived with daily, and to see the effects of it, was to be ever-so-careful that it never happened with me.

  These thoughts and more ran through my mind without pause, but I never let my guard down. When My-eyes snapped the neck of her opponent, I only felt sick enough to glare in her direction. The Network liked control. Whatever the final answer to these oddities, that would be the bulk of it, I was sure.

  2

  “So how does it feel to know that you’re now considered the most blood-thirsty of your family?”

  It was one of the reporters who had rushed me the last time I was here and hunger was thick in the smoky cubicle.

  “Nice. It’s usually my big sister who gets that title.”

  After my cousin’s week of intimidating reporters, all of my interviewers so far had been stocky, pink-eyed, and heavily armed. This one was no different, and the thought that I was a threat to the Network was a heady feeling.

  “I sense some sibling rivalry there.”

  “Yeah, she doesn’t know I’m here. When she finds out, she might sign up next!”

  The reporter was relaxing as I continued to be reasonable, to lie, but I was watching for an opening. The other reporters were lingering ne
arby, listening to the live broadcast, too, and I hoped to be able to give them (and everyone listening) something to talk about.

  “Do you think your cousin Candice is aiding the rebels?”

  That was a blunt question, and I forced myself to sound unsure. “I don’t want to…”

  “It would be hard not to, considering her absence. You were here for her Games challenge. Funny that she isn’t for yours...”

  I had the reporter pegged then, and I chose quickly. The rules said I had to give one interview. They didn’t say how long it had to be, and I ended it in true Pruett style.

  “Maybe she didn’t think she could stand the smell of your perfume. It’s o’ de rat, right? You work for the Network, ferreting out little secrets like a good rodent.”

  Now exposed to the world, her value dropped to zero, and the woman’s doomed expression said she knew it.

  I smirked as I left. “Next?”

  3

  “Cage Match Three!”

  The cut withdraw rope still hung in place, only reachable by a high lunge. My opponent, the third of the huddlers, stood directly under it, trembling. Over half the females in this episode were not going through the Change. They could pull back, withdraw, because they had no overwhelming desire to see their opponent’s blood, smell it, and taste it. They weren't lethal. I smirked, triggering a fresh round of screams from the crowd. The same could not be said of me.

  This Frogtown girl had a rounded face set with lines of panic and a large, heaving chest that was perfect for feeding babies. It was a pass she wouldn’t ever get.

  She saw my eagerness and lunged high for the remaining piece of rope.

  “A contestant has withdrawn.”

  I was supposed to leave, let her go by and wait to be rescheduled… But I couldn't. The scent of her fear and the last match's blood hung heavily in the air, reaching out to twist my fury.

  When the little rabbit tried to dart pass, I spun and slammed my fists into the back of her neck - with both wrist blades out.