I glanced at the screen to see Inessa curled in the corner of a cell. Her arms were wrapped around her stomach, and sweat was dripping from her skin. She was rocking back and forth, crying out like she was in pain. And she was, but it was the need to be taken. It was the drug they had her on that made her need to be taken to calm the yearning. Only a male’s seed could chemically soothe the ache.
Mistress moved to stand in front of the screens. Looking me straight in the eye, she said, “This has been 152’s punishment since you decided to disobey orders.” My jaw clenched so hard I feared it would snap. Mistress remained unmoved and added, “You knew the consequences, 194. You knew if you did not complete your hit you would cause 152 pain.”
“Bitch!” I snapped again, feeling Zoya squeeze my hand in support.
Mistress smirked. “It’s true: I am a bitch. Unapologetically.”
I shook. I shook as I stared at Inessa writhing in pain. “Help her!” I commanded.
Mistress approached us. I saw the Wraith guards in the room closing in, just in case I attacked. Mistress never even flinched. As she stood right before me, I pushed Zoya behind my back. Mistress reached out and ran her finger down my chest. “Are you asking me to send in one of my men to fuck 152? Is that what you are asking, 194? For your sister to be fucked?”
Red-hot pain flooded my body at the thought of my sister being taken like that, but I found myself saying, “Yes. Just put her out of her misery and take away her pain.”
Mistress stared at me without expression, until she smiled and walked backward. “I don’t think so, 194. In fact, I think I’ll leave her downstairs screaming in pain for a while longer.” She glanced over her shoulder at me and said, “In about an hour, if you listen hard enough, you should hear her agonized screams.”
“Do it,” I demanded. “Help her.”
Mistress stopped at the screens, and taking out the remote from her pocket she turned on another screen. My heart fell, and I heard Zoya’s quick inhale of breath when I saw it was Zoya and me in the chamber. It was Zoya in the cage, taking off her clothes as I stood before her holding the picana. My legs weakened as I watched myself under the influence of the serum collar. Zoya looked so afraid as she shivered in the cold room.
“You started off well, 194. When I watched you bring the Kostava back, I immediately recognized her face.” Mistress flicked through scene after scene of me torturing Zoya, until she stopped at Zoya shackled against the wall. The kiss that I’d pressed on her lips.
Mistress turned and pointed at the screen. “And then you failed.” She shook her head and laughed without humor. “All those years of training. All the years of my telling you the rules: Never feel sympathy for your victim. And never fall for one. Love has no place in a torturer’s life. No place in a killer’s heart.”
I could see the fury in Mistress’s eyes. Then the blood drained from my face when Zoya said quietly, “He’s not a torturer. He’s not a killer. He’s Valentin Belrov. And he’s a good man, despite your best efforts to take that goodness away.”
My eyes closed at the sweet sound of those words from Zoya’s lips. But they soon snapped open when I realized what she’d just done.
Mistress stood, frozen to the spot, glaring at Zoya. Everything else happened too quickly. Mistress nodded her head to her guard. The Wraith moved from behind us toward Zoya. Releasing Zoya’s hand, I ran at the Wraith, only to feel a Taser’s shock bolt through me from my neck. I boomed out a roar as the shock ran through me. But I kept running, until fire shot through my body from the back. I fell to the floor, hearing Zoya scream out.
I watched from the floor as the Wraith tied Zoya down to one of the beds.
I watched, unable to move, as they cuffed her to the frame, Mistress moving beside Zoya, ready to begin her torture.
My eyes closed as I fought for them to stay open, but as the darkness closed in I thought of the day Mistress had brought the torture to me.…
The lights in the dark room switched on, and I flinched at the brightness.
Blinking in my surroundings, I stared out of the metal bars of the cage to see if Mistress was coming back. I stared at the door to the back room, the room I feared most, but no one came through.
I pushed myself to sit up, glancing beside me to see 362 already with his back to wall, staring at the door, too. “They’ll come,” he said in Russian. “They always come.”
I looked past 362 to 221. He was sitting in the center of the cage, his head down, long hair covering his face. He was like the living dead, obedient only to that prick of a man who was always with Mistress. He made 221 call him Master. They tried to make 362 do the same, but whatever drug they pumped into his body only made him obedient for a short period of time.
As I heard the sound of a lock turning, my attention was drawn to the door. My stomach sank when Mistress stepped through, her eyes immediately landing on me. Mistress nodded her head at the Wraith guard. The Wraith from the corner of the room came to my cage and opened the door.
“Out!” he ordered, and I stood on shaky feet.
I had walked only three steps when 362 said, “Hold on to your name and your memories. Do not let them erase them. No matter what they do.”
Swallowing hard, I followed the Wraith guard to the door I most feared. I stopped in the doorway, but the Wraith shoved me forward. I stumbled into the room, hearing the door slam shut behind me. I straightened, and when I did the room came into focus.
My stomach fell, fear taking hold. Beds were in the center of the room, leather straps hanging from the frames. There were shackles on one of the walls, but on the other there was a metal pole, heavy chains hanging from the back.
Movement from the side caught my attention. I looked sideward, only to see Mistress and that man who tortured the twins. They were standing next to a long counter, its surface littered with needles and rows and rows of small bottles.
Mistress leaned in close to the man, and his eyes roved down my body. My skin shivered when it looked like he was sizing me up for something.
Mistress waved her hand, and a Wraith took hold of me, dragging me toward the metal pole. I tried to push back. I tried to fight, but the Wraith was too strong.
In minutes the Wraith had attached me to the pole, the heavy chains holding my feet to the floor and my body to the pole. No part of my body could move.
I breathed and breathed, trying to keep calm. All the time, I did what 362 had advised—I remembered. My name is Valentin Belrov. I have a sister called Inessa Belrova. She is being held captive. I have to set her free.
I repeated who I was and who I loved over and over, until I felt Mistress and her male friend standing before me.
As I opened my eyes, my focus immediately dropped to something in her hand. My nostrils flared when I saw what looked like a metal collar. I tried to move, I gave it everything I had, but I couldn’t break free.
Mistress stepped closer and, catching my gaze, said, “If you want to save your sister, from now on you will do exactly what I say. You answer to me, and only me. I am your Mistress.”
My eyes widened, and she asked, “Do you understand?”
Mistress raised the metal collar. “No,” I bit out when I saw the inside. Sharp needles were all around the collar, small pellets filled with liquid lying underneath.
Mistress handed the collar to the male. The man approached, and without saying anything he opened the collar and brought it to my neck. I tensed, my eyes squeezing shut as I felt the tips of the needles pressing against my skin. I took in a deep breath, and as I did the man pushed the needles into my neck. I screamed out as the needles sank into my skin, the flesh of my throat on fire as I was pierced. My head fell forward as the pain became too much to bear. I heard the sound of metal on metal as the male locked the collar in place. The man stepped back, and when I rolled my eyes open Mistress was staring at my neck.
I felt warm trickles down my neck. I knew it was blood. The man said something to Mistress in Georgian. I could not understand.
He pointed to the back of the collar. Mistress nodded her head. The man walked back to the counter, but Mistress stayed close. Her hand gripped my jaw, and she pulled my head up to face her.
“194, if you want to save your sister, you will do everything I say, do you understand?”