Page 4 of Sergi
“Get up, girl.” Tallon stomped over and nudged my arm with the tip of his boot. When I didn’t immediately respond, he kicked my side, forcing me to roll over and cringe in pain.
I drew in a shaky breath and threw an arm over my face as I forced my eyes to adjust to the brightness.
Sour breath coated with liquor almost made me gag as he bent close. “I don’t know what you did to curry such favor, but you’re being moved to fancier quarters.” He ran a hand down my arm and over my hip, letting it rest there. “This might be the last time for us to get to know each other better.” He rubbed my hip before sliding his hand down to my thigh, squeezing the soft flesh before moving to cup the spot between my legs. “It might be worth whatever punishment they give me.”
I rolled away, but he yanked me back.
“One wrong move on your part, and it will be a long time before you see the outside of your cell again. Where you will remain under my warm regard and protection.”
He was locking me into no choice at all. I could either submit for one night or suffer the threat of him coming to this cell whenever he wanted. It wasn’t a choice at all, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t fight him. I would have to be smarter than the last time he tried.
Rather than roll away again, I slowly sat up and pulled my thin blanket around me. I stared at him, and my gut clenched at his leer and the crazed look in his gaze. He gripped my chin.
“Now that’s better. You and I can have a good time if you just cooperate.”
Cooperate. That was one word for it.
He leaned in, and I closed my eyes and held my breath.
“Tallon!”
He jumped up so fast that I was knocked to the side. I yelped when his boot tromped on my ankle.
“Yes, sir.”
“S-473 needs to be moved now. Find your pleasure with someone else.”
While I was relieved by the statement, I worried who that someone else would be. It was bad enough, or perhaps typical, that the chain of command didn’t care that females were being raped. I’d never had to worry about sexual abuse until Tallon came along. The guard before him preferred young male shifters.
I stood and wrapped the blanket tighter.
“Take her to the commissary and hand her off to the attendant who’s waiting for her.”
While I might have escaped his rape, Tallon had no problem squeezing my arm so tight he’d leave a bruise. Or, with his strength, crush the bone. He dragged me through the corridors and up the stairs as if I couldn’t remember where the commissary was. All the prisoners visited the place every three months to receive freshly-washed clothes and a pair of slippers.
Tallon’s rough treatment had nothing to do with whether I could keep up with his fast pace. His anger stemmed from his loss at brutalizing me now that I would be in a different ward. I would thank my lucky stars if they hadn’t deserted me months ago. The sad truth was that a better cell didn’t mean my new guard would be any less savage.
Regardless of what my new situation might become, at least I’d seen the last of Tallon—or so I hoped.
When we reached the upper floor, Tallon stopped in front of the attendant and stormed off. I didn’t give him a backward glance. Instead, I turned to the slim female with a beak nose and stern, steely eyes. Rather than speak to me, she nodded toward the plastic bucket that held my new clothes. I picked it up and followed her down a different set of corridors. Whether in the rock-hewn tunnels or these sterile white halls, they all looked the same, except for the plaques that either indicated a room number or arrows pointing to a different section.
I’d only been in this area of the underground lab when I’d first been captured. I’d been on smaller missions, but this had been the first truly important one. We’d been a four-shifter team. Our mission had been to locate the lab.
Well, we’d found it. Hurrah!
After we’d been darted and dragged inside, my attitude, a mixture of sheer rage and fear, had put me in the disciplinary ward for several weeks before being moved to this section. I’d only been an occupant for a couple of months before I shoved a guard away from a shifter he’d been beating during a work detail. That was how I ended up down on the third level.
These cells weren’t any larger than the rock-lined one I’d been living in. However, they were more civilized pens with four white walls, a small cot, and a curtained area for my waste. The doors had the same slit carved out at the bottom to provide food and water.
On a positive note, there would be more days of eating in the cafeteria, but most of my meals would still be eaten alone in my cell.
The attendant stopped in the middle of one of the shorter hallways. There were eight cells, all on one side with a plain wall on the other. My cell was the third one from where we entered the corridor. We were rarely let out in groups, so it was impossible to know who, if anyone, was in the cells next to us.
On the third level, the doors weren’t locked, just barred with a wooden crossbar. These doors were more advanced and opened with a key card. Each guard had one that could open all the cell doors, but with this hi-tech facility, I assumed someone in a heavily secured communications room would have access to all the locks from a single terminal. Not that the knowledge helped me in any way. The closer one was to the labs, the more they relied on the tech to keep us safely locked up.
When the door to my new cell opened, I walked inside without prodding. Yep. Exactly as I remembered it. The mattress on the cot was as thin as the one in my old cell, but the blanket was thicker. I’d be warmer.
“Someone will be here to retrieve you in the morning at eight o’clock sharp. Make sure you’ve eaten and relieved yourself. You won’t have another chance until your mid-day break.”
