Chapter Eleven
Erin woke to a throbbing headache. Damned stunners. She winced as she blinked into white light but couldn’t block the brightness from her eyes. Her wrists lay strapped to the table under her, her ankles bound as well. And the coldness of the metal under her skin showed her she wore nothing at all. Completely vulnerable to the powers that be. Her nightmares made real, all over again.
“Ah, there you are.” Canunn smiled, his watery blue eyes as welcome as death would have been...before Rafe.
“Let me go.” Why she bothered fighting, she didn’t know. Canunn would never release her, and she could only imagine how Synster would react to her escape. She could only hope Anin and Ryen remained safely away.
“No, dear. You were a very bad girl, Erin. And to say you caused me some inconvenience is putting it mildly.” Canunn raised a small tool and Erin flinched. He touched one end of the tool to a large transparent energy block and depressed a button. A small probe shot from the tool and landed on her bare belly.
Mind-numbing energy jolted through her, tearing a scream from her with savage intensity.
“As I recall, you never could tolerate the volmagni block, could you?”
“Bastard,” she said once she caught her breath. She continued to shiver, the blast of energy stealing her heat, adding to her discomfort at being nude before her Creator.
“That won’t do at all.” Canunn frowned, and Erin realised she didn’t care at all about his disappointment. That urge she’d once had to please Canunn at all costs no longer existed.
Hell, once she got herself free of these bonds, she could snap his neck and be done with him.
The understanding that she maintained control over herself was liberating. Though she’d worked to overcome Canunn’s basic teachings, she’d always feared returning to Blue Rim, that she might fall back into the roll of experimental slave. Funny, but she didn’t mind her forays into submission with Rafe at all. With him she felt safe to enjoy herself.She liked pleasing him, but only because she knew how much he liked pleasing her.
Canunn and Synster, on the other hand, had never cared about her at all. Their focus did and would remain on what she could do for them. Another wave of agony swept through her as Canunn turned up the volmagni’s settings. When she could think again, Erin knew that as much as she longed to rip Canunn’s head off his body, she needed to play along until she could escape.
Summoning a few tears and a remorseful expression, she closed her eyes and apologised. “I’m sorry, Sir. I’ve been so confused lately.” Sorry I’m not free so I can beat you into a bloody mess with my bare hands.
“That’s more like it.” The relief in Canunn’s voice told her he hadn’t been as sure about her as he’d have liked. And Erin decided to use that to her advantage.
“Sir?”
“Yes, Erin. You can open your eyes and look at me, you know.” She blinked to find him frowning. “Sir, where is my family?” He normally liked when she asked about them, as if reassured she wasn’t a monster because she loved her siblings.
“They’re safe enough for now.” Canunn glanced at her breasts before stepping away.
He returned with a sheet and covered her nakedness. “Erin, I’d like you to answer me honestly.” He paused, and she watched in astonishment when her Creator blushed. “Are you still pure?”
Understanding what he wanted to know, she decided to needle him a bit. “I haven’t ingested or imbibed of any toxic substances. I suppose then that makes me pure.” She smiled, trying to reassure him.
The little jerk swallowed loudly and glanced away, and she wanted to laugh with perverse enjoyment. Now that she thought about it, Synster had always been the one interested in sexuality. Canunn avoided it like the Mornian plague.
“What I mean is, have you, ah, have you engaged in sexual intercourse?” Even stated in such clinical terms, Canunn made sex sound dirty. With Rafe, their loving had been anything but. Yet knowing what her Creator probably knew and wanted to hear, she summoned more tears.
“I’m so sorry, Sir. I couldn’t avoid it.”
Canunn immediately wiped her eyes with a cloth, and Erin was surprised to see compassion, something he’d never before shown her. “I told you not to leave us, didn’t I?
Poor Erin. Did you find yourself abused at the hands of many? From what I could tell of your scans, you were sodomized overly. My poor Erin.”
Sodomized and loving it. Damn, she missed Rafe. Already her body softened for him at the thought of their joining. “I am sorry, too, Sir. I’ll never leave you again. Never. Whatever you demand as punishment shall be just, as you are just.” Canunn smiled, a wobbly expression bordering on honest emotion. Tears filled his eyes.
“I am so happy to hear you say that.” He released the bar over her left wrist and paused, as if comprehending how stupid he was to give her the chance to escape. But Erin bided her time.
Canunn wasn’t a complete idiot, and when she glanced around, she saw several armed guards in her periphery. She lay still, not moving at all. Canunn released her right wrist, then her ankles, tense while he waited to see what she might do.
Erin remained still.
“Erin?”
“Sir?”
“Would you like to leave the table?”
“If it would you please you, Sir.”
Canunn exhaled loudly. “It would please me very much. Please remove yourself to lab room one. Clean yourself, then dress. Synster should be back any minute with Anin.” Erin nodded and left, her thoughts abuzz. Synster had Anin, but what about Ryen?
What had happened to her siblings in her absence? As she left Canunn, she noticed the many security guards now posted along the exits of the large room, as well as along the hallway and outside of lab room one.
She entered the lab and sealed the door behind her. Quickly cleaning and dressing, once again in the sterile white pants and sleeveless vest worn by all test subjects, Erin stopped and waited. For several moments she merely stared at the floor, at the cool tiles and their utter sameness that used to drive her crazy. But as she stared, she saw the memories she’d made with Rafe. She felt the heat of the overhead sun as she walked through Mardu’s glorious fields. Rafe’s unique scent called to her, reminding her that somewhere outside the walls of this prison stood a man who loved her—Erin, a Creation.
Stupidly, she smiled, a huge grin she was unable to contain as she made her way back to Canunn’s side. Joining him, she saw his cautious hope and wanted to laugh out loud. That sense of freedom allowed her to resist the urge to choke him. Instead, to her surprise, she felt sorry for the male. The joy she’d experienced in her short life meant everything to her, and she knew instinctively that Canunn had never felt its like.
“Erin?”
“I’m just so glad to be back,” she said quietly, smiling still.
Canunn nodded, pleased with her response. Before he could speak, however, Synster arrived with Anin in tow. Erin could see nothing overly wrong with her sister, with the exception of Synster’s small hand gripping her arm tightly. Anin met her gaze and looked away, but not before she gave Erin a small wink.
Apparently, the time away from Blue Rim had benefited Anin as well, because that wink was the first show of open humour her sister had managed by herself, without being prodded by another.
Synster sneered as he joined her and Canunn. Shoving Anin away from him, he yelled at her. “Sit your ass down and don’t move.”
“Yes, Sir.” Anin sat and stared at the floor, and if Erin hadn’t known better, she’d swear Anin was grinning inside.
“Synster? What’s wrong?” Canunn looked worried.