CHAPTER ONE

 

“Wake up, slaves!” Fabri’s grating voice sounded through the long, dark, dank tunnel of her mind. Crysta flinched and her stomach twisted, even though she was crushed beneath the weight of unconsciousness. Not Fabri, please, don’t let it be Fabri. It’s far too soon. But no amount of wishful thinking was going to change reality.

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She’d known bad people. They were the staples of her life, the people who taught her to distrust before they earned even a crumb of her trust, the people she’d learned to read and manipulate for her own ends, because that was life and life was hard. But Fabri was a whole other level of evil.

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He didn’t want her trust. He didn’t even want to manipulate her. He wanted complete and utter control. He wanted to dominate.

 

He wanted to break her.

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Fabri sounded like the Devil, and he looked like him too, with his voice like rust-stuck metal and crimson skin as dark as old blood. It was his eyes, though, that truly struck fear through her heart. Those luminous, endless white bulbs that contained the essence of depravity, haunted her day and night. In her dreams and her nightmares.

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He didn’t just do his job. He defined it, and his job was to train slaves.

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Train her.

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She’d been on the end of fists before, had seen violence. Hell, it was a part of daily life, but not like this. Never like this.

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The way it started was indelibly etched in her brain. She’d driven for fifteen hours straight. Tired, eyes gritty, escaping a city that held nothing she wanted anymore, nothing that was good for her in any case, she was surprised to see bright lights descending from the inky night sky in the middle of the desert.

She’d slammed on the brakes, skidding to a stop when something landed on the road in front of her. A reptilian creature, with a long snout, deep-green pocked skin and rows of jagged teeth walked from the craft to her car. It ripped the door off its hinges, dug sharp claws into her shoulders, and pulled her out of the car like she was a rag doll even though her fingers were wrapped around the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip and she’d been screaming her throat raw.

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Whatever the reptile creature had done to her, it had done it fast. She’d fought it. Lashed out. Kicked. Even tried to bite it. Of course, she had. It was her first reaction—fighting always was—but darkness had descended, and she’d woken up in a cage with a collar around her neck, freezing cold and naked.

The Devil had greeted her with a smile on his face that made her blood freeze in her veins, and then proceeded to tell her she was now a slave of Xataxi, that he, Fabri, was her lead trainer and that she was to do everything he said to the letter, otherwise she would suffer unbelievable pain. Then he demonstrated how effective the pain collar was by pressing a button on a little white controller he clutched in his clawed fingers.

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Volts of electricity charged through her body and made every nerve ending scream in white hot agony. Her muscles locked and cramped. She lost control of her bladder. Her bones felt as though they crumbled bit by little bit. Her chest was constricted so hard she couldn’t breathe, and her vision whited out rendering her blind.

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The pain had cut and the only thing she’d been capable of doing was lying in a pool of her own sweat while Fabri had told her everything that was required of her. Do what she was told when she was told to do it or suffer the same pain.

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She hated Fabri. She loathed the collar. She detested the healing wand.

 

The healing wand erased the damage that was inflicted on her when the pain failed to motivate her. The more she refused to do what Fabri wanted her to, the more he’d use the pain collar.

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The thing was, pain didn’t motivate her. It never had, because she knew pain came and went. Pain didn’t last. She wasn’t afraid of pain. Pain could be pushed into the far corners of her mind and forgotten. In the end, pain didn’t mean shit.

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When Fabri worked out that the pain from the collar failed to bring her inline, he used his claws, a metal rod, a whip. He left her bloody and broken too many times to remember before he healed her and did it over again. In the end, it wasn’t the pain that cowed her, it was being weak from her injuries that was the motivation Fabri needed to control her.

 

She wanted to smack the sadistic, self-satisfaction that shaped his mouth after her training session. He thought he’d won, but she was only biding her time.

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Something metal and hard struck the bars of her cage and the clang reverberated through Crysta’s skull. She winced as it bounced around the inside of her brain with the gentleness of shards of rusted metal.

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Crysta groaned, struggling to sit. She was so weak that all she managed to do was to flop onto her side when her limbs refused to move. Her body seemed to be made from concrete, and her mouth felt like a bottom of an ashtray. Bile rose up her throat and she gagged on the rancid taste in her mouth.

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She was hardly given food, most probably to keep her weak, and a toothbrush was a long-forgotten luxury. So was a bath. And clothing. And much of anything else. Her life was contained to the cage, the collar, that hated, gray glutinous being Xataxi that sometimes made an appearance, and of course, Fabri who did what the Xataxi told him to do—and more.

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“Did you give them too much, Fabri? You know the healing wand doesn’t work when they’ve been sedated.”

 

Crysta cracked open her eyes and tried to clear her blurred vision. Great. Not only was Fabri leering down at her from above her cage, Xataxi stood next to him, although stood was a subjective term. He seemed to be made from rolls and rolls of wobbling flab piled up on top of itself, that didn’t appear to have any sort of skeletal frame. The gray and red kimono-styled clothing Xataxi wore did nothing to hide his glutinous shape.

 

His lipless mouth was a wide slit across his face, blackened on the edges. He had no nose, just two slits and three beady eyes that blinked one after the other. They were urine-yellow with black slits for pupils and contained as much compassion as Fabri.

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Behind them she made out more guards. Maybe ten, as much as her blurred vision allowed her to count in the dim light. They were the same beings as Fabri, with their red skin, bald heads and unnerving white eyes.

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“I only gave them enough for transportation,” Fabri said.

 

Crysta’s sludgy mind trawled along with their conversation. She thought the last meal tasted wrong somehow, but she’d been too hungry to care. Now she knew the meal must been laced with some sort of sedative.

 

Xataxi grunted. His three eyes blinked as he looked over Crysta to something beside her. “I don’t want to lose more cargo than I already have.”

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Crysta rolled her head to the side to see a long row of cages, each contained a naked woman. She gasped. It was the first time she’d seen other humans. There had been other slaves. Other unfortunate creatures that had come and gone, but none like her. It might be why Fabri seemed to be so fascinated with her. She was a novelty.

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The women didn’t look well. Limbs sprawled. Too still. She blinked, focusing on the woman closest to her, her muscles relaxing when she saw the woman’s chest rise and fall. She was breathing. She was alive.

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But for how long.

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It might be better if the alternative was true. It was quite clear that death was the only way Crysta was ever going to get away from Xataxi and Fabri. She couldn’t vouch for the rest of the poor souls, but she could safely say it was the only way any of them would be free.

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Xataxi pointed to the woman next to Crysta and then to someone else in another cage. “I’ll take her, and that one too. They have nice round hips and ample teats. They’ll be good for breeding. Take those to Yohran. Finish reviving the rest of them and get them ready for auction. I want them collared and fully understanding what is required of them. There’s no use selling an untrained slave. I want to get as much as possible for each piece of livestock. I have a reputation to uphold and it’s not by selling inferior goods.”

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“Of course, boss,” Fabri sneered.

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Fabri didn’t like it when Xataxi intimated he wasn’t doing his job. Fabri’s gaze fell to Crysta, and she shivered. She knew that look. He was going to take his frustrations out on her. Again. How it was her fault, she didn’t know, but in Fabri’s twisted head, he would justify it.

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Rage, pure and white hot rose up her throat like the bile that still burnt the skin at the back of her throat. They were women. Humans. Not livestock. If Xataxi thought she would ever do what he wanted her to do, he was wrong. She wasn’t going to lie here like a thing so he could profit from her being a well-trained slave. Nothing about this was her fault.

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She gripped the cage with a white-knuckled grip, ignored the way her limbs shook and the invading weakness that dragged her body, and stared at Xataxi through the bars, sending him a little sneer of her own. “You’ll never earn money from me you sick bastard. I’ll never do what you want me to. I’ll never be a good little slave.” It was too much effort to hold her head up, so she let her forehead rest against the bars. “You think you’re so smart, but you can’t own people. One day, someone is going to teach you a lesson you’ll never forget, and I’ll be laughing while I watch you suffer, you gutless piece of shit.”

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Fabri wacked the bars, which rang out loud with the impact. She winced at the lancing pain that shot through her head. “Slaves do not talk!”

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She laughed, sounding tired to her own ears. That’s because she was tired. Sick and tired. “Go fuck yourself, Fabri.”

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Xataxi grunted. “You’re right.”

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Fabri grunted. “Boss, I’ve done everything I can to train this one properly.”

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“I know you have. She’s defective. One glance at her from my customers and I’ll lose money.” Xataxi turned his cold gaze to Fabri. “I have no more need for her. She’s yours. Do what you want with her.”

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The breath stuck in Crysta’s lungs as heat flushed her body. Xataxi turned and lumbered out of the room, but all she could see was Fabri’s white eyes and the satisfied smirk on his mouth.

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“Did you hear him, slave? The boss gave you to me. That means you are my property to do with what I want, and I have such plans for you,” Fabri grated.

Deep chills worked down her spine as he opened the door to the cage and dug his claws into her calf. A scream tore from her throat and she groped the bars as Fabri hauled her out. She kicked her legs, but it was like kicking a wall. She didn’t even feel the pain of her torn skin and muscle. That was obliterated in the wake of knowing she no longer had the dubious protection of Xataxi. That no matter what Fabri did, it could never be too bad, because Xataxi ultimately owned her, and there was a line Fabri couldn’t cross.

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A line that was no longer there.

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Fabri drove his claws into her hair and yanked her into a kneeling position in front of him. “You’ve made me look bad for the last time and now I’m going to make you pay.”

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Tears stung her eyes and dripped down her cheeks. Her breath sawed in and out of her lungs as she tried to unlatch his fingers from the tangle of her hair. She wasn’t going to let Fabri know just how scared she was. There wasn’t much she could do, but she still had her words.

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“You’ll never amount to anything, because in the end you’re nothing but a weak asshole, Fabri. No matter what you do to me, you’re not strong enough to control me. Ever.”

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His eyes turned harder than granite. “We’ll see about that. Suck me, slave. Suck me or I’ll turn the pain collar on until your brains leak out of your ears.”

He unlatched his pants. His dick sprang free. The base was a deep red that turned into black at the tip of his throbbing shaft. The appendage looked like a cadaver. Fabri’s hand at the back of her head twisted and she cried out. He took the opportunity of her open mouth to thrust his dick inside.

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She gagged around the invasion, but if there was one thing her lagging brain recognized, it was that putting a dick inside someone’s mouth you didn’t trust was the height of stupidity.

 

She bit down. Hard. Her teeth sliced into skin and the hot burst of sour blood coated her mouth. Fabri’s scream echoed into the room, shrill and pitched high.

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He tried to yank away, but she dug in deeper, locking her teeth into the turgid flesh. She gripped his balls and twisted them for good measure. Blood poured between her teeth, but she didn’t let up. She was going to bite it off if it was the last thing she did.

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It probably would be the last thing she did.

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“Get her off! Now!” Fabri wailed.

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Something thumped into her side. Her ribs cracked as agony crashed through her. One of the thugs held the metal bar Fabri had hit the cage bars with. She bit down harder on Fabri’s dick, the flesh tearing beneath the pressure of her jaw.

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The thug struck again, hitting the same spot. She collapsed to the ground, a scream lodging in her throat through the agony. Fabri toppled over, both hands clutching his mangled dick as he rolled about, his hands becoming stained as his blood poured from the wound. She bared her teeth and offered him a blood-soaked smile, feeling it dripping off her chin. A mad cackle escaped her mouth.

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“Kill her. Kill her now!” Fabri screamed.

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The guards surrounded her, and the blows fell. She didn’t feel the worst of the pain, shoving it into a separate part of her mind even through her weakened body curled in on itself, trying to protect herself from the abuse. Or she might not have felt the pain because she was as numb on the outside as she was on the inside. She should fear death, but she only felt crushing relief. She hoped the next life would be better than the first, because she was sure hell couldn’t be worse than this.

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If unending torment and emotional anguish were what life was about, she’d had enough. She was happy she was checking out. There wasn’t enough to live for. There never had been.

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A blow cracked her skull. Darkness descended and death swept her away.

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