Planet Athion: The Complete Series by Angel Lawson

60

Mercy

I enterthe ward the next day in a haze, trying not to think about the Master and his promise for tonight. I’d known since I was kidnapped that this day would come. That I’d be used by the Master to fulfill his fantasies. I guess, in a way, I thought he’d take me by surprise—by force. There’s something worse this way. I have so much time to think about it.

I check on each of the women, assessing their pregnancies, nutrition, and general health. Everyone was doing well except Maria, a girl in her late teens who’d I’d placed on bed rest two weeks prior. She’s restless but the baby needs stability. Twice her body tried to go into early labor—too early—and I suspected neither of us wanted to experience the Master’s wrath over losing a viable pregnancy.

I’m lost in my thoughts as I check Lynn’s blood pressure.

“Is something wrong?” she asks, after I have to do it twice. I keep losing focus.

“I’m fine.” I give her a tight smile and finally get the machine to work. I wave a thermometer over her forehead to check her temperature and it drops to the floor. My hands shake when I pick it up.

She takes one in hers. “Mercy?”

I look over at the other girls. They’re over in the living room area, reading or watching data pads. For once, I wish Cassidy were here and wasn’t a traitor. I had a lot of questions to prepare myself for tonight. Unfortunately, Cassidy is a traitor and she’s half the reason I’m in this situation. I know I shouldn’t cross the line of professionalism with one of my patients, but I see no other options.

“Can I ask you something?”

Lynn brushes her hair out of her eyes. “Sure.”

“What’s it like,” I swallow and eye her belly, “having sex with a Trad.”

She gives me a strange look but shifts to a more comfortable position. “Well on Earth it was like having amazing sex with a very handsome man. At first, at least. Once they drop the façade of humanity, the Trad will show their true form during sex.”

I’d seen Amias like this—by accident. He’d shown himself, red scales and sharp teeth. It hadn’t been scary, though. He and Cassidy, for all their flaws, are in love and I could sense it.

The Master and I are not in love.

“Does it hurt?”

She exhales. “Their cocks can be large. They’re well-endowed and if they aren’t gentle at first, it can be a little rough.”

I’d had sex with Dimka, who by nature is larger all around. I’d be surprised if any Trad can match that.

“Then there’s the egg laying,” she says, quietly. “It’s not intimate. Perfunctory. It’s…you’re nothing but a vessel.”

“And that’s worse?”

She gives me a sharp look. “It’s all worse.”

I nod and squeeze her hand. “I’m sorry. I know. I’m just…”

She narrows her eyes. “You’re just what?”

I push my shoulders back and remind myself that I can get through this. “Just trying to be prepared.”

“Who?” she asks, but her word trails off at the end. She knows and fights a shudder.

Despite trying my hardest to keep it from them, even the patients know. I’m marked for the Master.

“When?”

I swallow back the bile building in my throat. “Tonight.”

She takes my hand, suddenly our roles reversed. “You’re strong, Mercy, that’s why he wants you. That bastard can’t see something he doesn’t want to break, but he doesn’t understand human women. What we’ve endured and who we are. We’re resilient. Strong. He wants that for himself because ultimately, he’s weak. They all are. We have what they want and it makes them crazy.”

Her words ring true but that doesn’t take away the fact I’m going to have to give over my body, which not only belongs to me but that my men have claimed.

“Thank you for listening.”

“Always,” she replies. “You know, up here, in here? We’re sisters. All of us.”

I hadn’t thought of it that way. I’d lost my only sister, but as I look at Lynn’s determined expression, I suspect she’d be okay with me finding support with this woman. In the end she didn’t have any, and that’s just another weight I must carry.

* * *

Instead of being takento my room after work, I’m ushered directly to the Master’s quarters. Nervous anxiety wars in my stomach. At the door I’m greeted by an Athion slave. His eyes never meet mine as I’m taken down a long hallway. I want to ask if the Master waits for me now. If this is where it ends? But I don’t, my voice trapped in my throat. He stops at a door in a hallway filled with many other closed doorways and opens it. Inside is a luxurious, but impersonal, bedroom. I grab the arm of the Athion. “Is this his room?”

His eyes meet mine, they’re filled with regret. “No.”

I step in and the door is closed, and locked, behind me.

The room is pristine, the bed soft-looking and wide. Modern chairs and a chaise lounge sit by a wide, stone fireplace. There’s two doors off the room, one obviously going to the bath, the other is closed.

I notice three narrow clothing boxes that wait on my bed. A note is on top of the one in the middle.

Surprise Me

Each reveals a different set of lingerie. Black, white, and blue. These aren’t from Earth, the material is too slick, too perfect. I can’t find any obvious stitching and all will undoubtedly fit like a glove.

If I’d eaten anything that day, I probably would have lost it all over the white rug.

Movement in an adjacent bath alerts me to the fact I’m not alone. I drop the card and walk over, preparing myself. I peek my head in.

“Mercy! We didn’t hear you come in!”

I blink, trying to reconcile the figures in front of me. Rhise and his two female assistants. They’d prepped me for the auction on the ship.

“What—what are you doing here?” I ask, completely stunned.

“We were called in to work our magic. Apparently, the Master was pleased with our work last time and wanted us to do the same.” He frowns when I don’t react. “Mercy?”

“You do know what’s happening tonight, don’t you?”

He shakes his beautiful head. “No. A party?”

I laugh darkly. “No, although I’m sure the Master will consider it one, anyway.”

The two women stare at me blankly, their emotions lost somewhere inside. Is this what will happen to me the longer I stay here?

Rhise is a Trad and I think he’s nice. He’s a slave as much as I am. He has a job to do, which doesn’t involve his emotions. I walk out of the room, grab the lingerie and hand it to him in a wad. “Pick out the one you think looks best. I’m sure he’ll approve.”

Rhise turns the scraps of lace, netting, and mesh around in his hands and recognition takes hold. No, this isn’t a party.

“Oh,” he says, then holds the blue up to my chin and gives me a warm smile. “I think the blue. Blue has always been your color.”

I swallow back the fear and nod. At least I won’t have to go through this part alone.

* * *

The scrubbingand peeling and plucking isn’t any better this time. Things had gone feral with my beauty maintenance while on the run and I certainly wasn’t putting any effort in for the Master. Once I’m primed and ready, Rhise wraps me in a soft, white robe and puts me in the chair before the bathroom mirror and works his magic. In just a few minutes my tired, worn skin is soft and supple. It smells like flowers. There’s not a stray hair where Rhise hasn’t approved it to exist. The women, still unspeaking, do my hair and makeup and I notice the products are similar to the ones in my room. Possibly the very same ones.

“The Master has a type,” Rhise says suddenly.

“Yes,” I agree. “I know. Her name was Juliana. My sister.”

He stops and makes eye contact in the mirror. “Really?”

“Yes, he impregnated her on Earth and she killed herself and the baby. He wants a do-over. With me.”

Saying it out loud only confirmed the Master’s mental instability.

“So tonight…”

“He wants to have sex. He thinks he’s been charming me for weeks, which is ridiculous, but it is what it is. If I fight back, argue or anything else, he’ll torture the men I love that are currently downstairs in the dungeons.”

“That’s an unfortunate situation, Mercy.” He watches me closely. “But you’re a strong woman. I heard about your escape from the auction ship. Do you know no one has ever pulled something off like that before?”

“It doesn’t matter, because he caught up with me.”

He laughs. “It does matter. Don’t you see? You rattle him. You’ve got him going through all these motions. If he wanted to just violate you, he would have. He could have taken you at any time but he hasn’t. He’s obsessed, which means you do have some power over him, Mercy. More than you realize.”

“He’ll hurt my men,” I reply, feeling the opposite—completely powerless. Tears press at the corner of my eyes.

“The Custo?” I look at him in surprise. He chuckles again. “I know all about them, too."

“Then you understand.”

He spins my chair around and lowers himself so we’re eye-to-eye. His are the perfect shade of gray, bone-chilling in their intensity. “What I understand is if you and the Custo are involved? There’s always hope.”

He snaps his fingers at one of the women and she pulls a tissue out of the container on the table, then tosses it at me.

“Don’t ruin your makeup,” he says, handing me the blue lingerie and leaving the room.

I’m not sure why Rhise is the voice of reason and hope in an otherwise desperate situation, but as I tug the barely-there panties over my hips and squeeze my breasts into the sheer top, I think he has no idea how hopeless this situation really is.