Shadow - Dohner Laurann (книги онлайн полностью TXT) 📗

“No!” She hated the way fear sounded in her voice.

“Don’t worry. He’s very nice. You’re bleeding.”

“It’s not my blood. I bit Torrent and some of it is Shadow’s.” She glanced at her hands.

Dark eyebrows shot up in astonishment. “You are responsible for some of Torrent’s injuries?”

“He attacked Shadow and threw him out the window. I was angry.” And scared. She wasn’t willing to admit that though, despite it being obvious.

“That was brave of you.”

She peered up at the taller Species. “You and I both know that wasn’t why I did it.”

“You panicked and just attacked because your instincts took over?”

“Something like that.”

Creek leaned against the opposite wall. “I’ve been there.”

“You have?” That surprised Beauty. “You look strong.”

“Not when I was in chains and still under the control of Mercile.” She hugged her middle. “You weren’t raised inside the testing facilities but the technicians we dealt with were big, burly humans. It was rare to see smaller ones unless they were medical staff.” She shrugged. “The technicians were mostly bullies with upgraded titles who enjoyed terrorizing us.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too. That’s in the past though.” A smile curved her lips. “How are you doing?” She cocked her head. “They are taking Shadow to Medical right now. We’ll be left alone for a bit. The males will stay outside. Why don’t you get cleaned up?”

Beauty skirted around the other Species to enter the bathroom. She washed her hands and one look in the mirror had her cleaning her face and neck as well. Torrent’s blood had smeared there. Creek followed but paused at the doorway.

“You look nervous. Relax. No one will enter the house until Shadow returns.”

“Are our men afraid I’ll freak out if they come in here? Is that why they remain outside?”

“Yes. No one wants to traumatize you more. Breeze ordered all males to keep away from you. I’m going to stay until she arrives. They are preparing a helicopter to fly her here as soon as possible.”

“What a mess.” Beauty resisted groaning as she turned off the water and used a towel to dry off. “How could things go so wrong?”

“What happened?”

“You heard. You talked to Torrent and Shadow. My hearing is good.”

“I want your version.”

“Shadow and I were in bed together but suddenly Torrent attacked us.”

“You mean he attacked Shadow.”

“Yes.”

“Did Torrent hurt you?”

She shook her head, calm now that the voices had faded. She couldn’t hear anything from below or outside except a vehicle leaving. That would be the medic taking Shadow away to be treated.

“Torrent didn’t know Shadow was allowed to touch you.”

Anger stirred. “I know.”

“Torrent isn’t a bad male. He thought he was protecting you.”

“I’m so sick of that!” Beauty clenched her teeth and glared at the other woman until she calmed enough to speak again. “That’s why I was brought here.”

“I know. Breeze filled me in on your situation and how you feel. You resent being labeled Gift.”

“Resent is an understatement. This wouldn’t have happened if everyone would stop treating me as though I were some weak freak.” She paused. “I don’t need a babysitter.”

“Breeze doesn’t want you left alone. It could be hours before Shadow is cleared to return. It could be longer if he sustained a lot of damage. Medical might want to keep him overnight.”

Worry ate at her. “He seemed okay to you, didn’t he? He was talking and on his feet.”

“I’m sure he will be fine. Our males are pretty tough and recover quickly after they fight.” Creek smiled. “They do it often here.”

“I’ve never seen you at Homeland.”

“I live here full time. I’d already transferred here when you were rescued.”

“Why? I thought they rotated all the women every few months.”

Creek’s smile faded. “I like it at Reservation better and I have excelled at my secretarial skills. The council members assigned here need someone to help them. I volunteered.”

“Is there a women’s dorm at Reservation?”

“I live at the hotel. It’s nice.”

“Oh.” Beauty stepped forward and Creek retreated then followed her into Shadow’s bedroom. “I guess I should clean up the mess before he comes home. I don’t want him to feel he needs to do it but he will.”

“I’ll help.”

“I can do it myself.”

Creek raised her hands. “I didn’t mean to offend you, Beauty. I’m here. What else will I do?”

“You could go home.”

“Breeze would have my ass. No thanks. That’s one female I never want to disappoint. She gave an order and I’m following it.” Creek smiled, her features showing amusement. “You know how she gets.”

“She is very protective.”

“To you maybe.” Creek glanced around, studying the layout of the room. “She’s kind of a bear to the rest of us. We are the ‘soft padding that keeps our males from tearing each other apart’. That’s a quote from her. She expects a lot from us.”

“I’ve never heard her say that. What does that mean?” Beauty paused by the bed, her sad gaze fixed on the broken window frame. “I don’t know what to do about that.”

Creek crossed the room and just closed the window. “It shuts. That’s all that matters. Someone else can fix it later. We have people who do that.” She closed the curtains, effectively hiding the damage and turned back. “You never got the lecture from Breeze about our duties to our males?”

“No. I wasn’t allowed around them.” She decided to make the bed.

“Ah.” The Species walked to the other side to help. “Our males are gruff and not the friendliest if you haven’t noticed. They intimidate others easily. Their soft sides are hard to find but it’s our duty to remind them why they need to become social. Otherwise they’d probably have pissing contests with their fists. There would be so much fighting that not much else would happen.”

Beauty paused, staring at Creek. “Why? We’re all considered family, aren’t we?”

“It’s their nature. Mercile didn’t create them to be feeble. We had a lifetime to grow resentful of authority figures. It’s our jobs as females to give them a reason to unite. They work together to give us a home.” She smiled, tucking in her side of the comforter. “We allow them to do it. We need to be reminders that there’s more to living than seeking revenge on the ones who’ve harmed us.”

“What is your job specifically?” Beauty glanced around the room, not seeing anything else to do. She held Creek’s gaze.

“Breeze just expects us to always be supportive of our males.”

“Is that why you sleep with so many of them instead of settling down with one? There aren’t a lot of us who survived.”

A grin curved Creek’s mouth. “No.” She sat on the end of the bed. “Do you know anything about the breeding experiments they did at Mercile?”

“I’ve heard a little about it.”

“We were taken to males to share sex. Sometimes it would be the same one for a few weeks but mostly they’d take us to different ones. They wanted us to become pregnant and probably thought exposing us to several males would help make it successful. Your heart hardens after a few years of it.”

“I don’t understand.” Beauty perched on the dresser.

Creek’s humor fled as she hugged her waist. “We learned not to become attached to anyone. It was a painful mistake to become emotionally involved. They would use us to punish the males or use the males to attempt to force us to do their bidding without protest if they suspected we cared too much about each other. Arguing against whatever they wanted was never a good thing.”

“What kind of things did they want you to do?”

Fangs dented her bottom lip. “Bad things. I was taken to a male once who’d been tortured. He was in bad shape and I tended to him instead of sharing sex.” Anger deepened Creek’s voice. “As if he were in any condition to do that. He’d been severely beaten. I think they wanted to humiliate him.”