Death Defying (Dark Desires #3)
Nina Croft
Prologue
Fifteen years ago…
Tannis lay in the darkness on her narrow cot, every muscle locked rigid as she waited for the guard to pass. Instead, he halted outside her door. Her heart stuttered to a standstill and then started a rapid beat that threatened to explode from her chest.
Oh, God, oh, God.
She pressed her fist to her mouth so hard she tasted the metallic sweetness of her own blood.
No one had been near her in a week. She’d known what that meant. However much she hated the experiments, the alternative was far worse.
The harsh rasp of her breath sounded loud in her ears. She wanted desperately to hide. But there was nowhere to go. The cell she had lived in for the last fourteen years was a mere ten feet by ten feet, with bare white walls and only a small cot for furniture.
She had two choices. Submit or fight. Not really choices at all.
Sliding her hand beneath the thin mattress, she fumbled for the makeshift knife and then wrapped her trembling fingers around the rough hilt.
The hulking figure of Grady, one of her guards, stood silhouetted in the doorway. He flicked the switch on his belt and light flooded the small room. Tannis’s grip tightened around the knife, and she swung her legs off the cot and sat up. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe he hadn’t come to tell her…
But he wouldn’t meet her gaze as he stepped inside and shut the door behind him. “Get your things together. You ship out in the morning.”
Nausea rose hot and acrid in the back of her throat. She must have made a noise because he shifted uncomfortably, guilt flickering across his face. She hated all the guards. Some were pure evil, but to her mind, Grady’s sort were the worst—they knew they did wrong but still continued.
“I…” He shrugged. “I can’t help—It’s more than my job’s worth.”
In a flash, a tidal wave of black rage drowned out her fear.
His job. Her life. No competition.
She gritted her teeth against the need to leap at him, tear him with her nails, sink her teeth into his flesh. But he’d just put her in restraints if she did, and tonight she needed to be free. At least one good thing had come of this hell… The long years had taught her to hide her feelings, to keep the rage and terror locked tight inside.
He turned to go, and she pushed herself off the bed and took a step toward him, hiding the hand with the knife at her side. She couldn’t let him leave.
“Wait!”
He turned back, a question in his eyes, and she stretched her lips in what she hoped was the semblance of a smile. “Don’t go.”
Grady wanted her. She had seen him watching with his pale, protuberant eyes. She had to use that, however repugnant.
One chance, that’s all she would have.
Tomorrow, they would send her to the Meridian mines, and a slow and agonizing death. It seemed like all her life, she’d lived with that fear hanging over her. She’d known that once her usefulness was over, once they learned what they could from her particular genetic mix, they would dispose of her like so much trash. And at eighteen, she wasn’t ready to die. She wanted to live so badly, the need was like a blade piercing her heart.
Along with the knife, perhaps she had another weapon. They regularly drained the venom from the glands at the base of her incisors, but nobody had been near her in days. All she had to do was get close enough.
She would do this or die trying. As she accepted that, her fears calmed, her mind cleared, and she went to a peaceful place where the world seemed to slow down.
Taking the few steps toward him, she came to a halt only inches away, and gazed up into his fat, ugly face. “Please, Grady. Don’t leave me. I don’t want to be alone tonight.”
Shock flared in his eyes, but he was definitely listening.
“Just hold me,” she whispered. “Tomorrow, it’s over. I’m going to die, and I’ve never even kissed a man.”
Jesus, would he actual believe this crap? Hysterical laughter rose in her throat as his face softened. The stupid oaf was probably deluding himself into believing he was doing her a favor. For a minute, he appeared undecided, and Tannis held her breath. Then, he gave a slight nod.
Relief made her limp.
She took the last step, which brought her flush against him. So close that the hot, sour sweat of his body flooded her nostrils. Swallowing her revulsion, she lifted her hand to curl around his neck. He was a good six inches taller, and she had to tug him down in order to reach his throat. She pressed her lips to his skin, and his hands closed around her. Panic clawed at her insides, and every cell of her being fought the urge to tear free.