Captured by Erica Stevens Read Free Book Online

willing ones out there.
       “We shall see,” he said simply.
       Her eyes narrowed in fury, her delicate nostrils flared. He didn’t know why he was baiting her, but it was amusing to watch her when she was irritated with him. Her jaw clenched harder, she turned slowly away from him, her hands fisting upon her slender legs.
       “Where are you from Arianna?”
       Her chin rose slightly, but though she was still holding the appearance of defiance, he could sense the pain that shimmered through her. “Around,” she said simply.
       “You live in the woods?”
       “Yes.”
       “Are you a member of the resistance?”
       She hesitated, her knuckles turning white with the force of her clenched fists. “That’s why I’m here, isn’t it? Resistance members are punished for their disobedience by becoming blood slaves, or being bled dry. It’s a way to discourage our fighting, isn’t it?”
       “I suppose so,” he agreed softly. “You think that is wrong?”
       “Don’t you?” she snapped.
       He sat back as he studied her. The bright blue of her eyes was ablaze with indignation and righteousness as she glared at him. “If your kind would simply just agree to work with us, then there would be no need for punishment.”
       “Agree to be your slaves in other ways you mean?”
       He shrugged again, without thinking he reached out to take hold of her hand. He heard her breath freeze as he tried to soothe the tight pressure within her fists. Her head tilted slightly to the side, those wide innocent eyes were surprisingly earnest as she watched him. “It is the law of the world that the strongest will prevail.”
       “And you are the strongest?” she demanded.
       “Of course.”
       Her eyes narrowed, her gaze was intense and questioning. Finally, she nodded slowly, biting nervously on her bottom lip as she turned away from him. She shook her head slightly, her head bowed as she fidgeted with the sleeves of her sweater again.
       “You do not agree?” he asked.
       “You did succeed in driving us out of our homes, forcing us to run and hide. You do feed off of us, so yes I suppose that makes you stronger. In your own minds at least. It does not give you a right to do what you have done to us though.”
       “Most people returned to their homes when the war was over. Most people picked up the lives that they had left behind. It is only The Resistance that has remained hiding and fighting and dying within the woods for the past hundred years.”
       She turned slowly back toward him, her defiance melted away as fury blazed forth. “Is that what you believe? That they simply picked their lives back up? That they returned to something good? That they have been thriving since the war ended!? Even within the woods, with no walls and no homes, we have more than the ones that returned to their lives . They are starving, with little clothing and no money. There were no jobs to return to that did not involve being some sort of servant to your kind. That does not involve being beneath you ! There was nothing for most of them as your kind took over the better jobs, and forced us into menial roles that would keep us stupid and weak while building your people and your world to ever higher levels.
       “I have heard that there was a time when there were schools, when we were taught things, and educated. They do not exist anymore; they are things of legend, whispered about in awe, as so many other things are. Things that we used to have, and used to enjoy, but will never again know as long as your kind has anything to do with it! There is survival of the fittest, and then there is cruelty. I may be paying the price now for my role in the resistance, but I would not change a thing. I stood up for what I believe in, I have pride in what I believe in, and no matter what you do to me, you cannot take that fact away!”
       There was true rage in her voice by the time she was