Charlotte Boyett-Compo- WIND VERSE- Prisoners of the Wind by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page B

day.”
    “I fed well,” he stated, his eyes hot.
    Images of the blood and destruction that had been assailing
her the last few days rose up in her mind’s eye and she frowned, realizing
she’d accepted his bestiality as a matter of course and was surprised it no
longer bothered her.
    Drae cocked his head to one side, reading her thoughts. “I
wasn’t aware I had broadcasted my deeds to you.”
    “Well, you did. Please be more careful next time,” she said.
“I don’t care to see what atrocities you perpetuate.”
    Straightening his shoulders, Drae arched one thick brow.
“You prefer more erotic sublims, do you?” When she didn’t answer, his grin
turned nasty. “Now that I’ve had my fill of Feasting, I’m ready to satisfy my
other appetites.”
    Marin had had time to accustom herself to the inevitable.
She knew there was nothing she could do to prevent or stop what was going to
happen. There would be no last-minute intervention by her mother, no reprieve.
She was on her own and at the mercy of the man ogling her with single-minded
intent.
    She reached up to push her tumbled hair back from her face.
“You are going to rape me,” she stated.
    He simply smiled brutally, his eyes locked on hers.
    “What if you get me pregnant?”
    He shrugged. “You’ll have the bantling, what else?”
    “And if I fight you?”
    He shrugged. “It won’t stop me from taking what I want.
Hell, it might even add spice to the venture.”
    Stated so boldly, his words sent a shaft of terror through
Marin’s soul and she knew he was telling the truth. Either she could give into
him and get it over with or she could allow him to ravish her, cause her untold
pain. The outcome would be the same.
    A few years earlier, Marin had taken a course on the effects
of long-term incarceration of Tribunal prisoners during times of war. One of
the most effective weapons used against the prisoners was rape. Being made to
undress before the violator was one of the primary purposes of psychological
torture. Meant to degrade, to humiliate and to bring home to the prisoner his
or her inability to control what happened to them, such an act seared the soul
and took away any will that might be left.
    With her hands clasped in front of her, she met his amused
stare. “Then get it over with.”
    Drae’s lips twitched. “Ahhh,” he said, drawing the
exclamation out. “We are playing martyr, are we? Are you going to lay
there—arms and legs outstretched—while I do the nasty to you?”
    “You’ve made it clear I have no choice in this matter,” she
said. “I would be foolish to allow you to hurt me so I won’t fight you.”
    “Well, hell, it won’t be much fun then, will it?” he mused.
    Marin kept her jaw clenched tightly although she wanted to
scream at him, beat him with her fists and demand he stop tormenting her.
Instead, she lifted her chin.
    “What is it you want me to do, Captain?”
    He grinned, shrugged, and then turned his back on her. “I’ll
have to think about that.”
    Marin stared at the spot where he had been standing, unable
to believe he’d simply turned and left her. She waited for him to return and
when—after ten minutes had passed—he had not, she picked up her pillow and
threw it at the door, calling him a name she’d heard Simone use many times when
referring to men.
    Another day passed before he turned up at her door. She
looked up to see him lounging against the doorjamb, not having heard the
pneumatic door swoosh open.
    “More torment, Captain?” she asked through clenched teeth.
    “I thought about what it is I want to do to you,” he said
after a long moment of silence.
    Marin lifted her chin. “And what is that?”
    His eyes narrowed only a fraction before a tight, lazy grin
stretched his full lips. “I want you,” he said, shifting his shoulders, “to
strip for me. If I have to rip off your jumpsuit, I promise you it will not be
gently and I might not provide you with a new one.” He cocked