The Renegades (The Superiors) by Lena Hillbrand Read Free Book Online Page A

concern himself
with anything beyond avoiding Byron and earning Cali’s trust.
    Some
nights, Cali spoke with Draven and fed him, while other nights she went about
her tasks as if she did not notice him watching her. He had a strange fascination
with her, but he avoided finding a reason for his particular interest. She
would be his soon enough. He needed to understand sapiens better, know their
habits and manners before he owned one. When he thought on it, he knew very
little about the upkeep and care of saps. He studied her because she let him,
and he studied the others in her small family because they didn’t seem to mind
as long as he did not harm them.
    Draven
wondered if Cali’s mate knew that she fed him, and if he objected. He must think
it strange that she voluntarily gave her sap to a Superior other than her
master. But if her mate disapproved, he kept it to himself, and if he and Cali
disagreed over it, Cali never let Draven know. Draven watched the male sapien,
and though he didn’t imagine him as the proper mate for Cali, he didn’t seem a
bad sort. He appeared to care for Cali, and Draven approved of the match for
this reason alone.
    If
her mate treated her well, her master made up for it. Cali remained on her
chain, and she wore bruises from his abuses that did not disappear but simply
rotated across her face and arms. Draven watched her array of bruises, the
faint and the fresh and the ones between, coloring her skin like rainbows. He
knew Byron’s disgust for saps, but his violence against Cali seemed excessive.
Still, Draven could do nothing. He could not report animal cruelty. According
to the database, he wasn’t a resident or a visitor of Princeton. He wasn’t a
legal, registered Superior, or even officially an Illegal.
    He
had dropped from the system as countless others had. One day he had registered
leaving a city for vacation, but he had never arrived. He had simply vanished.
No, not vanished, exactly, but entered limbo. According to the system, he was
traveling and would be perpetually traveling until someone noticed his absence.
That could take years. After all, who would register him as missing? His
closest friend had been Byron, and he didn’t imagine Byron would search for him
anytime soon.
    Worried
that Byron would discover him with Cali, he kept careful watch of the Second’s
coming and going. He wondered where Byron thought he had gone, if Byron thought
of him at all. Certainly Byron knew that Draven had not been recovered with the
other bodies the night of the massacre. Had Byron searched for him, sent out a
bulletin? Was Draven a wanted man? And for what crimes? Although Draven
recognized this as paranoia, he let himself indulge it. After being held
captive by Sally’s family, he wanted nothing less than to spend more time as a
prisoner. He’d risk living as a traitor and fugitive rather than learn of his
status from a jail cell.
    When
he finished his visit to Cali’s garden each night, Draven collected things. He
came to know the streets and alleys, the effective hiding places, the rewarding
trash bins and those that smelled rank and those that held only garbage.
Sometimes he found small treasures—an ancient copy of a book missing its cover
and half the pages, a stained pair of trousers that fit with a few alterations,
a harmonica, a pair of worn-out shoes with stained but salvageable laces. These
things and many others he took back to the car lot.
    After
his home was repurposed for scraps, he moved deeper into the lot, into a Rosso
that had retained its parts and shape when the engine failed. A crash had
disfigured the hood and silenced the motor, but the shell of the car remained
intact. Instead of a diamond layout, the old model had bench seats of
luxurious, supple leather. The blinders remained in place to prevent the inside
of the car from sustaining sun damage until the lot sold it for parts. The
inside of the Rosso could hold Draven and most of his collection, unlike