Release In The Dark (DARK erotic romance series) Read online

  RELEASE IN THE DARK

  By

  Natalie Kristen

  Copyright © 2013 Natalie Kristen

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are used fictitiously or are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual locales, events, establishments or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DARK erotic romance series

  RAPTURE IN THE DARK (Book One)

  RELEASE IN THE DARK (Book Two)

  For my sister and Aunt

  You girls rock!

  In a rapture of rage, for perfection's endowment,

  Thought and feeling and soul and sense—

  Merged in a moment which gives me at last

  You around me for once, you beneath me, above me—

  Me—sure that despite of time future, time past,—

  This tick of our life-time's one moment you love me!

  - Robert Browning

  RELEASE IN THE DARK

  CHAPTER ONE

  I struggle desperately as I watch those precious bubbles of air float out of my mouth and rise to the surface. I don't think I can hold my breath any longer, but those hands don't let up even when I thrash and twist in pain and panic. Those big, hard hands continue holding my head underwater, even when my own hands slap madly against the edge of the barrel. My lungs are burning, straining, about to explode any instant now. I can't see clearly, much less think clearly.

  This is no training. This is torture!

  Resistance training? Murder more like.

  I reach back and try to claw at those strong hands holding my head down, preventing my head from breaching the surface of the water. But it is no use. Irin is too strong.

  Right now, I see her as the enemy, the enemy who is trying to destroy me. Only she is not.

  Irin is the leader of the resistance cell that I am now a part of, all thanks to Jaxon. Irin had told me that the resistance cells are kept small and separate, having just a few members so that in the event of capture or infiltration, the enemy can only extract limited information from the compromised cell. The underground bunker that we are hiding in is small and cramped, but well stocked and well hidden.

  Jaxon brought me here, after he saved me. He rescued me from the Palace, from the cruel whip and whims of the Emperor and made me a member of this small resistance cell.

  Jaxon.

  The man who captured me, took me, saved me. And loves me.

  At the thought of Jaxon, my body relaxes and my frayed nerves calm down enough for my thoughts and will to order themselves. I can do this. I have survived as a Siren in the Palace. I can survive anything.

  Snapshots of my time in the Palace flash through my mind. My thoughts rewind back to the very beginning when I first met Jaxon. My body has stopped struggling and my lungs quietly and determinedly hold on to the limited air in them as I watch the images flash before my watery eyes.

  I first met Jaxon ten years ago when I was barely eight. I had been too tiny, too terrified and too damn weak to save my mother. He had been an eighteen-year-old Captain in the Imperial Army then. When the Imperial army thundered into our town, the Commander of the invading unit had laid his rapacious eyes on my mother as she was trying to herd me home safely. Jaxon had tried to stop his Commander from taking my mother away from me, from raping a defenseless woman in front of her screaming child. That day, I saw my mother brutally ravished and killed right in the middle of the street. And I saw a brave young Captain shot by his Commander for trying to protect my mother and me. His anguished, brown eyes held mine with a secret promise as he was dragged away, bleeding from a bullet wound in his shoulder.

  The vision fades and I see Jaxon again, ten years later.

  The Emperor had been out hunting with his guards, and had come galloping into the town square, just as I was about to be branded with a red hot iron by Officer Goddot. My crime—dropping one piece of the weapon that I was assembling in the factory Officer Goddot was overseeing. The Emperor had ordered his Commander to cuff me and deliver me to the Palace. Commander Jaxon Ryleth had done exactly as his Emperor ordered. I became a Siren in the Palace. Behind the gilded walls of the Palace, deep in the dungeon, young women and men are kept for the Emperor and Empress's pleasure. I saw Slaves being made to fight to the death in front of the Emperor and his guests. I remember Owen Vesparr, the white-haired, deeply scarred Slave who had been chosen to service the Empress in her shadowy, flame-lit chambers. The Empress had chosen Owen, and Owen had chosen—me.

  My heart rate speeds up at the memory and I almost inhale sharply. I squeeze my eyes shut and refuse to allow any water to enter my lungs.

  What Owen did to me—that is over. He had forced himself on me, spread my legs while I was hanging by my wrists in the Empress's chambers, and forced his mouth on me, invading me with his tongue so that he could get hard, hard enough to satisfy the Empress. I had been forced to watch them, my eyes held wide open by steel clamps. After the Empress had used Owen and mercilessly drained his body, she had ordered Dr. Rolin into her chambers. Both Owen and I had been injected with a clear serum, and I had woken up alone in my cell in the dungeon.

  My fists clench as I shake away this horrible memory. Unbidden, another vision slams into my mind. I see Jaxon this time. He is watching me as he stands outside Dr. Rolin's laboratory, his eyes filled with pain and a myriad of conflicting emotions. I see him holding me, giving me one long, lingering kiss before letting me go. I see him coming to my cell in the middle of the night and carrying me to his chamber. I see him taking me in his bed, gently, tenderly. I see him putting my mother's earring into my palm and then carefully putting it on for me. And I see him hugging me as if his heart would break when he has to leave the Palace.

  Jaxon never forgot me. He had been keeping my mother's earring with him all this time, hoping to return it to me one day. He had gone back that very night even with his injured shoulder, to look for me, and he had found that small aquamarine stud in the blood. His blood mingled with my mother's.

  Jaxon's image suddenly contorts into the Emperor's snarling visage in my mind. The harrowing memory of the Emperor whipping me as I was shackled to his bedpost makes my eyes snap wide open. I can hear the blood pounding furiously in my ears, as bubbles spurt from the corner of my mouth like blood, all the air leaking out of my lungs in a rush. In my mind, I see Jaxon, smashing through the window behind me and attacking the Emperor in a blind, murderous rage. He had snatched me up and spirited us away on his motorcraft while I was half-conscious, half-delirious from blood loss and shock.

  And he had brought me here, to this underground cell. Jaxon had been helping the resistance all along, even while he was a Commander in the Emperor's Imperial Army.

  Jaxon is a fighter, a leader. I hadn't wanted him to fight, I had been so afraid of losing him again.

  But he said he was fighting for us, for a future, for the chance of a future.

  His words echo through my mind: “The chance of a future. And for this, I will fight, for a future with you. To be with you, to live with you, to have a future with you, is a dream come true. I will fight for this dream, for this life, for this love. You are my heart, Zoey, my life.”

  Jaxon loves me. He has told me so unequivocally through his words, his actions, his kiss, his touch.

  I have never said those three small words back to him. Instead, what I told him was: I hate you.

  At this painful realization, I start to shiver violently. I open my mouth and water rushes in, burning my nose, throat and every cell in my body.

  My silent und
erwater scream erupts into a loud, noisy spluttering and choking as I am yanked roughly out of the water. I collapse in a convulsing heap on the ground, water leaking and spurting from every orifice. Heaving and throwing up water as someone thumps my back, I try to blink the water, or are they tears?—out of my eyes.

  “You okay, Zoey?” I hear Irin's disembodied voice somewhere above me.

  I nod, unable to speak.

  “Good. Your timing is a lot better.”

  I cough in response.

  “I know that you're wondering why you're the only one undergoing this grueling training. You're the newest member of our cell, so all the other members have already gone through this training. What we are putting you through is nothing compared to what you would face in the hands of the enemy. You must be prepared, physically and psychologically. Do you understand?” Irin cocks her blond head at me.

  “Y-yes,” I choke out.

  “Stand up,” she commands, holding out a towel. “Dry yourself. Compose yourself. Gather your strength and wits. You have to join the others in the training room in a minute.”

  I grab the towel and rub and pat my hair and face furiously. I miss Jaxon. He left for a mission yesterday, but I already miss him like crazy.

  I open my mouth to ask Irin if she has heard from him, but her watch sounds an angry, urgent beep and she turns abruptly away.

  “Irin Tanner here,” she speaks curtly into her watch.

  “Irin, this is Lachlan Uly from Cell 6K. Your missive never arrived.”

  I see Irin's back tense. “He left yesterday morning.”

  “He never showed up at the rendezvous point. We've scouted the surrounding area but no news.”

  “We have not heard back from him.”

  “I'll let you know if we find out anything.”

  Irin clicks off but she doesn't turn around to face me. The towel slips from my hand as I stare at the back of her blond head. Her tall, statuesque frame seems to hunch slightly as she presses the buttons in rapid succession on her watch, swiftly sending out a message. With a muttered curse, she straightens her broad shoulders and pivots round.

  “Zoey...” she begins stiffly.

  “It's Jaxon, isn't it.”

  She nods once.

  “Where is he? What happened to him?” I have to force the words out through my throat which is rapidly tightening, choking me and killing me.

  “No one knows,” she says, looking me straight in the eye. “He never showed up at the rendezvous point. There has been no contact, no news, no trace. He just...”

  “He can't have just disappeared,” I say, fighting to keep my voice even.

  “No one has been able to establish...”

  I shake my head repeatedly. “He won't just vanish. He would never do that. He is in trouble, Irin!” I lurch towards her. “Please...”

  “We are doing everything we can to find...”

  “No! No, you don't understand! He is in serious trouble! He may be in danger, Irin.” I grab her hands, my eyes wild and panicked. “We have to find him. I have to find him! I can find him, Irin. I will find him!”

  “Zoey, calm down.”

  “No, I am calm. I am very calm. I just need to know where he is.” I release Irin's cold hands and back away. “There must be a way,” I mumble, pacing to and fro. “There must be some way, some news, some place...”

  My mind is in a whirl, my thoughts making wild leaps as I walk the tension out of my body. To and fro, left and right, on and on, I pace and mutter. I am not sure how long I have been walking and talking in circles round the room before Irin puts out a hand to stop me in my tracks.

  “Zoey, stop. Stop this. Right now.”

  I wrench my arm away, not really seeing her. “I will not stop!” I hiss. “I will not do nothing! Let me go. Let me go! I will find Jaxon!” I grip her shoulders hard.

  To my surprise, she doesn't push me away. She simply stands still and studies me for a long time. As I stare up at those steely, unmoving gray eyes, all the fight and impotent rage leave me in a rush as the stark reality comes crashing down on me.

  “Is he...is Jaxon...” I whisper with a hiccuped sob.

  “We don't know. No one knows where he is, if he is alive or dead. He just...disappeared without a trace. No one has seen him or heard from him since he left yesterday at dawn. No one knows if...”

  “I have to know.” I stare up at her with burning eyes. “I have to. I will find him!”

  She arches an eyebrow.

  “Please...” The rest of my words remain lodged in my throat. My throat and chest feel too tight. It almost feels as if there is a fist around my throat and heart.

  I straighten up forcefully. “I...will...find...him.”

  Irin meets my hard, determined stare. Despite the piercing ache in my heart, there are no tears in my eyes. A muscle is working in her cheek as she frowns at me. Finally she lets out a sigh and says quietly, “There may be a way to try to find out...”

  “I'll do it.”

  “But...it may be difficult for you. You were a Siren in the Palace, so this may be...”

  “I will do it.”

  She looks at me long and hard. “All right then. This might be the only way, so...” She turns and motions for me to follow her. “Come. I'll brief you. This will be a difficult mission...for you,” she says pointedly. “But it may be the best place to get information. Many of the patrons are powerful military and business leaders. It is a dangerous position for you to be in, but you may have a chance to find out some crucial information. Do you think you can handle this?”

  I nod, staring at her combat boots, my mind imagining Jaxon in all sorts of dire, deadly situations. No, no, Jaxon is resourceful and resilient, he wouldn't...

  “Zoey, look at me,” Irin says sternly.

  I look up to see her studying me intently. I can see the doubt and question in her gray eyes. “Are you...ready, Zoey?” Mentally, emotionally, physically.

  “I am, Irin. I am ready!”

  Irin sighs and says in a quiet voice, “I know that you have been a Siren in the Palace,” she says quietly. “I'm not sure if your training and experience as a Siren would be a hindrance or a help. Have the horrors that you have seen and endured steeled you, or broken you? Have they strengthened you, or damaged you?” she asks, as she circles me slowly.

  I hardly blink as images from my time as a Siren in the Palace floods my mind and swirl all around me like a cyclone.

  I see myself stripping in Dr. Rolin's sterile examination room while Owen watched me with his green, predatory eyes from his corner. I see the other young girls, Sirens, all being washed, waxed, polished and perfumed in the Grooming Room. I see us dancing naked, with fruits and desserts lashed to our bare bodies, in the glittering, raucous Great Hall for the entertainment of the Emperor, the Empress and their Generals. I see greedy, grinning mouths sucking and licking the sticky sweets off my body. I see Owen forcing me to the marble floor of the Great Hall, pushing himself between my legs as the Emperor, the Empress and his drunken guests laugh and leer. I see the glass wall in the Emperor's chambers and see the writhing, venomous snakes swarming over the body of a tortured Siren. I see myself shackled to the bedpost in the Emperor's chambers, being beaten and whipped.

  With a violent jolt, I shake myself free of those nightmarish images and look up at Irin fiercely.

  “These scars...” I yank my sleeve up to show her the whip marks down my arm. There are more on my back, my legs, all over my body. “They make me stronger. Not weaker.”

  Her eyes rake down the marks on my arms. She meets my blazing eyes and gives me a nod.

  “I will brief you on your mission now. We don't have much time.” She starts to type a message on her watch as she walks away.

  “We will have to get you into the Red Lantern—tonight.”

  I freeze at her words. I finally understand why she questioned my ability to handle this mission, given that I was a Siren in the Palace.

  But I hu
rry after her, even if I almost trip over my own feet. I survived the Palace. I will survive the Red Lantern.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Irin steps into her bunk, and after hesitating a heartbeat, I follow her.

  Her bunk is neat and sparse, like Jaxon's, and there is a small, wooden table in the corner. There are some papers piled haphazardly on the table, weighted down with pens and communication devices.

  “Sit.” Irin closes the door and motions to a stool beside the table.

  I obey immediately.

  I wait for her to drag the other stool out from under the table and sit down, but she remains standing.

  “You accept the mission?” Irin asks again.

  “Yes. I won't let you down.” I won't let Jaxon down.

  She exhales sharply and starts to speak. “Your...experience as a Siren will be of assistance to you, in this case. Hopefully.”

  I wait without responding.

  After a beat, she carries on, “You will be sent to the Red Lantern tonight. Someone will receive you and make sure that your details are entered in their database. I will give you a communication device and you can use it only once. We can extract you from the Red Lantern once you contact us. While you are there, you will have to find out as much as you can. The patrons of the Red Lantern are powerful, influential military and business leaders. If there is news about Jaxon, there's a chance you'll hear about it there. There will be talk, drunken talk, pillow talk, talk we can use. Find out everything. Find out where the Imperial Army will be launching their next attack. Where and when. We have blown up some of their weapons factories in various towns. They will retaliate, brutally.”

  My eyes widen.

  “Weapons factories?” I repeat.

  “Yes. Cut off the enemy's supplies.” She narrows her eyes as though squinting at some distant target. “We'll be targeting some of the main railways and roads...”