know my own, uh, Master seems to know my thoughts a lot of the time.”
Rachel shook her head. “Those who are resistant to Calm are also resistant to being probed. The two traits seem to go hand in hand, thank goodness! Otherwise they would have killed us all off long ago.” She leaned forward. “But tell me more about your Master—does he feed from pleasure or pain? Or a combination of both?”
“Uh…pleasure, I guess. That is, he’s never really hurt me. I mean, aside from uh, tying me up to Sting me,” Alli confessed, feeling her cheeks get hot with a blush as she remembered her many sessions strapped to the Stinging Frame.
“You’re so lucky!” Rachel sighed. “Kru’ell Ones who feed only from pleasure are so rare. I only hope my first Master is one of those.”
“So a lot of them feed from pain, then?” Alli asked.
Rachel nodded.
“Most feed from pleasure-pain—from sexual spankings and floggings, the use of nipple clamps and clit-torture—that kind of thing.” She spoke as though this was no big thing—a commonplace occurrence. “But then there are the others—the pure sadists.” She shivered.
“Meaning they feed only from pain?” Alli asked, frowning. “They must be sociopaths too, then.”
Rachel’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“Having a Master who feeds only from pain can break you for life—especially if you’re an Immune and you don’t have even an ounce of Calm in your system to dull the effects of their torture.”
“It can? Do you know someone that happened to?” Alli asked.
The other girl’s lovely dark eyes were sad.
“It happened to my big sister. She was taken by a pure sadist—a Kru’ell One who lived only to feed on pain. Because she had no Calm in her system—or rather, the Calm she did have wasn’t affecting her—the torture made her crazy.”
Rachel’s voice wavered. “He Stung her, you see—their Stings still work on us, even if their drugs don’t. Stung her and made her beg to be tortured—beg for the pain. It broke her. She…she took her own life when he was done with her.”
Rachel swiped at her eyes, which were suddenly filled with tears.
“That’s terrible!” Impulsively, Alli took her hand and squeezed. “I’m so sorry, Rachel.”
The other girl squeezed back gratefully.
“Thanks. It was a few years ago now but I still miss her so much. And…and I’m so afraid the same thing is going to happen to me.” She shook her head. “I thought I would be passed over because my family serves here now—we work in the Overlord’s gardens. In fact, my father is the Head Gardener.” There was a touch of pride in her voice but then she looked down at her hands. “Turns out I wasn’t passed over after all, because here I am.”
“Hopefully you’ll be okay,” Alli said, wishing she could say more to comfort her. “Maybe you’ll get a Master like Kane. One who only feeds from pleasure.”
“I hope you’re right.” Rachel swiped at her eyes again. “I just hope I don’t get someone like the Overlord himself.”
“He’s a sadist, is he?” Somehow the news didn’t seem too surprising—especially since Kane had told her that the head Kru’ell One had killed twenty other warriors to get his position.
“I was in the kitchen once, bringing in a basket of fresh vegetables. It’s right below his bedchamber and I heard one of his concubines screaming.” Rachel shivered. “She was begging him to stop whatever he was doing but he was just laughing and laughing that deep, hoarse, horrible laugh of his. I kept hearing it—laughing and screaming and begging and no one else in the kitchen was even batting an eye because they were all Calmed.” She put her arms around herself and held herself tightly. “I had to pretend it didn’t bother me either, but inside I was screaming right along with that poor girl. I wanted to run and hide, but I knew the guards would wonder why I was acting so frantic.”
“So you had to hold it all in—everything you were feeling—and just pretend to be a zombie,” Alli guessed. “That must have been so hard.” She squeezed Rachel’s arm comfortingly. “I’m so sorry!”
Rachel sighed.
“If only I could get away from here—go and find the Resistance. My big brother and I were going to leave, but the day before we had planned to sneak away, I was swept up and taken down here.”
“But can’t you get away?” Alli asked. “I mean, isn’t there anywhere to run to once we get out of this bunker? The Harem