already fed her, and that has already begun the process of the only way of breaking a human like this — making her fall in love.
“Where’s my cell?” She asks the question with the same tone as a CEO asking where her office is.
“This is your cell.”
“Nice,” she says. “A bed. With a mattress. And an actual toilet and shower. You’re spoiling me.”
It is nice. It is far larger than anything she has been kept in up until this point, I would be willing to bet that. Our species has not been kind to Silver in her captivity.
“It is also my cell,” I say. “These are my quarters.”
“Your quarters?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t have a cell for me. You’re just going to keep me in your bedroom like a bug in a jar.”
“I don’t understand that reference, human, but I want you close. You will not have a moment to yourself. After all, what kind of an owner doesn’t keep a close eye on his new pet?”
“Pet.”
I watch her bristle. She doesn’t have to like it, but her like, or dislike has no impact on the reality of her situation. She is my pet, and it is time I showed her precisely what that means.
Silver
He pulls something else from his box of tricks which thus far has contained medical equipment and chains. “I’m going to put this collar on you. It will track you. It will shock you, if you need to be shocked. It will also signify, always and forever, your status not as a free human, but as my pet.”
His pet? This, I did not expect. Usually scythkin want pretty young things. Women barely older than teenagers who are all impressed with flashy eyes and sharp blades. I have heard some women saying that they find these monsters ‘hot’. I do not share that impression. They're not hot. They’re evil incarnate. And I am a woman who has seen her fortieth birthday, is staring down her fifth decade, and does not give a shit how hot someone is if they’re also an asshole.
“You want to break me and trade me,” I say. “You want me to feel like I matter, and then you want to abandon me.”
“That’s jumping ahead several possible steps,” he says. “That would be a devastating plan, wouldn’t it.”
“It would be. But it won’t work. Because I know I could never matter to an animal like you. So you can put that collar on me, you can even call me ‘pet’. But it won’t work.”
“You’re a very intelligent woman. A very strong woman. You’re also a killer.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“Very well. What you don’t know, is that you will beg for this. On your knees, human.”
I sink to my knees, obeying him because I find that kneeling is easier than resisting and then ending up kneeling anyway. I know he can make me. I will do whatever he can make me do, long enough for me to do what I need to do.
I have tolerated a lot of loss in my life, and endured a great deal of pain. Whatever games this scythkin wants to play with me, he can play them. I’m not playing. I’m looking for a way out.
This is a freighter of some kind. I could tell that on the way in, the way it loomed out of the dark of space, revealing its sharp edges and great swathes of weapon banks. But I’m not seeing a lot of security on board. I guess they figure they don't need it.
So all I have to do is get to a shuttle bay, take a shuttle, and escape. These scythkin ships have fast craft inside them. I’m betting there are probably two dozen fighters in the belly of this thing, maybe more.
“Good girl,” he praises me, as if I care if he thinks I am good or not.
I’m not listening. I’m paying attention to my thoughts, not his actions. I’m working out the angles, trying to figure out by deduction where this room is in relation to the rest of the ship. It helps distract me from the fact that his cock is really only a matter of inches from my face.
I know more about these creatures than most humans. Scythkin are used to having the element of surprise when they take a woman. Their approach is shock and awe. But I am not shocked, even if I am slightly awed. It is impossible not to be awed when you’re in the presence of a