Captive: Hopeless

Chapter 57 - Panic

Artemis walked into the room to which the security guard directed her to find the vampire called Cat sitting before a wall of screens. The seven of them were not completely innocent of the world because Azera had a fondness for toys.

"Morning," Cat greeted as she typed and frowned at the screen.

"Can I get you something to eat or drink?" Cat asked politely, and with nothing else to do, Artemis sat down. She was so used to being a captive that it did not occur to her that there was an entire world out there for her to explore.

"Coffee, please," Artemis asked.

Cat glanced at her in surprise.

"We were not always in that cave and did not miss everything," Artemis explained, and the vampire nodded, heading for the device.

"How do you want it?" she asked, and Artemis froze, caught unawares by having to make a simple choice.

It didn't help that she had a pounding headache that reminded her of a hangover, and sleeping in this strange place was challenging.

"Milk, sugar, cream, please," Hera said, sitting down heavily.

***

Within minutes, the room filled with the rest of Akira and Kay's sisters, and Cat frowned at her watch. Where were the others? An alarm went off on her computer, and she quickly put down the last cup of coffee to read the message.

"Damn it," she bit out.

"Something wrong?" Artemis asked.

"That is the wrong code; try again, loser!" Azera's face taunted from the wall of screens, and everyone grew.

"Two millennia, and that was the best you could come up with?" Cat muttered, hitting some keys, and the face disappeared.

"Azera still defeating you?" Akira asked from the door, and Cat glanced at her.

"Yes," she almost spat, then realized what she had done and lamely added, "Your Highness."

"A little too much coffee?" The new leader of the dark fae teased, and her face heated.

"Would you like some?" she asked to cover her unease.

Akira smiled. "Yes, but I will get it myself. Morning," she greeted the others.

***

Akira found herself uneasy around her sisters, they were strangers to her, and she had no idea what picture Azera had painted of her in their minds.

They did not seem to know how to bridge the divide, either. She was a toddler when last they saw her, and what they knew of her could not be trusted because it came from Azera.

Kay entered the room, not looking like she drowned the night before after virtually rising from the dead.

"You look well," she greeted her youngest sister. "So, if you were the not-so-crazy-evil-queen-of-the-dark, what would the password to your computer be?" Akira asked Kay as she sat at the table a few chairs away from her new family.

Was she as unsure of her welcome?

"Azera said something to Linda once that didn't make much sense to me then," Kay muttered, her cheeks turning red. "Try this."

She wrote something on the digital, and as Cat typed it, she laughed, but the expression didn't reach her eyes.

F**ckThane.

That was so Azera.

"Hey there, you beautiful, cunning witch," the image said as the screen opened.

"You got to be kidding me," Kay said, shaking her head at the former leader of the fae's vanity, and the look in her eyes gave A

"Azera was corny; who knew?" Cat murmured as the file drive opened.

"Why are you messing around on her computers?" Hera asked, and Akira glanced at her.

"According to Kay, Azera had twenty of father's seedlings. Some were killed, some were not. You were the only ones still in her possession. We must find out where the others are and save them, and that information will be on this computer," even as she explained, the vampire opened a file, and a video appeared on the screen.

Kay grew absolutely still; her eyes blazed blue, her teeth peeked out, and she looked as if she didn't know if she wanted to vomit or run but didn't move. She stared at the image of herself tied to the rack, and Cat surged to life but, in her haste to stop the clip, fast-forwarded to Azera driving a six-inch nail into Kay's hip. The sound was on, and her sister's screams reverberated through the room, raising goosebumps on Akira's arms.

Kay surged to her feet with such speed that she toppled the chair, almost fell over it, and was out the door in an instant but only made it to the hallway before vomiting in a bin. Something they could clearly hear in the sudden silence.

Akira covered her face with her hands as emotions buffeted her. Hearing about it and actually seeing it was not the same thing. That happened to Kay because of her. She might as well have driven those nails into her sister's flesh with her own hands. Nausea dammed up in her throat, but she fought it as her entire body started to shake.

"I am so sorry," Cat apologized, but Akira pulled herself together, catching sight of herself in the glossy reflections of the screens. She looked as austere as her father sometimes did, but the emotions glowing in her eyes made her look away.

"It was an accident. You have nothing to apologize for; I did that to her. All of it." She got up and ventured into the hallway, where she found Kay sitting on the floor, embracing her legs, and swaying back and forth.

She hated seeing her sister so broken, knowing she caused it and that it took only that one image to rip away all the defenses Kay built around her heart.

Sitting beside Kay, she stared at the white marble floor, not knowing what to say. What value will words have?

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