“Come on, Lovie,” a distant voice whispers. “Atta girl, head up. Get your wits about you.” Footsteps thunder nearby. “Devi, can you hear me?”
“I told you already, she’s fine. Give her a loss stabilizer and ten minutes; she’ll be right as rain.”
“She’s *not* fine, Jack!” Sass snaps. “Do you know what will happen if those males take an interest in her? A real interest? You’ve never seen what that interest looks like… we could lose—” Slowly, her voice stops fluctuating, and with it, the sharp, throbbing pain across my back rises. The muscles in my throat convulse. “How long’s she been like this? Lovie, can you speak?”
*Been like what?* My throat— fuck, my throat— is too dry to ask, so that answers her second question. I lick my lips and taste salt. Slippery. Unpleasant. It stings at the edges, and I trace the cut with my tongue. Jack cut me… Something dry and soft swipes across them before the rim of a cup is pressed to my mouth. Room-temperature water makes my nose burn.
“Open your eyes, Devi,” Jack says in a pinched voice. “Don’t be dramatic. It’s not like you’re fired for real. I was just angry. You know how it goes.”
But I can’t open them, not even to glare at him as if to say *no one should know how this goes.* The second my body starts to come online, I feel every ounce of the pain I was avoiding.
“Did she give blood recently?”
My shoulders are so sore that I think the skin might slide off. Even the skimpy top of the romper is too painful. I want to rip it off.
“Course. Like all the girls do,” Jack mutters. “Four bags. Woulda took three if I knew she’d spill all over my goddamn floor.”
The memory of being bent to my knees finally floats through the fog. A rhythmic thwack with each belt lash against my skin. I feel feverish. My throat thickens.
“H-how… many days ago was that Jack. This is a lot on top of that.”
His feet shuffle. “Two days. But I gave her a loss stabilizer then, too. This is all just a ploy to keep me on the ropes about them Thur assholes, and I ain’t buying it. Just a simple little punishment was all, to remind her of all my goodwill. She thinks she’ll get a better deal being one of their slaves? Ha! They don’t play nice with their toys. Everyone knows that.” His voice tapers off as I assume he starts to pace, muttering about me and how stupid I’ve been. “And I’m the nicest club owner around. Everyone knows that, too. ‘Specially for my own kin, adoptive or not. Hell, you think I’d let any of the other girls live that far away? Have access to her own money?”
Jack snorts so loud and nastily that I cringe. “So many allowances I’ve made for her, and she repays me with all this bullshit? Comes in here all wrapped up in medi-patches like I’m supposed to know they’ll split the second I take the belt to her? Making me look like some kind of monster. Have you seen the state of Lunar? Those are the real monsters. She was banged up to hell before I ever touched her. That shit ain’t my fault.”
He’s doing a helluva job trying to convince himself that he didn’t enjoy every minute of splitting my skin. And I notice Sass doesn’t tell him it was her that patched me up. Nobody else seems to care that the fever is spreading across my body. Maybe they can’t tell that sweat breaks out all over as the sharp, burning pain in my back ratchets up.
“That’s not how blood works— wait—you fired her? We *need* her; you can’t goddamn fire her, you idiot!”
*What?* Sass’s voice takes on a tone I don’t recognize. One that sounds nothing like the maternal figure she’s always been to me.
“Watch how the hell you talk to me, Sassifrass. Like I said, I was angry. She knows I didn’t mean it. Don’t you, Devi? Ain’t nowhere in this godforsaken world for the likes of us, except here. Right, baby? You know you only got me, don’t you?”
Hate that nickname. Hate the man that uses it. Hate the hands winding under my arms to help me sit up better because they’re pulling at my gashes. I yelp and try to move away from the hands. Maybe if I keep my eyes closed, I can fall back into whatever sleep saved me from this the first time.
“There’s blood all over the floor, Jack…” Sass chastises. “Wasteful is what you are. How should I know where you draw the line on how much you’re willing to waste?”
A rhythmic knock, then a click. A door slams open, and then more footsteps close in. “They’re at the door, Boss.”
“Who’s at the door?”
“The Thur… the ones from earlier? They have a small contingent of Truceguards this time… one is banging, and the others are near a hoverscor at the curb. They… they’re asking to do a safety check.”
Jack curses colorfully enough to force my eyes to crack. Shards of light make them squeeze shut again. “Bullshit, do they need a safety check. They say what for?”
“Worker conditions is all the paper they flashed said. A council-approved premises search to determine if we’re housing our workers under lawful use.”
I can’t help but feel a small sense of satisfaction at that or the thought that maybe Emer is the reason. His angry, worried eyes and the way his power burst free like a dam.
“Fuck! They’re trying to squeeze us like they did Cachis and Orbital. Heard from Joanah and Ivam just yesterday about their little visits. They think a little search is going to rattle me? I was born in this goddamn city. My daddy died in the first wave of war with those pieces of shit. Devi’s my goddamn property. Think they’re gonna come *take* her from me? Nothing like a little heat to get me tempered, eh?”
No one answers.
“You with us, Devi?” Sass asks, jostling my shoulder as she tries to sit me up again. The pain of each lash across my back renews like being hit with Jack’s belt all over again. The excruciating scream startles me. Heat flushes everywhere, barely numbing as I lean against a hard surface. I’m going to be sick. Dry-heaving is inevitable as air saws in and out of my mouth. Everything spins harder.
“Shut her up, will you? I have to think.” Jack hisses. “Give her a rapi-dose, throw her coat on, and hustle her out the back door.”
“Jack—” Sass tries unsuccessfully to get his attention. Funny thing is I’m still high off the last rapi-dose. This is me freaking medicated. Who knows how bad it’ll be when it wears off.
“Donovil, come here. I need you to scrub all the security tapes we have.”
“A-all?”
“I don’t know how much of this shit I can take,” Sass mumbles, gently coaxing my eyes open. I see my bleeding palm first, then my bare feet, bruised at the ankles like someone wrenched off my heels. Doubt I’ll be able to stand. There’s blood splattered near Jack’s desk where he paces, and between us, the room is streaked in it. Not pooled, thankfully, but still, there’s enough smeared blood to let me know I was there for a while. It’s all over me, too. The white romper is rust-colored in several places and splattered bright red in even more.
A sting stabs my thigh.
“Wipe the goddamn tapes, Don!” Feet scurry off, but the door hangs open. My head lists to the side and back as I try to focus. Sass just dosed me, knowing she only dosed me a few hours ago. Her panicked eyes meet mine as we both do the math on how often this kind of drug can be used. Thur tech has strict warnings because of the negative side effects. My body lists harder until my back curls over, wrenching out another scream.
“Shh,” she soothes, my arms barely strong enough to push her away. She lowers her voice. “It’ll be alright, Devi. You’ve got a strong system, yeah, you can handle two, can’t you? You want me to tell him I already helped you out? Think he’ll take it well?”
Her voice is pleading, just like her eyes. As if I could make myself react okay to the meds. The risks are real. Right now, my body might be overloading, and I won’t know until it’s too late.
“What’s the dose limit,” I manage through a rough throat. My whole body shudders.
She cringes, shrugging softly as Jack barks more orders through the open doorway. She opens her mouth. Closes it. Tries again. “Twenty-four hours,” she whispers.
I swallow and shiver. “And how long’s it been?”
“Four…”