Katie's Hellion (Rhyn Trilogy, Book One) by Lizzy Ford

the
beast.
    "Did you just call me lunchmeat?" she
asked.
    "Oh yeah. A little mortal meat, some cheese
and crackers. How ya doin’, lunchmeat?"
    "Pretty shitty. Is there anyone here who
doesn’t want to eat me or drink my blood?"
    The masculine voice gave a surprised laugh,
and he pressed his face to the bars. He looked human, aside
from the fanged smile.
    "Sexy lunchmeat," he said. "You’d enjoy what
I’d do to you."
    "Never really been a fan of being eaten
alive," she returned.
    "Spunky. Me likey."
    "Thanks, psycho."
    "You talk big behind those bars, little
girl."
    She stared with surprise at the low growl
from the darkened cell across from her.
    "The rabid dog speaks," she noted. "I’m
already in Hell. I’m thinking death might be a bit more to my
liking."
    The pale, fanged man laughed again.
    "Which one of you will promise me a painless
death?" she baited, at her last wit’s end.
    "I’ll make it less painful than usual," the
pale man said.
    "I like pain," another voice down the block
growled.
    "Less pain than Jared."
    "More pain than Jared but less than
Khakhala."
    "No deal."
    "No death, just pain."
    "Mortal blood rocks."
    "Can I get some action and then give you a
painless death?"
    The immortals in the cell block threw out
their best offers, and she couldn't help the sense of terror
settling into her gut.
    "No," she replied. "No action. Just the
pleasure of killing me. You can do whatever you want to my body
afterwards."
    "No good to me dead."
    "Only good to me dead. Not allowed to
kill."
    The voices down the hall were all male,
though she doubted any of them were human.
    "No pain," the beast before her said.
    "Don’t you want to drink my blood?" she asked
skeptically.
    "It won’t hurt, little girl."
    His menacing growl chilled her more than any
of the others’.
    "I’ll think about it," she replied, and
stepped away from the bars.
    "Hey Lunchmeat," the pale man, Jared,
called.
    "Yeah?"
    "Don’t stick your hands outside the
cage."
    "I have no intention of doing so."
    "Rhyn might grab one and pull you out. You’d
be cut into pieces by the bars, and then no one would get their
snack."
    "Yeah, real shame, shithead."
    He laughed.
    "What’re you doing here, Lunchmeat? Humans
don’t come here unless they’re dead, and even then, only a couple
make it onto our supermax zoo."
    "No idea."
    "Why aren’t you crying, little girl?" the
beast, Rhyn, asked in his gravelly, low voice.
    "Maybe she’s a spy," a voice farther down the
hall called. "Here to listen to our secrets."
    "I’m not a spy."
    "Wouldn’t matter if you were," Jared said,
unconcerned. "The beast is right. You’re holding up well. Maybe
when they start the torture, she’ll cry. Then she’ll negotiate on
that no-pain thing."
    "How I ache to be there," another voice
moaned.
    "You taste as sweet as you look, little
girl?" Rhyn mocked.
    "Like soggy gym socks," she snapped.
    "I like you, Lunchmeat," Jared continued.
"Will be a shame when they break you. Or when one of us gets loose
and kills you. Not sure what’ll come first, though Rhyn there has
almost broken through his cage twice now."
    Supermax, inhuman predator wing of the zoo.
Torture.
    It figured. Her heart was beating fast, her
palms sweaty. She returned to her bunk and lay down, cold fear
filling her. She stared at the silver eyes staring at her, slowly
falling into an exhausted, restless slumber.
    The sounds of Rhyn slamming his body into his
cell and snarling awoke her sometime later. Lankha was huddled in a
corner, but she rolled to watch. She popped one of the water cubes
into her mouth, head pulsing from a nasty hangover.
    Rhyn had bent his cage again. Though she
tried hard not to fear death, she wondered what kind of creature
was capable of breaking through bars made of materials she’d never
before seen and held in place with some sort of magic. She wanted
to see what the beast looked like, what kind of monster he’d be,
yet knew if she saw him in full light, he was on his way to