Hotbloods 5: Traitors

Hotbloods 5: Traitors

Bella Forrest



Chapter One



Cold metal gripped my skin, and the clammy chill of nervous sweat trickled down my neck. At my temples, I felt the nip of strange nodes, their biting needles penetrating the bone of my skull. My body tingled, and my senses felt weirdly distant. The room was in darkness. I could hear someone shuffling around on the opposite side, but I couldn’t make out the figure.

“How are your pain levels, Riley?” a voice asked from the shadows. I blinked, trying to sharpen my vision.

“It stings,” I murmured thickly, my tongue feeling alarmingly swollen.

“I forget your pain threshold is not as good as that of our species, but it does not matter now. It is almost over,” the voice assured me, as a figure stepped out of the darkness toward me.

I’d almost forgotten why I was here, strapped to a chair in the middle of a pitch-black room. It seemed like the kind of thing I should remember, but it was all shrouded in a mental mist of uncertainty.

“What did you do to me?” I gasped, feeling suddenly panicked, my hands gripping the sides of the chair. “Why can’t I remember anything about what just happened? I feel like I’ve lost hours of my life!”

Kaido stepped closer, his manner as calm as ever. The sight of him instantly relaxed me. He held a device in his hand, and the machine beeped as it took readings from the nodes on either side of my head. “It is a side effect of the neurobotanical serums I have injected into your nervous system,” he explained, in his matter-of-fact tone. “I did inform you that this might happen, but, ironically enough, it would appear you have forgotten. Not to worry. The lack of clarity will wear off, and you will soon remember everything again.”

At the sound of his voice and the sight of his face, I remembered the flash of glowing lights and the throb of luminescent creatures floating through the air like tiny jellyfish. I could clearly remember everything before sitting down in the chair, but after that it was just snippets and vague memories. He was right, though—with each second that passed, it was all coming back to me, slowly but surely.

“I don’t feel so good.”

“I imagine you will vomit a few times, but it will not be a permanent sickness,” he said blankly, as though that were the most ordinary thing in the world. “Now, I am going to ask you a few questions.”

“Sorry if I hurl on you while you ask them,” I muttered, fighting the bile that rose in my throat.

“If you must, please turn and use the bucket provided.” He gestured down to a bucket he’d set up beside the chair. I grimaced at the sight of it, wondering how many others had vomited into it after one of Kaido’s experiments.

In truth, when he’d asked me to be his test subject, I hadn’t really known what I was signing up for. It was more or less a way of distracting myself. Less than a week had passed since Queen Gianne’s horrifying public executions, but every single day, I woke up feeling like I was wasting time. Ronad and I had to get word to Navan, to deter him from coming for us and risking his life in what seemed like the crazier side of Vysanthe, but we had no way of doing it.

My mind was constantly on Navan and my friends. There was no way of knowing what had happened to them after we had been taken. After all, they’d had no good news to bring Queen Brisha. Would she lock them up or show them mercy? The helplessness that came with the uncertainty was an awful feeling. The only thing that brought me a glimmer of hope was the climpet Navan had bought me at the Nessun night market. It lay embedded in the skin above my heart, flashing steadily, letting me know Navan was still alive and still loved me. A small comfort, but I’d take any reassurance I could get.

With all my growing exasperation, I’d ended up here, in Kaido’s neurobotanical laboratory, agreeing to his weird experiments. I had hoped it might build our relationship to the point where I could get something useful out of him—something we could use to get in touch with Navan.

Then again, if he kept feeding mind-altering botanicals into my head, I wasn’t sure how much I’d be able to remember in order to get that far.

“First question. What is the last thing you can clearly remember, prior to this moment?” Kaido asked.

I shook my head, as if that would somehow bring everything rushing back. “Glowing lights?” I replied. “Small pulses of light, coming from over there,” I added, pointing at the spot where Kaido had come from. Now that my faculties were returning to me, I could see the vague outlines of the glass tanks, where Kaido kept his bioluminescent flora and fauna.

“Do you remember anything I said to you?”

“You said I should relax,” I murmured, struggling to keep hold of the memory. “After that, I don’t remember much.”

“Do you remember a feeling of elation, or sadness, or any particular emotion?” Kaido went on.

I frowned. “I don’t remember anything.”

“Perhaps the dose I used was a little too strong for your species’ weaker minds,” Kaido mused, looking disappointed. “You should have felt a refined sense of focus, coming and going in waves, settling on key thoughts. The serum I used is ordinarily reserved for problem-solving. However, it would seem it had the opposite effect on you, making you forget all of your problems instead.”

“I do feel really heavy, like all my muscles have relaxed,” I agreed. The sensation was a weird one.

“Fascinating. There must be an element of inversion in the way your genetic makeup responds, as opposed to that of a Vysanthean,” he said, mostly to himself. “I wonder if all of your reactions are opposite. Perhaps you would allow me to try another experiment, either tomorrow or the next day?”

I pulled a face. “Will I have recovered by then?”

“The reversal fluid is already restoring your mind to its former state,” Kaido assured me. “I would relish the opportunity to try out one of my serums, which entirely glazes over the minds of coldbloods. I have a theory that it might sharpen the minds of your species, if this experiment is anything to go by.” There was an almost childlike expression of excitement in his eyes, and I didn’t feel like being the one to dash that enthusiasm. Besides, I still needed him to trust me.

“If it won’t do any permanent damage, I don’t see why not,” I said reluctantly, wondering what the hell I was getting myself into.

“Thank you, Riley. You have already given me plenty of useful readings, which I will delight in studying. Indeed, your volunteering as a test subject has greatly improved the prospects of my evening!” He moved off to the far side of the lab, a smile spreading across his face as he downloaded the readings from his device onto a flickering monitor.

“Sounds like you’re a bit of a party animal,” I said teasingly, feeling the haze in my head start to dissolve.

He turned, a confused look on his face. “Do animals tend to have parties where you hail from? Are they sentient? I must admit, I am not familiar with non-sentient beings who partake in celebrations,” he said, missing the point entirely. “You must write out some details of these creatures for me, if you have the time. I should be delighted to learn more of their habits.”

I rolled my eyes, trying hard not to laugh. “It’s just an expression, Kaido. It just means someone who likes to enjoy themselves. I was joking with you.”

“Ah, I see. I am not one for jokes,” he remarked. There was a humor in his obliviousness that I found oddly endearing. Had he not kidnapped me so rudely, I might even have considered him a potential friend.

“No, they always seem to go over your head,” I mused, drawing another confused look from him.

“Another expression?” he asked.