Human After All Read Free

could kill you.”
    “Please don’t.” A filtered voice floated down from overhead.
    While Jaymes’s eyes tracked upward, Drue stayed perfectly still with the uncanny muscle control all Companions learned in childhood. The Exotic was combat-trained, but the T-bred had the advantage of him, and he didn’t want to die. All he need do was wait, and the Lady would speak the code to take the terrible pressure from his windpipe.
    “This is not a Scenario, Siress,” Jaymes said carefully.
    “I’m not a Siress, just a Lady, and I’m well aware that this is not a Scenario.” A door irised open in the wall behind Drue, and a tall woman stepped into the chamber. “I pray thee forgive me, Prince.” She arranged the designated keywords in a sentence, and Jaymes relaxed his grip on the other man’s neck. “Are you damaged, Drue?” she asked, waiting for the Fox to shake his head before she spoke again. “I would have released you sooner, but you needed a lesson in keeping your guard up.”
    “Remind me to thank you,” Drue croaked.
    A small line appeared between Jaymes’s brows at the disrespectful sarcasm in the Zot’s tone. His suspicions that this was a renegade House prompted him to speak, though habit kept his language cordial. “Lady, may I know your intentions?”
    The regal woman smiled—an expression that curved her lips, but brought no warmth to her polar gray eyes. “I am Alvera, and this is my home. You may speak freely here.”
    Jaymes took her word that they weren’t being recorded or surveilled and said the first thing that came to mind. “You’re a T-bred,” he said, as subtle clues in her demeanor added up.
    Alvera inclined her head, emphasizing the line of her long neck. “Yes, but no longer a Companion. I’m a Citizen now.”
    “Of course.” Jaymes bowed his head with a grace to equal hers. “Why have you broken protocol? If you’ll forgive me pointing it out, you could be barred from ever making a contract with Gentren or its affiliates again. It could become extremely difficult for you to do business.”
    “I know the risks I’m taking,” she said. “Can you say the same?”
    “The corporation takes care of me,” Jaymes said confidently.
    “As they are doing at this moment?” Alvera glided closer, lifting a hand like an ivory carving with gilded nails. Jaymes didn’t move as the golden talons trailed lightly down his smooth cheek. “I don’t fear to get this close because I know I won’t trigger your survival programming. Your new parameters are complete and will activate… now. Look how you tremble!” The Lady stepped back to stand next to Drue. “Amazing,” she said. “It looks as though Arkay’s claims were not empty boasting. The formula worked ten times faster than it did with you.”
    Drue studied Jaymes. The T-bred was shaking from head to foot, his eyes unfocused, and his thoughts clearly as disheveled as his clothing as the new compulsion program replaced the one already wet-wired into his synapses. Drue had resisted too; his training had allowed no other response. However, when the sequence was complete and he saw clearly for the first time, he was glad Alvera had chosen him as her test subject. He lived in the present and for the future, and he was forgetting his past as quickly as possible. “You won’t be damaged,” he said, taking pity on the shivering T-bred.
    Jaymes heard truth in the Fox’s tone, but he continued to struggle against the new parameters dropping into place like walls of thick glass. With Gentren, he at least had the illusion of being in control of his body and his mind, if not his life. The imprint module he’d taken so readily from the Exotic had an inhibition framework he could feel at the edge of every motion, each thought: a fail-safe poised to deploy at the first hint of divergence from the accepted range. “What has been done to me?” he asked again, proud of the steadiness of his voice.
    “You’ve been chosen to help