Free Hold Their Peace (Vampire Assassin League) by Jackie Ivie Page B

plain scared. She wasn’t a vampire. She couldn’t be. Darcy Mullins? Didn’t she have to die first? Get reborn? Something traumatic? Painful? Moving to an undead realm shouldn’t have been an orgasmic experience.
    No. It wasn’t possible. It just wasn’t. There had to be some other explanation.
    Darcy’s legs were shaking as she stepped over the broken door, the flat leather sole of her sandal sliding slightly along the wood. That was a reminder of facts. She could start with that. Facts. She needed to find her hiking boots and her trousers. As far as she recalled, neither item of clothing took damage from her first romp with Thanos.
    Ah. That had been an excellent romp, too.
    Geez, Darcy! She was trying to figure out how to leave here, not reminisce! She needed to find her trousers. And if she hacked this dress thing she was wearing shorter, it wouldn’t impede her as much. And then she needed to find some way out of here.
    Wait just a minute.
    Recon must stand for techno-junkie heaven. On a heart-stopping level. Darcy stopped and listened. Waiting. And felt her heart thump again. It was faint. And very slow. But it was still there. She had a heartbeat! And that meant she hadn’t joined one of the undead. Right?
    Time for answers. And talk about luck! She’d actually found the perfect spot. The Recon room looked like a theatre for the nerdy set. Dark maroon drapery hid what was probably rock walls and ceiling. The drapes originated from one super cool, crystal chandelier, set about two stories above her, surrounding the area with a sense of opulence. Luxury. It was reflected in the entire wall of flat screens on her left, making a span of black gloss. A long table thing faced the flat screens, matching the curve. Thanos appeared to have a plethora of laptops and old desktops on the table thing, segmented by wooden dividers. Each station had its own computer, lighting system, and chair. The chairs were mismatched. Different. All unique. All really cool looking. Darcy honed in on the closest station. This breastplate was not only restrictive and annoying, it itched. And if her skin itched, that was another sign she wasn’t dead...wasn’t it? She dropped into what looked and felt like a really expensive, ergonomically-designed leather chair, picked up the keyboard, and hit the on switch. A few moments later she was selecting the internet icon on his screen. And in another minute, she’d be reaching reality, and—
    “Oh. Hey. This connection cannot be completed...uh. Not at the present time. Sorry.”
    A young male voice spoke through the screen, just before it went black. Then even the power switch went dark. What the hell? Darcy turned the laptop over. Everything looked fine. She put it back on the ledge, sighed, and then moved to the next work station on her right. This chair was fabric covered, and seemed to envelop and capture her buttocks and thighs. It would probably do the same for her back if she wasn’t wearing this armor. Hmm. Looks like Thanos liked his chairs set for his exact proportion. What a plus that they were almost the same size.
    What did she care? She had a world to contact, or at the very least, a SOS to send, and a lot of options for it. Thanos had about fifteen laptops along this table thing, in various stages of modernity. Why...over at the far end, it even looked like he had an archaic 1970’s set-up. That, or a large refrigerator.
    She snickered and picked up the laptop at this station. A few seconds later she had it live, and since Thanos obviously was a man of habit, the icon listing was identical to the first one. Darcy once again clicked the internet icon, and almost immediately got the same male voice.
    “Oh. Um. Look. This connection cannot be completed either. I’m under orders here. Sorry.”
    The screen went black again, followed by the resultant loss of power. Okay. She was not going to get annoyed. Not yet. She had a lot more computers to try, and all of them couldn’t