Read Skin Online

Authors: Kate Krake

Tags: #romance, #sexy, #werewolves, #gym, #body modification, #monsters, #fight club, #mma, #hybrids, #gladiators

Skin (5 page)

BOOK: Skin
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Hello,”
she said. Her voice was deep, a man’s voice and I felt the smile
fall off my face in a momentary confusion.


Don’t
worry, sweetie, I’m well used to it,” she said. I hated that I’d
reacted like I did— still the greenhorn from the Sprawl, not
knowing what I was doing in the big city. I tried to hide it with
an exaggerated smile that I knew just made me look more stupid.
Neither Sveta nor Imogen seemed to notice or care.


Imogen
has been with me since the beginning,” Sveta explained as the woman
slipped her arm around Sveta’s waist. I felt another surprising
response, one of strange, nervous arousal mixed with
jealousy.

Imogen held out
her hand to shake mine. I returned the gesture and immediately drew
back in a second shock. What I had assumed were lifting gloves was
actually a fine layer of fur on the back of her hands, extending to
her elbow, patterned like a tiger’s stripes. On her palms was a
hard skin like a hide.


And I’m
well used to that too,” Imogen said, letting her hand fall and
looking at me with obvious disgust and distrust. “Though not inside
these walls.”


Forgive
him, Imogen, please.” Sveta said. She took the furred hand in her
own and kissed it gently. “He is new.”

Imogen returned
to her yoga. I felt every eye in the place on me and a curious
shame and revulsion swelled.


You’re
Animus,” I said. I should have realised it. The woman had snake’s
eyes for God’s sake. And the cougar with the scales.

I looked about
the room. The strongman had a series of green spikes like small
horns running down the nape of his neck. The woman twisting on the
bands had two feathery wings tucked and folded neatly on her back
that I had assumed previously was a harness. They were all Animus
freaks.

Chapter Eight
Delicate Synthesis


I’m not
one of you,” I said. I twisted my hand away from Sveta's grip. “I’m
sorry for both of us you’ve made that mistake.”


I know
you’re Natural,” she said. “That’s what you call yourself, isn’t
it? You despise the mechanical implants and only a little more than
you despise the others that fill themselves with those synthetic
potions and bars. We have the same philosophies, Rev. Our bodies
work in the same way that yours does. With natural flesh fuelled by
natural food and toned with natural movement.”


How can
you make that comparison? You’ve got animal parts, you’re not
human.”


Every
day, people have lifesaving surgeries that replace parts of their
bodies with animal parts; bovine valves, porcine hearts, skin
grafts from other hominidae. It’s been like that for decades. Would
you refer to someone who has had their life saved and lengthened
through this kind of surgery as anything but a natural
human?”


This is
different,” I said. “This is vanity.”


And you,
sculpting your flesh in the way that you do, manipulating your diet
for maximum muscle tone and energy, engineering your body to
maximise its output. What's that? You like the way you look, Rev,
You worship yourself. I’ve watched you for a long time and chosen
you to join us because of it.”

The strongman
had moved onto working his legs, laying a huge bar across his
shoulders with weights enough to look like the bar should be
bending in the middle. He lowered himself slowly and I watched the
shining green horn on his nape. It was an impressive weight, I will
admit, and I’d never seen anyone lift anything so heavily, so
easily. His legs barely trembled as he returned to stand and
dropped himself for a second round.


But I’m
Natural,” I said, still watching the horned lifter. “This is how my
body is meant to work and look before we started playing around
with food and sitting down our entire lives. Humans aren’t meant to
have horns or snake eyes.”


My eyes
see in a human body, they’re taking in human thoughts and feelings
and giving me a human life. When I was told I would never see again
with my human eyes, when I was given the chance to see the world
again after years in darkness, do you think that was vanity? They
may not be human eyes, they’re not even wholly snake eyes anymore,
but they’re natural eyes and they see a lot more than
most.”

I felt my
arguments start to slip. How could I have known her eyes were a
necessary medical transplant? That changed everything. I felt her
reason creeping into my thoughts. Did it need to matter? I’d
obviously seen she was different, it was what attracted me to her
in that first instant. Wouldn’t she be just another body without
those eyes drawing me in. I didn’t know what to think.


But why
snake eyes? Why not something that looked human?”

Sveta had
already started talking. If she heard me, she ignored my reasonable
counter argument.


Your
wounds, after your beating” she said. “They healed very, very
quickly, yes?”


You said
there was a balm,” I said. For a minute I thought she was about to
reveal that I had been healed though magic. If there was one thing
that makes me more uncomfortable than science screwing around with
natural order, it was magic. At least science meant something,
somehow it made sense. Even if it was mostly wrong what they did
with it.


It was a
balm. A delicate synthesis of animal proteins, enzymes and plant
sterols. I have it made specially in my clinic. All natural. All
taken into your body to alter the way it works in its expected
human sense. Without that balm, I expect you’d be barely able to
breathe after your run in with your mechanical friends.”


I
thanked you for that,” I said. “Is that what you want from me?
Continuous gratitude?”


I want
nothing from you, Rev. I’m offering you something wonderful in
inviting you to my sanctuary. I really thought you might be one of
us. Not an Animus, just a member of our family, more than an
employee. But I guess you are not what I suspected. I knew you were
devout. I might have thought more about welcoming you had I known
you were also a bigot.”

Annoyance
burned in her yellow eyes and I felt a pang of shame and
frustration beneath my burning zeal. I was not a bigot.


I’m
sorry,” I said, softening away from the fight and maybe also
meaning it. “I didn’t mean to offend you, or any of your people.
I’m not sure I would fit in here. But thanks for the
offer.”

I looked about
the exercise floor. I would have loved more than anything to join
them, before I knew what was at stake, of course. I’d been in there
less than an hour and already I knew I would miss the place.


We are
not all Animus, here.” she said eventually. “We are Animus and
Natural. It’s really the point of our larger operation. I’m still
offering you a place with us, if you’ll join. Nothing will change.
I’m not insisting, I’m not even suggesting or hoping that you
become Animus. Nothing about you needs to change.”

I didn’t expect
the relief that washed over me when I realised that I had not blown
the chance at working out in this haven. The muscles still burned
whether I lifted the bent old bars from Saturn’s with its bug
infested walls or if I’d lifted the shining new Prime equipment
under their so called Fitspo nonsense. I knew just by looking at
the floor that that reason wouldn’t apply here. Sveta and her
Sanctuary was going to change my body, my self. And I couldn’t wait
to get going.

Chapter Nine
Cato

Just as Sveta
had said, my name was printed in small black letting on a change
cubicle in the shower room. There was no Men’s and Women’s
facilities, just a large room with small personalised units. Some
didn’t bother with modesty. Naked human flesh, I noted, trying not
to look. All human. Had Sveta set them up as proof to ease my
upset, proof there were whole, real humans here?

I changed into
the black shorts and singlet that bore the Sanctuary logo laid out
for me, printed especially to my body scan. It seemed to be a
uniform, with everyone wearing the same thing right down to the
white standard issue rubber and canvas shoes. It made me feel like
a recruit.

Sveta left me
with a small kiss on the cheek, saying she had business to attend
to. I was relieved that Imogen had finished her routine by the time
I was ready to start. I would apologise to her the next time we
met, at least make a show of accepting the freaks. It was a small
price to get into a place like this. I started my routine on the
chest rack.

Was it the
silence? The cleanliness? Something about the gentle citrus smell?
The thrill of the new? Sveta? Whatever it was, my body was
floating. I lifted smoother and heavier than I’d done in months. My
mind was sharp, my body was clear and moved with the efficiency of
a well-oiled machine. Except it wasn’t a machine. It wasn’t
anything but natural, human and one hundred percent Rev.

I sat on the
end of the bench, wiping the sweat from my eyes, breathing
hard.


You’re
old school,” someone said.

I replaced my
glasses and a man came into focus. He was shorter than I was, but
wider. His standard issue singlet stretched tight over bulging
pecs, his deep dark skin sheened with sweat. A mop of yellow curls
hung into his eyes. He smiled. I did a quick scan and he appeared
to be Natural. Apart from the obviously fake golden hair.


Pardon?”
I said. I had heard what the guy said, but I just wanted to check
what kind of attitude I was getting.


Free
weights,” he said. “It’s old school. We don’t get that a lot around
here. Mostly people go in for the big machines and contraptions if
they’re not getting on with body weight or the really heavy
strongman stuff.”


I’m
sticking with what I know,” I said. The truth was I had looked at a
couple of machines before I started but had no idea how to use them
and didn’t want to appear a rookie.


I’m
Cato,” he said. I shook his outstretched hand, still scanning for
any animal parts.


Rev.”


I know.
Sveta’s new…” he trailed off. “Friend, are we calling you? Tongues
are wagging all over the place.”


Are
they?” I said, trying to sound neutral and uninterested in locker
room gossip. “I’m starting work here. But for now, I’m just here to
lift.”

Cato’s smile
faltered and I felt his gaze taking in every corner of my body. Was
he checking if I was Animus too?


Don’t
worry. I get it,” he said, his grin returning and appearing
genuinely friendly again. “We’ve all been her flavour of the hour
at one time or another. A brief moment in the spotlight, totally
worth the inevitable discard to get a piece of that action, let me
tell you.”

My cheeks
flushed with a redness that had nothing to do with the exertion of
the exercise. I had no doubt Sveta’s flirtations were a
well-rehearsed performance, a prelude to a show more than a few had
tickets to, but I didn’t like the idea of people looking at me as
just another conquest. Especially when I wasn’t.


Sure,
sure. You might be the exception, I guess. What has she got you on
first? When’s your debut? Oh, I’m talking about the cross, by the
way. Not Sveta.” he laughed boisterously and slapped his own thigh,
thoroughly amused by the joke I didn’t even begin to
get.


The
cross,” he explained, seeing I wasn't on the same page. “The arena.
She’s got you scheduled, right?”


Sorry
friend, you’ve lost me.” I said, starting to wish Cato would leave
me to my workout but also equally curious to find out what he was
talking about.


Weird.
She usually throws the newbies right in there, see what they’ve got
before she starts wasting time and resources on them. I remember my
first night. She put me in with Frida. Have you met Frida? What a
woman! We set up against this Fury dwarf. Jeez that little dude was
evil! In the arena she pulls those wings out just for balance, but
when that girl fights it’s all the human parts of her. She was
pretty new back then too, so it was equal her and me. I won,” he
beamed.

I’m sure he
thought he was explaining things to me but I was just getting more
and more confused.


What is
this? Some kind of fight club?”


Fight
club?” Cato laughed. “You don’t want anyone to hear you calling it
that, especially Sveta. Gee, I can’t understand why she hasn’t
shown you around yet. You’re coming to tonight’s show though right?
I’m sure Sveta will be there holding your hand.”

Chapter Ten
Goodbye

I couldn’t
concentrate on my form or get a rhythm in my breath. Despite the
quiet, the place was suddenly too crowded and the perfume I’d first
thought refreshing was now cloying. I set the weights back on the
shelf and decided to call it a day.

This was all a
very bad idea and I shouldn’t have agreed to come in the first
place. Honestly, I was chasing tail as much as I was in love with
this state of the art gym.

That day when I
was a kid in the city, I felt the things beneath the surface.
Sanctuary was one of them. A blank building, an elite club full of
freaks and something else too, this arena fighting thing that Cato
told me about. Sveta had picked me like a prize cock in an
underground fighting ring and was disguising it as a day job. She
knew about my mother’s career and likely hoped this apple hadn’t
fallen far from the professional fighting tree.

BOOK: Skin
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ads

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