The heavy steel door hissed.
Light sliced through the suffocating blackness of the vault.
Inside the suspended cage, Yanna didn't move. She lay curled on the pile of black furs, her hands bound behind her back by the rigid steel cuffs. The heavy leather blindfold blocked the sudden glare, but she could feel the heat of the LED banks warming her freezing, sweat-slicked skin. The heavy ring gag stretched her jaws open, her chin coated in hours of dried saliva.
Footsteps approached. Slow. Deliberate.
"Silas, drop the cage," Camille's voice echoed in the room.
The hydraulic winch above whined. The cage descended, hitting the epoxy floor with a dull, jarring thud. The impact sent a heavy shockwave up into Yanna's pelvis, grinding the three-pound tungsten plug viciously against her internal walls.
A muffled, pathetic whine died in the back of her throat.
The padlock clicked. The cage door swung open.
