Bo and the Beast (Book #1) (Completed)

30. Signals

The Beast parted ways with her at the front door, saying that he would see her the next day. He left for the study, and Bo found herself wondering what he thought of when he sat amongst the mountains of beautiful human items. She almost wanted to follow him and see, but she knew she couldn't be getting this involved. He may be part human, but he was still the Beast of Lyx. He was still a bloodthirsty alien.

With the volume of poems tucked under one arm, Bo mounted the stairs toward her room. The skirt of her yellow gown swished against the carpeting as she made it to the hallway. The poetry felt somehow heavy and sad in her hand, and she wanted to unload it in her room as soon as possible. Her footsteps hurried down the gallery toward her bedroom, and she was just starting when she heard it. A beeping sound. Her first thought was that a Service-Maton had somehow gotten itself shut up in one of the many mysterious rooms, but the more she listened the less and less it sounded like the robots. It was higher, and there was a strange rhythm to it.

With her head cocked to hear it better, Bo turned to follow the noise to the side of the gallery that she had never been in before. A hallway was filled with doors much like the ones on her side, and she tracked the noise to one in particular. Pressing her ear against the wood, she heard the staccato beat coming from somewhere inside. Something about the sound was so familiar... she racked her brain, trying to force herself to remember. Nothing came to her, so she closed her eyes, letting the strange beeping fill her mind.

Then...

Distress signals! That was what it was! Her eyes flew open. That was the pattern they used in the camp when they needed immediate backup. Her heart sped up as she gripped the handle of the door and twisted it sharply. It didn't budge, and she realized that it was locked. Crouching, she examined the handle and saw with relief that it was an old model. No computers or scanners here, just a lock that she was going to pick.

Getting back to her feet, she spun and raced to her room for supplies. She wasn't about to let a locked door stand in her way. There was something in that room giving off a signal from home, and she needed to see what it was.

After throwing off her yellow gown and pulling back on a white shirt and black pants, she dug through a small box of trinkets in her closet. It was filled with bits and bobs of feminine beauty, like mismatched earrings and a lonely pearl. But it also had exactly what she needed. Hairpins, long and perfectly suited for tripping a lock in an old door. Perfect.

She carried a pin back to the gallery with her and inserted it in the lock. She knew how to pick locks, of course, but it wasn't often that she got to practice the skill. Keys were far out-of-date, and she rarely found a door that needed one to open. So, it took her a few minutes to stumble through the unlocking process, until finally she heard the clunk of the bolt falling out of place.

With triumph, Bo pushed open the door and stepped inside. She quickly closed it behind her, in case any stray Service-Matons might wander by and see something out of place. With that done, she turned to face the room stretching in front of her, dark and dim and filled with the most expensive looking furniture Bo had ever seen. Everything seemed to be made of heavy wood, polished to a dark gleam, with deep purple velvet upholstery and curtains. Iron fixings on the walls held the lights, but Bo left them off. She didn't know if the robots might be able to see any of the light through the window, and she needed to find that beeping noise before she was discovered.

She stepped further into the room, the plush carpet absorbing the sound of her boots. A bed stood directly in front of her, so massively big that probably ten people could pile onto it and still have room to invite more. The pillows had golden thread embroidered into them, ending in tassels, and the blanket looked softer than a cloud. Bo fought the urge to jump on it, and instead knelt at its foot to examine the large trunk that lay there.