“So I am just…traded amongst you?”
“You get the fifth night to yourself, to invite who you please,” Rayner said.
“You said there weren’t any extra beds!”
“There will be, when you’ve earned one.” Rayner gave me a secretive, wicked look that made me bristle even as it provoked a now-familiar feeling of heat and desire. They kept playing this game with me. They knew if they said those things my body would react that way, and it was because evil was seductive. Why did they keep reminding me that they were evil when they were trying to win me over?
“Rayner is a wise clan leader,” Silvus told me. “I have seen many vampire lords fall victim to their hunger for power. They form a clan and make the rest subservient to them, keeping the choicest blood to themselves. Before long, they become resented by their own children, who plot to…remove them. Rayner is now one of the oldest vampires of Europe because he only makes one privileged demand and that is to claim you first. From then on, we all know the rules.”
“That sounds very fair to all of you,” I said carefully.
“Ooh, she’s getting a bit sarcastic,” Jie said.
“I’m not sarcastic.”
“Sure it is. You’re thinking that it isn’t fair to you because we make demands on you almost every day. You’re thinking we were pretty nice to you today and now we’re acting like selfish, hungry beasts.”
“Well…”
“Well?” Thom said. “You ain’t wrong.”
“What if I said no to one of you and not the others? You would still take what you felt was owed to you, I’m sure.”
Thom and Jie exchanged a glance.
“Darlin’, it’s just never come up,” Thom said. “We know every trick in the book to make you want us and once you say yes, you ain’t never saying no to us again. I dare you to prove us wrong.”
I felt I was facing some new trial if I had to spend a night with the two of them. I thought Rayner and Silvus were bad, but Jie and Thom seemed worse. If I couldn’t sleep with just Silvus and his cat, I would surely never sleep at all with the two of them. I was already exhausted but I could feel the fight in me, the defenses I had to put up to protect myself. I was so scared that they would turn out to be right and I would succumb to being their thrall. Even if I did save my family, I would never be able to see them. It would be so shameful, and not the example I would want to set for my sisters.
Besides that, they could all see how ashamed and frightened I was, and they didn’t care. They even let the conversation move on.
“When I got the stuff for the curry and soup, the cashier was dead asleep,” Jie said. “Standing at the register. On his feet. Dead asleep. I clapped my hands and he did this jump and slow blink.”
“I used to be able to do that,” Thom said.
“Why does that not surprise me?”
“Did you get Tulip any treats?” Rayner asked.
“I don’t want treats, anyway,” I said.
He patted me on the head like I was a stubborn child.
“I would never forget treats,” Jie said. “But it’s a surprise for later.”
“You know I’ll die faster if I eat too much sugar,” I said.
“It’s true, you will never die if you don’t live in the first place,” Rayner said. “You love sweets too much to give them up. When we were young, sugar was very beloved. It came in a large cone hard as a rock and wrapped in paper, and you had to nip bits off of it. But your family was prosperous enough to buy as much sugar as they liked so you used to make me these little candies and hide them in your pocket. Little gifts from your hand to me. That is one thing I wish I could taste again.”
Jie brought me a plate of different candies wrapped with pandas or pictures of fruit, and I could see him wanting connections between me and Li Mei. It was endlessly strange to be with them and see them all trying to find different versions of me in the person I was now.
“I’m not a pet,” I said. “I don’t need treats.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to be a pet?” Silvus said. “At least, my pets are very pampered.”
“But pets don’t do anything.”
“What do you want to do?”
“Save my family!”
“Of course. But after that?”
Every time I tried to protest, I ended up feeling trapped. Of course Silvus knew I didn’t want to do anything because I didn’t even know what a person could do besides be a wife and mother.
After dinner, the vampires played a game of cards. They asked me if I wanted to play.
“Gambling is wicked,” I said.
“We ain’t gambling nothing but our pride,” Thom said. “Come on, have a seat.” Silvus dealt me in anyway, while Rayner explained the rules.
Before I knew it, I was having fun. Again. When I won a game I felt a thrill of accomplishment and had to keep myself from crowing. Women were not supposed to boast or shout and when I saw Dad again I didn’t want him asking what happened to me. I hated to admit it, but the entire day had been fun.
Well, the fun was over. Now I had to go to bed with not just one man, but two.
“Oho…we’re going to enjoy ourselves thoroughly,” Thom said, before nudging me up the stairs.
“You’d better not,” Rayner said.
I slipped into survival mode again, just enduring every step, right into the room. The door was shut behind me.
Thom poured a drink, leaned over me and handed me a shot glass. “Relax your nerves, darlin’, we ain’t here to hurt you. We’re here to loosen your chains.”
“I’m not chained.”
“You know you are. I can see the fight in your eyes every minute. Once in a while you even think about taking a swing. Well, let’s do something about that.” He straightened up again, and I was mesmerized by his fluid grace. Thom had a tough, wiry build, every inch of him hard and lean and tanned. If he hadn’t been turned into a vampire he’d probably look like beef jerky by the time he was forty. He looked the most boyish out of all the vampires, but at the same time, he was one of those kinds of boys. I’d known some in school. The kind that weren’t naturally afraid of anything, not a beating or a scolding or even Father Joshua. Every class seemed to have one, and usually they ended up getting purified. That finally beat it out of them. And yet, for some reason there were always younger ones who seemed to think they were invincible.
“This is all you,” Jie said.
“Some pirate you are,” Thom said.
“Eh. Pirates are pussies,” Jie said. “We were big bullies on the sea who attacked smaller ships. I’m realistic.”
“I don’t fuck a man who’s a pussy. You’re in this too. Gimme the crop.”
I knew more about torture than a person might guess. The books Father Joshua penned were full of torture scenes, with demons capturing Ethereal sinners and committing all manner of painful atrocities to their bodies. These were vividly illustrated by an old lady widow in the village. We used to joke about how she seemed sweet but was very good at drawing entrails.
Not funny now. I screamed and tried to bolt for the door. Thom caught me and covered my mouth.
“We ain’t using it on you!” he said. “You’re getting what you might call a therapy session.”
Jie held up the crop. “You’re using it on us.”
“What!? I’m not striking you!”
“You have to try it,” Thom said. “It ain’t a sex thing.”
Jie snorted. “Ain’t it?”
“Shut up, Jie,” Thom said. “Well, I can’t always control what my cock does, but I want to see you fight, darlin’. Someday…if I get my way, I’ll bring you Father Joshua and his weaselly little face, trussed up for you like a Christmas goose, and you can whip him as long as you want. If there’s anything left, then…we’ll eat the goose.”
He grinned in a way that sent a chill down my spine. “No, please! I told you to save my family and get my wand back, and I don’t want you to cause any unnecessary suffe
ring. I don’t want to hurt anyone. Not you, either.”
“Usually, I know, you like suffering more than you like dealing it out, but when it builds up inside you and you do let it out…it’s spectacular.” Thom stroked my hair, looking weirdly proud of me.
Was he implying I had done something terrible in the past?
I didn’t want to ask. I didn’t want to know.
Jie handed me the crop. “Just two blows, then. One for each of us. It’s like a new food. Just try it once, and if you hate it, then you can go to sleep.”
They both stripped off their shirts and by now, I knew what would happen. I was left blushing and failing at my attempts not to look. I certainly shouldn’t be attracted to a man who implied he had a violent streak the way Thom did, but here I was, sneaking glimpses. They were very similar in build, a little shorter than Rayner and Silvus, both tanned to nearly the same rugged shade, with a few scars. They looked ready to scrap, strong and nimble. There was a palpable affection and ease between them, and that might have been the only thing that kept me from being completely terrified of them—Thom especially. I didn’t need to be told that Silvus and Jie were the caretakers of the quartet, and Rayner and Thom were the heavies—not that any of these men were safe.
“Now, darlin’—“ Thom gripped my shoulders and looked at me like he was priming me for a fight— “I want you to take a moment and think about this Father Joshua bastard. We both saw him. The man looks like a snake oil salesman who stole money from his own mother. He looks like the five-term congressman from the shittiest district in the whole damn country who used his campaign funds to buy himself a hot tub. He looks like a man who, when he’s done getting off on abusing girls, goes and fucks him a goat.”
“You really did see him, huh?” I said, fighting off the tiniest smile despite myself.
“There it is. You think of that face of his and what he deserves, and then—give us a good whack. Don’t hold back. We heal fast and there ain’t nothing you can do to us that we haven’t already had a lot worse.”
He ‘purifies’ and humiliates every boy who has any chance of standing up to him. He broke the spirits of every girl he made a priestess before he targeted me. He frightened Carrie and took her books away. He made my mother ‘confess’ a miscarriage and then…then he killed her.
I had been told all my life that anger was something a woman should never, ever express. A woman should never defy a man. Never question the leader. But when Thom gave me permission—
I smacked his back with the weapon. I felt and heard the smack of the crop on his skin.
Thom scoffed. “That was nothing. You can do better’n that. Try screaming when you do it. Give Jie a little something.”
“Ahh!” I smacked Jie harder but he didn’t even flinch.
“Come on,” Thom coaxed.
I tried again. His skin had light red lines now.
“More!” Thom said. “I want to hear you shake the walls, darlin’. Fuck ‘im! Strike me with everything you’ve got!”
“AHHH!”
“More! I mighta felt little mouse feet pattering on my back!”
I screamed and I saw Father Joshua’s face in my mind and I went a little wild until I saw blood trickle down Thom’s back.
I dropped the weapon. “I’m sorry!”
Thom turned to me with an absolutely savage grin and said, “There you go. That’s something. Feels good, don’t it?”
“You’re bleeding!”
“What did you think would happen? A little blood never hurt anyone…not you…and certainly not me.” Jie picked up a towel and blotted up some blood before it reached Thom’s jeans. Thom was looking at me with such a look in his eye that I thought he might do something awful to me in response. His jeans bulged with male hunger.
“That was…wicked.” I felt my mouth blurt that out, but inside I was much more confused.
Thom was right. It felt good.
Very good.
And I didn’t feel like I would feel sorry for Father Joshua at all if he was the one bleeding.
Thom reached a hand out to me, and as if drawn by some irresistible force, I stepped toward him. “Bertie,” he whispered, sliding his hand up my arm and pulling me close to him. “I saw you in there…for a second.”
I’m not Bertie.
But I felt like I would hurt him worse than any lash if I said that.
“I can’t stand it,” he groaned.
Jie walked closer to both of us and put a hand on me, as if to protect me from Thom.
Instead, he stroked the curve of my waist and hip as he buried his nose in my hair. Thom nipped the edge of my ear. “Jie, you’ve got to stop me.”
“I will,” Jie said. “But the only rule is that we can’t take her virginity, drink her blood, or—you know. Let anybody finish.”
“Cruel,” Thom said.
“There’s still a lot in between,” Jie said.
“Yeah, although not much that doesn’t just make it worse,” Thom said.
“Please…,” I whispered, caught between them.
I seemed to be losing my ability to give a convincing plea. I was wondering if they would touch me the way Rayner and Silvus did. No—not if. When. I knew they would.
If you give a demon just one inch, wickedness will sneak in…
How right Father Joshua was.
But it was becoming more difficult every day to care what Father Joshua said, even if it was true and he was just an imperfect messenger.
“Now, darlin’, if you say please like that, you’re likely to get even more attention…” Thom started unbuttoning my blouse.
Jie tugged down the zipper of the skirt. They both kept their hands on me. At first, they were moving slowly, but as they started to reveal more skin, they got impatient and started yanking at the clothes. Thom took both of my arms in his strong grip as if to steady me as Jie peeled the tights off my legs, unzipped the boots, and took both off nearly at once.
“Take your underwear off,” Thom told me. “If you let me do it, I might tear it.”
“Must I…?”
“Yes.” He released my arms and watched as I reached behind my back and freed my bra clasp. Jie was watching too, and I knew he wouldn’t save me. I looked away as I let the cups fall away and drop onto the floor. This was the first time any of the men had asked to see me completely naked. I tried to draw out the moment when my underwear revealed my most private places, but I’m not sure drawing it out helped at all.
“I tell ya, this is impossible,” Thom said. “Look at her. How am I supposed to—“ He poured himself another drink and knocked it back in one.
“We can play with her,” Jie said, and before I could react, he scooped me up and dropped me on the bed and Thom slid in beside me. “And when we’re done, you can tie her shut.”
“Heh…not my favorite way to do it, but maybe it will help her sleep.”
Jie’s hand slid between my legs and there was absolutely no hiding the way I felt. I no longer had even the feeble barrier of my underwear to soak up the slick fluid. His fingers slid over my folds easily and as he was stroking me there, Thom slipped a hand behind my neck and kissed me.
Kissed me. On the lips.
None of them had gone that far.
I just didn’t want to fight. Not at all. Jie’s touch was making me so pliable that I wanted more. I felt the bare skin of Jie’s chest brush my back, and rather than fight him, my legs opened wider. I wasn’t in control anymore.
“Mm…” Jie’s hands moved down to my thighs and spread my legs even wider still with his firm touch. Thom moved into the space, still kissing me, his arms holding him up over both me and Jie while his hard cock brushed me between the legs, but he was still wearing jeans and although I tensed, I didn’t make him stop.
They could have…done things to me.
They had tricked me somehow. I don’t know. Maybe it was that one drink. Although I didn’t feel much from it.
“It’s going to be so
good when we can finally let loose,” Jie said.
“And taste her…” Thom pulled away from my mouth to lick my neck and cheek and then he bit my ear, before shifting back down and nibbling my breasts. This movement shifted his cock away from me. My core was left cold, but instead my breasts felt sparks of hungry, tingling pleasure. I didn’t know they could feel that way. I didn’t know any of this.
“Careful,” Jie said. “Rayner will kill us if we finish her off.”
“If she’s quiet, how will he know?”
“He’ll know,” Jie said. “I don’t want to piss him off when he’s the one sacrificing himself to the witches.”
Thom sighed. They moved away from me but then they turned to face each other with me in the middle, trailing fingers down my arms and stomach. Thom brushed my lips with his finger. They explored every inch of my skin with their hands while I twisted a little, craving more of something. When they were done with the front of me, they turned me over and caressed my back. Thom squeezed my bottom cheeks.
“Well, that’s certainly a woman’s ass,” he said. “Bertie never had curves quite like that.”
“Missed ‘em?” Jie said.
“More than I knew.”
Jie stroked a hand up my neck and through my hair and I started to feel very relaxed and soothed. It was all such a whirlwind of feelings. Anger and guilt, arousal and peace, fear and catharsis.
“Alissa,” Jie said. “We can’t help remembering all of the people we loved before, and you remind us of all of them. But you’re Alissa.”
“It’s not all bad to start fresh,” Thom said. “I guess it keeps you young.”
“But I wouldn’t mind growing old with her either,” Jie said.
Just as I thought they were turning sentimental on me, Thom’s finger moved to my nether hole and circled it, then poked it in just a tiny bit.
“Oh!” I cried, indignant, turning back over to twist away from him.
“You’re terrible,” Jie said.
“I know.” Thom got up. “I’m going to get the rope. It’s your last chance to play with your toys tonight. And your last chance to pee. Well—let me know if there’s an emergency.”
Take Me Slowly (Forever in Their Thrall Book 1) Page 18