by Dani April
“I have exhausted you tonight with all my talk and what I have shown you. Perhaps it would be better if we put off talking again until tomorrow night.”
“Tomorrow night? You’re going to be away again tomorrow?”
“I am away every day.”
“Where do you go?”
“I will tell you some other time. For the moment, let me take you back to your room. You should have a good night’s sleep.”
He reached out a hand to take her back. She pulled away slightly, an idea coming to her. “Will you take me with you when you leave tomorrow?”
He smiled and gave a sad laugh. There was that look again, as if she was no more than a child and he a wise adult having to gently correct all her mistakes. She let it go this time because suddenly she was desperate. She didn’t want him to leave her tomorrow. Not here alone with those men. She had almost lost her mind the first day. What would another day do to her?
“Peter, please don’t leave me out here alone tomorrow.” She instantly hated herself for allowing the pleading tone to enter her voice.
“Are you afraid?” he asked her. “Perhaps afraid of the three men living here?”
She covered her face with her hands. They were already several dozen feet underground, but she wished she could burrow down to the center of the earth and hide. She was making a fool out of herself.
“No. They’re fine. I just…I don’t know what I thought. Forgive me. I think you’re right about me needing that long night’s rest.” She laughed and hoped to make a joke of the whole debacle. “You sure there’s no chance of leftover radiation from those bombs doing something crazy with my brain?”
He clasped her hand in his. His touch was electric. Sparks flew through her body. When he was leading her back up the long staircase to the castle, she realized that if he asked for sex with her that night, she would have gratefully given it to him.
But unfortunately no such request was forthcoming.
* * * *
Horrible dreams, wonderful dreams, dreams of insanity racked her all night, and she could not separate what was dream from what was reality. She was aware of tossing and turning beneath the covers of the big bed. A few times she opened her eyes and stared above her at the canopy covering the bed, but this did not make her feel safe. She was aware of the feeling of imminent danger all night long.
Before she had lain down for the night, she remembered distinctly closing the window by the bed. The night air outside was cool as it blew in off the desert, and after her dream the night before, it was just too creepy to leave it open. But when she rolled over onto her side and faced the window, she saw that it was wide open once again. A breeze was ruffling the curtains, and she could hear a faint voice calling out there in the wasteland.
She lay awake, her eyes now wide open, and stared above her into the gloom. She debated whether to get up and close the window, but decided against it. The latch on the window must be broken like everything else in the run-down old castle, and it probably just sprung back open on its own after so long. There was really no point in closing it. The thing would just open again of its own accord.
Who was out there speaking at this hour of the night? She had removed her watch before crawling under the covers, but she estimated it must be after two in the morning. Was it just her imagination? No, she heard the voice again, louder this time, but still faint and unintelligible. Maybe it was one of the three studs who lived there during the day, or possibly even Peter. But who could they be talking with?
The voice was so calm and peaceful. It was taking her fear away just to listen to it, the sure voice of a man letting her know that she was not alone out here on this barren land. He kept calling the same word over and over, and he seemed to be coming nearer to her side of the castle.
It was Peter’s commanding voice, and as it grew more distinct, she realized the word he called.
“Rebecca…Rebecca…Rebecca…”
She sat bolt upright in the bed, the covers falling from her breasts. Peter was calling to her, and his voice was filled with need and desire, the same feelings she harbored for him.
“Rebecca…come to me…”
Another gush of wind blew past the open window, and his voice became louder. His voice was full of authority and command. Her eyes began to glaze over as she stared straight ahead at the window, unblinking and unmoving, her breath nonexistent. A fog entered her mind, becoming denser with each word Peter called to her.
He was her master. She knew it as clearly as she knew the date of her birth. Her mind was no longer her own. She would do anything he commanded.
Pushing back the covers from her lap, she hiked her legs over the side of the bed and rose to her feet. She was naked, having gone to sleep in the nude earlier, too tired to do any more than remove the clothes she was wearing and crawl beneath the comfort of the bed covers.
Now she was no longer weary. She felt a strange exultation and an excitement born out of the blackness of the night she walked through. Walking across the thick down of the carpet on bare feet, she unlocked her door.
Stepping out into the dark corridor, she sensed the cold stone beneath her feet, but she would have walked across ice or fire to keep going toward his voice. There were no lights in the corridor now. All was black, and she could not see. But she was guided by a sixth sense and had no need for her vision.
A cold breeze blew down the narrow width of the hall and blew back her hair. She continued to walk forward, uncaring about everything except making it to him. Passing the big main room of the castle where a few short hours before she had dined on the veal cutlet and done her interview in front of the fire, she kept moving forward, oblivious to everything but the voice that called to her out of the dark.
A door before her in the corridor had been left open, and she knew she was supposed to step inside. Again no light had been left on to guide her, and she was forced to trust in that sixth sense that had been given her for this late-night rendezvous. A long flight of stairs led down into black depths before her. At the very bottom of the stairs was a faint light, and she began descending toward it.
The stone under the naked soles of her feet became even colder to the touch. Undeterred, she kept descending. The light below her was growing brighter as she went down further.
Ian, the giant man she had met out in the desert that morning, was standing at the bottom of the stairs holding a flashlight and beckoning her to join him.
“Put this on.” He handed her a gown of a very thin, nearly sheer fabric. He helped place it on her as she raised her arms over her head. It fell to just above her knees and was a perfect fit, hugging her body tightly.
He led the way for her with his flashlight. She was vaguely aware that she was in the catacombs beneath the castle once more. This was a separate dungeon, not the one holding the wealth of ages she had seen earlier. It was too dark to see clearly even with his flashlight, but she thought she was in a vast chamber.
As his flashlight flickered about, she could just make out the wall some feet away. Stacked against the wall were boxes. But these boxes did not hold gems or rare golden coins. His light lingered across one of them for a couple of seconds, and she could clearly make out the words on the outside.
Medical Supplies
She looked more closely at the next row of boxes that passed. These boxes were clearly the same as the others except that they had been opened and mostly emptied of their contents. One of them still held a few dark pouches that had not yet been removed. The wording typed on a sticker adorning the outside of one of those small pouches sent shivers down her spine.
Human Blood Plasma
Somehow in her fog-shrouded mind, she was still clear thinking enough to realize that what she was looking at was Peter’s real treasure. Not the other room full of priceless wealth. He had told her the truth when he said he did not care for material things. In this room was his real treasure, a vast supply of human blood.
In the distance, she
could just make out two shadows moving about. Ian led her toward the moving shadows. She went willingly with him because she knew he was taking her to her master. She also knew that he had the same master as she did.
Two figures emerged from the gloom in front of them. Tex and Ramos walked across the stone floor to join them, the boots Tex wore clapping against the stone and echoing through the dark chamber. They each turned on a flashlight of their own, adding more light into the black chamber.
“This way.” Tex motioned with his beam of light for her to take the lead of the three men and continue to walk forward.
As she passed Ramos, he caught her eye briefly. “Don’t be afraid.” His voice was reassuring in the dark gloom, but his words were unnecessary. She was not afraid. She knew she was doing the right thing to come down here into the underground. She was doing what she had to do. She was doing what her master commanded her to do.
The three flashlights playing around behind her exposed a narrow archway in front and beyond that, another room. There was a dim light coming from the room. The light was flickering as if made from the burning of candles.
The three men turned off their lights and walked beneath the archway with her and inside the room.
Peter was standing at the head of the room in front of them. The men held back, but Rebecca kept moving forward until she was standing before Peter. She had arrived on schedule just as he had commanded.
Behind her, Rebecca could sense the fear of the three men. She couldn’t imagine why they would be afraid. She felt nothing but calm and serenity having Peter as her master and doing as he commanded. But clearly her relationship with Peter was going to be different from that of the three men.
“I want to see you,” Peter commanded.
She reached to the shoulders of her gown and let the thin fabric slide the length of her body until it pooled at her ankles on the floor. He stared at her for a long while, his eyes roaming the curves and crevices of her body. Lust was clearly displayed in his beautiful eyes now, but something besides lust. Hunger.
“You are a beautiful woman, Rebecca.”
“Thank you.” Her voice came like one talking out of a dream.
“Do you remember what I told you earlier tonight?”
“You told me many things.”
“I told you I am not afraid of most things.”
“Yes.”
“I told you that sometimes we fear that which we love the most.”
“I remember.”
He broke eye contact with her then and looked down to the floor. When he did this, her mind slowly started to come back to her. Was this all really just an erotic dream? She couldn’t really be standing here naked in front of these four men. All of whom were staring with lust at her exposed body.
She looked down at her heaving breasts and realized the sense of calm had left her the second she had lost eye contact with Peter.
“I am afraid of you, Rebecca,” he confessed to her. “I am afraid of loving you.”
In the back corner of her mind, the only part that was still sane at the moment, she laughed at his words. You’re afraid of me? I’m the one standing her naked in front of four strange, lust-filled hunks.
“I don’t want to love you, Rebecca.” He buried his face in his arms. “I think it’s too late for me. I already do love you. I have looked inside your mind. I know you’re a wonderful human being. My heart, whatever kind of heart I have left after all these years, is breaking in two because I can never have you in the way a normal man would have a woman. I am just a poor tormented creature to be pitied.”
Her mind was fast returning to her. He had still not made eye contact with her. She knew she might not have much time. The moment he found her eyes again, she would lose all control and be once more in his complete power, a puppet on its master’s strings. She had to think fast. There was certainly no escape from behind. Those three men would never let her go.
“Peter?” she asked him. “What’s going on? Why did you bring me here like this? Who are you?” She wanted to reach out and touch him. Because even in her right mind she still viewed him as an attractive man. However, she also now viewed him as an extremely dangerous man and knew she could never take the chance of touching him voluntarily.
“I hate myself for bringing you here to me like this, Rebecca. I love you, and yet I am using you in a cruel way. I am weak and cannot help myself when you are around.”
“You love me?” She was actually rather flattered by his words, but they also represented a deadly twist to her current predicament. “Peter, you hardly know me. We only met yesterday.”
“When I look in your eyes, I can see into your mind, Rebecca. I have read your most intimate thoughts and lived your past history as if I was there at your side the whole time. I know what you were feeling as a child, when you were accepted at college, when you got your job at the network…what you were feeling yesterday when you were in Ramos’s bedroom. I know your faults and your weaknesses, your ambitions and your deepest desires better than you know them yourself.”
“If you know all that about me, then tell me what I am feeling now?”
“You are terrified.”
“Then let me go, Peter!” Tears were starting to run down her cheeks.
“Where would you go? Running and screaming into the night? Don’t you see there is nowhere to go? You can’t hide from me. I could find you anywhere.”
“I would leave, and I wouldn’t tell anyone. My God, nobody would believe me anyway.”
She could see he was waging an internal struggle against himself. He was shaking with pent-up emotion and rage.
“I won’t let you go, Rebecca! I can’t! I need you!”
“Why? You just said we could never be together. What could a man like you possibly need me for?”
He gave a loud and bitter laugh, still averting his eyes away from hers. “I must treat you like a child again, Rebecca.”
He stepped up to her and placed his arms around her. Even though she was terrified of what he represented, she still felt an involuntary shiver of pleasure run the course of her body at being in his arms. Whatever was wrong with Peter was a shame because she suspected he could be a wonderful man under the right circumstances with much to give. Unfortunately, these weren’t the right circumstances.
She looked up at him, but was cautious of looking him directly in the eyes. “You know, Peter,” she told him. “You don’t have to force me to do a lot of things. I suppose you’re too much of a hermit to notice, but I’ve been physically attracted to you ever since we met.”
She reached out and placed her arms up around his broad shoulders. Then she looked down and allowed herself to laugh even under the terrifying climate. “Well, all right, I admit you did have to force me to come down here naked into the dungeon at night.” She brought her face close to his. “But other things you wouldn’t have to force me to do.”
She placed her lips on his. The electricity at touching him ripped through her body. His lips were thick and juicy.
Then he opened his mouth to her urgings, and she realized she was in trouble all over again. She kept her eyes closed so she would not tempt an accidental gaze from his hypnotic stare. But that was not the only source of danger from this powerful being she cradled in her arms. When his saliva entered her mouth, it was like a powerful aphrodisiac. A euphoria over took her. She clung to him tighter, forcing his mouth down to hers. She tried to drink his saliva out of his mouth. She wanted to suck him dry. The aphrodisiac was addictive, and she couldn’t get enough of it.
All her inhibitions abandoned her in an instant. She felt the growing moisture between her legs, and she wanted to take him inside herself right then and there. He had spoken of a need for her, and now she had a reciprocal need for him.
She brought her leg up and hiked it over his waist as she tasted him. Whatever else he might have been, he was most definitely a man. She could feel an enormous erection throbbing and on fire beneath his pants.
Suddenly he pulled back from her. She had acted foolishly. She had driven him over the edge. He brought her up in his arms, her feet leaving the floor. In an instant, he had jerked her head back and he was staring straight down at her. His eyes were glowing in the dark, and his stare was boring into her, making putty of her mind once more.
Once more she had become his to command. Her mind had gone blank, although her body was still on fire with unquenched lust.
Then she realized his lust for her was different than the sexual yearning she felt for him. He had opened his mouth. His incisors had grown by three inches. He was grinning at her through the fangs of a vampire.
He bent to her. She felt hot breath caress her neck and his fingers fold her hair back and out of the way. There was a moment of pain and pure horror. Then the miracle drug that was his saliva must have kicked in again. This time it was merging with her bloodstream and stemming the pain she felt at having her jugular sucked of blood.
Rebecca’s entire world went black.
Chapter Eight
Rebecca had no memory of the night before. She knew she’d endured a horrible nightmare, but it was one of those nightmares she forgot as soon as she woke up. She slept late that morning, something she hadn’t done in years, not waking until nearly noon.
She suspected she was coming down with a cold. Feeling her forehead, she realized she had a fever. Her body felt unaccountably hot all over, and as soon as she stepped out of bed, she was sweating.
The light-headedness of a really strong fever, accompanied by no other symptom, refused to leave her. At times she almost felt giddy and knew that was the fever surging through her. When she assessed her overall well-being after her morning shower, she realized she didn’t feel bad in any sense of the word. Instead, she felt an unfamiliar euphoria, as if she had been promised wonderful events to soon come her way. It was a strange, unsettling feeling, but not a negative one.
She hooked up with Tex and Ramos outside in the courtyard. They offered to drive her to a roadside diner about ten miles away, and promised her the best home-cooked feast a traveler could find anywhere in Nevada outside of Vegas. Rebecca surprised herself when she did not even hesitate at their offer and accepted immediately. She was further surprised that she felt no further embarrassment around Ramos after her brief but intense sexual encounter with him the day before. For his part, Ramos didn’t seem the least bit changed in his polite, eager attitude toward her, although she had a sneaking suspicion that he had probably shared his conquest with Tex and the big guy Ian. Even that thought did not disturb her today. There was a refreshing breeze blowing off the desert, a high, cloudless, and very blue sky overhead, and all seemed right with the world. Rebecca couldn’t ever remember being as happy or as at peace with life as she was that day.