Darkness Taunts

by Susan Illene

  “Ian,” he called out to the man waiting in the hall. “Give her something to eat and then knock her out again. I think I like her better when she ain’t awake.”

  Chapter Thirty

  I woke up bleary eyed to Ian changing out my IV bag. He had his back to me. A familiar sliver of light coming from the edge of the curtain told me it was daytime. How long had I been here now? It had to have been at least a couple of days.

  “Hungry?” he asked.

  “A little,” I said. “The drugs are messing with my appetite.”

  I felt like hammered crap and wished he’d lower the dosage. It might keep my mangled wrist from hurting more, but it wasn’t helping me recover—or make escape plans. He’d practically had to carry me to the bathroom the last time I’d woken up. A mouse could kick my ass right now.

  “It’s to be expected,” he said. “I’ll get you some soup. That should go down easier.”

  He came back a few minutes later with a tray. It had a steaming bowl on it and a glass of orange juice. He set the food on the folding chair and came over to untie my right arm. My legs were left bound because, of course, I could really put up a fight right now. I had to accept his help to even sit up.

  He put the tray on my lap and settled into the folding chair. We’d started a routine since he took over my care. I looked down and frowned at the chicken noodle soup he’d brought me. It was the same thing he’d given me last time. My hand shook as I lifted the spoon to my mouth. The evidence of how weak I’d become made me want to toss the tray across the room and give up. I prided myself on being strong and the other sensors had taken that away. The only thing keeping me going was the chance I’d eventually escape.

  “I talked to Jerome about you,” Ian said.

  I slurped another bite before responding. “About what?”

  “He says he’ll let me have you first. We should be done dealing with the demons by the time we confirm you’re not pregnant and get back to the compound. No one will touch you before then.”

  I put the spoon down and set the tray to the side. “I’m not hungry anymore.”

  In fact, I thought I might throw up.

  His lips twitched. “You should be glad I asked for you first. There are some men in our compound you really wouldn’t want touching you. Maybe if you please me enough I’ll decide to keep you and you won’t have to worry about getting rotated around.”

  I shot him a dirty look. “Go to hell.”

  “Think about it,” he said, getting up. At least he still limped when he walked. I wished I could kick him again.

  He grasped my shoulder and pushed my body down on the bed. I tried to hold my good arm close, but he yanked it over my head like I hadn’t resisted at all. In the next moment it was bound tight again. He grazed his fingers across my cheek and I turned my face away. I was really going to be sick if he didn’t stop.

  He leaned down close to my head and I closed my eyes. “Knowing a sup has had you disgusts me, but I can’t be picky with so few women to choose from. If I can get over my revulsion for you, you can do the same for me. It’s all in the name of propagating the race. Don’t take it personally.”

  My body stayed rigid until he moved away. The sound of him digging around in his medical bag reached my ears. I risked a glance when he moved toward me again. He had the familiar needle in his hand.

  “Please don’t.” It galled me to beg, but I was sick of being drugged.

  He shook his head. “No choice. We did a little digging and figured out you’re ex-military. I suspect if we let you get any of your strength back you’ll cause all kinds of trouble. It’s much easier to keep you sedated until you’re safely in Idaho.”

  “What about my wrist? It’s going to heal wrong if it isn’t set soon.” He was supposed to put his patient’s needs first. Didn’t they still teach that in the medical classes?

  “You won’t be here much longer,” he replied, injecting the drug. “They’ll take care of it once you get to the compound. That’s the best I can do with so many sups out looking for you. Getting you away from them is our priority…except for dealing with the demons.”

  Ian moved back over to the bag and tossed the needle in a plastic container. How could he keep looking at my wrist and not want to fix it? Or at least get me to someone who could set the bones? I’d stopped looking at it because it was so bent out of shape and swollen it made bile rise in my throat to see it.

  My eyelids grew heavy when he walked over and patted me on my leg. The drugs were kicking in. “I’ll be back later to check on you.”

  I was already losing consciousness by the time the door clicked shut.

  ~~~

  Sometime later, I surfaced from a deep sleep. The heaviness gripping my body was so strong I couldn’t open my eyes, but something had put my senses on alert. Male and female voices reached me from near the bedroom doorway. I felt certain Jerome was one of them, but didn’t recognize the other.

  “Lucas hates your kind. Are you sure he favors this one?”

  “My human spy caught them practically fucking in a parking lot. I’m sure.”

  “Oh, that is delicious. Lucas wouldn’t touch a sensor if he didn’t feel something for her. We may be able to use this against him. Every time I’ve tricked him into provoking the angels they’ve failed to kill him, but this woman might be the solution I’ve been looking for.”

  “I’ll need help getting her back to the compound. That damned cambion has almost every supernatural in the city out looking for her—not counting Lucas and his people. It’s going to make transporting her out of here more difficult.”

  “Let me worry about that. I can convince the right minds to look the other way while you move her.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that. Just so long as you understand I have my own plans for her.”

  Wicked female laughter echoed against the walls. “I’m sure you do.”

  The voices began to fade. Soon I couldn’t detect the woman’s presence nearby anymore. I didn’t know if I could trust what I felt with my mind so groggy, but I’d been sure she was a nephilim—one far older than Lucas. Had I begun to hallucinate? Surely the sensors wouldn’t let a sup into their home?

  Sleep pulled at me. I tried to fight it, needing to think, but before long the blackness took me back under.

  ~~~

  Morning light spilled from the edges of the window. Someone must have shifted the curtains since they allowed more illumination into the room now. Ian came in with a pair of blue sweats in his hands. Guess someone had gotten tired of seeing me in the same dress.

  “You want to go to the bathroom before we put these on you?” he asked.

  I nodded. Unfortunately, I did need to pee again. He kept an arm around me and guided me all the way to the bathroom. As usual, the IV bag went with us. I could hardly stand on my own without falling over anymore. It was as if Ian had been upping the dosage every day. Then again, maybe I was just trying to make myself feel better for being so weak.

  He wetted a wash cloth after I finished using the toilet and let me scrub myself clean. I’d begun to feel disgusting after days of not being able to shower. It felt good to get some of the grime off, even if he stood watching.

  We made it back to the bedroom where he ordered me to face the wall. “I’m going to help you get your dress off,” he explained.

  “I can do it,” I said. It might take me an hour, but I’d get it and the torsolette off somehow with only one good hand.

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” Ian gripped my shoulder and forced me across the room. He still had my IV bag in his other hand. “Now use the wall to keep your balance while I get this off.”

  I tried to pull away from him, but a wave of dizziness hit me. He hooked the IV bag to a stray nail on the wall and grabbed my arm when I started to sway too far over.

  “I’m not letting you see me naked,” I said when my head cleared.

  “You know I’ve seen most of you anyway. If you can let that neph
ilim have access to your body then allowing me to undress you shouldn’t be that difficult.” He yanked the zipper on the back of my dress down.

  I held the front to me to keep it from falling.

  “Leave me alone,” I said. I’d never felt so vulnerable in my life that I couldn’t even fight him now that I wasn’t tied up.

  He smacked the wall, making me jump. “We can do this one of two ways. You can stop fighting me or I can have the other guys come in and hold you down.”

  My throat swelled up. He had me there. I couldn’t handle more men seeing me like this. Especially since they might be worse than Ian.

  “Fine,” I said. “You can do it.”

  “Let go of the dress,” he ordered.

  A few seconds passed before I could make myself loosen my grip on the fabric. He yanked it the rest of the way down so it pooled at my feet. Now all I had was the torsolette to cover my body. My ass was completely exposed to him.

  I straightened my back and tried to hold on to what dignity I had left. His fingers worked at the fasteners and hooks, slowly opening them up. I gripped the wall and focused on breathing. Under any other conditions I would have been happy to get the confining piece of clothing off. It had been digging into my skin while I lay there for days. A minute later cool air hit my skin as it fell away.

  His fingers traced a path down my back where there were probably indents from the boning in the torsolette. “That must have been uncomfortable. I hadn’t realized you had it on or I would have removed it sooner.”

  Oh, how very kind of him. Asshole.

  “You have nice skin and no tattoos, which is good,” he commented, still touching my back. “I hate tattoos on women.”

  “Maybe I should get one then,” I said.

  “Too late. I won’t let you now. The one thing I don’t get is how you could have let him touch you?” he asked, leaving his hand to rest on my bare hip.

  Maybe he needed a reminder of why he’d been so disgusted with me before. “Hmm, probably because when a nephilim has lived for thousands of years they perfect the art of seduction, making them hard to resist. That and he has a big dick. I can’t begin to describe how good it felt to have him inside of me.”

  Ian’s fingers dug into my skin. “You bitch. You don’t even try to act ashamed about it.”

  I laughed. He knew every word I spoke was the truth. “You wouldn’t be ashamed either if you’d slept with him.”

  He made a disgusted noise and moved away from me.

  “Lift your leg,” he said when he came back.

  I held onto the wall with my good hand and raised my foot. He slid one pant leg on before switching to the other. In no time I was covered from the waist down. “If your plan was to make me not want to look at you anymore, you succeeded.”

  “Good,” I said. Let him stew over what I’d told him for awhile if it would keep him from bothering me.

  We had to unhook the IV so he could pull the sweatshirt over my head.

  “Someday I’ll make you forget about him.” His voice came out annoyed.

  “I doubt it.” I stuffed my right arm through the sleeve. The other one took more work, but he’d cut a long slit so there was enough room for the brace to get through.

  “We’ll see,” he said.

  He rolled up my sleeve and hooked the IV back up. After the line was in place, he made me lie down again and tied my legs together like before. This time he didn’t attach the rope to the bed. I frowned at him. It wasn’t that I minded not being bound to the bed, but something about his behavior was different.

  “You’re leaving in a little while,” he said. “I’m just getting you ready for travel.”

  “I take it me walking isn’t part of the plan?” I asked, glancing at my feet.

  He took out the familiar needle and filled the syringe. “Nope. You’ll be out for most of the trip.”

  “How are they moving me?” Surely Aeson and Lucas would think to post people at the airport and docks. There was no driving out of Juneau.

  “You’re going first by ferry, but you’ll be in the trunk of the car. Can’t risk anyone seeing you, can we?” he asked.

  “Of course not,” I said in a sarcastic tone.

  He shot the needle into the IV line. Please let Lucas be checking for me with whatever powers he used because I had a feeling if I made it to that compound he wouldn’t be able to find me. With so many sensors living in one place, they could surround the whole perimeter with their blood. His magic would never get through and I’d be lost.

  Ian gave me a predatory smile. “See you when I get back there. You shouldn’t have to wait too long for me.”

  “Take…your time,” my voice slurred. The drugs hit me harder than before. I couldn’t even try to fight them before passing out.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Pain. Sharp and searing hot. The kind where you wished for death and didn’t even know if that would be enough to escape it. Someone had my wrist in their hands and they weren’t being gentle. They tweaked it ever so slightly and I screamed. My body jerked up and my legs kicked out. One of my feet landed a solid blow to the torturer’s throat. He grunted.

  “Fallon, get over here and hold her feet down,” a familiar voice said.

  At least, I thought it was familiar. I was too busy blindly swinging my arm at the man who held my wrist. I didn’t get to him before someone else caught it mid-air and pushed it back down. I was lying on a hard surface. My feet dangled off the end and a third guy took hold of my ankles. No, this couldn’t be happening. They said they wouldn’t touch me yet.

  “She’s strong for a mortal woman,” the man at my feet said. I was making a valiant effort to get loose of his grip.

  “Anyone in enough pain will gain strength to fight it.”

  I opened my eyes but couldn’t see anything but a bright overhead light. The men around me were nothing but dark, blurry shapes. My breaths came out ragged as I twisted around trying get myself free. Already I could feel myself weakening under their hold. The drugs still coursing through my veins didn’t help either. The man who had my wrist pulled at it, popping it into place. I screamed louder than the last time as tears streamed down my cheeks.

  “Dammit,” I yelled. “I said I wouldn’t be some baby factory for you people. I don’t care how much you torture me.”

  “What’s she talking about?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m fairly certain she doesn’t know it’s us.”

  “I’m going to kill those bastards as soon as I find the rest of them.”

  “I’ll help.”

  All the voices came at me too fast to process. The guy still holding my wrist was feeling it over and wouldn’t let go when I tried to pull it from him. “Leave me alone,” I growled at his blurry form.

  “It’s set. She just needs to be healed now.”

  “Aniya, it’s your turn.”

  I recognized that name, but couldn’t place it.

  “Why are you guys holding her down like that?” a female voice asked. I’d heard it before somewhere.

  “She’s out of her mind and doesn’t recognize us.”

  “It takes three immortal men to her down? She’s going to find this amusing later.”

  “Just feed her your blood.”

  I tried to follow the shape as it came toward me. Why wouldn’t my eyes focus? An arm came up and pressed to my mouth. It was sticky and wet. I tried to turn my face away, but she held my head firm. “Drink, Melena. You need to get better.”

  Confused, I sucked at it and found it tasted funny. Why did she want me to drink from her arm? I noticed an increase in the pain in my wrist and tried to turn my face away.

  Someone pinched my nose. “Swallow the blood,” he ordered.

  I didn’t want to, but he wouldn’t let me breathe. My lungs were starting to burn from the need for air. I took a few swallows and he let go. “Keep drinking or I’ll do it again,” the man said.

  Fear overwhelmed me but I didn’t want
to suffocate either. I kept drinking until the woman pulled her arm away. “Sorry, Melena. I promise it was for your own good.”

  I whimpered as my wrist began to hurt even more. Fiery pain blazed a path along it until it suddenly faded away. My panting breaths slowed as it occurred to me I didn’t feel so awful anymore.

  “She’s going to be angry when she realizes you’ve got her naked under that sheet.”

  “I had to check to see if she had any other injuries. Only Lucas and I saw her uncovered.”

  He’d checked me. Just like the other guy had. I couldn’t remember that one’s name. All I knew was I had to get away from these people. With the female rubbing my head and babbling something to me in a low tone they thought I was relaxing. The two men closest to me had loosened their grips and the guy at my ankles had let go entirely. Now would be the time.

  I bent my knees and launched myself between their shadowy forms. The man on the right caught me and dragged my body to his. Tingles raced across my bare skin where we touched. He felt familiar. How did I know him? One part of me wanted to keep fighting and the other part wanted to burrow closer into his warmth. I struggled in his hold, but didn’t try as hard as I should have. His musky scent had caught my attention. I’d smelled it before and felt comforted by it.

  “Melena, stop this. You’re safe now,” he said.

  I knew that name. Melena was my name and his was…

  “Lucas?” I asked.

  He turned me around to face him and tipped my chin up. I blinked a few times until he came into focus. The memories came rushing back. If was in his house, I was safe. It meant he’d found me before it was too late. I burrowed my head into his chest and gripped his shirt. “I wasn’t sure if you’d come for me.”

  “Of course I’d come for you.” Strong arms gripped me tighter. “Why would you think otherwise?”

  I wrapped my legs around his waist. Lucas’ warmth soaked into all the places that had been cold for days. He felt good and real. Keeping a hold on him also kept me from falling over. I was rather certain if I let go right then I’d tumble onto the floor. How did I end up on the dining room table anyway? I had no memory of getting here, but it didn’t really matter. At least they’d come for me.