by Lisa Marie
“Fuck!” he spat, turning around and leaning against the door with his arms crossed over his bare chest. Their situation had plummeted from bad to worse, and he didn’t know what he was going to do about it.
“What’s wrong?”
He glanced over at Eve and gave a shrug. “We’re prisoners.”
“I think we’ve already figured that out.” She flashed a weak smile.
With a snort, he pushed away from the door and walked over to the bed. As soon as he was settled on his back, Eve curled up next to him, her head pillowed on his shoulder.
“You don’t think Mark will come looking for us? Or Cyrus?”
He heard the hope in her voice, but he wasn’t sure if it was for or against either possibility.
“I doubt it. The odds would be against them, and I really don’t see how it would be possible for them to get in undetected.”
“I didn’t think so.” With a sigh, she snuggled closer to him, throwing a leg across his and banding an arm over his waist.
“We’ll have to figure something out on our own.” Ash hoped he inflected the right amount of conviction in his voice to soothe her worries. He also wished it would work on his own.
“Yeah. We’ve been doing a great job so far.”
“We were separated before. Something tells me that together we can come up with a plan.”
Eve raised her head and studied his face, looking for any indication that he believed what he was saying. All she could see was a quiet determination in the ice blue of his eyes. She nodded. “Okay.”
They both fell into silence, each turning over their plight in their brains to find some way, any way out. The sound of a key in the lock sidetracked anything they might have come up with.
“Oh, goodie, it’s you,” Eve drawled when her vamp escort from the night before walked in. He didn’t look any more pleased to see her, and he threw the pile of clothes he had been carrying onto the floor.
“Those are for you.” he growled, pointing at Eve. Then he turned his gaze on Ash. “You, come with me.”
“Where are we going?” Ash demanded, angling his body so that he blocked Eve from the other vampire’s view.
“Come on!” he barked, taking a step forward. Two more men came inside, each holding something that looked suspiciously like a cattle prod.
Dammit! Ash’s mind screamed, and he inanely wondered if they were ever going to catch a break.
“Give me a second,” he growled at the younger vamp, the flash of red over his icy eyes making the other take an unconscious step back.
Ash smirked with satisfaction then turned to Eve. He gently grasped her shoulders and looked into her eyes, trying to convey everything he was feeling into that one look. “Don’t worry,” was all he said, before brushing a soft kiss across her lips and stroking a thumb over his mark on her neck. Something in the light touch seemed to have the fire flaring back to life in her eyes.
“I won’t,” she whispered back, pushing up on her toes to give him a searing kiss. Ash savored the feel of her lips moving against his for as long as he could. Once he heard the distinctive sound of one of the vampires advancing on them, he pulled away from her and turned to face them.
“Ready when you are, boys,” he said with a chilling grin, then followed out the first guard and was quickly flanked by the remaining two.
As soon as the door swung shut, Eve went to inspect the clothes on the floor. She found a T-shirt and a pair of sweat pants, and despite the curiousness of Sebastian giving her clothes, quickly got dressed, eager to take off Ash’s blood encrusted shirt. She paced the room, finding herself oddly at peace and not in the least bit worried about Ash. Maybe it was the fact that she could still feel him that made her so at ease. It was almost like he was still here, with her, in spirit if not in body. She wondered if she spoke to him, would he answer.
Deciding that train of thought was a little too loopy for the circumstances, she took up inspecting the room, knowing that Ash had already done it, but needing to see for herself that there was indeed no hope. She ran her hands over every inch of furniture, looking for anything that might be used as a weapon. She crawled around on the floor, peering under the bed and the dresser. After a few minutes, she sat back on her heels and huffed in annoyance. No one could be this careful. There had to be something.
Not willing to give up, Eve walked into the bathroom and stood, staring around the plain room. Inspiration hit when she spotted the metal curtain rod. Hopping up on the toilet, she reached out and grabbed it with both hands. She gave a tug and felt it shift. Heartened, she looked at where it was bolted into the wall and saw that the screws weren’t completely secure. With a giddy feeling lightening her heart, she tugged harder, balancing herself carefully on the toilet lid. Each pull loosened the screws further until, finally, they dropped from their holes.
She grinned over the knowledge that she had hold of a half liberated shower rod. Granted, against a bunch of vampires, it probably wasn’t the most substantial of weapons. But the fact that she had a weapon at all had her confidence in escape skyrocketing.
It took only a few more minutes of tugging and pulling to get the second side free.
“I’m not as helpless as I look, am I Sebastian?” she asked the air, jumping off the toilet seat and taking the rod with her back to the room. She hid it behind the curtains, which thankfully swept the floor, and sat down on the bed to wait.
We’ll get out of here, she told herself, and found herself believing it for the first time since she woke up to find she was in Sebastian’s house.
* * * *
Oh, God, yes! was all Brie could think as Mark’s lips moved over hers. His tongue invaded her mouth, sweeping along hers in a sensual dance. In all her life, she didn’t think she had ever tasted anything so good. Raw and wild with the hint of tobacco, his flavor was intoxicating.
Impatient, rough textured hands slid under her shirt, pushing it up and leaving a trail of fire wherever they touched. Her own fingers fisted in the soft silk of his hair, her legs coming up to encircle his waist. He was so hard against her, every inch like steel biting into her softness.
Mark ground his erection against her damp panties as his hands covered her breasts. She whimpered in the back of her throat with the intimate contact, and her mouth beneath his became frenzied. She arched her back and thrust her hips, wanting to feel him completely. One of his hands strayed from her breast to cup the firm globe of her buttocks, angling her hips even further against him. A hot, thick spring seemed to unfurl in the pit of her stomach, forcing white hot pleasure from every point their skin touched to feed the deep throb pounding in her blood.
“Oh yessssss,” she breathed the second his lips tore away from hers.
Brie could feel the black intensity of his eyes on her, but for the life of her couldn’t focus. Something unfamiliar hovered just out of reach, something she was desperate to experience. She slid her hand from his hair, over his shoulders and chest to his waist and then his denim covered ass. She pushed at his taut buttocks, urging him to thrust his hard length against her. Gyrating her hips frantically, she pressed her mound against the rough texture of his jeans. The added sensation of the coarse denim rubbing at her overly sensitized body had her senses spiraling out of control.
“Oh, God! Oh, God!” she cried over and over, her head thrashing on the bed as the most exquisite painful pleasure coursed through her, starting at where she ground frantically against him and pulsing out through her limbs like molten lava. Her back bowed, pressing her into closer contact with his hard length still as waves of bliss coasted over her skin.
Her body trembled as she rode out the final waves of her climax, her limbs falling to the bed as she lost all will to move. Every inch of her felt raw, but in a good way, and she was sure that it had to be illegal to experience so much pleasure with her clothes on. The solid feel of Mark’s weight on her and that of his cock throbbing against her sex had Brie opening her eyes to focus on his. Smiling la
zily up at him, she raised a hand to cup his face. Only to find her hand encountering nothing but air when he was suddenly not there.
“Mark?” Brie struggled to sit up, the jelly-like feeling of her limbs making it harder than it should have been. He was standing by the window, yanking his shirt over his head with jerky movements that seemed to hint at anger. “Mark? What’s wrong?” She managed to get shakily to her feet and take a hesitant step towards him, only to stop when his head shot up and he glared at her through the darkness.
“Wrong? Nothing. I just don’t like to be played.”
“Wh-what? I don’t understa…”
“Come on, princess. Don’t you think I get what’s going on? Think you can throw a little my way and I’ll be your slave? Maybe go against my better judgment and go rescue your sister? Sorry, sweetheart, I wasn’t born yesterday.”
“Are you crazy?” Incredulousness coated her words as her brain tried to catch up and figure out what the hell had just happened. She had no clue how he would have come up with such a conclusion and she opened her mouth to tell him that.
“Save it!” he barked. “You should have gone ahead and used one of your songs. At least you wouldn’t have had to act like a whore to get what you want.”
“I hate you!” she shot out, blinking back the tears that stung her eyes. She refused to let him see that his words cut her deep, and raised her chin in defiance. Mark stalked over to her. He stopped within a breath of her body, his intimidating posture making her feel small.
“Feeling’s mutual,” he growled. Then, cursing himself even as he did it, closed his lips over hers again, taking one final taste of her sweetness while she struggled against him.
She staggered back a step when he let her go, her hand coming up to wipe her mouth. With a final glare, he turned his back on her and stormed out of the room, the slamming of the door causing the walls to shake.
Once he was gone, the tears wouldn’t be held at bay anymore, and for the second time that night, Brie sank to the floor and succumbed to the misery burning her throat, all the while cursing Mark Lynch to hell.
Chapter Twelve
When Sebastian entered the room, Ash was prowling like a caged tiger. Thick, heavy chains attached to wide cuffs on his wrists made a hell of a racket as they dragged behind him. He stopped when the other vampire walked in, and bared his teeth in a snarl.
“Mr. Marshall, how are you enjoying your stay?”
Ash rolled his eyes and started pacing again, the power in his body showing through despite the torture he’d endured.
“From what I could tell, it’s not altogether unpleasant,” Sebastian said with a nasty smile. He watched Ash’s eyes as they narrowed with suspicious confusion and his hands curled into fists at his side.
“What are you talking about?”
Sebastian didn’t miss the thread of warning in his voice. But since he wasn’t the one currently chained to a wall, he merely arched a dark brow.
“You truly amaze me, Mr. Marshall. There aren’t many vampires in this world that wouldn’t partake of the free buffet I offered you, especially when starvation is an issue.”
“I have a bit more control than your average vampire,” Ash said through clenched teeth. It didn’t take him long to come to the conclusion that they had been watched, the intimacy Eve and he had shared violated. His loathing for the man in front of him was reaching new heights, and he spent several seconds entertaining himself with images of Sebastian’s bloody, extremely painful end. “What about you? You’re far from what we would call ‘typical’.”
“Yes. That is true. In a way, I suppose it makes me feel a kinship towards you. Both of us, different than the rest of our kind.”
“Pardon me if I don’t jump for joy,” Ash drawled, the forgotten remnants of his southern accent softening his voice. “You haven’t done too bad for yourself. And for a vampire that’s, what … two hundred, at least? The fact that you’ve coasted under suspicion this long is commendable.”
Sebastian chuckled, a sound more sinister than mirthful. “Thank you. And what about yourself? A vampire of your reputation? To completely change sides … it’s unheard of.”
“Never liked to run with the ‘in’ crowd.” Ash shrugged. “It’s boring.”
“Yes.”
The two vampires eyed each other for a moment, gauging the other for any weakness. Sebastian could practically see Ash’s thinking as he tried to figure out a way to take him out and get out of the room.
“I’ve been doing some research since our last … conversation,” Sebastian said. “Most of the records from your time of living had been destroyed, particularly in the south. But there were some things that I was able to find out. I must say, it surprised me some to realize that you hadn’t changed your name. You were born Ashford Daniel Marshall in Calhoun County Georgia, July 16th, 1844. The son of a sharecropper, from what I can determine. You had three brothers, one of whom died in the war between the States. Three days before Lee surrendered, you were reported missing, soon after labeled a deserter. Can I assume that this is when you encountered Celine?”
Ash listened as the other man ticked off the facts of his human life, images of his brothers, his family, flashing in his head. He could remember their lives with a certain level of detachment. It was their deaths that caused a permanent stain on his memory, the senselessness of it burning him like acid.
“Did you know that your mother spent the rest of her life trying to convince anyone that would listen that you weren’t a deserter? Granted, it wasn’t a very long life, was it?” Sebastian considered the vampire in front of him, his eyes cool and appraising. “She was convinced that you were killed in battle, and that your body was never recovered. Amazing how close to the truth she was, isn’t it?”
Sebastian had moved closer to Ash as he talked, watching his captive for any outward sign of emotion. Seeing none, he felt his respect for the other man rise a notch. “Don’t you want to know how I found this out?”
“Not particularly. A few hours on the Internet will tell you most of it,” Ash replied with a shrug. “There’s always some idiot out there with too much time on his hands, running around trying to chronicle ‘real vampires’.”
“Yes, that there is. And while I myself have found that lot to be an amusing sort of spectacle, I have never once agreed to be interviewed.”
“So.”
“You have.”
Ash’s jaw clenched even tighter and a sandy brow arched as he tried to look nonchalant. “Again, so. And even if I did, I don’t remember. I spent quite a bit of time in the sixties surrounded by a purple haze.”
He’d flashed a grin that contained quite a bit of fang, but Sebastian didn’t even blink. “That would explain why you decided to admit to breaking the first rule in vampire law. And granted, we don’t have many and I know they aren’t written down. They are more of an understood sort of thing. You killed your sire.”
“What of it? I don’t exactly see yours running around,” Ash threw back, straightening his shoulders and staring down at the shorter vampire. He had dealt with more than one vampire that had decided he needed to be taught a lesson for killing Celine. It, more than his guilt for taking human life, was the main reason he had switched sides to begin with. It wasn’t until he started to make friends with humans that he began to feel any type of remorse for what he had done.
“My sire was killed during a raid on his home shortly after I was created. And it made no difference, since he was not what you would call a very attentive sire. He had often made childe and moved on, never making sure that those he created knew how to fend for themselves. I was one of the lucky ones. Ambition, even for a vampire, can be a powerful motivation to survive.”
“So, is that what this torture is all about? You don’t seem too concerned where your Siren is. Are you punishing me?” Ash took a step forward, his face twisted into one of challenge. He was left alone because of his reputation, both prior to and after Celine’s demi
se. More so after he let the vampire community know that he wouldn’t sit still and die easily.
“She killed your family. All during the space of the half century or so you were with her. And somehow, she managed to do this without your knowledge.” Sebastian ignored Ash’s question and started to move around the room, his hands clasped behind his back. “And you, in a fit of rage, dusted her with the broken leg of a chair. Tell me, why did you care?”
“I’m not going to play your stupid games. You have so much information, you figure it out,” Ash growled.
“Most vampires kill their family almost as soon as they reawaken, but not you. You just … left.” Ash was growing weary of hearing his past discussed like it was the weather and Sebastian’s rather morbid interest in it. “Why?”
“Because there was no reason to. That part of my life was done. What was the damn point?”
“Celine obviously thought that there was one. She systematically hunted down the survivors, from your mother to the youngest, Patrick I believe his name was. And killed them all.” Sebastian took an easy step back when Ash lunged, his clawed hands reaching for him. A cold, self-satisfied smile curled Sebastian’s lip as growls filled the air from Ash’s throat.
“Shut up.” The words were said low, almost a growl, and the eyes staring at Sebastian changed from a cool blue to a deep, angry red.
“Why do you suppose she did that? Do you think it was to break you? Maybe to control you in some sort of way?”
“Celine was a sick bitch with a mean streak. She did things because she thought they were funny. And she thought killing my family was fucking hilarious.” Ash prowled again, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides. “She hated it when I didn’t listen to her, thought that she should have all the say because she was sire. Even though I was bigger, stronger and more powerful than her. She made me, and she couldn’t control me. She hated it. So she killed them. And carried my brother’s head home to me so I could see what she did.”