A blaze of light panned across the darkened bedroom walls as a car pulled into the driveway. My heart wanted to dart from my chest. Marco arrived and my time had run out. Fear crept up my spine.
The bedroom door swung open with a flood of brightness. A silhouette of a mountain of a man shrouded the doorway. He reached in and flicked on the overhead switch. Bruno peered down at me solemnly for a second before turning to the noise of the back door opening.
"He's here."
"You can leave now," Marco spoke out from behind him. Bruno's jaw clenched as he hesitated again before he moved from the door.
The other man strode in closing the door behind him and gave me a lazy once over. Trapped in here with him, I pondered the idea of attempting to create fire. I knew turning one of the mob underbosses into a pot roast wouldn't be the smartest plan of action to take. It would end up with me and possibly Bruno dead.
"Sit down." He ordered as he tried to hold my gaze.
I tried to stare at anything else. His mere presence beckoned me to gawk at him. A fast glance toward the floor revealed a pair of black leather shoes, they became my focal point.
"Mouse, sit down," he growled.
The view shifted a little, the legs of his pants came into sight, and then my eyes drifted up bit by bit to his belt. Not being able to control myself, I examined his crisp white tailored shirt momentarily before my wandering attention left me peering up into his eyes. Like an obedient pet, I sat down on the edge of the bed.
"That's better," he reached out, sweeping my long hair off my shoulders. The icy stroke of his fingers shot shivers down my spine. His eyes held mine captive and he smiled evilly as he trailed a hand down my cheek. With all my might, I tried to break contact but couldn't. A trickle of sweat broke from my forehead and I managed to slap his hand away.
"Don't touch me."
"Hmm so strong, it's been so long since I met someone like you," he stated. "You know Mouse, at first I thought you were just another street tramp. But you're not…are you."
"What do you want from me?"
"Well that's simple; I want you to tell me the truth. You lied about the shooting. My sources tell me you escaped from the hospital, right under a police protection unit's noses."
My hands trembled; I tried to focus on something besides his words. Bruno's warning to not look into his eyes came to mind, but he neglected to say how hard that in fact would be.
"I don't know what you're talking about." A small gasp came from my lips. Saying that one little lie was so draining.
"Stand up."
Mindlessly my limbs pulled me up off the bed. The silent cries to flee out the door echoed in my mind. However, my only action was to stand there as if I were a statue. The cold stroke of his fingers chilled me to the core as they traced the hemline of my t-shirt. He leisurely started to pull the fabric up. Instantly mortified, my panic mounted with each heartbeat in my chest. Adrenaline began to flood me, a fine sheen of sweat started to cover my flesh. I pushed back with all the willpower I could muster.
"Keep your hands off me." I snarled at him, jerking my face away as I yanked my shirt back down.
"Well, well, aren't you a mouth-watering treat." He said.
In a flash of motion, he clutched my chin, wrenching my face back toward his. With brutal intent his grip held me fast, again my free will tumbled down into his gaze. He brought his face to within a few inches of mine.
"Tell me, what is it about you that makes you so special?"
His resolve was so much stronger than my own, my skin grew clammy and the control over my mouth waned. I didn't want to say anything but couldn't fight him.
"I'm a freak,"
"Really, how so?" He eyed me over with an odd expression on his face.
"I ...damn it...I...NO." I yelled. The heat flashed over me once more, my struggles grew in intensity.
"I'm losing patience with you woman, tell me what I want to know." He hissed.
His deep brown eyes narrowed, the color fading into a yellowish-gray color. They reminded me of a set of wild dog eyes glaring at me. A scream got stuck in my throat, never passing my lips. Horror crept over me. A brief image formed in my mind as if a misty memory. Yellow eyes, long white fangs, claws and blood, a creature with eyes like his had bitten me once and the thing wanted more, a lot more. Whatever Marco's was, I tangled with one before.
He shot me an odd look, a snarl turned at the corners of his mouth. Without warning, he grabbed my hand and bent my wrist backward. He stared down at my arm releasing his gaze. My head gave me the impression it would flop off my shoulders. Exhausted, with no fight left in me, he took the other wrist and gave it a twist to check out the underside. Then it dawned on me... my wounds from earlier were healed and he detected it.
"The cut on your wrist...where the hell did it go," he said in astonishment.
"You don't say. I didn't notice."
Marco shoved me hard. The floor disappeared from under my feet as I was flung backward and the whole room traveled through my vision. My bed groaned out in retaliation at the sudden impact. I tried to scurry back to the far side out of reach. A hand with inch long black claws reached out and grabbed me by the t-shirt. The material ripped under the assault.
A single gut-wrenching scream resounded in the room; it took a second to realize the person who screamed was me. Marco snagged a fist full of my hair and wrenched my head to one side. My feet flailed at him, he didn't even react to them connecting, as if I was a kitten batting playfully at his legs with its paws. His lips curled back over long opaque fangs then turned to a cruel smile.
I barely registered the icy embrace of his lips before a brutal pain shot into my neck. With bone-crushing strength, he held me down, the room filled with the sickening sounds of slurping. My mind numbed quickly, the room swam as I stared up at the canopy over the bed.
The discomfort quickly dissolved into a euphoric sensation. The flood of pleasure grew; it blended out the throbbing pain. My flesh tingled all over with escalating delight. My bottom lip quivered.
Taking his time, his lips withdrew from my skin, the cool air caressed the heated space his mouth abandoned. With a glazed expression and labored breathing, he stared at me, the hunger raw in his eyes.
"You're a tasty little morsel, very potent indeed, oh so rare," he whispered before lowering his mouth to my neck once more. The warmth of his lips against my throat so different from a few moments ago. Great guzzling swallows engulfed my ears and turned my stomach.
I tried in vain to wrestle free from his grasp. My limbs grew weak and listless as the room hazed over. The steady drumming in my ears was mixed with the awful sounds that came from my throat. Too tired to struggle anymore, my limp form laid there under him. The room grew dark and quiet.
The pungent, salty tang of thick blood made me gag. My eyelids flew open. The creature held his bleeding wrist to my mouth. I tried to turn my head away to no avail. He pressed the bloody wound harder against my lips with bruising force and I gagged again.
"Drink," he demanded.
A strange tingling sensation began at the back of my throat as the blood slid down. I wanted more. A heady rush pervaded me, everything looked so vivid. The soft texture of the bedding under me was luxurious, the bed itself a billowy cloud enfolding me in gentle arms. The overwhelming need for more consumed me, my hands grasped his arm and I drank greedily.
With a yank he pulled away, his gaze captured mine again. Too weak to fight his will anymore I laid there staring up at him.
"Heal yourself, woman," he ordered.
Light electric pulses coursed over my flesh. Marco watched, transfixed on me. An expression washed over his face, one that reminded me of a cat seeing a bird.
"Well now Pet, you are going to be one of my favorites I think."
His hand glided deliberately across my cheek, I slapped the vile thing away, the gesture disgusted me.
"Stop," I said with a renewed surge of energy.
"Oh yes, a real challenge but I will win and you'll be so much more than a ghoul," he said to me.
"Tell me what happened at the Laundromat?" he asked without forcing me into submission.
"I got shot," I told him flatly, no sense in hiding it, he had seen I could heal.
"I see, is there anything else you're not telling me about the night Speranza was murdered?"
"Nope."
He slid off me before pulling a handkerchief from his jacket and dabbing the blood from his lips.
"Don't think you're going anywhere's. You need to feed two more times my Pet." He cast one last evil grin before he opened the door and walked out.
Rolling onto my belly, I lay there with my head buried in my arms as the fear and hate mingled in me. The need to find a way out of this mess became paramount. Several long moments went by and the door opened again. My gaze peered up to see Bruno walking in. He glanced down at me sprawled out on the bed, the appearance of distress in his eyes.
"So that went fucking well," I growled.
"I'm sorry... I didn't have a choice; if I did I wouldn't have taken you to the boss."
"I get that." What was he supposed to do, take a bullet for me?
"Are you all right, I heard you scream?" Bruno asked between gritted teeth.
"I'm fine," I told him. Bruno's eyes softened and he let out a heavy-chested sigh.
"Mouse I'm so sor..."
"I'm fine. I need a shower." I snapped and sat up.
He looked the disheveled bed over, his gaze fell to my tattered t-shirt. The rage grew in his eyes, his bottom lip twitched as he clenched both his fists.
"Did Marco…Did he…" He stumbled over his words.
My brows crinkled up, not quite understanding what he asked. Surely vampires couldn't have sex.
"No, he didn't. Listen I just want to take a shower." My voice cracked.
The relief flowed over his face, in that instant I assumed he believed Marco forced more than his thirst on me. My desire to know if that hunch was right was stopped by my fear of what could have happened. That knowledge would only cause me to worry more.
"There's a bag of stuff in the bathroom for you, Mike picked up the stuff from your list."
I assumed Mike must be one of the enforcers here at the house. Not bothering with asking for introductions, my sole desire was to wash and get away from here. While the bath water flowed into the tub, I stripped out of my pants and ragged t-shirt. With a toss, the shirt landed in the wastebasket beside the toilet. The bloody stain around the right side of the collar made me cringe.
Wanting to forget the evening's events I slipped into the bath. I hoped the warm water would soothe my foul mood. My thoughts drifted to Bruno. He had such a duel loyalty. On one hand, I could tell he didn't want to see me hurt, yet on the other, he gave the impression he would be helpless to prevent it. What the hell is a Ghoul? Is Bruno one?
The house sat mostly in darkness, the only light came from the stove in the kitchen and Bruno's bedroom. His door left a tad ajar, casting a faint glow down the hall. While I made my way to his room I noticed one of the men stretched out on the sofa seemingly asleep.
I made up my mind to get some answers from Bruno, even if that meant beating the truth out of him. I chuckled at my own notions of trying to put the boots to him. At five foot three inches and maybe a hundred pounds, I'd be lucky to beat up a paper bag.
Carefully I peeked into his room in case he might be asleep. As my face attested too already, surprising Bruno was a bad idea. He lay there, stretched out across the bed, the TV on the news channel, the volume barely on. The days' newspaper sat beside him. My cheeks warmed catching him clad in a pair of black cotton boxers and nothing more.
I froze for a second; unsure if confronting him would be the best idea. My need to learn the truth about what Marco had in store for me won, so I took a deep breath and stepped in.
"Hey hope you don't mind me barging in like this. But seeing as everyone's done it to me tonight I figured why not," I told him as I shut the door behind me.
He eyed me up and down. The white terry robe I wore was left untied to reveal the white satin nightdress with spaghetti straps and lace trim underneath.
"M…I…wha." he stuttered.
A sly grin played over my lips while sashaying over. With a push, my hands moved the paper he had on the bed and my butt plunked down beside him. I eyed him over, a perfect specimen to the male gender, and momentarily found myself sidetracked from my purpose of why I came in.
"Tell me about being a ghoul?" I asked him.
He sat partially up, pulling the covers over his bottom half as he did. With the gentlest caress, he traced the outline of my face and sighed deeply.
"It makes you stronger, faster, keener, and tougher. But only if you drink their blood regularly. You practically stop aging...I'm not really twenty-three...I'm actually much older," he explained. That verified my suspicion from earlier.
"How old?" my curiosity peeked, that could definitely be something I would be interested in.
"Very." he simply said.
"Ok, so what's the downside?" I asked, needing to know.
"Well, you're bound to him, if he tells you to do something then you obey, basically a slave," he explained with a clenched jaw.
"He's losing his control over you isn't he?" I asked, remembering Bruno's hesitation at the office as well as in the doorway earlier.
"Marco's had it in for me for years. Now he knows I like you and I don't want this to happen to you," he told me.
Wait, did he just say he liked me.
My heart fluttered as if a million butterflies took flight in my chest. I needed to put my emotions into check. Since Marco bit me and I drank his blood my hormones were in overdrive.
"That didn't answer my question, Bruno?" I attempted to come across as being stern.
"I dunno ...maybe but if he finds out. You can't tell him," Bruno mumbled low. His face whitened ever so slightly.
"My lips are sealed," I said and made the motion of zippering my lips.
"Thanks, Doll."
"So what are the rules?" I assumed he would know. After all, I was the newbie.
"He'll give you your own set of rules once your bond to him. That will take three feedings, I think he already considers you his," Bruno explained further.
"What if I don't want to be?"
"Well, you don't gotta choice. Right now you'll be attracted to him. It helps to get you to take the next feeding." He paused for a moment, his eyebrows furrowed. "After the second one you'll start to have a need to taste his blood and a desire to please him. After the third you belong to him and vampire blood is like insulin shots you'll need it to stay alive."
"Any vampire blood or just his?" I asked, more curious. To hear myself in fact call someone a vampire created visions of me in a padded room wearing a straight-jacket.
"Any will do, but the bond ties you to him, it makes you a slave, not just his blood."
The sensation of being bitten and the taste of his blood had a certain effect that I found thrilling. My curiosity as to why left me wondering as to the cause.
"Um, why does it feel…well I mean the feeling makes you…" My face burned, "Oh god this is so embarrassing."
"Venom, it causes an addictive ecstasy when they choose to release it as they bite. The feeling helps people crave being fed on."
The pleasure from earlier faded already and I didn't have any desire to do what Marco wanted. Fidgeting with the ties to my terry robe, I eyed Bruno over wondering if telling him about it would be the best idea.
"And if a person doesn't have the attraction you were talking about?" I asked in a near whisper. He tilted his head and scrunched up his brows.
"People who can't be bonded are extremely rare...why are you asking?"
"Just curious, well I better let you get some sleep."
"He will make you his, one way or another," he told me with a certain air of finality to it.
I got off the bed and went back to the one assigned to me, deciding I was no one's pet and would have to prove it. I pitched the robe on the bed and stripped out of the satin night slip. Sorting through the clothing they bought me, I hoped to find something a little more my style. The brand new sneakers would be a pain, as they needed some serious breaking in. I slipped into a pair of skinny jeans and a pretty royal blue sweater, before taking a brief moment to listen. The snoring came from a couple of different rooms inside the house. I figured everyone else inside was out like a light. I slunk out of the bedroom quiet as a…well Mouse.
The brute on the couch snored quietly and I could hear the TV from Bruno's room. My plan was to leave without saying a word, though it made me feel bad. I wanted to hear Bruno's voice even if it would be for the last time. With that thought, I grabbed the cordless phone and walked into the bathroom leaving the lights off. I waited to see how long a span it took for thug one and thug two to pass this part of the yard. It gave me almost a whole two minutes.
The adrenaline started pumping through me at the idea of the chase to come. I carefully slid the window open and took a few short breaths before dialing Bruno's cell.
"Yeah what is it?" he said in a gruff voice.
"I'm so sorry."
"Mouse, like hells are you leaving." The boom of him toppling out of the bed resounded in the house.
Shit, how does he know I'm leaving, I only said sorry, I thought.
I dropped the phone in the wastepaper basket without even hanging up. Slipping out of the bathroom window, the cold night air hit me. The need to be free gave me a boost and my feet raced across the damp grass in the back lawn. The high chain link fence was all that stood between me and the neighboring yard. My feet and hands connected with the metal, the momentum from the run gave me the boost to flip over the six-foot-high obstacle.
The backdoor of the safe house slammed open. Turning my head toward the banging, my heart skipped a beat. Light flooded out illuminating the grass. Three of the goon squad burst outside, the speed in which they moved was inhuman. Ghouls or vampires, there was no way for me to be a hundred percent sure. Bruno flew around the corner of the house, an enormous blur barreling straight for me.
Fear of being captured sent a jolt of adrenaline into me. I bolted out of the neighboring yard and raced across the lifeless street. Bruno and his men's pounding footsteps grew closer. The house across the road had a detached carport that sat close to the back of the property. My escape route was in view and I headed for the vehicle parked in front of the garage.
Yanking myself up and onto the minivan; the top crumpled somewhat from my weight. I made the leap for the roof and my feet slid, at the last minute, I managed to gain traction. Heading for the edge at a deadpan run, my feet pushed off the edge. My landing on the ground slowed me ever so slightly.
My breathing was fast and hard. My body was drenched in sweat from zigzagging around buildings and climbing up and over several smaller dwellings in my escape. Not daring to relax my pace until the last of their footfalls disappeared from their hasty pursuit.
My poor feet ached, my legs burned so bad and my sides twinged in small spasms. My attention was keen while resting against an old liqueur store to catch my breath. It was about a half-hour since the last echoes of Bruno or his men followed me. I would have to flee this city and run as far from here as possible to escape this insane nightmare.