Bound (4 page)

I was pushed through the darkness, low lights along the floor giving us just enough illumination to not run into anyone head on.

“I want to see Sebastian,” I said. “I know he’s in here and I want to see him. I don’t trust you not to have already killed him.”

“You will see him when I’m damn good and ready to let you!” Vincent roared back at me, his voice echoing through the halls. The silence after his shout made my ears ring and I fought hard not to cringe. I didn’t think that showing him any more weakness would help me. He wasn’t sympathetic at all.

Again he straightened his shirt and began to walk. “First you will get clean. You stink. Then we will discuss the training of the Nevermores that you will be doing. Perhaps if you show your usefulness, I will let you see your precious Sebastian.”

Burns turned me to the left and then down a flight of stairs. The rest of the barracks were filled with men whispering as we passed in the semi darkness, leaving me feeling as if there were bugs crawling all over my skin, buzzing to get in.

One more corner and we were in a huge bath house, the lights brighter, glinting off the pale mauve tiles.

“Here, get clean,” Vincent said. “Burns, bring her some fresh clothes. I won’t be in a room with a woman who smells of filth and sweat.”

Burns handed me a threadbare towel and a small bar of soap and the two men stepped out of the room and shut the door behind me. I waited a full minute then put my hand to the knob, opening the door a crack.

“Is there something you need Ma’am?” A man’s voice asked.

“No, thank you,” I said, my manners coming into play despite the fact that I was a captive of these men and had even warranted a guard on my bathroom time. I walked to the middle of the room. It was set up like a locker in a men’s gym, cubby holes for your stuff and shower heads sticking out every three feet.

I didn’t understand what was going on, but at that moment the thought and temptation of hot water overrode any other concerns I had.

I stripped and stepped up to the closest shower head, then turned it on full blast. Ice cold water hit me in the face and I gasped and choked on it, but forced myself to stay under. Scrubbing furiously with the small bar of soap I was able to get at least a couple of layers of dirt off from the last few days.

The cold didn’t ease and my skin began to hurt. It was at that point someone hollered, “Hello?”

I turned the water off and grabbed the towel, wrapping it around me as my teeth chattered. “I’m here.” The towel barely covered what God gave me and did little to stave off the cold.

Burns stepped into the room and put a pile of clothes on the floor. I imagined he was probably blushing as he stammered out, “Here are some clothes, and I’ll just be outside when you’re dressed.”

“I’ll be quick, I’m freezing.” The door clicked shut again. I towelled myself off and thought of Sebastian when he’d towelled me dry and we’d made love, laughing and romping together with abandon. That was before Nevermore came into our lives. I didn’t realize I was crying until the tears dripped off the end of my chin and onto the floor.

“Stop it Mara,” I whispered. “You can’t turn back time, now you have to move forward, that’s all there is left. You have to be strong and smart for all three of you.” I placed my hand lightly on my belly and let out a long slow breath.

Once I was fully dressed and had my emotions pulled together, I opened the door.

Before Burns could say anything, I lifted my hand to stall him. “I want to see my husband; where is he?”

Burns shook his head, “He’s down with the others. He’s okay, but I can’t take you to him. Vincent wants to see you right away; I don’t want to get caught disobeying him.”

“Please, can we run? I just want to see him.” I begged him, putting my hand on his forearm, not caring how little he thought of me. Burns let out a sigh and looked down the hallway. He shook his head and my heart sank.

“If we run, you can maybe see him for 20 seconds at best,” Burns said. My head snapped up and I nodded, my mouth unable to even form a thank you past the shock of Burns helping me.

I followed him at a run down three more flights of stairs to what he informed me was the lowest level. The section was split into cells, not unlike a jail, each cell holding at least one Nevermore. As we ran past they reached out but not one of them made a sound. That was unusual; with the pack at home if we were ever this close there was at least a growl or two.

As if reading my mind, Burns began to fill me in on Vincent’s “training” methods.

“Vincent wants to show how the Nevermores can be trained and so he had us capture a male and a female—at least that was it to start with. He punished them when they did anything that he didn’t think they should. Like making noise when we walked by.”

I glanced into a cage as we passed to see a form curled into a tight ball; burn marks oozing and open to infection covered much of the skin I could see.

“He tortured them,” I said, no longer feeling smart about the decision to keep Scout from attacking Vincent. The next cage showed a very pregnant woman, her wrists and ankles raw where it was obvious she’d been tied up and struggled, her skin in bloom with faint lines of the broom flower.

“That’s Marks wife. Or ex-wife, I guess. They were separated when she took the shot,” Burns said.

I looked away. “Please, just take me to Sebastian.”

“Here,” Burns said, stopping in front of the last cage on the block. He stepped over to let me pass. “Vincent thinks we can use the Nevermores as a trained army to take over Donavan’s compound. At least that’s what he told us and we believed him.”

I stared into the last cage, its gloomy interior not showing me anyone. “Sebastian?” I called out. A shadow shifted and stood tall; in two strides he was at the front of the cage, his hands reaching through for me.

“Wait for me at the other end of the block,” I said to Burns as I took Sebastian’s hands in my own, my eyes never leaving his.

“I’m not supposed to leave you alone.”

“Burns, you gave me 20 seconds, at least let me have those moments alone,” I said.

Burns coughed and shuffled back down the way we’d come.

“I’m sorry Bastian.”

He grunted and pulled me up against the bars, our bodies separated only by the cold metal. Sebastian pressed his lips to my forehead, his hands roving up and down my back, finally settling on my hips. I pressed a hand against the scar on his shoulder that only days ago had been a bullet hole. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

He lifted the top of one lip in a half smile, took my hand and slid it down his chest, pressing my palm against the evidence of his arousal. For the first time in a long time, I blushed, a rush of heat firing my blood. He tipped his head and pressed harder against my hand, his eyes softening with desire. I flexed my muscles and he groaned, leaning his head against the bars and grinding his hips into my fingers. I sucked in a deep breath, my body aching to be touched, to feel again his heart beat against my own. Footsteps echoed and we pulled back, both of us trembling and our faces flushed.

“Mara, I need to take you to the war room, Vincent, he’s waiting, and he’s going to know we took a detour if we put this off any longer. We do not want to piss him off,” Burns said.

“Okay.” I blew Sebastian a kiss. “I’ll be back soon.”

He gave me a slow nod and disappeared into the shadows.

I followed Burns as we jogged back the way we’d come, stopping before we reached the floor where the showers were. I did my best to memorize the turns and twists of the tunnels, the stair wells and room numbers—because the minute I got the chance, I was going to bust us out of here.

7

The war room was covered in maps of the area and the world in general; a large table dominated the center and it looked to be mahogany, polished to a brilliant sheen. Sitting at the head of the table was Vincent, his army fatigues neat and tidy, and his face unreadable.

“It took you long enough,” he said, standing as he spoke.

I shrugged and tried not to let my exertion show. “I wanted to get clean; you know, getting filth off can take time.”

“Don’t sass him,” Burns whispered to me.

Vincent rolled his shoulders and clasped his hands behind his back. “This is very simple. You are going to help me train the Nevermores. If you don’t, I will kill your Sebastian. If you still flaunt my authority you will find yourself in an unfortunate situation where you will no longer be carrying your child. And if you still continue to fight me I will kill you.”

The blood fled from my face and pooled somewhere down in my legs. He couldn’t be serious; he wasn’t so cold as to cause me to miscarry, was he? I stared into his pale gray eyes, searching for a spark of compassion, and found nothing.

He spun on one heel and tapped on the chalkboard, “Perhaps this will help you see reason.”

I squinted my eyes. There were six words written in perfect capital letters. I read them out loud. “Control of cure, control of power.”

My mouth dropped open and I leapt to my feet, my heart pounding with an unspoken hope. “There’s a cure?”

“I thought perhaps that might get your attention. You will see that I can be fair to those who are loyal to me.” He gave me a tight-lipped smile and continued. “If you help me take Donavan’s compound by way of the Nevermores, I will give to you and your Sebastian whatever cure Donavan has cooked up. It is in his compound on the harbour front where he and his scientists have been working on it night and day. They’ve produced some phenomenal effects.” He paused. “We are starting to see the realities of what Nevermore first promised.”

My legs started to tremble and I slowly lowered myself back into my chair, not wanting to show weakness. The door opened and I turned to see Burns bringing in a tray of steaming food. I sniffed, smelling chicken noodle soup and garlic toast. My stomach growled, giving away my hunger.

“Eat. I can’t have you falling down while you train the Nevermores.”

I sipped at the soup then slurped back a spoonful of noodles, the cheap yellow broth delicious, and the slightly stale garlic bread tickling my nose with its scent as I took a bite.

I swallowed a mouthful and Vincent sat down in his chair again, folding his hands on the table in front of him.

“I want to know how you trained the Nevermores. It is more than apparent that they listen to you.”

I took another bite before answering, giving myself more time to come up with an answer that would satisfy him.

I pointed my spoon at Vincent. “How do I know you’re telling the truth? Have you seen any Nevermores turned back into humans?”

Vincent’s jaw tightened. “Are you calling me a liar?”

“No,” I said, feeling the ground start to give way under the conversation. “I’m only asking for a little proof, something that would encourage me, give me hope. It will make my job training them easier if I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.” I was talking fast, trying to come up with viable reasons for him to give me proof. We both knew that the death threat hanging over me was enough to ensure I did as he wanted. He didn’t need to give me anything else.

Vincent snapped his fingers. “Let me give you a little chemistry lesson. How much do you know about the components of the Nevermore drug?”

Chewing on a bite of garlic bread, I thought back to the sheet my family doctor had given me on the breakdown of the drug.

“It’s made from scotch broom and there’s dopamine in it. And something called tyramine too I think, but I’m not entirely clear on how that helps the drug work.”

He wrote in those perfect capital letters on the board and as he tapped each word with his chalk he explained them to me, like a teacher would instruct a student.

“Genistin increases the calcium content in bones and prevents more bone mass loss. Sparteine and certain flavonoids are what help in dealing with cardiovascular problems like arrhythmias. Dopamine, when released in the proper form, crosses the blood brain barrier and makes immense improvements and even prevents Parkinson’s disease.” Vincent paused and frowned at me. “Dopamine is also released as a reward when we consume food or have sex.”

“What about tyramine?” I asked, caught up in the intricacies of a drug that I had almost taken.

Vincent nodded with a bare twist of his lips. I found myself almost smiling with pleasure that I’d asked a good question. This was dangerous. He was a man who could terrify and yet still make you want to please him.

“Tyramine helps to release the body’s stores of dopamine. That only adds to the feel good factor the drug induced. ”

Another tap on the chalkboard brought my eyes back to center. Vincent continued his explanation. “Tyramine can also affect blood pressure, regulating it, which goes hand in hand with improvements of heart health.”

I frowned. “But none of that has anything to do with weight loss.”

Again he nodded with that small smile. “You ask good questions Mara. You remind me of . . .” He shook off whatever he was going to say. “That is the incredible part when it comes to this drug. It wasn’t designed for weight loss. It was designed for all these other things. But as the test subjects described their experiences of losing weight at a rapid pace, it became evident that the cocktail that damn scientist had mixed up forced the body’s metabolism into overdrive.”