Claws and Effect (2 page)

Slowly, I crawled back to my hands and knees. My jaw throbbed and ached, and I touched my teeth, wondering if I'd knocked one loose. My mouth tasted like blood, but everything seemed to be in place. I pushed myself upright again.

And stopped.

There, ahead of me in the darkness, gleamed a pair of green cat eyes.

My heart began to hammer wildly in my chest, the pounding so loud and erratic that it made my stomach turn. "No," I breathed. The monsters had caught up with me.

A creature stalked out of the shadows ahead. It was large, and catlike, and I thought of Marie's boyfriend. Marie, who'd fallen into the same vampire's trap that I had, who'd taken me to the men who changed into lions.

I swallowed hard. "Let me go, please."

Even as I said it, I thought of the words the man had said. She knows too much. They'd come to retrieve me so no one could know their secrets. A harsh sob escaped my throat, and I turned to run in the other direction, away from the lion that was stalking toward me.

As soon as I turned, I slammed into something hard and warm. Arms wrapped around me, holding me tight, and I caught another glimpse of green eyes that glowed like a cat's, even though they were in a man's face.

"No," I whispered, fear swallowing my breath. I tried to drag enough air into my lungs, but my pulse was pounding so hard that I couldn't think.

My body trembled, and this time, when the black rose up behind my eyes, I let it take over.

Chapter Two

I woke up some time later, warm and in a bed, blankets pressing down on my body. Even though I was awake, I didn't open my eyes. Instead, I forced my breathing to be even and feigned sleep, trying to figure out where I was. The blankets pressing down on my body were thick, and covered me up to my chin. If I twitched my fingers, I could feel the string-ties of my bikini, which meant I wasn't naked. That was good. My ankle throbbed, my legs felt raw, and my jaw still hurt, but nothing else did. I could hear someone moving around nearby, which meant I wasn't alone.

There was a smell of food in the air - skillet potatoes and eggs, and fresh toasted bread. And coffee. My stomach growled despite everything, reminding me that I couldn't fake sleep if all of me wasn't playing along.

"I'm not going to hurt you," a voice said, even as I lay in bed and breathed slowly in and out. "I know you're awake."

I ignored the man's gentle voice and kept right on pretending. After all, if I was asleep, I wouldn't be able to answer him, right? So I breathed in calmly, and breathed out. Breathed in, breathed out. Breathed in--

"I guess I'll just eat all this food on my own, then." There was the sound of a plate being laid on a table, and the sound of coffee pouring into a cup.

My mouth watered. I swallowed hard, and cracked my eyes open just a little bit. Just enough to look around.

To my left, there was a thick wooden wall. It looked like a log cabin wall, which meant my bed was pressed up against the side. Okay. So I was in a cabin. The quilt weighing me down was bright pink and purple, a sight impossible to miss, but it was clean and warm. The room was full of sunlight, too, which made my light-starved senses shout with joy. I flicked my slitted gaze over to the other side of the room.

The man sitting at the table had his arms crossed and was watching me.

The jig was up. Immediately, I began to tremble all over again. He knew I was awake. He was just waiting to pounce.

"Don't be like that," the man said in a cajoling voice. "Aren't you hungry?"

I was, and I wasn't. I was hungry, but it didn't outweigh my fear. And I'd give up every meal from here until forever if it meant that I could be free. Then again, if I starved, I'd be free in an altogether different sort of way. It...wasn't a bad idea. Better than being a monster's chew toy for another six months.

The man sighed, clearly irritated by me. "Fine, be that way." I heard the crunch of him biting into toast, and then chewing.

Right about that time, my bladder started to hurt. I needed to pee. Oh no. Memories of the last six months's indignities flashed through my mind. Andre'd had a waste-bucket for me to piss in, and one of his goons had come to dump it every few days -- when they remembered. Sometimes it overflowed when they didn't remember. It always stank, and it always made me feel less than human.

I wondered if this man was going to have a piss bucket for me, too.

So I slowly, gingerly sat up. My body ached and throbbed, but I didn't get up. Instead, I shifted my legs, dragging the blankets closer around my body. There was something heavy around my ankle.

A chain. I shifted my ankle under the blankets and watched as a chain leading off the edge of the bed rattled in response. Tears filled my eyes. It didn't matter that I was in a warm bed, and there was sunlight.

I was still trapped like an animal.

"Oh come on, sweetheart," the guy at the table said. "I was just playing. I wasn't eating your breakfast. I can make more toast." He swallowed the mouthful he had and got up from the table. "I'll make it right now."

I didn't respond, didn't get up. I just sat in the corner of the bed and huddled, terrified.

This fake friendliness? It was all an act. She knows too much. It didn't matter if they fed me and gave me blankets. I was still chained up and they were still going to dispose of me. It would be kinder if the man quit pretending and was vicious. I understood vicious.

He made more toast and set it down at the table, giving me an encouraging look. "Come on. You're hungry, right? I heard your stomach growl earlier."

I just stared at him, blankets wrapped tightly around my body. I'd made myself as small a ball in the corner of the bed that I could, legs tucked close.

He sighed, sat back down, and plucked a piece of bacon off the plate. "Come on. This is good stuff."

I ignored him. Instead, I continued to look around the cabin, my body shivering with fear.

It was small. I noticed that right away. The twin bed I lay upon was pressed against the corner of the room. In the center of the room was a small, round wooden table with two chairs, at which my captor now sat, picking at the breakfast he'd made for me. Against the back wall, there was a low counter, a small refrigerator, and an entire wall of windows that showed me nothing but trees and woods outside. There was a door along the opposite wall. Just one door.

There was no bathroom, no television, nothing. Just me, my captor, and this bed.

One bed.

No place to hide.

Fear made me tremble again, and I eyed the man. He was a few years older than me. Good looking, I suppose, if you didn't know that he turned into a monster. Andre had been good looking, too. He was tall and muscular, with dark hair and dark eyes and he kept smiling at me like that'd make things all right, somehow.

But I still had a chain on my ankle, and I was trapped here with a man that turned into a monster. A man that was going to get rid of me.

"Come on," he said and nudged the plate across the table in my direction. "I'm going to be real unhappy if you don't eat this nice breakfast I made for you."

She knows too much.

I'm going to be real unhappy.

My trembling became violent, and the need to relieve my bladder was too much. I peed all over the bed, all over the warm blankets, and all over my clothes.

The man's nostrils flared, and then he jumped up from the table and began to cuss, which made me even more frightened. I was shaking like a leaf. Exhaustion, fear, and hunger were making me weak, and when I was weak, I shook. Right now, I was shaking so hard that my teeth were chattering, and I was cold despite the warm puddle of piss that I sat in. I'd made a mess of the only bed, and now he was going to come and beat me...or bite me. Or use his fangs and cut my throat open, like I'd seen Andre do to a girl that hadn't used the bucket. My bites throbbed in tandem with my memories.

"Jesus, I'm not going to hurt you, all right?" He raked a hand through his hair and began to pace. "Just...just stop shaking."

Oh sure, like I believed that one. I just huddled closer to the wall, ever mindful of the chain on my leg. That told me everything I needed to know. It told me far more than nice words did. The chain told me that no matter how nice his words were, he didn't mean them.

He waved a hand in front of his face. "God, the smell." He headed for the door of the cabin and went outside, standing on the porch. I could see him from my vantage point on the bed, but I didn't move a muscle.

I just huddled in my own pee and waited. Waited for him to strike, to change into the lion again, something.

He didn't come back inside. He stayed out on the porch, and his head bent forward like he was texting someone. I remained where I was, though my frightened shivering quieted down a bit. I felt gross and unclean, sitting in my own urine, but I hadn't felt truly clean in months, so it didn't really matter, I supposed. My bite marks hurt, and so did the bruise on my chin and the scratches on my legs.

Mostly, I just wanted all of this to be over. I lay my head against the wall, my body aching and tired, and waited.

I fell asleep at some point. I should have been surprised, but I wasn't. After six months of captivity in Andre's basement, I'd learned to sleep through nearly everything, and I was still weak and tired from the constant blood loss and my run through the woods last night. But I woke immediately at the sound of voices.

Someone was arguing.

I sat up, alert, as the two men stomped back into the cabin. They were clearly arguing, both of them carrying stiff, angry shoulders and twin scowls on their faces. It's not the only thing that was alike with them. I blinked rapidly as I realized the men in front of me were twins. They looked identical in every way. Same short dark hair, same dark eyes, same strong jaw and straight nose. The only difference I could tell was that one sported a sleeve of tattoos, and the tattooed one looked pissed at the other.

They looked over at me. I cringed in response, clinging to the wall. I want to hide and run, but I was chained like a dog.

The tattooed one's nostrils flared and his gaze moved to me. He set a bag down on the counter and looked at his twin. "Really, Ev? You couldn't take her out to the outhouse?"

The one called Ev threw his hands up and rolled his eyes. "I spoke to her and she pissed on herself in fear. What the fuck was I supposed to do?"

"Well, what the fuck did you say?" The tattooed one's voice was quiet and calm despite the angry words and the angrier set of his shoulders. He flicked a glance over at me, then looked away when I began to shake again.

"I told her to eat breakfast! Shit! I don't know!" Ev looked exasperated more than angry. It was the tattooed one that looked angry, and I was starting to become more afraid of him than the other. "Ellis, you're the one that's good with this sort of thing, not me. It's your job."

The look the tattooed one - Ellis - gave his twin was withering. "I'm a veterinarian, not a psychologist."

"Yeah, but you work with animals all the time, don't you?"

Ellis shot his twin another ugly look, then glanced over at me. "She's not an animal, Everett. Christ. She's just scared and this isn't helping her."

"Well, if you're the grand master of handling captives, why don't you take over?" Everett's voice was full of sarcasm. "Excuse me if I don't know what to do with a terrified human girl that wets the bed when I say hello."

Ellis stopped unpacking the groceries and looked over at his twin. "Fine. I will."

To my horror, he approached me on the bed. Oh no. This was better when they'd both forgotten I existed. My breathing grew shallow with fear and I began to quake again, pushing against the wall as if I could somehow make myself disappear. But he still crossed the room, heading toward me, and then sat at the edge of the bed, regarding me.

"What's your name?" he asked me.

I wrapped my arms tighter around my torso and hid my face, letting my hair fall forward. Maybe if I ignored him, he'd go away.

He only watched me, that intense gaze studying my huddled form. Moments passed. No one moved, except maybe Everett, who crossed his arms and looked bored. Ellis continued to watch me.

Then, slowly, he inched a hand forward.

I jerked backward. I'd been waiting for that. I knew he wouldn't stay still forever. As I jerked backward, the chain on my leg clanked.

An ugly expression crossed Ellis's face. I smothered a scream in my throat as he leapt off the bed and began to tear the blankets off. There was no place for me to go, but I clawed and scrambled backward as best I could.

But he wasn't looking at me - he was staring at my leg.

A moment later, the blankets were scattered on the floor, and Ellis grabbed the chain around my ankle. I let out a small scream, my eyes fluttering closed. I knew what came next. He'd drag me forward, feed off of me, and then release me to huddle back into my corner again. My entire body tensed, and I waited.

The chains jerked. "What the fuck is this? Ev? Tell me this wasn't you."

"Well. Ah."

I waited for a slap, or a drag. Something. When nothing came, I clutched at my bravery and peeked open my eyes. Ellis was holding the chain but he wasn't looking at me. He was staring at his twin with something like horror and rage mixed together.

"Fucking hell, Ev. You know I hate it when people do this to dogs. How could you do this to a girl? A girl that's been through what she has?"

Everett squirmed and looked uncomfortable in front of his twin's piercing anger. "Damn it, Ellis, what was I supposed to do? She's a runner. No matter what we do, she runs. Beau said to keep her locked down at all times. I just assumed that meant...you know." He shrugged helplessly.

"Not this," Ellis snarled. His gaze whipped back to me. "There are ways that don't involve chains."

I cringed. Ways of what? Forcing me to comply? Was he going to cripple me? Starve me? Maybe it was better if I had the stupid but food-happy twin, I'd be better off. At least I more or less knew my boundaries when I was chained.