Never: an erotic retelling of Peter Pan (22 page)

"One at a time?"

"The twins count as one."

She swallowed, remembering her brief experience with them.  What pleasures could they share in a whole day together?  The mind boggled. 

Then her thoughts sped to Christophe.  She hadn't seen him that morning.  She wanted to see him.  She wanted...  "Whose day is it today?" 

Xavion smiled again.  "You are eager to start.  That is good."

"Xavion," she touched his chest again, wishing he'd take her roughly as he had before.  She was so restless.  "Who will..."  She shrugged.

"Be your lover today?"

"Is it Christophe?"  She bit her lip.  She shouldn't have asked.

"Probably not," Xavion said, and she felt a pang of disappointment.

"Then...?"

"Mack, I expect."

"Mack?"  She held back a shiver of apprehension. 

"He'll fight among the challengers to win you," Xavion explained.  "He's stronger than the others."

"A fight?"  She shook her head, trying to grasp the concept.  "Where people get hurt?"

"A knife fight.  Some cuts.  Nothing fatal."

Nothing
fatal
.  "Who will fight him?"

"Only Christophe has tendered his desire to challenge.  The twins have been hurt at Mack's hand before, and Josh has no passion for the prize." 

Did that mean Josh was strictly homosexual or that he simply didn't desire her enough to fight for her? 

She glanced back at Xavion, trying not to look self-conscious.  "Will you... challenge?" 

"Peter has ordered me remain aloof from the contest."

That just left Christophe.  She'd wounded his emotions the day before, could she stand by and watch him actually physically harmed?

"Is there another way?"

Xavion glanced over her shoulder, a secret look in his eyes.  "Peter knew you would respond thus.  He has offered an alternative, but the danger will be to you and not the boy."

She didn't hesitate.  "I'll do it."  

"Enter!"  Xavion called, and in the deep shadows on the other side of the cavern, a fur wall-hanging moved, revealing a tunnel from which the Lost Boys entered. 

As they drew near, Xavion announced, "Wendee has chosen The Pursuit."

Christophe's panic stricken eyes met hers.  "No!"  He lunged forward, only to be held back by Josh at his side.  "The Challenge," he pleaded with her.  "Please, The Challenge."

"What is The Pursuit?" she asked Xavion, although it was Christophe who held her attention.  Still grasped tightly by Josh, he was shaking his head, his eyes pleading.

"It takes place in the world outside our caves," Xavion explained.  "You will have eight minutes head start before the others leave singly and begin the pursuit.  The game ends when you are captured..."  Xavion glanced at Christophe who was breathing through gritted teeth.  "... after which, the winner takes any reward he chooses, regardless of your wishes."

"You mean rape?"  She turned to look at Mack, and the bland expression on his face chilled her insides with fear.

"Rape, pain, humiliation.  Anything the winner chooses," Xavion answered calmly.

Dee licked her lips.  "For how long?"

"Reward time is dependant on the chase.  The entire game must be completed within an hour."

"And if no-one catches me within that time?"

"Then you are the victor, and free to take the lover of your choice for the remainder of the day."

"Don't do it," Christophe pleaded.  "He'll hurt you."  But Dee and Xavion were exchanging a silent communication.  Her eyes said,
This is a test, isn't it?  To gauge my obedience within the tribe
.  And Xavion's eyes said,
Yes
.

She looked away.  The stakes had been raised.  Would she call or fold.

"Wendee?"  Xavion was waiting.

"Let me do it," Christophe pleaded.  "I want to do it."

Dee looked back to Xavion.  "When do I start?"

He acknowledged her bravado with a nod.  "When you feel prepared."

"I won't let you.  This is - "

"Gag him," Xavion commanded.

Dee heard the scuffle but she wouldn't look.  She had to concentrate, to think past the fear.  To Xavion she said, "I'll need my watch."

"Here."  He passed her a banana leaf parcel.  "Peter left this for you." 

Dee fumbled it open and found, not her own Rolex, but a delicate gold wristwatch that appeared to be a genuine antique.  She slipped it onto her wrist.  A perfect fit. 

And the perfect adornment for a naked woman fleeing from violent rapists, she thought, and laughed softly.  But within the laughter bubbled hysteria.  She cut it off, looking Xavion in the eye.  "Ready."

The sound of struggling behind her faded as she followed Xavion behind the wall hanging and through a narrow passage into the sunlight.

She squinted, then stared around in surprise.  "It's a forest.  A
eucalypt
forest."  She shaded her eyes and tilted her head, then gasped.  "A kookaburra.  There's a kookaburra up there!"  She looked back at Xavion.  "I thought we were on an island."

"We are.  Never Land is an island."

"But eucalypts don't grow - " 

"Listen," Xavion said, and she did. 

The sound of waves breaking came from somewhere to her left.  She looked back at him in awe.  "A beach."

He nodded.

She remembered there were islands off the coast of Queensland that supported native forests.  Small forests, but this could be one of them.  She mustn't be far from home.

"You have fifty-seven minutes, Wendee," Xavion said, effectively cutting off her thoughts.  "Five minutes until we come after you."

Chapter Thirteen

"Come on, Wendee, wouldn't you prefer us, to Mack?"

"Yeah, come out, Wendee.  We won't hurt you."

Lying on her back, Dee forced herself to breathe softly through her mouth, her body completely still and only her eyes moving in a random pattern as she searched out their shapes through the layers of fern fronds swaying above her.  The smell of crushed bracken beneath her back was cloyingly intense and, combined with the scent of her own fear, claustrophobic. 

She itched to lunge up to them and give herself away but she didn't.  She'd decided she would only give herself up to Christophe.  Twenty minutes into the chase she'd heard him calling her in a low, desperate voice but at the time there'd been other noises between them and she'd been forced to move on.

"Wendee!"  One of the twins, she wasn't sure which, was becoming impatient. "I know you're here somewhere.  I can smell that pussy pie.  Now be sensible and come out."

She risked a slight movement to glance at the watch on her wrist.  Ten minutes to go.

"Fuck this, man.  She must have moved on."

A foot came down less than a metre from where she lay and Dee held her breath, her heart jumping into overdrive.

"Stupid bitch.  If Mack gets her, he'll give her more than just the rough fuck we want."

Dee trembled, poised to leap up and let them have her, but something held her back.  Pride?  Confidence in her ability to win?  Only another nine minutes.