Obsidian Souls (Soul Series) (21 page)

“What about actually loving the man?” I started to pace, no longer able to control my agitation and needed a physical release for the tension.

“Do you think you are going to find a nice normal man to love you?”

I didn’t want to let him know how his words were affecting me. How he was so clearly laying out what I was losing. Trying to hide my emotions, I looked up like I was admiring the painting above the mantle instead of looking at him.

“I don’t know how well you know Caden, but he will never give you a child. If you were to stay with him, you would live out the rest of your life husbandless and childless. Is that really the future you envisioned for yourself? Is that really fair to you?”

I couldn’t speak at first. He was right on so many points it was clouding my mind, tugging at my deepest emotions.

“I can see you need time to think. I’ll leave you alone.”

“I’m a bit tired.” I sounded despondent and I didn’t care.

“Of course, I know you’ve had a rough day. Would you prefer me to have dinner sent up for you?”

“Yes, that would be nice.”

“Leroy will be within calling distance if you need anything. I hope you feel a bit better tomorrow.”

Rufus walked out and left me there swimming in the midst of failed dreams. All my plans had been for nothing. Everything I had thought about my life was gone, and I kept thinking that this couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be my new realty, but it was.

Chapter Twenty-Two

The morning sunshine bled through the draperies filling the room with light too cheerful for a morning like this. I missed waking to the morning sun. In my prior life, I had been a morning person. All I had needed was the bright sunshine to drive me from bed thinking of all the things I knew waited for me. Now, I wished for the night. It was getting harder to face the days and this one looked like it was going to be especially difficult to face. I closed my eyes, hoping sleep would take me again, so I wouldn’t have to face the reality of my life yet, but a knock sounded at the door and reminded me of how I couldn’t even plan something as simple as sleeping in anymore without it getting ruined.

“Yes?”

The door opened to Leroy bringing me a breakfast tray. He placed it on the table next to the bed.

“Rufus has asked me to tell you that he will be at the pool today if you care to join him.”

“The pool? It’s a bit cold, isn’t it?”

“It’s inside.”

“Got it. Thank you.”

He poured a coffee for me and left quietly. I looked at the tray and saw my favorite breakfast. Pancakes with hot apples, a side dish of home fries, and it looked like even an omelet with cheese and sour cream. Instead of pleasing me, it completely freaked me out. How could they know what I ate?

It didn’t matter if they knew what I ate, I had to focus my energy on a way out of this. My conversation with Rufus had been stupid on my part. I can’t show my hand like that again. I needed to play a part. I needed to be buying time in the hopes that Mike and Caden would come for me before it went too far, as in incubator for their little monsters too far.

But what if Caden and his guys never did show? Perhaps Mike had never made it out of the diner. No, I couldn’t rely on them. I needed to start being self-sufficient. I needed to learn how to navigate this world on my own. Until I did, I would be a perpetual victim.

I went through my new wardrobe and found a pair of slacks and a silk blouse. I fixed my hair and even applied some of the makeup that was in the vanity drawer and decided to go play the game. It started with going down to the pool and pretending I was considering his offer.

I tried the door and was surprised it opened. Of course, Leroy was standing at attention not five feet away. I guess that’s why they didn’t feel the need to lock it.

“You’re ready miss? Did you want to go to the pool?”

“Yes, I’m ready.” Or as ready as I could be.

We walked down the massive staircase, and through the foyer, down a hallway that could have served as a track it was so long.

The pool was in the center of a massive atrium. The walls and the ceiling constructed from glass. If it had been here on different terms, I would have loved this room. A few young, attractive women were playing pool volleyball and I envied them their apparent naiveté, or maybe they knew what these people were, and they just didn’t care.

“Alexandria.” I turned to find Rufus tucked away, in an especially sunny corner, on a lounge chair. He was wearing Bermuda shorts and a golf shirt. He wasn’t quite as thin as he had initially appeared when I had seen him in his stark black suit. He looked to be in quite good health now as he reclined in his chair.

“Come, have a seat near me.” He patted the lounge chair next to him.

I walked over and took the seat he offered trying to keep my body in a relaxed state and my muscles languid as if I wasn’t completely opposed to sitting near him.

“This would make a wonderful green house don’t you think?”

“Yes, it would.” There was no denying it. With its southern exposure, it was perfect.

“You could grow wonderful things here. We could set up a lab for you as well. You could travel to the depths of the Amazon jungles and bring back plants no one has ever seen to a lab here, setup just for you. Does Caden even know of your love of plants? How many times have you even left that hole your living in? You’ve been living there for weeks now, and has he done anything to make you feel at home? Alexandria, you are special, and yet he treats you as if you were a burden.”

Rufus was trying to paint a pretty picture of what my life could be, except a very important part that he left out. I would be nothing more than a brood mare.

“You’re right Rufus.” And he was right. To Caden, I was more of a burden than a blessing. It hurt to hear it from someone else, but I couldn’t deny it and wouldn’t try. I felt completely disloyal to Caden, but I couldn’t defend him. I wanted to scream that he was there when Carl was attacking me. Maybe he wasn’t bending over backwards to fill my every whim, but he also wasn’t trying to breed me out to his brutish lackeys.

“Don’t you think you could be happy here Alexandria?” he asked.

“Maybe I could,” I lied. He was staring at me and I could tell he didn’t believe me. Why couldn’t I be a better liar?

“What you said sounds really nice,” I continued, trying to convince him that I was being honest. “I would love a lab of my own.”

“Let Leroy give you a tour of the house. He can show you the room that I think would be great for your work.”

“Okay, I’m excited to see the space.” I stood to leave as I saw Leroy approaching, obviously already aware of the plan.

“I’ve got guests coming to dinner tonight. I hope you feel up to joining us? Perhaps one of them might catch your eye?” Rufus added before I stepped away.

“I’ll definitely be down for dinner.”

I tried to smile through the entire tour, which strategically avoided half the house. I knew that Leroy would be reporting all my actions back to Rufus.

Even touring half the house took hours. There had to be a hundred rooms. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel any further along in my escape plan then when I woke up this morning. It was enormous and locked down better than Fort Knox.

Chapter Twenty-Three

I went to the closet and found the most conservative dress in there that would be fitting for dinner and sat waiting, actually dreading, my escort’s appearance. At seven fifty-five p.m., there was a rap at my door as Leroy arrived. Making our way through the huge house, I stepped into the dining room and I saw that Rufus was sitting at the head of the long formal dining table with Carl to his right. I was seated to his left and Vincenzo to my left. There were several others there I didn’t recognize, that didn’t hesitate to gawk at me and make me wonder who would be the first in line to try to impregnate me, the brood mare, if I didn’t start getting creative ideas on how to get out of this. Would it be one or several, like a game of Russian roulette in reverse? I couldn’t think about it or I’d never be able to choke down dinner and keep up a polite façade.

Dinner talk wasn’t anything like I had expected. I’m not sure what exactly I had thought it would be, perhaps guns and ammo talk, but chit chat about the latest movies and politics wasn’t it. Even with the appearance of normality they were displaying, every second dragged out, as I waited for one of them to pressure me for an inclination on my feelings. By the time dinner was finally rounding to an end, I thought I was going to be able to retreat into the solitude of my new room, when I was informed that we would be having port in the library. I found an armchair, so that I couldn’t be forced to share a seat with anyone, and settled in to wait this out as well. I didn’t want a port, but it was insisted upon in the nicest of ways by Rufus.

I’d never had port before, but it was quite tasty. Sitting back in the soft leather armchair, trying to be invisible, I watched the expensive French antique clock on the mantle ticking away wondering how long this portion of the evening would last. I knew it was a French antique because it looked just like the ones on the antique show I had seen. It might be a fake, but I highly doubted Rufus was into fakes. I was going on assumptions that this was indeed Rufus’s house. I was getting the impression that they all lived here, but I’d be shocked if this was Carl’s taste.

As I sat there, trying to be as small as possible, I realized my head was getting a little fuzzy from the port wine. I hadn’t even finished one glass. This stuff must be stronger than regular wine. I leaned back and looked up at the clock again. I felt a slight wave of nausea suddenly wash over me. Oh no, something is very wrong, this isn’t the wine. It could be food poisoning, but more likely, they slipped something in my drink, or possibly my food. I sat there and focused all my energy on trying to look alert and normal. Maybe if they thought it wasn’t working, and I could get back to my room, they would leave me alone for the night. It wasn’t the best plan, but it was the best I could come up with in my current mental state.

“Alexandria, darling, you don’t look well.”

I looked up to see Rufus looming over me, and I tried to shift back even further into the chair. Dread hit me. He knows I feel it. I looked up to him, with my vision wavering in and out, just trying to keep it together.

“I’m fine, just a slight headache is all.” I think I just slurred that.

“Maybe you should lie down?”

“I might do that, thank you.” Maybe if I could stand up and get to my room, I might still be able to pull it off. Bigger problem, my head was becoming so foggy it was difficult to care if they did know I was more vulnerable but some little tiny piece of my brain was still clinging to sanity and shouting at me to keep my guard up. That little piece of sanity was screaming over the serene feeling creeping through me, screaming that I needed to keep it together. I gripped the arms of the chair and pushed myself to my feet.

“Carl, come help Alexandria,” I thought I heard Rufus say. It was getting more difficult by the minute to stand, let alone protest their choice of escort. I felt myself starting to fall, but I never hit the carpet. Meaty arms surrounded me, and I was guessing it was Carl, but I just didn’t care anymore that I normally found this man repulsive. The little screaming voice had been gagged by the full force of whatever they had fed me.

“Don’t toy around. She’s ovulating,” Rufus said to Carl as I lay limp in his arms. I heard them, and I wanted to care. I just couldn’t. I’d worry about it tomorrow.

“I thought I couldn’t have her yet?” Carl asked.

“She’s pretending to go along with the program, but she’s lying. Naïve chit, I’ve been around thousands of years and she thinks she can fool me.”

I opened my eyes, fighting the weight of my lids and looked up at Rufus from Carl’s arms.

“I’m sorry it has to be like this. I hope for your own good, you come around to our way of things. Otherwise it’s not going to be a pleasant future for you like I had hoped.” He turned back to face Carl. “She’s only going to be fertile for tonight so don’t muck this up.”

“I know! I’m not an idiot,” Carl replied like a petulant child.

“If you don’t get it done, I’m giving her to your brothers next month, so just remember that.”

“She’s mine! I found her!”

“Then get it done and you can keep her, for now,” Rufus replied.

I knew I was about to be raped, but it just didn’t feel real at all. It felt like someone else’s body was about to be violated. I could feel us climbing up the steps and a little niggling feeling returned, hammering at me to try to do something to stop this. Anything. The problem was, even when I did get the fleeting will, I just couldn’t muster up the strength, so I laid lifeless in Carl’s arms.