Wild Ones (5 page)

"I need to
pee," I told her urgently.

"Come on then.
We can give you a shower afterwards. It's just next door."

She helped me
to stand on rubbery legs, and slipped my arms into the sleeves of
the robe. We walked together, her arm around my waist and mine over
her shoulder, leaning on her more than I would like to admit. The
bathroom was just next door, and I sank gratefully onto the cold
wooden seat of the toilet. I shrieked as the first drops of urine
came into contact with the surrounding tissues. Damn, that burned
like blazes. I emptied my bladder, and then draped the bathrobe
over a handy rail and stepped into a hot shower and closed my eyes
as the jets of water pummelled my skin.

Next thing
somebody else had stepped into the shower with me. I looked up,
expecting to see Annie or Steph offering to scrub my back. Instead,
Atticus stared back at me intently. I shrieked again, and looked
for an alternative exit to the one behind his broad and very naked
shoulders, but there was none. So I did what any rational human
being would do under the circumstances - I backed as far away from
him as I could and ended up slipping on the soap I had forgotten
that I had dropped. I felt myself start to fall, and then two
strong hands reached out and grabbed me under my armpits. I was
lifted back onto my feet, and I stood trembling as he bent down to
retrieve the soap. I knew that he was naked, but I refused to look
down.

"I came to see
how you were," he smiled at me carefully, concern in his eyes.

"I'm fine and
dandy. You can go now." I gazed at a point just above his left
shoulder, refusing to look him in the eye, afraid of the hunger I
might see there, and its consequences for my already brutalised
body.

"I'm not here
to hurt you again, Millie. I'm here to wash your back."

I looked up at
his face, and saw the truth of his words in the absence of that
black-eyed lust.

"Nonetheless, I
would really prefer that you leave," I told him in a measured tone,
trying to keep the tremor from my voice. I was desperately afraid
of him, but I was damned if I was going to let him see it.

"I'm not going
anywhere until I have helped you shower," he told me
stubbornly.

"Fine," I said
reluctantly and turned around, figuring if I let him wash my back
he'd leave sooner. I sensed as he stepped closer, and then he ran
the soap over my skin working up a lather, and using his hands to
spread the foam in ever widening circles across my back and
shoulders.

I'm not going
to lie and say it wasn't really enjoyable. I may even have groaned
a little. He must have taken that as encouragement, because next
thing his hands were soaping my breasts and stomach.

"What are you
doing?" I demanded indignantly, accidentally stepping backwards
into his hard body, and gasping as his erection poked me in the
back.

"Washing you. I
doubt you can bend over much - you look very stiff." Ha, the
irony!

"I can reach
those areas just fine, thanks," I told him crossly.

"Hush," he
said, and started soaping my feet, making me lift each one so he
could clean underneath. His soapy hands started moving up my legs,
and damn if my evil traitorous body didn't start to tingle where
just minutes before it had ached.

"I'm making it
all feel better," he whispered in my ear as I leaned with my hands
against the wall and tried to ignore the way his hands were
massaging my thighs and buttocks. He was clearly a genius, and my
aches and pains seemed to dissipate under his soothing fingers. He
shampooed my hair and massaged my scalp while the jets of hot water
rinsed all the soap and shampoo away. The water stopped, and I
turned to him in surprise, my eyes slightly glazed, my face
flushed. He took my hand and led me out of the shower cubicle, and
then he dried me from top to toe with gentle thoroughness, wrapped
me in a clean towel and carried me back to the bedroom.

The bed was
freshly made, and there was a tray on it with what appeared to be
some sort of omelette. It smelled heavenly. Atticus put me down,
and I stumbled slightly on my still rubbery legs and winced as the
pain returned.

"Poor Millie,"
he murmured in my ear. "I'll leave you to eat in peace."

I walked slowly
to the bed, and when I turned to look again, he was gone. I sighed
with relief. If I never saw those two again, it would still be too
damn soon.

I spent the
next two days trying to adapt to being imprisoned. It wasn't easy.
Annie and Steph were my only visitors and they kept the door of the
bedroom locked, apart from when they let me out to use the
bathroom. The lack of windows was getting to me, so I requested
some sort of way to tell the time. I was expecting a clock, but
they brought me a television, which was much better, and helped to
alleviate the boredom. It also made me feel as if the rest of the
world hadn't become a crazy nightmare. Nope. It was only my world
that had done that.

Atticus and
Julius had abducted me on a Tuesday night, and it was now Saturday
midday. I should have been hanging out with my parents today,
listening with half an ear as my father foretold all sorts of
highly improbable scenarios. They must have been half mad with
worry by now, not having heard from me since Tuesday. I usually
phoned at least every other day. I asked Annie for a way to contact
my parents and let them know that I was still alive. She smiled at
me and told me that the boys had taken care of all that. I had
apparently been whisked away by a secret boyfriend for a surprise
holiday. The alleged boyfriend had visited them on Monday and told
them about it, and they had been warned not to say anything to me,
or it would spoil the surprise. Ha! I bet they were just so excited
by the idea that I had an actual boyfriend, that they swallowed the
story whole. If only they knew, I thought bitterly.

I wondered if
they had told Maddie. They knew she was staying with me, and I
hoped they'd contacted her. She was no fool, and I didn't think
she'd fall for that cover story as easily as my parents had. I
needed to get out of here. Maddie would be worried.

I asked Annie a
few times when they would be letting me go, and she just looked at
me and said, "That depends."

"That
depends on what?" I wanted to know, but she just smiled again and
said the boys would tell me. That's when I asked her why she called
the two vampires 'the boys', and she explained that they were her
brothers. Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather.
Turns out her mother had been chosen by their father a couple of
years after she had been born, and she had grown up here with a
vampire for a stepfather and two vampire brothers. She'd married at
the young age of eighteen, and had Stephanie shortly afterwards.
Her husband had turned out to be a complete jerk, and had slapped
her around once too often. She had returned home with Stephanie in
her arms, and had stayed ever since. Her husband had disappeared
off the face of the earth, and she had thanked her stepfather when
she had found out about it. He had apparently explained that she
was family, and that's what families do. Not
my
family, but then we weren't a bunch of
psychopathic vampires. I kept my thoughts on this subject to myself
though, as it seemed as if Annie was genuinely very fond of them,
and I didn't want to hurt her feelings. She and Stephanie were the
only people in this hell hole who had helped me in any way, even
though they worked for the alleged vampires. I wondered if I'd be
able to get them to help me leave.

Stephanie
turned out to be a fount of knowledge on all things vampire, and
she held forth at length on various subjects. She told me that
their fangs only came out in times of hunger, or great lust. I
didn't like the way she looked at me sideways at this and giggled,
but I pretended not to notice. She also explained in detail that
most of the rumours about vampires weren't true. For example
vampirism was not a weird type of infection. Vampires had
apparently originated when a rogue protein molecule that had
hitched a ride on a meteor had been ingested by a human a couple of
thousand years ago. The human's body had undergone changes as a
result, which rendered them very different. Their underlying
humanity meant they were still able to breed with humans, but other
than that they were a completely different species. All male. Lucky
me, I thought dryly.

I asked her if
she knew why they had chosen me, and she looked at me
quizzically.

"Of course,"
she said. "It's because you smell right. They have a superb sense
of smell, and they were quite excited when they got a whiff of you
a couple of weeks ago. They've been keeping an eye on you ever
since. They had to grab you on Tuesday, because they could tell
that you were close to ovulating, and that drives them crazy. Plus
that's kind of the point."

"Is it?" I
gazed at her in horrified fascination, almost afraid of what she
was going to say next.

"Sure. You are
here to help them make baby vampires. So if they have sex with you
when you're ovulating, you're more likely to become pregnant."

I was
speechless, bowled over by the matter-of-fact way that she said it.
But that was nothing compared to what she told me next.

"It was
Atticus' turn this time, but if you are not pregnant this month,
then it will be Julius' turn next month. They have a system,
see."

"And when
will we know if I'm pregnant?" I asked slowly, considering the
implications of their
system
for me. Fear flooded my gut at the idea of having to go
through that again.

"Well, there's
the usual testing, but Andronicus reckons vampires can smell it
very early on, maybe within a few days. I don't think Atticus and
Julius have ever smelled a woman in the early stages of pregnancy,
but Andronicus has, and he swears he could recognise it anywhere,
anytime."

"They've never
succeeded in making anyone pregnant?" I could hear my voice
becoming higher and higher.

"Nope,"
Stephanie continued blithely. "Usually it either doesn't
take
, or they simply hurt them too
much. Not on purpose, of course, but just because they're so,
well,
big
. And then there are
the spikes. One woman was so desperate to get away she ripped
herself open on the spikes and ended up needing a hysterectomy.
Atticus really likes you though, so he was probably
super-careful."

Jesus, she even
knew about the spikes. I sat stunned for a few minutes, trying to
process all the information in a rational manner. No chance of
that. There was no way any of this stuff could be processed
rationally. I was far more likely to end up blubbering in a corner
and wailing about spikes. Actually, under the circumstances, that
would probably be a very logical thing to do.

I decided that
I really didn't want to hear any more, so I suggested that I might
want to sleep, and she took the hint and left. I watched TV for
hours, alternately trying to pretend that this predicament I was in
didn't exist, and then trying to desperately think my way out of
it. I fell asleep eventually from sheer exhaustion, nowhere near
closer to a solution.

I woke up
Sunday morning feeling halfway back to normal, physically at least.
The swelling had mostly gone down and my legs felt as if they'd
reattached themselves to my pelvis. Steph must have left the
bedroom door unlocked when she left last night, so I decided to
have a shower first thing and try to get an idea of the layout of
the apartment they were keeping me in. Bedroom, shower and
bathroom, and that was about it. Then a short passage led to some
stairs and a very solid looking metal door beyond that. It looked
like it had an electronic security system involving thumb prints.
Great. So unless I used somebody else's thumb, I was screwed.
Excuse the pun.

I sighed
heavily and went to run the shower. Annie had so far refused to
give me any actual clothes, so I spent all my time in a terrycloth
robe. She had a stash of them in one of the cupboards, and I
grabbed a fresh one every morning. I was starting to feel like a
real slob, though. Who wears a terrycloth robe all day? I showered
and brushed my teeth, making a mental note to ask Annie for some
floss. Freshly robed up, I walked the few steps back to the
bedroom, and received an unpleasant surprise. Julius and Atticus
were waiting for me.

I froze in the
doorway, suddenly afraid. I had never seen anyone lounging with
intent, but these guys pulled it off nicely, expensive clothes and
all.

"Come inside,
we won't bite," said Julius.

"It's not your
teeth I'm scared of," I said dryly, trying to control my
frantically beating heart, and to pretend that they didn't scare
ten kinds of crap out of me. Julius appeared to find my comment
hilarious. Atticus just sat on the edge of the bed and watched me,
leaning his elbows on his knees and smiling in amusement.

I stepped into
the room, albeit reluctantly. Sometimes you just have to face your
demons, even if they came in the guise of a couple of rapacious
vampires. Besides, I had nowhere else to go right now that didn't
include trying to teleport through a metal door.

Atticus
breathed in and his eyes narrowed. Julius stopped laughing.

"She smells
different," Atticus said flatly.

"She does
indeed, brother." Julius grinned and next thing he had picked me up
and deposited me on the bed. I struggled in vain as he undid the
robe and they each grabbed a knee and held my legs apart, sniffing
deeply. I yelled at them to let me go, infuriated by this latest
indignity and terrified of where this was going, but they took no
notice of me or my objections. I eventually stopped struggling,
realising the futility. Atticus leaned in and inserted a finger
deep inside me. I squealed. He smiled at me as he raised it to his
nose, and then he licked it.