He repositioned his feet, taking up more space then, as if to hold command of the room, or maybe of himself. “Have you ever been down to the kill suites?”
“Yes, and—”
“And they’re not for me. I refuse to dine in squalor.”
I stared more carefully at the blonde girl wiping her mouth, then at the other one sitting patiently on her knees, gagged, smiling over at David. “Do they know what you are?”
He shook his head. “I don’t enjoy sex if my
…
partner
is afraid,” he said, swallowing hard after. “Fear tastes better at the time of death.”
“Then why is that one tied up?” I noticed other gadgets and things on the blanket box at the end of the bed then, like whips and more binds, and sharp objects I wasn’t sure I’d ever see outside the room where Jason tortured me. “David, what exactly are you doing to those girls?”
“Nothing they don’t beg me for.”
“Oh God.” I folded over and propped my hands on my knees, those words carrying way too much weight in their meaning.
“Look,” he said impatiently. “I’m not having a discussion about my sexual preferences with you. You need to leave.”
“Preferences?” I said, searching my mind for any indication that this had
ever
been a ‘preference’ of his. “Did you ever … like, did you want to do that to
me
?”
David looked back at the trio. “Ara, I quite often wanted to gag you.”
I didn’t want to laugh, but the playful look in his eye as he said that forced me to. “Yeah, but, I mean … did you ever want to do that stuff … sexually?”
He sighed, dropping his head. I didn’t think he was going to answer until, in a small, breathy voice he said, “No.”
And strangely, I was kind of insulted. “Why?”
“This kind of thing isn’t for you.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s not.”
“Why?”
He grabbed me by the arm, forcing me onto my toes a little as he pulled me closer, blocking my view of the bed. “You need to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because you were never supposed to see this. I don’t want to imagine what’ll go through your mind now, Ara. You’re not built for this kind of thing.”
“What? Bondage?” I frowned up at him, trying not to laugh.
“Not just that. And it’s not
…
bondage
I’m into.”
“Then
… why are they bound?” I asked innocently.
He released a breath of exasperation, letting go of my arm. “Okay, not
just
bondage then.”
“So, like, that bondage and submissive thing then?”
He laughed, smiling down at me like I was some naïve child. “It does have a name, but that’s what we’ll call it for now.”
“How come you never said anything to me about it—?” I thought back then, and a few things clicked into place. “I mean, aside from spanking me once and getting all turned on at the idea of handcuffs?”
Even he flashed back down memory lane on that thought, readjusting his sheet and clearing his throat. “One of the things I loved about you when we first met, when I
first
saw you, was your purity—something core-deep, Ara. You’re … I never wanted you to be a part of this … world.” He glanced back once at this victims.
“You should have given me the choice.”
“I couldn't,” he said to his feet. “There’s no way I could tie you into a mask like that—force you to do things you wouldn’t…” Kind liquid green eyes stunned me then when he looked into mine. “I respected you too much for that.”
“Respect?” I almost fell forward in shock.
“Ara.” He rubbed his face. “Look, you and I are over. I shouldn't have to explain myself to you. This is incredibly embarrassing.”
“I’m sorry.” I toyed with my fingertips, looking down at them. “I’m not
… mad or anything. Shocked, maybe—that you’re … that you … I mean, I just never thought you’d…”
“Move on?”
Those words hurt me a little bit deeper than they should, in a space I thought had healed. “Yeah.”
He swiped his thumb just under his lip, looking over at the door. “What did you come here for, Ara?”
“I … we had a breakthrough at the lab. I wanted you to be there for the test.”
“What kind of breakthrough?”
“Can you come down—see? You have to see it to believe it.”
He opened his mouth, closing it again, then exhaled. “Can I finish my dinner first?”
I wanted to move in and hug him—tell him I was sorry for making him feel like crap about his … preferences, but the girl on the bed moaned his name, tweaking her nipples to get his attention. And suddenly I wanted the bitch to die. “Were you doing …
this
while we were—?”
“No.” He pushed my hand down from its point. “Not sex.”
“Bondage? Submission—during feeding?”
His mouth quirked in a shy half smile. “A little.”
“Blow jobs?”
Shock registered in his eyes first, a gust of air blasting from his lips a second later. “Ara, don’t you
ever
use that word again.”
“Why?”
“It sounds terrible coming out of your mouth.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s not you. It will never be you.”
“How would you know? You never even gave me the chance to be anything but your sweet, innocent little lamb.”
“Because I never wanted this with you,” he yelled, motioning behind him. “It would be a turn-off to see you act that way—to see you submit to me.”
“Why?”
“Ara.” He rubbed his face again, taking another few steps back. “Go to your room. I’ll come talk to you about this lab breakthrough when I’m done.”
I wanted to argue, but that was purely because I wanted to delay things
—stop him from finishing what he’d started. I chose to walk away, though, turning once I reached the door. “It doesn’t bother me, you know.”
“What?”
“This. Your preferences,” I said, waving a hand at his
meal
. “I’ve always known about your dark side, David. This doesn't surprise me at all.”
“B
ut my having sex—moving on, does?”
I nodded once, instead of saying,
No, it hurt.
“I felt the same to come home from Paris and learn you’d slept with my brother again.”
“But I didn’t—”
“I know.” He put his hand up. “I’m sorry. I saw the Winter Falls memory in your head, and—”
“I wasn’t ready for that, David—to move on like that.”
“Wasn’t?” he said, pausing. “But you are now?”
I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of hearing me say no, so I shrugged instead, letting him think I meant yes.
“And you’ll be
…
moving on
with my brother, I assume,” he asked quietly.
He knew the answer, he just wanted to hear me say it. “If I
ever
move on, yes.”
“You always did love him more.” He turned away and tore the sheet from his lower half, tossing it to the floor. I saw the line of black ink down his shoulder blade clearly again then, like a column of calligraphic characters reaching for his hip, a Mark that had definitely surfaced since we broke up. The muscles on the sides of his butt hollowed as he walked forward, leaving nothing to the imagination, and knelt on the bed, turning back to look at me when he’d positioned himself in front of the blonde’s mouth again, cupping the back of her head. “Go on then, girl. I’ll come see you when I’m done.”
“I’ll be in the lab,” I said and backed out of the doorway, not taking my eyes off those girls for a second. “And … David?”
“Mm?”
“Don’t kill them in here.”
He scratched his cheek, his mouth hanging open
in disbelief. “Don’t tell me what to do, Ara.”
***
Jason looked up from the bubbling beaker and immediately placed the clipboard down, hurrying around the table toward me. “Ara, what happened?”
I smiled, about to say ‘nothing’, but
snivelled instead. “He had girls in his bed.”
“Girls?”
“Mm-hm.” I nodded into Jase’s shoulder. “Oh, God. I’m so silly.”
“Why are you silly?” He rubbed my back, his long, thin fingers soothing away all the aching.
“I don’t know why I’m crying. I mean, I have no right to let it bother me. I just…”
“Ara, of course you have a right to be upset. You—”
“No. I did the same, no,
worse
, because I was married when I did it.”
“That doesn't make it hurt less for you, no matter where you are in your relationship.”
I wiped my face then my nose, taking the tissue Jase offered me
after
my snot and tears had already drenched my sleeves. “I’ve never seen him … he … I guess I always understood how he felt about you and I having been together, but…” I acknowledged the pain for a second, letting it eat up my stomach and then move on to my heart and lungs. “Now I
know
.”
“I’m sorry, Ara.” Jase held me tight and I curled my body into his, rolling my shoulders as far forward as they’d go, as if I could somehow be wrapped up in him and nothing else in my life would matter. But even in his arms, the pain was still just pain. “If I’d known he was with someone, I—”
“Ara?” David said cautiously from behind.
I snapped away from Jason and hid my face, rubbing desperately to circulate the blood and get the redness away.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I said, forcing a smile as I turned around, composed. Well, sort of.
He frowned though, confused either by why I’d lie or why I’d be upset. “Is this about what you saw?”
I tried to shake my head, but his x-ray goggles saw into my soul.
“We’re over, Ara. Why should it bother you?”
“It doesn’t. It’s silly.” I wiped my face with my sleeve. “I’m sorry.”
David rubbed his chin, that narrowed, sort of confused look still in his eye. “Ara, you love my brother.” He presented Jason in his white lab coat, staring at us like a doe in headlights. “Whatever you think you feel for me … it isn’t real.”
I looked at Jason, and his eyes snapped up to meet David’s.
“You’re a wise king, brother,” Jason said, walking away. “But you're also just about the biggest fool I’ve ever known.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” David followed, his hands out in a questioning gesture.
“Never mind. We’ve other matters to attend.” Jason opened the door to the morgue and stood waiting while David and I passed, closing it securely behind him. “Ara? Have you told David anything about what we’re doing here tonight?”
I shook my head, sure that if I
tried to speak my shivery voice would be missing.
Jason drew the sheet back off a body and showed David what he’d shown me
, taking him through the entire explanation. I watched David’s face alter through several stages of confusion, surprise, shock and, finally, flabbergasted delight.
His gaze moved from Jason to me, eyes wide and so white around the greens that I smiled. “This is amazing.”
“I know.” I laughed.
“Do you think it’ll work?”
“One way to find out.” Jason, with a stride seen only on those carrying a lifetime of academic brilliance on their shoulders, moved a curtain back and a chunky, balding man on a bed looked up, drawing headphones from his ears.
“All set then?” the man asked.
“Ready when you are, Steve.”
Steve laid down on the bed and moved his wrists toward the clamps, his thick fingers making a nervous fist. “Will it hurt?”
“For a second or two,” I lied, watching Jason tie him down securely.
“And once the venom spreads and we’ve given you a very small shock, I’ll see to it that you get your payment,” Jason assured.
“All six of them?” the man asked quietly, grabbing Jason’s collar to pull him closer.
Jason nodded, flashing a calculated grin at me as he tucked the man’s last wrist into a clamp and sealed it shut.
“What did you offer him?” I asked quietly.
Six sweet little children,
he said in his thoughts.
I failed to tell him those sweet kids would be eating him, and not in the way he most desires, either.
David burst out laughing, folding in half to cover his mouth, coming up straight again with his kingly composure in place. “While that was amusing, brother, it was also terribly inappropriate around a lady,” he said.
Jason winked at his brother. “Just wait ‘til we introduce this guy to Max—propriety will fly right out the window then.”
I was kind of horrified by the notion, but also a little amused. I mean, I’d be operating on this vampire while he was under the impression that we approved enough of his activities to
give
him children. I just wanted to put my hands around his neck and choke the immorality out of him. Instead, I had to put my teeth in his flesh, my hands on his chest, and bring him to life. This was going to be harder than I thought.