Blood Mate (6 page)

For a long time it
was quiet. In the other cages were three women and another man.
Nicole was grateful there were no children. She wondered morbidly
what his criteria for taking a victim was. Did he hunt people with no
family to lose? Did he pick criminals or those who had abused others?
Or did the
curse
demand the blood of innocents?

She wanted to
believe he was lying, that there was no curse. He simply wanted to
manipulate her into his arms. But she wasn’t that special. The only
logical explanation was that he couldn’t control her mind. And she
hadn’t imagined how much he’d hurt over the man he’d killed in
front of her. Nor had his rotting face been a trick of the light. If
vampirism wasn’t a curse, he was making a convincing show of it.

The man in the
farthest cage stood just out of the range of light, watching her
silently. He hadn’t begged or pleaded when August had come down. He
was strong, not just physically, but mentally. The women in the other
cages cried quietly on their cots.

“It’s a dirty
piece of business that’s been asked of you,” the man said. “I
don’t envy you. Within the next few days, I’ll be free. Your fate
is worse than mine.”

“Gee, thanks,”
Nicole said. She wished the other prisoners could take their deaths
so stoically.

“You know he’ll
torture you if you don’t give him what he wants.”

She shuddered at
that revelation. A quick death? Okay. But there were so many other
things that were worse than a quick death. “If he’d torture me,
there is nothing worth saving in him. He can’t suffer too much from
this if he’d do something like that.” Even as she said it, she
knew her words were a brave front; there were things he could do to
her that would break her, because she was only human.

“He’s a
desperate man.”

“He’s not a
man at all.”

“I just don’t
want to have to watch him hurt you.”

“Like you said,
you’ll be free within a few days. He might hold out for a while
before it gets grisly with me.” Nicole retreated to her cot and lay
down.

“Please,” the
woman in the closest cage said, “Give him what he wants so we can
live. I have a child at home.”

And the guilt
train rolled into the station. “How many centuries would you let
him feed from you and do whatever else he plans to do, so that
I
could live? Do you think
he’ll just want my blood? So you’re
asking me to fuck him every night and let him puncture my skin
and take my blood for endless centuries so you can go back to your
neat and tidy little life? Yeah,
that’ll happen.” Sacrifices were always more reasonable to
the person who didn’t have to give up anything.

The woman looked
away but not before Nicole caught the expression of shame on her
face.

“I’m sorry
you’re here, but it’s too much to ask. I don’t care who I am to
him; he has no
right
to me. His crimes are not my fault. I
would much rather be in your place, trust me. I won’t willingly
spend my life with the man who took me from my husband and family and
everything else I love.”

It was several
hours before the last of the crying stopped and the cellar grew quiet
enough for Nicole to find a troubled sleep for herself. However
unreasonable it was, the guilt twisted around her soul like a noxious
smoke.

Chapter Five

August sat at the
kitchen table, staring at the mess he’d yet to clean. The cellar
and his captive were directly below. If Nicolette knew how good his
hearing was, she would never dare breathe a word down there, because
sometimes he sat and listened for hours. Every frustration, every
fear reached his ears. She should count herself lucky that he wasn’t
the monster she feared he was, that all the things she had dreamed up
that he could do to her sickened him just as much as they terrified
her.

“You should eat
that,” the prisoner in the cage next to Nicolette’s said. August
had taken food down just a little while ago.

“What’s the
point? I’m going to die down here, anyway.”

“Just give him
what he wants.” Another prisoner, a woman.

There was no
verbal reply. Perhaps she’d shaken her head or simply turned away
and given them her back. August took every opportunity to make sure
each batch of prisoners knew Nicolette held the key to their
salvation and freedom… and his. They were all the same, working
toward their own self-interest and the hope of release from their
prison—if the sacrifice would only cooperate.

It had been two
months since he’d taken Nicolette and she was no closer to giving
herself to him. If anything, witnessing death each night had pushed
her further from possible acquiescence, her resentment and disgust
growing more each day as her heart hardened further against him.

“The way he
kills and with how hopeless he is, do you think he’ll keep this up
forever? He’ll do whatever it takes in the end,” said a man on
the other end.

Nicolette’s
reply was so quiet, August barely heard her. “I know. He’s
hundreds of years old. I know he knows how to get someone to give him
what he wants. I know I can’t take very much of whatever he has
planned, but right now… I can’t.”

August closed his
eyes against the memories of earlier conversations she’d had with
different prisoners. Conversations that had turned dark. Much of it
had come from a student of history who had felt the need to enlighten
Nicolette to all the gruesome torture methods of the past which he
was sure the vampire must be aware of and would be willing to use if
this all dragged on too long. That night, August felt less remorse
than usual when he killed that particular man. But the seeds had
already been planted, and from that moment, Nicolette had watched
August with even more fear and suspicion than usual.

Now she was only
waiting for things to get worse.

Tonight August had
broken his protocol and gone hunting in a nearby city. A homeless
person wouldn’t be missed and wouldn’t draw suspicion, at least
not for one night.

Nicolette was
right about one thing, he had to find a way to make her break and
give in. Even if he could never do most of what she feared, she
didn’t have to know that. He unlocked the cellar door and made his
way down the creaking stairs.

Her back was to
him when he reached the cages. August sat on the ground next to the
bars. “Nicolette, come and speak with me.”

“Why should I?”
There were tears in her voice.

“We can’t go
on like this.”

“Then let me
go.”

“You know that’s
not an option.” Maybe he should have chosen a kinder and gentler
way with her, shown more patience. But her mind had been set against
him from the start.

He could have kept
her upstairs and given her whatever her heart desired. But being kind
was pointless with the Dominic situation. Bribery would feel like
cheating, and it wasn’t in her. He had to force her hand, so she
wouldn’t have to carry the burden of betrayal. He’d been prepared
to be the bad guy, but his plans weren’t working as he’d hoped.
He’d never imagined he’d have to be this cold to her.

He’d thought
this would be quicker. He’d been sure she would only have to watch
him kill one or two people, maybe a week’s cycle at the most,
before she tearfully accepted her fate.

Then he would give
her everything, reward her good behavior and do anything in his power
to make her happy. Some day she would forgive him. She’d forget
Dominic. She’d come to love August, which would make the whole
endless ordeal much more palatable. They could carve out something
resembling a life together. Somehow.

But she hadn’t
followed his playbook. She was an enigma, and the lack of power to
enthrall and force her to obey him in any semi-civilized way was
proving to be a greater challenge than he’d anticipated.

“So, what’s
next?” Her shoulders were hunched away from him, her voice nothing
but shattered darkness.

August glanced at
the dinner plate he’d brought her, the food barely touched. She’d
been eating less each day. She was pale in the cellar light and
growing thinner, and the cold panic hit him that he might have less
time with her than he planned. If she wouldn’t give herself to him,
he wouldn’t have decades to find a way to wear her down at this
rate. She’d die down here of malnourishment and heartache. And then
what? The thought of her gone, when she was his salvation, was a
thousand times worse than anything else he’d done.

As much as he’d
hated the history student for planting more fears in her head, it was
a simple enough solution. A little quick torture to gain compliance,
and then he could proceed with his original plans to pamper and care
for her.

“I hunted
tonight off the grounds.”

Startled, she
turned toward him. “Why?”

“I needed to
think. It occurs to me that if you have some natural and rare
resistance to vampiric control, perhaps your offspring would as
well.”

The horror on her
face made it clear he didn’t have to continue with the sordid
concept he’d concocted, but he continued anyway. August indicated
the man in the far cage. “I could put him in with you. He could
impregnate you. If it’s a girl, and she can’t be enthralled, I’ll
wait for her to mature, and then she will give herself to me. It’s
longer than I’d like to wait, but it’s better than an eternity of
this.”

“I won’t hurt
her,” the man said.

August stood and
walked over to his cage. “Look at me.”

Though he tried to
resist, he was unable to keep his face from turning toward August.
When their eyes locked, the vampire took full control of his
prisoner’s mind.

“When I put you
in Nicolette’s cage, you will fuck her until I tell you to stop.
And you will continue day after day until she is pregnant. Won’t
you?”

“Yes.”

August turned back
to Nicolette, expecting her to beg him. If the threat got her to
consent to the mating bond, nothing else mattered. But her expression
grew more stubborn.

“I’ll stop
eating. I’ll starve myself. I’ll die. You won’t make me give
you a child, definitely not one for you to feed from and do God knows
what else with for eternity.”

August turned back
to Nicolette’s cage. He unlocked the door and stepped inside. The
move had her backing away. He always stayed on the other side of the
bars, trying to give her space, to make her feel safer in spite of
her circumstances.

“I will force
feed you if I have to. I won’t let you die so easily, poppet. You
will be mine. Or your progeny will. It’s your decision which it’ll
be and how much you’ll have to suffer until then.” She cringed
when he brushed her hair behind her ear.

She was so close
to snapping. He was determined not to fill these cages again. And he
wouldn’t go hunting each night, either. One way or another, tonight
she would give him what he demanded. Whatever he had to do. However
much of his soul or hers he had to eradicate. It had to be done. This
simply could not go on. If it took her a century to forgive him,
eventually she would… for anything, because they would each be all
the other had that lasted. Everyone and everything else would grow
old and die and leave.

August went to the
other man’s enclosure and transferred him to Nicolette’s cage.
The vampire stood just inside the door so he could stop things as
soon as she consented. She wouldn’t let this happen. He’d seen
the way she was crumbling. Another small push and she’d be his.

***

Nicole had run out
of room to back up. The other prisoner lurched toward her like some
kind of unstoppable zombie. There was no emotion on his face. No
anger. No malice. No pleasure. No desire. He was just following
orders. But that didn’t dilute her anguish.

She nearly threw
up when he ripped her tattered top away. She moved to cover her
breasts. “A-August, please… please don’t do this. Stop him. If
I mean so much to you, stop him.”

She struggled
against the man, but she was no match for the combination of his
strength and a direct hypnotic order from the vampire.

“Will you give
yourself to me?” The vampire’s voice was steady and demanding.
How could he do something so vile to her? And he expected her to give
him
anything
? After something like this?

She was convinced
she’d suffer anything he doled out. Rape, torture, anything to
ensure she died and never allowed him freedom. The fear of a
pregnancy clawed at her mind. A child he could take and twist. He
could raise her in luxury, letting her think he was good. When she
grew to adulthood, he could reveal his true nature and take what he
needed. It would be a much different setup than the one Nicole had
endured.

She would have to
starve herself before then. She’d have to be too weak to get
pregnant, or barring that, too weak to give birth, and pray
desperately for a boy as the final salvation from the vampire’s
sick plan if everything else failed her.

“NO!” She
wasn’t sure if she was screaming at August or at the man who pushed
her against the stone wall, his mouth on her neck, kissing her like
she was his lover. A second later, all she felt was air as August
pulled the man off her and flung him out of the cage.

The vampire made a
sound close to a roar and pounded at the wall until his hands bled.
But they healed almost instantly. “Goddammit!”

She let out a
relieved breath.
He can’t bring himself to do it. Thank God.
But
that was now. What would he bring himself to do in another week or a
month?

August leaned
against the wall and sank to the ground, his head in his hands.

Nicole moved as
quietly as she could toward the cage door.

“Don’t,
Nicolette. Don’t make me chase you. I don’t want to hurt you,
whatever you may believe. We must seal the bond between us. Then
things will be better. I promise they’ll be better.”