Devoured: Brides of the Kindred 11 (9 page)

Chapter
Eleven

“Tess is about the sweetest girl you’ll
ever meet. We used to work together at the nursing home. I was the
administrator there back before I got the job at the HKR building.”

Di was keeping up a running commentary as
her little blue car sped through the Tampa
streets. Garron, crammed into the passenger side with his knees almost up to
his ears, could only nod.

“Uh-huh. Can this vehicle go any faster?”
he asked tensely, scanning the strange alien domiciles and vegetation as they
flashed past outside his window.

“Going as fast as I can without getting a
ticket,” Di said grimly. “If we attract the attention of the police it’ll slow
us down considerably. Not to mention if we get the wrong officer, he might call
and give Pierce a heads up that we’re coming.”

“All right. I see your logic,” he growled.
But he couldn’t help feeling restless. What was that bastard Pierce doing to
Tess? What was she enduring right now because of Garron’s wounded pride?
I never should have taken her to Sylvan. I
should have let her go back to the Pairing House—at least there she would have
been safe!

“We’ll be there soon. Anyway, as I was saying,
she’s always been the sweetest kid. So kind to her patients. But she kept
popping up with bruises and black eyes—”

“What?” She had Garron’s attention now.
“You’re saying he beat her?” He’d been hoping against hope that what he had
witnessed in his dream wasn’t a common occurrence. But…he thought of the small,
white scar he’d seen on Tess’s thigh.

“All the time,” Di said grimly. “She
always had excuses—‘Oh, I ran into the door frame…I fell down the stairs…I
tripped in the dark…’ But I could see the signs. My first husband was a
beater—nearly beat me to death before I finally got away from him.”

Garron thought of his own childhood. Of
the screaming, drunken rants his father, Feels Pain, had gone on. Of the verbal
abuse he’d heaped on his mother and the way he had beaten Truth and, on
occasion, Garron as well. If he and his brother hadn’t been there to stand up
to him, the younger children in the household would have carried his marks of
violence on them too.

“I know…something about that,” he said in
a low voice. “My own father…” He shook his head. “Never mind.”

“Then you know what it’s like—walking on
eggshells all the time, trying to keep him happy, praying he won’t get angry
and take it out on you.” Di sighed. “I finally just took Tess aside and let her
know that I knew. She denied it at first but then she broke down and cried.
She’d been trying so
hard
to make it
work. Every time after he hit her he’d beg her to forgive him—do something nice
like buy her flowers and swear it would never happen again.”

“Yes.” Garron nodded, thinking of the
remorseful face his father would show after a night of drunken savagery. “I
am…familiar with the pattern.”

“So am I. I told her when she’d finally
had enough I would help her leave him.”

“And?” Garron raised an eyebrow at her.

“And a couple of months ago he—” Di broke
off, shaking her head. “No, I can’t tell you that. I wanted to give you a
little background but that’s…it’s personal. Not my story to tell.”

Garron wondered what Pierce had done that
finally convinced Tess to leave him. Whatever it was, it must have been truly
horrific. And
he
had sent her back to
that situation—he was responsible for whatever was happening to her right now.
Whether that bastard was beating her, bruising her…or something worse. It could
all be laid at his door.

Oh
Gods, I can’t bear it!
He put his head in
his hands and groaned.

“Hey—are you okay?” Di threw him a worried
look as she drove. “You in pain or something?”

“Only here.” Garron put a fist to his chest.
“I hate myself for turning her in. If only I had known…I was just so
angry.”

“You didn’t know,” Di said. “Nobody
did—that was the way Tess wanted it.”

She twisted the wheel and the little car
made a sharp left. They were in a residential area now, as far as Garron could
see. A quiet street lined with the strange domiciles built right on the ground
instead of up in trees where they would be safe from predators. Of course,
maybe the Earth people didn’t have big enough predators to worry about—or big enough
trees. None of the ones flashing past his window looked like they would support
a good sized dwelling, let alone several.

“We’re here.” Di pulled up in front of a
medium sized white domicile and parked her vehicle. “I don’t see his car—maybe
he’s gone.”

Garron felt his heart jump into his mouth.
“If he’s taken her someplace else…”

“We came all this way. Let’s check the
house first to be sure. I’d call Tess but I’m sure he’s taken her phone—the
bastard. Come on—just be quiet and careful.”

They went to the front of the house but
the front windows were covered by some kind of metal mesh which completely
enclosed the glass. They had holes big enough to see through but there were
cloth panels hanging on the inside of the glass which obscured the view.

“This is new,” Di said grimly, pointing to
the metal mesh window coverings.

“Is it not common to have these on your
world?” Garron looked at the mesh which was fixed firmly in place almost like a
cage around the window. “I thought maybe they were to keep predators out.”

“They put them up to keep out
burglars—thieves—in bad neighborhoods. But this is
not
the kind of place you need them.” Di shook her head. “And I
don’t think Pierce had them put up to keep anyone out. I think he wanted to
keep Tess
in.”

“He intends to keep her a prisoner here?”
Garron felt a surge of anger course through him.

“That’s his general MO. Back when they
were together, he would barely let her go to work or the grocery store. He
wants to keep her under lock and key all the time.”

“Should we try the door?” It was a thick
piece of wood with a knob on one side. Garron was ready to burst it open at
once but Di shook her head.

“No, let’s go around back first. See if
she’s in the bedroom.”

She led the way around the corner of the
domicile into an area she called the “back yard” which was filled with more
lush, tropical vegetation than Garron had ever seen. There were more of the
trees with skinny trunks and long fronds sticking out of their tops which Di
called “palm trees” as well as other plants she didn’t name.

All the windows they passed had the metal
cages over them and the one they stopped in front of was no different.

“Here,” Di whispered as they peered
through the holes in the mesh into a sleeping chamber. There were cloth panels
here as well but they were open to show a large sleeping platform with a green
and gray spread heaped with pillows. “This is her bedroom—or it was before she
moved out.”

As she spoke, Tess came into view. She was
wearing a long, white cloth wrapped around her breasts and her dark hair was
wet. Garron saw that there were red marks on the side of her face where Pierce
had struck her. His heart went tight as a fist in his chest. Had those come
from the blows he had witnessed in his dream…or were they more recent?

Tess clearly didn’t see them. She moved
slowly…stiffly, keeping her eyes down as she shuffled forward. When she got to
the edge of the sleeping platform she lowered herself carefully with her back
to the window. The white cloth she had draped around her slipped a bit,
revealing the graceful curve of her back and Garron could see the reason for
her slow, careful movements.

“Gods,” he muttered hoarsely. His stomach
tightened and a wave of rage and remorse so strong it nearly stopped his heart
came over him. He could hardly bear to look and yet he forced himself to
anyway. After all, he had sent her to this place. It was his fault. His
responsibility as surely as if he had marked her himself.

The pale, smooth canvas of her back was
marred—the creamy white skin covered in long red welts and bruises. There were
cuts too—many of them bleeding. All the wounds were obviously fresh and by the
way Tess moved, extremely painful.

Beside him, Garron heard Di suck in a
breath.

“That bastard!” she whispered, her voice
shaking.

“Those should be my wounds to bear.”
Garron’s voice sounded cold and distant in his own ears. “Her pain should be
mine.”

“Never mind feeling guilty.” Di’s
eminently practical voice dragged him back from the void. “The main thing is
getting her out of there. Pierce doesn’t seem to be around so I’m going to take
a chance.” Poking one finger through the mesh screen, she tapped on the glass
with one fingernail and hissed, “Tess!
Tess!”

* * * * *

Tess was moving slowly after the last round
of “punishment.” In the end Pierce had decided that “whoring around” was
indeed, a whipping offense and the belt was the appropriate instrument of
choice. Accordingly he had whipped her the moment they got home—with the
buckle
end. The hard metal with its
sharp tongue had torn her skin, making it extremely painful to move.

Not that she’d been moving much—mostly
she’d been cowering in the corner, trying to protect her head and face with her
arms. Pierce wasn’t too particular where the blows fell when he got going and
she didn’t want to lose an eye.

Wish I
was like one of those brave, plucky heroines in Lifetime movies. The kind that
grab a butcher knife or a frying pan and smash their abusive husband over his
thick skull with it!

But this was real life, not some
inspirational movie. Pierce was bigger and stronger than her—he outweighed and
outmassed her and he was
fast.
He’d
been a quarterback in college and he still retained some of that speed. There
was no getting around him or getting
to
him—all
she could do was try to protect her face and vital organs and pray he didn’t
kill her this time.

Now she was having a brief reprieve
because Pierce had been called out to work a homicide. Tess knew it was wrong
to be glad someone had died but she couldn’t help herself—she was just so
grateful he was gone, even if it was for a little while. Of course, he had made
certain she couldn’t leave while he was out which made her a prisoner in what
used to be her own house but still, at least she wasn’t being beaten at the
moment…or worse.

Because Pierce had promised
much
worse was to come and Tess believed
him.

“Take a shower you filthy whore,” he’d
ordered before he left. “You’d better be clean when I come back. Clean enough
to
fuck.”

He’s
going to hurt me. Really hurt me this time.

Tess pushed a strand of wet hair out of
her eyes and pressed her fingers to her eyelids for a moment, trying not to
cry. She had attempted to dry her hair but it hurt too much to raise her hands
over her head. After awhile she’d given up and wrapped a towel around herself
instead, leaving her hair to hang loose and wet around her shoulders.

She sat on the bed, trying not to think
about what Pierce was going to do to her and dreading it at the same time. Sex
had never been exactly pleasant with him—not even in the beginning when she’d
believed that he loved her. But he had never really gone out of his way to make
it painful before. He’d seemed satisfied to get his violent urges out with his
fists.

Tess had an awful feeling that he wouldn’t
be satisfied with that this time. The beating he’d given her with the belt was
just the warm up leading to a symphony of brutality that would doubtless be his
piece de resistance.

He may
kill me this time,
she thought dully.
He’ll just start “punishing” me and he won’t
stop until I’m dead…

A sharp rapping at the window interrupted
her morbid thoughts.

“What the hell?” She turned quickly, a
move that hurt her back and drew a hiss of pain from her lips. But what she saw
made her so surprised she almost forgot how much she hurt.

Di was standing there, her eyes red and
her sensibly short hair mussed as though she’d been running both hands through
it, as was her habit when she was upset. And standing right beside her was the
Kindred warrior with the turquoise eyes—Garron. Those eyes were blazing at her
now, filled with an intensity of emotion that was frightening.

What
the hell? What is
he
doing here?
Tess realized that her towel was sagging and hitched it
up quickly.

“Di?” She got off the bed and opened the
window with an effort that made her wounded back sing
Ave Maria
. The cool, damp air rushed in causing her to shiver.
“Di,” she said again. “What are you—”

“Getting you out,” her friend interrupted.
“Is Pierce gone? Come around to the front door and let us in.”

“I can’t.” Tess shook her head.

“What—he’s got you locked up in the
bedroom?” Di demanded.

Tess nodded. “Are you surprised?”