Jenny Plague-Bringer: (Jenny Pox #4) (44 page)

“Whose room is this?” she asked, but none of the guards offered an answer.  They departed,
locking her inside.  She wondered if this had to do with her being pregnant.  Nobody
had spoken to her about it since—there had only been guards, shoveling her food under
her door twice a day.  Evelina was her only real contact with other people, and they
kept their conversations through the vents short and whispered, uncertain whether
the guards could hear them.

Juliana stood in the middle of the room, crossed her arms, and waited.  She summoned
the plague inside her, preparing to lash out if attacked.

In time, the door opened again, and she gaped as Jonathan Barrett entered the room,
grinning at her, his dark eyes already drawing her in.  She froze where she was, wrapping
her arms more tightly against herself, not sure why he was here or what he wanted.

“Juliana,” he said. “You’re even more beautiful than last time I saw you.  How is
that possible?”

Juliana doubted it.  Her long hair was stringy and greasy, because the guards hadn’t
hosed her down in a few days, which was the closest she got to a bath.  Her breasts
hung loose and floppy inside her shapeless dress, and her belly was starting get larger,
though her pregnancy wasn’t obvious yet.

Juliana looked past him to the gas-masked guards, trying to figure out what was happening. 
Barrett gave them a nod and they closed the door, locking the two of them inside together.

“Mr. Barrett,” Juliana said. “You have to get us out of here.  They won’t let us leave,
we’re prisoners.  I haven’t seen Sebastian in weeks.  I don’t even know if he’s still
here...or still alive...” She bit her lip and tried to not to sob.  She forced herself
to look calm. “You’ll take us back home, won’t you?”

“Sh.” Barrett took her hands, and his touch filled with her a throbbing, electric
energy.  She was surprised her hair didn’t stand up on her head.  While Sebastian’s
touch was warm and gentle, like afternoon sunlight, Barrett’s touch felt like needles
of lightning.  She gasped a little, still not used to touching anyone at all. “I came
for you,” he whispered.

Juliana trembled, trying not to succumb to the confused whirl of feelings he brought
up inside her.  She couldn’t understand why she reacted so strongly to a man she knew
so little.

“To free me?” she whispered.

“I’ve thought of you every night since you left,” Barrett said, his dark eyes burning
into her. “The last glimpse I had of you, standing on the deck of the boat, so bright
in the sun, your hair blown by the ocean wind...” He stroked her hair, then his fingers
caressed the back of her head.  She found herself gaping up at him, not sure whether
to squirm away or give in to the urge to wrap her arms around him, bury her face in
his neck and draw out all the comfort he had to offer.

“Something happens when we touch.” Barrett’s voice was soft, but full of strength. 
Full of power. “Like an electric bolt.  Like the moment before a storm, when the power
gathers in the air.  Tell me you can’t feel it.” His finger traced down her cheek
to her trembling lips, and she could only look up into his magnetic dark eyes.  Everything
else faded away.  There was only his face, his fingertip soft on her mouth.

She closed her eyes and sighed, feeling the world slide beneath her feet.  His hands
went to her sides to draw her closer to him, and she didn’t fight the kiss she knew
was coming.  His lips touched her, and she felt another shock.  The tip of her tongue
reached into his mouth, and her hands gripped onto his head, holding him there, as
if she wanted to kiss him forever.  Something vast and dark stirred inside her, woken
by his touch.

The long kiss ended, and they looked at each other, holding each other and breathing. 
The room felt incredibly hot, as though everything in sight would burst into flames. 
She could feel him thick and hard against her stomach.  He was bigger down there than
Sebastian, and it seemed threatening and dangerous, like it would cause the most exquisite
kind of suffering.

He kissed her again, on her lips, her cheek, and her neck, as if he meant to consume
her entirely.  He hoisted her up in his hands and kissed her breasts through the thin
dress.  His lips closed on her nipple through the fabric, and it turned hard as a
pebble as his mouth moved on her.  His tongue brushed against her breast and she clutched
his dark hair in her hands.  His hands tightened on her hips.

He carried her to the sprawling bed, which had a massive headboard and footboard made
of dark mahogany, inlaid with red tortoise shell and sculpted bronze, something that
belonged in a luxurious mansion.  She had no strength to resist as he lay her across
the bed’s silken coverlet.  All the reasons she should refuse him passed through the
back of her mind like a procession of ghosts...voiceless, powerless ghosts. 

Then they were gone, lost in the surge of her uncontrollable feeling as his mouth
moved down along her stomach, kissing her.  If her stomach was slightly larger and
rounder than he might have expected, he certainly didn’t say anything.

His hands slid down her thighs, and then he was kissing her hip, her legs, the warm
inner reaches of her thigh, and she suddenly wished the cheap, thin cotton of her
dress wasn’t in the way.

As though reading her mind, he lifted the dress up over her knees, then above her
hips.  His lips kissed the bare flesh of her stomach, then moved down between her
legs.  She heard herself moan as his mouth touched her throbbing clitoris, followed
by a flick of his tongue.  Her thighs squeezed against both sides of his head, trapping
him there while he licked and sucked.  Juliana screamed as her body quaked, and she
grabbed onto his hair with both hands, pressing her face harder against his.

He kept licking her as he slid a finger into her, immediately finding
just
the right place to touch, as if they had an intelligence of their own.  She cried
out again as wave after wave of pleasure rushed through her body, her hips jumping
up and down on the bed, far out of her control.  She gripped the silk coverlet in
both hands as her head tilted back, her teeth clenched together, and explosions rocked
her body, shaking her to her core.

This was followed instantly by a heavy cloud of guilt.  He continued working at her
with his beautiful mouth and brilliant fingers, and she knew he was going to make
it happen again.

“Stop,” she told him, but it was barely a whisper.  With an effort, she put more force
into it. “Stop.  Stop!”  She sat up and pushed away until her back was flush against
the tall headboard. “We can’t do this.”

“Why not?” He caressed her bare leg, and it felt both terribly good and terribly wrong.
“We’re meant for each other.  We both know it.  You make me larger and more powerful
than I’ve ever been.  Nothing in the world could stop us if we were together.” 

“We can’t be together, Mr. Barrett.”

“My tongue was just inside you.  I think you can call me by my first name.” He gave
her a smile that weakened her defenses, but she held firm and didn’t smile back. “There’s
no reason we can’t be together,” he said as his smile faded.

“There are lots of reasons.  For one, you already have a wife and a son.”

“Both of whom would be much happier living apart from me,” he said. “I could get them
a nice townhouse in Charleston.  Or somewhere farther away.  Savannah.  New Orleans.”

“You would send your own son away?”  She folded her legs under her, away from his
hands, and pulled her dress down over her knees.

“I would do anything to be with you, Juliana.  We were meant for each other.  We can’t
let a small thing like timing get in the way.  The future we could have together...”
He shook his head.  “You give me so many dreams.  So many
visions
of what I could do.  The world will bow to us.  If only I could make you see our
fate, the way I see it.”  He leaned closer, as if he meant to kiss her again, but
she moved away and stood up beside the bed.

“You have to take us out of here,” she told him. “Sebastian and I both.”

“Don’t tell me you still love that clueless little boy,” Barrett sneered. “He’s not
like us.  You and I have demons inside us, the same kind of demons, eager to be together. 
That’s why we can touch.”

“I can touch him, too,” Juliana said.

“What can he do for you?” Barrett stood and glared down at her.  She felt cornered.
“I can give you everything, Juliana.  More than you ever dreamed of.  We can become
what we’re meant to be.  You would be a queen by my side.  What can he offer?”

“I love him,” Juliana whispered.

“What did you say?” He leaned toward her, scowling. “Say it again.”

“I love him!” Juliana snapped. “I love him.  And I’m having his baby.  We have to
be together, Mr. Barrett...Jonathan...and we need your help to get us out of here. 
Please understand.”

“You’re having his baby?” Barrett looked her over, confused.  Then he looked angry,
his jaw clenching repeatedly inside his cheek.  He took a breath. “That’s not a problem,
Juliana.  I still want to be with you.  The child...I’ll care for the child as if
it were my own.  I promise.”

“Your own?  Like the son you just casually offered to abandon?”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“But it’s the truth.  I saw how your family lives in fear of you.  Why would I ever
want that life for myself?” She crossed her arms.  She felt powerless in his shadow,
knowing he was immune to her demon plague.  In fact, he seemed to thrive on it.  Attacking
him could actually make him more powerful...he clearly had something like her and
Sebastian, a touch that made him “supernormal,” but he hadn’t said what it was.

“Juliana, I am talking about an entirely new beginning,” he said. “A new life for
both of us.”

“Tell me you will take Sebastian and me out of here,” Juliana said. “If you love me,
you will at least do that much.”

“If I love you?  You don’t believe me?  You are the only reason I came here.”

“Then help us.”

“Why?” Fury swelled in his eyes. “Help you, so you can leave me for him?  You would
leave me cold, wouldn’t you?  That’s what you’re telling me.”

She took a deep breath. “If you still wish it...you can have your way.  Just once,
and only after you take us home, if you still want me then, if that is your price.”

“My price?  You offer yourself as prostitute?  One night in exchange for passage across
the ocean.  I don’t want you as
payment
.  I want you to stay with me.  I want all of you.”

“I can’t give you that,” she whispered.

He snarled and punched an ornate mirror on the wall, shattering it and bloodying his
fist.  He stalked to the door and pounded on it.

“Where are you going?” Juliana asked.

“Home,” he said. “You’d rather stay with him?  Then you can stay here with him, have
your child together, enjoy your life.”

“You have to take us!” Juliana ran toward him, grabbing his arm.  Blood from his hand
dripped onto her dress. “You can’t leave us.  It’s your fault we’re here!”

“Tell me you don’t feel the same way that I do.” He leaned in, looking into her eyes.
“I know you do.  Tell me you’ll leave him.  Tell me you love me.”

Juliana gaped at him, feeling crazed.  The guards opened the door and immediately
drew their long-nosed Luger pistols when they saw blood, all of them pointing at Juliana. 
Their gas masks stared at her, as expressionless as insects.

“So you choose him,” Barrett said. “You’ll regret it.”

He stepped out of the room, and the guards locked her inside, alone, her dress dotted
with his blood.

After yet another strenuous day of testing, in which Mariella had to predict what
images the test subjects would see when they looked at a screen in an enclosed booth,
she lay awake in bed.  It was late, and the underground facility was silent except
for the endless coughing and rattling of the ventilation system.  She twisted and
turned.  Her hands found her way to her stomach, momentarily shocked to find it flat
and firm instead of round and full of baby.  Her past and present memories were starting
to collide in a way that left her confused and sometimes scared.

She had continued cooperating with Ward, and he seemed pleased with her performance
in the lab.  She told herself that she wasn’t
really
working with him, that she was just going along, gathering information until the
day they could escape.  As the weeks passed, though, she began to question her own
motives.  Maybe she was just taking the safe road, while Jenny and Seth bravely resisted.

Ward was less pleased with Mariella’s failure to win Seth over.  She’d visited him
several times, but he refused to cooperate.  Mariella didn’t see why he couldn’t just
pretend.  She teased him while telling herself that she wouldn’t actually sleep with
him if given the chance, even though she knew just how good his healing touch made
her body feel, how she still tingled hours after the lovemaking itself was over. 
She would resist the cravings of her body and her heart, even if he changed his mind
and decided to pretend to cooperate as she did.  She would keep her feelings to herself.