Open World (12 page)

What’s with the storyline of this
game?
When she
saw Alden, she planned to give him an earful.

“Yep,”
he continued, his eyes trained on the patch of hair at the juncture of her
legs. “Once you’re enlightened and he takes you, no one will be able to stop
him. He will be king, and you his queen.” He chuckled. “And to think, the other
clans’ councils tried to stop Buzz by sending in Alden and his sidekick.”

At
the mention of her boyfriend’s name, her eyes widened and her breath hitched.

“What?
You think that Buzz didn’t know who he was? Of course he did. He’s no fool. But
your
love
is. Poor sap, it’s his mission to protect you and your family.
He didn’t do a very good job of it now, did he? Nope. He fell hook, line and
sinker for Buzz’s fake portal sending him to another reality of this world.”

Portal?
Another reality?
This is too much. Will Den ever find
me?

The
man chortled again and played with a tuft of the hair he had been enthralled
with. “Alden’s absence left you wide open for the taking.” As if to prove his
point, he grabbed her hips and repositioned her, making sure to keep her legs
apart with his knee. “Ahhh, you are a fancy piece of work. I should love to
have a taste of your sweetness…”

“What
do you think you are doing? And what have you said to her?” Buzz’s voice boomed
from the doorway.

She
looked to the ceiling. A surge of relief that she wouldn’t be assaulted by the
vile man warmed her cold skin. The man jumped up and stood at attention.
Controlling her rapid breath and slowing it, she positioned herself in the original
pose Buzz had placed her in.

What
power was this man yammering about in regards to her and her family? And where
in God’s name was Buzz going to be king?

She
really needed to skedaddle from this hell hole.

“I…
I… I only told her how lovely she is and wanted just a bit of a taste,” the man
whimpered with a lick of his lips, then cowered before Buzz.

“Out!
Back to the
kitchen.”

“Yes,
my liege,” the man whined and slunk out of the room.

“It’s
nice to see you resumed your stance without instruction.” Buzz looked her over.
“I have another friend who would like to view you before we carry on with our
game. Brant,” he called to a man who walked in and stood next to him. “Because
you’re new to our fold, I will let you know that you may sit next to her. You may
touch her, but anything else is not allowed. I already have to deal with Clive.
Please don’t make me regret letting you in as well.”

“Yes,
my liege,” the new guy said in a deep burr to Buzz’s retreating form.

The
man staggered toward the couch. He, too, stank of booze and tobacco. She held
back a gag reflex when he plopped onto the edge of the couch and the fetor
wafted to her nose. Something pinched her leg. She involuntarily jerked in
response.

“Oh,
I’m sorry,” the man slurred in a whisper. “My comm-de case seems to have given
you a bit of a pinch.” He removed it, placed it behind her leg in the joint of
the couch,
then
ran his hand up her appendage from her
foot to her crotch.

In
a ghost of a touch, he continued to explore her body. She wrapped her mind around
the feel of the communication device behind her knee. The small gadget was a
Godsend, her route out.

“Come,
Brant,” Buzz called from down the hall. “We’ve another round starting. You’re
the dealer this time.”

Hope,
through slit eyes, observed Brant sway in his seat as if he were trying to
fight off the effects of the alcohol he’d consumed. He shook his head and rose
to his feet.

Forget
the device
.
Forget
the device
.
Forget the device
. She hoped he picked up on her silent
command.

He
stumbled from the room, leaving behind his little black box and within it her
salvation.

The
second the voices resumed their banter, she pulled out the comm-de from where
it sat and turned it off. With a smile, she pushed her lifesaver in between the
cushions.

****

The
moment the lock clicked in the attic door later that night, she did a jig,
ecstatic over the turn of events. The comm-de, safely hidden in the couch,
would be her ticket out of the house once Buzz let her out of the room and left
for whatever he did when he was gone the next morning. But in the meantime, she
had some business to take care of.

Hope
skipped over to an old, worn mattress on the floor in the corner, hiked up her
skirt and laid down. She reached for her crotch, slipped her fingers in between
her moist folds and pushed their way up and in. Stroking herself, she recalled
the men’s fondling of that evening, how the dildo’s hairs brushed against her
legs, how it slid into her, filling her ass, making her rear end throb. Hope
imagined Alden being the man who touched her, who introduced the multiple items
to her body, who stuck his cock into her mouth and made love to her orally.

A
sultry moan from low in her throat broke free, followed by a gasp. No matter
how much she enjoyed picturing Alden while she pleasured herself and no matter
how much she needed to vocalize her fervor, she still had to keep quiet lest Buzz
caught wind of her self-dalliance habit and punished her for it. Pulling her
fingers out, she grasped her crotch and kneaded it. Plucking her clit brought
her to a rousing height and over the edge into an intense orgasm. She rode out
the waves, and moments after they ebbed, drifted into a satisfied sleep.

The
next morning she woke to the faint sound of knocking.

Why
isn’t Buzz answering the damn door
?

She
rose from the mattress and went to the small window. The rapping ceased. Brant
walked into view.

Hope
banged on the window and yelled, praying he would take note of the noise and
look up. He did, but appeared puzzled.

Frantic,
she scanned the room for an item with which she could break the window. On an
old, battered table sat a paperweight. She ran over, picked it up and lofted
the heavy piece at the window. The glass shattered.

Careful
not to step on any of the shards or cut herself on the ones left in the panes,
she poked her face out the hole and called down to the man.

“Brant!
Up here!”

He
craned his neck, and when his gaze met hers, waved.

“Brant,
I locked myself in the attic somehow. Could you come inside and let me out?”

“Your
front door is locked,” he yelled up to her.

Damn
.
She didn’t know if there was a
spare key hidden anywhere either. “You’ll just have to break in then. I need to
get out of this room.”

He
held up a finger and disappeared from view.

Is it possible I’ll be free soon?
Anxiousness and excitement took
over. Her heart beat a rapid pace. Her palms became wet pools. She smoothed her
hands over her skirt to dry them, then retrieved the book she had been keeping
notes in from its hiding spot.

Several
minutes passed before she heard Brant on the stairs. He tried the doorknob.

“You’re
right,” his muffled voice stated. “The door is locked. You can’t unlock it from
that side?”

“No,
it’s the kind that needs a key from your side. Check above the door frame. I
think we keep one there.”

She
held her breath. The familiar click came. Hope let out the air in a whoosh.
When the door opened, she threw her arms around his neck.

“Oh,
thank you, thank you.” She released the startled man. “I can’t believe that
happened. I can be such a ninny at times. Buzz would have been so upset to find
out I was locked in the attic.”

“Glad
I could help. In fact, it’s a good thing I had left my comm-de
here,
otherwise I never would have come by. You would have
been stuck for quite a while.”

“Quite a while?”
She led him down to the main
floor.

“Yeah,
didn’t he tell you? He and some of the guys have gone on a last minute
assignment. He doesn’t expect to be back for a few days.”

Her
blood froze in her veins. He had locked her in the attic and took off on a trip
without letting her out?
The bastard
.

“Yes,
it is great you came by. As for your device, I have an idea of where it is. Oh,
and if you see Buzz, please don’t mention my little mishap. He hates it when I
get scatterbrained,” she finished in her best helpless-little-female voice.

“Don’t
worry, I won’t. I don’t think he’d be too pleased with me either to know I lost
my device and had to stop by. So we’ll just say mum’s the word all around.”

In
the back room where they had met the night before, she retrieved his comm-de
from the clutches of the couch and handed it to him.

“In
fact,” he added as he clipped the unit to his belt. “I won’t even mention I
lost this thing when I return to my clan. I’ll just say I didn’t hear my alarm
go off and that’s why I’m running late. Then nothing can get back to him.”

“Yep,”
she agreed. “I never saw you. You were never here.”

“Thanks.”
He waved his hand, and in a split second of bright light, he was gone.

She
rushed to her room. Granted, Brant did say Buzz was away for a while so there
really was no need to hurry, but the sooner she got out, the further away she
could get. Throwing a couple shirts and skirts into a bag, she decided to
ransack the house to make it appear broken into. Then she’d get out to the
road, hitch a ride…

If
that’s even possible in this bizarre place.

Can’t
go back to my parents’ house.
That’d be the first place he’d look
.

Do
I need money
?

She
had no clue and didn’t want to waste time thinking about it.

To
top off the fake break in, she went to the door of Buzz’s office and rammed it
with her shoulder. It took several attempts, but the wood gave way to her abuse.
Hope lurched into the room when it did. She threw an arm out, catching herself
on a cabinet and stopping her forward momentum. After steadying herself, she
looked up. Both hands flew to her mouth to stifle a scream.

Drawn
on each wall, and also above and below her, were large black pentagrams. Chains
hung from the ceiling, making the room look like a tack shop or barn. The
opposite wall displayed leather straps with pointed studs, metal loops and
locks. Next to those, long braided leather whips dangled from hooks. More
leather straps with balls and dildos attached in the middle lay on a shelf
nearby.

She
stepped with caution toward the grand mahogany desk and looked into a small
glass case perched there. In it lay a pearl-handled dagger with strange symbols
and words engraved upon it. Her heart skipped a beat. Hope tore her gaze away
from the weapon. Behind the desk on either side of the window sat a couple curio
cabinets filled with jars of liquid and canisters of herbs.

Close by her stood a large,
antique wooden music stand.
She peered down upon it into an old book with yellowed pages—propped open to a
spell and recipe for claiming dominance over another.

Bile
surged in a hot acidic stream up her throat. Fighting off rising hysteria, she
backed out of the room. To add to the break-in façade, she pulled some books
from the cabinet she had grabbed earlier and let them fall to the floor.

She
ran to the back room, tossed the cushions off the couch and overturned a couple
of tables trying to rid
herself
of the fright she’d
experienced. Catching her breath, she stared at her feet. Out of the corner of
her eye, she noticed some papers peeking out from under one of the tables. A
corner of the top piece read ‘map.’ She picked it up, unfolded it and tried to
figure out where she was.

Come on, where’s the nearest
road?

Fingering
the colored lines did her no good. She couldn’t tell where she was, or where
she needed to go.

She
feared getting lost. Nevertheless, she had to run. She had to find a safe place
and contact Alden to warn him, alert him that whoever
Buzz
and his gang really were, they were on to him.

Too bad I can’t just wave my hand
and transport to somewhere safe, like a neutral spot down town
.

On
a whim, Hope closed her eyes, pictured a quiet area of downtown and twirled her
hand in the air.

PART
FIVE

Revelations

Chapter Eleven