Servicing the Undead (6 page)

“Can you take this off?” he asked.

She took a key off the mantel and freed the bolt locking the
end of the chain to the bed. “The chain stays on.”

Hayden got to his feet, naked, and thankful for the radiant
heat from the stove. “I don’t know what’s next. I haven’t the slightest idea.”

“I wanted to know—”

A rap on the door stopped her. She shoved Hayden back onto
the bed and then pulled the door open just enough to look out into the bleak
night.

“Matthew wants you,” a rough voice said through the narrow
opening.

Her reply was sharp. “I told him we were coming.”

“I’m just doing what I’m told, Mattie.” The voice came more
quietly. “He told me to tell you, so here I am, telling you.”

“We’re coming, Oscar. Tell him that.” She pushed the door
closed and turned.

“Who’s Matthew?”

“He wants to meet you.”

“I thought we were going to Rachelle.”

“We are.” She went to the closet, opened the door, and then
pulled out a fur cloak. She threw it at him. “Put this on. She ran her gaze up
and down his naked body. “Unless you’d rather go naked. Which I’m totally okay
with.”

Hayden threw the cloak over his shoulders and then lifted
the chain over it. The rough animal hide rubbed his skin.

He noticed her wrapping a cloak around herself and asked why
she bothered.

“Over time, the ice is bad for the skin.”

Visions of gray frostbitten skin flashed in Hayden’s mind.
He didn’t want to ask any more.

Mattie stood by the open door. “Give me the end of the
chain.”

“You’re not serious?”

“You want the others to know you’re mine. Trust me on that.”

He handed her the end. His boots were by the door and he
stepped into them. She waited while he lifted the tethers, stepped into his
boots, laced and tied them. She’d left enough slack in the knots for him to
drop the loops down to his ankles.

They moved out into the night.

The snow wasn’t as deep as it had been in the city, and the
leather straps binding his legs were long enough to allow him to walk easily
enough. Running would have been a whole other matter.

Tall pines sheltered the area, circling the clearing. Hayden
spotted five more cabins. Two of them smaller, the other three about the same
size at Mattie’s. Hazy lights, probably from candles or lanterns, came from the
windows. A line of smoke came up from each one.

“You been here long?”

She cast him a look.

“How many are here?” he asked, feeling the first chill of
snow clinging to the hair on his bare legs.

“If you had better eyesight you could count them yourself.”

“They’re watching us?” he asked, trying to ignore the cold
creeping up his calves.

“You can’t feel their eyes on you?” she asked, nodding to
one of the cabins they passed.

“No.”

“I guess that’s good, because if you could it might,
well…”—she laughed lightly—“bother you.”

He looked back over his shoulder, trying to see something
seeing him. “Bother me?”

“More like scare the shit out of you.”

He stopped searching. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” She swung the chain. “They see you’re
mine though, so they’re staying inside like good boys and girls.”

They left that clearing and crossed through a cluster of
trees and came into a smaller circle of three cabins. No candlelight glowed in
the windows. No gentle lines of smoke came up from one of the chimneys.

“These ones are out,” Mattie said.

The endless row of tall pines ran behind all the cottages.
The entire camp seemed to be circled by the enormous trees. The long branches
were covered with snow, rays of the moonlight skimming across them. The setting
was beautiful and the place appeared to be well-cared for. It couldn’t exist
without anyone knowing. A scout camp? A retreat location for businesses? Might
someone come to check on the cabins?

Not likely, considering the fierce weather.

Hayden kept up as best he could, the tether binding his legs
occasionally twisting and catching in the snow. The chain swung from his neck,
a weight to remind him to behave.

They came to an opening between some bushes, a spot where
someone had shoveled a path. “One last thing,” she said, pausing beneath the
low branches. “When we get there, I do all the talking. Got it?”

Hayden nodded.

Mattie turned back around and ducked through the opening,
leaving a row of footprints in the snow. He followed. On the other side was a
single cabin, long and, like the others, sheltered by the pines. Two rails of
smoke rose up, one from each chimney. Pale-yellow light glowed from all the
windows. The snow surrounding the building was well trampled in all directions.
Two men stood at the door. One paced across the front.

As they neared the door, the guards moved forward. The one
pacing cast them a glance but continued to move, stepping swiftly across the
packed snow. Mattie’s back straightened as she slowed her pace. She stopped
suddenly and straight-armed Hayden, forcing him back to keep his distance.
“Remember what I told you?”

He grunted his agreement.

She moved forward, offering a sharp nod to the guards. They
grunted in response, avoiding her gaze. But they didn’t avoid looking at the
chain, the end still in Mattie’s hand. That they seemed to caress with their
eyes, hungrily admiring its weight and heft. Hayden held back the chill that
ran down his icy back as he followed Mattie across the threshold. The inside
was lit by square lanterns sitting atop low tables. There were no other
furnishings in the small front room.

“This way,” Mattie said, tugging the chain. The links rubbed
together, the sound something he was becoming accustomed to, probably in the
way a dog becomes accustomed to its leash.

She pulled again and he jerked forward, stumbling for a few
steps before finding his footing and adjusting to the uneven floorboards of the
cottage. They crossed into another room. Mattie waited for him to catch up and
together they sliced through a set of hanging black beads. They moved through a
narrow hall and then reached a heavy canvas tarp. Mattie held the tarp aside
and, still holding the chain, reached behind him and shoved him forward. The
leather bindings caught, but he was able to shake his leg and get the tether to
loosen. Hayden righted himself.

Rachelle was there, unharmed, and smiling. He moved as far
forward as the chain would allow. Then he strained against it, felt the metal
cut into his neck but kept pulling. Rachelle’s eyes weren’t right, her smile
was crooked, and she was enclosed in a cage.

“She’s a fine piece of ass.”

Hayden twisted, wincing when the neck ring cut further into
his flesh. But he kept turning until he found the owner of the voice. The man
was seated in a gold velvet wing-backed chair, a low table covered with an
array of cups and jars of herbs beside him. Lanterns hung from the high
ceiling, one on each side of him, casting soft shadows over him and the items
on the table.

The man was lean and pale, with a shaved head and row of
earrings outlining one ear. An outline of stubble shadowed his jaw and cheeks.
His chest was bare, light-brown leather pants covered his legs. The pants were
unlaced, the leather ties dangling below his balls. The man’s cock was erect
and he was stroking it with a slow leisurely style that told Hayden the man
spent entire days attending to his own sexual needs. The muscles in his biceps
and forearms flexed as he glided his fingers up and down his hard dick.

Matthew.

“Mattie made me promise to wait, and I have, but as you can
see…”—the man nodded down at his fully engorged shaft—“the wait is getting
difficult to handle.” The man cupped his full tip and squeezed it, dropped his
head back, closed his eyes and moaned.

The man was controlling his urgency. But that harnessed
energy, that honed self-control—there was no hiding that. This man made Mattie
look like an amateur when it came to coiled power and calculated self-control.

“Like you don’t have enough to satisfy you?” Mattie asked
Matthew. “You could be using any of them.”

The man opened his dark eyes and rolled his head to the
side, looking at her through half-closed lids and replying through clenched
teeth. “I’m fine.”

“Besides, aren’t you supposed to be dealing with the
problem?”

The man’s eyes tightened, he glared at Mattie through the
nearly closed slits as he continued to stroke himself. “I worry about us. You
worry about yourself, Mattie.”

The room felt silent, until the sound of the wind and the
trees brushing across the cabin broke the quiet. A branch cracked and hit the
roof.

“Hayden, this place is awesome. Check it out.” Rachelle was
on her feet, pacing along the tall wooden cage she was locked inside, oblivious
to the tension passing between their captors as she strode across the pile of
straw lining the bottom of the enclosure. Wearing only a floor-length fur
cloak, she pulled on the wooden slats, twisting and jerking as she tugged. Her
bare breasts quivered. “I’m Matthew’s captive,” she said, her voice husky,
playful. She turned toward Hayden, and one of her bare legs flashed between the
opening of the cloak. “I’ve been naughty. I’m locked up in here until I learn
to be good.”

Mattie moved away from Matthew, her movements stiff and
sharp. She brushed against Hayden and he felt the tension in her body.

Rachelle raised her hands and turned. The cloak was split up
the back to reveal her bare hips. She arched her back and wiggled her ass. “I’m
a bad, bad girl, Hayden. What are you going to do about it?” She laughed and
spun back around, her mouth a circle of wickedness.

“I think she likes it here, Hayden. I hope you don’t plan on
ruining her fun.” Matthew started rubbing his shaft again. “I sure as hell hope
you aren’t planning on ruining mine.”

“But remember, I warned you.”

Hayden tried to focus, to clear his mind of the mixture of
fear and arousal spinning through him, heating his blood and clouding his
thoughts.

Rachelle’s playful laugh was high and uncensored. He’d
gotten a glimpse of her uncontrolled side the night before, and the woman
before him, locked in the wooden cage, was even more uncontrolled. Pure sex,
lust without the passion.

“Matthew said he might lock you in here with me.” She
loosened the cloak, and let it fall below her breasts. Her round curves were
framed by the soft-looking fur. “Maybe you can teach me not to be a bad girl.”
She laughed as she pulled the cloak back up and over her shoulders, but the image
of her breasts lingered.

Somehow he had to find focus, clear his mind and think.

He pulled in a deep breath and his nostrils filled with the
scent of burning wood. The stove in the corner of this room was larger than
Mattie’s and the heat was more intense. The room was large, big enough to
accommodate the wood cage, a large square bed piled high with quilts and
blankets, and in the corner opposite the cage, a sitting area. The sitting area
had plenty of space for the wide, wing-backed chair where Matthew sat, his legs
splayed, his erect cock still in his hands.

Mattie had taken a few steps away, but she still held
tightly to the chain linking the two of the together. Even though he wasn’t
looking at her, he could sense a change in her attitude.

Matthew rose from the chair, finally letting go of his shaft
and slowly reaching his arms overhead. He groaned from the effort, put his
hands on his hips, and then, pointing at Rachelle, offered a slow feral smile.
“Do you like what you see?”

Hayden’s stomach rolled from the mixture of lust, fear and
disgust.

Rachelle giggled and crawled across the floor inside the
enclosure. She scooted across the bed of straw, laughing, and wiggling until
the cloak was nearly off her. “Do you, Hayden, see something you like?”

Mattie moved over and pulled Hayden’s cloak away from his
torso, exposing his stiff shaft. She came around behind him, tugged on the
cloak, and let it drop to the floor. It pooled at his feet, and he stepped out
of it, toward the girl in the cage. Mattie let go of the chain and it hit the
floor and settled in a cold line down his bare back. The expectation that he go
into the cage hung in the air, and he breathed it in, savoring the sexual pull
of the body waiting there for him. Hayden fought his own desire, but the dark
lust was seeping in, filling his lungs and going into his blood.

Matthew turned his back to unlock the door. Lantern light
flickered across the long tattoo that ran down the center of the man’s back,
snaking all the way from the base of his skull to his ass cheeks. Before Hayden
could make out the pattern, the other man spun around and pulled the door open.
Hayden went in, the chain trailing behind. The click of a lock came from behind
him.

Hayden went to Rachelle and set his hands on her bare ass. Her
skin was warm and soft. Alive. She wiggled her hips and looked at him over his
shoulder. Her eyes were glazed, cloudy. Hayden eyed Matthew.

“Yes, it’s the same tea Mattie made for you.” Matthew looked
at Rachelle. “She likes it, don’t you, baby?”

“Oh yeah, mmmmm, but it’s making me be a bad girl, Hayden.
You need to fix me, you know, teach me a lesson.”

Hayden stepped back. This wasn’t the woman he knew, his
girlfriend. It was someone else, a half person, a half creature, under the
influence of the seductive tea. His stomach quivered.

“What’s the matter, Hayden?” Matthew taunted. “You losing
your hard-on? You need me to come in there and help you?”

Rachelle crawled to the edge off the straw and pushed
herself up. She tiptoed to Hayden and took his cock in her hands. “I’ll take
care of him, Matthew.”

But the other man was already on his feet and coming toward
the cage. He stopped at the door and wrapped his hands around the slats and
leaned closer. The scent of his body pressed in, a mixture of leather, cold
earth and even colder sex.

Hayden spoke over the bile in his mouth. “Did you already
fuck her?”

“Actually, no. I was told not to.” He tipped his head at
Mattie. “And I think you owe her for that.”

“Common decency isn’t enough of a reason not to?”

The man threw his head back and howled with laughter. “We
left that behind years ago, and it was the best decision we ever made.”

Hayden caught the wince Mattie tried to hide.

Matthew spotted it too and scowled. Tension simmered and
rose up in waves between them. “Not now, Mattie. Not when we have
some…entertainment.”

Mattie looked over her shoulder. “Entertainment?”

“That’s right,” he replied. He turned back to the cage.
“What else would you call it?”

Mattie didn’t accept Matthew’s challenge, instead, she
crossed to the chair he’d left empty, dropped herself into it, and stared
straight ahead.

This was a side of Mattie that Hayden had not seen—a side
that did back down from a challenge. He continued staring at her, waiting to
see if she’d look his way, but she didn’t.

Matthew turned his attention to Hayden. “Why are you just
standing there?”

“What is it you want?” The question came from his mouth
before he had a chance to think, to accept that he already knew the answer.

“A show, Hayden.” Matthew lifted one dark eyebrow.
“Entertain me.”

Hayden shoved Rachelle back onto the bed of straw. She fell
willingly, spreading her legs as she tumbled down. Hayden spun, tilted his head
and offered Matthew a slanted smile of his own. “Let me finish that thought for
you. If you don’t like what you see, you’re going to come in here and show me
up. Right?”

“Mattie told me you were different and now I see what she
meant.” Matthew nodded as he looked Hayden up and down. “I like fast learners,
Hayden, but I don’t think that’s the only reason Mattie has a thing for you.”
His gaze darkened, his face becoming a mask of evil. “I just want you to know,
I intend to figure out what it is about you that has her so worked up.”

“It’s just the sex, Matthew,” Mattie cut in. “Wait until you
see him fuck her, then you’ll understand.”

“You sure it’s just that?” he asked, still eyeing Hayden
with squinted eyes. “There isn’t any more?”

“Look at him,” she replied. “What else could it be?”

Matthew considered, taking his time, looking Hayden up and
down. The other man’s gaze was thorough, lingering, caressing. “I see you
switched back to the metal neck ring,” he said, casting his comment toward
Mattie. A slow smile spread across his mouth, and he spoke again, this time to
Hayden. “Did she tell you why she put the ring on you?”

Hayden shrugged, rejecting the bait. Or was Mattie the one
Matthew was trying to get to? Hayden tapped the ring with his fingers and
lifted his chin. “Maybe I don’t care.”

Matthew ran his palms down the wood slats. “You care.”

“So if I care so much why don’t you go ahead and tell me.”

Matthew reached between the wood slats and grabbed the ring,
yanked Hayden forward. He felt the other man’s lifeless breath when he
whispered. “She used to tie hers down with rope because she thought it was
nicer, but the last one grabbed a log from the fire and set the bed on fire. We
figured he was trying to burn the rope. You know, to get away. But maybe he was
actually trying to kill himself because he hated Mattie so much.”

Mattie had moved over to stand beside Matthew. “It wasn’t
the last one who set the fire. It was the one before him.”

“That’s right,” Matthew replied, still holding Hayden,
staring at him with harsh curiosity. “Right. Andre is still with us. Sort of.”

Hayden inched closer to the bars to release some of the
tension of Matthew’s grip. “I could still burn the bed,” he said.

“Yes. But the metal ring she locks the chain to is bolted to
a pipe that runs through the headboard and into the ground. So, yes, you could
burn the bed, but it wouldn’t give you a chance of getting away.”

Rachelle rubbed against Hayden. She’d taken the cloak off
and was naked except for a thong. “What are you guys talking about? You’re
boring me.” She wrapped her arms around Hayden’s waist and tugged him backward.

Matthew grinned, tightening his grip on the ring and pulling
upward. The sharp ridge cut into Hayden’s neck, cutting into his skin, a
reminder of his possession.

Matthew leaned forward. “Make all the little comments you
want, Hayden.” He jerked the ring. “Mattie has some special interest in you.
That means
I
have a special interest in you.” He let go of the ring and
Hayden fell back, tumbling across Rachelle as they both fell onto the bed of
straw. “Now be a good boy and fuck your girlfriend for me.”

Rachelle writhed beneath him, spreading her legs as she
arched her back, the musky scent of her aroused body drifted up, mingling with
the straw and smoky night air. The weight of Matthew’s stare, the tension
radiating from Mattie’s body, these things surrounded Hayden. He rolled over
and wrapped his arms around Rachelle and lifted her upright into a sitting
position. Kneeling in front of her, he brushed her tangled hair from her face.
Even though her eyes were glazed and her muscles slack, there was an intensity
simmering around her.

But was that simmering something coming from deep within
her? Or was it an illusion, the effects of the tea?

Beyond the cage, Matthew had settled himself back into the
gold velvet chair. His legs splayed, his erect cock in his hands. The man’s
brows were dipped, his eyes assessing, watching. Hayden knew that look and
understood the threat behind it. But there was a difference in the man’s eyes,
a fine gleam that hinted at a cruel and unavoidable edge.

Rachelle didn’t see it. She wasn’t seeing a lot of things.
Had she ever seen the discouraging side of life? Who exactly was this woman
he’d been thinking of his girlfriend?

Mattie, leaning on the wall and squared up directly across
from the cage door, couldn’t see Matthew’s face but Hayden knew she would
understand his expression because she herself knew of the darker side of life.
Her knowing was woven into the pores of her skin, the strands of her hair, and
slight pull of her mouth.

In that moment, he understood the creature, knew her, better
than the other woman. The realization should have terrified him, but fear was
second to the undeniable need to fuck.

Hayden caressed Rachelle. He felt the fullness of her
breasts and the slow seduction of her breathing. The warmth of her body. The
thrum of the blood coursing through her veins. How different she was from
Mattie. The creature wasn’t dead just as she wasn’t alive. She—and the rest of
them—was both undead and unalive. Hayden knew what was expected of him; he knew
the only way to keep Mattie—and Matthew—satisfied for the moment. Knowing that
made it easier to justify the sinister arousal thrumming through him.

“What is it you like about this, Rachelle? What do you
want?”

“Don’t you get it, Hayden? The answer is the same for both
questions.” She slid one of her hands inside the thong and cupped her pussy,
leaned back and ran her tongue across her lips. “Isn’t it what you wanted?
Isn’t it why you came here?”

Hayden shook his head. “We came here because—”

“You’re here now, Hayden,” Mattie cut in. “And you know
better than to stand there talking when you should be doing something more
creative. And entertaining. You’re boring all of us.”

“Mattie, that’s enough.” Matthew’s voice was a low growl.
“Come over here.” He glanced at the ground. “Sit.”

Mattie did as he said, dropping down to sit cross-legged at
his feet. After he turned his attention from the woman seated on the floor
beside him, he combed Hayden’s body with his gaze. Nothing in the man’s face
changed, but Hayden felt the harsh weight of the man’s ugly stare sliding
across his muscles, gliding across his skin, taking in every inch of bare
flesh.

Matthew inched his gaze back up, slowly, until his eyes
found Hayden’s. “Continue.”

Fear rolled across Hayden’s shoulders, crawled down his
back, and churned under the solid line of the metal chain. He searched Mattie’s
face, but the creature stared straight ahead, telling him something by not
looking at him.

Danger. Whatever it had been before was nothing compared to
what it was now. And he was to blame for all of it. Every chance he’d had to
say no he’d said yes instead.

Guilty blood flowed through him, his human heart pumping the
menacing liquid through his traitorous veins, stiffening his cock and readying
his body for sex. Slices of memories of the night before flickered in his mind
and his blood thickened more, making his shaft full and rigid. Rachelle took
one of his hands and put it on her breast. “We’re the show, Hayden. That means
you have to show off.”

Her eyes were glazed from the tea, but Hayden couldn’t stop
from looking deeply into the blue mist of her gaze, wanting to see a flicker of
the woman he’d become friends with in the past few weeks. Admittedly, a few
weeks weren’t long enough to really know someone, but he’d thought he knew the
essence of the woman he’d been sleeping with. Understood the basics of her
enough to know that he wanted to know more. But he’d been wrong about other
things.

She shimmied and grinned as she pulled her hand out of her
thong and grabbed the base of his shaft, wrapping her warm fingers around his
cock and tugging him forward. Still on his knees, he moved forward, the leather
bindings on his legs snaking behind him in the dirt.

“Come closer, Hayden, put your dick in my mouth.”

Disobey? A shiver ran down his back, vibrating off the
chain. He had a sense of what waited for him if he chose that path. But what
about Rachelle? He dragged her into this. Sure, she was playing along, but she
had no idea it wasn’t a game.