The Life of Anna, Part 4: Ensnared (14 page)

“Yes.”

“I was thinking maybe we could go shopping
this weekend. You could probably use some more clothes. And do you
have a dress for opening night?”

“Devin buys me what I need, if I need
anything extra,” she said softly. “Though he hasn’t said anything
about a dress. Maybe he doesn’t want me going to the party.”

“I’d like it if you were there.”

Anna stared at her food. “I’ll ask Devin when
I see him on Friday. I suppose I have some dresses at the house, if
Wilhelm hasn’t sold it. I don't know if they’re still in style
though.”

“House?”

Anna glanced up. “Mine and Alex’s house. I
haven’t been there since he died.”

“You have a house and you were living in that
crappy apartment?”

“I don’t want to live there. I don’t even
want to see it.”

“Where is it?”

“Presidio.”

“Why don’t you want to live there? I would
imagine it was pretty nice.”

“It was beautiful. I loved living there,
but....” She swallowed back tears. “I don’t want to be reminded of
him. It’s bad enough I dream of him.” She put her fork down and
pressed her fingers to her eyes to keep from crying.

“You really loved him, didn’t you?” He
sounded almost awed.

“I did. He...saved me. He loved me. He told
me he wanted to make up for all the years of abuse...and he did.”
Her voice squeaked.

“I didn’t think Elder-Mistresses felt things
so...deeply.”

Anna sighed. “I don’t know about the rest of
them. They seemed to think me strange at Alex’s funeral. Like, they
couldn’t understand why I was so upset about a man dying.” The
tears spilled onto her cheeks. “But when he died...all the beauty
in the world died with him. Devin offered to make me feel better
with drugs. I couldn’t stand the pain anymore. That’s why I left
Wilhelm. But maybe if I had stayed....”

She shook her head and sniffed. Things might
have turned out so differently. So many ‘if onlys’ in her life.
Maybe Devin wouldn’t have become so powerful. Maybe she and Kurt
would have been married by now. Maybe she would have been happy
again.

Peter reached for her hand and intertwined
his fingers with hers. “I’m sorry, Anna. I misjudged you. I
shouldn’t have listened to...some people and should have listened
to my gut when I met you.”

He tugged at her hand and she went and sat in
his lap and cried while he held her.

Peter became genuinely affectionate towards
Anna after that conversation. He held her when they went to sleep
and when she woke, he was still holding her. He didn’t ignore her
at home anymore, and even took her with him when he went out with
his friends, though she still didn’t speak to people much. But when
she did, she wasn’t mean or rude.

Among Peter’s group of friends that he went
out with regularly was Aaron. Anna didn’t speak to him much, but
Peter didn’t get upset when she did. Sometimes he even seemed to be
encouraging their friendship, though Anna still kept her distance.
She didn’t understand what had happened to make Peter nicer and
didn’t fully trust it. Devin had been nice once, too.

Devin gave Peter permission to take Anna to
his family’s home for Thanksgiving. The weekend before
Thanksgiving, she went to the Gathering at the Manor as usual, but
Devin didn’t have sex with her or anyone at the Gathering. He’d had
her play with his cock, but wouldn’t let her finish him off. He
slept with her in his bed that night, but didn’t have sex with
her.

The next morning, he woke her early, sucking
on her clit. He brought her to the edge of her climax and then
stopped and held her down and fucked her hard, but wouldn’t allow
her to come.

Ian appeared and with a strange sense of
déjà vous
, he and Devin tied her to his bed. Suddenly she
realized what they were doing.

“No! No, Devin, please don’t.” Kaveh would
come later and impregnate her. It was the same nightmare that
happened this time every year.

Devin smiled and held up the syringe. “I
thought about mixing it with your favorite fluid.” Anna was about
to relax, but then he continued. “And so I did.”

He pressed the needle into her neck and the
fire started immediately. It was much, much worse this time and she
screamed as it rapidly entered her bloodstream and caused her whole
body to feel as if it were on fire. The nerve juice made it worse
and everything inside and outside was so painful she couldn't stand
it. She screamed and tugged, which made everything worse.

Devin sat with her and traced patterns on her
stomach with his finger, which felt like razor blades digging
trenches in her skin. She screamed in pain until she couldn’t
scream anymore.

Kaveh appeared as the fire was subsiding, but
the nerve juice was still active. When he entered her body and
pushed into her womb, it was the worst pain she had ever
experienced and had she been able to scream, it would have likely
echoed through the whole Manor. Kaveh moved his hips and pressed in
deeper and deeper. Tears ran down the side of her face as her
stomach cramped and he thrust hard and deep, the pain rising to
unbelievable levels. But she couldn’t scream. She could only lay
there and feel it. She felt her body tense and explode as if she
were having an orgasm, but there was no pleasure. Only pain. Her
muscles involuntarily clenched against him and he shouted as he
came.

She hoped that once he left the pain would
subside a bit, but it didn’t. She couldn’t sleep, she couldn’t
think. All she could do was lie there in pain.

“What’s wrong with her?”

The voice sounded familiar, but her brain was
too fuzzy to put a face to the voice.

Anna opened her eyes, realizing with relief
that the white-hot pain was gone, though she was still hurting. She
was in her bed at the Manor. The light coming through the windows
was faint. She must have fallen asleep and slept through the
afternoon.

“She’s fine. Just some aftereffects of the
morning.”

She brought her knees to her chest as her
abdomen began cramping. She groaned and someone pulled at her
shoulder to roll her to her back. Kaveh looked down at her with his
golden eyes and put his hand on her stomach.

He smiled. “It’s done.”

Anna closed her eyes and hopelessness swept
over her. Another pregnancy to deal with. There was no happiness
with this one. No Alex to give hope. The baby would stay inside her
until Devin needed it in the spring. And he would once again rip it
from her body. She wished she were doped up on drugs again. She
didn’t have much memory of the previous two experiences, and was
plagued with the happy memories from the first time.

“Can I take her home? I have things I need to
do this evening.” It was Peter. That was the voice she’d first
heard. He sounded...irritated.

“Of course. Or you can come get her
tomorrow.” Devin sounded amused.

“I don't want to drive back out here. You
could have told me before I came that I’d be waiting. Besides, you
had her already last night. I had to sleep alone.”

“You are always welcome to come, Peter. You
know that.”

“I appreciate that, but Friday nights are my
favorite night to go to the clubs. The women are more...willing on
Fridays after a long week of working.” He laughed and Devin laughed
with him.

So that’s what Peter did on Fridays when she
was here. Well, at least she knew that he wasn’t sincere in his
changed actions towards her.

“She gets pretty bad morning sickness about a
month in...just to warn you.”

“Great. And I get to deal with it?”

“You get to fuck her every night. That more
than makes up for it.”

“Except for those lovely nights when she’s
too beat up to be any good to me.”

“It can’t be helped, Peter. Men have violent
appetites.”

Peter sighed. “Where are her clothes?”

Anna felt fabric hit her legs. “Get dressed,
Anna,” Devin said. “Your boyfriend wants to take you home.”

“Will I hurt the baby if I fuck her?”

“No,” Kaveh answered. “It’s nearly impossible
to hurt the baby. Just don't stab her in the stomach and you’ll be
fine.”

The three men laughed and Anna sat up slowly.
She didn’t look at them as she reached for her clothing. She was
trembling and it took her a few minutes to get dressed.

As she walked with Peter and Devin out of the
Manor she felt foolish. Peter had deceived her like Devin had when
she first came to the Manor. The last few weeks she had slowly
begun to trust Peter. He had started treating her like a real
girlfriend. She thought he had begun to really care about her. But
now she saw how stupid that was. She once again saw what a stupid,
naïve, too-trusting girl she was. Maybe Peter would let her sleep
when they got home.

Suddenly she had an unexplained urge to go to
the house she’d shared with Alex. She didn’t know why, but she
wanted to see the house again. Maybe it was because that was the
one place she’d felt completely safe in the entire city. Maybe she
could ask...? No. Peter wouldn’t take her. Did she dare sneak out?
It was almost worth it. Besides, how would anyone know where she
was?

But no, that would be foolish. She would make
Peter angry. And Devin, too. She pushed the thought aside.

Peter helped her into the blue Audi R8 he had
bought a few weeks ago, and then drove off towards home. Well, the
apartment. The only home she’d ever truly had was where she’d lived
with Alex.

Peter put his hand on her knee and she tried
not to stiffen. “How are you feeling?” he asked in a gentle
voice.

“Fine,” she whispered, staring out the
window.

“Are you hungry?”

Anna shook her head.

“I talked with Aaron and the others about
going out tonight, but if you’re not up for it, we can stay
in.”

He really did have things to do tonight. “You
can go without me. I’m sure you’d enjoy yourself more that way.”
Her voice was faint but there.

“I like going out with you. I have fun with
you.”

Anna didn’t respond. She wouldn’t let herself
be sucked into his niceness again. She would obey him and please
him as she was supposed to. Her hands tingled painfully and she
rubbed the backs of them. She wanted to cry and scream at herself
for being such an idiot. Why would Peter really care about her? He
had a girlfriend at home. He was here because Devin wanted him here
to keep her company because that’s what Devin thought she needed.
That was it. Nothing more.

“Are you sure you don’t want your uncle to
bring your girlfriend to LA for Thanksgiving? I don’t mind staying
here.”

Peter didn’t respond and stared at the road
ahead of him. Anna looked out the window and watched the buildings
fly by. It was getting dark.

“Vlad wants to get to know you,” Peter said
after a long silence.

“Why?”

Peter shrugged.

They didn’t speak again until they were in
the parking garage. Peter hurried around the car to help her out.
She had learned that he didn’t like it when she tried to get out
herself.

“Do you want me to carry you?”

“I’m fine.” She walked slowly to the
elevators and he pushed the call button.

He stayed by her side the whole time, not
rushing her. When they made it to the apartment, he helped her onto
the couch then pulled out his phone.

“Hey, Aaron...yeah...no, I think we’ll stay
in tonight...Anna’s not feeling well...no...okay...okay, ’bye.”

She looked up at him. “You can go out. I’m
fine.”

Peter sat next to her and rubbed her leg.
“No, you’re not. Devin told me what he did to you.” He sighed and
shook his head. “You sure you don’t want to eat?”

Anna shook her head.

Later, as Anna lay in bed, she couldn’t get
the idea out of her head about going to the house. She glanced at
Peter snoring softly next to her. He was a sound sleeper. Would he
hear her if she got up?

Without trying to overthink the situation,
she slipped out of bed and went to her dresser. She pulled out
clothes and then went to the bathroom. After she’d dressed and
brushed her hair, she went back out to the bedroom and paused to
study Peter. He hadn’t moved. After digging quietly through a box
of her things, she located a spare set of house keys that she’d
seen when she’d moved in with Peter. She grabbed her shoes, snuck
out into the living room and silently left the apartment. She put
on her shoes in the hallway, then hurried to the elevator, looking
up the bus information on her phone on the way down. A bus was
leaving in ten minutes two blocks away. She stopped briefly and
purchased a bus pass at a kiosk, then hurried to the bus stop.

The bus was pulling up as she arrived and she
got on and found a seat. As it pulled away from the curb, she began
to doubt her plan. But what was wrong with going to see her old
house? She wasn’t trying to run away...really. She just...wanted to
see it. She needed a happy memory to overwrite the horrible ones
that were plaguing her.

The schedule indicated that the bus ride
would take about a half hour. She kept expecting to hear her phone
ring...that Peter had noticed she was gone. As soon as she arrived
at the house, she would turn the phone off. Somehow, she could be
tracked through it, but she needed it to find her way.

Her old neighborhood was about a half-mile
walk from the bus stop. It took her much longer to get there than
she expected when she set out, but eventually the entrance to the
neighborhood came into view. The gates were closed, but she had a
key on her ring to unlock them, and within moments she walked the
circular road to her driveway.

Her heart pounded as the side of the big
white house came into view. The house was dark, as she would have
expected. She walked up and hesitated at the front door. Was it
still her house? Would the key work? Did she really want to go
inside?