Thicker than Blood (27 page)

“You’re right.” Evelyn pulled out of our hug,
sniffing and wiping the tears from her cheeks. “I’m being
ridiculous. It’s probably that time of the month.” She attempted a
smile and I attempted one back, but our facades quickly evaporated
once the door beside us opened, revealing a very pissed off
Alex.

He held up his wrist, revealing his
branding. Two identical
A
s in
bold lettering had been inked into his skin with two circles
surrounding them.

“A-A?” I asked.

“Alexander Adams,” he answered through his
teeth, his gaze hard as he stared at me. “My name.”

“
One more
A
and you could start a travel club,” Evelyn joked without
humor, but neither Alex nor I even attempted a smile. There was
nothing funny about any of this.

“Who’s next?” Alex asked.

I looked at Evelyn, who shrugged in return.
“I’ll go,” she said. “You guys need to talk.”

As she disappeared inside the room, pulling
the door shut behind her, I suddenly couldn’t bring myself to look
at Alex. He was glaring at me, no, his eyes were wishing a thousand
daggers to pierce my heart. And even though I knew I didn’t owe him
an explanation for my decision, his behavior was making me feel as
if I did.

“It could be worse,” I quietly told the
floor. “I could be stripping, or…” I finally looked up at him and
raised my arms in a helpless gesture. “I can’t fight, Alex! What
did you want me to do?”

He didn’t respond, just continued to stare,
those dark eyes of his burning angry holes straight through me.

“Alex,” I whispered, my tone taking on a hint
of desperation. “Say something!”

He didn’t, of course he didn’t, but my words
seemed to trigger something in him. His shoulders sagged, and his
scowl faded. Shaking his head, he leaned against the wall behind
him and folded his arms over his chest.

I sighed and reached for him, attempting to
pry his arms away from his body. It took several pulls, me getting
nowhere against his strength until he finally chose to relent.
Dropping his arms, he allowed me to wrap mine around his waist and
press myself against him.

Several moments passed, his stubbornness
knowing no bounds, me gripping him tightly and him refusing to
reciprocate. But I wasn’t going to give up, wasn’t going to allow
something so meaningless to drive our small group apart. I kissed
his chest, dug my fingertips into his lower back, and kissed him
again and again through his dirty T-shirt until finally he sighed.
Reluctantly, he lifted his arms and brought them around me.

Another moment passed, and then he lifted me
up off my feet and into his arms, holding me so tightly I could
barely catch a breath.

• • •

As I followed behind our newest guide, a prostitute
named Bethany who couldn’t have been more than twenty and was
noticeably naked under her nearly sheer robe, I took in what was
one of the many living quarters in Purgatory. This particular
building was five stories high, resembling a college dorm with door
after door after door, and very few windows. But this was far from
a dorm, the walls decorated with an odd mix of spray-paint art and
framed art, the paintings all easily recognizable as past works
from historically famed painters.

And there were padlocks on nearly every
single door.

“Doorknob locks didn’t cut it,” Bethany
offered when she caught me staring. “Too many break-ins.”

I gaped, wondering what anyone still had
these days that would be worth stealing, and why people would be
willing to take such a high risk. Maybe I was just being naive
about it all, but Purgatory’s rules were laid out to us by Liv, and
they were strict and harsh. The first time you stole, you lost a
hand. The second time you stole, you were put in a cage, infected,
and left to turn. You took another man’s woman, you lost another
vital body part and got strung up in a cage, infected, and left to
turn.

Each incident had the same outcome. You
became an infected and were left in a cage to rot. I hadn’t yet
seen any cages or infected, but it was a horrific and painful death
to contemplate, and a terrible reminder to everyone not to steal or
cause trouble, yet apparently not a complete deterrent.

“When you’re home,” she continued, “you keep
your door locked from the inside, and when you leave, make sure you
lock it from the outside.”

We followed her in silence, the three of us
simply taking in our surroundings. We passed a pair of young
children playing alone in the hallway with a set of colorful
blocks. I offered them a smile that they both returned with
apprehensive looks, which only made my mood darker.

“Since you’ve got two claims, Liv wanted you
all in the family building.” Bethany shrugged, dramatically
flipping her long black hair over her shoulder. Slowing her pace,
she turned to look over her shoulder, giving Alex a long,
appraising look. “If you’re looking for another girl, I’d be more
than happy to give you a freebie, give you a taste of heaven,
honey.”

She stopped walking altogether, forcing the
rest of us to stop as well. Placing her palm against Alex’s chest,
she ran her red-tipped fingers across his T-shirt. Her tongue
darted out, sliding slowly over her full bottom lip. “That’s what
they call my pussy ’round here,” she whispered as she slid her hand
down his stomach.

Shocked, I watched with more than a little
anger-fueled jealousy as she boldly took a handful of Alex’s
crotch. “Heaven,” she purred throatily, her fingers flexing.

My breathing grew shallow, seconds seeming
like hours as my heart pounded an unsteady rhythm inside my chest.
Why didn’t he slap her away, or better yet, take her by her slutty
throat and squeeze the life from her? Resentment flared inside me,
and I struggled to contain my annoyance at both her and him.

Alex’s hand covered hers and peeled her hand
off him before he pushed her away and took a step back. “Maybe
another time,” he said stonily, thankfully looking as disgusted as
I was feeling.

Bethany’s instant disappointment was
palpable. Miffed, she gave both Evelyn and me a scathing glance,
speaking volumes as to how she felt. Who were we? What was so
special about us that a man like Alex would claim us and not
her?

I found myself feeling sorry for her, my
anger doused nearly as soon as it had flamed. Instead, I was
saddened by her circumstances, and though this woman wouldn’t want
my pity, I felt it for her regardless. Take Alex out of this
equation, and Evelyn and I could both be in her shoes, desperate
for any sense of security and ready to do anything it took to
obtain it.

“
Whatever,” she muttered, then turned away,
leaving us all with an up close and personal view of her backside.
“We’re here anyway.” She flipped her hand carelessly toward a door
on the right. Like the others, it was also fitted with a large and
formidable-looking padlock. A key appeared in her
hand—
Where
had she been hiding that?
—and then, without turning to look at him, offered it to
Alex.

“I’ll be back for you tonight,” she said
flippantly in my direction. “Make sure you shower before work. The
bathhouse is on the first floor.”

With another flip of her hair over her
shoulder, Bethany pushed between Evelyn and me, her shoulder
purposefully colliding with Evelyn’s. And then she was off, down
the hallway and eventually out of sight.

While Alex fumbled with the padlock, Evelyn
and I exchanged uneasy glances.

I’m worried about
you
, her eyes told
me.

I was worried about me too, but instead of
conveying that, I glanced away, my gaze landing on the two children
still playing in the hallway. There wasn’t much I was grateful for
in this new world, only Evelyn and now Alex, yet I found myself
suddenly grateful that I’d never been able to conceive a child. Not
with Thomas and not with Lawrence.

This world wasn’t for children, it wasn’t
conducive to growing and learning, and it definitely didn’t
perpetuate morals. These two children would know nothing but
violence and death, and I counted myself grateful that I would
never be laden with the guilt of bringing life into an already dead
world.

“Home sweet home,” Alex muttered as he pushed
open the door. A moldy smell wafted out into the hall, intermixed
with cleaning solution. One by one we entered, taking in our new
residence. It was a small room, no bigger than a bedroom. Off to
the right, a stained mattress had been dropped haphazardly onto the
floor, and to the left was a battered old armchair, threadbare and
missing half an arm. A shoddy countertop lined the wall beneath a
row of windows, all of them cracked and covered in duct tape.

But the walls were another story. Hanging
over the poor paint job, a sickly green color, were several
familiar art prints. The
Mona Lisa
,
Starry Night
,
and
The Scream
all hung side by side, an odd
sort of mix.

I stared at
The Scream
, thinking how fitting it was. The thought also
occurred to me that, much like children, art seemed to have little
place in this world.

Evelyn

“What now?” Leisel was perched on the edge of the
broken armchair, looking from Alex to me and back again. Her eyes
pleaded with me to give her something of substance to latch onto
inside this strange place, but all I could do was shrug.

We’d only been in this place for a couple of
hours, and already I was edgy and ill at ease with everything. It
would be nightfall soon, and the thought of being somewhere behind
walls, fences, barriers…whatever you wanted to call them, made me
uncomfortable. I was supposed to feel safe now, yet I felt anything
but.

Alex had been silent for hours now, ever
since Leisel had insisted that she was going to dance. Clearly, he
hated the idea, loathed it, and I could almost taste his anger at
the idea of other men looking at her. Refusing to even take a seat,
he’d been standing in front of a window, looking out through the
broken glass at the world below since we entered our room.

Jerking my head in Alex’s direction, I
gave Leisel a pointed look, silently conveying to her to get her
ass up and go to him. Mouthing the word
no
, she shook her head, and in return I glared at her, again
jerking my head. Reluctantly, she finally stood and walked slowly
across the room before reaching him. Tentatively, she reached out,
gently placing her hand on his back, only to have him flinch away
from her. Closing her eyes, Leisel took a deep, shuddering breath,
before opening them and trying again. This time, Alex remained
still, allowing her to touch him, and eventually she began gently
rubbing his back and he began to visibly relax.

Biting down on her lower lip, she looked
at me with an expression on her face that clearly said,
What do I do
now?
Smiling softly, I
simply shook my head and turned to leave. There was only one thing
I knew to do to win a man over. Use your body.

“Where are you going?” Alex said sharply,
making me jump from the sudden sound.

I froze in place, my hand barely touching the
doorknob. Glancing over my shoulder, I found him glaring at me, his
deep-rooted scowl still in place.

“It’s dangerous out there,” he growled, his
frown and fury all melding into one menacing expression.

“You don’t actually have a claim on me,” I
told him, my tone matter-of-fact. “So if it’s all right with you,
I’m going to check this place out. Besides, I need to find us some
food.” Glancing down at myself, I wrinkled my nose. “Maybe even
some clothes that fit. And I definitely need a bath, and I don’t
need a chaperone, not with your initials forever branded into my
skin.” My last words were said with the intonation of bitterness I
was feeling. Lifting my arm, I flashed Alex his initials that were
now forever marked on my wrist.

Alex’s eyes darkened with something close to
guilt, and I could tell he felt bad about the branding. I wasn’t
upset with him because it wasn’t his fault, but I remained silent,
letting him steep in his guilt.

“Fine,” he eventually spat, snarling. Then he
looked at Leisel, and his scowl deepened.

“You should go too,” he told her, his tone
harsher than I’d ever heard it before. “You need to wash up for
tonight, right?” He laughed once, a sharp, humorless bark, then
turned away from her, his eyes once again trained on the ground
below.

Rolling my eyes, I sighed loudly. Alex’s
moods were giving me whiplash. Which was probably fitting,
considering how annoying it must have been for him to have dealt
with Leisel and me, and our constant ups and down during the last
few weeks.

Still, Leisel looked as if she might cry; her
chin was trembling, and her hands beginning to shake. I was about
to say something snarky in return, something to lighten the mood,
until I noticed the fire in her eyes. It was a small one, but it
was there, hidden amongst all her tears and fears. That fire
created a warm sensation deep down in my belly, causing me to smile
with pride.

“What about your claim on us—on me?” she
said, her tone surprisingly snarky. “Are you sure you want me
wandering around without you and your leash?”

She was trying for angry, but she’d never
pulled off angry very well, coming across instead as a stubborn,
headstrong child. Alex turned, staring down at her, his eyes
softening the longer he watched her attempt to keep up this silly
angry charade. Eventually her features gentled, and then she gazed
up at him in that beseeching way I remembered from before. When
she’d want something new for the house, something expensive that
Thomas believed was frivolous or too extravagant. He’d always
caved. Always. And Alex was no different. Only a moment passed
before Alex’s shoulders slumped in defeat.