Reawakening (18 page)

She’d spend hours there every Saturday and Sunday, grooming, brushing and exercising them. She loved it. Then Jack became sick and both money and time were scarce. And after he died, it suddenly didn’t seem so important any more. Once she headed off to college, she became entrenched in college life, her love of horses all but forgotten.

When they’d returned from riding, Rom insisted they watch a movie.

“What do you like?” she’d asked.

“I don’t watch movies. You pick.” He played with her hair, tickling her shoulders as he watched her.

“Help me out a little. You at least have to know the genre of movie you like. Horror? Mystery? Shoot’em-up? Fantasy?”

“Hmm … definitely fantasy,” he replied in a low murmur before her back was on the couch and his mouth was on hers.

Just like in the limo, they made out for several minutes, but he never took things further. Finally, he sat back up and made her select a movie.

So to get him back, she’d selected Basic Instinct, which had sorely backfired for her, because now she couldn’t get sex off the brain. Not that it had been that far anyway, but she’d blown her chance to divert her thoughts for at least a couple of hours.

He’d teased her all day and subsequently denied her. And he wasn’t as sly as he thought. She knew exactly what he was up to. Leave her aching with raging desire until she not only gave him her body, but her soul as well. Until she agreed to bond with him.

And damn him … it was working! Every single raunchy word he’d spewed rattled around in her brain. Every look set her body on fire anew. Every caress left her breathless and needy. Every part of her ached to be possessed and owned by him. She could literally think of nothing else.

Gah! She’d turned into a nympho and she hadn’t even had sex with him yet.

Her world had turned completely on its ear and she felt like she’d lived a lifetime in just the last two weeks alone since she’d met Rom. And for some reason, for the last several days her kidnapping was never too far from her thoughts and it bugged her. Because that’s also what led her here, to this magnificent male.

Feeling very overwhelmed, after they finished eating dinner, she’d called Kate and talked to her for over an hour. Kate grounded her. In addition to being her sister, she’d been her counselor over the last several months. There was no way Sarah would be where she was today without her. She’d probably still be locked in her room, trying to fight the nightmares on her own.

After finishing her call, she now sat alone on the expansive balcony, off the master bedroom. A covered hot tub was just steps outside the glass doors and her glass of Merlot sat untouched on the table beside her. She listened to the sounds nature made and enjoyed watching the thousands of fireflies lighting up the night sky. Sarah had never seen anything so beautiful in all her life and she instantly knew why Rom lived here. It was peaceful and serene and soothing.

Surprisingly, her impromptu counseling session tonight actually centered on her kidnapping and not the current situation she found herself in. She knew she’d give into Rom. Eventually. Well ... soon probably. The pull was simply too strong and she was too enthralled with him to deny her feelings much longer. He’d been nothing but attentive the last couple of days. Regardless of his sometimes gruff, commanding and downright scary demeanor, his soft, giving and fiercely loyal side had stolen her heart and she was more than falling in love with him already. When she thought of the future, it was him.

Picking up her wine, she took a sip, thinking back to the night she was saved from a horrific fate by an unlikely, and still unknown, ally.

Her cell door opened and a large, imposing man stepped in. Only this time, he didn’t have a tray of food with him. He stood there, gazing at her with unmistakable lust in his eyes. Oh God. She began to sob uncontrollably.

“Come,” he barked.

Shaking her head, she crouched further into the corner, wishing she could melt into the concrete wall. Nonononono. This cannot be happening. He took two steps before he was on her, dragging her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. She screamed and fought, hitting and scratching his back. She kicked her feet, trying to ram her knees into his chest. Suddenly, calm flooded her and her body went limp. Deep within she was still petrified and wanted to fight back, but couldn’t get her body to respond in kind.

He carried her down a series of hallways, leading into what looked to be a sterile, surgical room of some sort. There were several other men milling about, getting equipment ready, checking monitors. There was a covered surgical tray next to a steel table, to which her captor deposited her upon. The steel table had a cutout on the lower half, which would allow someone to step in directly between her legs. Holy Jesus. This was not happening.

The men began to restrain her hands and feet. Fear broke through the calm façade and she began screaming and fighting once again, managing to kick one of the men in the mouth, causing him to bleed. Yet again, she was overcome with a sense of calm and stopped writhing. They finished tying her down, even though her mind was pleading with her to fight.

“What the fuck, John. Keep the whore under control,” said the man with a hideous scar running from the corner of his right eye to the top of his clavicle; who was now bleeding profusely from his mouth, thanks to her.

“I am, fuckwad. She’s strong and keeps fighting it.”

After they had her completely restrained, at their mercy, they went back to ready themselves for whatever they’d planned to do. One of the men suddenly came at her with a large knife and a cruel smirk on his otherwise handsome face.

Oh, God.

Inside, she cried and pleaded with them not to hurt her. Outside, she said nothing, sickened with her compliance. He lowered the tip of the sharp knife to her breast and circled her areola through the dirty tank. She held her breath, paralyzed with terror.

He teased the knife dragging it down her stomach to the top of her plain cotton panties. His eyes were dark with lust. Tears ran unbidden down her face, into her ears. All of a sudden he flicked the knife expertly upwards and sliced her tank in half, taking her bra with it. There wasn’t a nick on her that she could tell, or feel. He removed her underwear in the same manner, pulling the shreds of clothing out from beneath her prone body.

She was completely naked now, strapped spread eagle on a steel surgical table. She had lain like this for what seemed like an eternity, but probably hadn’t been more than ten or fifteen minutes, before a short, pudgy, balding man with black-rimmed glasses entered the room. He carried a clipboard and was furiously taking notes on it. He looked at her with no emotion, or lust, like the other men. Walking around the table, he regarded her body like she was nothing more than a science experiment.

“Hello. I’m Dr. Marcus Shelton. There’s no reason to be afraid, dear. You are very special to our cause. Cooperate and it won’t hurt. Much.”

Tears flowed freely down her face like a river. “Please just let me go. I won’t tell anyone what happened. I promise.”

“Aw, I’m afraid I can’t do that. We need you.”

The other men in the room started gathering around the table where she was bound. There were five in total. They all began to undress.

“No!!! Please, please … no!!!”

One of them held a syringe of some sort, giving it to the doctor. “John, if you can’t control her, I’m going to have to drug her.”

“I can’t help it, Doc. Bitch keeps breaking through my compulsion.”

“Very well, then.”

Looking at her with what she thought was a slight twinge of sympathy in his eyes, it was quickly gone. Maybe she’d imagined it.

“It’s okay. This will make you feel all better.” He came toward her with the needle and she tried futilely to thrash and fight, but the needle painfully stabbed her arm and warmth spread from the puncture site throughout her bloodstream.

The doctor softly spoke to her again, circling the head of the table. He stroked her hair, whispering in her ear.

“You have been chosen by our Master for a very special cause. Vampire babies can only be conceived and carried in the human female womb.” He sighed and sounded regretful in his next comment. “Unfortunately conception can’t happen through any artificial means. Believe me … I’ve tried.”

As the drug worked its way through her system, she felt herself calm, even with the horrific things he was telling her. Vampires? Babies? What was this psycho talking about?

She now knew she would be brutally raped by several men, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. There was no white knight in shining armor coming to her rescue, like in romance novels. She would be horrifically violated in the worst possible way a woman could be, yet as the drug took hold, she stopped crying and thrashing. She felt fuzzy. Numb. Oddly detached.

He continued to whisper in her ear.

“I hear that sex with a vampire can be very pleasurable, if you let it be. This drug should let you relax enough to enjoy the pleasures these males have to offer you, dear. Let’s just hope that you conceive this month. For your sake. I’ve been preparing you since your arrival here for this very moment. It’s a kindness, actually. Without it, our chances of conception would be virtually nil and this would be far less merciful.”

He continued with his babbling, as if she cared. Conceive? None of it made any sense to her jumbled, drug-hazed brain. This was happening to someone else, not her. Looking around the table, she noticed all of the men, except for the doctor, were now completely nude, their excitement evident. A small, pathetic sob escaped her once again.

The doctor moved to the foot of the table and nodded to scarface, who stepped between her spread legs, his thick erection bobbing.

“Take no blood,” the doctor barked.

As scarface stepped closer, what she saw completely shocked and horrified her even more than what was happening to her body. Scarface’s eyes glowed bright, his incisors long and sharp. Oh God. He
is
a vampire. She looked at the ceiling, closed her eyes and began to pray. They may be able to take her body, but they would take nothing else from her.

When she felt him grab onto her hips, she tried to drift to a place far, far away.

Then she heard commotion and yelling in the background and suddenly scarface’s hands were gone and she was being released from her bonds by one of the largest and most handsome men she’d ever seen. What was happening? Was he taking her for himself? The drugs coursing through her system made it too hard to think. Too hard to care.

Throwing a baggy t-shirt over her naked body, the large man, whom she just knew was also vampire, carried her back to her room and placed her gently on the thin mattress.

“You’ll be safe soon.” He whispered the words so softly she wasn’t sure if he’d actually said it or she’d made it up.

That was the last time anyone attempted to hurt her and two weeks later she was rescued by Dev’s team. To this day, she didn’t know who it was that’d saved her or what had become of him. Yes, he was with the bad guys, but his actions were a definite contradiction to that of someone evil. She wished she’d have gotten the opportunity to thank him but never saw him again.

Guilt ate her insides every day that she was saved and so many others weren’t. Why her? What made her so special that this unknown vampire chose to save her? Why was it that she was now afforded an opportunity to be with this incredible male who so clearly cared for her and most of the other women rescued wouldn’t ever be able to move past the horrific things done to them to even think about a relationship?

That’s what she’d spent the last hour discussing with Kate. Survivor’s guilt, Kate called it. Or a form of it anyway. They’d talked about it often during their sessions over the last few months, and she’d made tremendous progress moving past it. But after meeting Rom, all of those unwelcome feelings came roaring back with an almost suffocating vengeance and she had a difficult time putting the situation into perspective. Kate told her she wasn’t allowing herself to be happy and she was spot on. Why did she deserve happiness?

Did
she?

God, she
wanted
it. Happiness stood right in front of her, in the form of a sinfully handsome, intimidating and erotic warrior. And the irony that she was so drawn to a vampire, when those same creatures were responsible for the worst month of her existence was hard to wrap her head around. While she had no doubt Rom could be a monster if provoked, he was nothing like the ones that had kidnapped her. His heart was pure. His intent to protect, not hurt.

“How was your call with Kate?” The low timbre of his voice penetrated through every pore like a blossoming flower, burrowing deep and taking root within her wounded soul. She smiled inwardly. Just hearing his voice made her feel better.

“It was good.” She hadn’t turned to look at him standing in the doorway, afraid that if she did she’d crumble into a million pieces. The emotional razor blade she balanced on was precarious. One wrong slip and she’d be sliced open, exposing her fragile state to the one person she needed to keep it hidden from.

He walked around in front of the cushioned loveseat where she sat and held out his hand. “Let’s go to bed,” he said softly.

She took a deep breath, turning her head upward to meet his gaze. Instead of the heated pools of desire she thought she’d find, his eyes were filled with so much kindness and love that it was almost her undoing. She fought to control her tears, putting her hand in his and he pulled her gently into his warmth.