Passion Follows Pain (Passion Series Book 3) (25 page)

All I could think about for now was reaching that phone and then it came to me, an idea. The lamp I’d hit him with might also work to reach the phone, so I walked out to the end of my tether again and leaned forward, brandishing the lamp like a sword. Since I’d broken the lamp shade and globe over my father’s head, the bare lamp had some decorative parts that just might hook the phone cord. It was hanging there, taunting me, from when I’d knocked it off it cradle earlier.

I still couldn’t reach it but I thought if I was to lie down I might just do it. I lay down on the worn grey carpet and stretched my arm out that carried the lamp as hard as I could, stretching until I thought my spine would separate, my ankle hurting from where the shackle dug in to my flesh and finally, finally I got the tip of the lamp to brush against the cord.

With a sound that was a half sob, half grunt, I lunged again with the lamp and this time I got the phone cord tangled around it. I pulled and watched the phone tumble off the cupboard, the bell inside protesting when it hit the hard concrete floor where the thin carpet did little to soften the impact.

I pulled it towards me like I was reeling in a fish although I’d never fished in my life and a sob of relief escaped my lips when I finally lifted the phone into my arms. I’d done it; I’d managed to reach it. Now all I had to do was remember Lucian’s number and hope I could ring him.

I wondered where he was, if he knew I’d been taken. I’d like to have thought he was coming for me but one night, one date did not make me his responsibility, did not make me his one true love. Yet somewhere inside I believed he was coming, I had to, but how would he know where to look? How could he ever find me? I had to ring him; it was the only way he would be able to find me. Suddenly my heart dropped. How could Lucian find me? Even I didn’t know where I was. There had to be something in the room with the motel name on it surely?

After scouting around everywhere as much as I could on my tether I realised that the only thing that might have the name on it was a folder over on the cupboard near where the phone had been but I knew I had no chance of getting it. I would have to think of something else. Still, I could ring Lucian that much I could do. I’d worry about finding out the motel name once I’d called him.

I sat down and took a couple of deep breaths, clearing my mind as well as I could of all that had happened, picturing the note that Lucian had slipped in my purse last night. I thought about what it said, the numbers he’d written down for me, and as I pictured it I began to dial with fingers that shook.

I listened to it ring, my heart thumping as I waited for it to be answered. I silently begged for it to be the right number, and just when I thought no one was going to answer it, I heard an abrupt, very impatient voice snap down the line. “What?” He sounded angry, really angry but I didn’t care, I just sagged with relief. It was Lucian.

Chapter Sixteen

Lucian

“Can’t you drive faster sire?” Lucian asked impatiently. “We must hurry, I feel something’s happened. He’s hurt her, that bastard has hurt her. We have to get to her, please hurry.”

Lucian was sure Arissa had been hurt, that she’d been subjected to her father’s sexual abuse. The image of her lying on a bed with her father on top of her going at her had filled his head, and it had been so clear it had made him cry out, his voice filled with anguish, with distress, like a wounded animal.

It had to be her blood. The few times he’d fed from her had given him enough of a blood tie to her that he could feel some of her emotions. Since that had happened a couple of hours ago, he was desperate to get to her now. The sun was starting to set so it would be their time soon, the darkness that was their comfort, but he felt an even greater sense of urgency to get to her because the darkness could be dangerous for her, very dangerous.

Suddenly his mobile phone rang, startling him and he pulled it out of his pocket staring down at it. He didn’t recognise the number and he went to divert the call to his voicemail, not wanting any pointless conversations now but at the last moment, changed his mind and answered it.

With his patience bordering on next to none, he hit the connect button and snapped down the line, figuring anyone just wanting to waste his time would probably be put off by his tone and hang up. “What?” He growled and waited for the click to indicate they’d hung up but there was nothing.

“Hello?” He tried again but all he got back was the sound of breathing over the line. Great, a prank call now of all times. His finger hovered over the disconnect button ready to end this time wasting call when a voice tentatively spoke to him down the line and he froze, his stomach instantly tightening.

“Hello? Lucian? It’s...it’s me, Arissa.” She said hesitantly and sudden tears burned in his eyes at the sound of her sweet soft voice.

“Oh god baby?  Baby where are you?” Even he could hear the relief in his voice. She was alive, she was fucking alive.

“I don’t know. I can’t find a name for this motel and I can’t leave. Father has me shackled to the bed.”

“Where’s your father now?” He asked, keeping his tone soft since she sounded very emotional. He needed to keep her calm, reassure her, although when she was god knows where, with a violent abusive asshole, how could he reassure her, convince her it would be ok?

“He’s on the bed unconscious, but I don’t know how much longer he’ll stay like that. I have nothing to tie him up with.”

Lucian frowned at her words. What had happened? “What do you mean your father is unconscious?”

“I smashed him over the head with a lamp but he’s come around once already and I had to knock him out again. I’m not sure how long I can keep doing this for. I’m so scared Lucian.” She whispered and he felt his stomach clench at the sound of the tears in her voice.

Sirene turned and whispered to him. “Keep her on the line, I can pinpoint where she is by using a spell to tap into the phone.”

“God baby, you’re so brave. We’re coming for you but we couldn’t get an exact location on you. Sirene did a location spell which got us headed in the right direction but that was all. She will try to find your location again but you need to stay on the line ok?”

“Ok Lucian, please hurry.”

“We are baby, we are. You are such a brave, strong woman. Hang on just a little bit longer.” He told her, looking up when Sirene suddenly started scribbling something on a piece of paper. She held it up to him and he grinned. It was the motel name, she’d done it.

“Baby we’ve got the name and we’re close now only about 10 or 15 minutes so hang in there ok?”

“Ok.” She said but then he heard her cry out and he could hear a man’s voice in the background. She cried out again, a sound of pain and Lucian growled, his fangs descending with his rage. The bastard had come to and was hurting her. No, don’t let him hurt her. Not before they got to her. He couldn’t bear it if they were too late, just by minutes but every minute counted, he knew that.  

“For fuck sakes Fabian, drive this fucking thing faster; her father’s awake and hurting her, hurry before we’re too late.” He yelled not caring that he was disrespecting his sire and that never went down well with him.

“Lucian!” She screamed her voice distressed, frantic and then the line went dead.

“NO! No, no, no!” He cried out, his tone anguished and not caring that he was in the presence of his sire and Sirene, he dropped his head into his hands feeling his tears seeping between his fingers. He was so fucking scared they wouldn’t make it in time and he raised his head briefly, begging Fabian to drive faster.

Arissa

“Lucian!” I screamed just before my father ripped the phone away from me and with one sharp tug, he pulled the lead out of the wall.

“You fucking little bitch, you whore. Look what you’ve done to me. Look.” He yelled, spittle flying from his mouth and spraying me in the face. He had his hands up to his head before lowering them again, flashing his fingers in my face so I could see the blood.

He looked terrible with the blood oozing from a couple of head wounds and his nose crooked and swollen. Unfortunately I hadn’t knocked him out well enough, and now he’d managed to take me by surprise and had come to while I was on the phone to Lucian.

“You’ve done it now girl. You’ve really done it now attacking your own father like that and for what? What did I do that deserved a bloody lamp to the head? You’re going to pay missy, believe me.” He climbed off the bed and came towards me.

I backed up eyeing him off warily but there was nowhere for me to go and when I hit the end of my tether chain I waited to see what he was going to do. He advanced on me, his expression terrifying. There was so much rage and something else I couldn’t work out but it scared me, it terrified me, that look in his eyes.

Suddenly he raised his arm and swung. I tried to duck but he got me, the back of his hand slamming into my face and I felt pain explode over my left eye. I cried out, falling to the floor, wanting it to open up and take me away, to save me from more of my father’s wrath. It didn’t happen though and I cowered as he bent down and grabbed my hair, hauling me to my feet. He dragged me over to the bed, flinging me down and with a sharp angry tug; he ripped my panties off me.

I groaned, my body nothing but a mass of aches and pains, my vision blurred on the side where he’d just hit me. Frantically, needing to know where he was, I tried to focus on him, but everything was starting to become hazy. God don’t let me pass out, I couldn’t pass out, not now, not while father was punishing me.

I heard a whistling sound and screamed when something sliced into my side, searing pain like a branding iron causing me to buck up from my position on the bed. Through my blurred vision I could see my father was brandishing his belt and I closed my eyes, waiting for the next blow.

It didn’t come; instead I felt his weight settle on me, his cock hard and pushing between my legs. I moaned, in too much pain to fight, everything too hazy to struggle, but just when I felt his invasion of my body, there was a noise, like a door, then voices and suddenly the weight of my father was gone. I tried to look and see what was happening, but it was too hard. I couldn’t see properly, everything was cloudy and the pain was so intense. I didn’t know what was happening but I suspected that Lucian had arrived. I tried to see, I struggled past the clouded vision and the agonising pain that consumed every part of me. I just couldn’t fight it any more though and with a tiny sigh, I let the darkness claim me.

Lucian

When they pulled up at the motel where Arissa’s father was holding her, it didn’t take them long to work out which room she was in. They could hear the noises, the sounds of crying and a man yelling.

Fabian burst through the door first. One of the advantages of motels, they didn’t need to be invited in first to gain access as hotels, motels, any form of accommodation were neutral ground.

Lucian followed hot on his sire’s heels and when his eyes fell on the scene before him, he cried out, a loud, guttural kind of battle cry and lunged at the man who lay on Arissa, rutting like some sort of animal. He grabbed him by the back of the neck and ripped him off her. The bastard screamed with shock and fell to the floor when Lucian released him. As he cowered on the thin grey carpet he took one look at Lucian’s face and began to hastily try and back up, sliding on his ass. Lucian simply reached down, pulled him up until they were face to face. He even managed to crack a small smile when he saw the damage done to the prick’s face by Arissa, before he drew his fist back and watched with an almost detached kind of fascination as it connected with the nose of her father. He smiled again when the man screamed and blood sprayed out everywhere. Normally he might have been drawn to the blood, perhaps even sampled it, but there was no way in hell he wanted anything to do with the blood from this man, this animal, this bastard who had abused his own daughter for most of her life. All Lucian wanted with the prick’s blood was the pleasure of seeing it flowing freely from his body, to watch him bleed out. Now that would bring him a great deal of satisfaction.  

“Don’t kill him son.” Fabian warned him and Lucian abandoned Arissa’s father and rushed to the bed where Sirene was gently brushing her blonde hair back from her face.

“My god, look at what that bastard’s done to her. How? How the fuck does a father do that to his own daughter?” Lucian climbed gently onto the bed where Arissa lay. “Baby, can you hear me?” He asked softly. “Arissa, we’re here, open your eyes. I’m so sorry we didn’t get here sooner but we tried. Come on, please, open your eyes.”

He looked down at her face which was almost not recognisable to him. Her hair was matted with blood. One cheek was swollen and bruised, her left eye swollen shut, there were various cuts and abrasions on her face and her lip was split and bleeding.

She was wearing a nightgown, probably the one she’d put on last night before she’d gone to answer the door and been taken by her father. It was splattered with blood and he could see it had adhered itself to a bloody wound beneath it.  

Gently he lifted the fabric wincing when it peeled off a nasty looking long wound that sliced across her side and stomach. It was about two inches wide and he wondered what the hell the bastard had used on her. When he noticed the impression in her skin of a buckle, only then did Lucian notice the belt lying on the floor with blood coating parts of the leather.