Thicker than Blood (30 page)

As I explored the area, weaving around
buildings, going farther than we’d ventured last night, I was
surprised to discover that Purgatory was even larger than we’d
first thought. There were pathways everywhere, leading between
buildings, and something was happening at every turn, on every
corner.

It was overwhelming at first, especially
after being on our own with only endless miles of nothingness
surrounding us. Even back in Fredericksville, it hadn’t been like
this. Things were quiet and organized there, everything and
everyone in their rightful place. This was far different, an
organized sort of chaos. It was noisy and smelly and crazy, filled
with so many people from different walks of life, all simply trying
to survive.

Suddenly, I found myself no longer angry with
them, not even at the men staring at me as I passed them. Instead,
I shared a sense of common ground. None of us had anything left,
and we were all doing what we could to make this life somewhat
worth it—worth living through the horror, even if that meant using
the only thing we had left to barter with. Men had their fists;
women had their bodies. We used, we abused, just like in the old
world, but at least here, this seemed to be accomplished with some
element of control. At least here it was an honest and up-front way
of life. They didn’t hide what they were or what they wanted, not
like in Fredericksville where everything was done behind closed
doors. Here there was no upper class, no middle class, and no lower
class, we were all on equal footing, and there was a surprisingly
strange comfort in that fact.

Stopping, I stared at the small bodies of
animals roasting on top of a metal barrel that had been fitted with
a grill, flames burning low from inside its depths. Their fur had
been stripped, revealing the soft, meaty flesh beneath, and the
scent coming off their quickly crisping bodies was utterly
delectable.

Behind the barrel, both a man and woman were
working the grill, flipping the animals, replacing the fully cooked
with new pink meat. I watched them work for a moment, noticing that
the woman had a similar brand on her wrist, as well as a wedding
ring on her finger. She was pretty in a basic sort of way, clean
and pale, with long brown hair tied back in a low ponytail.

“You from the wild?” she asked, her voice
surprisingly rough, like that of a pack-a-day chain-smoker.

“The wild?” I asked, hungrily staring down at
the meat. Jeffers had said something similar, but I had no idea
what he’d meant.

“Out there,” the man answered and glanced
behind me, past the electrified fences, beyond the gates. “The
wild.”

He was clean shaven, and I could see the
small scars that covered both his chin and neck. He watched me a
moment, looking thoughtful while running his tongue along the edge
of crooked yellow teeth.

“Oh,” I replied. “Yeah, I am.”

“How is it?” the woman asked, her hands still
busy working the grill. She was in the process of skinning a rat,
deftly freeing its wrinkled skin from its little body, revealing
the muscle underneath, and placed the fur in a neat pile with the
rest. “Is it still—”

“You know it is,” the man interrupted her
gruffly, giving her a hard glare. “Don’t ask stupid questions.” He
turned to me, his irritation evident. “You buying?”

“I, um, how do I buy something?” Rat or not,
I was famished. “I don’t have anything.”

“Then you ain’t buying,” he replied harshly,
turning his attention to the small crowd that had formed behind me.
As my stomach continued to growl, the woman threw me an apologetic
glance before resuming her work.

Wishing I had pockets to sulkily shove my
hands into, I stepped away, resuming my walk.

I passed by clothing stalls, homemade jewelry
for sale, accoutrements of all kinds, even little corner cafés that
boasted homebrewed beer. At the mere thought of a cold beer, of the
frothy liquid running down my throat, my mouth began to water.

“Hey!” a deep gravelly voice called out from
behind me. “Hey, woman!”

A heavy hand landed on my shoulder and I
flinched. Snatching the hand that was holding me, I twisted it,
pushing backward. Jumping away and spinning around, I found the
bearded man from last night stumbling backward. As he caught his
balance, all the while glaring at me, I noticed the food in his
hand—two grilled rats on skewers.

“Oh shit,” I mumbled. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t
know. I’m a little jumpy.”

Snickers erupted all around us, making the
man’s already deadly expression darken. Angrily, he thrust a cooked
rat in my direction, grunting at me to take it. And I wanted to, I
really did, but how could I? How could I trust him? Nothing was
free, not anymore. Not even what appeared to be a simple act of
kindness.

But I was hungry, God, I was so hungry. Yet
this man didn’t seem like the type of person I’d want to owe
anything to.

“I’m not hungry,” I lied, holding his stare,
though my eyes were burning with the need to look away.

“Eat it,” he grumbled. “You’re too skinny.”
He dropped his eyes, purposefully raking his heavy gaze up and down
my body, and again thrusting out the rat in offering. I stared at
it, at the fat dripping from its body over this man’s thick, dirty
fingers, making them glisten in the sunlight. Then I looked up into
his face, wondering what hands like his could do, the sort of
painful damage they could inflict.

“I said I’m not hungry,” I repeated, holding
my chin high, yet my voice was a mere whisper.

His beard twitched as he fought the urge to
smile. “You the fighter, right?” he asked. “New girl from the
wild?”

Still staring up at him, I could only nod in
response.

“Then I need you to eat, because I’ll be
betting on you.” Grinning, he fixed his eyes on mine as he took a
bite of one rat, sinking his teeth into the flesh, easily tearing
the meat away from the small bones. I decided then that his grin
made him handsome, though not a typical sort of handsome like Alex.
No, this man looked far too menacing to be considered simply
handsome.

“I’m someone else’s,” I said and flashed him
my brand as Alex had last night, suddenly glad to have it there.
“As you know.”

“I’m aware,” he said flatly, and again thrust
the meat toward me.

My stomach decided to take that very moment
to growl loudly, something this man found extremely amusing. His
mouth still full of rat, he began to chuckle. “Just take the damn
food, woman. I won’t ask you again.”

My stomach burning with hunger, I relented
and accepted the rat. But just as I brought it to my mouth, ready
to tear into it, he spoke again.

“You better win for me, Wildcat.” Tossing me
another grin, he turned and walked off.

“It’s Evelyn,” I yelled after him
obstinately. “Not fucking Wildcat.”

I stared after him for a moment before
realizing I still had food in my hand, and instantly the man was
forgotten. Biting into the rat, the taste of well-cooked meat
exploding in my mouth, I groaned loudly. Ravenous, I took another
bite, then another, smiling as I wiped an errant drop of grease
that found its way to my chin, then sucked on my finger. Soon, I
had nothing left but a pair of greasy hands and a small pile of
bones.

Pleasantly full, I walked on, searching out a
garbage can or some other means of disposing of the bones.

“A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the
hips,” a breathy voice announced from behind me.

I jumped and turned around, coming
face-to-face with a woman in a darkened doorway, her body looking
somewhat distorted by the shadows.

“I’m Dori,” she said as a wide smile grew
across her full pink lips. A dainty hand slipped free of the
darkness in offering, and I took it. Her gaze dropped to my brand,
and still holding tightly to my hand, she nodded. “Seems
fresh.”

“It is,” I told her. “I just got here.”
Trying to pull my hand free, I found her grip oddly strong and
unrelenting.

“That’s a shame,” she said, finally releasing
me. Her own hand still lingered in the air between us, her gaze
dropping to the bones in my other hand. Smiling broadly, she
gestured for me to hand them over. With a frown, I did, watching as
she greedily sucked the marrow from the small bones, reminding me
of myself only moments ago.

Uncomfortable, I moved to leave, and it was
only then that I was able to finally see her, all of her as the
remaining sunlight pierced the shadows. She was nearly naked, her
top so sheer I could see her two rosebud nipples peeking through.
My eyes traveled lower, then widened considerably.

“Don’t judge,” she said, then wheeled herself
forward and into view.

“I wasn’t, I…I…” I was desperately trying not
to stare at the empty space where her legs should have been, but
the more I tried to look away, the longer I found myself
staring.

“Sure you were,” she said with a laugh. “It’s
okay. I’m just lucky that I still have a hole for these assholes to
fill.” She laughed again, a dainty chuckle that matched her dainty
hands and pretty face.

Realization slapped me in the face. A hole
for them to fill…and my stomach began to churn.

“Ain’t much a girl like me is good for in a
place like this, but you’d be surprised what men like these days.”
She grinned again, and I suddenly felt downright sick. My newly
digested rat was quickly turning to stone in the pit of my
belly.

I struggled to think of a reply, the silence
between us uncomfortably awkward. “What did you do before?” I
blurted out, instantly wishing I could take the words back.

“I was a professional cheerleader,” she
answered, unbothered by my question. She laughed again, louder this
time, as if her answer was the funniest thing she’d ever said, and
I couldn’t help but laugh with her. If I hadn’t laughed, I probably
would have cried.

In the midst of our laugher, a shadow fell
over me, and I turned to find a man sidling up beside me. He was
slim, not just the half-starved look of some of the men around
here, but really thin, his skin pockmarked and greasy. As he looked
me up and down, a leery smile arose on his face.

“Uh-uh.” Dori chastised him immediately. “Not
this one, Steven, this one’s claimed.” In a flash, his smile
vanished, replaced quickly with a frown.

“Baby, don’t pout,” she crooned. “You know I
always take good care of you. What did you bring me today?”

He held up a small filthy bottle of water,
though I couldn’t tell if it was actually water inside or if the
bottle was just that dirty.

“And?” Dori asked with a soft smile.

Outstretching his other hand, he revealed a
small packet of white powder. A greedy, eager smile lit up his
features.

“Perfect,” Dori purred, pulling open her
blouse.

Steven’s eyes were now solely on her, glazing
over as his tongue darted out to slide slowly across his bottom
lip. When I glanced back to Dori, I found her hand had disappeared
somewhere beneath the layers of fabric pooling at her waist. As he
pushed past me, Steven slyly rubbed a hand across my backside, and
then together, the two of them disappeared inside the building.

I stared after them a moment, still sick to
my stomach.

“What the fuck have we gotten ourselves
into?” I muttered to myself.

Leisel

“You’ll do,” Bethany said as she lifted her chin and
sniffed the air around me. “At least you don’t smell like week-old
garbage anymore.”

Narrowing my eyes, I turned away from the
girl before she could see the snarl twisting my lips. It was bad
enough that in only a few short minutes I would be dancing for a
crowd of drunken perverts. I didn’t need to add complications with
my coworkers into the mix. While Bethany wasn’t a dancer, she would
still be working the crowd, giving it up to whoever could afford
her.

Surveying the crowded dressing room, which
was more or less a broom closet, I found my reflection in one of
three full-length mirrors lined up against the back wall.
Swallowing back a wave of nervousness, I ran my hands down the
sheer material covering my body. It was supposed to be a dress, but
in reality it was more like half a dress. Although the sleeves were
long and the neck was high, the flimsy, nearly see-through black
mesh barely covered my backside. Underneath it I was wearing a
matching bra and thong made of finely scalloped lace I’d been
given, both a deep shade of red. All in all, combined with my
freshly washed hair that was brushed to shiny perfection, and my
smoky eyes and matching red lipstick, it was a very sexual look.
Sexy even, without being overly slutty…if it were something I’d be
sharing with only one man, not an entire room full.

However, I had a plan, a little trick I’d
learned thanks to Lawrence’s cruelty. It had happened by accident
at first, during one of his many beatings. I’d just suddenly
slipped away, finding myself emotionally and mentally detached from
my body, as if I were watching the abuse instead of experiencing it
firsthand. I planned to apply that same method, escaping my here
and now, to my dancing tonight. I would close my eyes, find a happy
memory somewhere deep inside me, and use that as my rock, as my
anchor that would see me through.

“Dancers! Get ready to take your places!”

An older woman called Mattie, with long black
hair heavily intermixed with sparkling strands of silver, clapped
her hands together in earnest. She was, for lack of a better word,
my boss, and more importantly, the madam of Purgatory. She handled
all of the women, more or less, responsible for designating them to
certain areas of the complex to sell themselves. She also
distributed the girls’ payment, as well as clothing and
accessories, pretty much all the things an old-world madam had
done, Mattie did as well.