Chapter Twenty-Four
Gwen
Word reached us that we’d won the battle, but the news came with a list of people we’d lost. There were too many dead, but this is always the case in war.
Few Strigorii vampires would mourn the loss of the Alpha Werewolf, and yet, we wanted to give moral support to his twin brother, Duke, the President of the RTMC.
Ajax led a group of wolves in Abbott’s security team to the coterie house — a forward team to make sure it was safe for some of us to return.
I was in his head the whole time, observing without interfering.
The team’s forward portion made it to the basement, and to the people in the side room.
These were the most expendable of those under Abbott’s protection.
We’d run so short of saferoom space after multiple sites were bombed, we’d had to house some here.
This group hadn’t been in contact with anyone until Ajax showed up, and they cheered at the news we’d won.
Those under Abbott’s protection had arrived at dozens of safehouses over a two-week time period, an SUV at a time. They could leave faster, so within hours, chartered buses arrived to move most everyone out of the shelter areas.
We were told we must stay, however. Fawn put Kieran and me into Abbott’s suite shortly before dawn. Ajax assured us he’d stay nearby until we awakened, and I knew he’d die before he left us without a guard.
* * * *
Ajax
I felt the sun come over the horizon. Or rather, I felt the Doyles fade.
Whatever animated them was gone. Strigorii don’t sleep during the day.
They die at dawn and are reanimated once the energy of the sun dissipates enough.
The strongest awaken around three or four in the evening, the weakest don’t rise until the sun dips below the horizon and is completely gone from sight. Most fall somewhere between.
Thankfully, both Kieran and Gwen are strong, and this time of year I expected they’d be down around eight hours. I was exhausted, but I’d sleep when they rose.
The basement den’s television currently showed all security monitors on the property.
I could sit on one of the sofas and keep an eye on the door to Abbott’s suite as well as the grounds.
I could also see everyone who came and went via the staircase.
There’s another way in and out, but few people know about it, and it involves moving furniture to get to it.
I could see that wall as well. The booby traps were set behind it, so anyone trying to get in would be killed.
Still, I felt better with my eyes on both potential ingresses.
The wolf guards were on the stairs, at the top, and all around the property. They were blood bound to Abbott and completely trustworthy. No one else with a beating heart was downstairs. Just me and Arabella, and she was exhausted.
“Stretch out on the sofa and sleep,” I told her. “With any luck, the next eight or so hours will be boring.”
“I can’t sleep while you have to be awake and alert. I need to keep you company.”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve been trained for this — how to stay alert in any circumstance, even extreme lack of sleep.
Most of my training from my former Master was in the skills needed to be a top-notch bodyguard.
This is what I’m best at. Please, Arabella, stretch out and take a nap.
” When she didn’t move, I told her, “I can order it, if that will make it easier for you to obey.”
She walked to the other sofa and stretched out, but she clearly wasn’t happy about it. “I’m too wound up to go to sleep.”
“Then we’ll talk. What do you think I most need to understand about you?”
“That I’ve always been a slave. My biological maternal unit sold her eggs to the slavers.
I was hatched in an incubator and raised as a slave.
Swanlings don’t need to be fed with a bottle.
The handlers only need to float the food on the water, and even day-old swans can eat without help.
We were kept in swan form the vast majority of the time for the first five years of our lives.
When we first started spending a lot of time in human form, we were preschool and kindergarten age, depending upon the jobs we’d be heading for.
We spent long days in classrooms, learning to speak, and for some, basic reading skills.
By the time I was seven, I had a job. Folding laundry, at first, but then I was sent to the onion fields at eleven, and I worked there until Sophia took the crown.
” A sigh. “I didn’t know how old I was when I was living it.
A therapist told me my history, along with the ages everything happened.
The former king’s people kept good records, at least.”
She took a few breaths, and I had the feeling she was deciding how much to share.
I didn’t press. After a few moments, she continued.
“As with all of the children, we were periodically sold to someone who wanted a virgin. After the first time, we weren’t virgins anymore, of course, but by only selling us a half-dozen or so times a year, I guess we acted the same way a virgin would act, and we were ordered to lie and tell the customer it was our first time. ”
“My master did the same. I suppose that’s a common sham.”
“Probably. Basically, I wasn’t a child sex slave, I was a child slave, but I was sold as a virgin more times than I can count.
I think I was five or six the first time.
I was still learning to speak. They always changed me soon after, which meant one of my handlers had to rape me, too, except then, I had to enjoy it, which was.
..” She shook her head and shuddered. “I guess changing me afterwards probably kept me as close to a virgin physically as possible.”
I’d never been forced to enjoy those childhood rapes.
I couldn’t imagine how much that must’ve screwed with her psyche.
I didn’t speak my thoughts out loud, though.
It felt as if she’d feel better if I shared something, too.
She’d given me a lot, and it couldn’t have been easy, so it was only fair I give her the same.
“I was taken from foster care. I believe I was in first grade, so I’d have been six, probably.
The focus was on building muscles, so I worked on a variety of farms. I know how to raise cows and pigs, and I know how to grow corn, barley, and spinach.
I was moved from farm to farm depending on the season — wherever they needed heavy lifting.
The goal was to build muscles and endurance.
Eventually, they sent me to an academy to learn martial arts, and then a school so I could learn the skills I’d need in order to be personal bodyguard to a Master Vampire. ”
“And he controlled you. Completely. There was no danger of you turning on him. You’d have died before you let anything happen to him.”
“Yes. Gavin took him down when I’d been sent to another wing to be a plaything to one of his visiting guests.
I wasn’t there to protect him. It took me a few months to get past that.
At first, even though I had to respect Master Abbott and Gavin, I hated them both, all the way down in my guts.
On Abbott’s orders, Gavin had killed the man I’d sworn allegiance to.
Eventually, I came to respect Master Abbott as a good person.
Honorable. I follow him now because I choose to, not because I’m forced.
I mean, I know the blood bond is there, but I’d have this respect for him even if it wasn’t. ”
“I wasn’t sure what to think of Queen Sophia, at first. She took over the Kingdom from her father.
She was supposed to marry one man, but then she escaped, married another, and staged a coup.
Or, that was the way it looked to the people who managed me, and I didn’t hear anyone else’s gossip or opinions.
” She pushed a stray hair away from her face and behind an ear.
“Her father had owned me, and now she did, but I knew nothing about her. Everything was out of whack. It was a scary time. Once I saw her, even from a distance, I felt like everything would be okay. I can’t really explain it.
I never expected to meet her in person, but she spent a few minutes with every slave.
Some of us got longer than a few minutes.
She asked us what we wanted, and then told us she couldn’t make any promises, but that our wishes were noted, and she was putting people in charge who’d try to make it happen. ”
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her I didn’t know what I wanted. I’d always been a slave, and I didn’t know how to be anything else. I’d like to be in service to someone kind, but I didn’t want to have to make decisions. She said it sounded like I knew what I wanted. I guess she was right.”
“I don’t think I’m always kind, Arabella.”
“That’s okay. I mean, the definition of a slave is someone who doesn’t get a say.
Someone who’s there to be whatever their owner requires.
Also, if you always get what you want, I don’t think that’s a slave.
You have to be shown your place sometimes or it doesn’t feel right.
I talked to the Dragon King about this. He understands.
He said Abbott would be able to give me what I needed. ”
“Then we’ll see if they think I can give that to you. It’s possible you need to go back to Abbott. That will make me sad, personally, but I want what’s best for you.”
“I hope I get to stay with the three of you.” She sat up.
“There’s more. I didn’t think I wanted to tell anyone, but you should know.
The people who worked the onion farm were put on a bus and taken to a brothel — we worked the fields three days, then the brothel one day.
We weren’t sex slaves, though. It wasn’t that kind of brothel.
We were blindfolded and gagged — bit gags with an extra piece to hold the tongue down, to make sure we couldn’t talk. ”
She fiddled with her hair, clearly deciding how much to tell me.
Again, I gave her time. She looked at the table between us, her eyes down to tell me the rest. “Some of us were bound leaned over a platform with our butts up in the air, others were tied into a swing thing, some were flat on our back with our legs out to the side and in the air, situated so people walked up to us to use our holes while they stood, others were in the same position on low platforms, so the customer laid on us or over us when they used us. Our arms were always bound, too. We spent four hours in each position, with ten minutes to drink a disgusting high calorie concoction and empty our bladder before we went to the next position. They cleaned us out with enemas the night before, so that wasn’t an issue.
The brothel was open sixteen hours a day.
A constant stream of customers. One after another, but we didn’t have to do anything.
We weren’t sex slaves. We were objects. There was zero training for this.
Anyone who caused a problem was severely beaten and then not fed for days, but they still had to work the fields if they didn’t want to be beaten again. ”
“Come here.”
She stood and walked to me, and I pulled her into my lap. She let me cradle her and hold her. It seemed important I see her right then. The person. The swan. Her.
“Thank you for trusting me with your story. I will always see you, Arabella. You’ll never be a thing to me.”
“Sex toy training was so much harder, but it was fulfilling. I want you to use me for your pleasure. We were allowed to orgasm at the brothel, and I did, sometimes. There were no rules about it. Our overseers didn’t care one way or another.
I think some of the customers got off on knowing we did, but most probably didn’t care.
” She sighed. “I’m not saying this right.
During sex toy training — the part where you have to learn not to orgasm without permission — I learned how to control it and hold it back for everything except being objectified, and I had these mega-explosive orgasms for that.
No way to hold them back. I don’t see objectification as a bad thing.
You should use me however you want. Part of the training was supposed to identify triggers a future owner or employer should avoid, so they’d know before they paid for me.
I don’t have any. There’s a list of things I need more training for, but nothing to avoid. ”
“What do you need more training for?”
“Deep throating. I can do it okay, but they weren’t able to fully get rid of my gag reflex.
We didn’t have to give blow jobs at the brothel.
I guess that’s something you have to be taught, and we weren’t trained.
Also, the thing about not being able to hold back an orgasm when I’m objectified or blindfolded.
Oh, and I can’t be quiet when I’m flogged or spanked or whipped.
I scream and I can’t help it. There’s more.
I can’t remember everything. I suck at strip teases. ”
She seemed ready to stop talking about it, so I asked, “Did you grow onions year-round? What did you do between planting and harvesting?”
“Spinach. Cauliflower. Carrots. Not as much acreage for those, but I guess they had the timing down so there was always work for us. During our busiest times they brought more people in, but they just worked the farm, they didn’t go to the brothel, so it was still every fourth day.
Honestly? Sometimes it felt like a rest day. ”
I held her while we talked, and she eventually fell asleep. I moved her to the other sofa and found a throw to put over her.