Chapter 11
She became accustomed to waking unpredictably for reasons other than having had enough sleep.
Ever since the night Candy had been taken, Mindy slept waiting for Pan to come for her.
The fact that she had raised no alarm, questioned no one but the other women in the harem, that might have something to do with his continued non-appearance.
If he'd meant to upset her, he had. But she didn't let it show.
There were cries in the night, often. Sometimes it was a harem girl being assaulted by a Vampyren.
Other times it was a girl giving as good as she got.
There were fights between the women – it only made sense when there were so many of them jammed into a few floors of hotel with no respite from each other.
There were nightmares and night terrors. It was a whole new world and it was not a friendly one.
But less than one week after she'd started working as a server, bringing food and wine and blood to the generals and colonels, or the Vampyren equivalent, her new tattoo still stinging and scabbing but marking her as a servant who could, for then, be trusted, she woke because someone was in her suite.
Her first blurry, sleep sodden thought was that Candy had been returned.
Shoving back the sheets she threw herself over the edge of the bed, not giving thought to the tiny nightgown she wore.
Sleeping in t-shirts or shorts or sweats wasn't allowed.
They were harem. They were to be beautiful.
If they woke to a Vampyren in their room, they were to be grateful that he wasn't there to kill them.
It was drummed into their heads as they ran laps or sat for manicures and pedicures that were, after all, on the menu, to such extent they were less luxury and more annoyance.
The be grateful mantra didn't take. They were angry and seeking a way out. The Might as well stay for now had gone the instant Candy had. The job she'd taken was with a mind of finding something to do with the information. Somehow.
Now she ran into the main room of the suite and stopped short.
It had been nearly a month since she'd seen Alek and now she barely recognized him. He crouched on the floor beside the sofa, looking half dead and mortally wounded, looking lost and as close to frightened as she'd seen a Vampyren look.
She didn't give it thought. She ran to him and threw herself down on the floor beside him, recoiling when she realized he was soaking wet, shining, glistening, dripping with blood.
"What happened?" There was raw horror in her voice and even being human and him a vampire she couldn't restrain the emotion.
It was for him. It was fear for him, not of him.
He startled as if he hadn't known she was there. His head had been down in the circle of his arms where they went round his knees. The blood stained the carpet and where his back had brushed up against the sofa.
"It's not my blood," he said.
But by then she'd already figured that out.
"You're not hurt." She said it as a statement but there was still question there. There was still fear there she didn't want to admit to.
He laughed. "No. But I believe the human phrase is, You should see the other guy."
She filed that away, wondering if they were watching movies. Netflix and cheer for the aliens from outer space. It was weird enough.
"Do you want to – " Her voice trailed off because she honestly didn't know what he wanted. Vampyren were strange at night, their violent, bestial side released. Had he come here to hurt her?
Or was he looking for help?
Or was being covered in what, for him, was food, even something that he'd want help for?
When he didn't look up again, she asked, "What can I do for you?" her heart pounding out of step with what that question should have meant. And then, "Do you want to get cleaned up?"
He gave a short, hard laugh, reminding her again how infrequently any of the invaders did anything remotely like laughing. "I shouldn't. I've had my fill to drink and yet I should look at washing this off as a waste."
Her eyes widened as he looked up, his words sinking into her, and her hand went hard over her mouth as she fought back nausea.
To her surprise, he said, "I shouldn't have said that. I forget that what's food to us isn't the same as if you were to be covered in – " he paused, then gave her the smallest of smiles. "Pizza."
That made her laugh for real. "For one thing, there'd be cheese and dough and sauce, not just – " Pause and decide on a word that wouldn't make her want to retch. "Liquid."
"Yes." But he wasn't looking at her. He rose, suddenly, without changing position, just used his leg muscles to push himself up from a cross-legged position to standing. "There was a hunt."
She didn't want to hear any more. At the same time, she couldn't ask him to leave and she didn't want to go away from him.
Stupid or not, she felt safer with him there.
When she fumbled for something to say, a question to ask, he glanced at her and away.
He paced, his bare feet leaving bloody prints on the carpet.
"There were humans trying to run."
"To where?" she blurted out. "Your people have the whole fucking planet!"
He looked at her like he might argue that, which made her heart pound, which he could probably hear. Well, so what? She was human. Of course she'd be interested in how much of her planet was in the hands of the Vampyren.
"There are always places to run to. Places where a little mouse can hide." He scowled and paced to the window. "We chased them down. Two units of men. There was plenty for everyone because they'd decided there was safety in numbers."
He was standing with his back to her, looking out the windows at the city beyond, and Mindy understood he could see her reflected in the window just like she could see a blurry fainter image of him and knew he was watching her.
She managed not to react, to only look down at the stained carpet that would have to be cleaned.
But in her mind she thought, there’s no safety in numbers, it's safer if you run to run alone, or at most, two of you, if only I can find Candy, but why is he telling me this? In one long, scared, confusing wail.
She had no intention of running.
She'd had no intention of running.
Until he'd said that.
When he didn't go on, she said quietly, "Tell me what happened." as if she had the right to request anything of him.
His shoulders shrugged. "We caught them. We killed them. There is discipline to be maintained. There are rules that have to be followed. And those who are prisoners are not free to change their minds about how they want to live." He was watching her directly now, his back to the window.
"Or if," Mindy said, knowing what she was saying and not caring. The constant struggle to stay alive while living in a cage of predators was exhausting. Sometimes she slipped.
"Yes."
She almost asked him then, why did you come here? But there was something bleak about him, not the usual cold of the Vampyren but something hurt. She didn't want to ask him. No matter whether it was her place to question him or not, she didn't want to sound like she wanted him to go.
She did. Of course.
Of course she did.
But.
"Come here." If he objected to her telling him what to do then he could figure out how to respond without her input. He'd woken her from a confused sleep and now she was awake, at least one of them should get something out of it.
She held her hand out and he came toward her as if commanded. He took her biceps rather than her hand, but she thought that was normal for him. If it wasn't what they did on his planet, then it was only because he was used to guiding prisoners, not accompanying someone willing.
In the bathroom she turned the shower to hot, tempering it only to find a heat level she could bear before turning to help him out of his clothes.
This seemed normal to him, the servant helping him divest his garments, and he allowed it without comment.
She followed suit, not that it took long to drop the tiny silken nothing to the floor.
She picked it up and hung it before he could insist. She hated lingerie and longed for her sweats.
The sweats she did have were limited in use to only a few hours a day when she was supposed to be improving her mind reading works of literature she could entertain the Vampyren with.
Very often she slept instead. The vamps could entertain themselves.
Now she led him toward the shower, her eyes going at once to the beauty and bounty of his naked body. His cock stirred under her watchful gaze and she allowed herself a smile at that as she took his hand.
"Is this an Earth custom?"
The water was already flowing red off of him, and some parts she could see the blood had dried and would require some scrubbing.
"Showering or showering together?" He could mean either. She had no idea how they cleaned themselves. Perhaps they licked themselves from head to toe like cats.
… now there was an image.
Only as the image went on, it was her he was licking.
A second heartbeat started up inside her again, echoing at points of her wrists and throat and belly, but primarily beating in the space between her legs where she wanted him.
He hadn't answered her yet when she took the grapefruit-scented body wash and warmed the gel in the streams of water.
The shower was luxurious, with double heads from each side of the shower, a ridiculous high end thing to be featured in a desert hotel, but she loved the sensation and with Alek in the shower, she didn't have to be wet and cold while she lathered the gel in her hands and began to stroke it onto his back.
For just an instant he froze, holding every muscle still, and she wondered if she'd guessed hideously wrong.
But then his muscles relaxed by degrees and his head dropped forward, his hand going up to brace his body against the tile of the shower, as if her strength were enough to push him around.