Beautiful Bargain

by Skye Jones

  He gave a low laugh, “Oh, little girl, you don’t know how bad my worst can be. For now though, let’s make it look bad without doing you any harm, eh? I need you in fighting order, after all.”

  I waited for him to hit her. She’d agreed to take the punch to the face, so her mouth would be a mess, but instead he leaned in and bit her. Right on the edge of her mouth.

  She gave a high-pitched cry, and then a low moan as he swallowed. He was drinking from her, without her permission, right here in the open. I watched as her legs went, but he caught her and stopped.

  “Normally, I’d seal that, but it’s much better left open, bleeding.”

  I looked at her mouth. The way he’d done it caused her lip to appear split, as if someone had smacked her right in the mouth.

  “Your turn,” Angel said to Ivan with a shaky voice.

  “Have at me, ladies. Don’t go easy. You need to make a mess of my face and arms.”

  Ivan wore a black t-shirt, fitted to his biceps, which to be honest I had been dubious about because the guy was huge and surely the guards would be suspicious of that. But he’d said there were more than enough people on steroids out in the Feral communities and some of the compounds for it not to be a big deal.

  Angel flew at him, arms raised, hands like claws as she scratched down both his arms. He looked at her handy work when she was done and smiled. “Nice. Now the face.”

  She paused and shook her head. “I can’t.”

  “Gods above.” He turned to me. “Milly, hit me, hard. In the face, and then scratch me up.”

  I did as he asked, problem being that while there were deep welts on his skin, he didn’t bleed or bruise. Damned vampire genes.

  “This all looks like it was done a week ago,” I said.

  “May I?” He took Angel’s wrist and brought it to his mouth.

  “If you must,” she said, trying to joke but I saw her fear and desire, both mixing in the large pools of her eyes as she stared up at Ivan as he bit down.

  He didn’t drink this time; instead, he wiped her blood down his face. Then he kissed her wrist once and licked the wound to seal it.

  “I’ll go bring the others back.” He strode off in the direction Jackson, Ben, and Doc had taken.

  “This would have been a lot easier if any of us knew special effects makeup,” Mum commented.

  “I think I’m in love.” Angel watched Ivan stroll away from us with a wistful expression on her face.

  “Okay, you know the drill?” Jackson asked when they’d returned.

  We nodded, and the guys pulled the shopping cart out of the van, placing it on the floor. Ivan climbed into it, and then he kind of folded in on himself. His body went lax, slouched, and he looked like a guy who’d taken a massive beating, not a scary vampire.

  It took two of us to push the trolley to the wall, a block away.

  As we approached, the buildings thinned out until there was nothing but an expanse of ground, about fifty foot wide between us and the wall.

  It was a huge concrete structure with barbed wire on the top. Every few hundred feet there was a door, heavy and reinforced. A way in, if you were invited.

  We headed for one, Mum and me pushing Ivan, Angel limping, looking for all the world as if she was about to fall. As we neared, she paused, then pulled her strappy top down, ripping one of the straps, and letting a breast fall free.

  Search lights swept the empty ground, swooped past us, and then stuttered before returning and bathing us in blinding light.

  We kept moving but Angel put her hands up, as did Mum, leaving me to try to push Ivan in the cart.

  We got within ten feet of the wall when a spray of bullets hit the ground by Mum’s feet. Crying out, she dropped to the floor, and I bent to her, heart leaping out of my chest. Had she been hit?

  She looked okay.

  “I’m alright, just the shock, sorry.” She tried to stand but stumbled on a rock and fell.

  Angel left us and began to walk forward, arms in the air, breast bobbing as she walked.

  I counted five or so guards on the turret by the door. They were watching her, hands on their weapons.

  She only needed to get within a few feet, talk to them, and she could get into at least one of the men’s minds and get him to open the door.

  “We’ve been hurt,” she said.

  “So? None of our business what happens to Ferals. Now, fuck off,” the guard nearest us growled out.

  “My brother came to help me when we were being traded, they tried…” She bit back a sob and covered her breast with one small hand. “They tried to steal us and trade us. They hit us and our clothes got torn. My brother… I think he might be dying. Please, let us in.”

  “No entry. Move on or we will shoot.”

  While she’d been talking, I’d inched closer. I could see their faces. They were big, and I’d have put money on them being Altereds like Jackson. As I neared, I noticed one of the men had a different colour uniform. Did that mean he was in charge?

  I studied him. Fairly handsome, big, focused on his job. Did he have a wife? Did any of the Altereds guarding the capital? I knew at our compound they didn’t. I let myself think about him and then the earth shattered and reformed, and I was inside his head.

  He felt sorry for Angel, but he stuck to the rules. He was literally a hair trigger away from shooting us all dead.

  “We are no threat, let us in.” I put the thought into his head as clearly as I could. “What sort of man turns away injured women? We are no threat. The man is in a coma. We are hurt. Let us in. Order your men to let us in. What is the point of the capital if it stands for nothing? Gives no one shelter? Sometimes you must bend the rules. Let us in.”

  He shook his head twice, hard, as if trying to dislodge something from his ear.

  “We will make it worth your while. Look how pretty she is, the one with her top halfway down her body. She likes to party, and she’ll party with you when she’s better, I promise. Let us in, and we can keep you company. Let us in, help us, let us heal and we will be your friends. We are no threat.”

  “Open the door,” he shouted.

  I’d been unsure if he would be malleable.

  “Corporal?” One of the other men turned to him, shock on his face.

  “They’re hurt, and they’re women. We can’t leave them out there. The man is out of it. Let them in, and we’ll see if we can help them. Treat them.”

  “What, take them to medical?” the soldier asked.

  “No,” the Corporal replied. “Take them to the break hut, and we will help them.”

  “But, Corporal, that’s… it’s not… I mean…”

  “Do it, now, Private.”

  The soldier gave a salute and with a worried glance to one of his friends, began to climb down.

  Angel headed to the door, I rushed back to get the cart, and with Mum’s help pushed until we were at the entrance.

  It took ages before it swung open. We were greeted by two confused looking soldiers and behind them the Corporal.

  I’d need to get back into his head, once they took us to their break hut, and make sure he didn’t try to touch Angel.

  “Christ, I’ve got a killer headache,” one of the guards said to the other, as he rubbed his temple.

  “Me too.”

  I smiled, Ivan must be in there somewhere, working his magic. Unless Angel did, but she was staring at two massive men walking our way. They were coming down from the other post a couple hundred feet away.

  “What’s going on?” one shouted.

  “There are some women here, injured.” The Corporal turned to look at the new arrivals.

  “So?” The man frowned. “We don’t let people in unless they have papers, documents. What the fuck are you doing?”

  “They’re hurt, and they are no threat.”

  Shit, I’d turned the good Corporal into an automaton.

  “What do you want us to do with them?” one of the soldiers asked, still rubb
ing his temple.

  “Fucking put them back outside, idiot.” The biggest of the two new arrivals glared at us, and his lip curled.

  “Yes, Sarge.” The man saluted.

  He began to hustle us toward the door, the Corporal trying to stop him, and the Sergeant watching in horror as one of his men lost the plot.

  Behind them were more men running over, and then my heart lifted as dark figures poured over the wall, totally unnoticed in the commotion we were making.

  “Okay, stop,” the Sergeant commanded. He put his hands on the struggling Corporal and Private and breathed deep. “Let them in, take them to the break hut.”

  Angel shot me a sideways glance and a wink. She’d worked her magic on the good Sergeant! We needed about twenty minutes of diversion before we got out of there. Enough time for Jackson to get the government official and smuggle him out.

  They’d hopefully have the codes for the door by then as Ivan would get it from these guys and pass it along to Alex using creepy vampire psychic skills.

  We were taken inside, Ivan too, and the heavy door swung shut behind us. I gasped as I looked around.

  Beyond the immediate section of land we were on–a sort of no-man’s mess of rubble–lay what looked like a totally normal city.

  All the streets were lit, there were cars moving about for God’s sake. I could see what looked like an open bar a few streets away.

  “You have bars and pubs?” I asked the Corporal in total shock.

  “Sure, sweet cheeks, all the compounds do. Don’t know why you Ferals choose to live the way you do.”

  “No,” I said, forgetting myself for a moment. “No, the other compounds don’t, or not all of them anyway. I mean, most of them, they’re struggling to survive day to day. There are no street lights, except for the odd one they keep lit, and there isn’t even water for much of the day.”

  “Really?” He looked to me confused for a moment. “Are you one of those?” he asked voice low.

  “One of what?”

  “You know, the women who come into the compounds to service the men? The Ferals who do it for food and luxuries?”

  “Erm, there are no Ferals servicing men in the other compounds. There are no luxuries to give out. Any luxuries we get, we keep, and there’s not enough food to give it away.”

  “Who the fuck are you then?”

  I smiled at him. “I used to live in a compound, now… I like to be free.” I ran my tongue over my lips and widened my eyes.

  To make sure he wouldn’t start to second guess himself, I got into his head and gave an extra push.

  They got us to an outbuilding, a large hut, and opened the door, pushing us inside none too gently. Ivan, they left outside.

  “My brother,” Angel said with real dismay.

  I thought of Ivan, listless in the shopping cart. He was in danger out there surely, bad-ass vampire or not.

  “He can stay out there. You ladies can rest in here.”

  About to get inside his head and give another shove, I paused when a loud rap came at the door.

  It opened, and a new guy walked inside. Big even amongst these men, he reminded me of Jackson with his build and the harshness of his face. There were now three women and a whole gaggle of large men in a small space. I began to feel panic as the claustrophobia of the situation hit me.

  The new man looked around the room, his eyes landed on Angel’s exposed breast, and he grinned. “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

  I needed to get into his head immediately and get those thoughts out. I focused on him, the world did it’s jolting thing, and then a piercing pain hit behind my eyes.

  Falling to the floor, I cried out.

  Pain receding, I opened my eyes to see the Corporal watching me confused. Big guy bent over me and gave a horrible smile. One that didn’t reach his eyes.

  “Ah, I see. You’re one of those little psychics are you? That shit won’t work on me, and you’re in a whole world of trouble. What are you doing here?”

  “My brother got hurt, we got beaten up…” Angel began.

  He turned on her and with a snarl, his big hands wrapped around her throat and had her pushed against the wall. “Don’t fucking lie to me, bitch. You can’t get into my head and play games, and I’m a second away from snapping your neck.”

  Another knock at the door had my heart lurching. One of the private’s opened it, and Ivan pushed him to the floor as he stormed into the room like a dark, avenging angel.

  “Take your hands off her right now.”

  “Or what?” The big man laughed, not even looking at Ivan. “None of you Altereds scare me. I’m way more advanced than any of you.”

  “I’m not altered,” Ivan said calmly.

  Angel was scrabbling at the man’s hands, her face turning pink.

  “Well then, you’re even more stupid than these bitches.” The man once more didn’t even look Ivan’s way.

  For a moment, we all stood perfectly still, a frozen diorama, that strange lull before all hell breaks loose. Then Ivan moved so fast I couldn’t see more than a blur. One moment he was by the door, the next he’d pulled big guy off Angel and thrown him across the room.

  The Corporal shouted and ran toward Ivan, but I got into his head easily this time, and gave him a massive pulse of pain. He dropped to the ground, screaming.

  One of the guys reached for a handle on the wall, and I realized it was an alarm. Not thinking, I ran at him, hitting him with my shoulder and taking him down with me to the floor.

  “Fuck,” one of the men shouted.

  There wasn’t time to get in their heads now. We were in a fight or flight situation, and we needed to stop them raising the alarm.

  I hit the man on the floor in the head using my elbow and scrabbled away from him as he grabbed for me.

  The Corporal was still down, a limp, useless mess. I reached for him, pulling his dead weight closer with the belt of his trousers. I huffed out a massive grunt at the effort it took. He did move, only incrementally, but enough for what I needed.

  Fingers and arms straining, I reached and reached, and then found it. The lovely cold steel of a gun. I grabbed the weapon and pulled it from the holster.

  I stood, brushed my hair out of my face, and trained the gun on the room. “Nobody move a fucking muscle.”

  Everyone stopped what they were doing; except for Ivan who punched big guy in the head three times in quick succession and dropped him to the floor.

  “Ivan, get the code,” Angel said, covering herself up by tying a knot in her broken strap.

  Ivan went to the Sergeant and held his upper arms as he looked into his eyes.

  “Got it?” Angel asked but Ivan ignored her, frowning in concentration.

  A few long moments later, he turned to us. “I’ve sent it to the guys. We need to go.”

  “What? No?” I shook my head. “We have to give them another fifteen to twenty minutes. They will need us as a distraction on their way out.”

  Ivan turned to me. “No can do, baby. I made a promise to Jackson that I would keep you, your mother, and Angel safe above all else. This isn’t safe. We need to get out of here. We can help out by tying these guys up, gagging them, but then we’re done.”

  I began to argue, but Ivan shot me a deadly glare. “Button it. Nothing you say can change my mind, and at this rate, you’re going to let one of these fuckers alert the whole city.”

  He pointed to Angel. “Find something we can tie these guys up with: shoe laces, their ties—I don’t give a fuck. Rope is better though, if you can find any.”

  “Okay, gentlemen, I’m going to do something now that you won’t like, but it has to be done. Apologies in advance.” Ivan went up to each man separately and passed his hands over their eyes until they dropped to the floor.

  “What the hell?” Angel paused in her task to stare at him.

  “I’m pretty sure Alex can’t do that,” I said.

  “Alex isn’t a full blood, I am. No
w you have about five minutes to tie these men up. I’m going back out there to keep watch. Tie them well, gag them, and then get your butts outside.”

  We did as he said, working in silence. I hated it, didn’t like it one bit. The whole thing left my men in immense danger. If one person saw the posts empty on this side of the wall and came to investigate, they’d find these men tied up and raise the alarm.

  After a few minutes, we had the guards secured as best we could and opened the door.

  “Come.” Ivan bent low and ran toward the wall. “I’ve told Alex what’s happened here, and he and the others are only about five minutes behind us, but they want us to go.”

  We ran for our lives toward the wall, but every step hurt. Each step was a battle against doing what Ivan said and what my body wanted, which was to wait for Jackson and the men.

  We reached the door, and at the last moment, I balked. I couldn’t leave knowing I might never see any of them again if this went wrong.

  I turned away, about to run back toward the guard’s hut, when big arms grabbed me.

  Ivan pulled me through the door, away from the men I loved.

  I hit the ground outside the compound with a cry.

  The door clanged shut behind us, and I closed my eyes as tears fell down my cheeks.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Milly: Fear and Pain

  We reached the van, me struggling the whole way, Ivan dragging me along. He wasn’t exactly gentle, but then again, I doubted he’d touched a human in such a way in a long time. Maybe he didn’t know his fingers burned into my arms where he gripped me, or that my feet scuffed painfully on the ground where I tripped and stumbled after him.

  Angel kept glancing back, presumably to see if we were followed. Mum simply ran alongside us. Once we got to the van, Ivan yanked the doors open, threw me unceremoniously inside, and slammed them shut.

  It was pitch black, and my panic levels spiked off the charts. “Hey.” I kicked at the door. “Fucking let me out, you fucker. Let me out.”

  I kicked at the door and hit it.

  “Darling, calm down, please.” Mum’s distressed voice reached me through the thin layer of metal of the doors, and soothed me.

  “Keep that up and you’ll only hurt yourself,” Ivan said. “You’re safe, Milly. I’m simply making sure you stay that way.”