Constricted: Beyond the Brothel Walls

by Ryans, Rae

  Deft fingers found the zipper of my gown, and the ridiculous garment fell to the floor. His breath sucked in, as I’d worn nothing underneath. Petre’s hands teased their way across my body, pinching my swollen nipples, as another hand danced at my curls. I wanted more, all of him inside of me, and had unfastened his trousers. He sprang free, and I broke our kiss, trailing my lips down his jaw. My fingers popped the buttons on his shirt as he removed his tie. The air churned with musky heat and sweat; it warmed my heart and aching loins.

  I shoved him again, and Petre fell on the bed. My eyes took him in, propped on his elbows, his ashen muscled flesh beckoning me. His rigid cock angled, wavering like a billowing tree. The hardened veins pulsed in time with my ragged breaths. I licked my lips and tread toward him. “What are you thinking?” Petre asked me as I straddled his lap.

  My hands roamed over his chest as I contemplated the question. The coolness of his cock jumped against my damp curls, and my breath caught in a tickling gasp. I bit my lip, rolling the words over in my head. He had the right to know, to hear them. Leaning forward, I kissed him and dragged my breasts across his muscled chest. His arms surrounded me, and Petre rolled me onto my back. “Nice diversion,” he whispered into my neck.

  I grasped his face in the palms of my hands and forced his gaze to mine. Those fangs jutted out, increasing my heartbeat, or perhaps it was the uncertainty surrounding me. “Petre, I need you.”

  “No,” he said and spun off the bed. My eyes ached, but I refused to allow the tears to fall. He scooped up his clothing and slammed the door on his way out. Only then did I allow the floodgates to tear, words or not, he’d managed to destroy my heart.

  Chapter Ten

  The Duc and I spent the next week hunting for Jules and tracking the women and children tied to his businesses. Korrigan never strayed far from my thoughts, and I doubted Tomas’ thoughts either. Today we chose Hampshire House, the brothel where I’d first glanced my Angel. Jules shuffled girls around almost daily as if he expected an attack, but time shied from our side with each passing day. We hadn’t found him yet either and neither sat well within my churning stomach.

  “We have to move soon.” Jules had to have sensed our presence by now. Few sneezed in Delphia without the demons catching wind. Yet another truth I’d kept from Korri. With all she’d learned about vampires and magic, why risk damaging her further with the demonic reality? Or tell her she might be one too. Tomas still hadn’t confirmed or denied what ran through her veins even though I had doubts. The sweet addiction of her blood had no fiery undertones.

  Korrigan also hadn’t given me a chance to explain, not that I’d tried. We left many words unsaid after our cold departure, and Tom refused to share her thoughts. Like her, he too had grown closed off during this venture, but neither would explain themselves. My friend had said deep down I knew why, yet I hadn’t.

  I pushed the thoughts of her far from my mind. Now wasn’t the time. Jules had dangled closer to the upper tier in the demonic hierarchy. I doubted he ever shared his true nature with Korri either. “Today, Petre.”

  I nodded to Tomas; my eyes hadn’t left the house. He marked humans through their thought patterns, wincing more often as we visited each brothel. His insights affected him, as I’d never witnessed before. “Merde, you should hear the torment.”

  My lips pressed into a thin line. I saw the signs etched forever into Korrigan’s flesh. Deep riveted scars that no child, woman, or man should ever have to endure. The women locked behind the house walls, oh, but I’d doubted their fate fared any other way. “If not worse, ami.”

  “We should end here.” Tomas blinked his blue eyes as I glanced to him. “Jules would expect me to hit here first and might be unaware we’ve mapped his entire operation. The girls leave here, but they never come back here.”

  “What are your thinking?” I hadn’t a clue, but it seemed since the last time I was here, he’d turned this into a drop point as if he were, in fact, moving the brothel operation. But the question was to where.

  That was the easier part. We followed his men; not the sleazy johns, but the ones who operated in his stead. Most were humans who had never thought to look past their own noses let alone to the rooftops.

  “Ami, tell me where to strike.” Tomas managed the words through his clenched teeth.

  Another week passed as we continued our jumps from brothel house to brothel house. Instead of watching, we struck. The attacks were zigzagged, never too close to the last, and sometimes hitting the same house twice.

  I made sure Jules knew it was me who tore him down. By the week’s end, exhaustion and heartache began to take its toll on my soul. The sick bastard grew ruthless and ordered beatings. Many of the women laid inches from death, and we’d even lost a few by arriving too late.

  Yet the mastermind was nowhere around, and we’d veered off course with two houses remaining. The Hampshire house remained our second to last stop. I’d decided the night before, based on chauvinistic notions, and Tom’s lack of insight. Boys were stronger than women were, and if anyone could survive another day, it would be them. The thought churned in my stomach, yes, but I had to pick one over the other.

  “Ami, I shall not judge you.” Tomas squeezed my shoulder. “Baron, you are a more admirable man than me at your age.” I snorted, so easy to say for a man that had died long before my parents were born.

  We dressed to blend since we lacked a cover in broad daylight; we wore simple dark clothing.

  I glanced away. “I do it for her.”

  Tomas handed me a baseball cap to hide my long hair. I tucked a revolver into the waistband of my jeans, and two more slipped into a hidden holster. He nodded, repeating my actions with his own.

  “Amour mon ami, we do crazy things in its name, but it doesn’t change the action. Non, you have always been a gracious man.” God knew I loved her, but had she believed me? Her opinion was all that mattered, but the truth remained. One day -demon or not- she would die. “Sooner than you think, if you do not tell her all.”

  I blinked at his cold, shaky words. “What do you mean?”

  Tomas released a sigh and paced the rooftop. “Remember when I said she was the one?”

  “You also said she wasn’t human.”

  “Right. She’s not human, but she’s still the one.”

  “How?”

  “After you crumble away into the sunset, ma petite fee takes her own life.”

  My knees sank to the tarred rooftop, and I shivered. “No … I …” Tomas seized my shoulders and shook hard. My gaze reached his twisted face. “That wasn’t the plan.” Hestin’s laughter ricocheted in my head.

  “Why do you think I wanted her that night? She isn’t the only one with foresight.” He grasped my face in his hand and forced my gaze. “You may have the best intentions, Petre, but you are a selfish liar when it comes to your curse.” Tom patted my cheek, but I lacked the will to rise. He was right. While I questioned my decision and told her I wouldn’t leave, deep down I still planned my death despite my burning love for Korrigan. Even his speech hadn’t changed the facts around my curse. If I lived then one day I’d no longer have control over Nicolai. “Find a way or we all lose the last light God shined on our forsaken world.”

  Neither of us spoke another word. We readied despite the pit in my stomach growing larger with thoughts of Korrigan. I had called home and received no answer again. Not even from Mellissa or Jobe, but they were pissed at me too. I snorted and shook my head.

  Tomas didn’t reach anyone either when he’d called his men. He’d posted extra guards on my property. Another decision faced me. We could go home or take down this brothel. I ran a hand over my face and asked for advice. “What would you do?”

  Tomas laughed behind me. He’d taken up residence on an old milk crate and had ceased his pacing. Few people had glanced at the sky and a pity there were no planes or airships yet to remind them of its beauty.

  “You’ve done what I’d do.” I raised a brow
. “Delegated.” He’d survived by his straightforward, no crap attitude; years of immortality and Dukedom affected his life in ways others couldn’t comprehend. Yes, overbearing at times, and he had the oddest wardrobe tastes, his purple goggle choice not excluded, but beneath it all, Tomas was a devoted friend.

  “How many do you hear?” I asked.

  Tomas’ eyes closed, and his fingers rose, tallying each mind. Sixteen, but that didn’t mean they were all vulnerable slave girls. I ran my palm over my face at the thought. Even beneath her façade of indifference, my angel wasn’t all that helpless, but she couldn’t fight off Jules. The notion had nothing to do with her being a woman and everything to do with him being a demon.

  He’d raised her even if that involved beating, starving, molesting, and finally sodomizing her. If it wasn’t for my contract, my insistence on having her, she would be in there too. Hindsight, the moment I saw her, this was what I should have done. I’d put my faith into this lawless world. My eyes shut as the sun warmed my face, and I imagined it as Korrigan’s hand caressing my cheek.

  “You are a lovesick fool,” Tom said reading my thoughts. “She’s good for you; she brought your mind and heart back from death.”

  I smiled and shook my head even though I didn’t disagree. He knew it; I knew it too, but did Kor realize the impact she had on my life? I met her thinking she’d free me and Demon Spawn of immortality. She’d freed me from something else. No, I couldn’t let her dream come true. Not because I feared her death, but because I wanted to live, live every waking moment with her by my side. There was no afterlife, no death, no curse I cared for more than her. My life and death belonged to her.

  “Ami, I can’t tell you how.” He shot me a glance and shook his head. Tomas knew, he just wouldn’t tell me how. “Some things cannot be told, my vieuix ami. But know this, she will forgive you, and she loves you.”

  I flashed a grin. “Who are you calling old?”

  I’d do anything to win her back. All of this, tearing down brothels, I did for her. Walk through fire, drink animal blood, sell every scrap I owned, all of it I’d do for a glimpse of Korrigan’s smile.

  My gut twisted at how I’d left her. She’d cried that night, and it was the first time she’d done so because of me. Moments after I left her room, I’d ran back; I’d been a moron for denying her. The contract mattered little, but my love and respect for Kor had stopped me from making love to her. Immortality remained a damned life, and she deserved more. But she chose me, and I wanted everything done right for her. Kor locked me out though; she’d verbally ripped my head off. Those words warmed my heart now even if she had called me colorful names. The following morning, I left a note for Mellissa. Demon Spawn and I rode for the hills. All it stated was how much I loved her, and nothing else mattered anymore except her happiness. Nothing more than a lie when I’d written the words, but now there was truth. My number I wrote down along with Tomas’, but we hadn’t heard from any of them. I was certain by now that Mellissa taught her how to use the particular phones.

  “This is it,” Tom said, arriving at the front door of Hampshire House. My hand shook as it rapped on the wooden surface. A young girl, no older than ten, answered the door. Her large brown eyes scanned over us as her bruised wrist pointed toward the waiting area. I glanced at Tomas, who nodded his head and coughed. My stomach churned at the thought of men using a child for sexual pleasure.

  “I remember you,” a husky voice said from a desk near the kitchen as I stepped over the tiled threshold. My eyes scanned over the locked cabinets. Those that were open lay barer than the children’s nursery rhythm. “You stole away our prize. What, she wasn’t good enough? Oh yeah, her sweet—” My hand wrapped around his neck and squeezed.

  “Petre,” Tomas warned, but I couldn’t stop. My head screamed for the man to keep talking. Those fingers itched to cut off his air supply, but no death, no, not yet. Images flashed of hanging him from irons, whipping this filth within inches of his worthless life and keeping him there. Teetering, they all deserved to teeter on the edge of death. That was what they’d done to these girls, and the ones we’d already tucked away.

  “Say another word; I dare you.” He choked, gurgling as I tightened my grip. A woman, dressed in a ratty corset and torn jeans, trembled at his feet. She backed away from me, her eyes wild and wide. His grimy pants were undone, privates exposed. Another disgusting pig and he deserved nothing short of a pain-filled death. “How many are here?” I asked her.

  “He’s it; she thinks the others are gone till tonight.” Tomas relayed the woman’s thoughts as my fangs sprang forth. No use in ruining a free meal so I sliced my teeth through his neck. The young girl shrieked. Tomas moved fast as my eyes flickered to the corner. His brow rose. “Something big going down at the new house?”

  My parched mouth burned for more blood. Kor had explained the new house, but she hadn’t known about the location.

  “Shush, ma beautiful,” Tomas said with glowing silver eyes. “Go gather the rest; we wish no harm.” She nodded her brunette head as I wiped the foul blood from my stained face. Fourteen girls ranging from three to twentyish lined up before us. The last snuggled to one of their breasts; a frail baby not more than a few months old. My heart sunk, and I glanced to Tomas. These girls, out of all the ones we’d rescued, were the worst. “Pack your bags Mademoiselles, you are libéré.”

  They murmured among themselves; large eyes exchanged glances and blinked. My fingers tapped at my side as all the previous questions arose. I cut them off. “Korrigan sent me.”

  “But you own her,” a black-haired girl said. She was around Angel’s age, older perhaps, but just as emaciated and weak. Her bony wrists bore fresh bruises too. A spark survived in her, and I smirked, thinking back to Kor and the train ride. She grew in the short time we’d spent together, and it lit hope inside of my dead heart. I stroked the hope, fueling the fire, and let it mature.

  I smiled, meeting her gaze, and said, “I own nothing. She owns my heart.” Tomas looked at me and chuckled. “Come, you have but minutes to decide. I have documents and tickets for all of you.” He handed each girl an envelope containing documents and Arcadian money. The passports still required photos, but that was an easy task. “Once we arrive you’ll receive food, clothing, and shelter.”

  The same girl narrowed her eyes. “What do we owe you?”

  “You weren’t listening to him. The ma petit fee wants you freed and taken care of; it’s as simple as that ma feu.” I crooked an eyebrow at Tomas, and he shrugged, attempting to hide his grin.

  “Viva la France,” she murmured. She stepped closer, and I realized I was wrong. The woman appeared older, closer to thirty by the lines etching her eyes. “Heard that in a movie once.”

  He grinned wide, and I hid my chuckle. “Oui, Viva la France indeed.”

  Tomas boarded the train early that evening with all the girls —all totaling sixty. He posed as their teacher along with the dark-haired woman from Hampshire House. Dressed in heavy, matching new coats and fleece-lined slacks, I thought they were all passable. The older women scoffed at our plan, insisting that no one would believe them. My heart tugged; they too had fallen prey to the lies of a shameful man.

  Were they as strong as Kor? Not everyone handled that type of truth, but we didn’t have much of a choice. I’d make sure Tomas hired doctors; the special kind too that studied emotions and the brain. The youngest girls would fare the best. Kor said Uncle Jules hadn’t touched her until she was older even though he made sure she watched. That hadn’t begun until she was eight. I sighed, counting a quarter of them younger, and prayed that I was right. They weren’t free of memories or knowledge of the brothel, but maybe the scars wouldn’t run as deep. Maybe God would wash away their suffering.

  I wished them all a farewell, promising I’d see them soon. I had asked the black-haired girl, named Sophia, to deliver a message to Korrigan. Just another note, but its words held deep meaning. “I’ll see you again when the last
cage unlocks. Then perhaps your heart can belong to me as mine belongs to you, forever.”

  I remained behind to scope out Egan House and awaited word from Tomas. We planned for the ladies and girls to stay between our two residences until more suitable arrangements could be found. I had the land and money, but time wasn’t on our side when we left Nova Scotia. Still, cramped in our homes where food stayed abundant was better than the whorehouse.

  I shivered at the memory of Kor eating on her birthday. Never had she eaten real food, and now Tomas would have sixty more mouths to delight with his culinary creations. I laughed; that’s heaven on this vile earth for him.

  My phone chirped, and I glanced down as I approached Egan house from the neighboring rooftops. They’d arrived safe in Arcadia, and I’d sighed an unnecessary breath of relief, before turning my attention back to the converted row home. Egan House –reformatory for reprogramming boys, the sign read.

  It didn’t make much sense when combined with reformatory. What were they up to? My eyes scanned over the dark building. There wasn’t a generator, and as the sun set, no lights came on. I didn’t need electricity or steam power to see the abuse. The images that appeared within the window frames and the screams churned my stomach as I stalked the home from the rooftop across the deserted street. Those sounds haunted me, but Tomas insisted I wait for his return.