Constricted: Beyond the Brothel Walls

by Ryans, Rae

  “You both call me Angel?” My head shook the thought away, and I whispered, “I wish you wouldn’t.”

  A wry smile spread over his lips. “You make a decision. Angelica, that’s your name, or was before Jules stuck you with a new one.” My fists curled into my palms at the remembrance of the slave name, but I hadn’t liked Angelica any better. I was no Angel. Kor or Korri suited me just fine.

  “Either way I’m not going anywhere, but I won’t stand in your way. I love you too much.”

  He winked and kissed me. My hand touched my lips. I blinked as the back door slammed. His words tore through my ears and bounced around my head. But my heart, body, and soul hadn’t prepared an answer he’d wanted to hear. All three belonged to another. Veric could interfere all he wanted, but it wouldn’t change that fact. I loved Petre. While I wished the demon no harm, I would not have cried for his loss.

  My vampire wove a different story. If he died, I’d die too. That’s how deep my love for him burned. Petre’s feet thumped over the stairs, and he skidded into the kitchen. He glanced to the door and then to where I sat crumpled on the floor. Arms lifted me, and his scent comforted me.

  “You heard?”

  He nodded. “Veric’s telling the truth too.”

  “It changes nothing.”

  Petre placed me on the bed. “Kor, it changes everything. Stop kissing him.” His voice echoed pain, and I cringed. “Go to sleep.”

  I opened my mouth to protest but recalled nothing else except the darkness.

  I awoke to the sound of ice pelting metal. A shadowy figure shivered on the balcony. Wide shoulders slouched forward as the sun lightened the sky. I opened the door, but the figure hadn’t turned around.

  “Veric,” I called, and he turned. His lips were blue, and his teeth chattered. My heart dropped, and I rushed to his side. “Why are you out here?” My hands dug under his broad shoulders, and I tugged him to his feet. But he still refused to speak. “Get in here,” I said and dragged his massive frame into the door.

  His feet stumbled, and he knocked me to the ground. “Help me out.” Veric lay there unmoving and pinning me to the floor. His body was as cold as the wind. I squirmed, trying to free myself, but his hands grasped tighter. A chuckle escaped his blue lips, but his teeth kept on chattering.

  I removed his jacket and rubbed his arms. Veric released a rough groan and warmth flooded my belly. Stupid insolent man, what had made him do such a foolish thing? Had he stayed out there all through the night?

  After the jacket, I worked his shirt up and dragged it over his head. If I hadn’t had been dead, I could have warmed him with my body. Instead, I reached up for the blanket and yanked it down. I wrapped it around him and tried again to free myself from Veric’s grasp.

  His icy lips brushed against my neck, and I stilled. “Don’t go,” he whispered. The words were harsh and stabbing. “I missed the scent of you.” Veric nibbled my ear, and my thighs clenched. The heat radiated from my center and spread through my limbs like hot lava. Heated hands cupped my face, but the demon didn’t kiss me.

  Sweat glistened on his forehead, and I wiped it away. Veric burned to the touch even though his teeth chattered. “Wake up.” I shook him, but his eyes remained closed.

  “Petre,” I shouted and seconds later, the door opened. “Help me.”

  He lifted Veric as if he’d weighed nothing and plopped him down on the bed. Why didn’t I have his super vampire strength? “He was outside and frozen.”

  “We have to bring his body temperature up.”

  “But his head is hot.” He checked, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Petre cursed under his breath. “What do we do?”

  I watched his hands clench, and the twitch of his jaw spoke volumes. Could I blame him for hating the man that came between us? If not for Veric, we’d have our happily ever after. “Stay with him; I’ll make some calls.”

  The door slammed, rattling the windows, before I had a chance to utter another word. The blanket lay in a heap at my feet, and I scooped it up. Veric hadn’t said another word, and I tucked it around his massive frame.

  The demon slept as I caressed his rough jaw and avoided the deep scar that ran down his neck. I ignored all the voices sounding in my head. They told me to leave him alone and stop ruining the nice life I’d built with the vampire. Those sweet, tender kisses could undo me too, and they had plenty of times.

  My heart understood what my mind could not. Petre wanted the woman who broke the curse. That was never supposed to be me. He said he loved me, and I’d said it back; I had meant it then and now. I walked to the balcony and stared out over the white washed land.

  Veric didn’t know who I was now. Perhaps the answer was simpler than I’d realized. Neither man knew me at all or understood what I’d survived in the care of Jules. I went into the closet and closed the door. There, it lay as if calling to me. Tears rolled down my face. My old suitcase contained my old clothing and the life I’d remembered.

  “Kor?” Petre called and knocked on the door. “What are you doing?” My head shook as speaking gave away my crying. “The agents want to speak with you.”

  He left, and I breathed a sigh of relief. My hands dropped to the case and popped the metal buttons. The old corset lay on top and mocked me with its exposed boning. I tossed it aside and wiped my eyes.

  Buried beneath layers of scraps posing as clothing, I found the silver locket. Trembling hands dropped it, and I cursed as it disappeared in the sea of tattered garments. Petre yelled for me again, and the sounds of children flittered through the house.

  I sighed as hands clasped my shoulders. “Luv,” Veric said. He stumbled and fell onto my body again. “Told you not to leave me,” he muttered, and I smacked his arm. “What you doing in here?”

  “Petre,” I yelled for the second time that morning.

  “Again?” he chuckled, and I blinked at his chipper response. “Why’d he get out of bed?”

  My eyes rolled. “To look for me.”

  “Bloody hell stop shouting.” Veric rolled off me and clutched his chest. His eyes pinched together, but they remained open. I sat up and leaned over him. “What?”

  Fingers curled, and my fangs snapped free. Deep punctures were embedded in his neck, and I glanced to Petre. “Did you bite him?”

  A slow smirk tugged at his lips as a growl resonated throughout my chest. One second I was by Veric’s side and the next I had Petre pinned to the floor. Nails dug into his shoulders and drew blood. “He had it coming.”

  I blinked and cocked my head. The smirk grew into a wide grin, but I lacked the strength to fight him. His hand brushed my hair behind my ear.

  “We need to talk, and I needed him out of the way.” Petre’s gaze swept over me, and I shivered. “There are parts of my life I haven’t been honest about.”

  I sat there staring at my hands as he spoke of the first hundred years of his life. All this time he’d kept the fact a secret when we could have bonded over our pasts. The difference was miniscule. He too had been a prisoner, at least within his own mind. Was it all that different? Petre told me about his experiences with men, and I listened to the exploits of his sexual conquests. By the time he finished … If my cheeks could’ve blushed, I’d have been redder than a ripened tomato. He’d even listed the times where multiple partners were present, but I wasn’t a stranger to those instances either. They happened all the time at the brothel. Two or three men and one or two girls wasn’t abnormal, but I’d never been involved except to watch.

  “I had a dream on the train.” His finger twirled around in a circle. “The three of us.”

  My mouth formed an O, and I glanced to my hands again. “You wouldn’t have to choose.” But he told me before that he didn’t share. “If the demon and you agree, of course.”

  Veric stirred, but his eyes stayed shut. “Did he mention anything?”

  Petre shook his head. I didn’t know what to say; what had he wanted me to say? Was I supposed to act all gung-h
o and tear my clothes off? I bit into my cheek and cursed.

  “Just go.”

  He sighed. “Kor—.” I pointed toward the door and snapped my fingers.

  “Take the demon too.” Petre groaned and lifted Veric.

  Once they’d left, I closed and locked the closet door. My suitcase still lay open, and I fished out the locket again. The metal snapped open, and I stared at the images inside. Now I realized it had been another lie from Jules. Veric’s picture stared back at me and opposite was mine.

  Funny because the night we first met in the dream, I swore he looked familiar. I never placed where I’d known him from, but it hadn’t been the brothel. Each face had been etched deep into my mind, and I’d never forget them.

  Jules refused time and again to tell me about the people in the locket, but it was a bit of my past no one thought to destroy. My fingers fumbled with the clasp as I put it on. Part of me wished I could remember the life we’d had together, but the other part knew living in the past solved nothing. I wanted to live in the now, and I’d thought Petre offered me that much. After his admittance, I wasn’t sure what to think anymore. Had he fallen in love with Veric?

  I closed the suitcase and redressed into clean clothing. When I opened the closet door, I heard voices trailing from the entertainment room. Veric and Petre yelled at each other, and there was little doubt it had to do with me. I glanced at the phone, but for the life of me, I couldn’t recall how to use it. Laughter shook my belly. Who would I have tried to call? Sophia wouldn’t understand this situation any more than I had and that left Tomas.

  A sigh released from my lips, and I approached the closed door. Both men stopped talking as I turned the knob. His grey gaze snapped to mine, and my breath caught.

  Chapter Eighteen

  I had no recourse if she chose him. She was married, and while her body may hold the sanctity of virginity, her soul didn’t. Those were the lies I told myself, I grilled into my aching heart. She would choose him and why not since Veric was her husband.

  Korrigan looked every inch an angel. Albeit a dark angel, with hidden mysteries waiting to unfold beneath her surface. My mouth dropped as she stepped into the room and I’d sought to swoop her into my arms. Her words were anything but angelic.

  “I want to leave.” She took another step and held my gaze. “Alone.”

  Had I pushed her too far with my suggestion? My brow twisted, and I glanced to see the same confusion etching over Veric’s face. Where did she want to go?

  “It’s not safe,” I said, and Veric echoed his less than eloquent no.

  “Tomas can protect me.”

  He tilted his head and glanced to me. “The goggle mate?” I nodded, and he snapped his attention to Korri. “No. Bloody. Way. Angelica.” Her gaze narrowed, but the demon hadn’t missed a beat. All the time he’d called her Angel, I’d thought he mocked me. Now it made sense. “Who will feed you?”

  She smoothed her hands over her sweater. “I’ll make do.”

  “Let her go,” I said. “She’ll beg to come home soon enough.”

  Tomas would drive her mad. I snorted and smiled to myself. She thought we pressed her. That man had never heard the word no, and even if he had, he ignored it. Granted within reason, the Duc wouldn’t dream of forcing himself on a woman, but he never had to either. Women flocked to the eccentric man.

  Veric ignored me and closed the gap between them. The weight of my newfound third-wheel status pressed upon my shoulders. “What did I tell you, luv?” His hands cupped her face, and I swallowed hard.

  “You wouldn’t stop protecting me,” she whispered as his hand stroked her neck. A silver chain I hadn’t noticed before draped her neck, and he pulled it free. I blinked at the locket, but I hadn’t given it to her. “I found it in my suitcase. Jules gave it to me.”

  “It was your mother’s, Angel.” Kor glanced toward me, and I saw her pain-filled eyes.

  “Don’t call me that.”

  Like the rest of us, she was lost. Veric’s thumb caressed her chin, and I stalked from the room. Not out of jealousy, like I’d expected days ago, but to allow them privacy.

  “Where’s the girl?” the agent asked as I descended the stairs. I’d forgotten they were here with the boys and waited to question her about the attackers. More would arrive soon, but these two worked closely with Veric and were investigators.

  I glanced at the demon with graying hair. “Give her a few more minutes. She’s dressing.”

  “And Agent Veric?”

  “Guarding.” I motioned for them both to sit at the kitchen table and stuck a kettle on the stove. Why I hadn’t known, but it seemed like something Mellissa would have done. The boys and men were already outside working on the guesthouse. They’d taken care of their own breakfast and washed the dishes by the time I’d come down this morning. All of them seemed pressed to get to work.

  Fingers tapped on the table as I offered the two agents some breakfast despite the later hour. Tomas called and was already on his way with more food, but I knew he needed no excuse to feed the children. I’d wait until he arrived to alert him of Korri’s wishes to stay with him. I could envision the wide grin spreading over his face. “Coffee if you have it,” one agent replied, and the second man nodded.

  It wasn’t actual coffee. The temperatures in Arcadia, even with hot houses, could not sustain the growing conditions required for the beans. Chicory we had plenty of and to the untrained taste buds, the bark had passed for the sludgy substance. I nodded and attended to the kettle as it whistled.

  The floorboards creaked overhead, and I glanced toward the noise. My hearing made out the muffled sounds of raised voices, and my heart twinged for a moment. They argued. Perhaps there was hope for me yet.

  I placed the ground substance in the metal liner of the glass carafe and slowly poured water over the grounds. The steps thundered as someone barreled down. Windows rattled, and the front door creaked and slammed shut.

  Veric stood in the entryway. “Afraid she’s not in the mood for a chat, mates.”

  My sigh caught in my throat as I hurried through the preparations. Shaky hands sat the carafe, cups, and cream on the table. Without a word, I exited the house through the back door and raced toward the front. There she stood, by the well, peeking down the hole.

  “I want him gone,” she said. I swore my heart beat as my lips twisted into the grin. “Your past is in the past.” Korri blinked and met my gaze. “So is mine. I’m not who he wants me to be.”

  Her hand curled around the stone well’s edge. “When I came to you, I thought of killing myself.”

  “What changed?”

  Korrigan offered a faint smile as she squinted toward the sun. “I got to know you.” The first time we’d spoken on the train she had lied to me, but she didn’t now. “Everything happened so fast, and I was afraid for a long time.”

  “Why?”

  “All I knew was Jules, and then the dreams started. Plus the fangs.” She sucked in a breath and blew it out. “I stayed the first night because leaving frightened me more. Everything I’d done, the … sex. I did that at first to keep you out of fear. The horrors of the world and Jules frightened me and your sincerity and sweetness … Never in my life had I felt loved. Mellissa and Jobe, I felt love from them too.”

  A tear rolled down her cheek. “It wasn’t until you left me that I realized I loved you too even if I hadn’t understood the feelings.”

  “What makes you so sure now?”

  Her shoulders shrugged. “If anything happened to you it would crush me. The thought of anyone hurting you crushes me even if I’m the only one who can.” Korri reached her hand toward me but faced away. I grasped her hand in mine and tugged her into my arms.

  “Why’d you want to leave?”

  My stomach twisted as I awaited her answer. Fingers danced over my sweater and flutters spread through my middle. “It was a silly thought.” She laughed, but it sounded forced and artificial. My hands smoothed over her hair
and tilted her chin.

  “What did I say on the train that day?”

  She gulped and glanced down at her hands as they played with the edge of my sweater. “I thought you wanted me to. Thought you didn’t …”

  I forced her gaze. “Thought I didn’t what?”

  Korri blinked those amber eyes. “Love me anymore.” Her delicate fingers tugged at my sweater, and I stumbled closer.

  Unbelievable, how could I stop loving her? Had she mistaken my proposal? “Not in a million years would I stop loving you, you silly girl.”

  My lips brushed against hers as her arms snaked over my chest and around my neck. I nipped at her bottom lip until she opened for me and slipped my tongue into her honey-flavored mouth. She pressed against me and moaned as I deepened the kiss.

  Nothing mattered in the world. Laws meant even less than they had before. Korrigan wanted me. She loved me more than the demon. Our hands folded together as a car pulled into the drive.

  “Get in now,” he yelled and opened the door. We broke apart and stared at him. “Ami, war is upon us.”

  He spouted off in French about his home falling under attack. They stole away with Sophia and the girls while he was out. When he arrived home this morning, the place lay ransacked.

  “The ABDA did nothing?”

  “They were gone, no bodies, mon ami.”

  “Go with him,” I said to Korrigan. “I’ll collect the boys.”

  An explosion sounded in the distance, and I blinked as a massive airship came into view over the horizon. They’d done it, was my first thought. We’d tried to replicate aerial flight with no prevail. “Take her and call me with your location.”

  “Will it ever end?” she asked with her arms tightly woven around my waist. “I love you.”

  A quick kiss and Tomas peeled off with the love of my entire existence. “Veric,” I yelled. “We’ve got company.”