It didn't really matter. "Neither can I."
We were going to get ourselves killed; might as well take as many of them with us as we could.
Jean-Claude turned around, as if he could smell us going for our guns. "Ma petite, Monsieur Kirkland, do not go for your weapons. They are treading legalities. The women have come to help entertain. They will not kill them."
"You're sure of that?" I asked.
He frowned. "I am sure of nothing anymore, but I believe that they will keep their word. The women are frightened and a little bruised, but they are not harmed."
"This isn't harm?" Larry asked. He looked outraged, and I couldn't blame him.
I answered him. "Vampires have a very unique sense of what's harmful, don't they, Jean-Claude?"
He met my gaze. "I see accusation in your eyes, but remember this, ma petite, you asked me to bring you here. So do not blame this particular problem on me."
"Is our entertainment so boring?" Janos asked.
"We were discussing whether to kill you all now, or later," I said, my voice very matter-of-fact.
Janos gave a low chuckle. "Please do break the truce, Anita. I would love to have an excuse to get you on one of my novelties. I think you would take a long time to break. Then again, it is sometimes the braggarts who break first."
"I don't brag, Janos. I tell the truth."
"She believes what she says," Kissa said.
"Yes, she has a disturbing hint of truth to her," Janos said. "Most tasty."
The blonde, Lisa, had stopped struggling against the chains. She sagged in them, nearly incoherent with crying. The other girl, now that she was chained, stood very still, but a fine trembling had started in her arms and hands. She balled her hands into fists, but could not stop the trembling.
"The women came for a little adventure. They are certainly getting their money's worth," Janos said.
The two female vamps opened panels in the black walls. They each took out a long coil of whip. Neither of the girls could see. I was glad.
I couldn't stand and watch, I couldn't. It would kill something inside me to just stand and watch, even if it meant I died. I'd at least go down fighting, and I'd take some of them with me. Better than nothing. But before we all committed suicide, I'd try to talk. "If you're not trying to goad us into breaking the truce, then what the hell do you want?"
"Want?" Janos said. "Want? Why, many things, Anita."
I was beginning to hate the way he said my name, sort of half-amused, and intimate, like we were friends, or close enemies.
"What do you want, Janos?"
"Shouldn't you be negotiating for your people?" he asked Jean-Claude.
"Anita does well enough on her own," Jean-Claude said.
Janos gave another rictus smile. "Very well. What do we want?"
The vampires went to the girls. They held up the whips so the two girls could see them.
"What is that?" the blonde asked. "What is that?" Her voice was high and bubbly with fear.
"It's a whip," the second girl said. Firm and clipped, her voice did not betray her the way her trembling body did.
The two vampires backed away, just enough for good whipping distance, I guess.
"What the bloody hell do you want?" I asked.
"Are you familiar with the term 'whipping boy'?" Janos asked.
"It was a person used by royalty to be beaten in the place of the royal heir."
"Very good; so few young people have a sense of history."
"What does the history lesson have to do with anything?"
"The girls are whipping boys for your two young men," Janos said.
The two vampires snaked the whips along the floor, and cracked them nearly in unison, but neither whip touched the girls. The second girl screamed, a short, clipped sound, when the whip whistled into the wall next to her. The blonde just sank against the wall, sobbing, "Please, please, please," over and over in a ragged voice.
"Don't hurt them," Larry said. "Please."
"Would you take her place?" Janos asked.
I finally understood where we were heading. "You can't hurt us without our cooperation. You treacherous son of a bitch."
He smiled. "Answer me, lad. Would you take her place?"
Larry nodded.
I grabbed his arm. "No."
"Surely it is his choice," Janos said.
"Let go of my arm, Anita."
I stared at his eyes, searching to see if he understood what he was doing. "You don't know what a whip will do to human flesh. You don't know what you're offering."
"We can remedy that," Janos said. The vampires ripped the backs of the girls' blouses with a harsh, quick tearing.
The blonde screamed.
"We can't just watch," Larry said.
He was right; whether I liked it or not, he was right.
"I've seen what a whip can do," Jason said suddenly. "Don't hurt them."
I stared at him. "You don't strike me as the self-sacrificing kind."
He shrugged. "We all have our moments."
"Would it make this an easier choice if I swore that if your young man takes the girl's place we will not cripple him?"
"How about kill him?" I said. "You can die of shock from a whipping."
"No killing, no crippling. We simply want our pound of flesh, and a quart of blood."
Something must have shown on our faces, because he laughed. "Figuratively speaking, of course. You will wear scars until you die, but no greater harm."
"This is ridiculous," I said. "We aren't going to do this."
"If we pull our guns, can we take them?" Larry asked.
I looked away from his earnest eyes. He touched my arm. "Anita?"
"We can take some of them with us," I said.
"But we'll still be dead, and once we're dead who'll help the girls?"
I shook my head. "There's got to be a better way."
Larry looked at Jean-Claude. "Will he keep his word? Will they not kill me?"
"Janos's word has always been reliable, or at least it was a couple of centuries ago."
"Can we trust them?" Jason asked.
"No," I said.
"Yes," Jean-Claude said.
I glared at him.
"I know you would rather shoot it out, but you would only succeed in getting us all killed. Or perhaps some of us made into vampires."
Larry touched my shoulders. He made me look at him. "It's alright."
"It's not alright," I said.
"Fine, but it's the best we can do right now."
"Don't do this."
"I don't have a choice," he said. "Besides, I'm a big boy, remember? I can take care of myself."
I hugged him. I didn't know what else to do.
"I'll be alright," he whispered.
I just nodded. I didn't trust my voice, and I try never to lie to my friends. He would not be alright. I knew it. He knew it. We all knew it.
Jason walked away from us towards the vampires. "Oh, no, my good shapeshifter, we don't want you chained to a wall."
"But you said..."
"I said you could save the girls, but not like that. Let the human take his lashes. All you must agree to is satisfying the desires of my two helpers, Bettina and Pallas."
Jason stared at the two vampires. They'd turned to face us. I suddenly tried to see them from the viewpoint of a twenty-year-old male. They were chesty, slim waisted; if Pallas's face was a little too witchy-looking for my taste, and Bettina's eyes too small, that was just me. Neither of them was pretty, or even beautiful; they were handsome in the way that some tall, leggy women are. Handsome in a good way, if they had been human.
Jason frowned. "It seems I'm getting the better deal here."
"Would it make any difference if I said you had to do it here in this room, on the floor, in front of everyone?" Janos asked.
Jason thought about that for a minute. "If I say no, does the girl get whipped?"
Janos nodded.
"Then I agr
ee," he said, but his voice was soft and uncertain. Being lascivious in private was one thing; doing it in public was different.
"Come then, shapeshifter, let the show begin." Janos made a sweeping motion with his white hands.
Jason glanced back at Jean-Claude like a kid on the first day of school wondering if the bullies were really going to hurt him. Jean-Claude gave no comfort. His face was as still and unreadable as a painting. He gave a small nod that could have meant anything from "It will be alright" to "Just do it."
I watched Jason's shoulders rise with a deep breath, and heard him blow it out like a runner before a race. Why is it that most things you might willingly do under other circumstances become distasteful when you have no choice?
"Have you ever been with one of us?" Janos asked.
Jason shook his head.
Janos put a long-fingered hand on Jason's shoulder. Jason didn't seem to enjoy that. Couldn't blame him. "There are many pleasures that await you, my young shapeshifter. Things that no human or wereanimal can give to you. Sensations that only the dead can offer."
The two female vampires had stepped to the far end of the room in a clear space on the black floor. The whips lay coiled at the feet of the two girls, as if they were a reminder of what would happen if anyone chickened out.
If Jason wanted to fuck a few vampires, that was fine with me. Besides, he wasn't mine to protect. But the sex wasn't going to last forever. I couldn't let them have Larry. I couldn't stand by and watch him be tortured. I just couldn't. But if I pulled down the room, then even if we got out of the basement—highly doubtful all on its own—we'd have every vamp in the place after our ass. There would be more; there were always more. But what had Jean-Claude said? If they broke the truce first, we could draw weapons. It had possibilities.
The one with long blonde hair had undone her braid. She shook out her hair like it was a thick curtain of yellow waves. It hid her face for a moment, and she seemed softer, more human. Maybe it was illusion. Whatever, Jason touched that thick hair, wadded his hands into it, then slid his hands around her waist. If he was going to have to do it, it looked like he was going to have fun while he did. Nice to see someone who enjoys his work.
The dark-haired vamp came in from behind, pressing her leather-clad body against him. Jason was short enough that his face was about breast level for both of them. He buried his face in the blonde's chest. She unlaced the front of her leather vest, peeling it back so he could suck her breasts.
I turned away. I was never much for voyeurism. Had an embarrassing tendency to blush. Ivy and Bruce moved along the wall to stand near the corner next to the threesome. Bruce was fascinated and embarrassed, but he kept looking. There was no embarrassment on Ivy's face. She moved along the wall, her back pressed to it, hands feeling their way along. Her red lipsticked mouth was partially open. She slid down the wall, the red dress bunching around her thighs as she went to all fours. Watching them move along the wall brought my gaze back to the entertainment.
Jason's shirt was gone. Wearing nothing but his leather pants and his black boots, he matched the two vampires. He was on his knees, his back arched so he was cradled against the brunette behind him. She smoothed her hands down his naked chest. He turned, giving her his lips. The kiss was long and deep, and full of more probing than anybody but your doctor should be doing.
The blonde was sitting with her legs wide open in front of them, undoing Jason's pants. She'd already done something to her leather pants so that the crotch was open. She was a natural blonde. Why was I surprised?
Ivy stretched out a hand to pull at the other vampire's long yellow hair.
"Ivy," Janos said, "you were not invited."
She pulled her hand back but didn't back away. She was as close to the action as she could get and not be part of it. Bruce was still pinned to the wall, open-mouthed and a little sweaty, but he didn't seem to want to come closer.
Janos stood very calmly watching. He had a tight grin on his face, and for the first time there was some light in those dead-fish eyes. He was enjoying himself.
Jean-Claude was half-leaning, half-sitting against a metal frame that held the rough outline of a body. He was watching the show, but his face was still unreadable, a beautiful mask.
He saw me looking at him, but there was no change in his eyes. He was as closed and solitary as if he were standing in an empty room. He wasn't breathing that I could see. Did he have a heartbeat when he held himself so still? Or did everything stop?
Kissa stood by the door that we hadn't been through. She had her arms crossed over her stomach. For someone that had wanted to jump Jean-Claude's bones so badly, she didn't seem to like the show much. Or maybe she was the guard to keep Larry and me from running screaming from the room.
Larry had backed as far away from the action as he could get. He was pressed up against the wall, trying to find something to look at, but his eyes kept being drawn back to the other end of the room. It was like trying not to watch a train wreck. You didn't want to see it happen, but if it was going to happen you didn't quite want to look away either. When would you ever get the chance to see it again? A ménage à trois made up of two vampires and a werewolf couldn't be that common a sight for Larry. It wasn't even a common sight for me.
The two girls still chained to the wall couldn't see what was going on. Probably just as well.
A low moan broke from the other side of the room. It made me glance back. Jason's pants had been pulled partially down to reveal most of the smooth expanse of his buttocks. His arms were braced, leaving only his lower body touching the woman. His body rose and fell rhythmically. The blonde vampire writhed under him, another low moan escaping her throat. Her breasts spilled out of her black leather vest like an offering as she did a sort of sit-up to meet Jason's mouth.
The brunette licked a slow, pink tongue along his spine. His back convulsed with the sensation, or maybe it was another sensation. The effect looked the same.
I turned away, but the image was burned on my mind. I felt heat crawl up my neck. Damn. Larry's eyes widened and I watched the color drain from his face, until his skin was the surprised white of paper and his eyes too big for his face.
I fought it for a minute, but I turned back to see, like Lot's wife risking it all for one last forbidden glimpse. Jason had collapsed, his face lost in the blonde's hair. Her face was turned to the room. Her skin had thinned until you could see every bone in her face. Her full lips had thinned back, making her teeth look longer. She no longer had enough lips to hide her fangs.
The brunette knelt just behind them, her knees between both their legs. She lowered her hands from her face, and one half of that handsome face rotted away. She ran her hand through her long dark hair and it came away in clumps.
She turned her face towards the rest of us. The skin sloughed off the bones on the left side of her face and fell to the floor with a thick wet plop.
I swallowed hard enough that it hurt going down and backed up to stand by Larry. He wasn't white anymore; he was green.
"My turn now," one of the vampires said. My face turned back to the scene at the end of the room, almost against my will. I couldn't stand to watch, and couldn't stand to look away.
Jason rose in a sort of push-up motion. He caught a glimpse of the blonde's face and his shoulders tensed, the line of his spine tightening. He pulled away from her slowly, coming to his knees.
The brunette ran her fingers down his naked back. Her flesh sloughed away, leaving a trail of greenish slime behind. A tremor ran through his body that had nothing to do with sex.
From across the room I could see Jason's chest rise and fall faster and faster, as if he was hyperventilating. He stayed staring straight ahead, making no move to turn and look behind him, as if it would go away if he didn't look.
The brunette wrapped her decaying arms around his shoulders, leaned her rotted face next to his, and whispered something.
Jason struggled away from them, crawling against the
wall. His bare chest was covered in bits of her flesh. His eyes were impossibly wide, showing too much white. He couldn't seem to get enough air. A strand of something thick and heavy slid slowly down his neck onto his chest. He batted at it like you would swat at a spider that you found crawling along your skin. He was pressed into the black wall with his pants nearly to his thighs.
The blonde rolled off her back and crawled towards him, reaching a hand out that was nothing but bones with bits of dried flesh. She seemed to be decaying in dry ground. The brunette was wet. She lay back on the floor, and some dark fluid rushed out from her to pool beneath her body. She'd undone her own leather shirt, and her breasts were like heavy bags of fluid.
"I'm ready for you," the brunette said. Her voice was still clear and solid. No human voice should have come out of those rotting lips.
The blonde grabbed Jason's arm, and he screamed.
Jean-Claude sat there watching, motionless, unmoved.
I found myself walking towards them. It surprised even me. I kept waiting for the smell that should have accompanied the rotting flesh, but with every step the air was clean.
I stood beside Jean-Claude and said, "Is this illusion?"
He wouldn't look at me. "No, ma petite, it is not an illusion."
I poked him in the arm, and it was hard and firm as wood. It didn't feel like flesh at all. "Is this illusion?"
"No, ma petite." He looked at me at last, and his eyes were solid drowning blue. "Both forms were real." He stood, and even standing next to him I could not see him breathe.
The brunette was on all fours reaching for Jason with a hand that fell into wet pieces as it moved. Jason screamed and pressed himself into the wall as if he wanted to crawl through it. He hid his face like a child ignoring the monster under his bed, but this was no child, and he knew the monsters were real.
"Help him," I whispered, and I wasn't sure which of us I was talking to.
"I shall do what I can," Jean-Claude said. I was staring at him when I heard the next words in my head. His lips never moved. "If they break the truce first, ma petite, then you are free to slaughter everyone in this room."
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