“Black in Back” (Part V)

At least they were kept together. Tess would have worried if Grace had been allowed to wander, though she wondered why she cared when the damage had been done ages ago. Days, weeks, months, or a combination of the three didn’t matter. What really bit was the accusation that she had stolen every one of Grace’s prospects from parental preference to romance and beyond. She hadn’t even known there was a competition. Grace had misbehaved so Tess had behaved; she had been sparing her parents the angst of two hellion daughters … plus, she was naturally disinclined to disobedience. That was why she had broken Daddy’s heart by falling in love with Travis. She hadn’t expected to break her sister’s as well, though she’d apparently been breaking it since grade school. Stealing friends and teachers and husbands; she was a real Mata Hari and hadn’t had a clue.

What a laugh.

She sat by the window as twilight fell. The house stood on the crest of a hill and overlooked acres of manicured lawn. A long paved drive wound up from the main road. Way in the distance, the city skyline made an Etch-a-Sketch silhouette. “Why are there no neighbours?”

“Raymond bought up all the houses then kicked the neighbours out,” Grace told her. “There were too many noise complaints and he got tired of the citations.”

Despite herself, Tess laughed. The sky purpled to match the bruise on her sister’s face and she remembered that there was nothing remotely amusing about the situation. Raymond hadn’t returned, and from the beat of the band tuning up in the mansion’s ballroom, he was unlikely to appear tonight, either. Another mean party was underway, as advertised by the headlights marking the driveway like a string of pearls.

The door opened. Grace stated the obvious. “Dinner’s here.”

It was Italian, tonight. Pasta in parmesan cream and chicken cacciatore. Tess’s throat tightened at the smell of the red sauce. Cacciatore had been Trav’s favourite. Could Raymond have known? She bit her lip and looked at Grace, who had bypassed the main and was already into the tiramisu. “Gracie,” she reproached.

“What? Life is uncertain.”

Under the circumstances, Grace had a point. Tess got a spoon and joined her on the far side of the bowl. She wasn’t really hungry—and hadn’t been since she arrived—but dessert was dessert and if Raymond was fattening her for the oven, she’d make darned sure she was mostly fat before she got there.

“Oh, not for the oven, darling,” he remarked when he finally did show up a day or two—it was hard to track time—later. There was no party tonight. No headlights streaming up the drive, no drumbeat reverberating from the main floor, no languorous hubbub drifting across the lawn. She had watched inebriated couples kissing or worse through her window these past nights. Grace had watched as well, and Tess had wondered if she missed being part of the action. She had wanted to ask crawly questions, but hadn’t dared. The animal hunger in her sister’s eyes had sort of answered them anyway.

“What, then?” she asked Raymond. “You’re feeding us so well for a reason.”

“I’m a gracious host,” he replied with a chilly smile. “Nothing but the best for guests beneath my roof.”

“We’re getting tired of being stuck in this room for days on end,” Grace spoke up.

Raymond looked puzzled, then comprehension dawned in his deep dark eyes and he uttered a dry barking sound that might have been laughter if it had come from someone with a soul. “You think I mean you? Your sister really is the clever one, isn’t she?”

Grace bristled. “I want to see my son.”

“Well, you can’t. He’s gone.”

“What do you mean, ‘gone’?”

“What else can I mean, you stupid whore? He’s gone, left the premises, no longer here; is that clear enough for you?”

Grace made an anguished sound, but Tess stopped her from lunging by blocking her with an arm across her chest. “How did he get away?” she asked, quietly.

“He’d served his purpose, so I gave him away. More people care about him than about his mother, I can tell you. Children get more attention when they disappear than they do when they’re safe at home.” He gave Grace a patronizing look. “You’re done, sweetie.”

On cue, as if they’d been listening at the door, four of the usual six goons strode importantly into the room. Grace backed up a step, but they hadn’t come to take her. They’d come to keep her contained while Raymond removed Tess.

………

“I’m continually bemused by the mortal obsession with size,” the vampire said. He punched a button and a big screen plasma TV came to life on one wall. “Eighty inches,” he went on, “as if something this huge would fit in the tombs you creatures call condominiums. Have a seat, twinkie. The show’s about to start.”

Tess looked around. This wasn’t a screening room like she’d heard some mansions had; not a mini-theatre with a digital projector and a wet bar. This was—oh, God—more like Raymond’s private domain, a borderline boudoir kitted out with the latest technology hidden amid the streamlined 30’s decor. “How old are you?” she asked.

“I don’t remember,” he replied—which was probably true. He flipped channels as he talked, pretending to be distracted, but Tess knew better. He was tapped into her rhythm, aware of her breathing and heart rate, assessing how much fear tainted her scent and how much more was required to jack his vampiric jollies to the max.

She doubted that she could be more scared than she already was, not without blacking out anyway, and losing consciousness was not an option. She turned her back on the TV and perched on the edge of an armchair much like the one Grace had occupied in their prison room.

In the room now showing on the TV screen. It took a second before Tess recognized the layout: the bed between the windows, the cigarette-scorched wardrobe and the armchair beside it. Grace wasn’t slouched in that chair now; she was pacing a path in the carpet—and she had been right. Raymond had been watching. From the overhead light fixture, apparently.

“You’re succulent when you’re asleep, did you know that?”

She fought to keep her voice steady. “I had no idea.”

“Such juicy perfection is rare these days. Most of you are toxic with chemicals or cholesterol. Even your children lack flavour; despite being little fat slugs, they’re painfully malnourished. A specimen as delectable as you, lollipop, is to be savoured, almost cherished, in the taking.”

This was not a conversation that Tess wanted to have. It seemed that Raymond intended to kill her himself, and probably within the next few hours. After all, she was the prize in his vendetta against Black—but Black had abandoned her and rescue was unlikely to come in any other form. Raymond would get what thrills he could before he killed, but kill he definitely would. “Did you really let my nephew go?” she asked, to keep from screaming.

“I’m wounded that you would question my integrity.”

Tess repeated the question. Raymond heaved an impatient sigh, rolled his eyes, and tossed the TV remote aside. “I don’t keep anyone beyond their usefulness and slain children get far too much press. I can’t afford that kind of publicity. Adults, on the other hand …” His fingers picked up where his voice trailed off, brushing his nails lightly across her throat. They were smooth and slightly convex, and cold like ice slivers. Tess shivered despite herself and he smiled, bending close to breathe her scent. His silky dark hair fell around her, redolent of musk and incense, and for a disorienting instant, she turned toward him as if answering a lover’s touch.

“You’re not Tess.”

She jerked her attention to the television screen.

“Who are you?” Grace was asking.

“Oh … my … God …” Tess murmured, abruptly sitting. On the screen before her, in the room where she and her sister had been imprisoned, a more dishevelled than usual Black was propped in the doorway, staring slack-jawed at Grace. Someone in the corridor shoved him and he sprawled over the threshold. The door slammed shut. Grace ventured forward when he stayed where he’d landed, circling him so warily that Tess knew she had recognized him as a vampire.

“Who are you?” she asked again.

Black lay still for a long moment before pushing himself to his knees. “Believe me, sweetheart, you don’t want to know.” His voice was weak and vaguely slurred. He sat back on his heels and lifted his head as if it was full of cement. Grace recoiled, but Tess only looked accusingly at Raymond.

“Where are his sunglasses?”

Raymond shrugged.

“He looks awful,” she continued. “What have you done to him?”

“Oh, pooty pie. He’s just hungry.”

“How hungry?”

Raymond shrugged again. “We snared him a few days ago, and since he runs on fumes, I’d guess the lure of Gracie’s blood will fold him in fifteen minutes, tops. Delightful, isn’t it? For once she’ll be preferred over her prissy little sister.”

“I am not prissy,” Tess snapped.

“I may call you on that when the show is over.”

“Why is there a show at all? Do I have to watch Black kill my sister?”

“No, but I do.”

Tess quickly averted her gaze. Jesus, she thought wildly, who knew? A vampire with EDS. Or maybe not. Maybe he was just a pervert, and that sickened her enough to make her wonder who had made him immortal.

Black’s voice sounded edgy through the speakers. “Where is Tess?”

“I don’t know who you mean,” Grace replied.

Raymond snorted and muttered something derogatory. Tess shot him a savage glance, but, unwittingly, Black spoke for him. “Don’t jerk me around, darlin’. You smell just like her. Where is she?”

“I don’t know. Raymond has her. What happened to your eyes?”

“I was born this way.”

“Blind?” Grace thrust three fingers in Black’s face. He smacked her hand aside. “That’d be a ‘no’,” she observed, rubbing absently at her wrist. Give her credit, she was braver than her little sister; she had no compunction about zeroing in for a better look, but Black was in no mood to be inspected. He was on his feet and putting distance between them while Grace was still half-crouched. “How do you know my sister?” she asked.

“How do you know Raymond?” he shot back, scanning the ceiling. Tess stopped breathing when his filmy gaze passed over the camera lens and kept going as if he hadn’t seen it, and maybe he hadn’t. She wasn’t sure until his eyes roved back and hesitated on hers for half a hiccup. “Correct that,” he amended, turning to her sister. “How well do you know Raymond?”

“I know he’s a prick.”

“Not news, sweetheart.”

“How do you know him?” Grace asked.

“He’s my grandfather,” Black said, and Grace choked. Raymond shook his head and lamented the ingratitude of children. Tess considered reproaching him, but there was no point in berating a predator for preying. People either forgot or ignored that vampires were not human; anyone willing to go that route was too dumb to live—and probably wouldn’t.

“You must have disappointed him to end up here,” Grace surmised.

“Yeah, family’s a bitch.” Black hitched up in his pacing of the room and spared her a narrowed glance. “What’s your excuse?”

“What do you mean?”

“Nice girls don’t wind up as the main on Raymond’s all-night buffet.”

“I’m not a nice girl. Tess is.”

“Too bad she’s not any brighter than you are. How the hell did he catch both of you at once?” Tess almost laughed, he sounded so annoyed. Grace, by comparison, got her back up—her usual reaction to accusations of blatant stupidity.

“I suppose you’re here by invitation?”

“He is,” Raymond growled beneath his breath. He was staring intently at the screen. “By dinner invitation, so dig in, Ariel, before she gets cold.”

Tess thought that may have already happened. Grace wouldn’t give up the goods when she was insulted and Black wasn’t going out of his way to charm her. He wasn’t her type, either, unless she proved so starved for a vampire’s attention that she didn’t care whether he was scruffier than a third-rate biker. He truly did look awful. He put his back to Grace and walked the room once, twice, searching for a way out, buying them—buying Tess—a little more time.

“He’s not going to cave,” she told Raymond.

“What do you know about it?” he snapped, still riveted to the TV.

“I know Black. He’s an honourable man.”

Raymond scoffed. “He’s a vampire, twinkie. Better yet, he’s a hungry vampire, and getting hungrier with every beat of your sister’s meaty heart.” He thumped a fist on the TV frame. “Show us some skin, Gracie; you know you want it.”

Tess glanced at the stalemate on the screen, then back to Raymond. “You’re hungrier than he is.”

He snorted.

“Oh, come on,” she persisted, questioning her sanity even as the taunt left her lips. “You don’t kill every night. You couldn’t possibly get away with it, so you have to do what Black does. You sip us like wine, taking a mouthful here and there because, let’s face it, no one empties a whole bottle at once.”

He turned his head, his black eyes bright and malicious. “I’m going to empty you, cookie.”

“Then you’re definitely hungry.” Tess took a deep breath and peeled off her t-shirt.

Raymond straightened with a condescending tut. “No, no, no. That’s not how this is going to play.”

“What, are you going to take me when I’m pink and succulent? You have to get me to sleep first, and I’m telling you now that will not happen. I won’t go down without a fight, so you’d better be up for one. Oh, wait,” she sneered, noting the flicker in his eyes, “you can’t get it up, can you? You have to watch someone else do it first, that’s why you throw all these dope parties. Someone else gets us started, then you step in to finish up. You’re no predator. You’re a parasite!”

Raymond hissed, flashing his fangs in the TV’s blue-white glow. They were beauties, Tess saw with a twisted thrill, but when he launched himself toward her, he blew past and yanked open the door, bellowing names into the corridor.

Shit, what had she done? She fumbled back into her t-shirt and hastily scanned for another exit. Seeing no other door, she made a dash for the drapes in hope of finding a window behind the gauzy sheers. She hit glass, all right, but not hard enough to break it. She drew back to smash her fists through it, felt cold hands close on her wrists, and was spun to find herself cloaked in Raymond’s waist-length hair. He drove her spine against the sill and jerked her hands above her head. His voice ground like dry gears, deep in his throat. “You are so done, bijou. So, so done.”

She couldn’t quell a whimper when he licked up one side of her face. The perfume in his hair was gagworthy in such close quarters; she clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, and tried not to wince as his tongue pulled at her skin. Stupid; I’ve been so stupid—

Raymond took her by one wrist and thrust her backward into the room. He laughed as she bounced off one of his thugs and ricocheted between two more before a fourth managed to stop her momentum. That one brought her feet off the floor and leered at Raymond. “Where to, boss?”

“Must I tell you everything? Get her on the bed, you idiot. Kneel on her if you have to, but don’t break anything.” The vampire stood by as Tess was flung flat and flipped onto her back. “Scream if you like, twinkie. It gets the boys going.”

Tess refused to oblige. She would burst a vessel before she loosed more than an impromptu yip, but she had promised Raymond a fight and the gorilla hands attempting to pin her to the mattress were conveniently clumsy in thwarting her thrashing limbs. She was naturally little and quick. Adrenaline made her a blur. The goons fell over themselves trying to corral her; she bit, she kicked, she bucked and clawed and actually landed a few respectable blows before one foot connected with a scrotal sac and the injured party’s howl soared over Raymond’s outraged shouting. Suddenly free, Tess tumbled off the bed. She landed on feet and hands, performed an awkward somersault, and bounced upright in front of the television screen. What she saw through the camera lens made her laugh out loud.

Raymond paused, then swore violently. “Oh, for fuck’s sake! Go after them, you morons, or I’ll let the dogs have you!”

The talking one protested. “But, boss—”

Raymond roared. “I said, go after them!”

Forgotten, Tess grabbed a brass table lamp and drove it hard at the window. Glass shattered. She crashed through the broken pane, hit, rolled and fell again, this time some way, before she struck solid ground and lay still.

To be continued …