My lover squirmed, yet his grimace told me he, too, was being held in place by a force far stronger than he was. "I don't know what the hell you think you're-"
"That's right-you don't know!" the vampire snapped, making him curl protectively against me. "You took your turn spouting pretty words to Andrea-such stupidity, to raise her hopes of escaping! So now I'll do the talking, Mr. Tripplehorn."
She focused on me then, her face alight with an evil shine. "Pandora might've dealt this spread, but it is I-the Queen of Swords-who sits in the top position," she intoned, pointing at the card. "Just as it is I who has always ruled your future…by creating your past."
I had no idea what she meant. But my heart trembled with a sickening sense that I was about to find out.
Chapter 8: Perfida, Revealed
Perfidia took a long draw on her cigarette, awaiting my response to the puzzle she'd just presented. Saying she'd always ruled my future by creating my past! What kind of arrogant nonsense was that? She was merely taking advantage of Pandora's absence to be the queen: the Queen of Swords, who did sat in the top position-representing The Present-of those tarot cards that were hanging a fraction of an inch from the wall.
Billy, too, was still pinioned there. He resembled a sacrificed Christ held to the Cross by invisible nails, only naked. His dark eyes widened as the vampire stepped toward me. Heartening as it was to witness this signal that he felt some affection for me-feared for my safety, perhaps-I sensed Perfidia had rendered him mute.
"Cat got your tongue, puss?" the slender demon teased.
Her gossamer gown, the color of blood, fluttered as though a thousand butterflies were trapped beneath it. I interpreted this as a rising of her agitation-a power I didn't want to deal with. But once again I had no choice.
This time, we were truly at her mercy. I sensed whatever mission Pandora and Pink were on would keep them away-by Perfidia's design. It occurred to me, too, that the tarot spread lingering mysteriously near the wall was more the result of this witch's manipulation than any punches Pandora may have pulled when she dealt the colorful cards.
"You're catching on," Perfidia jeered, now standing only two feet away. "But what I'm about to reveal-what that goody-goody Pandora would protect you from-will affect you long after those cards have crumbled to dust. Long after Pandora ceases to be, for that matter."
My insides tightened. Pandora, as the oldest and most powerful of the Sisters of Samaria, had no intention of bringing herself to an end-or letting anyone else mess with her, either! Yet here stood her partner, foretelling a time when she herself would reign. I understood more fully now why Pandora called the reversed Queen of Swords the Bitch of Swords! Turned upside down, she wielded that weapon without thought of her cruelty's consequences. She presumed the truth was hers to reveal, but at what price?
"Just say it," I rasped, backing away from those frigid eyes. "I'm a grown woman who's made her own way in this world. Nothing you reveal can change who I am, or what I'll do when you've finished meddling with Billy and me."
Her nasty laughter filled my little room. "You're a bigger fool than I thought-and that's in the cards, too, isn't it?" she taunted. "That Queen of Wands might represent you-just as the naive and dreamy-eyed Queen of Cups is Pandora-but having that Fool reversed indicates your new journey with Tripplehorn will take you nowhere. And Justice reversed, covering Pandora, says there's not a damn thing she can do about it!"
My heart pounded weakly in my chest, and the room began to feel extremely tight. Was this vampire sucking all the air from it? Just as she'd sucked the lifeblood from so many of the other orphans raised here? I'd never been one for death wishes, but I had a dark moment wondering why this malevolent creature hadn't offed me when I was young, too. Lord knows she'd had enough cruel, critical things to say about me over my lifetime.
The response to my unasked question smoldered in her feline eyes.
"You know who you are, Alexandrea. You're just too much a coward to admit it." Smoke curled upward from her flared nostrils, again reminding me of a dragon about to devour some poor feckless heroine in tales of yore. But there it was-my inclination to escape into a fictional state whenever reality felt too difficult. Orphans spun entire lives from threads of their wishful imaginations, and despite my legal degree, I was still a little lost girl at times.
Perfidia pivoted, apparently bored; the cat who insisted her captive mouse play along until the bitter end. She turned to study Billy then. Against that wall he still hung, naked and spread-eagle, pinned by the vampire's invisible fetters. "Do you want me, Billy?" she purred, stepping toward him with a sinuous swish of her deep red skirts.
Tripplehorn snorted. "Bitch! Why would any man-"
His head swiveled with the force of her slap, even though she remained several feet in front of him.
"Time you learned about humoring older women, stupid goose," she sneered, and then she snapped her fingers in the air. "Justin and Jeremy had the same sort of attitude when I chose them, but now they're the perfect servants. The perfect lovers. If you're smart-if you truly love my Andrea-you'll model yourself after their exemplary behavior. Right, boys?"
The blond twins appeared from out of nowhere, their eyes fixed on Perfidia as though they owed her their very life. And, it occurred to me, they'd been spared the same way I had. Without a word, they bowed in unison and their silken saris slithered down to puddle at their feet. They were already rock hard, pulsing with the desire to please her.
"Kneel," the vampire whispered.
One of the twins went to his knees immediately in front of Perfidia, while the other approached on hands and knees to act as her footstool. The lithe vampire lifted her leg, revealing her nudity as the long skirt parted, and then placed her foot in the middle of her slave's back.
"Lick me," she commanded.
The blond before her approached with reverent eagerness, his eyes closed as his lips met her skin. The tip of his tongue made long, sensuous lines up and down her inner thigh, teasing her just to the point where her tight, pale curls met the crevice of her leg. Up and over he went, laving her in a semicircle that arched above her mound, to then lavish his attention on the other thigh.
An intake of breath told me Billy was reacting the way Perfidia had hoped. While his dark eyes and hair accentuated the stubborn refusal written on his face-the intent to remain unaffected by what he saw-the rise of his cock betrayed him. After all, a beautiful woman stood facing him with her legs parted while she took her pleasure from another man.
Perfidia's expression remained cool and emotionless as she watched Tripplehorn's erection point toward the ceiling.
"This could be you, Billy," she said in a sibilant whisper that came from all corners of the room. "Say the word, and you could be serving me the way Jeremy is."
"Forget it!" he spat. "I won't be a slave to any woman!"
His yelp punctuated that statement, and the flinch of his suspended body told me Perfidia had slapped him somewhere much more painful this time. Billy gasped, writhing in his invisible bonds.
The blond twins stifled their laughter, and Jeremy reached up to part Perfidia's sex lips with his fingers. It was no secret he enjoyed the freedoms his slavery afforded: his pale face grew pink with expectation as his hard, slender cock jutted between his mistress's legs.
Perfidia abruptly cuffed him, which sent him sprawling backwards on the floor. "Taking liberties has always been your downfall, fool," she growled, pointing a pallid finger at him. "Assume the position for the whipping you so richly deserve."
Jeremy paled, yet his face took on the taut expectation of one whose fear acted as an aphrodisiac. For a moment he seemed ready to protest-to beg for mercy-but that unwavering digit made him think better of it.