I swallowed hard. For years I'd heard tales of this portable prison and those who'd learned lessons of respect and discipline inside it, but the actual sight of it made my skin crawl. Someone was going to become Perfidia's latest slave. It was merely a matter of who, and why.
"You've noticed, I'm sure, that the cage has no gate," she remarked offhandedly.
Her silvery eyes narrowed as she looked at me, and I knew she could hear each frenzied thought and anticipate each futile move I might try. Judging from another flash of her incisors, Perfidia was feeling the need to feed. She could hear every pulse in the room, sense every shallow breath, and the predator within her had already chosen its prey. Only a matter of time before she pounced.
"Come over here, Alexandrea," she repeated softly. "Give me what I want."
I was awfully short on options. Here in this room, where one slave served as her foot rest while the other begged to pleasure her and a third man was hanging helplessly beside a suspended tarot spread, I was the last mouse left for this ravenous cat to catch. While I hated to cave in-hated the way she would ruin my future no matter how much humiliation I endured to humor her-I didn't like the looks of that cage, either.
"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty," she quietly coaxed. "See my cream? It tastes like freedom, little girl, and these three boys can't wait to watch you lap it up."
As my thoughts whirled, it registered that she'd changed her tune-from a fingering to a licking-yet deep down her siren song still sang of my doom. Her slender hands moved with an entrancing grace, one of them to cup her mound while the other gently brushed Justin aside. I watched spellbound, fighting the pull of her power, as she raised her soft, fleshy cape to reveal the intimate skin that glistened with her desire. A single drop dribbled down her leg and Justin lunged for it.
"Down, boy!" she barked, and the errant twin retreated behind his brother's bent form. "You've tasted my nectar many times, and now we're letting Alexandrea take her turn. Because she'll do anything to be free with Billy. And because she's secretly a dirty little girl who craves what she should never taste…who wants forbidden fruit, so we can punish her and cleanse her of her sins. A bride must be pure to enter into the sacrament of marriage, after all."
Her logic was as skewed as her tone was coaxing, and I heard the danger behind her alluring words. Without my mind's consent, my legs moved me forward. I couldn't pull my gaze away from that single drop of juice dribbling slowly down her thigh; couldn't inhale the scent of her deeply enough-couldn't name all the lovely shades of rose I saw in those folds as her quickened breathing took control of mine. I sensed Billy was watching in horrified fascination as I went down on my knees and began to lap at her leg.
Like a parched nomad at a desert oasis I went at her, heedless of her needs because I had to satisfy my own just to survive another moment. Her hands found my hair and I lunged upward with my tongue, lapping frantically at her flesh as I parted her silken lips with my fingers. Already the wickedness had insinuated itself: one taste and I was a goner, so now I shamelessly sated my own lustful hunger. A voice-Perfidia's voice-filled my head with purrs of encouragement, until I realized the vampire, too, was caught in the throes of passion. Where she had stood coolly open, displaying herself to the twins and Billy, she was burning like a wildfire out of control as my hands roamed her chilly flesh and my mouth ignited her.
Perfidia bucked against my face, and with a strangled cry she wrenched herself away from me. She sprang toward Billy, who was writhing on the wall with an erection resembling a tall, purple-headed mushroom. Impaling herself on his cock, the vampire let out a wild cry and rode him like the raging bull he was, rocking hard against his body as her head lolled back. Like dogs, Justin and Jeremy scuttled over to catch the drippings-likely to be a feast, as the wetness squelched with each thrust of the lovers.
I watched in dawning horror, wiping the wetness from my face. Perfidia's blood-colored gown shifted and shook, veiling the lower parts of their bodies as they shuddered into the first stage of climax. But nothing could mask the fangs that sprang between her lips. That bitch was going to sate her lust on my Billy and then suck his blood!
When I sprang at her, I was repelled by an invisible wall. I triedagain, scrambling toward the rutting pair to deliver Billy from his doom. But once more I struck the barrier she'd erected from air, and her satanic magic sent that damn cage flying over in pieces to reconstruct itself around me. I cringed as those white incisors flashed, for once Tripplehorn grunted with his first spurt, he'd be lost in a climax that might cost him his life.
Perfidia went for his neck.
Billy, caught up in convulsions and those invisible manacles, cried out. For what seemed like forever, the parasite riding him clung to his jugular. I could only mewl like an abandoned cat, clutching the cold bars of my cage as my pulse raced along with my catastrophic thoughts.
Billy's eyes closed, and then his body stopped bucking. With a languorous sigh he slumped, and his head lolled to one side as Perfidia finally let him go. God, but he looked pale hanging there. As lifeless as Lucy Legg on the undertaker's table.
Tears streamed down my cheeks. Why had Perfidia killed him? I thought the Three P's had decided to let him stay here because he'd make them an exciting new playmate, but this bitch had taken matters into her own hands without her partners' consent. She climbed down and allowed the twins to lick her slit clean. After dismissing them with a flick of her hand, the vampire smoothed her gown into place as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
My knuckles grew white as I gripped the bars of my little prison. "You goddamn, whoring-"
"That's no way to talk to your mother, Alexandrea."
"-thief! Stealing the man you knew-you knew…you…" I blinked rapidly to clear my eyes, not believing what I'd just heard. Perfidia was too caught up in her deception to be playing straight with me. Just trying to drive the final nail into my proverbial coffin by insinuating we two could be related in any way.
I shuddered-my body's reaction to a situation my mind didn't yet grasp. "You just can't stand it that Billy loves me, despite learning I live in this hell hole with you three-"
"Loves you, does he? We'll see about that."
With a snap of her fingers, she brought him around. My poor heart stood still as Billy's eyes opened, and then he abruptly inhaled. He still looked limp as a rag doll, but he was focusing-taking in the room and the two of us. Recognition reached his pale face.
"Billy, my sweet," Perfidia crooned, reaching over to chuck him under the chin. "Did you enjoy that fucking?"
"God yes, it was-"
"Better than the way Alexandrea gives it to you?"
When his wary glance came my way, I saw those brown eyes swirling like stirred coffee in a cup. The vampire still held him in her thrall, yet Tripplehorn's words cut me deep.
"Why, of course it was. How could any woman possibly compare to you, Perfidia?" he murmured dreamily.
The bitch smiled, sipping her cigarette. "Perhaps we can give her lessons, you and I. Would it give you a thrill, servicing mother and daughter at the same time, dear boy?"
There it was again, that insinuation I couldn't allow to stand unchallenged. "Don't believe a thing she's saying, Billy! She's up to her old tricks again, deceiving us both!" I declared loudly.
Yet my voice wavered. Something deep inside me was piecing together odd bits of recollection-glimpses of a past I didn't recall but somehow knew to be true.
Perfidia watched, reading the rush of my thoughts. I clenched the iron bars of a cage that had shrunk each time I'd spoken out against her, denying there could be any connection between myself and this vampire I'd never liked or trusted. It seemed, at that awful moment, that my only defense was a blatant offense.