She was absolutely insane, a maniac and a profligate. Impudent and insubordinate, completely devoid of how a woman should behave herself, and it enraged him. She dressed like a whore, no different from the disgusting dissolute tamps who roamed the strip and Freeside. At the same time, he hadn't been able not to notice her porcelain skin under the rags she wore, those tight black jeans with tares just below the crease of her ass and over her scraped up knees. When he'd found her in the office of that doctor in Goodsprings, she'd only been dressed in a tank top and jeans, with her head bandaged up. Being so close to Nipton, the Legion had made the decision to include Goodsprings in their little lottery and there's were he'd heard about the strange courier, working for the Mojave Express, who had been shot twice in the head and somehow survived long enough to claw her way out of her own grave. Curious, Vulpes had thought as he listened to the chatty woman behind the bar.
They had several agents within the Mojave Express, as did the NCR and since this courier was a woman, there was a very large possibility she was a NCR agent. It would seem Fortuna had just sent him a gift.
He had left Goodsprings that afternoon for one of his assassination squads hiding out in the mountains just above the little town. They were to make an example out of Goodsprings just as with Nipton, he decided. The more the merrier, what that not the saying? The hurt courier was his, though. His soldiers could rape and pillage all they wanted, so long as they left the courier alone.
Now he was dragging the insolent woman with him towards Nipton. She was surprisingly fierce, for a woman. Of course, she was well aware of what legionaries did with profligate women, she had made sure Vulpes knew that she knew. When the empty crucifixes met them once they had entered Nipton, she quieted down, much to Vulpes pleasure – he had begun to grow tired of her whining and shouting as he escorted her. He had made sure to cover her upper body up in one of the Legion's red tunics, she was, after all, not a slave and even though she was a prisoner – he wanted to keep those voluptuous curves to himself. She was a beauty, for a Wastelander and she spoke with an accent unfamiliar to the Mojave – she sounded like she was from the far east coast and her looks seemed to fit with it as well. She looked to have old-world European ancestry, with her fair skin, long black hair and large almost black eyes. Perhaps she was Bostonian? Not from DC, at least – that much Vulpes could pin out from listening to her indecent swearing. Black Irish, had somehow popped up in his head, remembering an old pre-war newspaper he had found several years ago, with a discussion of the situation of the Irish on the east coast during the great emigration's from Europe to the New World 300 years ago. She was a picture of how they described what he could guess were the lowlife of the Irish immigrants; they had described them with a word he didn't know – gypsies. It made sense though, if she was originally from the Commonwealth.
The town of Nipton had been brought in to their unimpressive town hall for the lottery and Vulpes decided it was best to bring the courier with him and keep her close – one could never know with the dogs of recruits Aurelius had sent with him. Sure, they could crucify people well enough, but they were barbarians. Useful barbarians, of course.
"Come now, little pupa", Vulpes whispered to the courier as they entered the building filled to the brim by degenerates. "I have some work to do, but don't worry, no harm will come to you"
The courier looked at him with defiance in her large black eyes, but nodded and kept close to him, finally deciding it wasn't worth struggling. The sight of fifty legionaries probably did the trick, as well as the crosses waiting for its victims outside, and yes, the screams of whores being beaten and raped was possibly a part of it as well. They would make good slaves, if the imbeciles didn't beat them to death first. Vulpes sighed to himself and then turned to address the whores and powder gangers collected inside the town hall. The mayor, he was to be burned at the stake first – and then the fun could begin with the rest of the disgusting lot gathered in this hole of Hades.
"It is important that you watch, pupa", Vulpes told the courier as they stood on the stairs outside the town hall, watching the recruits nailing powder gangers to the crosses and then raising them from the ground.
"This is disgusting", she answered in a low, hushed voice without looking up at Vulpes.
"I know", he nodded. "But it is necessary. These people were degenerate"
"I know that", she said and it sounded almost as if she was rolling her eyes to him. "I just can't wrap my head around the fact that this gives you legion boys hard-ons"
"Excuse me?" Vulpes couldn't help himself from snorting.
"You get off on this, that's what's disgusting – and frankly, it's weird. I totally get why you would kill these people, hell, I've thought about it myself when I've had to take the route through Nipton, but why do it in this way? What does it say about you, really? Except that you're all perverts"
"It says", Vulpes turned to face her, "That the Legion doesn't condone degenerate behavior, we punish as is befitting"
"It only makes people afraid of you, you know", she almost whispered.
"Of course", Vulpes nodded and she grew quiet after that.
The courier had behaved herself on the way to Fortification Hill. Well, if one didn't count chatting endlessly as bad behavior – Vulpes wasn't sure what he counted it as, if he were to be completely honest with himself. He would break her down, anyhow, eventually. Right now, he couldn't help but to enjoy her struggling and calling him foul words, it egged him on. He hadn't touched her as of yet, he savored it for now – waiting for the perfect time to force her warm, tight flesh over his. But she needed to be just right for that, she needed to be wanton, but still as fierce. During the travelling, he had provoked her enough at times to beat her into submission, and it seemed to be a good start. She was beginning to behave herself somewhat, but not enough. He didn't want her to behave herself enough, he wanted some resistance – willing, but still resistant.
She was too beautiful to be a whore, Vulpes thought as he followed her with his eyes. If she could only learn to act like a proper woman, but remain the vixen as he bedded her, he would never be able to let her go.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked as Vulpes kneeled beside the bath she was soaking in, tracing her small, but perfectly curved body with a washcloth.
"I'm not a barbarian", he answered and looked into her black eyes.
She snorted in obvious disbelief. "Do you all wash your slaves?"
"You're not, Rhia", Vulpes smiled softly towards her as he followed her full bust with the cloth.
"It fucking feels like I am. Tell me, Vulpes Inculta, what am I then? Your whore? Someone to breed with? Your servant? Punching bag?"
"All good suggestions", Vulpes chuckled as he reached down to touch her hip with gentle hands. "But no"
"Then what?" she snarled, growing impatient.
"You're mine"
"That means I'm a slave", she frowned.
"No, it means that I own you, but you're not a slave. I'll keep you here with me for a while, but I'm going to let you have your revenge on the man who shot you"
"What? Why?" now she looked confused, good. He had been afraid she'd suffered some brain damage from the wounds to her head, but as they had travelled and during the two weeks they had spent in the Fort, he'd been very pleased to see that she had not. In fact, she was intelligent, intellectual, for a Wastelander, at least.
"I'll give you everything you want, Rhiannon, as long as you're mine. Even your freedom, if that is what you want. But you should know, I'll always find you, if you try to escape"
A warm, wet hand reached out and cupped Vulpes' chin and she smiled slightly, "I wouldn't, you know that".
Vulpes leaned in and kissed her full, soft lips and she answered him with a growing heat. There had been several occasions she could have killed him, he'd even let her go armed should she want to, considering the large amount of Legion soldiers enjoying raping the slaves they brought back. Vulpes would of course execute anyone who even touched her, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Perhaps she was waiting for a good opportunity to kill him, she was still a cunning bitch, after all, but she had had many chances and still, she curled into him at night, purring. She had come running to him when someone had upset her, or when she had thought of something filling her with sorrow. She seemed content, but she still made her mind known to him, which was just what he wanted. He didn't try to spoil her, only giving her the illusion of freedom, within the Legion's lines, of course. They had fought, on occasion, but it had always ended up in heated copulation and no woman was capable of still being enraged after a handful of orgasms.
She was going to be perfect, Vulpes was certain of it.