The torture continued and I could feel that she was beginning to grow bored of me, I was not long for the world. "You've been with me eight years, you've become accustomed to things, and you're no fun anymore. Why won't you scream for me anymore?"
I refused to answer her. She ordered the men to do what they wished with me and began heading for the door. Suddenly, the door burst open and two blond vampires blocked her escape. The female looked from me to the approaching men and said something low and quiet to her companion. She faced off with Victoria while he faced off with the four men. The sound of screeching metal was ricocheting off the walls as they tore their limbs off and threw them into a pillar of flames.
"There could be more, get her limbs, I'll get her torso. We'll get her to a safe place before we fuse her back together." The man said. I was unaware of who they were talking about and snarled at him when he approached me. I couldn't stop him from picking me up and cradling me against his chest then running with me out the door.
They ran with me for what seemed like forever, jumping into a river and struggling with my body to swim upstream. When they finally came to a stop we were all on dry ground again, they took stock of the situation. The man leaned me against a boulder and reached his hand out behind him, the woman handed him one of my legs.
"If I put your arms and legs back on, you can't hurt me, okay?" He said quietly.
I didn't respond, I was terrified and confused, my instincts screamed at me and I didn't know what to do.
"My name is Peter, this is my wife and mate Charlotte, I promise we mean you no harm." His voice was a soft whisper as he held my leg in place for my body to heal, I winced in pain, but it was nothing compared to what I had suffered at the hands of Victoria.
"Do you have a name?" The woman asked, kneeling down to hold my other leg into place. I knew I wouldn't attack them, but I would be wary. I searched my memories, there were faces, but no words, no names, solemnly I shook my head.
"We heard what she said to you, she had had you for eight years. Do you remember anything before then?" The man asked, his voice still a velvet whisper.
Again I shook my head.
"She looks so innocent, and she was barely more than a child when she was changed by the looks of her." The woman reached out and stroked my cheek, I flinched from the contact and growled.
"She may be innocent Char, but that doesn't mean her fear won't cause her to bite your fingers off and swallow them if you spook her. Mind yourself, you saw what was going on in that pit." The man was angry, "I'm sorry we didn't get to you sooner."
He methodically helped to reattach my left arm while his mate did the right. I felt the venom burning to reattach the limbs and watched as the scars began to form. "You'll be better in a few days, physically I mean."
"Peter, don't say things like that!" The woman shrilled.
"Charlotte, look at her, she's broken. Mentally, I'm not sure if she'd be stable enough to travel alone. I'm not sure she'll be stable at all."
"Then we'll help her." The woman was stubborn and stared at me with something I didn't recognize in her eyes, "Look at her, she's an animal drinker."
"We don't know if that was by choice or if it was forced on her by the redhead to keep her weaker."
"Her missing limbs did that enough." The woman growled, I growled in response, if things were going to turn ugly, I would at least be able to put up a fight. I thought back on what I had watched them do in an uneven fight to their disadvantage, I would put up a fight, but I would surely die.
"Shh, Dove, we aren't going to hurt you. Can you stand?" She held out her hand to me, it was tiny and fragile looking, on impulse I took it and stood. I took a moment to revel in having my limbs again and stretched them out, rocking back on my heels.
"Here, there are some clothes in there, you are welcome to them." The man held out a bag to me, I opened the clasp and pulled out some clothes and pulled them on. "Do you want to hunt?" He asked when I was dressed.
I inhaled deeply and growled as I bolted after the first thing with a heartbeat that smelled appealing to me. I downed a large bear and drank greedily. I heard someone approach as I drained the last of it's blood and dropped the bear to spin on my heel and roar at the intruder. "Easy now, it's only me. I'm not trying to intrude." The man still spoke to me softly, as if he were speaking to a child.
"There are humans nearby, she could smell them and yet went for the bear, she's an animal drinker by nature it seems."
"Could it be a choice?" The woman asked.
"I don't think so, she's far too animalistic to be weighing pros and cons, it's her instinct to hunt animals, she is a very different kind of vampire." The man chuckled.
"Come with us Dove, we'll take care of you, you need to rest and heal now. Peter, call and see if we can use the house in Tennessee for awhile." She reached her hand out to me and I took it, pulling her down to the ground and learning her scent and face. She smelled of lilac and hyacinth, I sat behind her, hiding from the man in her hair, he watched from the corner of his eye.
I watched him pull a phone out of his pocket and push a few buttons, I could clearly hear both sides of the conversation.
"Hey man!" The voice on the other side said.
"Hey, I have a favor to ask."
"Name it."
"Can Char and I use the house in Tennessee for awhile? We really need it."
"Sure, it's no problem, you guys finally deciding to try my way of life?" There was a chuckle from the other man.
"Not exactly, we need a place for our new friend to feel safe. She was being tortured, worse than a lot of the things Maria did to keep us in line, her captor was growing bored and was going to dispatch her. Something about the girl, I just had to save her, but she's animalistic, haywire, and I think her mental stability may never return."
"You are going to keep her alive with her being unstable?"
"Char and I are going to take complete responsibility for her, brother, she has the face of an angel and I couldn't bring myself to kill her if I wanted to. We just need to get her calm and get her to realize she's safe, then we can move forward from there and try to help her through it all."
"Anything else I can help with? I can join you, if you like."
"Right now another unfamiliar male would be a bad idea, Char seems to be the only one she will trust."
"If you need me."
"I'll call, thank you for the house, oh and brother?"
"Yeah?"
"She's an animal drinker. It's the strangest thing, it's a compulsion to hunt animals and not people. She doesn't have the ability to make a weighted decision, so it seems that animals naturally appeal to her more than humans."
"That's good news, maybe one day we will get to meet her."
"You sound tired, how are things?"
"Difficult, to say the least. Emotions are still so painful and negative, we are getting through it though."
"I still feel for your family, the loss you suffered seems to have been a large one, and then your wife on top of that."
"She remarried, she was not my true mate, and you know that, Peter. I'm happy that she's found some solace and together they are moving forward."
"I still don't get it."
"You don't have to." The other man chuckled.
"Thanks again brother."
"Not a problem."
He hung up the phone and turned to the two of us with a smile. "We are all set ladies. Let's move."
"Come on Dove, we are going home." The woman stood and kept my hand in hers, we began our trek to the safe house and I was beginning to feel a little more comfortable with the two of them. I was still greatly uncertain about the man, but the woman was kind to me and I read no false emotions in her eyes, she was not pretending or planning to betray me.
Days came and went while we traveled and finally we arrived at what I assumed was our destination. It was a large, empty house, set up with furniture and anything that might be needed. I changed into clean clothes and sought out a room to hide in.
I would flinch and growl at any sound in the nearly silent house, I was still on edge and didn't know what to do. The only one that could enter my room was the woman, and she told me that the man was upset that I couldn't trust him, but assured me that he wasn't angry and knew it would just take time. There was a couch in the room I had chosen, and she would often come in to find me curled into a ball, she would sit with me, running her fingers through my hair. She would talk to me about everything and nothing, just trying to bring me out of my shell.
One day she brought up the day they saved my life, and I couldn't control the sobs that wracked my body for what had been done to me. She made sure I knew that wasn't what things were supposed to be like, that I had gotten captured by a cruel and heartless woman who was not there mentally. When she talked about saving me, or what I knew of life, she would gently run her fingers over the scar on my throat. Sometimes, she would trace the bite marks on my shoulders.
About a month after we had gotten to the house, she walked in to find me staring into a mirror, wearing a collared button up shirt with long sleeves. I had chosen the shirt to cover my scars, they made her sad and I didn't like to see her sad, I didn't like to see the venom well up in her eyes because of the pain I had endured.
"Oh, Dove, it's summertime." She sighed, "Why are you wearing long sleeves?"
I said nothing, I never said anything, I never needed to.
"Oh, sweetheart, you don't have to cover them up. They are nothing to be ashamed of." She stepped over in front of me and hugged me to her, "They are a part of who you are."
I stared at the reflection of my face over her shoulder and sighed, if only I knew who that was. "Dove, are you going to come out of your room today?"
I shook my head.
"Come on, it's time for you to get to know Peter and realize he's nothing to be scared of. You can't spend eternity locked away from people." I saw how much she cared in her eyes. I was starting to come into my senses, I was still unable to get past my fear, but I was able to think over things rationally and was able to make some conscious decisions.