Title: Pretty
Author:
Bernarde
Rating:
NC-17... my favorite.
Summary:
In an underground society where sex does indeed sell, Mark Calaway stumbles across a tortured young man named Evan. A wicked past has left Evan with no memory and the mind of a child, but something about him captures Mark's attention...

Note: I'm going to try and write atleast one new chapter every week until this monster is done. Wish me luck, and please enjoy.

-_Ω_-

I hear Raven moving behind me as I stare. And stare. And stare. Gangrel's smaller boy, Christian, hanging from the ceiling via chains. His back to us, naked as the day he was born, toes just brushing the floor. Blood trickling down his arms from the metal wrapped around his delicate wrists. His head bowed. His back is laced with fine red marks. A second set of wide steel cuffs around his ankles, his feet also bloodied.

"He flayed him open, like with a whip," Raven whispers.

A flurry of movement from the right, and Adam stands from where he was sitting on the floor. He looks at us, his expression blank.

"Where is Sire?" he whispers.

"Where he belongs - hell," my strange companion spits. I can't stop staring at Christian. Adam just looks at us. His face is completely unreadable, the glint that Raven described earlier absent.

"He's dead?"

"Yes," I reply, my voice feeling far away. I approach Christian, circling so that I can face him. His face is obscured by his long, fair hair. I reach to brush it from his face and he whimpers, but does not pull away. He doesn't look up, his eyes clenched shut.

"Christian?" I whisper.

"Sire..." his reply is a quiet whimper, and that's when I realize that he's almost unconscious.

"No, I'm not your sire. How do I get you down?" He looks up, his eyes opening - they're puffy and swollen, his cheeks shiny with dried tears. He doesn't seem to register anything that I just said.

"... Where is my Sire?"

"He's gone now. Forever."

His eyes well with fear, and it's obvious that he is beginning to panic. Then Adam is at my side, putting a hand to Christian's face, cupping his cheek.

"It's okay, Christy," he coos, "We're free now. They've set us free."

I look around, but Raven is gone. Okay, whatever.

"How do I get him down?" I ask Adam. He points to a set of keys hanging on the wall, and I go to them. He comforts his friend, kissing his cheek and whispering to him. Christian is crying, but I don't know why.

"We'll be okay, we're free now. He's gone, he's dead Christian. He'll never hurt us again." Adam strokes Christian's smooth neck, his collarbone, kissing his forehead, his face. Trying to soothe the frightened man... or boy? I'm not sure of their ages, but I don't think Christian is much older than Evan. However old Evan is.

I come back and Adam holds the small one as I unlock him, trying each key until I find the one that releases the chains. Christian collapses, but Adam catches him and...

The blood on Christian's arms was coming from the cuffs. A wide band of thick, serrated flesh surrounds each of his wrists. Like Evan's wrists. I stare at it, open-mouthed, unable to move.

Adam catches what I'm looking at and growls.

"I have them too," he says, pulling up his long sleeved black shirt - and he does have them. The telling red tissue glares at me from his pale skin. "It's why Gangrel makes us wear these long shirts, to hide them."

"No one asks?" I'm incredulous.

"No one cares."

I'm silent for a second.

"Evan... has them too. On his ankles, his wrists," I say quietly.

"Evan was the first he did it too... we were the next ones," Adam replies. I kneel and unlock Christians ankles and there, too, are the telling ruby bands.

"It's acid. He coats the cuffs in acid. So we don't fight. It's a threat... I angered him today," Christian says softly. He has stopped crying audibly, but tears still course down his face. Adam scoops him up gently.

"I'll go clean him up... you can leave if you'd like, we will never tell," he says, looking at me with strikingly light olive eyes, "Christy is overwhelmed, but that's because he was just beaten... when he isn't in pain, he will be just as thankful as I am. I don't know why you did this, but I will not question. But you have my thanks and my gratitude, and I'm sure you have Christian's as well." Without another word, he leaves.

I stand in the room for a few minutes by myself, my mind racing. The manacles hanging from the walls, the whips, there is even a rack like the one I used to have.

Jesus Christ.

Exiting the room, I sidestep Gangrel's body in the hallway, heading for the sitting room. I need to find Raven. I hear the front door open and I freeze. Then Raven's voice.

"Be quiet, Evan... let's find Mark."

Raven comes into the hallway, Evan behind him.

"Mark?" Evan says.

"It's okay, Evan. Come here." I lock eyes with Raven for a brief second and we both nod. My angel comes to me and I hug him tightly. "I have something to show you. Look." I take his hands and turn around, revealing the corpse behind me.

Evan stops, and I hear his breath catch.

"Sire."

"No. Not your sire, not your master. Never again."

His eyes wide, Evan goes to the body and kneels beside it. He reaches out a hand to touch the blood-covered face.

"You hurt us so much, you lied to us, you made us believe things that were not true." Evan's voice is mixed between his normal voice and the 'Other Evan' voice. "Raven never hurt us like you did, but you made him your scapegoat. You sent Jeff and us to him that night. We remember, even if you blocked it out... but you're dead now, sire. You're dead and you can't hurt us no more."

He leans down, setting his head on the unmoving chest, and I see him start to cry. I want to go hold him, but Raven grabs me from behind, his breath at my ear.

"Let him go. This is his closure, let him have it," he whispers, "I brought him here so that we wouldn't have to transport the body. That's never a good idea, it gets evidence all over the fucking place."

I nod dumbly and watch Evan cry over the man that broke him, but I know that he's not crying for Gangrel. He's crying for what Gangrel took from him, and what he will never get back.

-_Ω_-

Adam and Christian stand in the living room, both dressed in their black slacks and button up shirts. This time though, they have shoes on.

"Do you have somewhere to go?" I asked them when they reappeared. I had no intention of leaving them to fend for themselves after being captives for so long. Adam had shrugged, saying that he could find something.

"You are both free to come with us if you choose, we have an extra room," I offered. Adam looked hesitant, but then Christian spoke. He had not moved from Evan's side since they saw each other.

"Can we stay with him and Evan?" the small one asked, looking at his counterpart. Adam slowly nodded.

"Yes, I guess that is okay."

Now the five of us stand in the sitting room, Adam and Christian each carrying one black duffel bag each.

The three of them sit in the back of the truck's bed and Raven and I sit in the cab, driving back roads instead of the highway, going back to the trailer. Along the way, Raven directs me off course, and takes us to an abandoned mining quarry about twenty miles away. We throw our guns into the water and remove our bloodied shirts. I make Evan take his shirt off, as it got blood on it when he leaned on Gangrel's body, and Raven disappears with the bundle into the woods. He comes back a few minutes later, and we're off once again.

We get to the trailer around one in the morning. Matt and Jeff are sleeping. I show Christian and Adam the spare room - the room that Glenn and Shannon used to share - and the bathroom, and tell them that this is their house too now for as long as they need it. Christian and Evan hug tightly before we go to bed. Raven left minutes after we got home.

I get into bed alongside my phoenix, who snuggles beside me.

"Thank you," he whispers to me. I kiss his forehead and bring him flush against my bare chest.

"Go to sleep, honey."

"Okay."

-_Ω_-

I'm woken up by long fingers on my shoulder, and a voice.

"Mark. Mark. Mark."

I open my eyes up, and Jeff is standing over me, looking worried.

"What?"

"Why are Adam and Christian here?" he asks.

"Don't ask. It's okay. Let me go back to sleep," I reply curtly, maybe a little rudely. I'm fucking tired and it's probably like six in the morning, because that's when Jeff always gets up.

His face doesn't relax, "Did you kill Gangrel?"
"Who?"

He knows I'm not going to give him an answer, and shrugs, "Well, okay." And he leaves. Evan is lying on my belly, his body snug between my legs and his head on my chest. Sometimes he ends up like this, but it doesn't bother me. I wrap the blanket over us and go back to sleep.

-_Ω_-

I wake up because... pressure. Warmth. On my dick. This time when I open my eyes, I see Evan's happy face. He smiles at me.

"Good morning!"

When he shifts his weight, I realize what's going on. He's riding me.

"Evan," I moan.

"I thought you'd like this," he says happily, and starts rocking faster. I never last long in the morning, but that doesn't stop me from grabbing his hips and holding him still so that I can thrust up into him.

He whimpers beautifully, leaning forward to grab my shoulders to keep his balance.

"I love you, Mark," he gasps. The changed angle from him leaning causes my shaft to rub against his spot each time I enter him.

"Faster," he begs, and I silently oblige, watching his face.

"Evan, you are so beautiful," I tell him and his only reply is a divine sob.

I come quickly, groaning his name, and he settles beside me.

"Don't you want to come, too?" I ask. He shakes his head and kisses my cheek.

"Not now, I need to pee. But I would like some breakfast."

"Well, let's go see what Jeff made."

"Okay."

-_Ω_- Reviews are greatly appreciated -_Ω_-