Tyra's POV.
There it is. The dawn of day number fourteen, or is it fifteen? I'm not so sure, but I can tell that it is morning at least since the sun is beginning to shine through the tiny basement windows. I can see small rays of right over in the far corner and from the small crack in the outside entrance hatch just to my right. If this didn't alert me to the fact that it's dawn then the presence of Brendan did when he walked in and woke me up with a kick to my already gnarled up shoulder.
"I have morning horny, you can sure help me with that" he tells me, while I just blink weakly and nod, undoing my jeans and sliding them to my ankles and then just lying there and taking it while he rapes me. There's no point fighting back any longer, it hurts too much to take any more beatings. I've told him and I've told Russell countless times that my period still hasn't come which means I'm more than likely pregnant, but neither of them wants to listen. I was told more time needed to be left before I could take a pregnancy test, even though a First Response one would detect it right now. But no, he's willing to let me continue being Brendan's little plaything. So here I am, in agony so bad that once he's done I'm in tears that I just cannot hide as I pull my dirty, smelly blood covered jeans up over my legs. Legs attached to a body that is in the same state as these jeans.
"Awwww what's the matter princess, wasn't I gentle enough with you? I thought you liked it rough though, that's why whores like you go for vampires, you like the barbarian side of men" he tells me. I ignore him and just stare at the wall, able to fasten my jeans but not able to close my legs at all. The internal bruising and tearing is just too bad. I shudder to think what everything looks like down there. When I look at myself, my face and body in the mirror it makes me feel sick. I'm not unrecognisable, the swellings on my face and head have all gone down now, but I'm covered in bruises and am just dirty and smelly. I feel disgusting. How Brendan can even get it up for me is a surprise, but then again I guess it's the act of forcing a woman into sex she does not want that excites a mind and body as evil as his.
"I need to go to the bathroom" I tell him, my voice so quiet and unlike me. I maintain they haven't broken my spirit, but they have in reality. I have no more fight left in me now. He looks put out, sighing heavily and jumping back out of his chair to undo my chains and then lead me up the stairs to the bathroom. Stairs I'm too weak to manage without help, crumbling half way up.
"Come on you pathetic woman! Put one foot in front of the other!" he snarls at me as my thigh shakes uncontrollably, too badly bruised from when he threw me into a wall recently and then stomped on it. I do not know what day that happened on.
"I can't!" I cry out in pain as I try again to take a step up. The help I receive from him is brutal. He just lets go of the chains that connect to my wrist shackles and yanks the ones connected to my feet, sending them out from under me and sprawling my body across the stairs that he then drags me up feet first, my sore and tired head banging off each step as I'm pulled up them. He then pulls me to my feet by taking a handful of my hair, and virtually throws me into the bathroom. The pee I take is agonising, like pissing vinegar but what is even worse than that is the fact that after I come out and Brendan throws me over his shoulder is that he throws me to the wall again as soon as we're back in the basement. If my shoulder wasn't dislocated before, it sure is now. I lie there and sob in agony as he chains me up again, before receiving a slap to my face.
"NOT ANOTHER GODDAMNED SOUND OUT OF YOU!" he warns, before spitting in my face and going back to his chair where he sits and taunts me for hours. I don't know how much more of this I can physically or mentally take. If I wasn't so steely confident in the fact that someday, somehow Eric will rescue me I really do think I'd have attempted to take my own life by now. For what life is this? Being held prisoner in a basement and being beaten and raped on a daily basis with no reprieve? It can't even be classed as a life.
It's amazing how a person can completely lose themselves; lose what they thought they were in the space of two weeks. I don't feel as strong or as confident as I once did, but I refuse to give up hope. I refuse to resign myself to this fate. I refuse. There, I guess there is a little of the old me, the 'pre captivity' Tyra Boden inside me somewhere. Somewhere in this malnourished, aching, tired and battered body is the real me, waiting to come back again.
"Hey, HEY! WAKE UP!" I suddenly hear, my head snapping awake as I see Brendan standing there with a packaged sandwich and a bottle of water. "You need to eat this" he then adds.
"Not hungry" I tell him, but take the bottle of water and drink heartily until he snatches it from me and pours it over my head.
"I don't fucking care, you have to eat it so open your damn mouth, take a bite and swallow, it's that easy!" he roars at me while taking one of the sandwiches and forcing it into my mouth, making me gag and choke on the cheap and tasteless food item. Once I've finished coughing crusts out of my throat I try and chew the mouthful he has forced me to eat, ending up with half of it falling from my mouth to his annoyance.
"Eat every bite, even if it falls on the floor" he warns me, standing over me and staring, watching me as I try and eat the sandwich as fast as I can, my stomach lurching with sickness. I don't want another fucking ham sandwich for as long as I live. It's all I've been given for the last two weeks and the smell alone makes me nauseous. It is with relief that I finally am able to swallow it in big, over chewed mouthfuls, and then wash it down with what is left of my water. Gas station sandwiches, this means Esmeralda is here and I can get what I've been looking forward to daily. A motherly hug, and for someone who isn't all that affectionate with people you can really tell just how low I am right now. Seeing her face is the only thing that makes my heart flutter with happiness, for I know she will hold me as tightly as she dares and comfort me when she takes me to the bathroom. I'm so glad that just five minutes later she appears, telling Brendan where she's taking me. I can barely believe I slept for so long, but am glad that it's late afternoon now (5.10pm) and this is another day that is almost over.
"Hurry her back, you hear? If she gives you any bullshit about it being too painful to walk just drag her along by her chains" he tells her. She nods and takes me away, letting me lean on her as we climb the stairs and then almost carrying me into the bathroom, where she turns the hot tap on right away and fishes for something in her pocket.
"Eric is coming tonight!" she writes in the steamed up mirror with her fingertip.
"When?" I write back.
"10 mins, wear this" she writes before wiping away the messages and carefully unclipping a silver necklace covered in charms and putting it around my neck, pulling my hair over my shoulders to hide the chain while the charms fall down low enough to be concealed by my sweater. As she does this I see she has a necklace exactly the same on her too, but my tired mind cannot even work out why. All I know is that right now Eric is coming, and this is the only thing my mind can concentrate on, my heart hammering with excitement. When we get back to the basement and I've sat down Esmeralda makes a point of taking a very long time to do up my chains again, and it is as she does this that I feel something like a flame rise up inside me. For the first time in fourteen (or is it fifteen?) days, I can feel Eric, and I can feel he is very, very close by right now. I do not know how he is going to get me, but in five minutes I sure do find out...
Eric's POV.
"Well, at least we're not going to have any wolves flying at us tonight. The moon isn't full until tomorrow" Cassius observes as he locks up his vehicle to the side of the highway. Me, Pam, him, Fabien, Stanley and Beth have all arrived in black with black tinted window SUV's courtesy of Stanley who thought using unmarked vehicles would be the best. I agreed whole heartedly with him.
"In wolf or human form, they're all dead in my mind anyway. Let's go" I instruct him, watching as Beth looks disgusted at having to be carried there because of her mobility issues (she is a frail 80 year old lady after all) as Fabien picks her up and clutches her tightly, before we all move at vampire speed and are at the back of the grounds of the mansion within moments. Straight away we've alerted the werewolf guards, two of them being met by the fangs of Stanley and Pam and having their throats torn clean out before they even realize what has hit them.
"Cassius, come with me. We'll take out the rest of them patrolling the perimeters while Beth casts the spell, and then come back to guard her" she says, while the big black vampire nods once before they both vanish. Beth cast spells over all of us before we left the cars so the demons she plans to raise will not affect us, so when they come all of us will be safe from them. Anyone other than Tyra and Esmeralda inside the mansion will not be so lucky.
"Well, I'm ready" the old witch tells me as she looks to the sky. I give her a nod, and with the air seeming to crackle around her with magic she begins chanting a long, ancient incantation in Latin. All around us the air then changes, crackling furiously as the trees begin to sway in a breeze that was not blowing a few moments ago, the tension starting to mount. Fabien, Stanley and me all exchange glances as Beth's words become more urgent as she goes on, and louder in tone as she holds her hands to the sky and the ground begins to shake underfoot. Then, she suddenly stops.
"They're coming" she tells us as she turns to face us, as the ground shakes even more and other noises fill the air. Moans, screams, cackling laughter and a loud sound like a giant rattlesnake shaking its tail fill the air before suddenly, black pools of smoke begin to seep through the trees and rush towards the mansion.
"GO NOW!" she then shouts at us as the deafening noises from the demons all around sound like one unearthly roar and their smoky presences rush into the mansion, smashing the windows and ripping doors from their hinges.
We move in a pack of three until we are at the basement doors, where I fling them open and for the first time in fourteen days seem my beloved's face looking up at me. I move to her and take her in my arms, ripping the shackles from her wrists and arms and then pick her up as I see Stanley grab Esmeralda and Fabien grab Brendan. Then we're out of there as quickly as we arrived.
"I knew you'd come for me" she tells me, her voice barely audible even though her head is right next to my ear.
"And now I have you back, I'm not letting you go again" I tell her as I fly through the darkness with her, landing back at the cars and seeing Cassius, Pam and Beth all present. The two women wince noticeably when they take in Tyra, Pam rushing over to cover her face in careful kisses as I get into the back of the SUV with her still in my arms. Fabien gets behind the wheel after a few moments and Pam dashes into the back next to us, and with that we are off out of the parking spot and doing eighty down the freeway behind the vehicle Cassius, Stanley, Beth and Esmeralda are in. Fabien threw Brendan in the trunk of this vehicle and locked him there before we pulled off. Looking down at Tyra, I feel two bloody tears trickle down my cheeks, how through all the pain she's in she can still smile at me like she's doing right now.
"I missed you, my brave lady" I tell her, kissing her forehead carefully. I don't care kiss her lips; one has a large and painful looking split in it. So painful looking I'm surprised she can even smile at all.
"I missed you too" she tells me before her face crumples and she begins to cry quietly. I hold her head to my chest and stroke her back gently, looking down to see what I just felt against my arm is Pam's hand entering our space to hold Tyra's gently. Looking at the state of her, her shoulder displaced, her face and body a mess of cuts and bruises I decide quickly she needs medical attention. Yet because there's the fact she's been a rape victim I cannot take her to a hospital. Too many questions will be asked. At times like this I am glad there are certain humans I know I can call on who I know would be happy to do me a favour. Vivienne Atkinson, MD is just one of those people. She's a woman I had a brief sexual relationship with for a few months a few years ago, but since she was a very smart woman she was not prepared to put up with the fact I'd never want to settle with her (and the fact she obviously was not my one and only), and so she moved on. No hard feelings at all, she just wanted what I couldn't give her some day, a marriage and children. She still doesn't have those things, but she is free tonight I find after I call her here in the car and arrange for her to meet us back at the club in around two hours, the time it will take to get back across state lines.
We were able to drive up here with the help of Dmitri and Lafayette following us in the formers pick up trick, Dmitri driving one of the SUV's (and Beth driving the other, thankfully she's still sharp behind the wheel if not so much on her feet) that carried us in our caskets since we travelled here in the light. They let us out when the sun was down and then took the caskets back on the pick up to Louisiana. It was a very tight operation. Along the journey I let Tyra feed from my wrist so she can begin to heal, a process that will be slow. As I predicted my blood, with its extreme potency puts her right to sleep. This pleases me; at least if she's sleeping she's not in pain. She sleeps for the entire journey, only stirring when I take her out of the car outside the club. Stanley and Esmeralda head off to Fabien's place where they will be staying with him, Cassius takes Beth home and Pam takes Brendan straight to the basement while I get Tyra down to the apartment.
"Can you do something for me?" she asks after I place her down gently on the couch.
"Anything" I tell her, stroking a patch of clear, unblemished skin on her inner arm.
"Take me for a shower? I don't think I can stand that long without help" she replies. She sounds a little less hoarse than she did an hour ago, but I can clearly see the reason why all over her neck. Bruises that come from repeated throttling cover her pale skin, and make anger rise within me like an exploding hydrant.
"Of course" I reply, gently picking her up again and carrying her to the bathroom. It is only after I have switched the shower on and helped her remove her clothes that I see the full extent of the damage. She has bruises in the shape of boot marks on her thigh and the side of her ribs, and is covered from head to toe in cuts, grazes and bruises. Brendan will suffer greatly before he dies for this. I lift her carefully once more and carry her into the shower, then once we're there she wraps her arm around my neck (the other arm she cannot lift at all) and leans her weight against me and makes a content little sound at the feeling of the warm water hitting her skin and rinsing the blood and dirt from her all over. We just stand still like that for what feels like a long time, both too relieved to be back together to do anything other than embrace for now.
Tyra's POV.
Still being in a little of dreamy state from drinking Eric's blood the pain I've been in is still numbed a little. Even right now as he picks off all the dirt filled scabs that have started to go septic I'm not in pain, it feels comfortable in fact. They've been stinging and itching for days. After doing that he washes me all over very, very carefully and then takes care of my hair. Then, very sweetly he bends to shave each of my legs, something that will make me even more comfortable.
"I'll leave here for now, for obvious reasons" he tells me quietly before kissing my pubic mound softly, and finishing removing the hair from my legs. He then does my underarms for me (I can just about lift my bad arm enough for that) while I take the bottle of gel cleanser I keep in here and give my face a good rubbing with it. With that I'm done, and Eric shuts off the shower and heads out to wrap himself in a towel, and bring three in for me. I wrap my hair and he wraps the others around my body and shoulders before carrying me to the place I've missed so much, the bed. He lays me down gently and dries me off, while I arrange one of the towels in the middle of the bed and shuffle myself onto it, not wanting my cuts to ooze anything onto the very fresh looking linen.
"Would you like me to fetch you some underwear?" he asks me, picking up the one towel left over.
"Please, the grey cotton Calvin Klein ones? You know the ones you hate?" I ask him, watching him smile properly for the first time since I saw him again. They are the most comfy I have here, all soft cotton but he hates them on account of being 'too plain'. No doubt though he understands of course right now I just want comfort. He returns dressed in very deep blue jeans and a dark green t shirt, and helps me into my underwear before lying beside me.
"This is the first time I haven't been in pain in fourteen days. Or is it fifteen?" I tell, and then ask him.
"Fourteen. Exactly two weeks today. This time two weeks ago you were at your parents' house horrifying your mother" he tells me, making me smile as much as I can. I feel so relieved to be back here, so much better for it. Yet I know as soon as the effect of the blood wears off I'll be in agony all over again. It's when I know the mental anguish will begin to seep in again, anguish at what happened to me while I was down there. I'm still rational about it, I'm not thinking 'why me?' even now. I know why it was me. It doesn't make the fear, and the repulsion you go through any easier to cope with though. That just comes along with violation of that nature I suppose, no matter how much you thoroughly understand and accept why it happened to you. We are then disturbed by a knock at the door.
"Come in" Eric says. The door opens to reveal a tall, slim woman with an unmade up face and her long light brown hair swept back into a ponytail. Vivienne I presume.
"Hello Eric. Hello, I'm Vivienne. Right, let's get you checked. Eric, if you could give us some privacy while I examine your girlfriend" she says, introducing herself to me quite warmly, but with professionalism still. Eric gives me a soft kiss on the cheek and moves to sit on the couch, and Vivienne begins to examine me once she's slipped on a pair of protective latex gloves. She starts with my head, checking for lumps and bumps and asking about any pain or blurred vision, asking me to follow her fingertip with my eyes as she moves it in front of me from side to side, then close to far away.
"No concussion, but this facial bruising concerns me. Especially around the jaw and eye socket" she says, studying me with extreme concentration.
"The swelling around my eye only went down about three days ago. It's been so puffy I couldn't see well for a while. Also, right by my jaw there I lost a tooth" I say, putting my finger into my mouth and tugging the side of my cheek out to show her the gap where I'm missing my very last double before the wisdom tooth.
"I suspect a hairline fracture of the eye socket and perhaps the lower mandible too; I'd like you to come to the hospital tomorrow for an x ray. Don't worry nothing else will be noted. Eric told me of the situation and I trust he will handle it properly" she tells me with a wink. She then moves to my shoulder and examines it when I tell that is the next place I'm hurting most, and then calls Eric back again.
"I need you to hold her down. Tyra, your shoulder is dislocated, not fully but it will be painful to push back in. I will be quick though" she tells us both, gently moving me down the bed until I'm lying flat, Eric placing a hand on my chest and the other shoulder while I prepare for the pain.
"On three, one, two..." and that's as far as she gets before bang, back in my shoulder goes with an almighty push and a crack. The scream I let out could probably be heard over in Monroe, and the pain I feel is like someone just hit it with a meat cleaver. I pray you never have to go through that, because I can tell you first hand it's so painful right now I feel like passing out, yet at the same time the pain was so bad it's made my breathing erratic and fast.
"Okay deep, slow breaths, it's all over now" Vivienne assures me. "In through the nose and out through the mouth" she then instructs. I do as asked and begin to feel calm again, reaching up with my good arm and stroking Eric's face. He kisses my palm and then goes back to the couch again when he sees I'm okay again.
"Severely bruised muscles here to the thigh and lower leg, I want you to remain off your feet as much as possible. The other leg is much the same I see. Okay, this will sting a bit but your lacerations and grazes need to be cleaned" she then says after checking me over a little more. I nod in understanding as she goes into her large medical bag to fetch some antiseptic spray and gauze to clean and dress the wounds that need dressing, adding a layer of antiseptic.
"Vampire blood over wounds will of course heal them faster too, but not with the older wounds since the flesh has already partially begun to heal. It can help it not to scar though so leave these on for a day then ask Eric to assist" she tells me while I nod and we go back to silence until each cut that needs to be is fixed together with strips and covered with a taped on piece of dressing gauze. Then there's the examination of the area I'm most dreading.
"I'm going to need to check you internally for vaginal bruising and tearing, and to do that I will have to clamp you open. This will be painful, but I'm going to give you a good spray of ethyl chloride, it'll totally freeze your skin. They use it on women in labour, or if you have a body piercing" she informs me while changing her gloves and then going about the exam in a very professional manner, taking the towel from underneath me and draping it over my lap in the same way they do the sheet when you have a gynaecological exam.
"It's mostly swelling and bruising, few tears that haven't healed already. Genital flesh does have the capability to heal rapidly thankfully. Once again, vampire blood will heal you quickly as these are fresh. Obviously it must be done very gently though" she tells me once she's finished. I nod but don't say anything. "Also, when you come in tomorrow for an x ray I will have results from the vaginal swab I just took and bagged, and also the blood test I plan to run to test you for STD's or other impurities in your blood. I stopped off at an all night pharmacy and brought this for you, I thought you would want to know this test as soon as possible. I hope that was not presumptuous of me" she then adds, passing me over an early pregnancy detecting test.
"No it wasn't presumptuous, thank you. I heard you can take a pill now instead of having a termination. Can you organise that for me too please, if I am?" I ask her, watching her nod at once.
"Absolutely, an entirely understandable decision too" she replies, before taking the towel away and folding it up, putting it on the nightstand and changing her gloves again to take a small sample of my blood. She can't take it from my right arm since the vein has collapsed from overuse, so prepares the left instead. When I feel the needle pierce my arm, my mind flashes back to the basement, the cold, having the needle poked into my arm and my blood stolen. It is then that I begin to cry like a mad woman, and instantly feel Eric next to me, holding me close to him.
"They took her blood from her, so I think it's safe to say this is why she's so distressed" he explains to Vivienne.
"They took her blood?" she says in shock, her voice whispery and her eyes wide.
"It has extreme strengthening effects on vampires. She's not entirely human but a rare supernatural. The vampire holding her captive was selling it for five thousand dollars for five fluid ounces" he tells her as I start calming down again, feeling her clean the needle prick and press a piece of cotton to it, bending my arm at the elbow.
"The bastard" she exclaims quietly shaking her head. I make an arrangement to go and see her at 6pm tomorrow evening and with that she gathers her medical equipment and leaves as quickly as she came.
"What I've been waiting for, just you and me. Everything else can wait for now" I tell Eric, picking up the pregnancy test off the bed and putting it on the nightstand. Everything but everything else really can wait, because all I want right now is to just lie here with him with the comforting coolness of his skin pressed to mine once more. Words cannot explain how much I've missed this.
Authors note - A huge, HUGE thank you to all for reading, and to those kind enough to leave a regular review. I appreciate your kindness so much :) xx
