This chapter contains sexual content, violence, sexual violence. Strong adult/sexual scenes/situations. Those sensitive to rape, please do not read.

8. Lessons in Helplessness

Pam lifted her hair and pulled it under various lights. "Well," she said finally, "it's in good condition at least. It should take well to highlights. Wait here," she told Alexis.

A few minutes later, she returned with another vampire. This one wore more bangles than Alexis had ever seen, much less all on one person.

"This is Carmella. She's a specialist in hair techniques, and Eric will kill me if I ruin the texture of yours," Pam told her. Then the pair proceeded to completely ignore everything Alexis said, discussing what colors to put in and what techniques to use.

Finally she simply sat and drifted in a daydream about being somewhere else and doing something else. She tried to shake the recurring images of Eric that kept rising before her eyes, but he wouldn't leave her alone, even while Pam and Carmella pulled and tugged and applied stinking potions to her hair.

She wanted to be at home. She wanted to be somewhere else. She was so afraid that she would look in the mirror and not recognize herself that she had everything she could do to stay in the chair as two vampires hovered over her with cold hands and clinically-scented hair products.

She tried to control her fear, but the longer she was around the two women, the worse it got. They were vampires, and her mind just couldn't turn that knowledge off for her. Plus, she couldn't stop wondering where Eric was and if he was making any progress.

Eventually, they sat her up and let her look at herself in the mirror. The differences were surprisingly subtle, but the over-all effect was quite powerful. She not only had highlights, but they had done something that gave her hair life and volume. It swirled around her like a living thing, and she gaped in shock.

Somehow, they had managed to keep the volume down enough that it didn't drown out her face, but rather accented it, by highlighting more around the face than in the rest of it. She did look completely different, but in a very feminine way. She found the change both alarming and gratifying. What would Eric think, she wondered?

Pam and Carmella cleaned up, then Pam told her to follow. Uncomfortable with the vampire's brusqueness, Alexis followed.

Outside, Pam opened the door to the same sportscar that Eric had been driving the night he helped them with their flat tire. Alexis sat it and Pam said, "Wait here. There's a problem in the bar. Do not leave this seat."

She closed the door and the alarm beeped. Alexis jumped badly as Pam sped away back inside.

She sat back in the seat and looked at the unfamiliar image staring at her from the window. Beyond it, she saw the back door to Fangtasia open and two men came out, with a woman with them. A young woman, Alexis realized. She followed them silently and with a vacant expression. One of the vampires reached out and fondled her and said something.

Alexis ducked as they passed by the sportscar. She heard one of them say something about the 'nice tits' on the 'female'. Then, to her alarm, she heard, "Once we deliver her, I'm getting out of this. Northman's been sniffing around and asking questions."

The other one said, "I ain't afraid of Northman. Even he won't kill vampires."

The other one said, "Vamps disappear, man. I bet he has something to do with it at least some of the time. He's bad juju."

Alexis's heart was hammering, but she knew that girl was about to either lose her life or become a slave. She crept slowly along in their wake, trying to stick to the shadows.

One of them stopped, and Alexis froze. "Do you smell that?" he asked.

"You're being paranoid, Beckham. They're all tied up with the fire."

"Not that," Beckham said impatiently. "I smell human."

"We ain't got time to check it out. We'll flit when we get around the corner. Don't want anyone to notice it this close to Northman's bar."

Afraid that she would lose them, Alexis crept closer. Her heart sank as she realized that they were going to get away.

Taking a deep breath, she rushed out into the street as if she had just come from the alley. She realized her error too late. Pam had no idea where she was. She was alone with two vampires and a glamoured, vacant-looking human.

Taking a deep breath, she said, "Sorry to disturb you. I kind of had a panic attack there. Thought for a minute that someone was following me." She turned to head back toward Fangtasia.

"Maybe they was," the other one said, and the one called Beckham snickered. "But why don't you come along with us and party, pretty girl? With hair like that, you'll fetch a pretty penny."

"Two for one," Beckham agreed.

Alexis ran and screamed with all her strength when she was grabbed from behind. Her mouth and nose were clamped over by a hand and she fought, biting and clawing.

Beckham laughed. "She's feisty, too. Jackpot."

Then to Alexis's relief, Pam was there. One of the vampires went flying, and then Pam and Beckham were facing off.

"Run!" Pam snarled at her, and Alexis didn't need to be told twice. She fled as fast as her legs would carry her back toward Fangtasia. She was almost there when she was struck by something so hard that it knocked the breath out of her.

"Alexis?" Eric demanded.

"Pam," she said, panting. She pointed down the street. "Vampires. Fight." She bent over, struggling to catch her breath. She hadn't realized how far she'd gone and the full-on sprint she'd maintained had taken its toll.

"Get in my office. Now."

He flitted away and she obeyed, shaking so hard she could barely walk.

Eric walked into the room, followed by Pam and hour later. He said nothing to Alexis, in fact, didn't even look at her.

"Did you catch them?" she asked.

"Shut up, Alexis," Eric told her, still not looking at her.

He turned to Pam. "Never endanger yourself for a human, Pam," he said. He curled his fingers around the back of her neck and pressed his forehead against hers.

"I'm sorry, Eric. I thought-"

"No," he interrupted. "You didn't. Humans come and go, but you are precious." He lifted his head away from hers and looked at her, and Alexis's heart trembled. "If it happens again, there will be consequences."

Pam nodded and left as he opened the door and gestured her out.

He turned to Alexis then, staring at her with a cold, brooding look on his face.

"It wasn't her fault," Alexis told him, suddenly overcome with intense anxiety.

"It was," he answered her. "She was responsible for you. I left you with her... for that time, you were hers to protect and control. She failed me."

"She told me to stay in the car," Alexis objected. "I followed them, she didn't-"

"She didn't watch you. She let you run off like a toddler. She knew you were a human and thus not to be trusted, but she trusted you anyway."

"That's not fair," Alexis objected.

"What does it matter to you?" he asked, his face growing angry. "She's just a vampire. Not even a person."

"I'm sorry," Alexis said. "I know I was wrong to say those things."

"Well, that's nice," he told her. "Finally that sincere apology. And right in time, too. I will have the papers drawn up tomorrow for you to get your home back in full. I will remove my artifacts and give you the remote for the alarm system. You are no longer my responsibility."

Pain rose in her, unexpected and brutal. "Eric, please," she said.

He turned around and reached for the door.

"No," she said. "I was just trying to help-"

"You think that getting my Progeny killed is helping? You think that acting like a child and purposefully putting yourself into mortal danger is helping? Who or what are you helping, exactly?"

"With the investigation. They were going to sell that girl-"

"And you think that getting yourself sold with her is going to make the investigation easier? You think that getting Pam killed will help speed things along, is that it?" He shook his head. "I'm done with you, Alexis. You don't care. You have no sense. You endangered Pam and you endangered yourself and it didn't even occur to you until you were running for your life. All I asked was that you stay out of it. All I required of you was simple obedience and a bit of self-preservation."

He walked over to her. "I owe your Mormor an apology. But you are beyond my help and protection. Pam will drive you home. You will go back to your life and stay out of the investigation or I will ask Bill to lock you in his dungeon until I am finished."

"Eric, I didn't mean for Pam to be harmed. I didn't think they-"

"Yes. She didn't think before she went to protect a woman who obviously cares nothing for herself or anyone else. And you didn't think before you put my Progeny up against two vampires both older than her. You didn't think, and you often don't think. You walked into Fangtasia as if you thought vampires would answer your questions. You ran off chasing two vampires without thinking. You consider yourself to be intellectual, but when it comes to something as simple as obeying or keeping yourself safe, you're out to lunch."

He stalked to the door.

"Please don't go," Alexis said.

Twenty minutes later, he was back. "I will drive you myself. I'm not putting Pam into your hands again for you to lead into harm again."

"You told her not to-"

"She is under the mistaken idea that I care about you and that it matters to me if you go get yourself killed."

It hurt. Alexis was surprised by just how very much it hurt to hear him say that. She followed him to the car where he shut the door on her in silence. He got in and turned the engine on. She watched the lights go by and kept her face to the window. She would not let him see her cry.

He pulled up in front of Mormor's house—she still couldn't really think of it as anything but Mormor's house—and opened the car door for her before she could even reach for it. She got out and he held out the remote for the alarm.

She stared at it. "Please, Eric. I need help to find Haley. I'm sorry that I-"

"It was a simple request, Alexis. All you had to do was stay in the car and wait for Pam." His hand was hard on her jaw as he lifted her face to look into his eyes. A shard of terror slammed into her. His face tightened. "If you want to be mine, there is a cost. Obedience is part of it."

"I want to be yours," she said. "I'm trying. I just..."

"You don't have the luxury of excuses, Alexis. One mistake can cost your life. Or Pam's life. If you want to be part of my world, you have to understand how unforgiving it is." He stepped back. "Go home, Alexis. Go back to your life."

She stumbled toward the house and turned to watch as he left the driveway.

She went inside and cried into a pillow until she went to sleep. When she got up, she worked out and then she began to clean the house. She went back to work. She put her hair into a braid, unable to bring herself to go back to the bun. She went and got glasses, having found that her old ones were broken in the attic in a pool of dried blood.

Morose and uncertain, she found herself in tears frequently as she cleaned up the mess left by the robbers. Many things were broken and it was disheartening.

She dreamed of him every night and it distressed her. In her dreams, they were occasionally interrupted by Bill, which unnerved her. Her hair continued its distressing habit of coming out of the braid and she became frustrated with trying to find ways to contain it.

The next week, men came in trucks and hauled Eric's artifacts away. Alexis hovered over them, admonishing them to be careful. When they were gone, she sat and stared until dark fell. She didn't bother to get up and turn the lights on, preferring instead to stare out over the lawn.

She finally went inside and went to her room without turning any inside lights on, either. She found it strange how much she had adapted to darkness in just a short time with Eric.

She curled up on the bed and wondered where he had taken the artifacts.

A movement in the corner of the room drew her attention. There had been movement there, hadn't there? She stared into the darkness, her heart pounding. The gun was in the side drawer and she lunged for it, drawing it and pointing it at the corner.

"I know you're there," she said.

"And what are you going to do about it?"

She was so startled that she fired before she realized it was Eric's voice. She dropped the gun, shocked. "Oh my God, Eric, I didn't realize it was you!"

He stepped out of the darkness, looking down at the bullet hole in his shoulder. It healed right before her eyes, and he caught the bullet that fell from it, still smoking.

"Is that all you can do, Alexis? You tried to take my Progeny's life. You owe me."

He stepped toward her, and she realized that he looked angry. Very angry. "Please, Eric, I-"

"Run, Alexis." He punctuated the command with a snarl as his fangs ejected.

She realized that he meant to take her life for his Progeny, and she bolted for the door. But he was there. She ran into him and backpedaled.

He hissed at her, and she dodged for the gun again. Maybe if she shot him in the face it would slow him down long enough to...

She didn't make it. He grabbed her foot and dragged her away from the gun. She rolled over and kicked at him. He caught her other foot.

"Are you going to fight?" he asked. "That will be fun."

"Please, Eric," she pleaded. "I didn't mean for her to get hurt."

He let go of her. "Here, I'll give you a head start," he told her, opening the door.

She crab-walked away from him.

"Run while you still can, Alexis. I may change my mind." His smile was pure savagery.

So she ran. She got less than a couple of feet down the hallway before she ran into him again. She backed up and felt the door frame against her back. She shook her head, petrified. She should have known it would come to this. He was a vampire.

She was picked up and thrown bodily onto the bed. She scrambled for the other side of it but he grabbed her and dragged her back. She rolled over to kick at him, pushing with her legs and straining her arms to the point of pain.

She was flipped back over easily. Her arms were pinned behind her back and she heard her own breath rasping in the darkness. He held her hands with one of his and her struggles were useless. His other hand gripped her braid and turned her head.

Then, to her shock, she heard the zipper on his pants. She winced as the panties she was wearing under her nightshirt were torn away as if they were made of paper. Realizing that he meant to rape her and then kill her created a completely foreign feeling inside her. The terror mingled with arousal and she felt a deep-rooted shock at feeling anything of the sort.

Her life was numbered in minutes now and all she could think about was that his cock was cool as it pressed against her. Then he shoved inside of her and she whimpered. He leaned forward, thrusting until his hips were pressed against hers and he was buried fully inside her.

His voice in her ear made her jump. "If you wanted to be raped and sucked by a vampire so very badly, Alexis, all you had to do was ask."

His teeth sank into her neck and she struggled again, overcome by a primal, deep fear that combined with the feel of him thrusting inside her and the craving it summoned within her.

She felt the lassitude of blood loss flowing through her and then his tongue on her neck. He continued to thrust inside of her and she realized that the fear was slipping away. As if he sensed it, he released her, pulling her body up until she was propped on her hands. His hands cupped her breasts, teasing at her nipples.

"This wasn't what I wanted our first time together to be," he whispered in her ear. "I wanted to ease into you. I wanted to tease you. I wanted to see your face as I entered you. You took that away from me, Alexis." He pulled her head back and she heard anger in his voice when he continued, even as he continued to slide in and out of her. "You can't run from us, Alexis. You can't fight us off. You are as helpless as a newborn lamb."

She was almost standing now, her head tilted back against his chest. With his hand on her throat, he drove into her harder, using her shoulder for leverage to thrust with increasing rhythm. His thrusts were rough, and their bodies slapping together was the only sound in the darkness besides her own uneven, desperate breathing.

Unexpectedly, he sped up, until he was driving in and out of her in a blur of motion. She felt herself rapidly building toward orgasm as he used his vampire speed to thrust in and out of her. She had never felt so helpless, yet so incredibly filled with an overwhelming desire in her life.

He stopped when she was close to orgasm and she felt him throbbing and pulsing inside her. She groaned with frustrated lust as he held her hips against his and thrust into her a few more times, grunting slightly with each jerk of his hips.

He slid out of her and the motion was accompanied by a profound disappointment and sense of loss. The disappointment was punctuated by his zipper, and she bit her lip to keep from begging him to finish.

He turned her around, her nightshirt falling back into place around her.

He raised an eyebrow. "If you thought this was for your pleasure," he told her, his face inches from hers, "then you are mistaken and still have not learned the lesson I am trying to teach you."

She shivered. It was almost as if he could read her mind.

"Go to bed, Alexis. And be forewarned. If you pleasure yourself, I will know it, and you will pay for it."

His fangs gleamed amid her blood on his face. She was still afraid of him.

He smiled. It was a predatory, lustful smile. "Good night."

It was many hours before she finally went to sleep after he flitted out the door. She woke to find, to her chagrin, that her hair had escaped yet again from its band. She sighed and set about brushing it out, surprised to find that she couldn't stop smiling.