Forever Rowan (2 page)

Abruptly he made sense of the marks on her neck. Fingerprints. Rowan Stone had recently been strangled.

“She brought us here, you know.” He wanted to reach out, to smooth his fingers soothingly over the bruises. To catch the tears trembling on her lower lashes, to taste them. To taste her. “She’s mated Nic Alero,” he continued speaking in self defense, anything to take his mind off how Rowan Stone would taste. She’d been trying to escape her megalomaniac of a father, true, but that didn’t mean she shared her sister’s remarkable acceptance of the night creatures. Maybe the sight of her horror and disapproval would break this maddening fascination she held for him.

“I don’t know any Nic,” she responded, pulling him back to the present. “Is he a good man?”

“He’s a Vampire,” Aidan replied bluntly, waiting for the shock, the horror. What he got was impatience.

“But is he a
good man
?” she repeated sharply, gaze slicing into his. “Jenna deserves a good man.”

He blinked, totally taken aback by her reaction. “He’s an arrogant ass most of the time,” he answered slowly. “But he’ll cherish her ‘til his last breath.”

She let out a slow, relieved breath. “He’ll keep her safe?” He nodded slowly, still processing her reaction. He told her that her beloved sister was mated to a Vampire, a monster, and she worried if the monster would keep Jenna safe. Fascinating.

“He’ll keep her safe,” he agreed. “And he’ll do most anything to keep her happy as well. Nic has powerful friends. He arranged the raid. Jenna wanted her sister--both of them if we could pull it off--and he drug the lot of us in here to get Jenna what she wanted.”

Her head dropped and her eyes slid away from his again. “And you ended up trapped here. Not much of a thank you.”

“I won’t be here long.” he assured her, flexing against his bonds once again. “Once the Dragon wakes up, I’ll be on my way.” He sent her a deliberately cocky smile. “You can come with if you like, but I’m out of here at the first opportunity.”

Her eyes flickered again. “Um, about your Dragon...”

He got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach when she hesitated, rising to pace restlessly across his cell. “What about my Dragon?” he asked in a dangerously level voice.

She turned to face him and started to speak, but stopped when the door to the cell slid open.

“If you’re done playing Florence Nightingale, your father requires your presence, Miss Rowan.” The soldier spoke respectfully enough, but there was something vaguely threatening in his posture. Aidan thought he saw a flicker of unease before she turned to the guard. With her back to him he wasn’t sure.

“I’m not done here, Karl,” she answered quietly.

“The boss says you are, Miss Rowan.” He took a step toward her, and Aidan could have sworn she flinched, just a little bit. He felt his heart rate pick up, and pain knifed from the base of his skull through his brain.

He must have made some sort of noise, because Rowan’s gaze snapped back to him and, with a look of defeat in her honeyed eyes, she moved slowly to the door.

“Awww,” the soldier grinned nastily at him. “You’re already taming the beast.” He chuckled. “And you’re not even a beauty.”

Her shoulders hunched a little and her head hung lower. The soldier’s eyes flickered uneasily and Aidan realized he was growling. Loudly. He might not have decided whether or not to trust Jenna’s little sister, but he didn’t like way the guard seemed to be going out of his way to embarrass her. He smiled at the man, baring his teeth. The guard stiffened, went red with embarrassment and anger and, as soon as Rowan moved from between them, raised a gun and pointed it in Aidan’s direction.

“Nighty night time, monster,” the man taunted before he took aim and shot. The dart wedged in his upper arm, and he cursed foully as the world went dark.

Rowan was tied to the pole again. The cold steel object was father’s favorite place to punish her. She could feel the greedy eyes of the guard on her bare back. The man had looked downright gleeful as he’d ripped her t-shirt from collar to hem, baring her scarred, mottled flesh to his sickening gaze.

The door opened and she heard her father’s murmured conversation with the guard. She wondered what excuse he had for this beating. There was always a reason, some infraction to justify the violence to his human guards. Of course, there were fewer human guards every day as her father replaced them with his genetically manipulated hybrids. William Stone didn’t bother to give them excuses.

Rowan vividly remembered her first “punishment”. She hadn’t done anything to deserve that one, either.

Erin had been about six, full of energy and sass. Unfortunately, she’d directed that sass in her father’s direction, and he hadn’t appreciated it. Rowan knew she’d never forget the sight of her little sister, dangling from their father’s fist. He’d wound his fingers through her short, strawberry blonde hair and was shaking her like a puppy as Erin whimpered in terror.

Rowan, only ten herself, hadn’t thought, she’d just acted, throwing herself on her father’s arm, trying to pry Erin free. “Rowan Pamela,” he’d snapped, “you know very well that disrespect and disobedience will not be tolerated in this house.” She knew what that meant. Her father was a firm believer in not sparing the rod, and had “spanked” both Rowan and Jenna black and blue for the most minor infractions. But Erin was so small, so tender. Rowan knew she could stand the punishment much better than her innocent baby sister. Little had she known.

In a trembling voice she’d begged her father to let Erin go, had lied and sworn she’d set Erin up to be rude, had dared her to be sassy. Stone had looked at her for a long time, speculation in his cold blue eyes. In retrospect, Rowan knew he’d seen through her lie. He’d seen a way, even then, to use the three girls against each other.

He’d spanked Erin, but lightly, with his hand. He’d looked into her glowing sapphire eyes and explained very seriously that she must never allow someone else, even her sister, to cause her to be bad. Bad girls had to be punished. And to make sure she understood he’d had her watch as he punished Rowan.

That had been the first time he’d had someone else hold the strap. The first time he’d drawn blood.

Afterwards as she’d lain on her stomach on her bed, Erin had come to sit beside her and pet her hair.

“Why’d you do that?” her baby sister had asked, and Rowan thought she meant why Rowan had taken her punishment.

“I didn’t want him to hurt you,” she’d answered, her voice a little raw from screaming.

“Then you shouldn’t have told me to sass Daddy,” Erin had replied, stunning Rowan into silence.

“I shouldn’t have
what
?” Rowan had turned her head to stare at her sister in disbelief. “I
didn’t
! You know that. I lied to him. I didn’t want him to hurt you.”

Erin had just shaken her head with the solemn seriousness that only a six-year-old can possess.

“
Now
you’re lying, Rowey. Daddy said you would. He said you’re a bad girl, and bad girls lie.” Erin had leaned in closer, whispering. “I still love you, Rowey. Even if you’re bad. But don’t try to get me in trouble again, ‘kay?”

Yeah, Rowan remembered it as if it were yesterday.

“Well, Rowan Pamela, what do you have to say for yourself?” Rowan shuddered at the sound of her father’s voice, so soft and benevolent, at the touch of his hand, so gentle on her cheek.

“I can’t say anything until I know what I’m supposed to have done, Father,” she rasped out with more defiance than she felt.

“So disrespectful,” he tsked, patting her cheek briskly, just short of a slap. “Is it any wonder I have to keep reminding you of where your duty and your
loyalty
lie?” He turned to the guard who stood just out of her line of sight. “Karl, will you please demonstrate to my daughter what happens to bad little girls?”

Rowan closed her eyes and breathed deeply as the guard’s malevolent chuckle drifted over her bare skin, followed by the fiery lick of the whip.

He was still laughing when the blood began to flow. Still laughing when the darkness took her.

Erin sat on the cot next to Rowan, stroking her damp hair back from her face. Jordan--Dr. Jordan Baker--had been in earlier to tend her injuries. Her poor back. It was criss-crossed with lash marks, crusted over with blood and purple with bruising.

Rowan blinked hesitantly, her eyes slowly coming into focus, and Erin dropped to her knees on the floor by the cot.

“Oh, Ro, why do you insist on pushing him?” It was what she always said while she cared for Rowan after one of her beatings. She kept her voice soft even as she watched Rowan’s expression clear and harden.

“I didn’t do anything Erin. I never do. You
know
this.” And that was what Rowan always said. As usual, Erin felt a little twinge at the words--a flicker of a headache, a twist in her guts, a faint idea that there was something she should remember. As usual, Erin focused on the discomfort to push the confusion back down, down, down, so far in her subconscious that it might not even exist.

Shaking her head, Erin ran a soft, wet cloth down Rowan’s back, wincing as her sister hissed in pain. The cloth was soaked in an antiseptic and had enough topical painkillers to numb her for hours.

“Ro, I don’t know what you did this time, but I do know that Daddy wouldn’t punish you for nothing. He’s not a monster.” He wasn’t. He couldn’t be. He was all Erin had. She needed him to be strong and infallible.

“Jenna came for me,” Rowan finally sighed. Erin went tense, every muscle on high alert.

“She’s okay?” She’d never been as close to Jenna as she was to Rowan, but Erin loved her dreamy oldest sister, and had worried herself sick when she’d run away. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know,” Rowan answered. Erin could all but hear the second part of her answer. Rowan wouldn’t tell her even if she did know. She didn’t trust Erin not to tell their father. Well, of course she’d tell their father. The man was even more upset by Jenna’s disappearance than Erin was.

“I do know she’s mated,” Rowan continued, and Erin thought,
mated
? Not
married
? “To a Vampire,” Rowan added.

“She’s
what
?” Erin didn’t even try to hide her horror. The image of their mother, body battered, throat ripped out, was never far from her mind. Their sweet, loving mother had been savaged by night creatures, raped and tortured before one of them, a Vampire, had finished her off.

“She’s taken a Vampire mate,” Rowan repeated calmly. “He’ll take care of her,” she added softly. “Father captured a Dragon who came with her to get me.” Erin knew she meant they’d come to rescue them both. “I took him some water and cleaned him up a bit. I suppose that was my big crime this time.”

“I don’t understand you,” Erin snapped. Her temper was rising, and with it a nagging headache. “Either of you. How can you just forget what they did to Mom?” The pain in her head spiked, and she took a deep, breath before she continued. “How can you calmly say Jenna’s
mated
to a monster, and you’ve been nursing another one? God, Ro. No wonder Daddy keeps after you.”

Rowan held her gaze for a long moment, something so sad and filled with pity in her eyes that Erin wanted to scream, to claw something. Then her sister dropped her head back to the bed and closed her eyes.

“Go away, Erin.” Her voice was infinitely tired, infinitely sad. “You’re not helping.”

Erin’s eyes stung, her throat closed on the words she didn’t want to say, didn’t even want to think. Instead she leaned in and whispered, “Try not to piss him off again, Ro. You may be strong, but even you couldn’t handle another whipping right now.” Before Rowan could reply, Erin rose and slipped from the room, her heart a lead weight in her chest.

In his office William Stone watched the closed-circuit screen with satisfaction. Erin had worried him for a moment, looking almost willing to believe her scheming sister. But as always, the memory of her mother’s mutilated body snapped his youngest daughter--his oldest experiment--back into line.

Doreen’s murder had been one of his more brilliant moves, he had to admit. And allowing Erin to discover the body had been the cherry on top.

William leaned back in his chair and studied the live video of Erin as she stood in the corridor outside Rowan’s cell. She’d raised a hand to the back of her neck and was massaging it. Eyes closed, brows furrowed, she was clearly in pain. This was a new development. One that could produce some interesting results. He could hardly wait to see what happened next.

Aidan was still chained when he woke again, but at least this time he could see. He spent a few minutes flexing, from his toes on up, taking inventory of what seemed to be in working order and what felt a bit worse for the wear. All in all, nothing much hurt, save a tender spot below his balls. Almost as if...

The rage was sudden and all consuming. That bloody fuckin’ bastard had done some sort of cutting down there, and Aidan could make a good guess as to why. With the rage came the pain, the excruciating knife through the brain that stole his focus and made the room go foggy and gray.

Lost in the pain, he almost didn’t hear the door open. Almost. Then a tendril of scent, a whisper of sound, and Aidan knew she was back. Rowan.

“Relax, Dragon.” Her voice had lost some of its huskiness, but none of its sensual appeal. “The more upset you get, the worse your head is going to hurt.”

“What do you mean?” He couldn’t keep the growl out of his voice. Didn’t really want to. William Stone had been messing with his fuckin’ balls, and he wanted some answers.

“It’s just...” she sounded uncertain, almost afraid to continue. There was something in her voice that made his blood run cold, and something off in her scent that called out to the Dragon. Fuck. His head was splitting.

“Get over here,” he barked. He was sick and tired of being chained, being blinded, being out of control. She moved his way, but slowly. The grace he’d noted during her previous visit was a memory. She approached him now with the careful movements of someone recovering from a grievous injury. All at once he realized what was wrong with her scent. “You’re bleedin’. Where?”