Pn1 (14 page)

knee-jerk reaction to piled boxes and the dark.

It occurred to her this was a well-used hall despite appearances.

Around that time she heard Sebastian wiggle a key into the lock and

turn it hard to disarm the system.

Luckily the autonomous part of her body could take over heart

beats and breathing, because right now she wasn't capable.

Sebastian pulled her through the door after him and let it thud

behind them, putting them in complete dark. Touching her finger to

her nose, she was incapable of seeing her hand.

"Oops, forgot you might not like the calmness of dark. Let me turn

on the lights."

Gillian collapsed inwards, her arms and legs twisting around her

body in a helix. She could hear Sebastian moving behind her, his

fingers slithering over the wall, tapping a tempo.

"You sure you don't want to stay in the dark? I find it very

comforting. It lets the mind free to roam wherever it wants to,

untethered to the shackles of sight." His finger nails raked over the

metal walls.

Gillian cringed at the sound assault of nails trying to gouge metal

and slipping to start again. "Please stop."

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"So no to the lights then?"

Gillian could tell by his tapping nails that he was honing in on her.

Of course he knew where she was standing, but she had an eerie

feeling he was looking her in the eyes though she had no proof but the

hairs on her neck trying to track him. "Turn on the lights."

"Fine, take all the fun out of it."

The sound of his voice brought back endless sleepovers where her

sister thought it hilarious to turn off the lights on people and mock

them for falling over, and it made her feel like a ten year old wanting

to scream for her mother to come save the day, yet again. Damn him

for toying with her like everyone else did. She was a good person,

wasn't that enough for people? Did she have to sprout fangs and snarl

for people to take her seriously?

The lights came on with a click, fluorescent beams frying her

dilated eyes which tried to bury back in the sockets. An onslaught of

tears clouded her vision, requiring incessant blinking before she could

take in her surroundings.

Sebastian leaned sideways against the wall, his legs entwined for

the relaxed college boy look with anything but a casual expression on

his face, the cocked grin denying any chance he felt cool.

Gillian looked around, her head bobbing up and down and

swiveling side to side as she covered the door with her back. Her lips

felt mushy and numb. White was the first thing that got into her brain

for processing. The second adjective was cold. White, cold, and

sterile was the triplet her brain came up with on first inventory for a

working analysis.

"Surprised?" Sebastian pushed himself slowly off the wall and

retraced his steps from the light switch across the room towards where

she was standing, guarding the door.

Gillian made her head do a second furtive sweep, keeping track of

where he was from the corner of her eye. It was a cross between a

padded cell and a surgical room. Instead of padding though the room

was floor to ceiling white tile scrubbed to the point of reflecting the

fluorescent lights in a chaotic mess of colliding light beams.

He half circled her, following where her eyes went.

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He started to close in on her, her eyes memorizing the only two

things in the room that weren't stark white, a metal oven like door in

one wall and an odd date/time censor near the exit. That was all;

everything else was porcelain white and full of glare.

Gillian bristled. "Stop." Her hand came up to keep him away, but

then wilted back towards her side when she came close to touching

him. She didn't want to leave the door, but he loomed to close for

even friendship comfort.

Sebastian straightened up and latched his hands behind his head.

Gillian felt behind her for the door's handle or knob. She thought it

odd that nothing pressed into her spine. Her hands slipped all over but

found nothing. She hit the door with her ass to get it to open, but

nothing moved except her own skin meshing with fat and muscles.

"Open up the door." She aimed her words for his neck so his eyes

wouldn't stone her into drugged acceptance. He definitely had

Patryk's eyes, damn him.

"How could I possibly do that with you standing in front of it? Am

I supposed to move you?" Sebastian winked and cracked his knuckles,

the sound ricocheting off the walls to battle her ear from all directions.

She sidestepped; ass adhered to the wall, until the door was clear of

any part of her.

"I don't think you've fully appreciated all this room has to show."

He scratched at his nose and turned his back to her, walking to the

center of the room where he rotated around with his arms spread wide

over his head.

"There's nothing to see. Open the door, you promised." She

tightened her thighs together, taking up as little space as she could.

Sebastian stopped twirling to look at her. "Actually I didn't

promise anything but to show you the one space in the building you

hadn't seen yet, and that I've done." He walked over to the metal door

in the opposite wall and pulled it open.

A blast of hot air hit Gillian even as she remained hugging the far

wall. She jumped further from the door to evade the heat rays.

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"Impressive isn't it?" Sebastian closed the door slowly. "Not many

buildings have an incinerator. Have to love remodeled blood labs,

no?" He started to retrace his steps back to her.

"Let me out." She paused. "Now."

"Sounds like that was hard for you, and it wasn't even close to an

ultimatum. Still I'll give you points for effort, and I'll reward you with

a question. How am I to open the door when there is no handle?

Clearly you tried and failed." He stopped a mere two feet from her

and raised his eyebrows.

"You're stronger than me, push it." Gillian tried to mash more of

her body into the wall.

"Thank you for the compliment, but the door doesn't care about

strength. It won't open for me, or anyone for that matter from this

side now."

"You're not stupid enough to lock yourself in here. I don't believe

you." Gillian's eyes flicked everywhere but to his face.

"No I'm not." He pointed to the date and time read out by the door.

"It opens itself at sunrise, not a moment before, and believe me I've

tried to tamper with it. It doesn't work."

Gillian followed the line of his finger. "You're lying."

He walked over, brushing her on his way, to the censor and

smashed his fist into it. Nothing, not even a beginning of a shatter

line appeared in the plastic encasement. Sebastian then did a flying

jump kick into the door, landing perfectly on his feet. The door

remained obstinately sealed.

Her mind told her to stay near the door and not believe him, but her

skin started crawling away, taking her bones and muscles with it until

she was huddled in a corner diagonal from him and the closest exit

was the incinerator which she refused to choose, unless...

"Humans are funny. Brains and bodies tell them two different

things and it is a continual war, wastes energy and time. You'll never

win that way. Choose reason or brute force. Of course either way

you might lose, would lose." He looked her up and down with a bored

sigh.

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Gillian swallowed blood from the bite hold on the lip she didn't

know she had. "Why do you call me human as if you are something

else?"

"No fun at all. I'd figure Patryk for better tastes." He tapped the

heel of his shoe on the floor.

It took her a second to realize her pulse was starting to go in time

with his tapping, and she pulled her heart back with a shot of

adrenaline fueled by Patryk's name.

"Showering doesn't get the scent off. You reek of him. He might

be my proclaimed brother but you stink of either being sullied or

marked. Which one is it?"

A cold dullness took over her extremities and made her feel like

jelly poured into a mold.

Sebastian overcame the distance between them in a few steps.

She tried to back into the wall, but her spine was unrelenting,

evidently the jelly mold was stronger than she'd given it credit for.

His hand came up and covered her jugular, gluing her head to the

wall. "You haven't or won't answer my question. Which is it?"

Gillian felt her pulse stab at his palm and she kept reminding

herself she could breathe by swallowing gulps of saliva faster than she

could think.

His finger began find the contours of her esophagus. "I'll get my

answer soon enough." With his free arm he brought his wrist up so he

could read his watch. "Very, very soon. You see my brother's

paranoia is like clockwork. Bet you didn't know that about him."

Gillian was afraid to shift in the slightest. "I'm not going to sleep

with you." She knew her words were meaningless but she wanted

them out there all the same.

Sebastian curled his lip. "I don't do hand-me-downs."

"Then let me go." She squeezed her toes, trying to bury them

through the soles of her shoes to avoid passing out from fear.

"Oh, I will sooner than you can imagine." He pushed his watch into

her forehead. "Can you feel it ticking?"

Gillian rolled her eyes up to try and see the watch.

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He pressed in harder, nicking her skin membrane. "Answer me,

can you feel it?"

"Yes," she squeaked, letting her eyes flutter back downwards.

"Good, then you can count with me. I bet by twenty you will have

part of your request answered and the door with open, but it won't stay

that way for long."

Her legs tried to make a dash for it.

Sebastian's free hand came off her forehead and smacked down

between her breasts, smashing her ribcage into the wall. "You seem

to forget I own your throat. You really want to lose the ability to

breathe?"

Gillian went still, save heart and lungs.

"Didn't think so. Now be a good slut and you'll get to breathe a bit

longer." He leaned in to cover her body from view, forcing her nose

and mouth to get what air they could through his sweater. His pelvis

rocked inward, feeling her up and down. "Now count with me. Ten,

nine, eight, seven."

Gillian wanted to ram her knee into his balls, but her throat. How

could she begin to get his fingers off without him tearing her?

He kicked her legs aside with his knee. "I don't think you are

counting. We are almost at one."

The door creaked though all she could see was Sebastian's sweater.

This was her one chance. He'd know she would try something, but

who wouldn't? As she was about to head butt him, he leaned in

completely, cutting off air flow until the door shut.

"What are you doing, Sebastian, trying to hump the wall? Again?

How pathetic can you be?"

Sebastian leaned back, releasing his hold on Gillian's neck and

throat. He turned slowly so that she was still blocked from seeing.

Gillian huffed in as much air as she could and felt her throat

repeatedly to make sure it was still fully intact and not oozing. She

would recognize the voice that entered in her dreams if she heard it.

What the hell was Patryk doing here? And who the hell were these

two brother owners?

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"Not at all, Patryk. I brought you a gift, consider it an early

present." Slipping sideways, he revealed his offering huddled on the

floor. "Think of this as a birthday and Christmas gift all rolled into

one cute little ball I know you already like."

Patryk shrunk then dropped to his hands and knees, arching his

back.

"Patryk, aren't you starting a bit soon? The moon isn't even visible

outside for another few minutes." Sebastian fell into a squat and

looked between them gleefully. He clapped his hands. "Let me

introduce you. Patryk this is the woman you fucked last night, might I

add against your own rules. And slut, this is the man whose dick you

let ram into you and spray with his scent. It's so strong I bet I could

scrape it off your cunt walls. You really should shower better and use

perfume if you don't want to give it away."

Patryk growled in Sebastian's direction.

"Oh, get over yourself. You didn't think I'd recognize your smell or

know you were acting stiffer than normal. Two can play the