Successors (17 page)

She averted her eyes, feigning interest in adjusting the way her coat was hanging. “Really, how’s that going for you?”

“I wonder if I shouldn’t update your knowledge of them. Just in case you need to know about them. Do you need to know about werewolves?” His eyes were double-dog daring her to say yes.

She knew he was jealous of Vince. She also knew that she was the only woman remotely close to his age in the entire prison, which left him no prospects for dating. Despite her sympathy for his situation, she couldn't force herself to feel differently. Ethan just wasn't the one for her.

She shook her head. “No, I think I get the gist. Tread lightly near a full moon. Don’t tread at all on a full moon. That pretty much covers it.”

He slammed his book shut so hard it made her jump. “I’m sure that will at least keep you alive. I won’t bore you with the details.” He gathered his things and headed upstairs. He paused on the first landing as if he was rethinking his exit, but after a moment he ascended again without delay.

30

Danato sat in the living room with Ethan some three weeks later. His large frame took up nearly the whole couch as he enjoyed the last of last month’s newspapers. The newspapers were only delivered once a month in bulk. Though the news was perpetually one month behind the rest of the world, he still liked to stay up-to-date on the current events. He always tried to keep one newspaper for each day as if he were receiving them from his own personal paper boy, but every month he finished a few days early. He couldn’t resist letting a potential follow-up story lay unread.

He squinted and held the paper at arm’s length, despite his glasses being only a few steps away in the study. As he turned the pages of his paper, he caught Ethan staring at the door rather than at his books.

Ethan had taken Danato’s chair for his studying. Danato had suspected it was also because it faced the door. Ethan had been checking the clock all night. He had also been changing positions sporadically, apparently uncomfortable no matter what he tried.

Danato watched him change from sitting straight up to slouched down. He tried putting his feet on the coffee table, but the action was promptly met with a glare. After that, he switched to sit lopsided with his feet over the arm of the chair.

Ethan eventually sighed and slammed his book shut. Danato looked at the book to see which culprit volume deserved the mistreatment.

“I can’t do this,” Ethan groaned. “I’m so sick of studying and weight lifting and studying. If I read another line about the lineage of hobgoblins to tree gnomes, I’ll rip my damn eyes out.”

“I told you that was a boring volume,” Danato said, returning to his own reading.

“How is any of this going to prepare me for in there?” Ethan shook the book as if it was possible to strangle it.

“Knowledge is always power, and strength protects you when your knowledge falls short. Trust me, that book will save your life someday.”

“I don’t want to do it anymore. I don’t want to be here anymore. I hate this place!” Ethan flung his arms out to indicate either the house or the prison in general.

Danato folded his newspaper neatly and placed it beside him. He had expected Ethan to have trouble with Cori’s new relationship, but he was surprised to see him so uneasy. Perhaps he had become more attached to her than he realized.

“I know you don’t want me to repeat the obligation you have here; so, let’s move on to what has changed in your life to make this place so much more frustrating than a few weeks ago.”

“Ten volumes later, is what has changed, and about three thousand reps,” Ethan snarled.

“No, it isn’t that at all.” He knew Ethan wouldn’t admit what he was really feeling. “You don’t like it when she isn’t here.”

Ethan paused. “She should be here. I’m not allowed to go gallivanting around the prison at night.”

“That isn’t entirely true. I’ve never made any specific objections to leaving the house at night, but given that you don’t have any reason to go there… I might be reluctant to approve.”

“You’re right. I have no business going to the prison, because we have no female werewolves in the program, so I have no one to date.”

Danato furrowed his brow. “The day I voluntarily let a fem-wolf in this prison is the day I get committed.” He shook his head, seeing the disinterest in Ethan’s eyes. “Never mind, the point is… what was my point?”

“That I don’t have anyone except her, and now she has someone else.” Ethan threw his book on the coffee table. “Thanks for the pep talk. I really needed that spoken out loud.” Ethan stormed off toward the stairs.

“Ethan!” Danato bellowed, forcing the boy to stop and look back at him. “I can't make her to love you... and neither can you. You'll have your chance again. You know that. But in the meantime you need to start handling your crush with a little more dignity.”

Ethan nodded and headed upstairs.

Danato rolled his eyes and shook his head. Who knew that his biggest problem with his recruits would be the drama of young love.

31

Cori arrived at Vince’s human cage. Like her last visit with him, she was limited on time. He was to be sequestered at midnight. Unlike her last visit, however, the door wasn’t locked. Instead, she found him inside with his hands and legs shackled. He must not have trusted himself enough to go without some degree of restraint.

She hovered at the door to his cell and knocked on the metal framework. He looked up from his reading, which wasn’t much more than a car magazine. He smiled. “You came back?”

“Yeah,” she said, feeling as awkward as a teenager on her first date. “Didn’t you want me to come back?” Though they had already kissed, the time between their encounter had left her time to doubt his interest in her, and question her own desires for him. As close as they may have been that night, three weeks had put large barriers between them.

“Of course I wanted you to come back. I just wasn’t sure if you had come to your senses or not.” He smirked. “Would you like to sit?”

She looked at the long bed cot.

“I can stand,” he offered, seeing and probably
smelling
her apprehension.

He stood, rattling his shackles as he did. He motioned for her to sit as he backed himself to the wall. She wet her lips and sat down. She was still nervous, and she didn’t know why. So many thoughts were going through her head. She could hardly stand it.

Was she ready to be with a man again? Was he honest with her? Could she even enjoy herself with the memories of so many violent encounters running through her head? Wouldn’t it just be easier to leave? Could she leave this place without his help, if the opportunity arose?

“Cori?”

“What?” She stumbled out of her own thoughts and realized Vince had been speaking to her. “I’m sorry.”

“You…” He sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know what to say. Your emotions are so frazzled right now. I can feel that. I don’t know if I can say anything to relax you.”

“You can tell me why I’m here,” she said.

His brow lifted in surprise. “You’re here because you think I’m hot.” His eyes glittered with amusement.

She found it funny too, but not enough to keep the smile she was offering. “You have a whole other life outside of this place, don’t you?”

The humor on his face faded as well. “I don’t know about
whole
, but I do have a job, an apartment.” Vince slid down to the floor.

“Family and friends?” she asked.

“Family is mostly gone. I think I have some cousins still running around in Scotland, but they aren’t part of this program, so I don’t hear from them much.”

“Friends?”

“Some coworkers I have drinks with once in a while, but I try not to get too close to people, in case they start to figure out that I’m always taking time off around the full moon.”

“Female friends?” she tried to ask casually.

He raised his chin in an “ah-ha” way. “I see, you think that I have a girlfriend in this other life and I’m just interested in you for my trips here.”

“Do you?” she asked again, noting that he had not challenged the accusation.

“I’ve dated. A few relationships worth distracting myself with, but no, I am emotionally and physically available.” She couldn’t help but look at his body when he said physically. “Apparently I really am a jerk. I’m arrogant, competitive, and controlling.”

“I have some of those same qualities.”

“You’re competitive, I’ve seen that. Controlling? Well, you’re a woman, I’m not sure that’s an optional quality. Arrogant… I don’t think so.” He shook his head.

“No?”

“No, because if you were arrogant, you wouldn’t be questioning my motives; you would assume that I’m completely enamored with you for reasons of obvious beauty and intellect.”

Vince crawled across the floor to her legs. He lay his head on her lap and gripped her calves. Her breathing increased and her face flushed, but that was all he did for the moment. He massaged her calves down to the ankles.

She reached to touch his head, but she couldn’t help but think it would be like petting him, so she stopped. She sat back and enjoyed the calf massage, which made her think of Ethan, but she pushed away the memory of his hands and focused on Vince's.

They didn’t talk much, but shortly before the guards were due to join them, he pulled her off the bed cot and into his lap. His shackles left him struggling to embrace her, but she wrapped her arms around him just fine.

He kissed her hungrily. His hand slipped up her shirt, tethered just shy of his goal. His other hand gripped her thigh, pulling her against him. She could tell he was frustrated by the restraints, but she relaxed in his cumbersome embrace, knowing that she still had control of the interaction.

She wrapped her arms around him tightly and pushed herself against him. She felt him bite her neck playfully and she pulled away. He smiled to let her know he was still being frisky. He proceeded to nibble down her shirt until he reached the swell that was evident even through the cloth of her bra and shirt. He glanced up at her before tracing his tongue over the cloth. Her breath caught and she thought she might rip her shirt off to give him full access.

The clang of keys down the hallway disrupted their privacy. Vince kissed her again, before the guards could take her away. They announced time was up and she peeled herself away from Vince. He caught her wrist after she was up. She looked back at him. His eyes were glazed and his mouth didn’t smile. She pulled her hand, but he wouldn’t release.

She looked to the two guards, who were already coming to her aid. They tried to force his hand open. She noted how strong his grip was on her, and yet he wasn’t actually crushing her wrist.

Vince’s eyes had turned lustful and she felt genuinely concerned when the guards couldn’t force his hand open. She could see why they separated them at midnight. One guard spoke loudly to Vince as if he was an old man hard of hearing. He said his name multiple times before Vince drew his eyes away from her. “Open your hand!” the guard said firmly. Vince looked at his hand as if it was a foreign object. He released and she put some distance between them.

His features softened a bit and he lost his lustful gaze. “Midnight?” he asked the guards as they helped him off the floor to his bed.

“Yes, Vince,” one said, still speaking loudly but with a more parental tone. “Time to rest. Cori will wait outside.”

“Cori.” Vince peeked over their shoulders at her.

Once he was situated, they pushed her out the door and locked it. They warned her once again not to go near him, but she didn’t need the reminder. He mumbled her name drunkenly inside the cage. She stayed a little longer to talk with him, but when every sentence from his mouth became pornographic, she decided it was time to go to bed.

32

The next day Ethan didn’t go to the gym or to the office to study. He roamed around the prison, trying to better acquaint himself with some of the things he had been reading about. One inmate in particular had caught his fancy when he had read about her.

Danato had told him that he couldn't force Cori to love him, but that wasn't necessarily true. There was a way to tilt her heart in his direction.

Ethan knew what he was considering was wrong, but he wasn’t prepared to spend the remainder of his life alone. Nor was he willing to just let Cori commit herself to a man she had no future with. At least with him, they would have a long life together.

He stepped out onto the seducers level a little reluctantly. He knew whom to avoid eye contact with, and whom to keep away from entirely. The others were still dangerous, but relatively benign in their cages.

The only prisoner with a posh cell was the only one safe enough to look at and talk to. “Mezula?” he asked when he reached her cell.

The cell contained a hand-painted bureau, a glass vanity, a mahogany sleigh bed, and a beautiful woman. She was human. She sat on the bed uncrossing and crossing her long legs like scissors. It made the slightest noise when her panty hose scraped.