Melissa MacNeal - Beyond Redemption

With a toss of her head, the vampire did as he wished. But she wasn't happy about it: crossing her arms beneath her breasts, Pink turned her back on us and walked toward her open casket. Without so much as a glance our way, she slipped into the silken interior of her bed and shut the lid. The snick of an inside lock echoed in the candlelit room, and then all was quiet. Eerily, uneasily quiet.

"Let's go," I whispered, leading the way to the pale light of the downstairs hall. "I don't believe for one minute that she's finished with us. Let's go up and get our clothes on, and we can decide the best place to take you until-"

But we got no farther than a step beyond the gilt-edged door. Perfidia awaited us, looking sleek and slender in a fitted gown the color of moonlight-the color of her pallid skin. She stood blocking the stairway with a graceful arm, one hip cocked demurely as she took a long draw from her stiletto cigarette holder. Those demon-green eyes glimmered with purpose as she looked from Billy to me.

"Going my way?" she asked coyly.

Perfidia's question echoed in the narrow stairway, more a threat than an invitation. Going my way, indeed! She left us no choice, for her menacing presence prevented us from pushing past her into the house, and there was no other way out of this subterranean lair.

We were at her mercy.

"Are you afraid of me?" she mocked. Again she sipped on her cigarette, her eyes flaring a feral green as she blew the smoke from her nostrils like the deadly dragon she was. She awaited our reply as though she had an eternity to hear it-for she did.

I let out an exasperated, tired sigh. "Look, I'm sorry we woke you up, but it was Pink's idea-"

"Pink schmink," the vampire muttered. Her pale gown flowed over her body like sparkling champagne as she shifted suggestively, giving Billy a direct shot of her parted thighs. Even in the corridor's dimness, her vee of curls was visible through the sheer gown, and the air around us became redolent with the scent of her wet sex. "Playtime is over. Now that Pink has warmed you up, it's time Mr. Tripplehorn learned the discipline for becoming your lover, Andrea. You will follow me. We will begin at once."

"I don't know what your game is here," Billy retorted, his brown eyes flashing, "but I want no part of-"

"Game? You think the continuation of your existence is a mere parlor trick to us?" Faster than we could fathom, Perfidia pinned him to the wall by sticking the end of her cigarette holder against his windpipe. "And if you think for one minute you have any control over what happens here, you're even denser than I anticipated."

Her nasty little tsk, tsk whispered doom in the gloomy passageway as Billy and I held our breath. "Could be you'll require more than the usual harnessing and whipping," she mused aloud. "I hope this muscled body of yours will fit into my cage, Billy, because I'm sure your ego will require some shrinking-"

"You will NOT be locking him into your infernal-"

Perfidia didn't even touch me with the finger she pointed to shut me up. The sheer malevolence flickering in her gaze shot through her digit, stifling my outburst-suggesting she had a lesson of control and humiliation in mind for me, as well.

"You've come to a crossroads in your sheltered life, my dear Andrea," she said in a coiled voice. "A young woman ready to take on a lover-believing she's entitled to a life outside these walls-is old enough to know the truth about who she is and why she's alive. For all your intelligence, you've remained blissfully ignorant for far too long.

"So you'll be coming with me now," she continued with Billy, her lips curling with her subtle turn of phrase. "Coming only when I allow you to, and every time I command it. A lesson every lover should learn-and I'm just the woman to teach it."

My mind reeled with the questions I'd avoided since my childhood in the Sisters' orphanage, for I'd never needed to know the details of my birth. I tried to hang back, tried to stall for time and perhaps the diversion Perfidia's blond slaves or Cerise could provide, but the vampire turned. Her power pulled us up the stairs without allowing our feet to touch the rough stones, let alone allowing us to protest or reason with her. I tried to catch Billy's eye-to signal my apology or warn him silently of the dangerous situation that might await us-but his gaze was locked on the alluring curve of this mistress's backside.

Control, indeed. An illusion mere mortals dared not trust while in the presence of Pink, Pandora, and especially Perfidia; a concept that took on deadly meanings while dealing with the undead. I could only ascend behind her, sensing her revelations would leave me scarred and smarting long after I left this powerful house. I wondered if Billy would even have me, after the way I'd brought him here under false pretenses, and then watched helplessly as the Three P's caught him in their thrall.

Perfidia topped the stairs, which would bring us into the back corner of the pantry on the main floor. She reached for the doorknob-a formality for those of us who couldn't spirit ourselves through the polished panel of wood-but the door flew open with the force of a hurricane. There stood Pandora, looking lush and alluring in her fitted gown of black lace, yet her expression bespoke a warning I knew better than to ignore.

"I'll take over from here," she stated quietly. Although we were inside the house, her lace skirt shifted with the wind of her displeasure.

"I don't think so," Perfidia retorted, standing taller and sleeker in the face of this unexpected opposition. "We have always agreed that when Andrea found a man, we would transform him into a lover like no other, and I'm taking my turn."

"You're taking revenge," Pandora countered, "and in your unrested, unfed state, that becomes dangerous fare. Revenge is a dish best eaten cold."

The straw-blonde temptress tossed her head as though to step into the kitchen. "Andrea needs to know who her-"

"Andrea needs to know nothing but the love of a man who adores her."

The black-haired beauty gripped Perfidia's forearms, while all around us the air filled with little whirlwinds of an approaching storm. Pandora's raven hair rose around her face in coils like snakes, ready to strike whomever challenged her authority. In all my years, I'd never seen this witchy woman pull rank on her companions, but as the oldest and most powerful force among them, she demanded the compliance of her two sisters with a wicked strength that set them in their place.

I swallowed hard. If Perfidia's intentions had invoked Pandora's wrath on such a grand scale, then surely the secrets about to be revealed were the sort I could do without knowing. I had enough troubles, just trying to keep Billy out of the Magistrate's way until I could prove he hadn't killed Lucy. The currents of Pandora's personal whirlwind made me think Miss Legg's murder was an insignificant matter indeed, compared to whatever her paler partner wanted me to know.

"Go back to bed, Perfidia. Don't make me tell you twice."

The scorned blonde pivoted in place to flash her fangs at us-and then vaporized, like the effervescence of the champagne she resembled. The hissssss of her disappearance left no doubt in my mind that she'd be back, however, and that she'd take matters into her own unhallowed hands at a time when she could do me the most harm. I had never trusted or even liked Perfidia the way I'd taken to the other two ladies. I got that goose-bumpy feeling of being buried alive-lost beyond the reaches of even Pandora-as the atmosphere surrounding us settled down again.

"I'm sorry you two had to witness that," the lace-clad lady before us murmured. "At times like this, my powers bring me only sadness and regret."