Melissa MacNeal - Beyond Redemption

Perfidia snorted, causing smoke to spurt from her nostrils. "Silly fool, I drank Billy's blood because I wanted him! Because he's gorgeous! But what I'm about to do next comes under the heading of Mother Knows Best."

"Pulling rank," I muttered, clenching the iron bars like I wanted to grip Perfidia's neck. "As though caging me like a damned animal weren't enough. Why am I not surprised?"

Her smile grew more catlike as she snapped her fingers to rouse Billy from his fog. "Oh, you'll be surprised, all right."

She was walking-or rather, gliding in that vampire way she had-toward my armoire, holding Tripplehorn's attention with her steady gaze. "Do you know whose clothes are in here, Billy, my sweet?"

He grinned, a besotted schoolboy answering Teacher's question. "Why, Andrea's, of course. This is her room, and that's where she keeps her dresses."

My pulse was pounding so hard, knowing where this would lead, that I could barely hear their conversation. I had to wonder how much of it Perfidia herself was directing, for she could read people's thoughts and then coerce their responses.

"That's right-as far as it goes," she replied. Then she unlatched the doors and swung them open with a dramatic flourish. "But what's this? Behind these outmoded, rather frumpy gowns why-here's a man's tweed suit jacket! And several pairs of flannel trousers! And an overcoat!"

Perfidia pivoted, her triumphant glance flitting my way before she focused on Billy again. "What does this mean, sweetheart? Do you recognize them?"

"You goddamn-"

But Billy's wounded, incredulous expression shut me up. He squirmed against his invisible bonds, whimpering like a frustrated pup. "She has a husband," he rasped. "She led me to believe she's unmarried, but-"

He suddenly dropped from the wall to land with a thump on the floor.

"She's been deceiving you, all right," the vampire said as she wagged her finger at him, "but perhaps if you come closer, you'll know where you've seen these clothes before."

My wrath made the room burn from behind a red haze-the sort that comes over a bull being teased by a matador. Billy still looked pale from losing so much blood, and he walked with a wince after landing so hard, but I predicted a quick recovery. He'd be running for his life, if Perfidia had her way.

"Billy, she's tricking you!" I yelped. "After we get out of here-if you'll let me explain-"

But he was already fingering the front of the overcoat, studying the glove Perfidia had pulled from its pocket. A panic came over me and I couldn't breathe, as though a noose were tightening around my neck. And it might as well have been, the way Billy Tripplehorn looked at me and then ran his finger along a pale stain I hadn't realized was there. He buried his face in the glove.

"Smells like sex, doesn't it?" the vampire inquired quietly. "And that unsightly white splotch on the coat, why, it reminds me of…dried cum."

Billy sucked air and turned to stare at me, the glove still near his nose. "Alex Moore, the lawyer," he said in a voice growing as taut as his bare body. "In the buggy coming from town-how long has HE lived here?"

I bit my lip, fighting tears. But of course Perfidia jumped right into the gap of distrust I'd just created.

"Ever since Alex-Andrea-got out of law school, actually," she replied. "And while I'm glad she rescued you from the clutches of that idiot Harry Legg, you should know what you've gotten yourself into, before it's too late. Would you marry a woman who masquerades as a man?"

The blood drained from my face. For countless, gawdawful moments Billy Tripplehorn stared at me, his eyes dark with doubt. Years in the courtroom facing down the magistrate had trained me not to break my gaze, yet I couldn't deny my deception. "If you'll let me explain, Billy-"

"If you want to leave, after she's treated you so indecently, I'll certainly understand." The vampire's gown fluttered with the quick raising of her arm to point toward the door. "Fetch your clothes downstairs, if you like. I love you too much to hold you here against your will."

I didn't know whether to cry or vomit again, listening to Perfidia perform such melodrama with all her immortal-immoral-charm. Surely he realized she was playing us both for fools, one against the other! Billy'd once admitted to thinking with his dick, but living among three female vampires had been a short course in sexual treachery even he had learned a lesson from. Hadn't he?

And yet, who was I to deny my part in this deception? I'd brought him here under false pretenses, after all. "I love you, too, Billy," I said, realizing it was the weakest defense I'd ever pleaded. "Please believe I had my reasons for-"

But he walked out. Left the gloomy little room without a backward glance.

I can't really say I blamed him.

Perfidia's smile defied description. "Isn't he just the handsomest man you ever saw?" she asked lightly. She started to close the armoire, but then shoved its doors wide again, as though to taunt me with the sight of its contents.

"Stay right where you are, Andrea, until I return for our little mother-daughter chat. Or not."

I cannot tell you how long I remained a captive. Days, I suspect. My draperies were made of dark velvet, designed to keep out the light of day, and I was so bewildered by all Perfidia had revealed, I paid little attention to the passing of time, anyway.

Was that vampire really my mother? Why had she taunted me by attacking Billy, and then persuading him to escape, while I could only watch helplessly? What had I ever done to her to provoke such cruelty?

And-just slightly less distasteful-could Judge Legg really be my father? At least, as lawyer Alex Moore, I had won more of my cases than he had. But I'd never respected him, as a magistrate or as a man who'd always been full of himself. Had the Sisters encouraged my legal career-my male persona-as payback for the way he'd treated Perfidia? The Three P's must've been chuckling for years, knowing the magistrate was being held accountable in the courtroom, by a daughter he didn't know he had.

But the joke was on me. My professional guise was the very trick that damn vampire had turned against me, to convince Tripplehorn I was the wrong woman for him. And where was Billy now? I really couldn't blame him for leaving me. But I worried that Perfidia had left him so weak he was defenseless against disease. For all I knew he was already dead…

"I'm yours, Andrea. Take every fucking inch of me, and don't you dare expect me to stop!"

His voice filled the room as it had that first time we made love, not so very long ago, when I became Billy Tripplehorn's in every way that counted. I suddenly longed for him so strongly, for the feel of his body dominating mine, that my clit twitched and tremors went through my core. As though guided by some invisible, insatiable demon, my hand slithered down my bare belly to squeeze my mound. I told myself I was only lonely, taking the edge off my fears while I waited for someone to find me. But when my fingers slipped inside my slit, I convulsed immediately.

Heedless of the way my prison was shrinking, I rocked backward to prop my toes against the top corner bars. My moans echoed as my backside thumped against the floor. One hand wasn't enough: I held myself open with both thumbs while an eight-fingered strumming had me straining upward…clenching my eyes shut against a shattering orgasm.

"Billy! Oh Jesus, Billy, fuck me!" I cried. I knew damn well at least one set of undead ears was listening, but I was shamelessly-helplessly-driven by that primal power, until I lay limp and wet on the floor.

As I caught my breath, I shook with disgust-and then dismay. Perfidia's prison was now clinging so close it could've been a corset: it shifted every time I did, and bit into my bare skin like whalebone stays. There I lay on the floor, my knees bent back over my chest with my arms caught between them, and my fingers still splayed over my wide-open, very wet sex.