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“I am not a good guy either, and I wouldnotrefuse you.”
He put his lips to her neck and kissed it. Then she felt his teeth, teeth sharper than they had any business being, scrape across her neck. His breath was cool and it sent a jolt through her whole body, warming her. She felt her eyes roll back a little, and she could feel him getting excited too. His body was practically vibrating.
“I don’t think I want this…?”
“What can I do tomakeyou want it? You don’t want my gifts, either. Whatdoyou want?”
“Ansel,” she whispered, the word drawn out of her.
“I’ll tell you how to get what you want from your father’s boss. From Ansel.”
“Why?”
“Because I like you andactuallyrespect you,” Derek said, looking at her with genuine appreciation. “You’re a beautiful young woman, and it’s absurd that he should deny you something youbothwant, don’t you agree?”
She nodded, gazing into his eyes.
“It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?”
“Ridiculous.”
He touched her, and she felt a surge of desire that seemed to come from outside of her own body. They had been winding up the stairs. Saber hadn’t even realized.
“What ishappeninghere?” she asked him. “What are you trying to hide?”
“You know most of it already. We make transactions.”
“Transactions?”
“Sex for money and things. It’s the oldest arrangement in the world. You already knew that, didn’t you? It’s not so complicated.”
“There’s something else going on, though,” she said, and he chuckled, kissing her again on the neck, his teeth scraping along her clavicle. She felt a horror rising inside of her. She felt sick.
“If you tell anyone about what’s happening here,” he said, his voice still soothing, his lips against her ear, “I will kill you, and I will kill your father, and I will kill your little friend. They’ve told me about her. Do you understand me? And there is nothing your boyfriend will be able to do to stop me.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” Saber said dreamily, the other words he said lodging themselves into her consciousness much, much more slowly, like something happening in a dream. She knew she wasn’t on drugs, but something else was happening to her.
I will kill you, and I will kill your father.
He would kill Lozen.
Derek opened a door then, slow, so it creaked, and Saber stood beside him and looked inside of a dark room. Inside, on a bed, shapes, two people, writhing, ecstatic, in the darkness, oblivious to the light streaming in, oblivious to her and Derek looking on. It was with a strange, muted horror that Saber realized what she was looking at.
Rex was in the bed, and a woman was with him.
They were both naked, tangled in the sheets, but they weren’t having sex like Saber initially thought. She recognized Rex, his flop of golden hair damp with sweat. What was going on? Her mind lurched.
They weren’t having sex! What were they doing? Her brain couldn’t compute.
No, the woman was wrapped around Rex, her body tangled with his, and her mouth was pressed against the place where his shoulder and collarbone met. She had something,blood, smeared against her chin, all around her lips, her mouth, a smear on her chest. They were undulating against each other, and a look of complete rapture was frozen on Rex’s face, his eyes shut tight, his mouth open, bottom lip trembling, like he was in ecstasy. His hand moved over the woman’s hair, her back, and Saber caught the glint of his Rolex, sliding down his arm.
The woman was feeding on him. The truth of it settled on Saber’s mind like soft, silent, snow. She remembered Doug saying “vampires” and felt like her whole body became so light she could have lifted off the ground.
Saber couldn’t scream.
She felt horror, pure, palpable horror, but something was keeping her from letting it move her, keeping her from screaming in terror and running down the hall, back into the yard and into the night. Derek watched her, licking his lips, smiling, delighted. She realized in a dull, absent way that he was enjoying her fear, just as he had enjoyed her pleasure. Thefeeling of him sharing his feelings, the flow of it between them, was so familiar—where had she felt it before?
“Do you understand now, girl, what’s happening?”
