Kidnapped for the Auction

Rowan - Human?

Rowan took the shirt and went into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. She looked at her reflection in the mirror, fighting the desperate tears that were gathering behind her eyelids. Whatever happened tonight was going to be bad. She knew that there was no way that she could fight whatever it was he was going to do; even if he didn’t have freaky mind-control powers he was a massive guy, he could easily overpower her. She knew she wouldn’t be able to stop him, but the thought of just lying there passively whilst he did god knows what made her feel sick.

Taking a deep breath, she took off the pale blue dress and slid the cotton t-shirt over her head. She kept on the obscenely sexy lingerie that they had given her to wear because it was either that or nothing, and not wearing any underwear at all was unthinkable. Should she tell him? She wondered, or would he be more eager to “consummate” their marriage if he knew she was a virgin?

Shit, s**t, s**t! She was totally unprepared for any of this; she hadn’t even had a boyfriend since her parents had died. Her grief counsellor had talked about her being fearful of getting close to people in case she lost them, which may well have been true, but she just hadn’t felt like she had much opportunity to meet someone whilst juggling work and studying. She had broken it off with her college boyfriend when she went to university to study nursing, but they hadn’t been that serious, not enough for her to sleep with anyway. Her parents had been quite traditional, instilling the idea that you should be at least be in love before having s*x, if not heading towards marriage.

Rowan used the toilet, and then had a drink of water, trying to put off going back into the other room for as long as possible. Finally, after a few deep breaths to steady herself, she opened the door only to see him sitting on the bed waiting for her. He was fully dressed and his expression was neutral but her heart was still pounding frantically as he stood up.

“Get into bed.” He ordered. “I’ll just clean my teeth and be right out.”

She was tempted to make a sarcastic comment at his casual tone, but held her tongue. Whatever was going to happen would only be worse if she made him angry at her. She went over to the other side of the bed that he hadn’t been sitting on and got under the duvet, taking up as small amount of space as possible. She could hear him moving around in the bathroom and her heart continued to race; this can’t really be happening!

The door opened and he emerged, walking past the bed to his wardrobe, ignoring her. There he proceeded to unbutton his shirt and toss it into the laundry basket, then started to divest himself of his jeans. Rowan watched as he stripped, just taking in the evident power of his well-muscled chest and broad back. He seemed somehow bigger without clothes; the strength that was hinted at by his large frame when he was clothed was thrown into sharp relief when she could see each muscle moving and flexing under his skin.

When he was down to his boxers, he turned towards the door and hit the lights. Rowan nearly cried out as the room was plunged into darkness and her fear kicked up a notch; this must be it!

A moment later his bedside light clicked on, illuminating the room with a muted yellow light. He said nothing as he got into the bed on his side, and picked up a book that was on his bedside cabinet. Rowan lay rigidly next to him, not wanting to move in case it somehow drew his attention to her. She studied his profile as he read; he was good-looking or would be if he wasn’t holding her captive.  He had a strong jawline with a hint of dark stubble, a straight nose and rather striking blue eyes. His black hair was cropped short around the sides, a little longer on the top. He looked normal, attractive even.

He continued to ignore her as he turned the pages of his book, and she could feel heat radiating from his semi-naked body and warming the space between them. Weren’t vampires meant to be cold? As he continued to read she began to wonder if he was going to be true to word and not do anything to her. She felt so tired; the stress of the day was taking its toll. Her eyes kept sliding closed, but she forced them open again.

After a while he put down his book, leant over and turned off the lamp. Rowan was instantly wide awake, braced for the touch of his hand. It didn’t come; he must just be genuinely going to sleep. She couldn’t quite believe that even though he could force her to accept his advances, even make her participate if he wanted, that he wasn’t going to take advantage of this. She remained awake for another few minutes, trying to stay alert, but eventually sank into oblivion.

Rowan came to, feeling disorientated and far too warm. It took her a few moments to realise what was going on; Perin was attacking her! With a cry, she leapt from the bed to the floor before turning to face him, realising her mistake as he looked at her groggily.

He had obviously been asleep, and had curled himself around her back with an arm over her waist. Although it was inappropriate, it didn’t appear to be with any untoward intent; he may not have even been aware that he had done it.

“What?” he asked, voice rough with sleep.

Feeling inexplicably embarrassed, she answered “You touched me!”

He flopped down onto his back. “Sorry.” He squinted at his watch. “I was asleep.” With a groan, he pulled the covers up and turned his back to her. “Go back to sleep.”

Rowan stayed standing, watching the covers move as his breathing evened out again. She devised a couple of theories as to why he had been holding her like that; Either he thought that he would be woken if she tried to escape, was used to sleeping with a lover so held her automatically or he for some bizarre reason he genuinely felt that she was his wife and wanted to be close to her, unconsciously or otherwise.

The first one would make sense, but surely he would have woken up a bit sharper than that if he was expecting an escape attempt? The second option was most likely, although where was this other woman? And did he expect to keep seeing her now that he was married? Rowan shook her head at the random stab annoyance at that thought; what did it matter if he saw someone else whilst married to her? She wasn’t really his wife, and if he was out a lot then it may give her more of a chance to get away! It must just be the idea that he would disrespect the institution of marriage like that, after all, for him this was meant to be a genuine union.

This brought her to the final option which was by far the worst: If he actually felt that she was his wife then she would never be free of him, even if she did escape then he would come to find her. She would have to go on the run or something!

Reasonably sure that he was asleep, Rowan slid back into bed on her side, careful not to touch him. Sleep was elusive, and she found random thoughts and scenario’s running through her head making her feel more confused than ever. Perin didn’t touch her again, his back remaining resolutely turned until sometime later when he rolled over and sat up. She hadn’t noticed any signs of him waking and realised that he had been lying awake all that time too.

He looked over and saw her watching him. “You’re awake.” He commented, running a hand through his hair. He looked younger somehow, less threatening with his messy hair and sleepy expression. I wonder how old he is? Rowan then realised how little she actually knew about him, except his name. She wasn’t even certain of his species!

“Let’s have some breakfast, then we can go to the shops and get you some things.” He looked at her for a beat, then realising that no response was forthcoming, swung his legs from the bed and went over to the bathroom. He closed the door, and she heard the sound of the shower start up.

Right, thought Rowan, this could be a chance to escape. If he took her out shopping, maybe she could cause a scene or get someone to help her of alert the police or something! Realising that she needed to play nice until he took her out of the compound, she decided to show willing and got out of bed. There was no point showering in order to put on dirty clothes, so she put the blue dress back on over the underwear from yesterday. Her feet were still cut and aching from the awful shoes so she left them off.

After a few minutes Perin emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. “It’s all yours.” He said, and Rowan flushed thinking that she had been caught appraising his body before realising that he meant the bathroom. She stayed sitting on the bed until he went over to his dresser and casually dropped the towel in order to get dressed. Face flaming, she scrambled to the bathroom and shut the door.

He was acting like she really was his wife! You’re a nurse; you have seen it all before! She told herself, looking at her flushed face in the mirror. And yes, she was a nurse but none of her patients had had bodies like that, and even if they did, she wouldn’t have just spent the night in one of their beds. Trying to distract herself from the image of his broad back that tapered down to his narrow waist, then down to the taught buttocks and thighs that were covered in a light dusting of dark hairs, she splashed her face with water, rubbing off the make-up left over from yesterday. She finger combed her hair, and decided that she looked as normal as she was going to.

When she left the bathroom he had disappeared, so she walked through to the living space and into the kitchen taking in the details that she had missed last night. There were shelves filled with books and DVD’s, and a framed picture of him with three other people. He was standing with an older couple and another man who resembled him, so could only assume that they were his parents and brother.

She paused in the doorway of the kitchen, watching him work at the counter with his back to her.

“What do you want for breakfast?” he asked her, without looking round. “I have cereal, toast, some fruit. I’m having eggs if you want some.”

Got to play nice, Rowan reminded herself. “Could I have some cereal and fruit, please?” she asked, going over to the breakfast bar and perching on a stool.

“Sure.” He said, going over to the fridge to get her food. His hair was still damp from the shower, and Rowan couldn’t get over how normal he looked. Like any other guy in his late 20’s or early 30’s, more handsome and built that most maybe, but normal all the same. All the vampire stuff just seemed ridiculous!

Perin set down a bowl, a box of cornflakes, and some milk in front of her, before taking a seat across from her with his plate. They sat in silence for a few minutes, both just eating, when something occurred to her. “How come you need to eat if you’re a vampire?” she blurted.

He smiled as he finished his mouthful of scrambled egg. “When you think of vampire’s you are thinking of undead monsters, when in reality we are just another animal. We have to eat, drink and sleep just like everything else. We can be killed just as easily as you can, so beheading and impaling will certainly do it. We heal faster though, and suffer from fewer illnesses.”

Rowan stayed silent, she hadn’t expected him to be so forthcoming.

“There are differences though,” he continued. “Although our brains are basically the same, more parts in ours are active, which means that the majority of us have some form of psychic ability.” He took another spoonful of museli, and chewed.

“So that’s the mind control thing then.” She responded. “So what about the way you move? Why is that?”

“The way we move?” he paused, considering. “I suppose it’s to do with the fact that we are more predatory?”

“Good for stalking.” She said drily, felling some satisfaction at his answering smirk.

“What about the other vampire legends? Sunlight? Holy water?”  Her food sat untouched.

“The sunlight thing is partly true; we are extremely photosensitive. If I went out at midday my skin would start to burn after a couple of minutes. On a dull day it would take a little bit longer, but it still wouldn’t be long. It just makes more sense to go out before dawn and after dusk to avoid the hassle of trying to protect our skin all the time.”

She nodded and finally started to eat. Interesting. So it would be harder for him to follow her if she escaped during the daytime. It wasn’t until then that she realised that she had no idea what the time was, or even if it was night or day due to the fact that there were no windows. She had assumed that this was a design feature to keep the captives inside, but maybe it was to do with the sunlight thing.

It seemed that they had reached an uneasy truce, and they both finished their breakfast in silence. Of course, she hadn’t asked him the most pressing question she had; Why do you need blood? Maybe that could wait until later, if her escape attempt failed, that was!

“Right,” he said, taking their bowls over to the sink. “I’ll go and get your things from Jareth, then we can go out. Make yourself a tea or coffee if you want it, kettle’s there.”

Rowan watched as he went over to the sofa and shoved his feet into some trainers. “I won’t be long.”

“Ok.”

He grabbed his keys and after a moment of hesitation, he let himself out of the door. She heard the distinct sound of the key turning in the lock, and smiled grimly. He may be treating her humanely at the moment, but she was still very much in his power and dependant on his whim.