ELIJAH
Eve passed out within minutes of drinking the tea I'd given her. Like an angel, she slept peacefully, lost to whatever dreams floated through her consciousness. I took the opportunity to pack her up and drive her to the compound, delivering her to the cabin situated discreetly in the woods out of sight of the family. Only a few knew of this place, Richard being one, and it didn't take long for him to meet me inside, his broad shoulders filling the doorway as he stepped through.
"You needed me?"
Sitting on the platform to the side of where I'd laid Eve's resting body, I brushed my hand over her hair as my gaze tracked Richard's movement through the cabin.
"We may have a slight problem," I mentioned casually and without too much concern.
Despite the calm tone of voice I'd used, Richard's attention snapped to me. "Such as?"
"Eve said something to me last night. She wasn't fully awake, still somewhat trapped in a dream, but her words were clear enough." Locking my eyes to his, I arched a brow. "She's remembering bits and pieces of her time with my brother."
Leaning back against a wooden wall, Richard tucked his hands into his pockets, his bulging belly challenging his shirt to stay tucked into the waistband of his navy blue pants. The buttons of the white shirt were equally as challenged, the material straining to remain closed. "I thought you said you'd screwed her up enough. That the drugs you'd given her had clouded her mind so thoroughly that a week away from our control wouldn't matter."
"They should have," I remarked, turning my eyes back to the small girl silently sleeping. "She's stronger than I thought."
For the week I kept Eve confined to the cabin, the week that I took an innocent, hopeful girl and turned her into exactly what she needed to be to pull my brother out from beneath the lies he told himself about his faith, I'd used every means to my disposal.
She was already so close when I chased her out here, already so conflicted that it was easy enough to get inside her head, but keeping her there was another story altogether. Whereas other women in the family were blind in their devotion, this particular woman still had questions, still harbored doubts. I could read them as clearly as if they'd been written on a billboard and I knew that warping her enough would take more than a few carefully spoken words.
Sedatives during the day while I kept her awake. Amphetamines at night while I left her alone to pace inside her cage. Always keeping an eye on her, I never let her wander far enough outside of my sphere that she would become lost, but just far enough that she became lost to her insanity, that she truly believed nothing else besides me existed in her world.
The sex - fuck - the sex was phenomenal. She gave as much as she took after a while. Shy at first, Eve developed a hunger that almost eclipsed my own. A few more drugs had her writhing and begging, just the feel of my fingertips sliding across her skin enough to send her careening into an orgasm that screamed from between her full, soft lips. The cocktails and blends of the drugs would have altered any sane person to the point of utter insanity. But not her. Not as much as I'd believed.
Although the effects would have worn off hours after her last dose, the damage should have lasted through the week she spent with Jacob.
The brain can only take so much. Lack of sleep, lack of food, hallucinogens, and the pleasure that comes with pain, she'd been immersed in it all, walking out of this place as the perfect specimen, the perfect tool of submission and empty thought. I'd fried her mind with the concoctions, stealing her questions and doubts and replacing them with everything I needed her to believe.
And yet, she still saw the difference between Jacob and me, and somewhere, trapped deep inside her subconscious, the girl she'd been before that week peeked out, whispering truth and perceptions to the woman I created. I had to kill that girl once and for all, and do it in a way that didn't alter the woman she'd become.
"What will you do with her now?" Weaved within Richard's voice was a rancid hunger that made my skin crawl. In ways, his thirst for violence sickened the civilized beast inside me. There was no art to his darkness, no polished surfaces to the acts he committed against women powerless to fight him off - and Eve, he'd wanted her for so long. "Leave her here and I'll take care of her."
"The rules haven't changed, Richard. She's still off limits." Twisting so I could pin him with the seriousness of my words, I reminded him, "She is my wife, after all."
Rolling his eyes, he fidgeted in place, scuffing the toe of his boot over the worn floorboard beneath him. “You let your brother have a taste. That’s all I’m asking.”
Violence slithered through me, just beneath the skin. Although I’d known Richard for many years, could rely on him to keep his mouth shut and do as he was told, there were still aspects of him that drove me to a killing edge, moments when the satisfaction of jamming a blade into that fat belly of his was just out of reach.
“She was created for that purpose. Or have you forgotten? The moment I saw her face, saw what it would become and how it could be used, I knew what I would do with her. But that doesn’t mean she’ll be passed around from man to man. What has she done to deserve such a fate?”
He would have been smart to hear the warning in my tone, but Richard was too much of a brute to understand subtlety. “Why do you even care? She served her purpose. Why keep her around?”
Now that was a question I wouldn’t answer him only because I didn’t want to admit it to myself. Leading him down a different path of conversation, I changed the subject. “You’ve had plenty of tastes of many women. If I’m not mistaken you’ve made good use of our arrangement for your idea of a good time.”
"Yeah, except, lately, you've been the only one having fun. I'm bored. You promised me more than this bullshit when we originally agreed to starting the family."
My eyes narrowed. "Haven't you had that fun? For years if I'm not mistaken?"
"Not for the last few months. Not while you've been shacked up with Sedra in the church pretending to be a fucking priest. When does shit get good again?"
Breathing out in order to maintain my cool, I smiled. "Well, now you've brought me to the reason I called you out here. We have a show to put on tonight. An important one."
Expression brightening with the excitement of the tasks he knew I'd assign him, Richard straightened his posture. "Tell me."
"Gentry Holmes is coming out to the compound tonight. He's important because his brother is the sheriff, and thus the law around these parts. If I can convince them both to take part in the war we're starting, I'll have no concerns about any person reporting what occurs in this sleepy town."
"What do you need me to do?"
Eve stirred beneath me, a small moan escaping her lips that told me she was returning to consciousness. The tea I'd given her worked well to knock her out, but would have made her sick with no food in her stomach. The pain must have been immense to cause her to groan in sleep. It was too bad I wouldn't be able to feed her before the next special brew - one that would have her crawling up me like a cat in heat, presenting every bit of herself and mewling to feel fingers brush her skin.
Petting her hair with one long stroke, I answered Richard. "I need you to go a few towns over and acquire a businessman for my demonstration. Make sure he's as clean cut as possible. Someone that, by sight alone, people would assume was responsible and focused."
Richard huffed. "How is that fun for me?"
"Because you'll also be acquiring a woman at the same time. One you can amuse yourself with at the cabin after the demonstration." My lips tipped up at the corners. "If you can find a pair that are husband and wife, that'll be preferred."
His eyes blazed with anticipation. "I think I can figure it out." He paused for a moment, his expression twisted with contemplation. "You sure this Gentry guy is ready for whatever you have planned? What if he runs to squeal to his brother? We haven't exactly introduced him to the family yet."
My voice dropped in tone, anger at being questioned sharpening the edges. "He was at the demonstration last night and came to me this morning seeking help. The seeds have been planted, Richard, now it's up to us to help them sprout and grow. I believe we should offer Mr. Holmes some special refreshments prior to the demonstration. Bend his mind a little. Make him more receptive to the truth we give him."
Richard laughed. "You're going to drug him?"
Grinning, I crooned, "That's a rough way of putting it, Richard. I only plan on tipping the scales in our favor. Not enough for him to know anything's different, just enough to make him feel more involved in the demonstration he witnesses. You catch my drift, I'm sure."
My fingers brushed through Eve's hair. She stirred just a bit beneath my touch, her eyes moving beneath the closed lids, her lips parting just slightly. "Give him a water downed version of the initiate brew. Enough to make him believe he's seen God, but not so much he can't drive home. I want him suggestible, not stoned out of his mind."
Grunting his approval, Richard couldn't hide a grin. "What are the two people for? The man and woman?"
“The man is for the demonstration. The woman is to prepare the man for the demonstration. I need to expose the demons in our world tonight, and I’d like to have several for Mr. Holmes to witness. They can’t all be sexual demons, can they? I think rage is another one that needs to be strung up and destroyed in order to lead Mr. Holmes to our side. Which is why I would prefer to pick up an intimate couple, husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend. Hell, even mother and son would do as long as that son is a grown man. Can you take care of that for me? Have them back here within a few hours?”
Pushing his considerable weight off the wall, Richard ran a meaty palm down his beard. “Of course, I can.”
I smiled. “Excellent, Richard. Trust me when I say you’ll be having fun in no time.”