Every window around the courtyard we were parked in was filled with faces. Voices spouting angry, terrible words surrounded us. This was my new reality and these men calling me the new toy and a fresh hole were the men I’d have to survive. I stopped to look up at the windows to my right and caught one with just one man behind it. He wasn’t yelling, frothing at the mouth or hurling spit down on us. He was silent, studying. I took in his broad shoulders, huge arms folded over his chest, tattoos covering every inch. When my gaze reached his, ever at the long distance, I felt an electric charge deep in my chest, causing me to almost trip once again. I was able to regain my balance and whipped my head around to see the man again, but the window was empty.
I decided to let it go because we were heading inside now and I had to keep my head in the game from this moment. The guard lined us up against a white, stained wall once we got inside the huge loading dock doors. He removed our chains, then told us all to strip.
“You animals need to be cleaned and searched before you head to medical, so get your asses moving so I’m not late for my lunch.”
We all stripped, having to throw our threadbare jumpsuits, underwear, and socks to another silent guard who was standing by. The main guard then threw us each a used bar of soap and told us to wash from head to toe. He turned on a fire hose and blasted us with ice-cold water. The water was like ice shards ripping into my skin, stripping all my warmth and stinging my skin so much I thought I might bleed from the icy blast. I remembered Jarvis’s words at that moment and did exactly what I’d been told to do. I would not buckle and give up before I even made it inside. I could do anything I had to do to survive.
The guard turned off the water so we could soap up. That small reprieve was short-lived, and soon my skin was being assaulted again. Once we were deemed clean, it became evident we weren’t allowed any dignity in this place. We were ordered to turn around and face the wall, one hand bracing on the wall and one hand opening up our asses for inspection. I was lucky in a way that the mean guard didn’t do mine. I saw him jab his fingers into Jarvis’s hole with no lube and no warning. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jarvis grit his teeth and clamp his eyes closed at the painful invasion.
The nice guard touched my back and told me to get ready before he violated my ass. His lubed fingers pushed in slowly, almost gently before feeling around for any contraband. He had used way too much lube, and when he was done, my ass felt slick. I wanted to wash it off so I could end the violated feeling that was lingering. I didn’t want the hose again, though. Ever.
We were given white boxer briefs, white socks, and dark green scrub tops with matching drawstring pants. Our shoes were soft soled and more like slippers than actual shoes. After we dressed, we were marched to the infirmary, for blood work and drug tests.
We each sat in a small waiting room, the guards watching us and us watching them for what seemed like hours. I resisted the urge to squirm with the feeling of all that lube still between my ass cheeks. I needed to find a way to clean that up, or it was going to drive me crazy before I even got into a cell. At the thought, I realized what a naive cub I was. I had gotten pissed when the men in the transport had talked down to me and kept calling me cubbie. But truly they had been right. I was so out of my depth. I needed to realize my old life was gone and this was my reality now. I need to get a fucking clue and let go of my privileged expectations.
Kane was the first to be called back, his chair groaning as he heaved his bulk out of the tiny waiting room chair. The tiny woman who held his chart only made it up to mid-chest on him. She was all smiles and bright blonde hair. She let Kane go through the door first, and he had to go in sideways so his wide shoulders would make it through the doorway. While he was in the room, at one point I heard laughter. A deep booming sound and something that sounded like bells tinkling. It was so starkly out of place in this situation that I listened harder the whole time he was in there to see if I could hear it again. It never did.
Jarvis went next, leaving me all alone in the room with Mean and Nice. I tried to look anywhere but at them, so I counted the tiles on the floor. When I was done with that, I counted the cracks in those tiles. I was on crack number forty-six when I heard laughter again from behind the door. Jarvis’s soft tenor and that tinkling bells sound again. I could get used to a sound that sweet. I could imagine men in here purposefully getting hurt to be able to have a chance at hearing that laughter. It was mesmerizing in its timbre. So much that even Mean gave a small smile before he caught himself and frowned again.
Finally, it was my turn to go through those doors. I hoped I could have a reason to laugh in that room like the others had. It might be the last chance for a very long time.
“You’re the last one today, honey, so come on in. My name is Sallyann. Go on in and sit on the table for me, sweetie.”
The sweet woman ushered me into the small exam room. I had wondered where the other guys had gone until I saw the door on the opposite side of the room and knew they had moved even further into the bowels of the building.
I sat on the table and watched as Sallyann pulled on sterile gloves and collected the needles she’d need for her tests.
“I'm going to take some blood for the tests and then talk to you a little bit about what to expect for the rest of the day. I’m sure Baker didn’t tell you anything, and Cartright wouldn’t want to cause waves with Baker. That asshole. He’ll get his one day.”
Sallyann placed the rubber tubing around my arm, found my vein and began drawing my blood but stopped after the first few drops hit the vial.
“You’re a fucking Mage. Holy Hell, they didn’t tell me that. Godsdammit, they never tell me anything.”
She pulled the needle out of my arm, put a bandage over the small wound and sat back hard on her rolling chair. I watched a play of emotions flow across her beautiful features, everything from worry to fear. She finally firmed her jaw and seemed to come to a decision with a definitive nod in my direction. She reached forward and held my hand in her small palm, catching my gaze with hers.
“At this point, I usually make a joke about a little prick which makes all the guys laugh. You need to laugh with me, so the guys don't think anything is different. On the count of three, laugh, okay?”
I nodded, she counted, and both of us laughed at the empty room. Her laugh sounded even more like bells when I wasn’t listening through a door. I had to learn forward, try to get as close as possible to that sound. I lost track of my surroundings, and all I wanted to do was get closer to that sound. So much so, I nearly fell off the exam table. I would have if Sallyann hadn’t lurched forward and caught me.
“Look here, Nial, you need to pretend you don’t hear the difference in my voice. You have the gift, and you can hear and see me like none of the others. You need to keep that to yourself, or we’re all in trouble.”
There was so much in her statement I didn’t understand, so I latched onto the one thing I could ask without thinking too much about this situation.
“How do you know I want to be called Nial?”
“Because you broadcast your thoughts like a lighthouse in a storm, I couldn’t help but pick up everything you’ve been thinking since you walked into the building.”
“Wait, you can read my mind? What the hell?”
“Honey, of course I can read your mind when you’re sending every random thought right out into the open. You better be glad I’m the only Other on the premises who can, and I’m actually a pretty nice one. Otherwise, you’d be in even more trouble than you already are. Well, technically Eugene is an Other, too, but he’s harmless as long as you don’t get cut in front of him. He tends to drool around an open wound, but you really can’t blame a Vamp when he’s confronted by a meal, now can you?”
She flipped her white blonde hair behind her shoulder, tucking her hair behind her pointed ears.
Pointed ears? What the hell?!
“Oh my Gods, you’re a Fae!”
Sallyann leaped out of her chair so fast that it rolled back towards the door with the guards behind it. It would have hit the door hard, but she threw her hand out, and it stopped immediately, changing directions and returning to its place.
