Cake by Derekica Snake Page A

will be gathering to either take him down, or make him one of their own. Is he well?”
    “ He is just a little too sensitive now.”
    “ I will go first. I do not know how organized this group is, but you will have to deal with them soon, Marcus.”
    Marcus scanned the crowd. “Agreed. The Council gave our House this property before this city was even erected.”
    “ The way is clear.”
    Marcus let me out of the headlock, and we made our way out into the night.

E ight
    Fla ming Sex

    While we had been out, a transformation had occurred in the concrete bunker, formerly known as my prison. I found the thought really funny; while we were out. It was just so peculiar, making it sound as if I’d just come back from a date with my kidnapper. I started laughing and couldn’t stop. Both Marcus and Claudius, who were in the process of taking off their coats and shoes, stopped to look at me, and then they looked at each other as if asking what they should do. The perplexed look on both their faces made me laugh even more.
    Soft rugs and cushions had been added to the room, and piles of pillows tossed casually onto the large bed. I still couldn’t believe that all the time I had spent searching for a way out of this hellhole, it turned out the one place I avoided like the plague had been my means of escape.
    When we’d left for the nightclub, I’d watched as Marcus touched part of the wall behind the bed and stared as the huge thing rumbled off to the left, exposing beneath it stairs which led down to lower floors. Following him down, we’d ended up twisting and turning in corridors before exiting out into a parking garage and making our way towards a limo. Marcus had kept a firm grip on my arm that he hadn’t released until we’d gotten into the back of the car. Then, when we’d ended up at that gay bar, he’d waited until we were well inside the club before he’d let me go, knowing the rest of the bar would keep me in check.
    And now we were back where I hated to be and yet wanted to be at the same time. It was ironic, weird, bizarre, unreal…a real-life horror story.
    I tore the bronze shirt off that Marcus had made me wear and threw it on the floor. I felt filthy; from the killing, from the alley, and from all those groping hands. I undid my pants and shimmed them down a little over my hips.
    “ Sex!” Marcus seemed alarmed at what I was doing. Why? He’s the one who’s kept me bare-assed naked for a year. He’s seen everything I have to offer, and so has tall, dark, and handsome over there.
    I shook my head, not wanting confrontation. “I need a shower now. I can still feel those hands on me.”
    “ You need to take those boots and pants off first.”
    “ Not quick enough,” I said shuddering and just took off to the bathroom as fast as my feet could carry me. I got there a lot quicker than I expected. I guess being dead makes you speedy. Turning the shower on, I was about to step in when a hand came around my throat, and I was yanked back hard against Marcus’s button-down shirt.
    “ You are not listening to me. I thought I had gotten your attention in the past year.”
    “ If I don’t get clean now, I don’t think I ever will,” I gasped at him, struggling. The knife flashing before my eyes caught my attention real quick, and I tried to back up through him. “If you want to fuck me, you can. Your friend can too if that makes you happy. Just don’t kill me.”
    “ Sit.” Marcus stepped away, and I just dropped where I was. “Give me your leg.”
    He cupped my extended foot and setting the knife-blade against the tongue of the boot, he slit the laces open with one sweep. Yanking on the heel, he quickly freed my foot and dropping the boot behind him, he motioned for the other one. Just as quickly, he cut the lacings and pulled that boot off too.
    “ Strip.”
    I wiggled out of the leathers and sat huddled naked on the warm tiled floor, my chin on my knees, and my arms wrapped around my