What the fuck, he said to himself. He was following his wife like some damned detective. Where the hell was she going now?
Rae drove through the business district and into the suburbs. About fifteen minutes later, she slowed, and then after a couple blocks, put on her turn signal and pulled into the parking lot of a cluster of two-flat buildings. Mark passed the complex by and pulled into the parking lot of Santa Fe Burritos, a small fast-food joint next door. From where he parked, he could see Rae as she walked towards the front door of a building all the way across the lot.
This was getting increasingly weird.
Mark settled back to wait. The clock seemed to crawl, but it was only twenty minutes later that Rae reappeared. She wasn’t alone. Behind her, a man in Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt followed.
Mark leaned forward and squinted across the parking lots, trying to get a better view.
“What the hell?” he said.
He could swear that Rae had the guy on a leash. He could see the collar around the guy’s neck, and it looked like Rae pulled him by a chain. He could see flashes of light reflecting off it as they walked.
She opened the passenger’s side of her car for him and he slipped inside. Rae closed the door on the man and then walked around to the driver’s seat. A minute later, Mark pulled out of the lot and followed her back the way she’d come. All the way back to the industrial park.
All the way back to NightWhere.
Mark watched from the edge of the parking lot as she led the man to the doorway that he’d seen her come out of an hour before. The door opened a crack at her knock and then swung open fully. Mark caught a glimpse of a pale man in the opening, and saw Rae hand over the chain. The doorman took it and pulled the man inside as the door swung shut behind the three of them.
Huh.
So Rae was providing NightWhere shuttle service? Was this someone she’d met there before? He hadn’t looked familiar.
Mark toyed with the idea of going to the door, but he knew he’d never get inside. After the way he’d carted Rae out last time, perhaps he’d never be let back in. He turned the key and put the car in Drive.
This time, it seemed, he was going to have to go home from NightWhere alone.
Chapter Seventeen
Running the Rabbits
Rae had always had a dark streak. A place inside her that craved pain. A place that desperately desired to see blood. She’d never really told Mark; he just thought he was lucky to have a girl who actually enjoyed watching horror and action movies with him on the weekends. But it was more than that. There was a black flower in her heart, and every time she set foot in NightWhere it blossomed broader. It was as if someone had finally taken the lock off the hidden dungeon in her soul and set all that darkness inside her free.
She had enjoyed telling Perry about NightWhere and how the Watchers had been secretly watching him, following his personal flirtations with leather and chains, dominance and submission. She guessed quickly that he was suicidal; there was a bloodstained rag around his wrist. At first he’d seemed dull, not quite there, as she tried to describe why she’d been sent. But he’d grown more alert as she talked about the rooms of pain. He’d been afraid at first when she’d appeared out of the blue on his doorstep, insisting that he needed to go with her to a sex club. But she’d used both her own story and her body to persuade him. While Kharon hadn’t believed it would be a benefit, Rae knew that even a gay guy could be won over by a sexy woman. Especially when she promised to get him flogged. It had really taken no time at all to get the collar on him.
The dog collar had been her idea. When Kharon had told her how much Perry thirsted for the lash, she was inspired. She’d seen a pet store on her way here and on a whim had pulled in. And her gut had been right. Perry had almost melted at the sight of a collar. He literally shivered with excitement when she fastened it around his neck.
Now that she had led him on a leash into The Red, she warmed to the idea of what would become of him.
When she handed Perry’s chain to Kharon, his eyes stared deeply into hers. He put three fingers on her cheek. Rae could almost feel him reading her soul. The longer he held her eyes, the more weak her knees felt. Looking at Kharon did something to her…Rae couldn’t explain it, but she knew she couldn’t bear it for long at any one time. Still, she craved that weak, tingling feeling that spread through her spine as he stared into her eyes.
Then he broke the contact, straightened up and led her and Perry to where the other rabbit was chained. He clipped Perry’s chain to the wall and walked to the corner, where a long row of whips and flogs were hung. There were also some metal devices which, Rae had to admit, were completely alien to her. She really wasn’t sure what they were for. Kharon didn’t demonstrate them to illustrate their function though. He pulled a simple black-leather whip from the wall and presented it to her. “You’ve done well,” he said. “This is for you. Your first mark of honor. Use it well tonight, and perhaps someday, you may even reach The Black and meet the Night Mother.”
Rae opened her mouth to ask what The Black was but Kharon had already turned away. “It is time for the race,” he called out. Another pale-faced Watcher came into the room then, leading a burly man in his wake.
“Rae,” Kharon said. “This is Gordon. He brought in Travis, our other rabbit. Perhaps you’ll play together one of these nights.”
Rae looked at Gordon and had her doubts about that. The man looked ugly, fat and mean. There was no attraction there for her, though his arms looked thick enough to handle giving a good flogging.
The other Watcher unhooked Travis from the wall and handed his leash to Gordon, while Kharon handed Perry’s to Rae.
“They are your catches, so you will start them down the course.”
He led them out of the room and down the dark hall.
“Where are we going?” Perry asked. His voice sounded lonely in the dark. The Watchers didn’t answer. Instead, they continued silently down the long hall, passing the torture rooms one at a time until they emptied into a long, cavernous hall.
The hall felt like a sauna. Red steam hung low to the floor, lit by the bloody glow of the ceiling. Two rows of people stood facing each other, several feet apart. They were clothed solely in weapons. To protect their bare skin they held chains, whips, cudgels…
“Here are the rules,” Kharon said. “There are thirteen red snakes, and thirteen black snakes. The Living Path has these snakes pinned to their bodies-I have chosen where, so you will find them in different places on each person. Perry is to collect all of the red snakes and put them in his bag. Travis will search for all of the black. Whoever gets all thirteen of their color first is the winner and will be allowed to Crossover.” He pointed to the shape of an arched bridge on the far end of the room. It was half-hidden in eerily swirling, colored fog, and Rae couldn’t see its end.
“The loser will face the pit,” Kharon pointed to a glowing hole in the floor beneath the bridge. Rae could see the occasional flare of flame from the glowing hole. Now she realized why the room was so warm.
“You can see how it might be beneficial to work your way quickly past the hardships. Because…there will be hardships in this race. The Living Path cannot move from their places or they will also face the pit…but they can use the implements in their hands.”
Kharon led Gordon and Rae to the start of the Living Path and raised his hand in the air. Rae felt Perry straining against the leash, anxious to run to the first person in the Living Path to search him for a snake.