The ancient-looking door to The Red creaked open as she approached. Rae couldn’t help but smile as she saw Kharon’s preternatural, large eyes staring out of the dark at her. He reached out a hand and stroked her cheek.
“So beautiful,” he whispered.
Rae felt her face flush. Something about this man made her melt. And his touch…
“I am glad you understood the invitation,” Kharon said. “After last time, I do not think your husband is ready for NightWhere.”
Rae shook her head. “He doesn’t understand.”
Kharon ran a cool finger down the bare skin of her chest, hooking it inside when he reached the edge of the V in her dress. “Neither do you,” he smiled and pulled her close to him with that finger. “Yet.”
He bent until his eyes were just an inch from her own. His tongue traced her lips. His touch made her shiver, but as soon as Rae opened her lips to accept him fully, he pulled away.
“Tonight is the night of the rabbit,” he said. “We already have one here, and we need you to go and fetch us the other.”
“You want me to go to a pet store?” she asked, confused.
Kharon laughed. He turned and walked through the antechamber of candles and into the dark hall beyond.
Rae followed him into a small room that seemed to ooze red light from its corners. The light was just enough to see walls glistening in something dark and liquid. On the far wall, a man was chained. A pale, bald man stood nearby. A Watcher. His hands were stroking the chained man, gently…as you would a pet.
“Here’s our first rabbit,” Kharon said. “We’ll run him later. But first, you have to bring back another. It’s hardly a race if we don’t have two.”
“I don’t understand,” Rae said.
“You are going to go to this address,” Kharon said. He handed her a piece of paper. “His name is Perry Pierce, and he wants NightWhere. I’ve already talked to him about coming, though he doesn’t really understand yet. You should have no problem bringing him in.”
He grinned. “Just coax him with stories of whips and chains. I don’t think your own wiles will help this time around.”
“What happens when I do?”
“You will be rewarded,” Kharon smiled. Lightly he traced his finger down her right side before slipping it around to cup her ass.
“But what will happen to that guy?” she pointed at the man chained to the wall. “And this Perry?”
“You’ll just have to see,” he said. “But first you have to bring him back.”
Mark pulled up to the industrial park for the second time in an hour and was about to turn into the parking lot when he saw the red flash of Rae’s dress in a doorway. He flipped off his turn signal and passed by the entrance to flip into the parking lot at the next one. He hoped she hadn’t seen his car. He eased into the lot at the far end and watched as she walked to the Mazda and got in. Moments later, she pulled out of the industrial park and Mark followed, careful to let a couple cars get in between them.
He thought she was going home. If so, he’d hang back from the subdivision for a few minutes and then follow her in.
But then she turned west and headed away from their house. She pulled into a pet store and he followed slowly, careful to park around the building from her. That had him really scratching his head, since they didn’t own any pets. She was only inside for a few minutes and then they were back on the road again.
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.
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
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.
