“Why wouldn’t she? You were always a good girl,” G.G. pointed out softly.
“Si,” Ildaria breathed unhappily. “I meant to be that night as well, and everything was fine at first. A group of us wentto Emilita’s house after school. There was food, non-alcoholic drinks, and a piñata. I had fun, so when the party startedto wind down and some of the girls talked about going to a cantina where Emilita’s brother worked, and invited me . . .”
“You agreed,” G.G. guessed.
Ildaria grimaced, but nodded. “Emilita’s brother did work there. He served us alcoholic drinks we shouldn’t have had, buthe did try to keep an eye on us too. Unfortunately, he couldn’t watch all of us at once. The other girls had apparently drunkbefore. They handled it better than me, who after one drink was drunk. After two I was stumbling drunk. I stopped countingdrinks at four,” she admitted and shook her head with disgust at the stupidity of youth.
“What happened?” G.G. asked softly.
“Good question,” she muttered, and then said, “One minute I was with my friends, and then—I don’t even know how it happened,but suddenly these men moved in and I got separated from the group. In the next moment, I was outside in the alley behindthe cantina and these two men in uniform were pushing me to the ground and tearing at my clothes.”
Ildaria crossed her arms protectively at the memory, and took a few deep breaths before continuing, “I was crying and saying, ‘No! Stop!’ and trying to get away, but there were two of them, and they were so strong. And then suddenly the one on top of me was gone, and then the other one was too. At first I was too stunned by the suddenness of their absence to react, but then I struggled to my feet. I staggered the moment I was upright, my head spinning. I grabbed the wall to balance myself and then I looked around and saw one of the men on the ground near me, unconscious. The other was struggling with a man in a suit, my savior. It almost looked like they were hugging, but then the one in uniform suddenly sagged and after a minute my savior dropped him and whirled toward me. It was Juan. There was blood on his mouth and I thought he’d been injured. I wanted to ask if he was all right, but his eyes were glowing, and he looked so enraged. I just stared at him stupidly and shrank against the wall as he stormed over to me.”
She felt the skin tighten on her face as if shrinking away from what was coming, but said, “He was bellowing at me furiously,and I started babbling I’m sorry and thank you, I was so grateful. But that just seemed to incense him more. He slapped mehard and I stumbled to the side, lost my footing and fell to my knees, and then I just cowered there while he screamed atme about how he’d controlled himself, wanting to wait for me to be ready, and I’d nearly given it away like some cheap puta. Was that what I wanted? To be taken in some back alley like a prostitute? And then he snarled, ‘If that is what you want, I can give you it!’ and I glanced up to see him undoing his pants.
“I just gaped at him. I didn’t understand. He’d saved me and now he was—” She shook her head with remembered bewilderment.“I didn’t understand what was happening. Why he was acting like that. Or maybe part of me did. There was a reason I’d beenso uncomfortable with him. I’d known he wanted something from me, I just didn’t want to know. But while I was sobering quickly,I still wasn’t thinking clearly and I didn’t really understand what was happening . . . I still don’t to a certain degree.”
“What do you mean?” G.G. asked slowly.
“He was an immortal,” she explained. “I didn’t know about them at the time, but he was. He could have controlled me, mademe do what he wanted, go to him willingly, but he didn’t and he was almost insane with rage. I think the whole exercise wasjust to humiliate and hurt me at that point. He was so angry and frustrated with me. But he stopped with his pants open, andgrabbed me by the hair, yanking my head back and shouting ‘Look at me when I’m talking to you!’
“I cried out in pain, but I doubt he heard me, he’d moved on to bellowing again about my behavior and what could have happenedto me. Then he bent and grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me and I just—I lost it,” she said, remembering the mad ragethat had welled up in her the moment he’d touched her in that dark alley. It had filled her, pushing her fear and confusionaside and consuming her.
“What did you do?” G.G. asked.
Ildaria closed her eyes briefly as she recalled the moment. “He’d opened his pants, but not all the way, and he hadn’t taken himself out, but his movements had dislodged his cock. It was dangling in front of my face and—” Opening her eyes, she tried to explain how she’d felt. “I wanted to hurt him for threatening and frightening me, for even thinking of raping me in that alley, and I pushed forward in his hold and bit the weapon he’d threatened me with.”
G.G. blinked, and then asked carefully, “You mean his penis? You bit his penis?”
Ildaria grimaced. “I didn’t just bite it, G.G. I clamped down on it and started sawing my teeth back and forth, determinedto bite through. I wanted to unman him,” she confessed, almost ashamed of herself and still a little bewildered by the insanerage that had claimed her. It had come on so hard and fast.
