Redemption (Book 6)

17

That weekend, I ended up becoming so bored I was going out of my mind. They pretty much had me on house arrest since the dance. Isaiah was treating me like a child who had been bad, telling me I had to 'learn my lesson' before I could go out and play. Mostly, I was killing time pestering the two of them and reading rag magazines. The great part was that one of them had to be there at all times to make sure I wasn't out terrorizing the town.

Sunday evening, they were finally both home at the same time. It was simply too delicious of an opportunity for me to miss, so I went downstairs to join them. They were both reading, sitting on couches opposite each other and reading. Sometimes, I didn't understand them. Did all vampires just inherit culture and I missed that gene or were they born that way? Or did it come with age?

They didn't even notice me, or they were pretending not to. So I decided to make an entrance like a real woman always should.

"If one of you doesn't sleep with me, I'm going to bust out of here and find somebody else. This isn't Alcatraz," I said. "And I thought we wanted to keep this in the family, boys. Bringing in someone else would be unfortunate."

"Oh my god, do you hear her?" demanded a wide-eyed Ansel to his brother.

Isaiah nodded. "She sounds exactly like Trinity."

Something about that made me a little unsettled once again, but I ignored it. "Do I really have to go out and find myself somebody else? And if I were you, I would be a little worried. Most guys aren't as durable as you two. I might break him."

"Ignore her," said Isaiah. "It's like you said; she's just like Trinity now, trying to get attention through lust."

"Except Trinity still had her emotions on," shrugged Ansel.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" asked Isaiah. "That she was that evil with her emotions, or that she still had her emotions while being that evil?"

"That doesn't make any sense," Ansel said.

"No, like—never mind," Isaiah shook his head. "It doesn't matter."

"Seriously!" I cried. "I am going to get out of here if somebody doesn't do something."

"Well, I would like to be able to go out with you so that we can actually have a social life," Isaiah shrugged. "It really is a pain that one of us has to be here at all times."

"I have an idea, and I think you have the same one," Ansel turned to look at me and I stiffened. The way he said it I really didn't like. I looked calculating.

"We have a cell in the basement, don't we?" Isaiah asked.

"That will work," said Ansel.

"Yes," Isaiah glanced from his brother to me. "Yes it will."

"Why don't we make sure she doesn't hurt anybody," Ansel asked. "This would certainly be easier. It'll be like time out."

"Sounds good to me," Isaiah had ahold of me in the blink of an eye.

"You wouldn't dare," I hissed.

He laughed. "Wouldn't I? You should know better than to dare me, Claudia. I would be happy to lock you up and throw away the key."

"I don't believe you," I said flatly.

"Oh, now she's daring me and challenging me," Isaiah laughed. "You're pretty brave considering I could just snap your neck right here. Yes, you'd come back, but it would hurt like hell in the meantime."

I tried to pull away from him, but he held onto me with one hand. He held his other hand out in front of me.

"I am reminded of a scene from Gone With the Wind," he said. "It's when Rhett, for one of the first times in his life, is honest with Scarlett. He lays it out for her and she just doesn't get it. But one thing she does understand is when he shows her his hands and tells her that he could crush her skull with those hands. Do you catch my drift, Claudia?"

I didn't say a word.

"I think she gets it, Isaiah," Ansel was almost reeling Isaiah back in.

When I looked at Isaiah, I was baffled by the look in his eyes. Then I realized that this was no contradiction of his love for me, of his love for the Claudia he had met. No, who I was now was a threat to who I had been before and he was treating me as such. The fierce protective instinct he had about me that had been so good before was now working against me.

"Then we should lock her up," said Isaiah. "She gets it, but she hasn't learned. A week or so without blood and she'll turn her emotions back on."

"We're going to torture her then?" Ansel stopped Isaiah from walking any further.

I blessed Ansel for at least voicing concern about this cockamamie plan.

"Why not?" And I cursed Isaiah.

"It just seems...like what Garett did to you," said Ansel.

"Have you heard the phrase 'the ends justify the means'?" asked Isaiah.

"I have, but I think it's crap," Ansel was adamant.

"Then you don't have to be a part of this," he shrugged.

"I am already a part of it," said his brother.

"Then I guess you're just going to have to deal with it and help," he drug me down to the basement literally kicking and screaming and Ansel opened up a heavy iron door.

Isaiah threw me inside and I hit against the wall, slumping to the ground. They shoved the door shut and I heard the deadbolt lock. Looking up and glancing around me, I assessed my situation. The walls were cold stone and the door was the heaviest, meanest looking door I'd ever laid eyes on. There was a small window with bars in the door. I felt like I was in prison. Actually, I was.