"We were discussing whether to kill you all now, or later," I said, my voice very matter-of-fact.
Janos gave a low chuckle. "Please do break the truce, Anita. I would love to have an excuse to get you on one of my novelties. I think you would take a long time to break. Then again, it is sometimes the braggarts who break first."
"I don't brag, Janos. I tell the truth."
"She believes what she says," Kissa said.
"Yes, she has a disturbing hint of truth to her," Janos said. "Most tasty."
The blonde, Lisa, had stopped struggling against the chains. She sagged in them, nearly incoherent with crying. The other girl, now that she was chained, stood very still, but a fine trembling had started in her arms and hands. She balled her hands into fists, but could not stop the trembling.
"The women came for a little adventure. They are certainly getting their money's worth," Janos said.
The two female vamps opened panels in the black walls. They each took out a long coil of whip. Neither of the girls could see. I was glad.
I couldn't stand and watch, I couldn't. It would kill something inside me to just stand and watch, even if it meant I died. I'd at least go down fighting, and I'd take some of them with me. Better than nothing. But before we all committed suicide, I'd try to talk. "If you're not trying to goad us into breaking the truce, then what the hell do you want?"
"Want?" Janos said. "Want? Why, many things, Anita."
I was beginning to hate the way he said my name, sort of half-amused, and intimate, like we were friends, or close enemies.
"What do you want, Janos?"
"Shouldn't you be negotiating for your people?" he asked Jean-Claude.
"Anita does well enough on her own," Jean-Claude said.
Janos gave another rictus smile. "Very well. What do we want?"
The vampires went to the girls. They held up the whips so the two girls could see them.
"What is that?" the blonde asked. "What is that?" Her voice was high and bubbly with fear.
"It's a whip," the second girl said. Firm and clipped, her voice did not betray her the way her trembling body did.
The two vampires backed away, just enough for good whipping distance, I guess.
"What the bloody hell do you want?" I asked.
"Are you familiar with the term 'whipping boy'?" Janos asked.
"It was a person used by royalty to be beaten in the place of the royal heir."
"Very good; so few young people have a sense of history."
"What does the history lesson have to do with anything?"
"The girls are whipping boys for your two young men," Janos said.
The two vampires snaked the whips along the floor, and cracked them nearly in unison, but neither whip touched the girls. The second girl screamed, a short, clipped sound, when the whip whistled into the wall next to her. The blonde just sank against the wall, sobbing, "Please, please, please," over and over in a ragged voice.
"Don't hurt them," Larry said. "Please."
"Would you take her place?" Janos asked.
I finally understood where we were heading. "You can't hurt us without our cooperation. You treacherous son of a bitch."
He smiled. "Answer me, lad. Would you take her place?"
Larry nodded.
I grabbed his arm. "No."
"Surely it is his choice," Janos said.
"Let go of my arm, Anita."
I stared at his eyes, searching to see if he understood what he was doing. "You don't know what a whip will do to human flesh. You don't know what you're offering."
"We can remedy that," Janos said. The vampires ripped the backs of the girls' blouses with a harsh, quick tearing.
The blonde screamed.
"We can't just watch," Larry said.
He was right; whether I liked it or not, he was right.
"I've seen what a whip can do," Jason said suddenly. "Don't hurt them."
I stared at him. "You don't strike me as the self-sacrificing kind."
He shrugged. "We all have our moments."
"Would it make this an easier choice if I swore that if your young man takes the girl's place we will not cripple him?"
"How about kill him?" I said. "You can die of shock from a whipping."
"No killing, no crippling. We simply want our pound of flesh, and a quart of blood."
Something must have shown on our faces, because he laughed. "Figuratively speaking, of course. You will wear scars until you die, but no greater harm."
"This is ridiculous," I said. "We aren't going to do this."
"If we pull our guns, can we take them?" Larry asked.
I looked away from his earnest eyes. He touched my arm. "Anita?"
"We can take some of them with us," I said.
"But we'll still be dead, and once we're dead who'll help the girls?"
I shook my head. "There's got to be a better way."
Larry looked at Jean-Claude. "Will he keep his word? Will they not kill me?"
"Janos's word has always been reliable, or at least it was a couple of centuries ago."
"Can we trust them?" Jason asked.
"No," I said.
"Yes," Jean-Claude said.
I glared at him.
"I know you would rather shoot it out, but you would only succeed in getting us all killed. Or perhaps some of us made into vampires."
Larry touched my shoulders. He made me look at him. "It's alright."
"It's not alright," I said.
"Fine, but it's the best we can do right now."
"Don't do this."
"I don't have a choice," he said. "Besides, I'm a big boy, remember? I can take care of myself."
I hugged him. I didn't know what else to do.
"I'll be alright," he whispered.
I just nodded. I didn't trust my voice, and I try never to lie to my friends. He would not be alright. I knew it. He knew it. We all knew it.
Jason walked away from us towards the vampires. "Oh, no, my good shapeshifter, we don't want you chained to a wall."
"But you said..."
"I said you could save the girls, but not like that. Let the human take his lashes. All you must agree to is satisfying the desires of my two helpers, Bettina and Pallas."
Jason stared at the two vampires. They'd turned to face us. I suddenly tried to see them from the viewpoint of a twenty-year-old male. They were chesty, slim waisted; if Pallas's face was a little too witchy-looking for my taste, and Bettina's eyes too small, that was just me. Neither of them was pretty, or even beautiful; they were handsome in the way that some tall, leggy women are. Handsome in a good way, if they had been human.
Jason frowned. "It seems I'm getting the better deal here."
"Would it make any difference if I said you had to do it here in this room, on the floor, in front of everyone?" Janos asked.
Jason thought about that for a minute. "If I say no, does the girl get whipped?"