Bitten (Book 1 - Book 4)

For once, the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

"Going to be a warm one,” Uri said.

They were sitting on the patio eating breakfast.

“Sherry wants me to take you somewhere before you go visit Lisa.”

“Where?”

“I'll also take you to Sherri's, but will have the limo pick you up.”

"Where?"

Uri took a sip of his tea, gazing out over the gardens.

“Uri. Where are you taking me?”

“You'll see.”

“I would like fewer surprises. I am pregnant. I need to lead a calm life.”

He grinned.

“Not gonna happen living with me,” he said.

She rolled her eyes.

“When are we going?”

“Mid-morning. You have time for reading. How far have you gotten?”

“I'm into the last book.”

“Good. I don't know who is handling college enrollment. Check with Tia or even Sherri. They should be getting your classes set up.”

“I think Tia is handling that.”

“Good. I might have to sit out here in the sun for a while.”

"I didn’t think “Hollows’ liked the sun,” she said, wondering how he would react.

"Hollows don't like the sun,” he said with a smile. “They only come out at night.”

She knew he was going to maintain the charade about Hollows. With a shake of her head, she rose and trotted upstairs to get her book. When she returned, Uri wasn't there. It was hard to read out in the bright sunlight. After a half-hour, she gave up and headed inside. Uris office door was open. She strolled over to take a look. He was reading through papers. She went back up to her office. At ten-thirty, Uri tapped on her door.

“Let's go."

Natalia put her book down.

“It's a short ride. This won't take long,” he said.

The neighborhood that Uri drove into seemed familiar to her. There were expensive condos with exquisite landscaping. Uri pulled into a lot.

She followed him into a building and up one flight of stairs.

"Sit here. You can see everything,” Uri said, indicating a table on a balcony overlooking a courtyard. Natalia sat and looked around. In the courtyard below, there were a number of tables with umbrellas. The only people there were a woman with a small boy. She sat at an iron wrought table. The table held a tray with what looked like a pitcher of iced tea and two glasses. The umbrella over the table was slanted to block the sun. Her yellow chiffon outfit was stylish and worked well with the black of her hair. Natalia could see she was Viperian.

“Choo choo.”

The boy, also with black hair, was running around pulling a truck on a string. He looked like he was pretending that the truck was a train.

“That's Ryan,” Uri said.

Natalia was thinking iced tea would feel good at the moment. She was feeling the warmth of the day.

"He usually comes around three and stays till ten. But he comes earlier on Sundays.”

“The boy? That's a long time,” she said.

Uri chuckled.

Natalia stiffened when a man came through a gate.

“That's my father,” she said with surprise.

She noticed he was clothed in his usual Sunday attire of dress slacks and a polo shirt. He approached the woman who rose to greet him.

“How are you doing, sweetheart?” her father said, giving the woman a kiss on the lips.

Natalia felt disturbed to hear that he was using the quiet Viperian way of speaking.

“Very well, thank you,” the woman said with a big smile after his kiss.

“Ryan's your brother and his mom is Brianna, your father's mistress,” Uri said.

“What?”

“Hi, Daddy," the little boy said with a giggle.

He ran away, only to circle back and run into his father's arms.

“During the week, your father comes at three and stays until ten. On Sunday, he comes earlier to have lunch and then dinner with Brianna and his son before returning to the house he shares with your mother.”

“They... They're Viperians,” she murmured.

“Yes. This is how we control him.”

Natalia turned to stare at Uri.

"Your father's been with Brianna almost seven years. Ryan turns six in a few months.”

“I always thought my father was so against the Holl...Viperians.”

“Your father doesn’t view her as you think. He sees a Viperian, which is getting to be not so bad these days. Not a Hollow. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to continue to be successful in his business. He loves Brianna and Brianna keeps him ensnared.”

“She bites him?"

Uri smiled.

“Brianna does a great job. I almost think she likes him.”

Natalia stared down at her father who was now sitting beside Brianna.

“He did give her a fine son.”

"He... he beat her up to get her pregnant?”

"Some men like it rough.”

Natalia found herself at a loss for words.

“Ryan is a nice little boy. But, I'm partial to the family and thus a little biased,” Uri said with a grin while he looked at her.

"Why would I need to see this?” she said, finding herself to be horrified.

Her feelings weren't because her father had a mistress, but who his mistress was. She had always thought her father to be dull and boring.

“Ask Sherri. I don't know.”

“Does my father know I'm here or with Viperians?”

"No."

Then she remembered why the area was so familiar. There would be times her father would stop, leaving her mother and her in the car for fifteen minutes or half an hour. He was stopping to see Brianna or his son.

"He's leading a double life,” she said, almost whispering.

“Obviously.”

Natalia watched her father. He seemed totally engrossed in Brianna and his son, showing a much more fatherly nature than she had given him credit for. However, she remembered he did seem to spend more time with her brother, Beryl, than herself when she was growing up.

“Are you going to be an active participant in the rearing of your child?” she said. “Or distant and cold, like I saw Grazie on tournament night with his son from Tia?"

“When a man is living with the mother of his child, he will dote fatherly attention onto his child. A lot of the involvement is determined by the mother. Tia and Grazie don't live together. Tia only wanted his child, no more.”

“I'll say you better be involved, boy or girl.”

Uri smiled.

“I will nurture and love my children from you.”

“And any others?”

“They are not part of my life.”

"How long are we staying?”

“Until you've had enough.”

“We can go.”

Natalia felt almost like running away. She didn't know why that bothered her so much. She remained silent for the remainder of the drive to Sherri's house.

“The limo will pick you up when you are ready,” Uri said when he pulled up to the door.

"Okay."

Natalia got out of the car without asking how the limo knew when she would be ready. She was almost to the door when it opened.

“Morning, Nattie,” Sherri said.

Natalia thought she looked a little flush.

“Morning.”

“The girls have some friends over. It's going to be a little noisy.”

When Sherri closed the door behind her, four girls, looking to be in their early teens dashed by. "How many children do you have?”

“I have seven, counting this one. Let's go upstairs.”

Natalia followed her up to the sitting room.

“Much quieter up here,” Sherri said, looking relieved to be sitting. “She's definitely my last baby. Been a lot harder on me. I'm getting too old for this.”

“How old is your oldest?”

“Steven is nineteen and in college. He's out of the house for good. Anna is next at sixteen. She has a twin, Tracy, who you might meet. They are so different. Anna can think. Tracy reacts.”

A maid entered with the expected tea.

“Then there is Marian, fourteen, Jaina... she’s the party girl who has friends over. She just turned twelve. Then I have Zean. She's eight and was supposed to have been my last one.”

“A full house. So why this one, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“There's a knifing skill in my lineage that hasn't been expressed for a couple of generations. I thought a Grazie baby might bring that out.”

"Wow. Six girls and one boy.”

“If 1 had to do it over, I would have chosen not to have the boy, but live and learn.”

“Hard to raise?"

“Much more sexual than the girls. Girls have way more control.”

“You... you can control the sex of your child?”

ess

“Can all Viperian women?”

"Yes."

"How? The man’s sperm determines the sex.”

“In a simple explanation we can exude hormones that favors conception of one sex or the other. When we want to ensnare or control a man, we tend to have the first child be a male.”

There was silence between them while they sipped tea. The noise of laughter from downstairs increased and then was gone, only to be heard through the open french doors.

"You look deep in thought,” Sherri said. “Something troubling you?”

“I'm... I'm just a little perturbed to hear about my father... and...”

"Brianna?"

“Yes. I just can't see him doing a breeding.”

Sherri smiled.

“Your father didn't do a Viperian breeding.”

“But how did he get her pregnant?”

“The usual way, through sex. Briana is one of a few Viperian women who can self ovulate. She can pick her men, have sex with them, and bear their children. She didn't have to get their permission for a breeding. Your brother is her third.”

"So, my father didn't throw her around?”

"No."

Sherri almost laughed.

“But everyone, including her, are very please with the result. She's going to have another.”

“She's pregnant?”

"Yes, a girl this time. We're finding that a hybrid tends to be better than the two parents.”

“What traits has my father given him?”

“Ryan's very smart. He's almost a genius. We're seeing it already. Second generations tend to fix the trait and more.”

“I'm afraid to ask what the “more” is,” Natalia said.

"Uri is a second generation. His grandfather on his father's side was an Undent. His grandmother was Una.”

“And I remember he got his knife skills from his grandmother. Those bother me.”

"He does like the more gentler nature of sex. Not a good Viperian breeder.”

“I think that's changed.”

"Who?"

“I can't remember her name. Last Friday, we came home early from the club. She was waiting for him in the garage.”

“How was she dressed?”

“Red dress. High boots.”

“Mina. He managed to do it?"

"She found a way to get him to fight her. I think she used me. Pretended that she was going to bite me. They didn't know I was watching.”

“But an angry Uri won't breed.”

“She bit him with a venom that drained his anger then she got gentle. I guess gentle for a Viperian.” “Clever,” Sherri said with a smile. “I can see that in Mina. She is a good thinker.”

“I assume she’s been the only one. Is anyone else going to try?”

“I don't think so. We're looking forward to your baby with Uri. We like your father's genes, and we see the intelligence in yourself. Uri says you're going through the finance books quite quickly. So with what you bring and with what Uri brings, we have high expectations for...”

Sherri chuckled

“Not Uri Jr, but Nattie Jr.”

“So why did you want me to see my father with Brianna?”

“I wanted you to see what we really use for a weapon. It's not fangs or knives. What our true power is in our community and your community, which has allowed us to live along side yours.”

“I don't see.”

"Sex. We manipulate and control the men in your society with sex. That's our weapon. Brianna, depending on whether she has sex with your father or not, can influence his behavior. Hasn't Uri spoken to you in a manner that influenced your mood?”

The brutal beating of the men who did the house check and then tried to rape Mag came to mind. "He would say a word then breath in my ear.”

It was how he calmed her.

“And that word became how you felt.”

"Yes."

“Picture a man sated with sex, his woman says a word, then breaths a message into his ear. He will now do whatever she said, believing it to be his own decision.”

Natalia watched Sherri sit back and massage her belly.

“Control,” she said barely above a whisper. “That's how you control him.”

Sherri nodded.

"We're not trying to destroy your father. We're gently changing his business tactics, so he does better. Also, altering his business clientele so he'll do business with a Viperian. Making it so he'll be less discriminative. If we hadn't done so through the years, we would be a poor people barely surviving in Viperia. We would still be Hollows, beaten and abused.”

"Where do Viperians originate from?”

“Farther south. Hot and steamy rain forest areas. We were integrating quite well into modern society... as modern as it was a thousand years ago... but then the Church came along and deemed us the spawn of the devil. Our history shows those were not good times.”

“Many peoples were persecuted by the Church,” Natalia said.

“Many still are. My generation has decided to change that.”

“By rescuing girls?”

Sherri paused and sipped her tea.

“We're going to bring down the Church, Nattie. They've ruled, bullied, terrorized, and destroyed enough. We're just not rescuing girls. That's only a tiny fraction of what we're doing. Lisa's dad actually came to us for help. The Church was doing to him what it wanted to do to your father. They were blackmailing for money, using his daughter. We know the pulse in the business world is not in favor of the Church. We know who in business doesn't like the Church. Your father is one of them, but not the only reason we rescued you.”

“I ran away.”

"We knew exactly where you were. And Uri made sure the limo stayed on the Strip long enough to find you and pick you up.”

Natalia found herself speechless. Sherry sipped her tea. The laughter of the girls faded.

“Uri made it sound... he said he was going to get me before the Church did... but he made it sound as if it was coincidence that I showed up on the Strip.”

“Your parents tracked you by the cameo necklace. We tracked you by the earrings you always wore. You wore them because they were a gift from a friend. Not from your parents.”

Natalia swallowed.

Yes."

“Now we track you by the bracelet.”

"Do you track everyone?”

Sherri smiled.

“No. Only those who are very important to us. And yes, to your next question, we track Uri.”

“Does he know it?"

"Of course. We don't operate in a clandestine manner with our own people. How we operate sometimes requires precision and knowing where certain people are aids in that precision.”

“I'm important?”

“In many ways."

“Because I keep Uri happy.”

“You keep Uri happy. You're having his baby. And now, you're an employee working at the bank. You're in a conference room right next door to Ravi. We have no control over Ravi. He dictates the direction the bank goes.”

Sherri looked uncomfortable again.

"Quite an active baby. Sorry. We've tried to position Uri as Ravi's successor, however, Ravi has influence over the board. He has recommended that they find a more experienced person to be brought in and groomed. Uri, unfortunately, is too good at his job and they want him to remain in that position.”

Sherri frowned when she spoke those words.

"What do you want me to do?” Natalia said.

"We're hoping that with you there, he might relax a little. We've found Ravi tends to be more social than he might let on. He likes having people around. It's no surprise that he invited you and Uri to join him at lunch the other day.”

Natalia nodded.

"We'll be introducing Francie to him this week. She's a young looking girl. Rather petite for a Viperian. We're going to see if we can't get Ravi to take to her.”

"A new wife?” Natalia said, understanding the picture.

"Something like that. His wives are older. We doubt they are entertaining him in the bedroom.” “But, I'm now working in the HR area. Not up in that conference room.”

“You'll be back in the conference room this week,” Sherri said with a smile. “You'll start in HR on Monday. Get introduced to Francie, then you'll both be up in the conference room. Francie already knows what she has to do.”

There was some laughter on the stairs.

“Lisa is coming.” Sherri rose, looking stiff. “Enjoy your visit.”