Frenemies

She smiled, her teeth glinting in the light of the single incandescent bulb hanging from the center of the cell’s ceiling. She stood just on the edge of the light, her hands in the pockets of her long black trench coat, just staring at me.

I shivered, and then coughed, groaning. Her eyes were terrifyingly eager.

“Come, dear,” she crooned, taking a step forward. Her high-heeled boots, laced to her knees, clicked on the stone floor. The sound was muffled, and simultaneously made more riveting, by the pool of blood that surrounded me, soaking the knees of my black dress pants. The glimmering ripples drew my attention to her foot, and then her movement drew my eyes the rest of the way up.

Thin black tights encased her legs above her boots, and then there were the inevitable twin knife sheaths wrapping around her thighs, smirking at me from just under the hem of her short black pencil skirt. The tip of one black blade trickled a red streak down her leg.

I swallowed hard. She was gorgeous.

The woman leaned town and placed her fingertips under my chin, forcing me to meet her eyes. They glowed. Red.

“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” she murmured. “Shy?” Her dark red lips parted in a smile, her head tilting curiously.

Her hand traced up my jawline slowly, seductively, and then down my neck as she circled me. Her fingers slipped under my collar, tracing the deep gashes she’d inflicted on my back. They emerged scarlet. I flinched away from her impossibly cold touch. My handcuffs clattered softly behind my back.

“You know,” she mused, her voice low and sultry as she crossed to stand in front of me again, “I like seeing you on your knees to me. Cuffed, too…” She smirked. “It’s… a long time coming.” She smiled wider, looking into my eyes as she slowly licked her bloody fingers.

I drew a labored breath. “Vanessa… how… can you… do this?” I groaned.

She laughed softly. “Easy, baby,” she said, leaning in. She kissed my cheek gently before whispering in my ear. “Because villains have all the fun.”

I swallowed hard, my jaw tightening. “Only because,” I panted, narrowing my eyes, “everyone’s too scared of you… to deny you anything you ask for.”

She laughed louder as she drew back. “I know!” she said eagerly, smiling wide. Her eyes sparkled with glee. “Isn’t it great?”

I swallowed again and said nothing.

“Now then…” she slid a knife from its sheath and let it hang by her leg, her finger stretched along the blade. “Where is it, Jacob?” One long red lacquered nail tapped faintly on the cold steel.

I chuckled quietly. Doing so made me groan.

“The pain will end —“ With the word, she was down in my face, her blade thrust suddenly into my shoulder. I cried out and slumped lower, my chest heaving. The handcuffs clattered behind me. “…As soon as you tell me,” she murmured, her voice low and sultry as her eyes searched my face with another sadistic smile.

I smirked slowly, my eyes sliding to meet hers, weariness etching my face. “Everyone’s scared of you, Vanessa,” I gasped, “but me. I’ve seen you. I knew what it was to see you cry.”

I gasped and winced as her fingers tightened on my shoulder in anger as she jerked the blade out. “You —“

I met her raging eyes, and my own were cool. “You’re just as desperate as the rest of the world, sweetheart.”

At that moment the cell door burst open and there was a rattle of gunfire, a cry, and then darkness as the lightbulb shattered. I heard a guttural, whimpering groan, and I smiled bitterly. I’d pulled that sound from her lips before. Then there was a soft rustle, a thump, and a metallic clatter.

Hands gripped my arms as movement in the dark cell resumed. My handcuffs were removed, and I stood up, rolling my burning shoulders.

“Did you get it?” I asked quietly.

A flashlight clicked on and shone on the fresh trickle of blood now mingling with my own on the floor. Vanessa’s hand lay just inside the circle of light, nerveless and limp, its nails reflecting the red on the ground. Her glistening knife law a few inches away.

“Yeah, boss, we got it.” A suit jacket was handed to me.

I smirked as I took it. “Good,” I said, pulling it on over the deep red lacerations in my back and shoulders. I slid my hands into my pockets and regarded the cell with almost a hint of regret. We’d grown so close over the last few days, and I’d almost miss leaving it.

“Now then,” I said calmly, as I turned away from the figure illuminated by the flashlight, “Shall we get lunch, gentlemen?”