“It’s a useless effort,” Kranzler finally said, startling the two on the bed. “She’s as barren as a rock in the desert. Trust me.”
Barrett paused, sweating and catching his breath. He looked from Kranzler to Alise. “Doesn’t feel useless to me,” he finally said.
Kranzler glared at Alise for another long moment, and Niklaus recognized the expression. Jealousy. So she’d been fucking Kranzler, too. Niklaus wanted to punch his fist through the wall.
Finally, Kranzler snarled, “You may continue entertaining our guest, Alise.” He slammed the door as he left. Barrett looked down at Alise.
“Keep going. I’ll show that ugly bastard who’s barren,” Alise hissed.
Barrett started up again, and Alise soon clenched her eyes and screamed in pleasure again as his oversized cock slid in and out of her.
Niklaus felt a shining, glittering hate for his cousin Alise, recognizing that she had no real love for him at all. She was only using him. She wanted to get pregnant, and she didn’t seem too picky who the father might be.
He stalked away down the hidden passage, the sound of Alise’s high-pitched cries following after him, mocking him.
Instead of bursting in on them, he paced up and down the male residential corridor. He should be relieved, he told himself. He should never have thought of Alise that way in the first place, never fantasized about her, never given in...She had brought out the worst in him, as she always did.
Someone else had been on his mind, in every way Alise’s opposite, small, quiet, looking as fragile as Niklaus often felt on the inside. Evelina, the Slavic girl who could speak to the dead.
The next day, he went down to the cellblock to visit her. He’d been fascinated by her since the day he and Alise had moved her down, maybe because she seemed so innocent and harmless next to Alise. He had strange feelings toward Evelina, and attraction was the smallest part of it. He felt the need to protect her, and to make life a little easier for her.
He had resisted his feelings while he and Alise were intimate together, but now that he understood Alise didn’t truly care for him, he grew emboldened enough to go and speak to Evelina.
He knocked on the closed panel in her door, then waited a moment, working up his nerve, before he opened the panel and looked at her through the barred window.
She sat on her bed, looking back at him and waiting.
“Hello,” he said.
She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t reply.
“How are you?” he asked.
She glanced around at her concrete cell. “How should I answer that?”
“I don’t know.”
She watched him expectantly, her eyes dark and vibrant.
“I brought you...there was Bavarian chocolate on our last supply train,” Niklaus said. “Not much, but S.S. men all got some. I saved a little. Would you like it?” He held up a square of chocolate wrapped in tin foil, offering it through the bars.
“Why are you giving me that?” She remained on her bunk.
“Come on. Take it.”
“Is that an order?” She slowly stood and walked toward him, her eyes full of suspicion. She unwrapped it, revealing the rich chocolate, and her eyes widened. “Is it poisoned?”
“Why would I poison it?”
“To kill me?”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
“Am I supposed to trust you?” Evelina asked.
Niklaus sighed and thought about it. “If you were going to die...wouldn’t it be better to die by chocolate poisoning instead of a firing squad?”
“This is true.” She looked at the chocolate but made no move to eat it. “Why would you give me this?”
“I just...feel I should help you,” Niklaus admitted. “Is there anything else I can do?”
“Yes. Unlock the door and let me go home.”
“I can’t. I’m sorry. I wish I could.”
“You can’t? You’re standing outside my door. You’re even wearing an S.S. uniform. I think you could get me out of here if you tried.”
“They would kill me,” Niklaus said.
“Maybe you’ll get lucky and they’ll use chocolate.” Evelina gave him a thin smile.
“Are you going to taste it or not?”
“What’s the hurry? I have days and days to pass.” She placed it on the wobbly bookshelf that held her clothes, which now consisted only of the cheap, plain gray dresses and slippers the Nazis had issued her.
“Saving it for later.” He nodded. “That’s smart.”
Evelina shrugged.
“Can I bring you anything else?”
“Besides a key to my door?” Evelina glanced around her cell. “I have nothing to do here. Can you bring me something to read?”