“There you see, you can be a good girl when prompted by the idea of pain…already I can see you are going to make me an excellent play thing,” he told me and I closed my eyes against the idea of being under this man’s control. It was obvious what he could do to me and in truth it terrified the living shit out of me.
“Please…just let me go.” He smiled down at me and there was nothing amusing about it. It was all evil and malicious intent. More about the dark things he promised and the thoughts of acting them out no doubt the forefront of his mind.
“And tell me, why would I do that, for I find your cold, quivering body fits nicely right where it is…tell me Keira girl, do I frighten you?” I bit my lip and nodded but this wasn’t good enough for him.
“Speak the words little pet of mine, for I do so love to hear fear being voiced as well as felt,” he told me, running his thumb up and down my throat, smiling when he felt me swallowing hard.
“Yes, I am afraid of you.” I told him, hating admitting it and feeling weak, which was no doubt all part of his plan.
“Good, that means there are some brains beneath all this blonde mane of yours after all. It is smart to fear me…” He paused to grip the top part of my neck in a bruising hold for a moment as if to drive the seriousness of what he was saying home, once he saw my tears building he smiled and continued,
“…For it should do you well in keeping you alive, so long as you understand it not wise to piss me off, that is,” he told me and then once he saw that I had ran out of air he released me. I choked and coughed, trying to drag precious air back into my lungs.
“That’s it, calm now, deep breaths…easy does it,” he cooed pulling my head to his chest and stroking back my hair as though he suddenly cared.
“But that’s where you’re wrong my dear…I do care…deeply,” he said pulling back after reading my mind again and I wanted to lash out at him but like he said, I was too afraid.
“I care…” he said again, only this time he ran a finger down along my collarbone, making me shudder.
“…Deep beneath the confines of your skin…” His finger continued along my shoulders and back again until they started to dip lower. I closed my eyes against the feeling he was awakening in me and I hated how he could manipulate that too.
“…Deeper than flesh and bone…” he added and then when his finger was where he considered his bullseye, he tapped it against my heart twice and ended it,
“…But at the very core of you, where your blood is its sweetest, oh but a taste of you…just one.” Then he snapped and I found myself spun around, my back held securely to his chest, one arm bound across my torso and his other hand at my head, forcing it to the side. I screamed when he sunk his teeth into my arching neck and the first break of my skin was pure agony.
I cried out in pain and he moaned into my neck as if the sound only increased his pleasure, one I could feel pressing into my back. He sucked deep and I could feel him drawing my blood from me, like a thief in the night.
“I…please…don’t…kill me.” I moaned as I felt my legs get weak and just as I was about to crumble he held me tighter, ripping his fangs from the comfort of my flesh. He bent his head back and looked up to the sky as if he could see answers there he had been reaching for.
“What are you?” he asked and I didn’t know what to tell him. He growled and just before my hand could cover my neck, as it tried to do he grabbed it and held it down.
“Now just look at the mess I made…let’s clean you up, little doll of mine.” Then he leant back down and started licking at the wound, cleaning it and what felt like fusing the holes he had made. It felt strange as my skin knitted itself back together under the ministrations of Lucius’ tongue lapping up every drip, as if not wanting to waste a single drop.
“Mmm…fucking nectar!” I shuddered at the demonic growl that laced his words.
“Oh, how I do look forward to our time together.”
“Never!” I hissed, finally finding my bravery. He heard this and laughed.
“What makes you think you have a choice? The board has already been set, long ago before you were even born and seen in the stars of your ancestors…” He said this as he started to run his hands over my satin covered body, his pale hands a startling contrast against the black.
“…This is a battle of Kings and men and you my dear sweet soul… are just a pawn we added to the table,” he told me sternly gripping at my robe’s tie and pulling it free so that he could explore more freely.
“I am no pawn,” I told him with gritted teeth.
“No, you don’t think so…then tell me pretty girl, you really think a man, a king like Dominic Draven would freely pick you, a girl next door beauty over the entirety of the world. A man like him could have anyone…why now do you think he chose you?” Lucius said and I flinched in his hold as his words affected me.
“He loves me,” I told him and I could feel his smile even though I couldn’t see it. Almost as if his amusement crackled in the air.
“Because he has to…because he has been told he must by the very Gods themselves but you’re a fool to believe he chose you…the Gods chose you, not his fucking heart!” he said snarling at me and I wanted to cry out at the agony.
The hurt he inflicted was no doubt done to test me, or to drive a wedge between Draven and I. Either way it hurt and I hated how much it did. Half of me knew he had said this for the reaction I couldn’t help but give him.
I ripped myself out of his hold and faced him. Fists held tensed at my sides I roared back in his face with all fear long forgotten,
“YOU LIE!” At first, he looked shocked but then a small sadistic grin started to arch up one side of his mouth. Then he caught a bit of my blood from that same corner and put it into his mouth to suck. He closed his eyes briefly and moaned. When he opened them again, his blood lust looked to be back in the form of crimson fire filling the whites of his eyes.
“Maybe you’re right, or maybe you taste just too damn good!” he said as my only warning to run. I started to move backwards slowly at first to get away from him, but he took this as part of the game he wanted to play. Cat and Mouse was on. He stalked towards me and I turned around and ran, hoping to make it to the wall so that I could scream for help.
Needless to say, I didn’t get far.
I screamed as he flew at me and plucked me off the roof, grabbing me around the waist. I saw myself being taken higher and the roof terrace below becoming a small square as he took us both up into the night. My screaming became lost to the sound of the wind whipping around us and his grip of me tightened.
This was it. I was taken and snatched right out of Draven’s world just like that. In the blink of an eye, I was lost to him. I felt the tears being forced from the corners of my eyes as the pressure of air pushed them into my hairline. I gripped onto Lucius as if my life depended on it and I hated that in this he had become my only chance at survival. I wanted to close my eyes, trapped between which fear was greater, the fear to look or not.
The sight of the national park below was faintly touched by the moon’s rays, casting shadows and slithers of white as the light brought out the different rock types in the mountain peaks. The canopy of rolling trees looked like a black river of death below, that if dropped from this height then that was what they would be.
I didn’t know where he was taking me, but when we started to descend I could only hope it wasn’t so that he could get a closer look at how my mangled body looked like for when he dropped me. But then I knew I was too important in this ‘Game of Kings’ as he called it, as like he said, I was just a pawn. A means to an end…for both for them.
No! I couldn’t think like that. I was important to Draven not because the Gods deemed it so, but because he loved me. I wasn’t going to give in to Lucius and his manipulation. He was trying to cast doubt in me where there was none and now he had planted a seed that I needed to eradicate.
He started to swoop lower and every thought fl
ew from my mind other than my fear of heights. I screamed again as he found what he was looking for and turning slightly to catch the right air current, he skilfully took us in to land at the top of a ridge. As soon as my feet touched the ground my limits burst from within me. I ran out of his hold then turned around and pushed against his chest with both hands,
“You could have fucking killed me, you asshole!” I screamed at him. My little outburst seemed to amuse him and he laughed once not taking me seriously.
“I guess you would need to be of high spirit to challenge a man like the King. I do wonder though,” he said and I snapped out,
“What?!”
“How he punished you for it!” He snarled back and grabbed me. I tried to struggle out of his hold but it was no use. He grabbed the back of my hair and pulled my head back with force.
“Calm down little rabbit, before I decided you taste too good to stop…after all, we wouldn’t want me to drain you dry now would we?” he said then as if to prove it he leant down and ran an elongated fang across my neck, causing pain. It made a tiny slice, as if I had been scratched by a cat’s claw. It was enough to take the threat seriously as he had intended.
“Good girl. See, you can be tamed after all,” he told me and felt up my body once more as if to prove his statement true. I wanted to scream and cry at the same time. His control on me was making me feel things I didn’t want to and hated myself for. Like how his fingers snaked around my breasts, making my nipples harden the closer he got. I wanted to believe it was the cold and nothing more, but my body knew the truth.
“Look, see how your body reacts to my touch…maybe you will enjoy our time together after all,” he mocked and I turned away, utterly ashamed.
“Did you like my gift to you?” he asked as he gathered up the long dress, exposing more and more of my quivering legs. This was when I realised he had been the one to leave this satin set for me at the end of my bed. The shadow I first felt must have been him.
“I knew it would look good on you but I must confess, you surprise me,” he hummed down at me and when I didn’t ask, he grinned against my neck and whispered,
“Your pale skin against the black looks like milk fighting ink produced from the dark heart of a demon,” he told me running his hand up further, closer to my core and most private place. I swallowed down both my disgust and pleasure, knowing in my mind it was my own reaction’s fight against those he had planted there.
“Almost as appealing as having your pale skin bathed in blood…my crimson white doll.” The way he said this sounded like a whispered promise and once more I shuddered against him.
“Ah, here at last. About fucking time, cretins.” He spoke this time above my neck where he had been kissing, at the sound of a vehicle driving up the forest track. I looked around to see a large clearing that was obviously used by tourists probably because of the amazing view it offered.
The big luxury SUV cut though the enclosed forest, with lights blaring and just before I needed to shut my eyes thanks to being blinded, Lucius covered them for me. I felt him make a kill sign over his throat and thankfully it was the lights that died not me.
“My Lord, we must leave now…” A man said as he approached us and I looked to Lucius who raised his eyebrow. He looked back towards where we had just flown in from, and I guessed his eyesight saw Afterlife whereas mine couldn’t.
Then he looked back at me with a grin as the man finished his sentence,
“The King…he knows…he knows you have the girl.” Lucius’ smile grew and he said in a knowing sadistic tone,
“And the game begins…”
Chapter 20
Washing Away Sins.
Book 2
NEW
As soon as I heard that Draven was looking for me, I knew I had to do something. Anything in fact to stall him, so in my panic and desperation that ‘something’ I chose was of the stupid variety. I pulled from his grasp, surprising him as his attention was on the man who informed him that Draven was looking for me. He tried to grab me but I ran towards the edge of the cliff and shouted,
“Don’t come any closer!” I warned holding a hand out to him taking a small step closer to the edge. My heart was pounding as I faced my greatest fear, for the first time ranking it secondary to the fear of being taken away from Draven.
“And what do you think that will accomplish exactly?” Lucius said crossing his arms across his chest.
“Well you can’t blackmail someone when you have nothing to bargain with, now can you!” I snapped making him snarl back at me.
“My Lord, he is coming.” The man behind him tried to reason but Lucius’ arm snapped out and gripped him by the throat. Then he dragged his body up, towards him and roared,
“THEN RUN!” Then he let go of him. He fell to his knees, coughing with his hands around his neck.
“As you can see, time is of the essence little doll and my patience has limitations…now get your ass over here!” he demanded with a growl.
“I will do it, I will jump and then you will have nothing…so ask yourself Lucius, what is more important? The taking of me now and risking my death or the possibility of tomorrow and my survival, it’s your choice…but I tell you now…” I paused looking down for a second as if facing my death and then back at him and spoke the truth with every fibre of my being.
“I would rather die than go with you!” Lucius looked at me as I issued a threat and he knew I wasn’t bluffing. In fact, the look he gave me was a mixture of respect and surprise.
“Well played my pet, well played, but you are forgetting one thing…” He told me looking down and side on at his fingertips.
“And what’s that!?” I spat out the question and then shrieked as he answered me only an inch away,
“I am faster than you.” I screamed in surprise as he grabbed me and spun me, so that I had nowhere else to look other than straight down. The black satin whipped around me as the wind lashed out as if angry with me.
I looked back at him with anger and then something came to mind…Draven wasn’t alone in looking for me. Suddenly my anger twisted as I looked above into the night and I started laughing. Lucius raised an eyebrow in question at my outburst, one he wasn’t expecting along with something else,
“You’re also forgetting something Lucius…” He snarled at me and found my answer in the form of my loudest possible scream,
“DRAVEN!” Then I looked back at him and said,
“Eyes in the sky.” Showing him what I had seen…Ava.
“That fucking bird!” he said and this was quickly followed by an almighty roar, telling us both that it was time. My king had come and Lucius was right, the game had started now the other player had arrived. I looked towards the sound of anger and power cutting through the night, like a dark avenging angel appearing ready to do battle.
Lucius saw this and knew he would only have one chance. A chance he used…me. He spun me back around so that I was facing the edge of the cliff, once more, this time holding me out so that I would easily fall.
“Give her to me, Lucius!” Draven demanded after quickly assessing to see if Lucius had inflicted any damage on my body.
“What, is that how royalty greets old friends these days, by issuing demands without so much as a how’s life treating you?” Lucius mocked and looking at Draven in all his wrath, I couldn’t help but think that Lucius must have had a death wish.
“You don’t deserve a life, you traitor!” Draven roared back at him with hateful venom lacing his every word.
“And the word traitor coming from your lips is a fucking joke!” Lucius snarled back making me wonder what it was between these two, a question I would be asking Draven if I ever made it out of this scenario alive.