The Dove & the Darkness (Ceasefire Series book 5) Page 14

  Not waiting for it to change its mind, I keep scrambling down the mountain side.

  Blood rushing through my ears deafens me to anything else. All I have now to rely on is touch. How far can I get? What if there are more of those hounds out here in the dark? I could be running into certain death. Sense of urgency ebbing, my legs threaten to sag.

  I don’t even know where to begin to get out of here. How can I even contact my father and Raziel? I’d need a portal or a gateway. I know enough about the different dimensions to know I’m in one I don’t recognize.

  Turning in a circle, a sob breaks from my throat. I can’t get out. All I want to do is wake up from this nightmare.

  Everything inside me is swirling out of control. Images swell and expand, a billion stories unfolding before my eyes. Sounds, sensations blast unchecked, shredding my fragile frame and consciousness.

  Too much.

  Worse than ever before and only building. Whatever the messages I’m receiving herald, it will bring in its wake only bloodshed and death. Lay waste to worlds and burn civilizations.

  I’m a tiny boat in the middle of a vicious storm.

  Save me.

  Someone has to save me.

  I need to hush the voices. Silence the onslaught before I’m erased completely. Who I am. The person whose heart beats in this chest. Every nuance of my personality.

  I’m not strong. Not like my sister. My father. I’ve always been the weakest link. The brittle child with the mad eyes and the smile that can’t hide her sadness. I’m at the bottom of my lowest ebb.

  Stopping beside a metal bin, the flames within burning brightly. I snatch up a jagged stone and dig the sharpest end frantically into my skin. The jab of pain does nothing to help me. It joins the silvery scars already marring my flesh in a succession of misery. Blood oozes from the self-inflicted wound, the makeshift weapon crimson at its tip.

  Letting it fall from my hand, I clutch my head, stumbling to my knees. The noises in my head are drowning me.

  Make it stop.

  I’m disconnected from the real world. Isolated. No one knows where I am. No one cares about me anymore. My family should have found me by now. I’m sinking deeper and deeper into despair. No one sees my struggle. Knows how hard I fight to stay afloat. How each time it’s becoming harder and harder not to be swept away.

  An intense sensation grips my body, rupturing through everything else. A presence I know well. One I have started to crave like air.

  Master.

  Everything eases. Shoulders slumping, I gratefully crumple, placing my forehead to the ground. Blessed peace. My thoughts are once more my own. The incessant images finally cease because of his near proximity.

  Shaking with relief, I glance up through messy hair.

  A towering image of aggression, Master stalks toward me. The white skeleton mask looks more intimidating with dancing shadows coming from the flaming torch he’s holding in one hand. In the other, he has a nasty looking crop. His eyes are black with contempt behind the slits. The pupils consume the irises like the moon swallowing the sun during an eclipse. They're merciless. Unhinged. Behind him I see others, their red eyes bright and gleaming in the dark.

  “I told you what would happen if you tried to escape.” Master’s voice is deeper raspier. “I’ve obviously been too soft when I should have been training you harder.”

  His rage slams into me sending my feet flying across the rocky ground in a need to flee. It doesn’t matter that I don’t know where I’m going. It’s a primitive animal impulse.

  “There’s nowhere to go, Cassandra. I’m going to destroy this streak of defiance and leave nothing but tatters. I’ll break you down. Crush your final resistance. Demolish it and force you to comply.”

  Terror rides me hard as I flee. Hitting sheer rock, I stagger slowing my frantic dash. Dazed I’m surprised I didn’t give myself concussion, but with my arms out, it saves me from serious damage. Hands outstretched, I feel my way around a bend.

  Light.

  A river lies farther down the descending path. A vast ocean of glittering orbs in a heaving blackness. Caught on the current, they bob and sway on the churning waves. Thousands upon thousands of them. It’s beautiful and haunting, yet somehow instinct warns me not to chance the dangers of the water. Everything is etched out making it easier to navigate.

  Almost falling over my own feet, I head for the bank. Maybe there’s a way over, a bridge or a boat.

  Master is pursuing me with a single minded intent, and I know the punishment is going to be severe. He’s not going to give up.

  My palms and soles throb with cuts. Tears welling, I fight back the need to cry. Nothing. There’s no sign of anything that can get me across. No salvation.

  “There’s no way out. The river Cocytus is impassable without the boat keeper, and he won’t help you,” Master snarls, mirroring my thoughts. “The lost souls he refused passage to will drown you if you even attempt to swim, which only a fool would try.”

  Chest heaving with my exertion, I swivel to face him.

  Eyes wild, they latch onto me from within the slits with an intensity that’s terrifying. “I should let my men have you. Watch while they fuck you in a group on the floor at my feet. After all, you’ve already sucked their cocks, haven’t you?”

  The rage vibrating off him has me cowering back. I’ve never seen anything like it. Not even my father has been this lost in the emotion.

  Lowering my eyelashes, I refrain from making eye contact for too long. It would only be seen as a challenge. “I’m…I’m sorry.”

  I have nowhere left to run. I’m not stupid enough to risk the water. I’m cornered between the river and the mountain. There’s nowhere left to hide.

  The voice had been right.

  Master moves with all the grace of a predator focused on its prey. Fluid and dominant, it screams out in every line of his muscled frame as he stalks closer to catch me. He knows he has me. Although his expression is concealed, I see the way his lips are pressed in a thin, white line.

  Trapping my wrist in his hand, he pulls me along in his wake toward the waiting rabble.

  I’m already shaking with the thought of what awaits me. The punishment will be severe. I broke his rules. Breathing climbing to quick pants, I try to stop myself from hyperventilating as my attention drops to the crop in his other hand.

  He strips off the shirt I’m wearing, bearing my nudity with cruel uncaring hands. A far cry from the warm, gentle male I’d woken up with.

  “You disappoint me.” His words are clipped. “I should have left you in your cell instead of giving you the warmth of my bed. It’s a mistake I won’t make in the future.” A low feral sound rumbles from his chest, his fist clenching the crop in his hand.

  Flinging me forward, I fall. The stones bite into my knees.

  “Make a ring.”

  His men obey, setting about making a circle with their torches. They bath us in a gentle glow.

  Crawling up, I sit back on my heels not daring to move. There’s a sinking sensation in my chest.

  This is his domain.

  His home.

  How did I ever think I could outrun him? He must know this terrain like the back of his hand. All I’ve done is blown my advantage and brought forth his ire.

  The males leer, inspecting my nakedness, licking their lips in anticipation. Bile rises in my throat at the thought of them touching me. They aren’t the same ones that the Warden ordered to use me but the looks in their eyes are the same. They want their mouths on mine. Skin to skin, the taste of their cocks in my mouth and other things I don’t want to think about.

  Master’s eyes take on a feverish light.

  “Take her ankles,” he orders coldly. “Hold her legs open.”

  Hands grab a hold of me. With supernatural strength, I’m lifted as I fight uselessly until cold, hard stone meets my spine. Panic explodes as they pin my arms and forcibly spread my thighs.

  “Don’t! Don’t touch m
e!”

  “You brought this on yourself.” Master observes me chillingly. Power pulses around him, ancient and intoxicating. It’s magnified by the ruthless confidence of his stance. The swish of the crop slices through the air. With a yelp, I shrink back at the sharp pain cracking across my shaved mound.

  “I tried to go slow, give you time to wrap your head around your new life. I’m done playing nice. You’ll submit to me and accept that you’re nothing more now than a slave.”

  Bringing it down again, he catches me directly between the legs.

  Fire. It’s pure fire. Howling I struggle. I don’t want him to hurt and humiliate me like this. It’s worse than anything else he’s forced me to face.

  “Don’t, please don’t.”

  The vampires laugh. They’re enjoying my torment. Grinning from ear to ear, they watch me fight to break free.

  Master ignores my plea.

  His eyes. They're soulless. So black it’s as if the darkness inside of him has finally been fully unleashed. “Look at me not the crop.”

  Voice low, guttural I obey, hoping he’ll have mercy.

  It’s not to be.

  With swift sure strikes, he hits my pussy over and over.

  Tears trickle from the corners of my eyes becoming a torrent. Writhing, sobbing I can do nothing to protect myself. Red welts formed over my punished skin. I can barely stand it.

  “What are you?” the brute demands.

  “A slave,” I cry miserably, knowing it’s what he wants to hear. Master has been drumming that fact into me for weeks.

  “What do you love the most?”

  Fresh tears pouring down my face, I keep it bowed. “Sucking cock and being played with.”

  Limp, weeping I’m left draped over the boulder as the guard’s release me. Are they going to take turns degrading me? Is he going to give me to them now as he threatened? Covering my eyes with my palms, I wait for his judgement. There’s nothing merciful in his actions. He’s a sadist. A beast. Why had I ever imagined he could be gentle?

  How much more is he going to punish me? Haven’t I suffered enough?

  “Leave us.” Master’s voice is still brimming with wrath.

  The fear inside me keeps me pinned in its undertow.

  My legs are shoved roughly apart. Flinching at the touch, I splay my fingers peeking through them with swollen, tear-stained eyes.

  My muscled captor with the sculpted body moves between my legs. Ripping off his mask, I see no signs of softening toward me.

  “Master, please.” He’s terrifying me.

  Unbuckling his jeans, he releases his rampant cock. “You’ll take it!”

  My gasp is sharp and loud as he thrusts into me with violence. Filled with his thickness, I writhe from the discomfort.

  Snarling possessively, he starts to fuck me harshly. Hands tightly clutching my hips, his weight crushes me into the rock surface at my back. He claims my body with a furiousness that borders on manic.

  “I’ll tether you. Chain you up and never let you go.” His mouth is a hard, anguished slash.

  I recognize his loss of control. The wildness consuming him as my visions always consume me. He’s drenched in madness. A mirror to my own.

  Wrapping my legs around his hips, I dig my heels into his sculpted arse. Hands finding his shoulders, I cling to him as he sets free his fury.

  He soothed my distress with his presence. A balm to my own insanity. From my curse and in return, I will save him from his. This primordial seething that my actions have invoked.

  Above me, his expression is hard, his scars drawn deep and fierce.

  I welcome his onslaught, take every drive of his body into my own. My whimpers and moans mingle with his snarls and roars. Pleasure and pain blend. An orgasm hits me with shocking force with a vicious rush of ecstasy. Screaming his name, my pussy clenches around his cock.

  Hands encircle my neck.

  The visions I’ve seen hundreds of times of me dying flash through my head with the frantic pounding of my heart. I want to plead. To beg but the words are trapped unable to escape through the pressure he’s exerting.

  26

  Soren

  I continue strangling Cassandra until those lovely blue eyes, so full of hopelessness and fear, flutter shut. Her head lolls to the side. Releasing her throat before any permanent damage is done, I thrust into her limp unconscious body. I’d deafened myself to her pleas and tears as I’d punished her.

  She tried to leave.

  Flee.

  The knowledge inflicts pain on me she doesn’t even realize she can bestow. Cassandra will never be free. I’ll cage her forever. Clip those lovely wings and chain her up for eternity. Wall her in so not even the light can touch her.

  With two more thrusts, I come inside her, savagely marking her with my seed.

  Madness.

  Jagged edges meant to cut and harm.

  Clarity pierces the darkness in my mind. As the chaos recedes I feel grounded.

  My Little Dove should have been bathed and perfumed. Fed the finest honey and ambrosia. Honored and presented to me properly long before all this.

  Instead I took her like a whore on a boulder beside the river Cocytus. Violated her like a ravenous animal.

  Releasing the grip I have on her hips, my softening cock slips out of her. My cum leaks from her slit. Shame, guilt, emotions I haven’t felt for eons thrash up, tightening my chest.

  She lays naked and pale. The only assurance I have she’s not dead in the rise and fall of her little breasts.

  I’ve desecrated her.

  Defiled her body.

  Hurt her.

  Shattered the last of her innocence and tore it all away.

  What have I done?

  What have I become?

  I’m no better than the monsters I guard.

  A wretched creature.

  One that does not deserve to gaze upon a beautiful face.

  27

  Cassandra

  Consciousness filters in. Confused, mind blank, I lay quiescent. Snuggled into a firm chest, strong arms bind me in place. The coarseness of material brushes my bare bottom. I don’t understand why everything hurts.

  “Shh, Dove it’s okay. I’ve got you.” Deep rumbling, the voice sets of an explosion of memories.

  Petrified I try to scramble free.

  “Don’t do that,” Master growls.

  Freezing I sit rigid in his embrace. Pain still reverberates through my body from his punishment and fuck. He’s muddled me up inside. There are moments when I feel a weird connection with him like now. An unspoken understanding. At other times, like earlier, all I feel toward him is hate.

  He’s my jailor.

  Bent on training and selling me. I shouldn’t harbor anything for him but loathing.

  Heat rolls off Master Soren’s sculpted body in hypnotic waves soothing my agitation.

  “I’m sorry for frightening you, Little Dove. For hurting you,” he apologizes roughly. “When I found you gone…”

  “I just wanted to go home.” My voice is tiny, meek.

  “This is your home.”

  “No, it’s not. You’re going to give me away to someone else like I’m just some kind of object!” I respond bitterly. The reject stings so much, but I can’t explain why.

  Master says nothing for what feels like an eternity, rocking me gently. “Is that why you tried to run away?”

  “Yes.”

  Squeezing me tightly, he hugs me to his brawny chest. “You're wrong. I’m going to cancel the contract and pay off your buyer.”

  I don’t dare to look up at him in case he crushes my traitorous burst of hope. “You are?”

  “No one is taking you from me, Little Dove. I’m the only one you’ll sing for. I’m going to take care of you properly. How I should have in the beginning. I’ll protect you from Kalia’s attention and the others in the prison. You don’t have to worry about them anymore.”

  I feel the press of his cheek on the top
of my head, the fervency of his words. Closing my eyes, I snuggle into him further, relief and happiness at his words making me relax.

  “You’re lucky I found you before Cerberus made you a snack. She’s ravenous with the pups she’s carrying.”

  Recalling the three headed hound, I shudder. It had chased me with a resolve mirrored by its owner.

  “Cerberus…she’s the guardian of the underworld,” I murmur, thankful for all my time with my nose in a book.

  “That’s right.” Master’s voice thrums with approval. “She stops the dead leaving and the living entering, although she hasn’t been required to do so for a very long time.”

  My surroundings finally register. We’re no longer on the banks of the river Cocytus. Nor back in the bleak walls of my cell. Radiant and luminous, a mirage of flowers lights up the night in an array of colors. Their soft light brings awe and a sense of fascination.

  The air is crisper than inside the prison, scented heavily with the aroma of the glowing blooms.

  Any lingering fear dissolving, I shift on his lap swiveling my head from side to side in awe.

  “Only things that thrive in the dark survive here.” Master’s voice is a deep whisper that sends a shiver over my skin. Still held in the refuge of his embrace, my earlier panic seeps away.

  “Why?”

  “We have no sun. This land is forever steeped in night.”

  No sun? The stupidity of my earlier escape attempt hits me. I would have been lost forever in the dark. I’m not even sure how I would have survived. Could have died.

  Raking errant curls out of my face, I swallow down a wave of bleakness. “It’s beautiful.”

  “My wife created this garden. When she died, it was one of the only things I had left of her, so I keep it tended,” he confides, oblivious to my thoughts. “This place is endlessly in bloom.”

  Surveying the space, I can see the length and depths it has been nurtured. A sea of color shimmers from each petal. A mixture of plants has been planted among intricate carved statues. The beings they depict are half naked or in togas.