The Dove & the Darkness (Ceasefire Series book 5) Read online

  Narrowing all my efforts, I flick her clit, lick, and nip, the scent of her arousal filling my nostrils and taste buds. Strangely sweet, pungent. Her sounds and movements grow more urgent until finally she’s spasms under my pleasuring.

  “Don’t stop until you’ve wrung every last drop out of her.”

  I do as I’m told, continuing my teasing until the quakes subside and her body melts onto the mattress, boneless and replete. Wiping the juices from my chin with the back of my hand, I sit up to survey her. A deep rose pink suffuses her breasts, neck, and cheeks. Posture relaxed, her bliss is evident. Darting a glance at the bottles on the table, I see one shining a radiant pink.

  I smile at my achievement with a sense of triumph.

  Reaching down, Master presses his fingers into her soaking slit. Watching him touch her, the way she shudders, gently mashing her mound into his palm sends a dart of jealousy straight through me.

  “Well done, Little Dove,” he approves with a nod. “You’ve passed the test.”

  15

  Soren

  Training Cassandra to give blowjobs hasn’t been hard. She’s naturally good at it. I’m bent on exhausting her sexually. There will be no mercy as I awaken her carnal desires.

  I didn’t lie to her about the other females. In the end after I’ve finished with them, they’ve

  all willingly taken my cock in every hole and enjoyed it.

  Seeing her pleasuring another woman had turned me on to no end. Watching her realize the power she had over her victim and slowly grow more confident in her actions. I know keeping her in an ecstasy induced haze won’t last forever. We have a long way to go until I’m done teaching and molding her.

  This girl stirred things inside me she shouldn’t. I’ve started to thirst for her mewls. The rosy flush of her skin post orgasm. Her tears are what I should crave. She’d taken to the anal plug well. My little Dove will look beautiful wearing the ones I’ve crafted myself, all adorned with precious gems. There are matching bejeweled nipple clamps, but we have yet to get to those.

  Absently I tug a t-shirt down over my masked head and on. The ring hanging from my neck is cold and grounding as I tuck it beneath the safety of the material.

  The thought of snuffing out her inner light disturbs me more than it should. I want to see her shatter. On her knees submitting to me. At the same time, I find myself desiring more. Soft, sighs and heated whispers. Perfumed skin. Things forgotten and lost to me over such a long stretch of time. Feelings are a weakness. Something I haven’t felt since my dead wife. This woman stirs things inside me I shouldn’t feel. Cassandra is testing my control. Whatever power she has over me, I need to shake it off.

  The other whores I’ve trained were easily conditioned. When it comes to my little Dove, I'm not so sure she will be the same. After all, she’s the adoptive daughter of the Devil. I wouldn’t expect anything less than fiery resistance. Would she break under harder methods? Perhaps I need to accelerate my plans.

  “Soren, if the Devil discovers the girl is here, we’ll be on the brink of war with Hell.” Lucien’s voice is loaded with concern as I enter the security room. He’s the only occupant. Swiveling in his chair, the vampire pins me with icy blue eyes. He’s fed recently. A rosy glow warms his cheek bones, and he’s no longer corpse white.

  “Good I’ll obtain my ultimate goal. The eradication of Lucifer and all those loyal to him.”

  It’s time for the Devil to pay his due. He’s responsible for the deaths of the only family I had left after my brother murdered my wife. They had been my haven and solace. Moving to the screen, I can’t stop myself from checking on Cassandra’s hallway camera. All is quiet, her door firmly locked.

  “You’re already making an example out of his daughter…do you really think this is a good idea? We should never have taken on this client’s request.”

  Rage flares bright and burning. I’ve been bitterly waiting for this moment for so long, and Lucien thinks I should walk away?

  “You know what he took from me. What he did is unforgivable,” I snap back cuttingly. “Blood must be met with blood.”

  The vampire releases a long pent up sigh of frustration. “So cut the bitch’s throat and be done with it. We’ll say she tried to escape. If we dump her body in another realm, no one will know we had her at all. Lucifer will think one of his enemies took her. That way he’ll stop looking, because we both know he won’t stop until he finds her.”

  The thought of slicing up my little Dove’s pale skin as I have other prisoners turns my stomach. Reaching beneath the confines of my mask, I rub the tips of my fingers over my scarred flesh. I’m not sure I could ever inflict such damage on the girl. The knowledge is startling and unwanted.

  “I intend to ruin her first. Shatter all her resistance and crush any hope,” I mutter, pushing aside the uncomfortable thoughts and feelings the revelation I’ve just had invokes.

  “The rumors from the palace are not good. They’ll be sending someone down soon. Breanna’s been sending you messages for weeks, and she’s pestering me for answers.”

  With an impatient growl, I drop my hand, my eyes fixing on the vampire’s through the slits of my disguise. “Let them. They don’t control me.”

  I see the unspoken questions hovering. The ones he’ll voice soon, I’m sure. Does he think I’m mad? I know most do. That I lost my mind when I lost my family.

  “You know you can’t keep doing this. Something is eventually going to give.”

  “Enough Lucien. When I want your council, I will seek it.”

  Bowing his head, his posture turns submissive where he still sits in his chair. “Forgive me, Master.”

  Lucien knows me well. My true self has been hidden for decades. Once I was honorable. Noble. Now I’m as ruined as my face. Life, my existence, doesn’t have happy endings. My inner demons won’t let me rest. They howl and haunt me. Breanna can send all the messages she likes, but I will not answer the Fury’s notes. She knows I’m not going back.

  Movement on a screen distracts me. Moving to the mouth of the stairwell, which leads into the lower levels, a group of guards are making their way down with tools.

  “Any news on the foundations?”

  “The cracks still remain. We are doing all we can to restore them, but the prison is far from fortified. I fear eventually this place will crumble.”

  Lucien’s words echo my brothers, which sends anxiety spiraling among the other emotions that burden me.

  “Not while I still breathe,” I mutter vehemently. “My home has stood the test of time. It will endure.”

  “I’m not sure even you can stop the decay now.” Lucien’s eyes dart to the doorway behind me.

  Swiveling again, I find we have an audience. Warden Kalia is watching us with a shrewd, narrowed gaze. Delicate hands on her hips, her talon-like nails are painted the same midnight blue as the revealing dress she is wearing.

  It makes me wonder how much of our conversation she’s overheard. She knows nothing of my true past. If she did, she wouldn’t be holding the position of power she does now.

  “Get out.”

  Lucien obeys her command rising from his chair without a word, he leaves.

  Sliding the door shut, she shifts the lock into place.

  “I’m worried about the interest you have in the new girl. You’ve never given a slave a nickname before,” Kalia bursts out, hotly rounding on me once we're alone. “You think I haven’t heard you call her it over the cameras. You’ve been taking things slowly, which isn’t like you. By now, she would already be broken. A shell of what she once was.”

  “Are you saying you think I’ve lost my touch?” My stare bores into hers, merciless and keen from my eye slits. “Speak plainly I have no patience for your games today.”

  My tone makes her bristle in outrage. “No, Soren, but perhaps it’s time to show her the other side of what is done here.” Kalia taps one long finger against her thigh. “Not just the bliss harvesting or slave training.
”

  She’s jealous.

  I don’t miss that as it flashes in her eyes. This is a test.

  I recognize it for what it is. I’ve had to face them all through my life. She wants to see if I am softening toward Cassandra. Any hesitation could cost me my position here. My secrets I’d rather keep buried, along with my brother in the deepest dankest cell.

  Nodding my head, I watch her impassively “What did you have in mind?”

  A grin blooms over the vampire’s face as her expression relaxes. “Inmate fourteen is due for execution. Your pretty new plaything should watch you carry it out tomorrow evening. It would be a good way to make her compliant.”

  An unfamiliar lead weight settles in my stomach. His execution isn’t the standard acid bath. Whoever paid to have him tortured wants his death to be slow and painful. A take your time job to make sure he suffers. Cassandra would see me at my worst. She would witness what I’m capable of. A killer. One whose hands are drenched in blood and who feels little remorse. How much death and pain has she witnessed at the hands of her father, Lucifer? She must have seen something of what he does even though she seems so innocent.

  The Warden stands watching me closely. Her sharp brain turning as she awaits my answer.

  I don’t want to care about the girl.

  A conscious is something I don’t need. She’s nothing more than a whore like the rest I’ve handled. So why is she now starting to feel like more than that?

  Showing no emotion, I nod. “She’ll be present when I end the prisoner’s life.”

  Kalia wants a show, and I’ll give her one.

  16

  Cassandra

  “Master where are you taking me?”

  He doesn’t reply. The tightening clutch on my bicep is his only response..

  Since entering my cell, he’s barely spoken. Silent and brooding, it sends the chill of fear through my veins. Have I done something wrong? Made him angry?

  Pace picking up, he marches us along the stone corridor and past other bolted metal doors. The corridors stretch endlessly.

  The stone floor is smooth and cold beneath my bare feet. As I move, the chains he’s placed around my wrists clank. Sounds from the other inmates make me shiver. They sound inhuman. Snarls, grunts, screams, and roars. All of them emanate from the occupants within.

  Jerking my arm, Master positions me to move faster when I almost stumble. Before I realize it, we’re in another room. A table dominates the space.

  It’s the form chained down on the surface my attention clings to.

  Naked, shaking the chubby man is sobbing quietly, the sound muffled behind a gag.

  Spying us, his eyes begin to bulge. He’s terrified. It pours out of him so strong I shake in reaction. This isn’t like before, I grasp quickly. Not like with the other slave girl. Whatever he’s going to show me, it’s different.

  “Who’s that?” I whisper in growing foreboding, staring up at Master’s imposing frame.

  “You think what I do to you is terrible, but you have no idea what I’m truly capable of.” Dragging my stiff body toward a metal chair, Master forces me down to sit.

  “Master Soren, who is he?” I sit meekly as he crouches to buckle my wrists to the arm rests. There’s no thought to fight him. Shock has me immobile.

  He doesn’t reply at first. Raising my legs one by one, he spreads them wide and binds me open and exposed to the seat. “A prisoner here just like you.”

  Master’s words make me freeze. “What are you going to do to him?”

  “Serve him justice,” he mutters, rising to stand menacingly over me.

  “For what?” I whisper through suddenly numb lips.

  “Does it matter?” With purposeful strides, he rounds the table. The moment the male sees him, he fights against his bounds.

  Yes. It does. It matters to me because I can’t see. My visions are silent in his presence, and whatever this prisoner is being punished for is a mystery. The absence is disconcerting.

  “Fourteen I have been sent to terminate you on the orders of the Warden.” His voice is robotic. As if he’s said the words a million times before.

  Selecting a knife from the items that’s been left out on a bench, he places his hand firmly down on the man’s chest. Cutting into his shoulder he carves the flesh. Blood spills over his victims’ pink skin, the captive screaming behind his gag.

  Breathing hard, I can’t contain my fear. He’s torturing another human being in front of me without pause or hesitation. Nausea rises like acid in my throat as I watch. What he’s done to me is nothing compared to what he’s doing to his other captive. Master has given me pleasure as well as pain.

  I might be the Devil’s adopted daughter and live in Hell, but I was never exposed to this kind of inhumanity. I was always sheltered from the atrocity and barbarity my father did to others. Protected.

  Glancing over his shoulder, Master’s gaze finds mine. His irises are so dark they’re almost black. No, that’s not completely true. It’s as if darkness itself is peering at me from the other side.

  “You’re so fucking lovely sitting there watching me with your big, innocent eyes. It makes me want to do bad things to you,” he growls, his voice so guttural it almost isn’t human.

  I can’t stop shaking, trapped in my seat. Part of me wants to look away, but for some perverse reason, I can’t stop watching. It’s a horror show playing out right in front of me.

  Laying down the knife, Master picks up a pair of metal cutters. Pressing the inmate’s hand down flat, he slips a finger between the blades. A sickening snick follows as they’re snipped shut.

  As the digit hits the floor and the prisoner screams louder, I hyperventilate. Breath locking in my lungs, I can’t seem to make them expand. Why is he so calm? Even though his mask hides his face, I can see by the way he acts. He doesn’t care that he’s inflicting damage on another living being.

  “Calm down, my Dove.” Master tries to soothe when I flinch from his bloodied touch as he moves toward me. “You’ll make yourself pass out, and I can’t have that.”

  “Don’t...” I whimper, cowering back. I couldn’t bear to have him touch me now. After watching this, the thought makes me feel sick. He’s twisted and evil. Tears break free to roll down my chilled cheeks.

  “Shh hush.” Lowering to his haunches, Master plays with my tits, rolling the nipples between his fingers.

  My body instantly responds as it’s been trained to. A moan joins my sobbing as I feel a sharp tug of pleasure spiral through my chest. The more he teases the torrid peaks, the more it quietens my mind. Instead of being frightened, a weird sense of calm embraces me.

  Once he looks satisfied he’s subdued me enough, he rises to return to his victim.

  “I want to see your face,” I blurt out as he moves away. I need to see it. To know he’s just a man. A monster made of flesh and blood. Not a creature or a beast made from nightmares and visions.

  Master pauses mid-step. Turning back toward me, his head tilts to one side. “You shouldn’t ask for things you will regret,” he tells me, brown eyes narrowed behind the slits they peer from.

  “Please let me see it.”

  A second ticks by as he stares down into my face. Lips compressing in whatever emotion he’s feeling, he reaches behind and peels the disguise away.

  One half of his face is the kind that stops a woman in her tracks. Handsome. Rugged. Jaw prominent, his nose is straight. The right half is hideously scarred. From his scalp to just below his mouth run five jagged slash marks. Skin puckered, it's silvery and risen from where it’s long ago healed. His hair has a natural curl. Cut short, the dark chocolate brown locks frame his features perfectly.

  They look like claw marks. Has he been attacked by some kind of big cat?

  An animal? I don’t dare ask.

  His expression as he gauges my reaction is cold and closed.

  “Now I take something in return.” Dropping back to his haunches, Master places his large hand
s on the inside of my thighs. Kneeling he draws closer.

  “Wh...what are you doing?” I ask as my fear races out of control again.

  Nuzzling between my legs, he inhales deeply. “You smell delicious.” With a long slow swipe of his tongue, he licks the length of my pussy lips.

  I jump at the oddly pleasurable sensation. No one had ever touched me there before with their mouth. It’s intrusive, yet exciting.

  Humming he continues his assault. Writhing in the chair, I can do nothing but mewl and moan as he expertly sucks and nips at my clit. A blunt bloodied finger works its way into my tight sheath making the walls spasm at the invasion.

  “You’re so tight.” Master’s voice is heavy with male hunger. “When you're finally ready, I plan to ride and master you all night long. Enjoy every ounce of pleasure your young body will bring me.”

  “Please.” Reality slips away inside my head. Nothing seems real anymore. All that matters is the bliss this male can give me to blot out the horror I’ve been kidnapped into.

  Legs stiffening, I throw back my head as I find my peak. Spiraling down with it enslaved to the ecstasy, I go limp.

  “That’s a good girl.” Bringing his fingers to his lips, he licks away my juices and the blood from his torturing of slave fourteen, which coats the tips. “I’ll punish you next time if you disobey. Keep quiet and watch.”

  Rising Master slinks back to the man who’s still whimpering and moaning. Skin now pallid, the other prisoner is shaking so badly in shock he can’t keep still.

  17

  Soren

  Labored gasps echo around the cell.

  Pulling up an eyelid, I carefully cut the scalpel across the slim flap of skin.

  Below me, the man tries to scream. Crimson pumps from his open mouth as the sound comes out in an unintelligible gurgle now he’s missing his tongue.

  Flicking the flesh onto the floor with the rest of the pieces of the human, I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. The room is a mess. This whole scenario is fucking with my head in ways I would never have dreamed of. I’ve disposed of prisoners before. It’s been my duty to look after them from the start, so in a way, it’s only right that I end them. Not all that come here are conditioned and sold. Part of the business is interrogations and torture. If you want information squeezed out from an enemy or traitor for a price, we can make them talk. This poor idiot spilled his guts, and with no more use for him, the client has asked for his elimination. Not something quick but painful and slow.