A Wife for the Torturer

by Daniella Wright

  When I looked back at Markus, he was no longer the well-groomed young Prince I’d seen moments before. Rather, he’d morphed into something monstrous. He crouched in the pathway, naked from the waist up, with two unbelievably large leather wings unfurled behind him. I froze, watching with a hammering heart as he lifted his gaze from the concrete and met my eyes.

  His were scarlet. Brilliantly red like rubies. Like blood.

  I gasped.

  And then, with a start, I woke up.

  “Holy hell,” I whispered to the dark, empty room around me as I pressed a hand to my chest. I took a moment to remind myself that I wasn’t in the pre-war Central Park, but on an airship where I was a pseudo-trainee-prisoner-plaything for the Rogues.

  I usually didn’t dream so vividly. What a trip that had been.

  I thought about the choices my unconscious mind had placed before me. I certainly didn’t want to die, so I would not have chosen Zik’s path. I didn’t want to become a darkened, hardened criminal, so even though I could recognize pieces of myself strewn down that pathway, I knew I would not have chosen it.

  My mind knew, even in the throes of a silly dream, that going home and seeing my parents again wasn’t an option. That was why there had been no path with them on it.

  Which left Markus, both versions of him, standing on the last pathway, sunlight beaming down on him as if he were a fallen angel.

  I knew, despite the first shock of seeing him in his dragon form, or what my subconscious imagined his dragon form to look like, I would have chosen him.

  Growing still in the thick blackness of my bedroom, a very sudden realization washed over me. I didn’t just want Markus to choose goodness and lightness. I didn’t just want him to toss aside his plans of murdering strange, ruined versions of his family. I didn’t just want him to go home and rekindle any spark of familial fondness he might have lying dormant in his heart.

  I, plain and simple, wanted him.

  I cared for him.

  Maybe I even loved him.

  I breathed aloud a single word into the dark around me.

  “Markus.”

  Then, I shot out of bed and barreled toward the door, desperate to get to him, even if it meant running across the entire airship in the middle of the night wearing nothing but a rumpled Rogue t-shirt and a pair of undies.

  I yanked open the heavy metal door and took a step outside my room.

  Only to find the very thing I was craving sitting on the floor outside my door.

  He looked up, clearly surprised to see me not only awake, but up and obviously about to go somewhere.

  “Oh,” I whispered, breath coming fast. “I was looking for you.”

  Chapter 15

  Leading

  Ellen

  Before I even realized what I was doing, I reached for Markus and tugged his arm upwards until he was standing in front of me.

  “What a coincidence,” he muttered, his voice blending seamlessly with the night. “I was looking for you, too.”

  I smiled as he shrugged his forearm out of my grip and then immediately took my empty hand.

  “What for?” I asked, even though I had a strong feeling it was the same reason I’d suddenly had the indescribable need to be near him.

  “I need to tell you something,” Markus admitted.

  “Tell me in here,” I replied, pulling him back into my bedroom with me. The door closed again, hopefully not loud enough to wake anyone, and we were plunged into blackness. Unwillingly, I slipped my hand out of his and stumbled through the dark room until I found the switch that flipped on a series of small, twinkling lights hanging over the headboard. It was surprisingly cutesy for the Rogues, but I’d asked Loretta for lighting that was a little less harsh than the fluorescents and the fairy lights were the only thing she’d managed to dig up.

  Now, of course, they really set the mood.

  I cleared my throat and faced Markus. His eyes were flickering between black and gold and red again, but not in a frightening way. Not this time. This time, the emotion waking his dragon side appeared to be something more akin to hunger. The dim light cast dramatic shadows across his face and I fell speechless at the mere sight of him standing there.

  “What did you want to tell me?” I asked.

  Markus took three quick steps toward me and, with a surprisingly gentle grip, lifted his hands to cradle my face.

  “You’re so beautiful,” he breathed.

  The corners of my mouth tugged upward as our lips edged closer and closer to each other.

  “Is that all?” I murmured.

  “No,” he answered, swallowing hard. “Also… I want you.”

  “I-”

  “Actually, I need you.”

  Just like that, Markus pressed his lips to mine.

  The moment we met in a kiss, it was like a switch being turned on. Like the sun rising. Like a distant star exploding.

  I gasped against his mouth, a chill running down my spine as our tongues tangled together. It felt so good to touch him and to feel his hands on my body in such a way that was so much different than it had been when we’d been in his bedroom and he was trying to scare me off.

  Though I considered myself first and foremost a survivor, and had done a lot of surviving throughout my young life, I had to admit that I’d never felt more alive than I did at that moment. It was like I’d been electrified.

  With a quiet groan, Markus moved his hands from my face to my hips, forcing me back against the metal wall. Again, the parallels between this moment and our last were undeniable, except for this new tenderness. It was a different kind of passion entirely.

  I felt Markus’ hands dancing at the hem of the t-shirt I was wearing, as if he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to make that move, or as if he was afraid that it wasn’t what I wanted. To show that I definitely wasn’t doing anything I didn’t want to do, I reached down to shove his hands out of the way and then tugged the shirt over my head, leaving me in nothing but my panties.

  “Oh,” whispered Markus, visibly surprised that I clearly wanted him just as badly as he wanted me. Our kiss broke apart for the briefest of moments, just long enough for me to watch his bewildered, breathless expression turn into something that I was more familiar with coming from him: mischief and playfulness.

  He smirked at me, stealing a quick, chaste kiss. “I like a woman who can take charge like that.”

  “Do you really?” I murmured in reply. “I thought Prince Markus preferred to lead, not follow.”

  “You thought wrong, love,” Markus whispered, dipping his head to press his lips my throat. I tilted my head back, eyelids fluttering closed in ecstasy as he peppered kisses along my neck and collarbone.

  Then, with all the strength I could muster, I placed my palms flat on his chest and shoved as hard as I could. Markus laughed in surprise, stumbling backward until the backs of his knees hit the edge of my bed and he sank down onto the rumpled sheets. With a devilish grin that I’d never had reason to wear before, I climbed onto his lap and straddled his hips.

  Markus leaned forward for a kiss, but I immediately placed my hand on the base of his throat and forced him back onto the bed, the gentlest of grips around his neck. His eyes, always so dark, darkened to something even deeper. Something animalistic.

  “No stealing kisses,” I whispered in his ears. “Not while I’m in charge.”

  He moaned, though the sound came out more as a growl, as I kissed the spot just below his earlobe, trailing the very tip of my tongue across his warm skin. His grip on my hips tightened, and I could tell he wanted to flip us over, to be on top of me, to dominate.

  But I was determined to put this royal bad boy in his place and prove that I could be just as strong and powerful, even if I was merely a human. I wanted to show him that I was on his level, and that, despite everything else, we weren’t that different.

  I did away with his shirt and pants quickly, tossing them onto the floor without a second thought. Markus lay benea
th me, watching me with eyes that glittered with an odd mixture of desire and something akin to amazement. It was as if he could hardly believe what he was seeing, what he was experiencing.

  With a giggle, I grabbed his wrists and forced his arms over his head, pinning them to the bed.

  “You’re my prisoner,” I murmured, kissing his jaw, his cheekbone, his temple.

  “I sure am,” he whimpered.

  I began moving my hips in small circles against his stiff manhood. The only thing separating us was our underwear, and my own panties were growing damp at the friction. Markus’ breath stuttered on his next exhale.

  “Please,” he panted. “Please.”

  “Please, what?” I asked, feigning innocence as I continued to move against him.

  Markus practically growled, fingers clawing at the fabric of the only clothing that separated us.

  “You’re more of a monster than I am,” he said, shooting me a wink as I quickly maneuvered us out of our underwear. I reached down for his erection and stroked it softly as I perched on his lap. Markus lifted up onto his elbows in a feeble attempt to sit up, but I pushed him back down with my other hand.

  I shifted slightly. And then, without much warning, I slid his member into my entrance.

  I gasped and practically collapsed forward onto Markus, but steadied myself with two hands on his muscled abdomen. He held my hips tight in his hands, neck arched at the feeling of being buried deep inside me. He filled me up perfectly, so flawlessly that I began to tremble as I began thrusting once more.

  Biting my lip, I rocked my hips against his. My entire body was alive with wild pleasure, blossoming outside from my pulsing center to the very tips of my fingers and toes.

  Though I’d spent most of my life in a post-apocalyptic world that was centered on surviving just to see the sun rise in the east the next morning, I’d been intimate with a handful of men before. Most of the experiences had been acts of teenage rebellion, a reckless reaction to the crumbled world around me, or, later into my adulthood, desperate attempts to feel something human beyond simple hunger and thirst and exhaustion. I’d never done it because I was in love with someone, or because I merely craved a man so deeply that I couldn’t bear another moment of not being as close to him as possible.

  But, now, with Markus, it was like I was experiencing an entirely new spectrum of human pleasure. Or rather, not entirely human pleasure. It was like my eyes were open for the first time in over twenty-five years. It was like I’d been waiting my whole life for this moment, walking through the years half asleep while something deep and dark within me sat coiled and ready to be let loose the second I met him.

  As we made love, fast and hot and heavy in the darkened room of that cold, cruel airship, I couldn’t help but think that Markus was a perfect mirror of my soul. He was the dark that filled in the cracks in my light, the desire that showed me that life was about more than just surviving.

  Underneath me, Markus sat up. This time, I let him. I clutched onto his shoulders as our torsos came together and let a sharp moan escape up to the ceiling at the sudden change in angle.

  Markus grabbed my hips and slowed us down. I was so overcome with passion that I hardly noticed him taking that small amount of control. That was, until a moment later when I corrected it and increased the tempo of my hips, moving him deeper within me. His large length pressing into my delicate walls, after so long not being touched by another, was almost uncomfortable, but the pleasure-pain only brought me closer to the edge.

  “Ellen,” breathed Markus, pressing his face into my neck with a gentle groan.

  “Come on, my Prince,” I crooned, approaching my climax quicker and quicker by the second.

  Markus cursed under his breath and I felt him unravel beneath me, a warmth releasing inside me. He collapsed backward and I rocked my hips once, twice more before dissolving into a shuddering orgasm on top of him.

  Suddenly tired as if I’d just run a marathon, I climbed off of him and dropped down onto the bed beside him. Together in silence, we waited for our breathing to slow and for our pulses to stop thudding so loudly in our ears.

  After a minute, Markus turned his head to look at me.

  “Holy hell, woman,” he sighed. “Are you sure you’re not a dragon?”

  I laughed, accepting his embrace as he rolled over and pulled me into his arms. Tilting my face up to his, I kissed him softly. His lips were smooth, supple and tender as he deepened the kiss for only a brief moment, before pulling away with a smile I’d never seen on him before. It was a boyish grin, full of a youthful light. The way he was looking at me, eyes sparkling, a rosiness high in his cheeks, it was as if he was staring at an angel come to Earth, or whatever the equivalent to that was on his home planet.

  “What?” I asked, biting my lip self-consciously as he continued to gaze at me.

  “You’re just so beautiful,” he replied. It hardly sounded like the kind of thing that would come out of Markus’ mouth in any other situation. But, even in just the past few days, he’d transformed in front of my eyes. From the intimidating stranger who didn’t seem entirely human that had knocked on my door minutes after my kidnapping, to the monstrous dragon Prince who attempted to scare me into not caring about him, to this strange, wonderful new creature in front of me with adoration in his eyes and tenderness in his touch.

  “Oh, and one more thing,” he added.

  “Hmm?” I replied, already halfway to sleep in his arms.

  “Next time, I’m in charge,” Markus chuckled, his deep voice colored with longing.

  In answer, I simply smiled and curled closer into his side.

  Chapter 16

  Arrival

  Markus

  When I woke up to find Ellen’s naked body wrapped around mine, I breathed a sigh of relief.

  So, it hadn’t been just a dream.

  It had really happened.

  I closed my eyes again, relishing the memories of our lovemaking. Her long hair, dark and spiraling down her bare back. Her emerald eyes alight with dark passion. The way it felt to be inside her… So right. So perfect.

  I sighed and carefully extracted myself from her embrace, sliding out of the bed and tip-toeing to the window. The airship was still; it must have landed in the middle of the night not long after both Ellen and I fell asleep. I recognized my surroundings immediately. It may have been a ruined version of my original timeline, but it was still very much my home.

  In order to remain inconspicuous, Lee had directed the Rogue ship to land deep in the spiked, perilous mountains that surrounded my family’s castle. A fresh blanket of snow covered the soil and the thick, towering pine trees. The Rogues had managed to find a clearing large enough for the ship, and I noticed from the first rays of light in the east that, if I were to walk back across the ship to my room on the other side, I would see the twisting spires of my childhood home in the distance.

  With a nervous glance at Ellen, I pulled on the clothes she practically tore off my body yesterday and slipped out of her bedroom. The ship was still quiet as I made my way through the empty halls. I knew it wasn’t a particularly classy move, sneaking out of a girl’s room before she was even awake. Especially since I actually cared about what that girl would think when she realized the other side of the bed was empty.

  But, I was home. Or, rather, in a parallel version of home.

  And that meant I had things to do.

  Though I realized that Ellen made me want to be a good person, and I certainly felt like a new man in her presence, it didn’t automatically turn all the darkness within me into light. Even love itself wasn’t that strong. We were who we were, and that was undeniable. Bad people could actively make good choices, and vice versa, but the true driving force behind a person’s actions and desires would always be the same.

  I’d called Lee for a reason. I’d walked on to this ship for a reason.

  I’d already paid the fees and already made my plans. I’d risked everything becoming a da
rk tourist. Though my reputation certainly hadn’t been spotless before this little adventure, it certainly hadn’t included explicit criminal activity that purposefully went against intergalactic federal Time Agency laws.

  The Rogues certainly wouldn’t refund me if I told them that I simply didn’t feel like following through with my original plan anymore. After all, we couldn’t exactly turn around. We’d landed on my planet, in a ruined timeline handpicked specifically for me and my dark urges, that much was obvious from the view outside every single window on the ship.

  I paused halfway back to my bedroom and rerouted my footsteps to the common room. As usual, it was empty. That was to be expected on a trip this small, but I found myself wondering what it would be like to go on one of the longer, busier dark tourism trips in which the ship was absolutely crowded with demons itching for debauchery. I imagined it would be a lot easier for me to ignore the lighter parts of myself surrounded by so many other dark people.

  Dropping down onto the same couch I sat on on the day of my arrival, I sighed heavily and stared out of the massive windows at the snowy, mountainous landscape of my childhood. I thought back to the day that changed everything, that set this entire plan in motion.

  The sneer on my uncle’s face, the indifference on my father’s… All of my siblings and cousins, watching me as if they were all equally ashamed of me and afraid of me. I didn’t care that Lilia claimed our mother was looking for me, as if she truly cared about my wellbeing. All I could think about that night was how much I wanted to make them suffer as much as I had. I wanted to end them.

  If I was being completely honest with myself, I didn’t want to ignore the darkness within me. I didn’t want to cast aside everything that made me who I was, every symptom of my life experiences, just for the sake of some higher moral calling that Ellen was so obsessed with.

  I didn’t want to fight the urge to kill my family.