“I am definitely not as good as you are with a cue.” The man’s hands returned and rested on her hips as his lips moved against her neck. She rolled her eyes at the double entendre, but she was focused on checking on the girls around the room. Everyone seemed fine because the guests were playing nice - for now.
A thin thread of panic rose up inside her as the guy pulled her back to a chair and into his lap, but finishing the glass of wine burned it away and she settled against him.
“I’m Andrew, by the way,” he whispered in her ear. She really didn’t care about his name, or about him in general, but she smiled anyway and set the wine glass on the floor by the chair. Of the choices in the room for the night, he seemed nice.
“Hi, Andrew.” She looked into his eyes, a soft brown that were watery from how much he’d had to drink. He traced his thumb over her bottom lip and then gently kissed her, the sweet taste of brandy lingering on his lips as she kissed him back. Even with the Oblivion in her system there was no heat to the kiss, but her body responded.
Her pussy clenched as he pulled her tighter against him, and she contemplated straddling him to get a little friction to feed the liquid heat growing inside her. His hand trailed down her arm until his fingertips were resting inside the bands of light, and he suddenly broke the kiss and looked down at the skin of her wrist where the bands glowed.
“It’s weird, I can actually feel this humming in my fingers. Do you feel that?” he asked with boyish excitement, and she smiled even though it was an incredibly stupid question since the bands were on her wrists.
“Yes, I feel it.” She watched as he was mesmerized by the light suspended in a wide band around her wrist, moving his fingertips in and out of the light. ”Are they always there?”
“Only when Master is near, or if he gives me a command,” Fae answered and his hand stilled and he looked away from her, taking another drink from his glass. Drinking wasn’t going to suddenly make it okay that he had accepted Nikola’s invitation, or that he had tracked down one of the two non-mortals in the house. No matter what he felt, his curiosity would likely get the best of him and overrule any moral ideas he thought he had – this guy wasn’t a knight in shining armor.
“I’m sor-” Andrew looked penitent, but his eyes were still staring at her lips when there was a harsh tap on her shoulder and Fae turned to find Irena with her violet eyes wide. Fae knew that look, and knew that Irena was moments from an all-out scene.
Fae turned back to Andrew with a smile. “Let me get you a drink refill?”
He gave a lopsided smile and handed her his glass, sighing as Fae slipped off his lap to talk to Irena. Moving towards the nearest corner Irena gripped Fae’s arm tightly, her pupils were dilated from the Oblivion, and her pale blue skin was coated in sweat.
“Fae, you need to do something, I know you can do something.” Irena was out of it, the Oblivion was a big dose for a tiny pixie and she was babbling and talking fast. “Alec said – Alec, he said that he heard Juliet fighting them in the guards’ quarters. He said he could hear her screaming!”
Way to be helpful, Alec, like Irena needed to know that.
“What do you want me to do, Irena?” Fae was trying to think straight through her own mental haze. It’s not like she could just walk out of the parlor and grab Juliet from the guards with a ‘please and thank you’.
“Please, Fae. Help her? You’re much stronger than her, I know you can do it. Promise me, promise me you’ll help, promise you’ll keep her safe.” Irena was out of her mind, and definitely not thinking straight, but she was begging and people were starting to stare. It was the inverse of what Ebere had pleaded with her over that morning. Fae tried to take a steadying breath, tried to push back the heat inside her, and tried to think.
Her head felt like it was full of cotton, and Irena’s panicked whimpering was too distracting. Others were looking, and soon Butler or Nikola would notice and that would be worse.
“Listen, I’ll do what I can. I’ll do something.” Sure. Something. “But you have to stay safe, don’t do anything stupid.” Fae whispered and Irena nodded, and her bottom lip quivered like she was about to cry. Fae shook her head. “Go on, I promise it will be okay.”
It was foolish to promise something she couldn’t guarantee, but she couldn’t say no to Irena. She hadn’t been able to ignore the pixie in the Suyhay Market, and it had been a futile effort to try since.
Turning away, Fae headed to the bar to get more brandy for Andrew. Why couldn’t tonight have gone smoothly? Everything would have worked out fine if Nikola hadn’t sent Juliet to the guards. The guilt at betraying Ebere’s tentative friendship on the very day she’d told the girl she’d try to do better was gnawing at her, turning her stomach. Even worse, she really had no idea what to do.
Fae asked Caridee for more brandy, and as she was waiting her eyes landed on a large glass decanter of wine on the bar top. When they had told her not to do anything stupid, they had probably meant exactly what she was thinking. Which is exactly why it would probably work.
Fuck it.
“Here goes nothing…” Fae whispered to herself.
Taking the brandy from Caridee in one hand she grabbed the decanter by its narrow neck with the other. Turning to walk back to Andrew she watched him smile at her from across the room. He seemed so nice, he would have made the evening easy, but she had to try and keep at least one promise tonight. Sorry, Ebere.
She smiled back at Andrew before tripping herself against a thick carpet on the floor. The glass decanter slammed into the ground and shattered into slivers of glass, the dark red of the wine seeping into the carpet. That was probably a very expensive ‘accident’ because the carpet likely wouldn’t recover. It took a second for Fae to realize that the sharp pain in her hand was a sliver of the glass. She sat up and pressed on the edge of the cut so she could pull the glass out, hissing as it slid from her skin.
The music was still playing, but other than a few random giggles from the girls around the room it had gone eerily quiet.
Fae gasped as her hair was suddenly wrenched up and back, and she brought her hands up to ease the pull as she met Nikola’s eyes. His face was calm but his eyes were furious, and Fae’s stomach dropped to her toes. Shit. The group finally reacted and several of the men cheered, calling out to Nikola in their drunken excitement at the show that was about to commence.
“Nikola! Look at your rug!” One of the guests sitting on a couch, with Mei-Li in his lap, was laughing loudly. “What are you going to do about that?”
“I’m sure Nikola knows how to keep these girls in line. Don’t you Nikola?” another of them called out and he was cheered on by a few others. They were Romans calling for blood. Entertainment. His fist tightened in her hair and she lifted herself onto her toes trying to relax his hold. The men were laughing and hooting, their cries filling her ears. Nikola pushed her forward and she stepped onto a piece of glass and screamed at the sudden pain.
He leaned his head down by her ear and spoke quietly through his teeth. “I told you not to embarrass me, Fae, and if you thought this little incident was going to get you to Juliet you were wrong.” She was standing on her left foot, barely on her toes on her right to avoid pressing the glass in further, as his grip in her hair made her wobble. The comments and suggestions from the guests were growing into a loud roar, and then Andrew’s face came into view in front of Nikola.
He spoke quietly so the other guests couldn’t hear. “Hey, Nikola, I’m sorry, that’s my fault. I asked her for the wine. I should have guessed she was too drunk to carry it all.”
Oh, Andrew, you’re not helping.
Nikola pulled Fae’s head back towards him, which shifted her more off balance and she whimpered at the strain.
“Don’t let her fool you, Andrew. Gods don’t make their pets clumsy.” He pulled her back further and her right foot came down, pressing the glass in sharply. She yelped and he spoke directly into her ear, “Isn’t that right?”
The bands on Fae’s wrists lit up brightly and she cried out as the pain shot up her arms and her knees hit the floor in response. Nikola finally let go of her hair and stood next to her. The relief at not being on her foot was short as an old oak chair with slats on the back was placed in front of her. Butler was leaning on the chair, grinning, and the fact that he actually looked happy made Fae sick. What did they have planned?
“Give me your hands, slut.” He leaned over the back and pulled Fae’s arms through the slats, zip-tying her wrists together before she had the chance to decide if she wanted to fight. Panic seeped in under the haze of the Oblivion, and she pulled her arms back hard against the slats. It just served to hurt her wrists, and she let out a little frustrated scream that she’d been so stupid. She jerked back again, but Nikola pressed her arms down against the seat of the chair and shook his head, a silent command not to even try and break the plastic strips. He stepped back from the chair and Butler turned to the group of guests. Fae’s eyes tracked him as he raised his arms to the sound of their hollering cheers – and unwound a whip.
“No!” Irena screamed from across the room, “Don’t! Don’t, please -”
“Stop, Irena!” Fae shouted at her and stared at her wrists through the slats. The last thing Fae needed was for Irena to get in trouble too. Just one more time to be a failed shield. She was glad she couldn’t see Ebere from where she was. Fae’s heart was pounding against her ribs and her stomach churned when Butler stepped behind her.
The whip cracked overhead and she jumped, which brought cheers and laughs from the guests. Gritting her teeth she tried to slow her heart rate down to prepare for the first actual blow. Then Butler walked up behind her and Fae felt the chill of a knife against her skin just before she heard the fabric of her dress rip down the back.
“I told you I’d make you regret it if you did anything, and I am going to enjoy this so much. Feel free to scream for me.” He brushed the whip across her back before he stepped away from her, and Fae tried to shut out his words. She was trying to breathe, and trying to think through the haze of Oblivion to remember what it felt like to get whipped. It had been years, and all she could remember was that it was a sharp pain, and that it hurt. A lot.
There was a loud cheer a second before a line of vicious fire went down her back. Fae caught the scream in her mouth and bit down to swallow it and tears pricked her eyes.
Okay, so it did more than hurt.
The pain didn’t really fade, but spread out from the thin line it was at first. The cheers got louder and a second line of fire criss-crossed with the first. Fae jerked forward against the chair, but she kept the cry quiet through tightly closed lips. She clenched her fists on the other side of the slats, her one palm slick with blood, and put her forehead down against the seat. The cheers were a constant, bloodthirsty roar. Somewhere between the third and fifth strikes, Fae found herself crying out into the cushion of the seat. Her back was a web of searing pain and the ache spread all over her ribcage, making her bow away from the lash and lift herself off the chair. He paused until she returned to position, and she bit her tongue to keep from begging.
Butler began again and Fae started seeing spots behind her eyes. She was hoping she’d pass out soon but eight, nine, and then ten came and she was still conscious. The twelfth lash landed and it somehow hurt worse than before and she screamed into her arm, hiding her face from the room so she couldn’t see the rabid looks of the guests as they roared out their encouragement.
“Enough.” Nikola’s voice was a boom to her right, and her ears were ringing from the pain. She felt a hand run down her back and it burned so much her muscles locked up. Butler lifted her head with one hand and showed her his palm, a bright red streak of blood painted across it.
“That’s mine,” she whispered and Butler laughed. Fae was delirious from the Oblivion, and the pain, and the exhaustion creeping up on her as the adrenaline fled. The words had slipped from her lips more out of surprise that he had actually whipped her hard enough to bleed, but her brain wouldn’t get into gear. Her body just wanted to shut down, the heat in her skin making her nauseous now as the pain throbbed with the beat of her pulse. She felt her hands cut free and she slid to the floor next to the chair hoping she’d pass out soon.
Feet crowded around her, the chair was pulled away and she tried to curl in a ball. Instead of leaving her on the floor, someone hoisted her up into their arms, and she screamed weakly when their arms rubbed against her back. She opened her eyes, but couldn’t see the man’s face as he had turned away, then she heard Butler speak with laughter in his voice.
“You sure you want her? She’s going to ruin your bed.”
Above her there was a laugh, and a muffled, “Yes, I’m sure.” The words sounded far away, and then pain pierced her as the man adjusted her in his arms. Her whimper was ignored, and then she felt them moving, saw the glittering lights of the chandelier grow closer as they moved up the staircase. Fae tried to sit up, but the arms just shifted her back towards the chest she was against and her back argued at the movements. A few more steps and she was in a dark room, being dropped onto the bed. She gasped at the pain from the lashes, and then the door slammed shut and the figure of the guest moved towards her.
Fae propped herself on her elbows and almost opened her mouth to beg. If she’d just listened to Ebere, it wouldn’t have happened. The pain would remind her of that. It would make her remember, and with the way her head was swimming she wouldn’t be conscious long anyway.
Chapter Seven
Ráj Manor, Caledon, Ontario
Fae had been awake longer than she’d hoped, but when dawn came she took a deep breath and took in the scent of clean rain and earth that meant Eltera was with her. Her eyes opened to a soft golden glow coming from her skin and she could feel the tingling warmth of her skin knitting itself back together.
“Eltera?” Fae whispered out into the darkness of the room and sat up. It felt like Eltera was just out of sight, that if she turned her head she’d catch her standing next to her, her warm hands on Fae’s back healing her. Looking down she felt the tingle move across her hand and underneath the dried blood that filled her palm she knew the skin was whole again. Lifting her right foot, she watched as a shard of glass was pushed out, and the skin knit back together behind it. Wrapping her arms around herself Fae leaned forward, trying to hold on to Eltera’s scent, the feeling of her presence as every inch of her was renewed underneath the evidence of her punishment.
Fae took another breath but the scent of rain was already fading, replaced by a copper tang. The pale glow still coming from her skin revealed the dried blood from where she had slept. The guest in the bed rolled over and she pushed away the flashes of memory of him on top of her. Andrew had been brave enough to try and talk Nikola down from punishing her, but once the damage was done he hadn’t been brave enough to pick her up off the floor.
So much for his knighthood.
Her skin was itchy where the blood had dried and all she wanted was a shower. Grabbing the blanket at the foot of the bed, Fae wrapped it around herself and slipped silently out into the hall.
By the time she was halfway to the female quarters the glow of her skin had faded completely. Alone again, without Eltera. Turning the corner into their hall she saw the guard sitting in a chair by their door. He grinned as she approached but opened the door without a word. She wasn’t in the mood to fight with anyone so she simply ignored his obvious glee and walked inside, heading directly to the showers. When she dropped the blanket to the floor someone gasped
behind her and Fae flinched. All she wanted to do was get under the hot water and forget.
Yeah, as if she ever forgot anything.
“Oh, Fae…” Mei-Li was standing in the doorway with her mouth open. “There’s so much blood.” Fae didn’t know how to respond, didn’t know what she wanted from her, so she just stepped into the showers, turned one on, and moved under it before it was warm.
The icy water at her feet turned red as it started washing it all away, and she clenched her teeth hard to keep them from chattering. Mei-Li’s dark eyes were still staring from the entrance to the showers, her pin-straight black hair twisted up into a knot on the top of her head. Her petite features pinched with concern as she spoke, “Are you okay?”
“Of course I am. It’s all healed.” The water had turned a pink color as Fae scrubbed her skin, the blood was under her nails though and that was harder to get clean. She pried the crystals out of her hair and dropped them to the floor of the shower, not wanting to look at them.
“I know that, but I still want to know if you are okay.” Mei-Li crossed her arms and waited. She was a tiny thing from China but she had steel in her spine and wouldn’t back down. Most people didn’t realize that the smallest of them was one of the strongest, and Fae respected that in her, but it didn’t mean she wanted to talk things out.
“You tell me, are you okay after last night?” Fae asked and finally turned to look at her.
Mei-Li shrugged one delicate shoulder. “I’m hungover from the Oblivion. Last night wasn’t easy, but I’ll survive like I always do.”
Fae huffed out a breath and rinsed her hair one more time to check that the water was clear before flipping it off. She couldn’t help but give a hint of a smile as she stepped by Mei-Li to grab a towel. The girl was strong.
“Same here, Mei, I’ll survive like I always do.” Fae spoke as she stepped up to the long counter. At her comment Mei-Li shook her head and hopped up onto the bathroom counter.
“It’s weird to see your back look so normal after… that. The last time I saw someone use a whip it took more than a month for the girl to heal.”
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