Cado

by Dyllin, D. T.

  I stood perfectly still, my heart pounding in my ears. I tried to hear around the erratic beat, straining for some kind of clue as to where I was. The silence was unnerving. “Lucian?” I hissed. “What the fuck?”

  “Shhh… I want you to see,” his voice purred from all around me, or at least that’s the way it seemed.

  “I can’t see anything in the dark.”

  “Then you’re not listening hard enough.” His chuckle spun through me, causing me to shudder. How any one man could sound so menacing and enticing at the same time was beyond comprehension to me.

  “I’m not playing some stupid ‘Confucius say’ game,” I grated. “If you think that I’m going to stand here and see with my ears or whatever other kind of crap like that then you’re sadly mistaken.” I refused to play any more of his stupid mind games. He clearly had the advantage so I just wouldn’t indulge in the ridiculousness. Maybe then he’d leave me alone. But do you really want him to leave you alone completely?

  “I’m not asking,” he rumbled from behind me.

  I spun around and took a few steps forward with my arms out stretched. I stopped when I felt air move across my skin, sensing that Lucian wasn’t where he’d been a second ago. I crossed my arms and glared into the darkness. I couldn’t see him but I had a feeling he could see me. “You’re really starting to piss me off,” I growled.

  When I got no response from Lucian I sat down right where I was and crossed my legs Indian style. When I still got nothing from him I leaned back flat on the ground and closed my eyes. I’d simply take a little nap while I waited him out. If he thought he could out stubborn me, he was in for a very rude awakening.

  10

  I fidgeted in the dark. I’d long since awakened from my little nap on the cold hard ground. I was more drained than before my slumber though, exhausted even, and my entire body ached. I was still fighting the urge to call out to Lucian. It was as if the air itself was waiting with baited breath for me to do just that, which was exactly why I wasn’t going to. Fuck him. Luckily I didn’t have to pee or I would have definitely cracked. Soiling myself was not something even I would do to prove a point. I guess my bladder was kind of my Achilles’ heel. I snorted to myself at that thought. Yep, I’m tough as nails unless you force me to drink too much water.

  I had no idea how much time had passed. I wouldn’t have been shocked to learn that it’d been either five minutes or five hours. I was reasonably sure it hadn’t been days since I was only a tad hungry. Mmmm…I could go for a big slice of pizza right about now. My stomach rumbled in agreement. Or maybe a dish of fettuccini alfredo from Pasta Perfecto.

  Whispers wafted through the air, softly at first, and then the voices became more insistent. They stole my attention from everything else. Had they just begun or were they what Lucian had wanted me to listen for all along? Despite not wanting to hear the whispers just to spite Lucian, I couldn’t help tune in…pretty much because I had nothing else to do.

  The voices spoke a foreign sounding language, one that I’ve never heard before. As they continued to waft through the air, louder and louder, I suddenly understood them, as if they switched to English, although I knew they hadn’t.

  “Come to me, my love,” a male voice commanded.

  “No. This cannot be. You tricked me,” a panicked female voice responded.

  “Yes, I did.” The man came into focus, like I was watching a scene unfold on TV or in a movie. Two people stood in an open field. The man, if I could call him that, had his back to me. He was bare-chested, some kind of material wrapped around his waist, leaving his legs and feet exposed as well. His golden hair shone brightly in the sun. But what caught my attention was the massive black wings protruding from his muscular back. They flexed restlessly, the feathers shining almost purple in the bright day. “None of it matters now.” He extended his arm, offering his hand, his wings tightening close to his body.

  As the wings moved out of the way, I was able to see the woman for the first time, who was standing facing him. Long dark hair cascaded over her shoulders. A gossamer dress clung to her slender, yet powerful form. Her dark eyes were wide as she stared at the man. Pure white wings whipped out from behind her. “It matters still.”

  “No, it doesn’t. You’re not like them. You’re like me.” His voice softened. “I love you.”

  “If you love me then you will leave me.” She dropped to her knees, her wings trailing on the ground. “We can never be. Not now. Not when you’ve become this.”

  “I don’t accept that. I’ll never let you go.”

  The woman raised her pale face up to meet the man’s gaze. “You have no choice.” Steel determination replaced the anguish in her.

  “No, my love, it is you who doesn’t have a choice.”

  I blinked away the scene, anger pulsing through my veins. I still wasn’t sure what I’d just witnessed but it’d invoked a primal kind of rage within me. “Lucian!” I roared. “Lucian! I want out of here now!” I was met with only more silence. I didn’t want to see whatever it was that he wanted to show me. I had a feeling that the vision I’d just seen was only the beginning. The idea panicked me. I didn’t want to know. Whatever it was—I just didn’t want to know. I wasn’t meant to know. It was just something that I sensed. I can’t know. My gut roiled and I bent over, retching. “I can’t…I can’t…” I mumbled to myself. My head throbbed in time with my pulse. Sweat trickled down my temples.

  Light blazed on suddenly. Spots danced in front of my eyes for a millisecond—the millisecond before I focused in on Lucian standing before me. I clutched at his leg, opening my mouth to both curse him and beg.

  “You’ve seen enough…for now.” Lucian scooping me up in his arms was the last thing I remembered before I was swept away into oblivion.

  11

  I couldn’t get the image of the man and woman in the field out of my mind. It was as if it was burned not only into my memory but into my retinas—imprinted into my very being. It meant something—something I wasn’t willing to face. I pushed the fleshy part of my palms into my eyes, rubbing. I groaned as I struggled to sit up. When I finally peeled my eyelids open I scrambled to my feet in bewilderment. I’d expected to either be in the pitch-black chamber of torture or back in the holding cell at the prison. I was in neither place. I was in a narrow dark alleyway. The nearby street lamp had burned out and the only illumination came from some windows high up in one of the buildings.

  “What the fuck?” I muttered to myself. I clutched at the nearby wall and tried not to upchuck. The aroma in the alley was pungent and much more putrid than from just rotting garbage and the smell of urine. It stunk like decay, the kind of decay I’d come to associate with rotting corpses. I had no desire to stick around to discover the source of the not so delectable aroma. I hurried towards the street, stumbling over my own feet. I hit the pavement hard, my knees taking the brunt of the impact and my hands burning from being laid open on the cement sidewalk.

  “Jesus Christ! Tiffany!” I immediately recognized the voice. It was none other than Officer Moretti. Of course. Lately, if it wasn’t him then it was Lucian serving as the constant thorn in my side. Heavy boots thumped the ground as he hastened to my side. He tugged me to my feet before I had the chance to do it myself.

  “Where the hell did you come from?” he asked, his gaze sliding over me with concern.

  Not making eye contact with him I glanced back over my shoulder at the alley I’d just escaped from. “I don’t know.” It was the truth. I had no idea where I’d been, not really. I also had no idea how I would explain anything that had recently happened to me to someone like him.

  “You disappeared from your cell. It was still locked. No one had any idea what happened to you. The theory is—well—” He tipped my chin up towards him. “What kind of trouble are you in?”

  My nostrils flared as I gazed up into his deep brown depths. I was in the kind of trouble that no one would either understand or be able to help me with. “
How long was I missing this time?” At least this time I had a memory of where I’d been. Lucian claimed I’d been with him the first time I’d gone missing as well. So why didn’t I remember anything from then? It petrified me to think about all that had transpired between Lucian and me in those missing days.

  “A week.”

  I swore under my breath. A week. That couldn’t be right. It just couldn’t be. There was no way I could have gone that long without food or water…or hell, without a bathroom. My mind was reeling. I raised myself up onto my tiptoes and slid my hands around Moretti’s neck. I was suddenly overwhelmed with need for him. It hit me out of nowhere… Or just the need to forget the fucked up situation I’d been thrown into because of Lucian. What better way to forget it all than to lose myself in the oblivion of sex?

  Moretti gripped my shoulders and pushed me away from him. “What are you doing?” he rasped. His breathing was coming out in short little spurts and his pupils were dilated to only leave a small ring of color.

  My lips twisted up into a smirk. He wanted me. He wanted me and I would have him. “Take me somewhere. I need you.” I hated feeling powerless, it was something I strived to never have to deal with in my life, and Lucian was making me feel completely out of control. I needed to take charge, even if it was over something like my sex life.

  Uncertainty waffled in Moretti’s gaze. I could practically see the war that was waging inside of him. I’d just have to give him a little bit more of a nudge. I stepped into him and blatantly cupped his hard cock through his pants. He strung together a beautiful sentence filled with obscenities before he wrapped his fingers around my wrist to still me. “What do you think you’re doing? You’ve been missing. I could lose my job. I—”

  I squeezed him gently, grinning as he pulsed under my palm. “You can take me back down to the station…after.”

  “After,” he mumbled as if in a daze. I was weakening his resolve. It was beyond obvious.

  “Yes, after.”

  Moretti’s free hand snaked into my hair and he yanked my neck back. “I already know I’m going to regret this.” He ran his teeth down my neck before nibbling lightly on my shoulder. I groaned in pleasure. He broke away from me abruptly, then before I could question what he’d do next—I found myself being propelled towards his car. He ushered me into the front seat and we sped off without so much as another word.

  As we raced to our destination I couldn’t help but think about what Lucian had said about being jealous, about him not wanting me to fuck anyone else. I hoped he’d have a good seat for the show because he was about to learn that nobody controlled me and nobody owned me.

  “What the fuck is your first name anyways?” I grunted out against Moretti’s mouth. I figured I should at least know the name of the man I was about to fuck, even if I’d soon forget it. Maybe I could call it out when I came.

  He muttered something unintelligible at me as he nipped at my bottom lip. I grabbed his hair and peeled him away from me, meeting his lust-laden eyes. “I want to know your name, Moretti.”

  He smirked. “You just said my name.” He dipped his head down to kiss me again but I pulled away from him.

  I sauntered further into his apartment. It was simple, clean…but definitely a bachelor pad. The living room had a huge flat screen and an overstuffed leather recliner. Looked like he didn’t get much company. I unclasped my bra and let it drop to the ground without looking back at Moretti. I shimmied out of my pants so that I was standing in just a tiny black thong. The rest of my clothes were strewn about in the entranceway, where we’d already been getting hot and heavy.

  I sat in the recliner, placing my feet on the armrests. “Mmm…comfy.” Moretti ran his hand down his face and groaned. He was bare-chested but his pants were still on. I’d quite enjoyed licking his six-pack abs against his front door but wanted to see more of him. “Strip for me,” I said as I trailed my hand down my stomach and into my panties. “Please.”

  As he unbuttoned his pants, I began to circle my clit, masturbating to the sight of him. A soft moan escaped from me when his rock hard cock sprang free from his boxers. I bit my lower lip and imagined what he would taste like. “Come here,” I demanded, my voice husky.

  Moretti’s gaze was locked on the movement of my hand. He dropped down in front of the chair and tore my panties from my body. He sucked my clit into his mouth and I arched up in pleasure. He lapped at me another few moments bringing me on the verge of an orgasm before he rose up and grasped my thighs. His thick cock pushed at my slick entrance and I groaned, needing him inside of me…yesterday.

  “I’m clean,” he muttered, breaking the moment.

  “Yeah. Good. Just fucking fuck me.” I was clean too, and on the pill. I didn’t really want to think about anything else. The whole point to this entire experience was to not think. I wasn’t about to completely shatter the moment.

  Moretti shoved into me in one quick motion. I cried out as he began to pound into me. Yes, this is exactly what I need. A quick fuck to make me forget for a little while. He buried his face in my neck while holding my legs in position on the chair. It only took a few more pumps before I fell off into bliss—screaming the entire way. I didn’t care who heard, or maybe I did—maybe I wanted Lucian to hear. Maybe I really was putting on a bit of a show…just in case.

  My orgasm seemed to trigger Moretti’s, and he groaned as he released inside of me. He hadn’t even had a chance to catch his breath yet when I broke the silence. “Guess you do fuck strippers. And quite well I might add.”

  Moretti’s hot breath blew against my neck as he sat up and pulled away from me. Regret was etched into his features, deep and dark. “That shouldn’t have happened.”

  I smiled at him, remaining motionless with my legs still spread. I could feel his cum leaking from me down onto his chair. It was kind of a fuck you to him in a way. “But it did.” Men like him were pathetic. They denied themselves things because of what other people thought. The worst part… Men like him didn’t even know what they were doing.

  I finally stood and began pulling my clothes back on. “Guess you probably want to take me down to the station now. Being that it’s after and all.” I paused while I examined my torn thong. “Unless you want to go another round first?”

  “Tiffany,” Moretti growled in warning.

  I glanced over my shoulder at him. He was standing now, his gloriously chiseled body on full display. “What? I mean, that was kind of like a warm-up, wasn’t it? I’m not even sore…yet.” I dropped my eyes to his cock as it jumped at my words. I grinned at him. It looked like it would be a little while longer before he returned me to jail.

  12

  Moretti and I—he still hadn’t told me his name—had ended our sex-a-thon in his bed. His soft snores filled the air as he slept, completely spent. I wish I could sleep. I was exhausted both physically and mentally, but as soon as we’d stopped having sex, my mind had come back from its temporary break. I kept seeing the man and the woman on the hill, hearing their voices play on an endless loop. It was like my brain was trying to piece together a puzzle I didn’t even know I was working on. Why had Lucian wanted me to see that? And where exactly had he taken me? Even the fact that I was so accepting of all the new oddities in my life—that I was taking everything in stride—it was more than denial. It was as if some part of me deep down knew what was going on and the rest of me had yet to figure it out.

  Lucian approached me, his large form illuminated by the light coming from the other room. I wasn’t even the tiniest bit surprised to see him. In fact, I fully expected it. I remained perfectly still, my eyes locked on him. How would he react to what I’d done with Moretti?

  He dropped down beside the bed so I could see the outline of his face in the dim lighting. His eyes were an unnatural blue, almost as if they were glowing. “I could kill him right now, right in front of you and you couldn’t do anything to stop me.” His voice was calm. Too calm.

  “You could. But you won’
t.” I’d expected threats from him. And I wasn’t fool enough to think that he wouldn’t do something to Moretti. We both knew he could get away with it. Hell, he’d probably try to pin that on me too.

  He tilted his head in question. “Oh? And why won’t I?” He grabbed a handful of hair and pulled me off of the mattress. “I told you I didn’t want you to fuck anyone else. I told—”

  “No one orders me around, Lucian. And no one owns me,” I snarled. “You won’t hurt him because if you do—if you do—I’ll find a way to make you pay. That’s a promise.”

  Lucian’s mask of fury slid away, and slowly—ever so slowly, his lips tipped up into a smile. “You are quite a surprise even after all this time.” He let me go and backed up slowly, raising his hands in surrender. “Fine. I will not hurt him. This time. But don’t think you can threaten me either, my Karma. You won’t like the game anymore if you do.”

  He disappeared into thin air right in front of me. “Anymore? Who said I liked the game to begin with?” I glanced over at Moretti who was still sleeping soundly. How the hell was he a cop if he slept through that? Seriously? Unless… I shuddered. Unless Lucian had more abilities than I could fathom.

  I lay back down and waited. I knew sleep would elude me but I really had nothing else to do but think. I needed to figure out a plan. The whole denial thing wasn’t working for me anymore. Lucian had made sure to take that away from me too.

  After several hours of lying beside Moretti, him soundly asleep, and me not so much, I decided to give up. I stole one of his shirts, which was practically a nightgown on me, and went to explore his kitchen. I reheated a few slices of pizza leftovers and made some instant hot chocolate. While I sipped my subpar beverage, because let’s face it, instant hot chocolate isn’t that great, I opened Moretti’s laptop and clicked it on. Thankfully it wasn’t password protected. I was kind of curious what I’d missed in the past week while I’d been M.I.A. Online news sites was where I sometimes found my targets. It’s how I ended up in Pittsburgh to begin with.