Vibe

by Liza James

  “You have me. All of me, forever, Aura,” she says, moaning my name as she thrusts hard against me. Her fingers tighten around my throat as she holds me still and leans over, her gaze colliding with mine until she drops it to watch as she fucks me shamelessly in the darkness.

  With Hawk’s lifeless body lying off to the side. She claims me when he once tainted me. She brings me back to life when he once destroyed me.

  “Come on, Nova, fuck me like this is who we are now. Reckless, dangerous, fucking powerful.” I bite the words out angrily, because I know it’ll push her. And it does, one hand stays tight around my throat while her other fingers slide into my fucking mouth and she shoves them back to my throat. Her thrusts become painful, slamming against me again and again while I moan and choke around her fingers.

  “Come, Aura,” she orders, and the whipping orgasm suddenly breaks inside of me at the same time that hers does. The rough hold she has on me is everything I crave, every heated touch and painful mark is my addiction to her. I fucking want it, every side of her. The crazy, the dominant, the chaotic, the tender, the protectiveness and the jealousy. I love all of it.

  “I love you,” I say after she pulls her fingers from my mouth and lays down on the ground next to me. Her arm wraps around my shoulders as she shifts and pulls me against her.

  “I love you too,” she whispers back, gently pressing her lips against mine as she gives me her passion. Always taking care of me after I submit to her, protecting the give and take we both surrender.

  My eyes drift shut as we fall from the high we’ve been drifting through. In just a few moments we’re going to have to figure out how to fix this, let the reality of life rise back to the surface.

  But everything is quickly fast tracked into the now, those few moments immediately cut short as the lights above the stage blare to life on top of us.

  Illuminating our naked bodies tangled in a mess on the ground. Revealing the blood that now spans across the stage, the lifeless body of Hawk as he lays dead to the side.

  Our transgressions. Our secrets. All of it revealed to whoever just walked into the club. I instantly feel the rush of fear taking over my mind. Fuck, this will change everything.

  “Well, my wildflower and sweet Nova. You both have been busy, haven’t you?” My heart thunders at the sound of his voice, that familiar parental admonishment slipping through my ears and causing me to shoot up in search of his face.

  That’s when I see him, standing in the far back corner of the room with another large man at his side. Another familiar face that I never wanted to see again.

  “Father,” I grind out, the sound of that word being a bitter taste on my tongue.

  “Dom,” Ruby shouts out behind me, sitting up as well as we meet the gazes of the two men who have caught us tangled through our biggest secret.

  Our murder. Malin and Dom.

  One happy night turned into a nightmare.

  Unfortunately, Malin and Dom—especially together—are much stronger than Hawk was on his own. It took approximately six minutes for them to successfully pull us apart and have us locked in separate rooms away from each other.

  Now, I’m sitting in front of the glass in one of the viewing rooms, watching as Aura sits on the bed in the center of the space. Her legs pulled tightly up to her chin while her head rests against her knees and she watches me in silence. I can hear her when she speaks, but she can’t hear me. That’s part of the kink in these rooms. People get off on watching others fuck and others get off on the idea of people they don’t know watching them. Public sex without the obvious audience.

  Her hands are still covered in dried blood, but she looks oddly calm, simply watching me in the quiet while we anticipate what’s to come next.

  This is too much. Getting hit with a new war over and over and over again. We crash through one wall simply to find another on the other side. Every time we climb back to our feet, another blow is smashing against us. Knocking us down, dragging us out.

  I just want Aura, and I want to be out of here. Starting a new life away from the chaos this place holds. It’s an ocean of destruction, each wave a new obstacle ready to watch us drown.

  I place my hand on the glass, there’s no point in trying to get out of here. We spent the first hour smashing against our doors and yelling in hopes that someone would let us out. Within the first few minutes of finding Malin and Dom against that back wall, they had already called reinforcements to come clean up the mess we made with Hawk. Several bodies swarmed into the space around us while we were being dragged out, even Sal, the owner was showing up and addressing the situation as if this wasn’t anything shocking.

  Because I don’t think it is to them. For some reason, I think this club holds far deeper secrets than even we’re aware of. Even our sloppy slaughter of Hawk hadn’t caused them to flinch in reaction. They saw what we’d done, made the necessary calls, and locked us away like little children in need of a time out.

  The most disturbing part was their faces though, when they truly took in the scene of Hawk’s ruined body strewn across the stage. His blood had coagulated around his head, thickening the strands of his hair as they stuck to his face.

  His hands were still clutched around his throat in a loosened grip while maintaining the position.

  Dom and Malin though, they looked proud. As if we had finally given them something worth investing in.

  Suddenly, Aura shifts from the bed and climbs off, walking towards the glass sitting in front of me as she kneels down and places her hand against mine. The cool tingle of the hard surface seems warmer somehow, with just our energy, our intention breaching through the physical barrier.

  “They’re going to want us to join The Nation. Dedicate ourselves to the ascension,” she says. Her words sound vacant, her gaze lingering on mine but only passing through. She can see me, but she can’t hear me. I won’t be able to respond to anything she says.

  I rest my head against my shoulder and simply listen to her, trailing my fingers in slow patterns against the frozen palm of her hand.

  “I’m not sure how to fight them anymore, Ruby,” she whispers, tears pool in her eyes and threaten to slip free while she bites her bottom lip into her mouth. I wish I could touch her, pull her body against mine while we go through this together.

  Instead, they’ve taken away the pieces we found in each other. We’re stronger together, but now we have to find our strength being apart as well. It hurts, it’s fucking painful and I don’t want to do it.

  “Not all of them at once. Hawk was different, he was alone, and we were together.” She pauses, taking a deep breath while I truly take in her appearance.

  She has bruises lining the side of her face, shadowing her jaw and her throat in shades of blues and yellows. I fucking hate them, and the instant swell of anger rushes through me all over again. Her eyes are tired, God she’s so exhausted. She looks like she could sleep for an entire year and simply be catching up on the rest she’s missed. Her skin has fallen pale, her hair pulled up in a loose bun on top of her head in order to simply get it out of her marred face. Jagged cuts and dirty streaks of blood taint her skin and body.

  But there is something else lingering under the surface. Something dark and dangerous, something alive and curious. There’s this fire flickering in the back of her eyes that begs for attention. It’s as if she’s found new wings, spreading them wide before tucking them back inside of her and waiting again.

  She’s feeling herself out, this new skin she’s put on herself. This transformation that’s taken over and I can’t help fall even more in love with her for it.

  She’s changed. In spectacular ways that speak to my own demons. My own darkness and secrets.

  Even while she’s doubting herself right now, in the midst of the unforeseeable future, she glows differently. Because this is a mere bout of uncertainty, nothing that can permanently dim her like it would have before.

  God, she’s fucking transcendent. Gritty and c
overed in blood, raw in her own past and pain. She still belongs to me.

  “But we’ll get through it, right?” she says, her voice shifting in tone as she watches me watch her. Her lips lift in this taunting smirk that sends sparks lighting in my chest. It’s as if she can read my thoughts, literally feeling me fall for her with each passing second. “Together, we’ll figure it out.”

  “It’s time.” I watch as Malin steps through the door in the back of her room, shutting it quietly behind him as Aura looks back over her shoulder. She turns and stands, leaving me to watch from the imprisonment of my own room.

  Anger licks across my flesh, setting me on alert as I stand to my feet and square my shoulders. Malin’s eyes fall to me as a sick smile spreads wide across his face. “It’s nice to finally see you again, Nova. Dom has assured me that you’ve been prepared well for The Nation.” His eyes shift back to Aura, locking onto her gaze as he opens his hands as if he’s seeking an embrace. But she stands still, and intentionally crosses her arms over her chest as she refuses him. “I would have cleansed you myself Aura, but Dom assures me he has done the same for you.”

  My mind flashes back to that last night with him, when he forced himself on Aura right before I stabbed him myself. Ironically, I realize that knife was used to injure both Dom and Hawk. That knife gifted by a true friend, marring both men who have taken from us. I suddenly want that piece placed on a pedestal in our home. A symbol of power amongst so many others.

  Malin stalks forward, his large frame towering above Aura as she refuses to step back. She won't back down, not now. Not after everything she's become and what she's accomplished. His chest comes flush against hers and he raises his hand back over his shoulder, as if he's going to hit her. I suck in a breath, my fist slamming against the glass as he brings his hand back down and surprisingly, brushes his knuckles gently across her cheek.

  She doesn't even flinch. Hell, I had more of a reaction than she did. She stood still, and calm as she anticipated whatever it was he was going to do to her.

  "I've missed you," he says quietly, but loud enough that it infects my ears as he continues dragging his fingers along her skin. He drops to her neck, drifting his thumb across the bruises while a concerned expression crosses his eyes. "The congregation won't be happy about your injuries. They will take care of you though. You know your mother has been dying to see you."

  At that, Aura closes her eyes slowly. It's the first shred of emotion she's given him at the mention of her mother. He claims it though, wrapping his hands around her face as he tilts her chin up tells her to open her eyes. She does, after a brief moment of hesitation. "She's missed you so much. She'll be proud of you when you return, she'll forgive you of all of your sins. Do not worry about that. Her and I will take care of you together, continue your purifying sessions until you're appointed your future husband."

  Rage. Fucking disgust and anger and hatred burn through me as he tries to manipulate her and references things I can hardly fathom. If her mom is involved in these sessions, then that means she knows what Malin is doing to her own daughter. She fucking allows it. How the hell can anyone condone that?

  I worry for a moment that she'll fall back into the pattern she's always had with him, simply because it's all she's known with The Nation. But a streak of pride rushes through me when I watch her place her hands on his chest and push him away from her. She takes a step back, keeping her hand held out in front of her in order to ward him off.

  "No," she says, her voice strong and steady, but still distant and reserved as she addresses him. "I won't go back. You'll have to drag me there yourself if that's what you want."

  Malin pauses, his head dropping momentarily while he sighs out in frustration. "I had a feeling you'd say something like that. I'm disappointed Wildflower, truly. Your mother was worried you'd continue pushing back as well." He looks back up to meet her eyes just as the sound of a door clicking open sounds behind me.

  I whip my head around while trying to stay focused on what's happening with Aura, but it all happens so quickly that I lose my sight of her briefly. Before I can stop him, Dom is rushing towards me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders while he twists me in his hold and pushes my face against the glass pane. I don't make a sound though, don't cry out for help or for Aura. I say nothing as his body comes flush against my back and holds me tightly in place.

  "What the fuck?" I hear Aura call out as she races back towards me. I can barely see her out of my peripheral vision, but fuck I wish I could tell her to leave—to just let this be and get out for herself.

  "The longer you fight, the more you refuse what is good and righteous, the more Nova will suffer. She has a very key role in all of this, Aura. Everything that happens to her has been blessed by both the Omega and the prophet."

  Strangely, a sound echoes in the room around us. It's like the static buzz of a speaker and I try to shift my eyes around the ceiling in order to understand what's happening. That's when I feel it though, the first searing of my skin along my lower back as something digs into my flesh. I can hear the hiss reverberate through the air as a scream is literally ripped from my lungs. I didn't even realize Dom was holding anything. We were fighting so hard and so quickly that I must have missed it.

  Aura cries out and I vaguely hear her slam her hands against the glass as she watches me, but everything starts going hazy through the pain that scorches my back and I fight to hold it together. It must be a speaker, allowing her to hear everything that happens in this room as well as watch it through the glass. A front row seat to my personal torture. This is how they plan on breaking her and for the first time and I’m genuinely afraid of what’s coming.

  "Again," Malin says, the clear joy in voice lighting even more of my mind on fire with anger. I try to pull back before the next brand hits my skin, but Dom is far too strong, and I'm already weak from what we've been through today.

  Another mark, this time on the back of my hand as he smashes the brand against my flesh. The iron tip is a skull, the mark claiming my body in a bright red tattoo of excruciating fucking pain. The hiss sounds again, and I watch in complete paralyzing fear as steam rises from my hand and my skin bubbles around the iron. God, fuck, it hurts. More than anything I've ever felt before and I can't stop every terrifying scream that falls from my lips.

  Tears immediately slip down my cheeks and I can hear Aura crying on the other side of the glass. Once again, I wish more than anything that she wasn't here—that she wasn't witnessing what was happening.

  When Dom pulls the iron back, the outline of a grotesque skull mars my skin in two places. On my lower back, and on my hand now. I know this will scar over, a permanent claim by The Nation on my body. My soul. Ripping me away from the only person I truly belong to.

  Aura.

  "Stop, please. I'll go, okay? I'll go and complete the ceremony. I'll come home," she cries out, now collapsed on the ground against the glass while her fist slams forward again and again. Dom yanks me back by my hair as I struggle to catch my breath and scream for Aura to leave.

  "The mark of The Nation. Now Nova is of the utmost importance for your ascension, Aura. This is beautiful, can't you see that? After she's planted her seed of corruption inside of you, she'll be the one to truly honor your ascension into the City of Eden." Dom's voice is what skates across my ears, the smile clear in his tone as he speaks so passionately of what's happening. I don't understand it. How can someone who has been a part of my entire life, be so involved in something like this without me ever realizing it?

  How was this secret kept from me for so long?

  "Yes," she pants, her voice hoarse with cries as she finally surrenders to them. "I do see that. It's perfect. Please, just let her go now, okay? She's done her part." Aura is stumbling as she stands on her feet and steps back towards Malin, her eyes are frantically searching his and bouncing back to Dom's as she urges them to release me.

  But even in my torture and pain, I don't want them to let me go.
I have to get Aura out of this, we have to escape together.

  "Oh, sweet wildflower, Nova's role is just beginning," Malin admits, sliding his hands into the pockets of his white slacks as he nods at Dom. "Take her, we'll meet you there."

  Suddenly, I'm being jerked backwards, the iron brand being easily tossed to the floor as Dom grips my wrists and yanks me out of the room. I whip my head around, trying to meet Aura's gaze but only catch the back of her head as Malin does the same to her.

  Both being torn apart again. Separated and distraught. Trying to fight back the fear that's quickly consuming.

  I'm not sure how we'll get out of this anymore.

  I've been restrained in the back of this van for the last four hours.

  Four fucking hours.

  I only know because Malin hasn't stopped talking this entire time. He's using our privacy to remind me why The Nation is so powerful, so righteous in their beliefs.

  "You've missed so much, Aura. The Omega has given us gifts of gold and precious jewels. Manifested during our sessions, both cleansing and fellowship. Our meat is stronger, better, healthier than it has ever been before and our ceremonies have doubled in frequency."

  I want to throw up, and before I can even stop it, I'm lurching forward as acidic bile spills from my mouth and onto the plastic floor of the van. Malin doesn't even respond to it, no worries over my physical abhorrence to what he's speaking.

  "You'll realize how important this is when we're back. When you complete your ceremony, you'll understand that there is no getting out of this now." His voice is calm, a reassuring tone forming his words as he keeps his eyes on the road.

  My hands are tied behind my back by thin wire, the reedy strands biting into my flesh in sharply painful slashes. If I fight against them too hard, I can feel them grind through until streams of warm blood slip into the palms of my hand. The sting is barely noticeable anymore. I'm in far too much pain as it is to distinguish the differences now. The warmth was the one thing that broke through my mind and made me realize I was hurting myself by trying to escape.