Never let me go.
Spent, I tried to suck in air despite his body flattening me.
The Incredible Bulk would be lighter, I decided, groaning and reaching up to touch his fingers. They loosened, and he rose from me a little, though he remained inside me. His hands rested over my shoulders, barely holding me in place.
Breathe.
While we recovered, he sat in the water with me and cradled me to him. No words, but he kissed my hair and held me. With one ear in the water, the world hushed and rocked me. My skepticism over who he was and what he could make himself become was fading with every heartbeat, every breath, and I knew he was no longer the evil man he once was.
“Thank you,” I said quietly.
His chest shook in silent laughter. “No problem. I think I liked it too.”
I smiled to myself. My thanks had a deeper, sobering meaning, but I wasn’t saying it out loud.
The quiet sounds of the Australian bush vanquished the noise of my thoughts, my hopes, and my worries. The creak of insects and musical trill of water, the cows lowing and ripping at grass, and that huge open sky above.
Other possibilities remained. I wanted to leave him. I didn’t want to. I nestled my head into his chest. Like a children’s rhyme I counted, eenie meenie miney—
“You think you’ve succeeded in making me human?” he murmured.
Ahhh.
That woke me. I held my breath, while deciding whether to say this, and while I thought his fingers combed through my waterlogged hair, wriggling through knots, soothing me. My eyelids lowered halfway, and I watched sunlit motes of dust skim the surface of the water. This was one of those things that made me wonder if saying it would wreck everything and make it not come true.
Finally, I nodded.
“Hmmm.”
I wasn’t sure what his hmmm meant. Acceptance, I guess.
The water swept by, washing us, and when we were cleaner than clean, he patted me and said, “Come. Let’s go pack.”
CHAPTER 19
ISAK
How close I’d come.
I remembered that second when I had taken my hands from her neck and flexed them.
My fingers were huge compared to hers where she had them laid out and splayed on the rock. Red was panting from her climax and thoroughly spent.
I had a problem.
With both hands at her neck and her orgasming on my cock, I’d struggled with darker needs.
To push her under the water and hold her there until the bubbles left her lips and died away.
My knuckles were red. Her neck was too. So were all the bites and marks I’d left on her.
I lowered my hands to her shoulders and forced myself back to reality.
The result was prima facie evidence.
I had not done anything bad. Choice. It all came down to choice.
After that frenzied sex, the water lulled us.
Then I asked her if I was human, and that nod of hers said yes.
“Let’s go pack.” I’d said that as if her conclusion was completely true. Nothing to see here folks, move along.
My question had brought the answer I needed. Did it matter if I doubted? The results and my choices were what mattered, not my deranged fetishes.
Choice, and I’d learned how to make good choices.
There had been days when my powers could sense certain susceptible women at great distances – as if absence had indeed made my heart grow fonder. When she flew over the farm, Georgia plucked at my senses. I was like a werewolf scenting fresh blood, new succulent flesh, and yet I had done nothing to her.
Choice.
I helped Red up from where she sat in the creek, saw her slip on the uneven rock bed and caught her elbow to guide her.
It was also true I might never lose these urges to do sadistic damage to her and to other women. And I did fear myself. What if I screwed up?
The solution I intended to experiment with was to regularly let my monster out to play, in a carefully monitored situation. I needed a situation where others would stop me if I strayed. Or at the least slow me down, because I could remove myself from those who sought to deny me and take my cruelty elsewhere. Nevertheless, they would be a logical roadblock to any mesmer urges.
At least now I had practice in making good choices.
I already had the place and the people.
Love was still incomprehensible to me, but my Red was precious. I would not squander her on my cravings.
When we’d packed up, dressed and were in the car driving back to the house, with the dust swirling and spitting off the tires as we traversed the small backroads, I told her my plan.
“I’ve made us a date to go to a party a few towns over.” I looked to her, and she crossed her legs, revealing the shine of beautiful thigh as the dress slid.
“Oh?”
“It’s a kink party. BDSM.”
“How?”
“How did I find out about it? The usual. Someone who knows someone told me.”
Her mouth twitched. “Of course. You did say something.”
It had been easy once I saw the need in one woman at the pub. From her I extracted another name. That led to another, and so on. The people links led to the party. The hostess knew I was coming. We would fit in once I altered a few attitudes. The men would be suspicious of a newcomer, but their women would say they knew us.
Red would find out more on the night. My nastier compulsions would have an outlet.
The big suitcase – I hardened, imagining this – she would be getting in there for me. Trundling that big case into the party with her locked inside, tied up for me – the best introduction ever.
This would throttle me back from the brink. We would go to regular play parties where I could experiment on Red. And other women?
I considered that. Maybe it would be possible.
We’d come so far.
I had Red liking me. Keeping her was on my To Do List, and I believed she’d penciled me in on hers. I sat back in the seat and sighed, and she said something.
“Sure.”
“What?” I raised a brow as I swung the wheel to take the corner. An SUV was coming up behind us. The roads here were sparsely used, and I wondered who would speed on these dirt roads.
“Was that a yes to the kink party?” I hadn’t actually meant to ask her permission, but okay.
“Yes. And you know why? Because I trust you.”
“Good.” I smiled.
The smile died when I saw two cars blocking the road ahead. I braked, slowly. The one behind us stopped a car length back. A ditch and trees to either side made going around them impossible. Several men spilled from the vehicles, both in front and behind, and guns were being aimed at us. Handguns plus one long gun. They spread out and walked toward us. Four to the back and six in front.
This was more than a robbery. It was an ambush.
“Fuck,” Red said in a taut whisper. I sensed her fear. “If this is the same man…”
“Yes.”
“This does not look good.”
“No. It does not.” I reached over and squeezed her leg.
“Get out! Get the fuck out and put your hands up where we can see them! Now!”
“Be calm. Behave for them, Red. I’ll fix this.” Eventually. I raised my hands, wondering how they thought we could do this and also open the doors.
The drug was keeping me too fucking calm, but even so my jaw ached with fury.
The doors were ripped open to either side, and they shoved guns at us while the others hauled us out. Punching anyone was pretty futile.
I thought of telling them they’d be dead soon, but it would be more satisfying to simply show them. They would see.
A distant throbbing sound in the sky grew louder, and a helicopter flew overhead then landed somewhere ahead. The organization in this was pretty daunting. So much money was being expended on catching me, or catching us.
I exchanged a last reassuring glance with Red.
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“Move!” Most of these guys wore sunglasses and baseball hats, along with cheap jeans and T-shirts. A mob of short-haired, muscular grunts who’d been paid to do a job.
Our hands were zip tied, and a sack was pulled over my head and fastened. I was sure Red had the same treatment from the noises she made.
“Find that drug. Check them both.”
Hands patted me down, and the box of pills was removed from my pocket.
They guided us up the road, and the smell of aviation fuel became obvious, then the sounds of the chopper with the engine throttled down. We were hustled on board, strapped in, then the doors closed. A minute later, we were rising into the air.
There were no women here, none anywhere within hooking distance, and though it was unlikely their abduction squad would have females, still, I felt it was an indicator of their planning.
They began to strap my right arm to a board, an immovable board, and I figured out where this was going. The scent of medical alcohol stung my nose. A needle pricked my skin below the elbow.
“Where are we going?”
“You?” a gruff voice answered. “To sleep. Then you get to see Ted, and he said to tell you he is really looking forward to seeing you and your girl again.”
Ted. Of course it was Ted.
He laughed. “You are so fucked.”
Something cold flooded into my vein and the sterile bliss of drug induced oblivion took me away.
CHAPTER 20
ISAK
The blur of what happened focused in and out, scenes sharpened and faded. Men talking. Walking on tiles. An elevator. A room, a very blank room and pale walls, and then… Red beside me on the floor, sleeping with her head on my lap.
I faded into full consciousness slowly, with the distinct awareness of the lessening in my blood of the Keppra drug.
They’d taken my supplies. I blinked at the door ahead of me with the handle being the one solid thing. The door itself was some sort of glass. Meters away it stood, across the bare floor.
I looked down and saw that Red was stirring on my lap, her eyelashes moving, then her body. That part was real, if blurry.
I shook my head and tried to focus.
This was a room with nothing in it, except us and what we lay on. Even the power points had been removed. The cream paint on the walls had damage, and dust showed where furniture once stood, but all we had were cushions and a quilt that spread across our part of the floor. Red levered herself into a slewed sitting position and blinked at me. She swept back those long locks with a shaking hand.
My heart, I swear it pined with sadness and regret. I wanted to hold that unique emotion, but it slipped away.
“You’re awake?” she said quietly.
“Yes.” Obviously. Then I noticed the camera mounted in the high corner of the room. “They’re watching, recording.”
“Yes.”
“Have you seen anyone?”
“No.” Her frown lines came and went repeatedly.
Worry was to be expected, considering.
“I’m going to fix this.” A repeat of earlier words? I couldn’t remember much, except that the ambush had happened and the helicopter. I struggled upright, stood with my back propped to the wall, and a guard appeared outside. He spoke into a mic pinned to his shirt, and never took his eyes off me.
“They’ll be coming soon.”
“Can you do… anything?”
I reached out, searching for susceptibles – for those women I would have collected casually in the past. We were at the top of a tower of several floors and my consciousness descended through them and found them empty… empty… empty.
“They’ve cleared this place of people, of females.” I pushed myself off and walked to the door on jelly legs.
“I saw some. It’s a resort tower by the sea. On the Gold Coast of Queensland, I think. There were beaches. Signs. The bag on my head was removed when we landed on the roof.”
Neglectful of them.
The glass door swung open, and the guard was there, gesturing for us to leave.
“Out! The boss is here.”
After I emerged, the door was shut behind me, and I was spun and handcuffed. Four guards, all in dark buttoned shirts and black pants, but not armed, curiously, or not with anything more lethal than what looked to be tasers. They wore holsters for guns, but those were empty. This had to be Ted’s doing.
His daughter snatching a gun from his man must have stuck in his head. Guns? Hah. He had no idea what I could do.
None.
Then an outer door opened, revealing Ted framed in it with a corridor behind him. Two men entered with him. More of his little army.
The new guards shut the door then stood beside it.
“You.” I smiled.
“Me.” He stayed where he was, arms relaxed at his sides, but his fingers twitched and curled. “I’d kill you now if you weren’t potentially useful. Beat you to death with a chair then skin you while you watched.”
“Thank you. The feeling is mutual. Though if dead I wouldn’t feel the skinning.” Amateur.
Ted grunted. “We already have tissue and blood from you. I have a patron. He’s seen the bit of a vid one of my men took of our last encounter, knows you can make women do stuff. That drug you need for your abracadabra stuff will be given to you tomorrow, if you agree to show us your… skill on a young woman I’ll give you. Here in the room.”
I shrugged. Noncommittal seemed less likely to trigger him.
“This will be taped for my patron. Refuse and first your companion, then you, will suffer physical damage.” He grinned. “I have a script to say or this would just be do as your fucking told. We are going to learn how you do it, and we are going to replicate it.”
Again, I shrugged.
Fucking asswipe. Even as I listened to his speech, I was searching, stretching. The fourth floor down was empty too, though I could feel a few males. They were mindless ghosts compared to how I registered females.
I could not use them, alas.
Go farther down. My face was growing hot, and probably red from the pull on my mind.
“You look a bit wasted, man. Poor fucking you.” He stuck up a finger. “Before I go get some beauty sleep and have a lovely meal, I need to show you what we are capable of. Get her.”
A guard opened the glass door. He vanished inside.
“No!” I blurted that through a thick throat, almost growling it. Whatever this was, it involved hurting Red.
Three of them pinned me to the wall as they marched Red from the room.
She was wrestled into a chair and held there while a guard picked up a pair of garden secateurs from the table beside the chair. They shone.
“Clean metal. But I guarantee this will hurt a lot.” Ted grinned.
I stayed silent and only tried to kill him with my glare.
“Yeah. This room is pretty soundproof, especially with all the balcony doors shut, and then of course we have four floors of nobody who will say a fucking thing if they hear screams. Still. Gag her.”
They strapped a full gag onto Red – one with a dick-shaped internal protrusion. That would stop most noises and clog her tongue. They held her down even harder, two men at her, while the other one sauntered in with the secateurs. From his cruel snigger, and the way he fucked her with his eyes, this man liked cruelty.
He would’ve made a great mesmer. I bucked against my captors. I would murder him and smear him to the floor.
They weren’t after Red’s tongue, so where? When he aimed the secateur at her hand and settled it on a finger, I stared at her, willing her to not feel this.
Even I could not remove all the pain.
Her scream was muffled, and the way her body jerked and arched off the chair was almost more than the men could handle.
Blood squirted a meter before they staunched it.
“There. We bandage it now.” Ted smiled, pointing as they wrapped a white bandage over the gushing stump. Her head lolled b
ackward.
Hate thrived, rose in me to heights I had never felt before. I dug the hate from my bones, tasted it on my tongue, and reveled in this raw power.
The hate oozed and flooded my head, thumping, thumping.
My mesmer senses leaped and curled, wriggled dark tendrils, and I freed them and whipped downward through the tower, questing. My eyes were seeing a blur of two scenes: Red in her agony, the blood; and the walls peeling past me, the floors, the ghosts of men.
Find them.
They finished the bandage and left a torniquet on her finger.
“Take that off in a few minutes or she will lose that stump too,” someone said.
I ceased my search but kept a hold on the power, that bundle of wriggling tendrils. Stay with me.
Dragged back into the room, I watched them make her stumble inside then they dumped Red at the back wall beside me. My handcuffs were unlocked, and the guards backed away to the door and locked us in again.
She was weeping and clutching her maimed hand, still with that gag strapped on and digging into her cheeks. I freed her from it, tossed the gag, then pulled her to me and kissed her tears.
The rage flailed and filled me still – too much to allow me to say anything of comfort. I contented myself with making soothing baby noises and clutching her to me.
After a while, I undid the tourniquet and observed her hand. Whatever blood vessels were cut, they only oozed at first. When more blood flooded the bandage, I reapplied it.
I did that over and over for an hour until the bleeding stopped. Undo, observe, bleed, reapply. By the end, the floor was bloody, my hands were, Red was. She had lost a lot of blood but seemed okay. Alive anyway.
Her cries when I had to compress the stump to stop some of the bleeding, again it tore at me inside. I had some sort of heart after all, I decided. Deep inside me was compassion.
None of our enemies would ever know this. None. I would obliterate them.
ISAK & Red: An enemies-to-lovers Dark Romance Page 14