Dance With The Devil

by Erin Trejo

  Her fingers touch my skin and I suck in a breath. She doesn’t seem to notice as she moves just her fingertips over all the colors and lines that adorn my body, not missing one single scar. No one has touched them. Ever.

  “You’re touching me,” I whisper. Her eyes leap to mine and fuck is that the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen.

  “Should I stop?” I shake my head no and she refocuses on what she’s doing. Her nails lightly scrape over my flesh and my heart picks up. She affects me. I don’t know why but she does.

  “You’re different and I want to know why.”

  “I’m just me,” she responds.

  “No, you are something else and I will find out,” I state. I let my hand come up to cover hers and strangely enough, it’s over my heart.

  “What are you doing?” she asks when she looks up at me. Her eyes are bright, and I want to nothing more than to darken them.

  “Breaking all the fucking rules,” I growl before leaning down and kissing her. Her taste explodes on my tongue and my heart leaps in my chest as I devour her mouth with mine. At first Rose doesn’t kiss me back, but the more I work her mouth, sucking her tongue into mine, she reacts. Her body presses against mine and her kiss becomes hotter. She begins to kiss me back and heat coils inside of me. Everything about this moment is wrong but it doesn’t feel that way.

  I reach up and wrap my hand around the back of her neck, pulling her in closer. I don’t care that my blood is now covering her robe. I don’t care that she will have to walk back to her room like this. All that matters is the way she’s numbing everything else. Our kiss lasts longer than I expected but I don’t regret a fucking minute of it. When I pull back, her lips are swollen, her eyes full of lust. Grabbing her hand, I lead her into the bathroom and sit her on the counter.

  “What are you doing? I need to stitch that,” she says, nodding toward the wound.

  “And you will.” I move around grabbing the supplies that she needs and setting them on the counter next to her. She watches but never says a word. Her silence is something I thought I’d love but I’m finding I like the sound of her voice even more.

  “Who did that to you?”

  I debate telling her. None of this is her business but I suppose if I want her to talk, I will have to earn that right.

  “My father.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I disobeyed him. I went against his rules and I paid the price in blood. It isn’t the first time,” I tell her as I watch her eyes. She doesn’t seem fazed by this. Wonder why that is?

  “That’s…”

  “Our way of life,” I finish her sentence. She nods her head once as if she understands and her words about another cult hit me once again. Instead of asking, I pull my jeans and boxers off, kicking them to the side. Rose’s eyes travel my body, my cock getting hard at just the sight of her. Rose licks her lips and I groan, causing her eyes to shoot back to mine.

  “Wash that off so I can fix you.”

  “You can’t fix me, Rose. I’m a shattered mess of jagged edges and broken pieces. There is nothing you can do to ever make me whole again.” I step toward her, watching the rise and fall of her chest the closer I get. I reach down and spread her legs apart so I can step in between them and she lets me. Stupid, stupid girl. She shouldn’t let me in. She should push me away because I’m the one and only thing that can drag her further into the fire. I’m the monster that could slowly ruin her life and I plan on it. My thoughts have shifted, and my decision has been made. Soon she will be mine.

  She will be the Devil’s bride.

  Ten

  Rose

  I stitched Kellin up just as I was told to do then I went back to my room. He sent me on my way before slamming the door in my face. For something so beautiful, I can see the evil in him. I don’t know if that’s all that lies beneath the surface or not because he won’t let me that close. I catch glimpses, but that’s it. Even as much as I wish I could stay away from him, I can’t. That pull is too strong, so that when he calls for me, I go. I should hate myself for that part too and to a point I do. I swore to never let another man speak to me the way he does and here I am falling at his feet just the same.

  “Are you okay? You seem so distant lately,” Vi asks as we sit on my bed.

  “There are things you don’t know about my past. Things that I never wanted to tell anyone but now that we’re here, I feel like you need to know the truth.” Violet watches me intently, waiting to hear what I have to say.

  “So tell me.”

  I lick my lips, afraid of how she may look at me when I tell her. I’m afraid to lose the only friend I really have and that makes my stomach turn.

  “I was born into a cult of sorts.”

  “Oh my God, Rose! Like this one?” I shake my head.

  “No. They were more of the religious, fanatic type,” I say as I swallow hard. I’m about to open my mouth to say more when the door bursts open. Kellin’s eyes are like fire as he zones in on me. He takes long hard strides until he’s standing by the edge of the bed, jerking me up by the arm.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I hiss at him. When I look over his shoulder, I see Rory and another man coming in.

  “Take her,” Kellin tells him, nodding toward Vi. She lets out a cry when they move closer, pulling her to her feet.

  “What’s happening? Kellin?” I call his name, looking up at him for answers but all I see is darkness. I start to open my mouth once more when he stops me.

  “If you were smart, 6106, you would keep your pretty little mouth shut.”

  I snap my mouth closed as the two of us are dragged from the room and down the hall. I don’t have to ask to know where we’re going. I’ve been there a few times already and each time has caused me some sort of pain.

  We take the steps quickly and the doors are shoved open to the basement that houses the cells. I expect to be put into the first one but that’s not where we go. The men keep walking, dragging us down the hall toward the end, an end I’ve never been to before. Thrust into the last room, a heavy door slams before I glance around. In the middle of the room is a slab of concrete with chains on all four ends. There’s a cauldron of sorts off to the side that has a fire blazing under it, a table with different things scattered around and there in the corner are chickens. Two live chickens. A chill spreads over my body as Violet is stripped and chained to the slab.

  “What are you doing?” I ask softly as Kellin pulls me toward the chains on the wall. I want to fight but I don’t. I won’t give him the satisfaction of hurting me if I do. I let him strip me bare and chain my arms and legs to the wall. Violet fights the restraints, but I stand here watching them move around the room. No one has their faces covered; no, they want me to see them. Do they think they’re scaring me?

  “I want answers and you don’t seem to want to give them to me willingly, yet you were about to give them to her,” Kellin says, nodding toward Vi.

  “You were listening.” It’s not a question. He wouldn’t have known otherwise.

  “Of course I was listening, 6106. We know all, remember?” His eyes seem black in this light, not the cold blue they normally are.

  “You bastard!” I almost regret the words as they leave my mouth, but Kellin just chuckles.

  “This is Brant. He’s a master at witchcraft and potions. You see, he can make things happen and spells that can break you,” Kellin says.

  “That’s bullshit. This is all bullshit!” I scream in his face. I don’t believe in spells. I don’t believe in any of this shit.

  “You think so? Brant, do you what you must,” he says. I watch the man, Brant, as he moves toward the chickens. He grabs the first one easily and pulls the knife from the table. He walks over to Violet as my eyes follow every move. She sobs but she doesn’t break down.

  “You’re sick!”

  “Calm down now, 6106. We wouldn’t want any harm to come to your friend, would we?” Kellin says in a tone that makes my stomach turn.
He’d do it. He would hurt her.

  I close my mouth and watch as Brant cuts the head of the chicken letting it fall onto Vi’s chest as she cries. Blood pours from its lifeless body and coats her skin before he moves to the cauldron. I watch him drop the chicken’s body in as he chants words that I can’t hear. He mixes things in, stirs, and chants more.

  “You could stop this. You could end the pain she’s about to endure if you tell me what I want to know,” Kellin says. I jerk my head around to face him, not realizing just how close he has gotten.

  “My past is just that. You don’t deserve to know anything about it,” I hiss. He smirks and nods his head before taking a step back. Brant is still in the corner chanting, Rory stands against the wall looking intrigued, and Violet, my poor Vi sobs her heart out as blood runs down her sides. It doesn’t take long for Brant to fill a cup with some kind of liquid from the caldron. He turns to Kellin and he nods his head. Brant walks over and stands next to Violet holding the bowl over her stomach. I watch with bile in my throat as he tips the bowl and the hot liquid falls to her body. Her screams pierce the silence as I watch her skin bubble and blister.

  “Stop! Don’t hurt her!”

  Kellin spins around, grabbing my face roughly in his hands.

  “You did this. You hurt her!”

  “Please, Kellin. Stop! I’ll tell you whatever you want to know just stop!” Kellin doesn’t look away from me as Violet’s screams become louder. Then they stop. No other sounds are heard. The room is deadly silent as Kellin stares into my eyes.

  “You will tell me whatever I want to know, Rose. Do you understand me?” I nod my head because I have no other choice. He shoves my face away and when he moves, I can see her. Her chest isn’t rising or falling. Panic hits me hard as I tug at the binds that hold me in place. I scream at the top of my lungs as I watch the men all leave the room. They’re leaving me here with her. With her dead body. She’s gone, I know she is. I can feel it in the depths of my soul. They killed her. No, I killed her. I almost gave her what he wanted, and she paid the price for it. Tears build in my eyes and slowly begin to fall as the door’s slammed shut once more.

  Some say in the darkness you can find light if only you look for it. I’ve looked. All my life I’ve looked but I never saw it. Not even when I ran away from that hell I was born into. Not even when lives were taken. When I ran, I thought I could find a new life, a new world. And for a while I did. I found college, I found freedom, but there was always that number burning into my back that reminded me of exactly what my life held in store for me. I hated it for so long and then at one time I grew to accept it. I thought that if I got away from it all that I could move on and find my place in this world. I was wrong. The only thing I found was Kellin. A monster that looked of beauty. A killer that was out for blood. A man so lost to what the people around him drilled into his head that he had no idea what the real world held. I almost felt sorry for him.

  I let my head fall forward, my chin resting on my chest and my eyes slowly fluttering closed. I’m exhausted, mentally and emotionally. The emotional part has always been there, a lead weight on my shoulders, day after day. I’ve tried to escape it but every cry, every face seems to drive the fact home that I’m as damaged as the people here. In reality, we aren’t much different.

  I don’t know how long I’ve hung here; my arms are numb and my head hurts when I hear the door open, then the lights flicker on. Kellin walks in looking the pillar of strength as he stalks toward me. I don’t lift my head, only my eyes because I don’t have the strength for much more.

  He removes the chains from my ankles before moving to my arms next. My body begins to fall, and I can’t stop it. Not that I have to. Kellin is here, scooping me into his arms and carrying my naked body from the room. I feel like a lead weight, my arms not wanting to cooperate with me. I want to fight him, but I can’t.

  He carries me up the stairs and through the maze of halls until we reach his room. I shudder as I think about the last time I was in here. We kissed. I thought I felt something, but I was wrong. He’s right. They all are when they say the Devil comes in many forms. Kellin is one of them. Tears spring to my eyes once more when Kellin moves to the bed. He lays me down gently but never let’s go of me.

  “She was going to be killed anyway.”

  “What?”

  “They were going to sacrifice her. I didn’t want you to see that,” he whispers in my ear as if that makes anything better.

  “So you killed her first. Does that make it right?” Screams rip from my chest as I try to piece this all together. My heart hurts. She was everything I had, and now she’s gone.

  “She died faster the way we did it than if my father would have done it.” Oh my God. He thinks that makes it better? That he didn’t prolong her death? How does he think that’s okay? I try to wiggle out of his arms, but he doesn’t let me. Instead, he pulls me closer, nuzzles his face in my hair and sighs.

  “I fucking hate that you make me feel like this, Rose.” Back to Rose. I’m sick of him doing this to me. I’m 6106, then Rose, then back again.

  “I can’t do this, Kellin. Please, just leave me alone.”

  “I wish I could do that. I wish I could walk away from you, but I can’t.” He almost sounds pissed at himself for what he said. I don’t understand it. I don’t know what he wants from me, but when I feel his cock pressing into my side, it all makes sense. He just wants to use me.

  “Why? Is it sex you want?”

  His head pulls up, his eyes burning into me. I watch the way his head cocks to the side as he looks into my eyes. He’s unnerving when he’s like this. The way he can see straight into me, into my soul. It hurts. There’s an ache inside of me that has craved that look from a man and now it’s the devil that’s giving it to me. I raise my head and my lips meet his. He doesn’t pull back, but he does take control. His kiss is hard and brutal, and before I know what’s happening, he has me on my back, his body pressed against mine. Kellin grinds against my naked body causing heat to rise inside of me. Heat coils in my stomach as Kellin pushes me higher.

  “Reach down and pull my cock out, Rose,” he demands.

  My stupid, muddled brain does as he says while he lifts his hips to allow me space. I clumsily shove his jeans down with his help and as soon as his boxers are down, his cock is in my hand - hard, heavy, and silky smooth. I slowly stroke it as Kellin uses his feet to push his clothes all the way off. I listen to him groan with each long pull.

  “You put me where you want me, Rose.”

  “What if I don’t want you anywhere?” I ask knowing that’s a fucking lie. I’m so damn hot right now I would take his finger and ride that, but his cock is exactly what I crave. The fire he awoke in me is chasing away the previous fatigue. Something about Kellin is what I want, what I need, and I can’t figure out why that is. Maybe I’m just as much a monster as he is. But in this moment, I’m not consumed with understanding why. I just want him inside of me.

  I slowly pull his cock until it sits right at my entrance. Kellin chuckles darkly before pulling away and rolling onto his back.

  “You want me, Rose? Prove it.” He’s challenging me and I gladly accept. I wipe the tears that cling to my cheeks and rise to my knees and straddle him. I reach between us and put his cock back into position before I lower myself down his length. Kellin hisses and I cry out at the feel of him filling me. When I’m fully seated on him, he grabs my hips painfully, causing me to look down at him.

  “You’re not a virgin.” His statement scares me. The harsh look in his eyes makes me want to cringe. He doesn’t make any attempt to move almost like he needs me to confirm what he already knows. I shake my head slowly waiting for the blow to come, the rejection, but it never does. Instead, Kellin stares at me before raising his hips.

  Eleven

  Kellin

  What am I doing? What the fuck am I doing? I was never supposed to fuck her. I wasn’t supposed to look her way and now here she is sitting o
n my cock. It feels otherworldly. This isn’t how I felt with any of the other girls I’ve slept with. This, this is a connection. One that I’ve been seeking for so long. I flip us in one move so that I’m hovering over her. She isn’t a virgin. She was supposed to be a virgin. And yet here I am burying myself inside of her like a man possessed. My hips thrust, hitting her deeply as her lips part and her breathing becomes uneven. I can’t tear my eyes away from hers even though they’re closed. The look on her face is perfection and I want to taint it with everything I have in me.

  Grabbing her hips, I take her harder. Her breasts bounce with each thrust, enticing me to lean down and take her nipple into my mouth. I lick it, suck it, and when I bite down into it her pussy clenches. I groan and she moans, heat spiraling out of control inside of me. I pull out of her and flip her onto her stomach before shoving her up the bed.

  “Get your hands on the headboard, arch your back,” I growl. I’m a little shocked when she moves to do as I say. I watch her body as she crawls up and plants her hands on top of the headboard. I move in behind her, running my fingers down her spine. I love the way her body responds to me. The spark that ignites between the two of us. If we live in the pits of hell, then we are the flame. I slide up behind her and position myself once more. Thrusting into her, she cries out as I lean in and whisper in her ear. “You shouldn’t give my sounds to the whole compound, Rose. Those are for me only,”

  Her pussy clenches once more and I think she likes the sound of that. Her being mine. She said it herself once, she belonged to me, and after tonight she’s going to. She just doesn’t know that part yet. I bite into her ear lobe, listening as she tries to stifle the moans that fall from her lips, but fuck do I love hearing them.