Saving Graves: A Club Irons Novel

by Drew Sera

  I ate and left to begin my journey home. From my porch, I could hear my mom crying and Bruce hitting her with something. I didn’t want to go in.

  Fuck.

  I crept inside and instantly, my mother started screaming for me to help her.

  “Anthony! Oh, baby, help mama.”

  “Hey! The little bastard decided to show up,” Bruce called out.

  “Anthony, you can help your mother if you really want to,” Conner said.

  “Baby, help mama.”

  “Yeah, Anthony. Are you going to help your mommy?” Bruce taunted and gave Connor a high five.

  I fucking hate my life.

  I dropped my backpack and began taking my clothes off so they would leave my mom alone and take it out on me.

  “Local time is 4:20 a.m. Welcome to Las Vegas,” the airline attendant announced as we touched down on the runway.

  I sat up and rubbed my hands over my face. I made it home in time to grab that shower and get ready for work. I even had time to stand over my sink and eat a bowl of microwaved cinnamon oatmeal. I never actually had had cinnamon oatmeal until I moved in with my dad.

  I reached for my chest as I thought about my dad.

  My ass dragged through work today, and I have to find an alternative to going to San Francisco. I just didn’t think this would go over very well at Irons. Mark had warned me how addictive and dangerous it was, and I was finding out that I needed more and more to make the ache go away for even a little while.

  Blake was out of the question.

  Paul had offered. But I can’t stand the guy. I don’t think I’d do well with someone I hated hitting me.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  November 1996

  I hadn’t spoken to Lynn in a number of years, so when she called out of the blue, I was surprised. I was even more surprised to discover the reason for her call was regarding Anthony. Apparently, he’s been visiting a dungeon up in the Bay Area since last month, but for pain.

  “No, I appreciate the call, Lynn. Thank you.”

  I hung up the phone and leaned back in my chair and thought. This wasn’t a good thing for Anthony to be involved with. I was pretty sure I knew why he was doing it, but I needed to hear it from him.

  I know he is struggling with the loss of his father, but I need to step it up and help him before he gets hurt and in over his head. One of the things that wasn’t sitting well with me was that he has had to have heard this from someone. Though he’s gaining experience at a rapid pace, this wouldn’t have been something that would have been lying out in Kink Magazine for him to wrap his mind around.

  No. Someone told him about this. And I had my suspicion as to who it was.

  I checked my watch as I approached Anthony’s door. I told him I’d be stopping by this evening. He opened the door and invited me in. Anthony is a tough guy to crack, but every wall has a weak point and a stress fracture.

  Once we were seated on his couch, I cut to the chase quickly.

  “I got a call this morning from an old friend of mine.”

  “Oh yeah?” Anthony asked.

  I nodded.

  “I think she knows you. Mistress Lynn.”

  Anthony nodded and looked down. When he sighed, I was pretty sure he knew what direction this conversation was going in.

  “Anthony, you’re at the beginning of a very dark road. It’s not a good path to be on. I think I know why you’re doing it, but I am going to do everything I can to discourage you from doing it.”

  He stood and began to pace the length of his living room while his hand rubbed on his chest.

  “Blake…it helps.”

  “It’s not. You might think it’s helping, but I promise you, it’s just numbing you.”

  “I don’t know how to explain any of it to you, Blake. It just helps.”

  “What is it helping you with?”

  “The fucking ache in my chest! It’s there when I go to bed and when I wake up. It feels like someone is sitting on my chest.”

  “Anthony, you’re grieving the loss of your father.” He shook his head at me. “Yes, Anthony. This is normal.”

  Something I said affected him, and he shut his eyes and looked away.

  “I miss him, Blake. I only got to spend a few years with him. My chest just hurts so much. The sessions were helping though. The pain goes away.”

  “Anthony, your brain was releasing a chemical and preventing you from aching. Once that chemical runs its course, you’re going to feel the same ache. This is something you can’t force. Time is the only thing that will heal this.”

  “But it was worth it not to feel this way even for a little while.”

  My heart went out to him. He didn’t know what to do with these feelings of his, and he was trying to prevent himself from having them. It doesn’t work like that. I don’t know what lies in his past with his mother and stepdad, but I have a feeling that he didn’t grow up in a very loving household.

  “Anthony, please promise me that you’re going to stop these physical sessions. Promise me that if you feel like you absolutely need that, that you’ll come talk to me before you follow through with it.”

  He nodded.

  “I can do that. I promise.”

  “I need to ask you something else…where did you hear about physical pain sessions resolving emotional pain?”

  “Irons…Paul mentioned it to me after my dad died. I didn’t understand it, but was interested if something would take this pain away. I called a friend of mine in California and asked him to explain it to me.”

  I nodded at him. Paul; just as I suspected.

  Sneak Peek at Club Irons Book 3

  I had prepped my area according to plan and stood looking over it to make sure that I hadn’t forgotten anything. I had been spending some time watching Master Adam doing wax play for a while now. While wax isn’t a huge thing for me, it was still something I was interested in learning. I’ve been trying my hand at it here and there.

  Master Adam had told me the most important thing when doing a wax scene is to be prepared. Burning candle wax isn’t a constant, he’d tell me.

  “Playing with hot, liquid wax isn’t like playing with a crop. A crop is constant. It always remains in the same shape and form. Liquid wax in an unknown, so always be prepared.”

  Blake had helped me to ensure that I had thought of everything for my first wax scene tonight. I had everything in my head and just needed to execute it correctly.

  I had a flame-resistant cloth covering the table, a fire blanket next to the bucket filled with water and a cloth submerged in the water, putty knife to remove the wax and a special lotion for the girl afterward. I had a few different colored candles to work with and was going to attempt at making a burst pattern on her back.

  For the past few weeks I had been practicing at my house, paying close attention to how long it takes the candles to reach the melting point and how high I should hold the candle to create the pattern.

  I was ready and confident, and I knew that there were going to be a lot of members watching my scene tonight. Ashley walked into the dungeon stall and knelt next to my feet. I crouched down in front of her, and asked her to look at me. This had the potential to be dangerous, and I needed to make sure she was clear and ready.

  We went over the scene, safe word and I showed her all of the safety precautions I had in place. Blake and Master Adam both have said how important it is, especially in these kind of scenes, that a sub feels safe and that all precautions were taken to ensure their safety. This wasn’t Ashley’s first wax scene, so she knew what to expect.

  After I applied some baby oil to her back, I guided her to lie down on her stomach. I already had some candles burning and picked up the red votive. I carefully poured the liquid wax onto Ashley’s back in the center. A nice red circular area appeared in wax form and would serve as the hottest point in my burst pattern. I poured the wax from a few orange votives around the red circle in the center and then grabbed the
long red candles and dripped red wax on the orange wax.

  It was time to check in with her.

  “Doing ok, Ashley?” I asked.

  “Yes, Sir.”

  I poured yellow wax in somewhat of a circle around the orange circle and then dripped orange wax over the yellow wax. My last color was the white candle, and I poured the white wax to the outside of the yellow wax, then dripped yellow wax over the white wax.

  Could the pattern look more uniformed? Probably, but I was very pleased with my first pattern.

  Many of the people who watched the scene came into the dungeon stall when I motioned that it was okay for those who wanted to get a closer look. Blake came in and was smiling at me, which made me smile. He came right over, clasped his hand down on my shoulder and shook me a little.

  I kept most of my focus on Ashley though and was on the look out for any discomfort or for her to let me know when she was ready for it to come off. But occasionally I would glance at the people looking at her back. I heard a lot of complimentary things, and Adam came in and nodded at me.

  “Fantastic job, Anthony. Love how you did the hottest color on the color wheel down to the coolest. It looks great.”

  “Thank you,” I said and then glanced at Blake. “What are you smiling about?”

  “I’m just really proud of you. Look at what you did, Anthony. You learned a new craft and your first scene with it has gone over really well.”

  I nodded and smiled. When I looked out over the crowd, Paul was standing there with his hands on his hips. He looked disgusted, and when our eyes connected, he began shaking his head. Fucking dick. I smiled at him and jerked my head upward at him, kind of telling him to fuck off, and I looked away. Later when I glanced in that direction, I noticed he was gone.

  After I cleaned Ashley up and had spent some time giving her some after care, I made my way to the bar and talked to some members as I went. Blake was beside me, and I still had my t-shirt draped over one shoulder when I ordered my Coke.

  I barely had caught my breath when a couple new members approached.

  “That was an amazing scene. May I ask where you get your candles for your wax scenes from?”

  “Blake has a catalog around here that has a bunch of equipment in it. I order them from there. Do you play with wax?” I asked the guy.

  “A little bit, though I will admit, the candles you were using looked great. They made that girl moan instead of scream. Sorry, man. Let me introduce myself; I’m Colin.”

  “I’m Anthony, nice to meet you.”

  The other guy that was with Colin reached across him with an outstretched hand.

  “I’m Matt. I caught your rope scene last weekend. How long have you been rigging?”

  “Since July. Lots to learn still,” I said and shook his hand.

  I sat at the bar and talked for a few hours with Colin and Matt. They were both from the Bay Area too and were die-hard 49ers fans. Even though they were both six years older than I was, we had a lot in common, and they were great to talk to.

  CLUB IRONS NOVEL BOOK 3 COMING SOON!

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  Also by Drew Sera

  The Everett Gaming Series

  Fragile: Book 1

  Belonging: Book 2

  Us: Book 3

  Alone: Book 4

  Lost: Book 5

  Ours: Book 6

  The Inferno Series with Ashton Blackthorne

  Descent: Book 1

  The Club Irons Novels

  Getting Rowdy: Book 1

  Savings Graves: Book 2