A heavily deformed demon waddled by with a rolling silver cart and placed bowls of broth in front of everyone. The table waited for Lucifer to begin eating before they followed. Haley had no appetite at all. The high priest from the earlier ritual sat directly across from her.
“Not hungry, little beauty?” He slurped his soup.
She politely gave him a hint of a feigned smile. Her legs quivered under the table, and Damian slid his hand onto her thigh. The heat from his firm palm soothed her, and she picked up her spoon.
“Damian, your uncle has confided in me about what you’ve done.” Lucifer’s demonic voice rang clearly from the end of the table. “While I might understand your motives, there will nevertheless be consequences.”
Damian gave her leg a reassuring squeeze, then rested it on the arm of his chair while his father continued.
“For stealing his most personal slave, you now owe your uncle a great debt, and I’ll see that it is repaid. It is decided that Raden will wield the whip for the silent scourging portion of your final ceremony.”
Damian stared at the table.
“I shall make it impossible for you to keep quiet, Damian.” Raden smiled. “The cat o’ nine tails will teach you to steal from me, boy. Since the forty lashes start over for every sound you make, I suspect you should anticipate the event to last several hours.”
Forty lashes… Haley gripped her chair, taking in a choked breath.
“As for the female participant required.” Raden sneered. “I can think of no one more lustful than the cunt witch who so loved to have me force my cock up her ass each night. Isn’t that right, slave girl?”
Haley closed her eyes as Raden called down the table.
“Then she’d turn around and suck it, Damian. Oh, she was hungry for my cock. Do you miss it, slave witch? Do you miss sucking my gigantic cock?”
“The current dark lord chooses the participant.” Damian glared at his uncle.
“Yes, that’s correct, Damian.” Lucifer’s paranormal voice sent renewed chills through her. “And you are so taken with this one. Who else would you have me choose?”
“Marybelle,” Raden growled. “Put him in the ground with that witch. That’s what he deserves.”
“Enough, brother.” Lucifer’s harrowing command shook the table. “One more taunting outburst toward your future dark lord or his precious slave witch, and I’ll order his forty lashes administered to you as well.”
Haley’s uneaten soup was removed and replaced with the main course. She stared at the full plate with a sick stomach. I’m going to be a participant in the ceremony. What does that mean?
“A fate worse than death for some.” The high priest across from her raised his brows, his lips puckered into a sour smile. Haley closed her mind to his energy, working to keep her thoughts hidden from all the mind readers at the table.
Damian leaned toward her. “Don’t be afraid, I’ll get you through it.”
Her mental walls guarded her thoughts against all except Damian, who never seemed to have difficulty breaking into her mind.
“What’s going to happen?”
He cut into a piece of meat and took a bite. After a few moments of resounding silence in her head, Haley pierced into his thoughts. She rushed through his memories, searching for information about the upcoming ritual.
An image of a large coffin plagued his mind. He hoped she wasn’t claustrophobic.
Oh shit. Oh no… They were going to bury her alive. She struggled to take a breath, working to appear calm.
Damian dropped his fork abruptly and dragged his hand along the coarse whiskers on his jawline. “Did I just see my own thoughts in your head?”
“Am I going to be buried?” Haley held onto her chair, afraid she might fall out of it. “Am I going to die?”
“No. I would never let that happen. If you’d prefer, I can choose another participant. This might be for the best though, it’s impossible for me to protect you if I’m forty feet underground with someone else.”
Haley stared blindly at her untouched plate of food. “We’ll be buried together?”
“It shouldn’t be longer than a few hours. We’re both meant to survive the ritual, the participant is just described as a lustful creature.”
His deep voice in her mind calmed her. Her anxiety began to subside as she resigned herself to being buried alive.
Her stomach tightened into heavy, twisted knots at the idea of Raden swinging a cat o’ nine tails on Damian. This was not how their evening was supposed to turn out. She had felt free and excited for the first time in weeks, almost happy even. They were supposed to be making love on Damian’s dinner table, not sitting with Satan himself at his, and eating with rapist uncles.
CHAPTER TEN
Damian brought his face close to hers, and she caught his gaze.
“Will you please eat something?”
“I’m not hungry right now.”
With a slight nod, he sat back in his chair. Raden should be well sated by the repayment Lucifer had ordered, the chance to publicly inflict extreme injury onto him in the guise of a “cleansing” flogging ritual. If Damian decided to release Haley that night, there weren’t likely to be any negative consequences. Except for the overpowering pain in his chest whenever he thought about her leaving.
“Do you want to go home, Haley?”
She turned to him, emotion flooding her bright blue eyes. “Yes,” she breathed.
He nodded somberly. He’d lost his appetite. “I don’t even know where your home is.”
Haley watched him for a moment. “My home? I thought… I thought you meant…your home.”
Damian took a long sip of red wine. “I should have released you a long time ago.” He set the glass down softly.
“But…you said…”
“Raden’s getting his forty lashes of payment, he won’t be leading any uprising against me. It’s safe to bring you home tonight.”
Damian downed the last of his wine and stood up with a tightness in his throat. He extended his hand to Haley without looking at her. He had to let her go, she deserved to be free from all of this.
Her touch reflected the slightest reluctance as she took his hand.
“Where are you going, Damian?” Lucifer set down his fork.
“Home.” He led her toward the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow for the ritual.”
“And your slave?” Lucifer narrowed his glowing red eyes. “She’ll be here tomorrow as well?”
“Yes. It’s been a long day.”
“It’s about to get longer.” Lucifer stood, his bony wings twitching as they stretched out. “Why are we prolonging the inevitable?” He stepped forward and cast a gloomy dark shadow over them. “When I created Roman, your eldest brother, I was ready to give my seat on the throne to my son.” His wings expanded as he drifted closer and Haley gasped softly. “Roman wasn’t the right choice. It took twelve more creations to get you, Damian. You were made to take over the throne of Hell. I won’t let you slip away from me.”
“I know.” Damian tried to keep the annoyance from his voice. “I’ll be here tomorrow.”
“You’re running away with her. With your fucking slave witch.”
Haley’s eyes widened. A vision flickered through her head of herself, tucked away in the mountains, rolling around naked in the snow with Damian in a magical, wintery scene. The fantasy seemed so real. Damian felt a smile tugging the corner of his mouth at the sight of Haley on the snow-covered ground, an exuberant grin on her beautiful features, her naked body pink all over from the cold.
Lucifer growled, staring him down. “The final ceremony is about to begin. I suggest you ready your flesh for your uncle’s scourging.”
“Now?” Damian slowly shook his head. “No.” His heart stung with a renewed sense of loss. He couldn’t do the ritual yet, he needed to release her first, make sure she was safe before he let himself be buried. “I’m going home for the night.” He started forward, daring his fath
er to move out of his way, but Lucifer didn’t budge.
“It’s the witch, always twisting your fate.” He pointed his claw toward Haley. “I never should have let this whore live.” He bared his rows of jagged teeth at her. “I’m going to tear your skin off.” Lucifer’s wings lifted to reveal both sets of arms underneath, all lunging toward her.
Damian stepped in front of her. He didn’t want to fight his father, but Lucifer’s powerful fists struck him in the face and abdomen and knocked him to the floor. Haley stood behind him, unprotected and vulnerable.
“I let you have her!” Lucifer kicked his chest. “As your slave, your participant. And you still tried to sneak away with her. To deny your place on the throne!” He pounded his fist into Damian’s rib cage and cocked his arm back for another blow.
Haley grasped his arm in midair and shone her golden powers into his darkly shadowed muscles. Lucifer shocked her with an electric current and caught her by the neck as she fell. He held her throat with one of his lower arms.
“No!” Damian smashed his fist into Lucifer’s body, and his knuckles broke against the iron muscles. He hardly noticed the pain and lunged at his father, beating his face with severe blows until Lucifer released his hold on Haley’s neck. She dropped to the marble floor, and Damian rushed to her side.
“Are you all right?”
“Move aside, Damian.” Lucifer wiped a torrent of blood away from his mouth. One of Damian’s punches had caused his sharp fang to pierce through his lip. “I will watch her die, once and for all. I want all of her skin removed.”
Damian rose and deepened his voice to a threatening growl. “You will have to go through me.”
Lucifer advanced toward him.
“Wait!” Haley scrambled up from the floor. “You weren’t running away, let’s just do the ritual.” Her voice caught with emotion.
“Too late for you, witch.” Lucifer pointed at her. “I shall wear your skin as a cloak.”
“I will destroy you if you try to touch her again.” The violent, dark power flowed through Damian in a strong current.
“How dare you speak to your own father like that.” His father’s voice wavered.
Perhaps he could deny the throne. At that moment, the only thing he desired was to draw nearer to the witch at his back, to fiercely protect her from ever being hurt again.
Haley leaned up on her toes and whispered at the back of his ear. “It’s all right. I want to participate in the ceremony.”
She didn’t believe he could protect her. She wanted to complete the ritual so she could leave him as soon as it was finished. Of course she just wanted it to be over, the whole experience had been a nightmare for her. She doesn’t want to be with you.
“I’ll do the ritual.”
Lucifer sneered, turning toward the crowded table. “I feel compelled to take away my son’s precious prize, to order her skin be flayed off just before they bury her alive with him. But my brother will teach Damian a proper lesson with the whip. And rest assured, I will quite literally exact my pound of flesh from this little witch.” He ran a clawed finger over his bleeding mouth. “When the time is right. Let’s begin the ritual.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Damian followed Lucifer through the palace as the rest of the dinner guests walked behind. Haley kept close to his side without actually touching him. The black clouds overhead crackled with lightning, and the dark halls sparked with flashes of white light. Tension hung thickly in the air as they filed into the room where the earlier ritual had been held, already crowded with figures wearing black robes.
A group of cloaked demons heaved a large wooden frame to the center of the room. They positioned it beside the stone altar. A large coffin, custom built to be wide enough for two people, sat on the altar with its lid open.
The crowd once again formed a circle around the altar, and Damian unbuttoned his shirt with quick, jerking fingers. A high priest handed Haley a folded mass of sheer black fabric, and she studied it.
Naked women swarmed around his feet, rushing to his aid as he wrenched his shirt off. Haley glanced at them with a frozen expression, her breasts rising and falling faster with her breath.
Damian stared down at his belt, unbuckling it, and undid his top button, then yanked down his zipper. The women reached for his jeans, and he waved them away, instinctively moving closer to the witch. She watched him, awkwardly holding the folded fabric in her hands.
He went to lower his jeans and stopped. “It’s not too late to back out. I can take you home right now.”
She tilted her face downward. “I know.”
He stood in strained silence, his heart breaking further with each second. He wanted to leave for the life they’d seen in their visions.
“You’re sure about this? We can just go.”
“Not without a life-or-death fight with your father.” Her tone was full of pity, and a shock of self-hatred tore through him.
“I can handle him, Haley.” The desperation in his chest caused his voice to break. He sounded weak.
She gave him a reassuring look despite the tears building in her eyes. “I’m ready for the ritual.”
The sharp pain in his chest felt like the dagger had been sunk back into the freshly healed wound. Resigned to his fate, he shoved his pants down to the floor, dropping his boxer briefs with them, and handed his clothes to a high priest.
“That’s for you to wear.” Damian’s voice had gone cold as he gestured to the folded garment in her hands. “You’ll have to take off your dress.”
“Oh.”
He moved toward her, and she turned around. She swept her hair aside as he unzipped her dress. His cock hardened at the sight of her bare back.
His erection was annoyingly on display for the entire crowd as he helped her pull the dress down. She covered her breasts with one arm and quickly unfolded the gossamer fabric. It was a sheer, fitted floor-length robe. She slid her arms into the flowing sleeves and wrapped the fabric around herself, still utterly exposed.
Damian kept his gaze on the floor, swallowing the deep hurt. He would need to be a fucking man to make it through this part of the ritual. A soldier. Pushing all thoughts of Haley from his mind, he walked to the wooden framed structure and stepped onto the platform.
Raden appeared across the room, draped in a black silk robe and holding the cat o’ nine tails whip. He cracked it ceremoniously onto the floor. Haley watched as a few feet away, Damian’s arms were bound apart with ropes on each side of the thick wooden beam. He spread his legs, his erection still raging, and the cloaked demons bound his ankles to the frame with coarse ropes, stretched tightly to hold him in place.
A soft chant broke out among the crowd. They lifted the hoods of their robes to cover their heads, leaving their eyes dark with shadows. Haley brought up the delicate hood of her transparent robe.
Damian stared straight ahead, willing his cock to go down, but Haley was still so close, her naked curves haunting his peripheral vision.
The high priest recited the texts from the black book, the lashing was about to begin. He clenched his teeth, trying to think of anything but the witch as his groin thudded with painful desire. She doesn’t want you. She’s leaving you behind.
The chamber grew silent again. Damian drew in a deep breath, bracing his stretched muscles. The leather thongs whistled through the air and struck him, wrapping around his torso.
Haley’s perfect breasts bounced when she jolted at the impact, and his dick remained stubbornly hard. Knowing she was witnessing his humiliation made the torture worse.
He took a deep swallow in his strained throat, keeping his mouth closed in a tight line. His abdomen clenched tightly as the whip struck him again, sending a stab of pain through his stomach. The entire room waited for him to make a sound, but he swallowed again, fighting the urge to vomit.
Shiny tears gleamed in Haley’s eyes. He wanted her to look away, but she kept her horror-stricken gaze settled on him. The vicious whip was not
as painful as the agony of rejection. He would recover quickly from his physical wounds, this wasn’t even the worst whipping he’d ever had, but his heart had never felt such remorse.
His erection finally subsided as Raden continued to scourge his body, raking striped wounds into his skin, and Damian remained silent. His uncle’s thoughts shouted in anger across the room. He was already eleven strokes in, and Damian hadn’t so much as cleared his throat. Raden wound his arm back with a vengeance and rained a storm of lashes onto him.
After thirty-four lashes, Damian’s stretched muscles trembled involuntarily. He wouldn’t give his uncle the satisfaction of seeing him flinch.
Raden panted for breath and Damian peered into his uncle’s desperate thoughts with smug satisfaction. Only one stroke remained. If he could elicit even the slightest whimper from Damian’s throat, he would have another forty to go. Raden glanced at Haley as she stared at Damian with tear-flooded eyes. An idea crossed his uncle’s mind of cracking the whip right at her perky breasts.
Damian glared at Raden. He would fucking murder him. Whip him to death in front of the entire room with his own cat o’ nine tails if he followed through on that thought. Raden smirked, deciding it wouldn’t be such a far stretch from the ritual code to let just one land above the neck.
The whip’s tails struck Damian across his face, cutting open his cheek just underneath his right eye.
The whip fell away from his strained neck, and Haley grasped her chest. It was over, he’d taken the entire lashing in complete silence.
They untied his limbs, and he stood on weak legs, dripping with blood. Fresh tears slid down her cheeks as he approached. He gently pushed back the hood of her robe and slipped the sheer material off her shoulders. It floated to the floor around her feet.
She clutched her arms over her bare breasts, shielding herself from the sea of eyes on her. He guided her toward the coffin and stepped in. Haley breathed in deeply, then followed him inside and lay down facing him.
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