by Deanna Chase
Without access to his light, he had no idea how long he’d been in here.
It felt like weeks. It felt like more than the time he’d given to Torek via the contract.
He had no idea if that contract had any relevance to what was happening to him now, anyway.
He figured Terry had to be behind this. Someone in the Rooks.
That, or they were looking for information. Something to sell on the Rynak maybe, or maybe Torek was capturing all of this on a recording device and planned to sell it.
Pain flickered around him again and he closed his eyes.
Open them, brother…open them, or I’ll beat you again…and I’ll let her toy with you some more, too…
Revik hesitated only a bare second before he obeyed.
He didn’t see the point in fighting over the little things.
He needed to save his fight for the big things…for the things that mattered.
Like whatever it was Torek really wanted from him.
“You know what I want, brother,” Torek said, his voice a faint warning. “You know exactly what I want…it’s only sheer stubbornness that you won’t give it to me…”
Revik frowned, but didn’t look away from the gold eyes of the other seer. He watched those eyes close as Torek arched deeper into his girlfriend, Haili, from where they fucked on the carpet in front of him. Watching them made the pain worse. But the fact that they had their lights woven into his, wound into him invasively, made the pain unbearable.
He closed his eyes again and Torek hit him harder with his light.
“That wasn’t a request, brother,” he said, his voice colder that time. “Watch, or you won’t eat tonight, either…”
Revik opened his eyes.
He had no idea how long he’d been watching them fuck.
Haili had stopped long enough to give him head for awhile, maybe because his light had been starting to close, to shut down for real…probably for that reason. They wouldn’t let him come, though. They never let him come…and then Torek beat him again and now they were fucking and Revik felt sicker than he could remember feeling. He was hungry, though. Hungry enough that he would do whatever they asked, as long as they fed him afterwards.
“If that were true, you wouldn’t be hungry at all right now, brother,” Torek said, his voice holding an edge once more.
Revik looked at him, and right then, the seer came. He groaned, arching deeper into the female seer, and Haili cried out, wrapping her arms and legs around him as she opened her light. Revik’s pain worsened, past where he thought he could stand it, even as their lights flooded back into his. He closed his eyes, not knowing he’d done it that time, not until Torek spoke.
“You aren’t eating tonight, either, brother,” he announced.
Revik’s pain abruptly worsened. Biting his tongue until he tasted blood, he fought not to argue, not to yell at the other male, knowing it would only make it worse.
“Are you going to talk to me then, brother?” Torek said, his voice patient. “You said you would do anything I asked, if I fed you. Have you forgotten so soon?”
Revik felt his jaw harden.
“Well?” Torek said. He gestured gracefully with a hand. “What will it be, brother?”
Torek stood over him now, still naked, his outline in shadow from the fireplace at his back, and the dimmer candles on the mantle over it. The male seer was still erect, despite having finished with Haili. He was muscular and well-built, but Revik didn’t feel any arrogance on him around that fact really, just confidence, and lingering threads of sex-pain as he looked down at where Revik sat at his feet.
Revik felt the relief on the other seer’s light, though, the rippling waves of pleasure from the sex, although he could tell Torek was keeping him from feeling much of that, too, even from a distance. He let him feel just enough to worsen Revik’s own pain.
More than anything, though, Revik felt the confidence there, the utter lack of uncertainty.
He felt patient. A patience borne of never losing.
Revik looked down at his own body, at the metal cuffs on his ankles, the bruises from whatever Torek had done to him earlier. He’d been here long enough to lose weight. His back hurt more than his chest; he couldn’t see his back, though, or the heavier cuffs that held his elbows together, or his wrists, pinning his arms and hands at awkward angles.
He knew he probably smelled bad, from being here too long…but the main emotion that came up was still anger. More anger than he could control briefly.
“Go fuck yourself,” he said, looking up to meet those gold eyes.
Torek smiled down at him, but the smile didn’t move that intent stare.
It also didn’t waver the sureness Revik felt there.
“Come here, Haili,” Torek said, his eyes still on Revik’s. “I think our brother here would like you to play with him for awhile…clearly we have bored him these last few hours.”
Revik closed his eyes, feeling his pain worsen. “Fuck…”
“No, brother,” Torek said.
Revik heard him smile, right before the seer clicked at him softly.
“No, there will be no fucking, I’m afraid…not until you get a hell of a lot more cooperative. But you let me know when you’re feeling like talking, brother. Then we can discuss it…”
Revik opened his eyes long enough to watch the female seer approach him.
She was slick with sweat from being with Torek, her hair partly matted to her neck and face. She smiled at Revik though, and he felt flickers of her desire around him already, her eagerness to do as Torek asked. She wouldn’t make this easy on him. She got off on it, maybe more than Torek himself did. Revik watched her, willing her to come closer even as he felt the angry part of him surge, wanting to beat the shit out of both of them.
“Gods, he’s pretty, baby,” Haili said, coiling herself briefly around Torek when she reached him. “I think we should keep him like this. I could get off just from his light…”
Torek laughed, kissing her on the mouth.
“I think you’ll get awhile more to play with him, lover,” he murmured, looking back at Revik’s eyes. “He’s a stubborn little ex-Rook, this one…so you might have a few weeks, yet, to play with him like this…”
“Weeks?” Revik looked up for real that time, feeling that fear clench back in his chest. As much as time had slipped away from him, blurring in his awareness, confusing him, Revik hadn’t really believed that Torek would break the contract totally.
“Brother,” he managed, nearly a gasp. “Brother…we had an agreement…”
“That I could have you until I broke you,” Torek said, his arms still wrapped around Haili. He pulled her closer, nuzzling her neck and shoulder with his face, pressing against her. “…and as long as it ended before you had to return to your work with the humans, brother.”
“That was a fucking week,” Revik snapped. “Ten days, tops…”
“That week ended days ago, brother.”
“What?” Revik stared at him, feeling his panic worsen. “Brother, you promised me. You said this would not be imprisonment. We had a fucking agreement…”
“We did,” Torek acknowledged. “And I have held to it, brother. In full.”
“How can you say that? You told me a week…”
“I told you no such thing,” Torek said, his voice warning. “The contract you signed stated I could have you for as long as I needed to get you to comply with my wishes…as long as it ended before you had to return to your work.” Torek said the last words mildly but with emphasis, still holding Haili against him as he enunciated the words. “Originally, you were to return to your work in ten days. I arranged for longer.”
Smiling at Revik’s expression, he shrugged.
“Your employers were, ah…quite accommodating, brother. At least, once they knew who I was. I assured them I would return you in pristine condition, of course…and that you were wholly in consent with our arrangement. One of them, in particular,
seemed quite turned on by the idea, brother. An Admiral Durenkirk, I believe? He offered me a lot of money, actually. A fuck of a lot of money, just to come visit you while you were here…”
Revik stared at him, rendered speechless at first.
“How long?” he said finally.
Torek smiled, shrugging with one hand.
Looking up at him, Revik felt that pain in his chest worsen.
With it came a darker feeling, a trapped feeling that he almost couldn’t think through. He was still half-lying there, breathing hard, when Haili untangled herself from Torek and knelt down in front of him. She studied his eyes briefly, smiling at him reassuringly, right before she stroked his face, brushing sweat-damp hair out of his eyes.
Leaning closer, she kissed him on the mouth.
Revik found himself returning the kiss.
He couldn’t stop himself, or from leaning into her, trying to touch her with more of his skin. He felt her desire, her wanting of him. She wanted to do more than just pull on him.
She wanted him to lose control for real. She wanted him to talk to Torek, to tell him whatever he wanted to know.
She asked him for it with her light, pleaded with him.
He kissed her harder. He fought to put his light into her, to pull on her, to coax her to touch him, put her mouth on him…
The collar activated, shocking him, and he groaned, retracting his light.
Leaning back, he panted, fighting to control himself as she continued to touch him, murmuring over him, tugging at him with light she pulled through her fingers.
Come on, brother. Please…just do as he asks…please, my beautiful brother…
“I’ll take it off you,” Torek said. He watched as Haili continued to kiss him, working her way down Revik’s jaw, then his neck and chest. “Just say the word, brother, and I’ll take it off you…you can fuck her for real, as many times as you want. She wants you to. You must feel how badly she wants it, brother. She’s already begged me to let her…”
Why are you fighting this? Why, brother? We won’t hurt you…
Revik felt the pain in his light worsen. Haili wrapped her hand around his cock, stroking him gently, squeezing hard enough that he groaned.
Just let him feel you there, brother…it’s all he wants. Give him your light. Tell him what he wants to know and we’ll take such good care of you…I promise you we will.
Revik closed his eyes.
He didn’t answer her. He didn’t answer Torek, either.
That time, he didn’t even look at him.
He wouldn’t give this asshole the satisfaction.
He also wouldn’t give him what he wanted. He wouldn’t. He didn’t give a damn how long he had to endure this.
He could outlast him. He could outlast fucking everyone, if he needed to.
When he looked up next, Torek was frowning, a denser puzzlement touching his golden eyes. For a long moment he just stood there, watching Haili as she continued to pull at his light, touching him until Revik was groaning again, the collar igniting as his pain worsened, sliding out of his control when she wouldn’t stop.
Torek continued to watch, his gold eyes shining in the firelight.
Wake, brother…wake up… the voice cajoled, pulling at him, tugging him back into consciousness. Wake up, my lovely brother…
Revik felt himself fighting the pull of those words, mindlessly at first.
Then he smelled food. Charbroiled meat of some kind…
Fuck, it smelled like steak.
His eyes flickered open, even as he let out a low sound.
“Are you hungry, brother?” Torek asked.
He smiled down at him when Revik looked up.
Revik realized he’d been moved. He looked at his hands, saw the cuffs there, realized the absence of light he’d sensed with his eyes closed came from the underside of a heavy wooden table. He’d been bolted to the floor by the other seer’s chair.
Like a fucking dog.
He stared down at the metal rings in the floor, and at his hands and arms. He had no idea how much time had passed again, how long it had been since he’d last eaten. He was naked, of course. He felt cleaner, like someone had hosed him off, but still not clean.
In contrast, the seer in the chair above him was fully clothed, and looked like he’d just stepped out of the shower. He smiled at Revik again after he’d watched him assess where he was now, and the limitations of his current set up.
“You must be hungry,” Torek said.
Revik didn’t answer.
“Answer me,” Torek said, his voice a touch harder. “Are you hungry, brother? Tell me.”
Revik nodded, unwilling to speak.
“You know what you must do to eat…” Torek began.
“Fuck off,” Revik said, cutting him off. “Just beat me again, if that’s what you want.”
Torek sighed, clicking softly.
Shrugging a little, he cut a piece off the steak on the plate in front of him. Revik couldn’t help but watch as he brought it to his mouth, shoving it in and chewing on it thoughtfully for a few seconds before he swallowed, glancing down at Revik.
“It’s a simple thing, brother. A little thing.”
Revik felt his hunger shift back into anger, a near hatred. “Why are you doing this? What the fuck do you want from me?”
Torek laughed. “I’ve been absolutely crystal clear about what I want from you, brother. I have been from the beginning. I want you to talk to me. I want you to tell me anything I ask. I want to know all of your dark, dirty little secrets…especially about that female you were crushing on so badly when you left my club that night. I want total transparency between us…in some areas, at least.”
Revik shook his head, once.
“I can’t do that,” Revik said. “I can’t, Torek.”
“Can’t?” Torek said, amused. “Or won’t?”
“Can’t,” Revik said, staring up at him coldly. “You’re wasting your time.”
“Why can’t you, brother?” Torek said. He shoved another forkful of rare steak into his mouth, chewing vigorously. Motioning towards Revik with his fork, he tilted his head sideways. “Is this because of your Adhipan friends?”
Revik felt his whole body go still.
He kept his reaction off his face. Even so, he couldn’t help thinking he hadn’t gotten it completely out of his light, not in time, at least.
Fuck. Was this about Allie?
This couldn’t be about Allie, could it?
He kept the question so far back in his light as to be utterly invisible.
“Brother,” Torek said, clicking softly as he put down his fork. “What is it you think I’m doing here? Do you think I work for your enemies, is that it? That I am seeking intelligence from you to sell? Or perhaps that I want to harm you in some other way?”
Revik didn’t answer. He stared at the floor, his face unmoving.
Torek sighed again, exasperated. “Brother, I do not work for anyone but myself. I want to know these things about you for my own reasons…”
“Which are what?” Revik said.
He still didn’t look up.
Torek smiled. “Gods, you are paranoid. My reasons? You need me to say them aloud? All right, I will…you intrigue me, brother. And I want to see you lose control. Not in that fake, half-assed way you do with Haili, or with those strippers I brought in here, or the unwilling last night. I want you to really lose control, brother. I want you to belong to me, if only for a short time…I want to see the real man there, to look him in the eye.”
“Why?” Revik said, his voice cold again.
“Because I wish it,” Torek said.
Leaning back in the chair, he made another vague motion with his fork. His eyes and voice grew puzzled as he continued to study Revik’s face.
“Do I really need a more complex reason, brother? One involving political intrigues, perhaps? Some conspiracy to destroy you? Why is it you do not think it’s enough that the idea gives me a
hard-on like you wouldn’t believe? That I plan to fuck you senseless when this thing occurs between us? That I am looking forward to it?”
Revik shook his head, clicking in irritation under his breath.
Staring at the floor, he tried to block out the smell of the meat and failed.
His stomach cramped as he knelt there, even as his head started to throb.
“You will really starve yourself, rather than give this to me?” Torek said.
He shoved another forkful of meat into his mouth, watching Revik through narrowed eyes as he chewed. He washed down the last of the mouthful with a few swallows of wine.
“I could try a few more negative incentives, brother,” he added, putting down his glass. “What if I bring that old human in here? The one you turned down for a fuck that night? Let him and his friends defile you for a few weeks…give them the full run of you, whatever they want. I’d make a nice profit off it, too, come to think of it…”
Revik felt that nausea in his gut worsen.
He thought about Durenkirk that night at the Academy, when he’d put his hand on him. He remembered the human's flip assumption that Revik was for sale, that he’d fuck anything for the right price, that any seer would.
Without knowing he was doing it almost, Revik shook his head.
“No,” he said.
The word came out low, almost a whisper.
Torek watched him, silent.
Revik didn’t look up, but felt himself cringe. Some part of him wanted to say it again, to get the seer to agree not to let that fucking human see him like this, much less touch him when he was bound. He couldn’t bear it. He really couldn’t fucking bear it.
Above him, Torek sighed, clicking softly.
“Come here, brother,” he said, his voice gentle that time.
Feeling Torek’s pain, along with his light snaking into his, Revik complied, almost before he knew he meant to. When he’d slid close enough, Torek curled his fingers into his hair, pulling Revik’s head directly into his lap.
Revik found himself letting him do that, too.
Seconds later, he was relaxing there. He leaned into the other’s leg, laying his head on the expensive pants Torek wore, and closed his eyes. He let the seer stroke his hair and face, feeling his light coil around his, reassuring him that time, warming him gently.
