I shook my head. What the fuck was wrong with me? Deep down I wanted to crucify her, show her what pain really was. I wanted to mark her, bruise her and scar her but Mae just wouldn’t stop her incessant fucking nag in my head.
“We need to do this. You need to hit me. We can’t very well walk in there, me looking like a regular woman without a scratch on me. That isn’t you, Daniel. Your father will expect you to hurt me.”
Why wouldn’t she shut up? She was driving me crazy. “You know, you’re nothing like Mae.”
The room seemed to shrink beneath me. I jolted when Connie suddenly appeared beside me, her face furious but her eyes were what seized my attention. A darkness had descended over the bright blue, leaving them grey and sinister. “No,” she hissed. “I’m nothing like Mae. I don’t own a heart or a conscience. I relish in destruction, thrive on it. It feeds me, gives me the fuel to live this sorry fucking life. But you know that, don’t you Daniel, cos’ you feel that too.”
I squeezed my eyes closed, the need for slaughter bubbling up until I had to tighten my fists to form some sort of control.
“Mae was easy prey for you, wasn’t she? Easy for you to control and destroy. Because let’s face it, Master. You destroyed her. Annihilated her until all that was left of her was dust that was carried away by your rancid soul.”
Her head snapped to the side when my knuckles connected with her cheekbone. Her nose cracked under the force of my next blow, causing her to stumble into the wall, the palms of her hand slapping on the ugly fucking wallpaper to support her.
“Good boy,” she goaded when she turned back to me and wiped at the blood trickling down her face. “You have any more for me?”
“Why are you doing this?” The relief that now ran through my veins calmed the storm inside me, quietened Mae’s ridicule.
She blinked, her brow creased in bewilderment. Her eyes suddenly widened and her jaw dropped. “Oh my God.”
I knew she’d sussed me. I shook my head and turned away from her, refusing to let her see beneath my skin anymore.
“I’m not Mae, Daniel. You need to get past that or this will fail.” Dropping my eyes to the floor, I tried to block her out, struggling with the many conflictions inside me.
“No,” I whispered. “You’re not.”
“Did you love her?” Her voice was quiet but it was as though she screamed the words at me, slapping me with the truth of them.
Choosing to ignore her, I picked up the small bag beside the door and eventually turned back to her. “Let’s go.”
She continued to stare at me, her eyes accusing but delving deep inside me. She relented and gave me a nod.
I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to do this again. History had the nasty habit of biting you on the arse. Well for me, I had a feeling history would more than bite; it would slaughter.
The door greeted me like the gates to the abyss, their looming structure almost suffocating me. Connie squirmed in my hold, my fingers curling tighter into her hair. Everything around me was surreal, as though I was dreaming.
A shadow passed through the window before the door swung open. Taking a deep breath, I smiled up at Pauline. Her face blanched and she took a step back, her palm on her chest as if that would stop her heart from breaking out.
“Daniel?” Her voice was low and raspy. “Daniel?” Her eyes then shifted to my gift. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened further. “Oh my God. Mae?”
“Connie,” I corrected as I pushed her forwards into the house. Connie stumbled and whimpered. I was silently impressed by her acting skills. “Mae’s sister.”
Pauline stared at us both, her head shaking from side to side as though the action would deny our presence. “Uhh, your father is in the study.”
I nodded briskly and directed Connie along with me. Her fingers curled around mine, as though trying to prise me off. “Stop fidgeting!” I hissed at her, aware we were already being watched.
“Fuck you!”
I pulled her nearer, bringing my palm across her mouth with a sharp slap. I refused to feel the euphoria that flowed through me. This house was like a vacuum, sucking out reality and once more plunging me into the depths of its depravity. There was an essence there, almost like it possessed you as soon as you entered, influenced your every thought and twisted you into what it wanted you to be – evil.
I caught the blink of approval in Connie’s eyes but I glared at her. “Control yourself.”
The study door opened just as I raised my hand to knock. He stood, proud and dominant, evil and immoral. The foulness of him once again seeped into me; vile, disgusting reactions shimmered in my head, feeding me with both despair and power.
“Father.”
His dark stare locked onto me, his cruel eyes reading me. I stood still letting him have his fill of me. A smile morphed his face into something quite sinister, his eyes glinting with an ominous delight. He reached out and palmed my shoulder. “Daniel. You have no idea how much concern I have held for you.”
I nodded, remembering to straighten my shoulders. “And you, Father. Forgive me, I have only just learnt of your release, or I would have arrived sooner.”
He shook his head. “No, no. It’s been quite an adventure, son.” His eyes then shifted to the prize in my hold.
“A gift, Father.”
His gaze on Connie turned my stomach. Delight poured over him, a menacing joy transforming his features until his smile twisted into a grin of utter jubilation. “Well, well. I do believe this is the reflection of the one who got away.”
My skin prickled, hatred curling deep. Connie twitched under me, her action a blatant order for me to keep it together.
“Connie,” I said. “Mae’s sister. Mae’s twin sister.”
Father chuckled, the sound depressing and disturbing. “Yes, I can see that.” He lifted his eyes to mine. “Come on. We must prepare her immediately.”
I followed him into the office, watching him with disgust as he immediately prepped the syringe. Connie struggled in my hold when she observed what he was doing.
“No, please,” she sobbed.
“Be still!” I barked at her, pulling her to me and clamping her arms behind her when Father walked across the room to her.
He regarded her with narrow eyes. “Do you have any clue as to how much trouble your pretty little sister caused?”
I was only just holding it together. I needed to sink inside myself to deal with this. My heart was bleeding as Mae’s cries and screams echoed around me. Damn this fucking house and its malevolent ghosts.
I flinched when Connie spat at him, her hatred transferring with her mucus when it slapped on my father’s cheek. He pulled her from me, his yank on her hair refusing me any chance to pull her back. She curled into a ball as he rained blow after blow on her.
It was only me who witnessed the clench of her fists, the tightening of her teeth in her bottom lip. It was only me who saw her go completely lax, letting him beat her into unconsciousness. And it was only me who saw Mae sob and hurt beneath his fury.
I SWALLOWED BACK the bile. All I could feel was Mae in the room, her spirit around me, her inspiration supporting me as her despair simultaneously saddened me. I envisaged her strung up like I was, her weak, frail body snapping under the torture these bastards drowned her in. I was surprised she had taken so much before death granted her peace.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been there, maybe a day or two. My stomach ached with hunger, my throat dry and sore from thirst. It struck me hours ago how merciless these bastards were. A smile curled my lips when I thought of how Isaac would react to seeing his finest Phantom hung like this before a small chuckle echoed in the room when I pictured his amusement. Yeah, fuck you, Isaac.
My legs ached but the strength I had in my arms gave the pain in my shoulders only a slight niggle. Shrugging, I sighed. I’d been through worse – much, much worse. It was the wait that was pissing me off but I channelled every ounce of inner calmness I could muster and
refused the grievance to find its way to the surface.
Sweat trickled down my face, even though the room was bitter cold. I licked it from my lips and turned towards the door when it slowly creaked open.
Daniel stared at me. The darkness had already descended and overtook him. I hadn’t expected anything less. I knew how it worked. To feed your depravity you had to tempt the Devil.
Eventually he moved, his slow strides bringing him closer and closer. I struggled against the chain, already playing the part that was expected.
The nearer he drew, the more I saw the sheen over his eyes, the dark glaze of sin and corruption ruling him. I wondered if his father had drugged him, the difference in him from that morning shocking and intriguing.
“Hello, Connie.”
I didn’t answer but kept my gaze trained on him as he approached. He stood before me and dropped his eyes to roam my nakedness. A lift of his lips showed me his approval.
“Are you thirsty?” His tone was bland, almost ghostly, like his soul had fucked off and left behind a shell containing nothing but immorality and callousness.
He circled round me then stopped dead behind me. I heard his heavy swallow. Straightening my shoulders I hardened myself to his reaction, so why I flinched when he trailed a finger along one of my welts was beyond me. A shiver raced through me and I closed my eyes. His touch burned me, scorched fire through every single nerve ending.
“So,” he whispered, “you’re very much like your sister after all.” He spoke so quietly I wasn’t sure he was even talking to me. “However, I am aware that for you to butcher your own body, brutalising your own back would be somewhat of a problem.” He came round to the front of me, a finger lifting my chin until I was looking at him. “Who did this?”
I quirked an eyebrow. “And you care, why?”
He chuckled. “Oh, I don’t care. Your disfigurement lowers your value, causing us quite the problem.”
I scoffed. “I’m so sorry, Master. I would have asked them to stop to save you the misfortune of losing a few pounds, but at the time I didn’t think they cared about my opinion.”
He lifted his chin, narrowing his eyes. “Training?” He whispered the word. I nodded subtly.
“To fear pain is a burden. To feed from agony is of profit.”
“Mmm, well let’s hope the training prepares you for the devil’s wrath, Connie Swift.”
I smirked at him. “I’ll survive.”
He tipped his head, deliberating my statement. “That remains to be seen.”
I pursed my lips. “You need to be aware that Helen is under strict instruction to return Annie to me only. She is now at an undisclosed address. If I don’t make it back, then you don’t see your daughter again.” He glared at me, anger morphing his face. “Just a small insurance policy in case you had other ideas about how this would play out.”
I hissed when he punched me in the face, his furious spittle spraying over me as he made me pay for my foresight. I let him play, because after all, this was what it was compared to what I had endured at the hands of Isaac – mere child’s play.
He yanked me close with a hard grip on my hair, his face an inch from mine. “You want destroying? Then let me accommodate. You’ll wish you never met me.”
“Oh, Daniel. I wish you’d never met Mae. Maybe she would have had something to fight for if you hadn’t decimated her.”
He spun round. His body was rigid and hard, the deep contours of his back muscles straining against the material of his shirt. Anger and fury poured from him, its presence smothering and crippling. Rolling his head around his shoulders he ran a finger along the many instruments lined up on the wall until he stopped at a long thin crop.
“How Mae loved this particular piece.”
Fury surged through me but I closed off to it, refused to let it and him eat at me.
“Her pale skin glowed so beautifully under the thrash of leather.” He turned to me, his eyes hard and full of wicked intent. “Her sweet voice as she begged me to stop was most lyrical, her cries as hypnotising as the starlings’ morning chorus.”
Breathe. In. Out. In. Out
“The way she arched beneath my hand. The way she came apart underneath me was quite something. Simply mesmerising.”
He orbited me slowly, dragging out his vocal torture until I struggled to blink back the tears that pooled behind my eyes. His words brought visions of Mae’s torture, her need for me, her want for the pain to end.
“She even asked for it. Did you know that, Connie? Begged me to hurt her.”
Breathe. In. Out. In. Out.
“She craved the dark side. Needed the pain to breathe. And I had no trouble obliging her with every sick and twisted need she had.”
“You bastard!”
I was almost glad when he finally ended his verbal assault and brought forth the physical. The pain from each of his lashes didn’t reach into my soul like his words had. My body was trained to accept the pain and I let it flow, allowed it to empower the hatred that was always inside me, authorised each slash of agony to awaken the dormant passion inside me. I moved into each hit, taking its full strength and devouring the power it gave me.
My skin tingled, my nerve endings coming to life as my mind closed off to the world and concentrated on the adrenaline flowing through my veins. Channelling it, my training kicked in intuitively. I consumed it, let it curl around me and bring out the side of me that needed pain.
Daniel was unaware of my arousal, oblivious to the energy he was building in me. He was ignorant to the fact that the first lesson as a Phantom was the adaptation of pain, the conversion that took place in each of us until our bodies literally hummed on the rawness that slithered over us.
I was no longer breathing, I was absorbing air. My lungs didn’t inflate and deflate, they just magnetised the air from around me. My body no longer felt the slice of pain, only the eruption of vigour. My mind gave me no thoughts, only a serene void.
I was no longer a person.
I was a Phantom.
I TWISTED HER hair in my fists, thrusting my dick further into her mouth. She lifted her eyes to me, adoration and the need to please in her gaze threatening to choke me. She never failed to amaze me, her mouth always open to accommodate my length, her legs sliding apart so easily when the need to fuck overtook me. In a way I had missed Demi, the easiness to her, the simplicity she offered to the sexual side of me was uncomplicated, well it was for me. She’d always had a ‘soft spot’ for me, always saw me as hers and although part of that was true, she never quite did it for me. The pleasure she brought from me wasn’t rapturous, nor was it earth shattering but it was a release, and an easy outlet.
Her suction intensified when she felt me swell on her tongue. Her fingers clawed at my balls, her nails stroking the tight skin underneath me. Everything tightened until my cum shot forth, filling her hot little mouth, the excess of it dribbling down the edge of her mouth and dripping over her generous cleavage.
I sighed and pulled out of her mouth, tucking my cock away. I had never managed to find that shot of exquisite heat like I had with Mae. Every partner I’d had since her, and even before her, had brought me off but never with the bliss that had come with filling Mae, stretching her tight little cunt – making her bleed.
“Better?” Father asked as Demi smiled up at me. I nodded in reply but kept my gaze on Demi.
“I missed you, Master.” Her whispered devotion caused me to smile. She really was quite stupid.
“And you, Demi.”
She grinned, showing me the perfection of her whitened teeth, the precision to her faults. Raising to her feet, she tipped her head then left the room.
I could feel his smirk on me and I turned to look at him. He quirked an eyebrow and shook his head slowly. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
I nodded. I was more than one hundred percent fucking sure. “Absolutely. It’s time now.”
He sighed and shrugged. “Your choice, Daniel but comple
tely understandable. We all like new pussy to break and even I admit that your old whore is just that, an old whore.”
I chuckled and received the tumbler of whisky from him with a nod of thanks.
“Talking of fresh pussy,” he continued as he settled in the chair opposite me, his eyes gleeful and secured on me. “Your gift is being received rather optimistically in the circle already.”
“I thought she might. But I must admit I’m rather surprised that you intend to auction. I thought you’d have preferred a more… personal enactment of punishment.”
He sighed and pursed his lips, pausing to take another sip of liquor. “To be frank, Daniel, I owe her to Franco.”
My eyes snapped in his direction but I composed myself, taking a gulp of the luxury contained in my glass, making myself savour the smooth burn of my throat and drawing my shock inside. He didn’t seem to notice my reaction and carried on.
“I’m somewhat… aggrieved and reasonably saddened by his decision to educate but after the Mae fiasco, what can one do?”
“And how is Franco?”
“He’s very well. Business is back to near full strength. The previous troubles, I will admit, caused quite a bit of unease for our clients, yet they’ve learnt to trust me and Franco has managed to sweeten a few palms so to speak.” He chuckled and eyed me proudly. “And he’s very eager to meet our new guest. He was extremely happy with your reappearance, especially after the souvenir you brought with you from your travels.”
“Mmm.”
“I must ask though, however did you find her?”
Licking my lips I eyed him with a shrewd smile, chuckling to refine my lie. “She was quite easy prey actually. I’d had an inkling that she had, how do we say? Pulled the wool over her family’s eyes. Things that didn’t fit right whilst I’d been watching Mae every year. The stupid girl thought she could shroud herself from a hunter. I just picked up some leads, contacts and other means of information. Quite simple really when your quarry thinks itself safe.”
The Salvation of Daniel (The Blue Butterfly Book 2) Page 6
