by Tenaya Jayne
She held it up to her eye, then let it drop, shaking her head. “Nothing.”
Tesla wandered the halls, her stomach rumbling, but thankful to be alone. She knew her solitude was coming to a quick end. Lachlan would be back to torment her some more. Music drifted in the air again, making her scowl. The notes were soft, fluid, and deeply sexual. She tried to shut out the sound. She turned a corner and stepped on something soft. A trail of deep red petals covered the floor. Tesla stopped. He obviously wanted her to follow them; he may as well have put arrows. It was far from a subtle move. She rolled her eyes and continued walking on the petals.
They led to the throne room. She stopped short, her mouth falling open. “Damn.”
Lachlan stepped out from the side of the massive hall and walked toward her, smiling. “Thank you. That was a genuine reaction.”
She clamped her mouth shut. “Um… it’s big.”
He circled around her, running his finger lightly across her shoulder. “Beautiful. I knew you would look amazing in this dress. Do you like it?”
“No.” Her voice was stoic.
He chuckled. “No more ugly, men’s clothes for you. I want you to always look your best from now on.”
So many nasty retorts going through her mind. She kept them inside and tried to hold her expression in a bored indifference. “So what now? What’s the game?”
He faced her, crowded her. She took a step back, he moved forward. He lifted his hands and held them a breath from her shoulders but didn’t make contact. Smiling he leaned down and put his mouth next to her ear, but again, he didn’t actually touch her.
“Anxious to play?” he whispered.
“I just want the rules, so I can figure out how to break them.”
“Careful, sweetness. Breaking the rules is the next game.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, but you will find it good, once you learn.”
“Oh?” She really wanted to back up, but she held still.
He pulled his face back from her ear, his gaze pushing hard on hers. “Hide and seek. The game is played in the darkest part of your mind. Where I will find everything. I will touch it all. Tease out the darkness in you and show you how to use it for the ultimate pleasure. You don’t know these things yet, my pretty baby. It’s time to taste new flavors. Try new things. Push the taboo. Break the rules. There should be no boundaries between you and me.”
She sneered. “Sounds disgusting.”
His smile grew bigger, and his eyes burned. “Oh, it is,” he whispered intimately.
“You can’t have me. You know that, right?”
“Have you forgotten who you are talking to? There is nothing I cannot have. And I want everything.”
“Yes. Your appetite has killed countless people. You are—”
He held up his hand to silence her. “I’m not interested in your incriminations. I know you’re unhappy being here with me… at this moment. But this is your life now. I want you to enjoy yourself. Don’t you like my castle?”
Tesla swallowed. “It’s beautiful. Amazing. But it’s a prison.”
He smiled again. “Yes. For you, it is. And it always will be. I could throw you in a pit if I wanted to. Be thankful you have my love.”
“Love?”
“I want you for my queen, Tesla. I’ve been alone so long.”
“By choice,” she argued.
“Naturally, by choice. I haven’t felt desire like this before. I could have anyone…I want you.”
Sorrow filled her whole body, heavy and solid. She sighed and looked down. It didn’t matter what she said to him. He had the control. The collar kept her from attacking him. The only hope she had was he would eventually fall asleep and she could dismantle the collar and take it off. Until then, there was nothing she could do.
“I’m hungry,” she said quietly.
He took her hand and brought it to his lips. “Then come have dinner with me.”
He led her through a side door and into an intimate dinning space. A table was laid with food and beautiful linens and crystal. Her stomach turned over at the aroma. She didn’t recognize any of the types of food, or the smells, but she was totally enticed, nevertheless. He pulled out one of the ornate chairs for her. Her hands ached with the desire to clench them around his throat, but she sat down.
He served her. It was a freaking nightmare. Like she was having an out of body experience. Smile when you want to scream. Hold still when you want to kill. Be surrounded by beauty and romance while filled with hate. Visually she was in a fairy tale. A princess in a beautiful gown, having dinner with the king. But it was all veneer. Pseudo. She narrowed her eyes at him, curious. Did he care it was fake? Yes, she figured he did care. He wanted to pretend until the lie became real. He wanted reality. Is that how she could take him down? Hmm…perhaps. She needed time to think on that one. She needed to understand him better.
Tesla took her first bite. Warmth and pleasure sparkled in her mouth, then filled her whole body. She absorbed the impossibly wonderful taste and sensation it brought. She almost gasped for air, it was so good.
He smiled knowingly at her. “I told you it was time to try new things. And that’s just your first taste.”
She wanted all of it. She wanted to gorge herself. Fear spiked a warning in her, and she pushed the plate away. “I’m full.”
He leaned back in his chair, scrutinizing her. She feared he was about to explode in rage. Instead, he smiled again. “You’re right to not trust. Shrewd. But I’m not poisoning you.”
“No. You’re addicting me. Making me dependent.”
“It’s only fair. I need you…in so many ways. Balance must be achieved. I want us to hold equal power over one another. Come now, I know you’re still hungry. It won’t hurt. I promise.”
“No. I don’t like this. Holding food over me to make me behave is too basic a move for you. It’s beneath you.”
He laughed and nodded appreciatively. “Perhaps you’re right. But I’ve been honest about it, so it’s hardly a calculated move against you.”
She snorted. “You’re delusional.”
“You’re sexy,” he countered.
Her cheeks flushed, making him laugh again.
“So innocent. It’s time to shed that.”
She scowled. “I’m not that innocent. You think I don’t know what desire is? You think I’ve never felt lust? I told you my heart belongs to another.”
“He obviously didn’t know what to do with you. Not like I do.”
She looked away from him, a rogue tear sliding from her eye. She waited for him to continue tormenting her. Instead, he was quiet. She exhaled and looked back at him, more collected. His face was contemplative.
“I could change my appearance. I could look like him, if you want.”
The thought made her want to gag. “No!” She looked down and schooled her violent reaction. “I mean, no thank you. That’s thoughtful of you, but I need to let him go. As you’ve already seen, I’m not good at pretending.”
“I offered you a gift, and you gave me one instead. Thank you.” He stood and took her plate away, placing his in front of her instead. “There. The taste will be the same, but you won’t feel the same kind of reaction to it.”
She decided to try something to test her theory. “Thank you, Lachlan.” She kept her voice soft.
He looked at her in a new way, and she knew she was right; he did want something real between them.
“That’s the first time you’ve said my name.”
“Is that agreeable?”
“Very. We’ve obviously moved past a barrier. That pleases me.”
She took another bite. Instead of feeling less, she felt more. More warmth, more pleasure. He’d lied. Before she came back to her senses, she taken three more bites. Her head rolled back on her shoulders, and she slumped back in the chair, too high to sit upright anymore. She tried to focus on him, her eyes heavy.
“Nice move,” she conceded. “You got me.”
“You tried to maneuver around me, but I won that round.” He came to her and scooped her up in his arms. Her head swam as he carried her through the halls. “It won’t feel like this next time. The next time you eat, everything will feel normal.”
“I don’t want to play anymore games.”
“That’s fine. Just give in to me, then. Surrender now, Tesla. You will in the end anyway, we both know it. Let’s just forego the rest and move onto the pleasure. Otherwise, we have to play.”
“I thought the struggle was part of the pleasure for you.”
He chuckled as he brought her into the bedroom and laid her on the bed. “I’m so far gone over you already. I love your smart little answers. Would you like to keep the dress on?”
“What do you mean?” she asked sleepily.
“I could get you something else to sleep in.”
“Yeah right, liar. You’d take the dress away and then leave me naked.”
He smirked and lay down next to her. The light went out, and the ceiling lit up with stars again. He propped himself on one elbow and stared down at her.
“What?” she asked as aggressively as she was able to in her drugged state.
“I think I’m going to kiss you now.”
“I think I’m going to vomit in my mouth. That will make it really hot, right?”
He grabbed her chin and tilted her head toward him. “Stop talking.”
Her eyes closed involuntarily as his lips came down on hers. He’d been right when he told her she’d know it when he kissed her. If her mind and heart were detached from her body, it would have been ecstasy. His kiss could hardly be considered just a kiss. It was like the food. Shocking. Full bodied sensuality. Warmth and pleasure. Skill and magic combined. So good and so wrong. It wasn’t for her. This flavor. It was too much. Too mature. Too dirty, and still it was good. Her heart cried out in protest, while her body cried out in craving. A low growl vibrated in his lungs, and he moved closer, pressing his chest against hers. She braced her hands on his shoulder and pushed.
“Stop.”
He smiled down at her, heat and knowledge in his eyes. “Good girl. Say no to me. Deny what your body wants because it’s the right thing to do.”
She winced and clamped her eyes shut. “Ugh. Get off me, you beast. I don’t want you. You drugged me. So get over yourself. If you can make me want you legitimately, then you can feel all good about your skill and desirability. Until then, it’s nothing but forcing me and taking advantage.”
“Whoa. You’ve got guts. Just makes me hotter for you… All right, maybe you have a point. Still…I know you enjoyed that, despite what you might say. I felt you respond.”
“I can’t stop you. Not collared. But you can’t make my heart betray my love.”
His voice lowered and turned to silk. “Yes, I can. You will betray him, then you will forget him, and all that will be in your heart and your body is me.”
She rolled away from him. “Leave me alone.”
“I love you.”
“I think you really believe that.”
He sighed, and she felt his weight leave the bed. She listened, but she didn’t hear his footsteps leaving the room. She refused to look. She held perfectly still and could hear his breathing. Then the cover slid up over her. She was grateful for the barrier it created between them. But that turned out to be folly. The rustling of fabric got the better of her curiosity, and she rolled over to see what he was doing. He smiled at her as he finished taking his clothes off.
She groaned in disgust and pinched her eyes shut in defense against his nakedness. “Seriously?” she demanded.
He didn’t answer but sild under the cover next to her. She shifted away, her head pitching with the movement. He crowded her, his bare chest pressing against her side. Leaning down, he pressed his lips to her shoulder. “Relax.” He said. “If I felt like forcing you, I’d have done it already. But this is my bed.”
She rolled away from him. “I didn’t choose to be here. You’re the one who put me here. I’ll gladly sleep somewhere else. The floor even.”
“Shhh…Just be quiet.” He ran his hand over and over down her arm. Then he moved to her back and traced circles and designs on her skin. “I know you’re curious. You want to know what it’s like.”
“Not with you.”
“Lies,” he breathed against her ear. “Just think, if the simple act of eating can be what I made it for you, imagine what I can do to you in bed.”
Head hammering and vision spinning, she dragged herself into a sitting position before scooting to the edge of the bed and onto the floor. “You will never have my consent.”
She curled into a ball on the marble floor, disoriented before she passed out. She didn’t sleep long. Her eyes fluttered open, and she stared at the ceiling. Had she been dreaming? She was sure she had moved to the floor. Well, she wasn’t there now. Groaning, she was on the bed, Lachlan asleep right beside her. Had he dragged her back after she lost consciousness?
Her blood felt clear of the junk he’d given her. Her head no longer felt swimmy. She exhaled slowly and moved a fraction of an inch away from him. He didn’t stir, not that she trusted he was actually asleep at all. Silently, Tesla sild out of the bed. She hesitated for a second, her eyes still trained on him. Nothing. She slunk from the room and out into the hallway, moving through the shadows behind the columns lining the walls.
This was her chance to break the collar. She sat on the floor, her back against the wall and held her collared hand with the other one. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she rubbed the pad of her fingertip around and around on the stone. She saw it the way she saw many things, like an equation. But the math was off on this one. The symbols like ancient glyphs. She looked for patterns. This was going to take longer than she hoped.
Slowly, she began to deteriorate the outer layers. She moved her power closer and closer to the center, to the magic inside the ring.
“Tesla…” Her name drifted down the hall like a whispered breeze.
No. She was so close. She pushed harder toward the center. Almost there. Hands reached out from the darkness and grabbed her by the shoulders. The collar fell off her finger just as a cuff clamped around her neck. Peyton smiled cruelly at her in the shadows. She grabbed at the thing around her neck. It burned her hands. He slid the collar back onto her finger and it bit down into her bones again.
“So nice to come across you like this. And just at the right time looks like. You are powerful.”
“Look, I know you don’t want me here. I can see it in your eyes. Just let me go. Lachlan will never know. He’s asleep.”
“Asleep? Perfect. He wants you all to himself. It’s my turn now.”
He grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward and through a door. Dim light came from the ceiling in the all grey room. There was nothing in this room, just a square black hole in the floor. She stepped back from it, afraid. It was like the open mouth of a monster.
Peyton lifted the hem of her dress and cut it with a small knife. She turned to face him, but he pulled the fabric in both hands, tearing the garment into two pieces. The dress fell to the floor. She tried to cover herself with her arms. He shoved her hard with both hands. Tesla stumbled backward and fell into the pit.
Her ankles burned as her feet hit the floor. The space was confining around her, like a coffin. Cold water filled the bottom, covering her feet. She reached up, then she jumped, but the top was just beyond her reach. She tried to brace her hands and feet on the walls, but they were too slick. Peyton looked down at her and smiled.
“I made this little space just for you. The cuff around your neck will begin to stimulate you, well your magic. This is going to hurt, a lot. I’m really going to enjoy watching you injure yourself.”
She looked down at the black water. She couldn’t focus if she was listening to him. She could get the collar off again. Now that she’d done it once, it wou
ld go fast. Tesla only made it through the very first layer of the magic in the collar before the cuff woke up. The pain was beyond anything she’d ever experienced. Her magic surged and overflowed inside her. She clawed at the cuff. It burned her hands again, only this time her hands were lit with crossing, wild currents.
Her scream echoed in the tiny space as lightning shot from her hands. The lightning bounced off the walls and back into her, scorching her body as it hit her. Electricity snaked through the space over and over. She couldn’t stop. She couldn’t think or calm down. It filled the water in the bottom, lighting her up that way too. The lightning in the water entered her legs like someone cutting her open from her ankles to her knees with a broken, acid-covered blade. The cuff pulsed, edging her overflow higher.
Her heart began to burn and snap. She could kill herself now. Just put her wild hands on her heart and she’d age to the point of death in a matter of seconds. Death. Such a good idea, the deep recesses of her brain thought as another bolt went straight through her stomach. The electrical storm filled the hole. Over and over she was impaled with her own power. She raised her hands to her heart and stopped just before making the connection. She felt it. There in her hand. Her tie to X.
X...
Insanity brought on by pain scattered her mind. Flashes of X. His smile. His eyes. The sound of his voice. She found the will to live. He gave her that. She crouched down and pushed her hands under the water, keeping her mind trained on him. Her memories soothed her. Her magic eased back even though the cuff continued to push and pull on her power. The storm ended, and she crumpled unconscious against the black wall, burned all over and all the way through.
The sounds of arguing and shouting woke her. She’d never been so hurt in her life. She tried to move and stopped immediately, her muscles screaming at her. Her vision hazed and wavered as she blinked.
“How dare you hurt her like that? I should kill you,” Lachlan yelled.
She cried out in agony as a hand reached down and grabbed her, hauling her out of the hole. Tesla hung like a dead body in Lachlan’s arms and fell unconscious again as they passed a satisfied-looking Peyton. Water running over her burns woke her with a start. Light rain fell on her face. She moaned and blinked her blurry eyes. She was with Iva.
