Playing With Monsters

by Amelia Hutchins

  I watched as my only hope slipped out of the room and closed the door firmly behind them. I turned back to Lucian, who was watching me carefully.

  “You won’t be able to hide anything from me now, little witch,” he purred as his thumb flicked the button of his jeans and they slid down his hips.

  I swallowed, once, twice, and wondered when they had relocated the Sahara Desert into my mouth. I shook my head and spun around as his dick was released from the jeans.

  “Get undressed,” he ordered. The command was just that: an order to get naked in front of him. I nibbled my bottom lip with apprehension and uncertainty. This was the man who’d brought me to climax with his hand earlier, and the same one I’d tried to hide from in shame for the rest of the day, only to end up stuck with him in some archaic ritual.

  I carefully pulled my shirt over my head, knowing that I couldn’t waste time, not with the coven on their way here. I kicked off the soft leather slippers, and carefully undid the button on my pants. I bent down to remove them and enjoyed the hiss that sounded from behind me as he took in the little thong panties I wore.

  I turned and moved slowly towards the pool, where he waited. He just about filled it up. It no longer looked big; it looked small with him in it.

  “Turn around,” I whispered.

  “I’ve already seen you naked, Lena.”

  “I really don’t care if you have or not, turn around,” I ordered and watched as indecision played in his eyes. He wasn’t used to being given orders. He was the one who dished them out, and everyone around him jumped to do as he bid, but not me.

  “Fine,” he said after a few moments of watching me.

  Once he turned around, I slipped out of my panties and bra and entered the heated pool. I moved to the other side, away from him, and sank far enough into the water that the flowers covered most of me.

  “You can turn around now,” I whispered, feeling shy and inadequate. This man probably had been with women who were beyond beautiful, and yet he flirted with me. Maybe it was pity, or maybe he actually liked me; either way, nothing more was going to happen between us.

  “You weren’t shy at my club,” he reminded me as his eyes moved to where my hands crossed over my naked breasts beneath the water. “Witches are normally open about sex, and you are not.”

  “That’s a stereotype if I’ve ever heard one. That’s like saying we all have warts and ride around on brooms,” I countered defensively.

  “I didn’t say it was a bad thing, Lena,” he replied smoothly as he moved further into the water, uncaring that the water barely hit his waist, or that I could see his ass. It was a really nice ass. Adonis would be jealous of that man’s ass. I bit my lip, and jerked my eyes away from him.

  “Is that why you opened the club? So that you could enjoy sex?” I asked carefully, my eyes still on the other side of the room, as if the wall was the most interesting thing in this universe.

  “I opened the clubs because I have certain needs, and they can be fulfilled there while making a profit.”

  “What are you into?” I asked curiously.

  “You’re not ready for what I am into,” he replied closer to me than he’d been, forcing me to turn my head, only to find his lips inches from mine. “You would probably think I was perverted, maybe even deranged if I told you what I like.”

  “How do you know I would? You don’t even know me, so you shouldn’t be judging what I would or wouldn’t do.”

  “I like control,” he said softly, his obsidian eyes lighting with banked heat as he scanned my face.

  “Explain,” I urged.

  “I like to have total control in the bedroom. The women I have sex with have no problem giving it to me. I become the master, and they become whatever I crave them to be,” he said with a guarded look in his eyes.

  “You make them slaves?” I countered with a question, my heart racing at his close proximity.

  “Some. I like them to feel helpless, dependent on me. I like to make them beg for things, and I enjoy their pain.”

  I blinked rapidly. What. The. Fuck? Sadist?

  “You’re a sadist,” I whispered.

  “I’m whatever I want to be at the moment,” he countered as he moved even closer. “Is the water too hot?”

  “No, why?” I asked carefully.

  “Because your skin is red,” he said with a small smirk as he placed his hands against the pool on either side of me, trapping me in the spot I sat in. “Think you could handle doing whatever I wanted you to?” he whispered hoarsely.

  “No,” I replied honestly. “I’m not into those types of things,” I finished breathlessly.

  “Is that why you were so fucking wet today? Because you weren’t into it at all?” he asked as he pushed away and seated himself across from me.

  “It wasn’t what I was seeing that was turning me on, Lucian,” I whispered watching him from beneath my lashes. “It was you.”

  “Liar,” he laughed softly. “Then why were you hiding from me all day?” he asked as he rested the back of his head his against the side of the pool, and closed his eyes.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “I wasn’t hiding,” I lied as my eyes focused on a tendril of water as it slowly moved down his chest.

  “Hiding because you want me, or hiding because you’re unsure of how you felt today?” he questioned.

  “Today shouldn’t have happened,” I replied softly as I glanced back up at him. He opened his eyes and studied me for a long moment before he spoke.

  “You want me, and you were turned on by what you saw. You just can’t admit it yet, which is fine; you’ll get there. Admitting you want me is the first step down a very dark path. I’m willing to lead you down it, Lena.”

  “As if,” I blatantly lied to him as my heart raced, my pupils dilated, and my back arched a sliver. I fought to control the reaction I had to him. “Tell me about the ritual.” I changed the subject to something a little safer—okay, a lot safer.

  He smiled coldly and whatever had been in his eyes slipped back inside of him. He pushed off the edge of the pool and moved towards me. When he was closer, he sat beside me and once again rested his head on the pool’s slick side.

  “We will exchange words, and I will see into your past. How far I go depends on you. I’m just along for the ride. It is a bit like hypnosis; we will be delving past your conscious mind to your unconscious mind, only, instead of you telling me what you see, I’ll be able to see it too. The herbs in the water and flowers should help you focus on particular events.”

  “Do we stay naked for it?” I asked apprehensively.

  “We will be in robes for the ritual itself. The spell is difficult, so precautions will be taken,” he whispered as he opened his eyes and turned his head to look at me. “Don’t trust me?” he asked after a tense moment had passed.

  “I just don’t trust anyone when I’m naked and out of it.”

  “What we did today, Lena, it was consensual,” he whispered as his hand slipped through the water and slid over the inside of my thigh.

  My breathing hitched, and then got stuck in my lungs as he closed his eyes again and continued rubbing my leg erotically.

  “Lucian,” I whispered breathlessly.

  He moved so quickly that I didn’t have time to respond, or even react. His immense body pinned mine to the side of the pool, and his heavy cock rested on my belly. I looked down, noting that it went past my navel, and was incredibly thick. It twitched and my eyes flew up to Lucian’s. I opened my mouth, only to have it filled with his hungry, dominating kiss.

  I moaned against him as he rubbed himself against my stomach. His hands captured mine as I tried to place them against his chest. His kiss was hungry, intoxicating my senses and lowering any argument I might have had about him being
this close to me naked.

  One hand held mine locked in a vise grip while the other pulled carefully at my hair, opening my jaw even wider for his kiss until it hurt. My nipples hardened, need filling them with every passing second his mouth remained locked with mine. Moans filled the small room, both his and mine, and I felt him parting my thighs. I willingly helped him, until a knock sounded and he pulled away from me so fast, I barely registered that he had.

  We struggled to control our breathing, fought against the overwhelming lust and sexual tension that filled the room. His eyes watched me, as surely as mine watched him as he controlled his labored breathing.

  “This isn’t finished,” he warned as he turned his head and called for the intruder to come inside the room.

  That was it! I was going to the abbey and joining the damn thing! This man drove me over the edge of sanity, and straight to the fucking crazy train boarding for the loony bin. I’d never been so sexually frustrated in my entire life.

  I watched as one of the elders entered, and Lucian slipped from the pool unabashedly to take the white robe the elder offered him. I followed his cue, watching his back as I slipped into my own robe with a little help from the elder. The silk was soft and cool against my heated flesh, and I felt a shiver as they helped me pull the hood up.

  I followed Lucian’s broad back through the door we’d entered the hidden room in, and towards another room. On the other side of the entrance was another small room that housed something that almost looked like an altar. In the middle of the room was a wide circular table carved out of redwood and low platforms that looked like kneelers had been carved from stone and were placed intermittently on the floor around the table. Salt had been poured in a ring on the floor surrounding the table and rocks. In the center of the table, a crude pentagram had been carved into the wood. In the middle of the pentagram was a chalice along with a long, ornate ceremonial athame.

  I felt Lucian at my side, his finger slowly touching mine for comfort as I started to panic. That simple touch said a million things, yet nothing at all.

  “Are you guilty, Lena?” he whispered, even though we were close enough for others to hear him.

  “Oh, what exactly am I being accused of? No one has said much of anything about which charges or what they really think I have done,” I replied through trembling lips.

  “You’ll do fine,” he smiled reassuringly even though he dodged the question. “Kneel at the table; the salt will keep us protected and grounded from anything that seeks to harm us inside the world created by the spell.”

  “You didn’t say anything about leaving this world,” I hissed as I decided which of the kneelers I would rather be at.

  “It’s going to be okay, Magdalena, I’ll protect you,” he said with a sexy half-smirk. “I got you; nothing bad will happen when you are with me.”

  I kneeled on the smooth stones, placed my hands on the altar, and watched as he did the same. I watched silently as he whispered a few words in a strange language, and the candles shot to life with flames too high and too hot for the small room we were inside of. He chanted, softly at first, until everyone started repeating his words.

  My heart raced so quickly that it hurt, and I trembled as the power rushed through the room and me. It was immense, making it hard to breathe, almost as if I’d grown claustrophobic instantly. I felt tears as they slid down my cheeks unchecked. The flames flickered against the walls as the only light fixture blew out, sending glass shards onto the floor close to us.

  “Is that normal?” I whispered, but Lucian had his eyes closed, chanting with the others in the room. It was surreal, the maddening sounds of an entire room filled with people chanting the same thing over and over. The candles flickered, illuminating the protection runes that covered the walls. I wanted to cover my ears, protect myself, or run away. Maybe do all three.

  My hood was pushed back by a gust of wind, and my eyes moved towards the door to see who had entered, only to find it still closed. I turned back to find that Lucian’s hood had been pushed back as well, and he no longer chanted with the others. His eyes were locked with mine, and his left hand was palm-up on the altar as he reached for the ceremonial athame with his right. I watched in horrified silenced as he whispered more words and sliced through his palm.

  I yipped and started to move away, but those eyes…They held me lost inside their tempting depths, and without breaking the new chant he had started, he told me to remain still. I expelled a steady breath and held my hand out for the blade, accepting it to do as he had done. He repeated the words; I followed his lead in dutifully repeating it verbatim, then sliced through my palm and hissed at the pain. He took the blade from me and placed it on the altar as he picked up the chalice and drank from the red liquid before handing it to me.

  Don’t let it be blood, don’t let it be blood…Wine, yes! I drank deeply, taking more than I should have before I placed it back on the altar, and watched for Lucian to lead me. He relaxed a little before he held his bloody palm out for mine. I hesitated, wanting to do the spell, but not wanting any bond that came from using blood magic—not with this man. After a moment of hesitation, I placed my hand palm-down against his. Blood mixed, the candles erupted, chants became frenzied, and then I’m pretty sure I passed out.

  “Breathe, Lena. Let it happen,” Lucian’s voice cut through my mind, bringing me back to the here and now. Or at least that’s what I thought. We’d been in the room with the altar…

  I turned to look at a little child, barely more than a toddler. She had long caramel colored hair that was gathered into a high ponytail; stray strands had come undone and circled her cherubic face.

  “Joshy!” I cried. I was chasing my brother, who couldn’t have been more than five or six years old. I was giggling as he made faces at me, getting me to walk a little more as he took a few large steps away from me. I fell, big alligator tears began to drop from my blue eyes, and he dropped to the ground beside me.

  “Don’t cry, little Lenny, I got you. You were so big! You did so well. You walked before Kendra, always the first to try everything. I’m so proud of you,” he said encouragingly, even though I’d remained on the floor beside him, bawling.

  Tears filled my eyes as I watched my brother being tender with the baby I’d been, holding me as I cried. He’d only been a child, yet he had always been there for me as Mom focused on Kendra, who always seemed to take more of her attention.

  “It’s too far back, Lena. Take me to where we need to be,” Lucian said. I turned to find him watching me as I wiped at the tears, unwilling to allow them to fall.

  “I don’t want to leave him,” I admitted.

  “He’s not real, it’s just a memory,” he whispered as he placed his hand against my face. “Focus for me.”

  “Did she do it?” Grandpa asked, his wrinkled face filled with pride as he watched me struggle to get back up.

  “Grandpa,” I whispered brokenly.

  “Of course she did, Papa, she’s my sister. Lenny’s going to be tough as rocks by the time I teach her everything I know!” Joshua declared with a cheeky grin.

  “I know she will be, what with you for a brother and treating her like she’s your equal. She ought to be a force to reckon with when she’s old enough to date.”

  “Gah, never! She’ll never date. That’s gross!”

  Grandpa laughed and shook his head. “You say that now, boy, but someday someone’s going to steal her heart. When they break it, you’ll be there to break their nose for me?” he laughed as Joshua shook his dark head vigorously.

  “No one is ever going to break her heart; she’s going to be the prettiest girl in the entire world! Even prettier than Momma is.”

  The memory faded and I exhaled a shuddering breath that seemed to do little to calm the pain I’d felt at watching my brother in a memory I hadn’t even known I’d
had.

  We’d left one memory to another one. This one I couldn’t place. I heard a woman’s screams rip through the woods around us, and I felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me. We were in a forest, thick with greenery. The screaming was coming closer, getting louder as whoever was screaming moved right towards us.

  “Where are we, Lena?” Lucian asked and I shook my head.

  “I don’t know this place,” I whispered as I tried to find anything I could recognize. I could make out smoke over the tops of the trees, high in the sky. The stench of it singed my nose with the subtle reminder of the fire I’d just been in. I moved in a circle. “Can you smell that?” I asked, wondering if he as tuned in to the memory as I was.

  “Lena, come to me, now,” he ordered sharply, and I did without hesitation, as if he was my anchor to this place.

  A woman tore through the bushes, her blonde hair disheveled and her old fashioned corseted dress ripped; that dress made her look like she escaped from a Ren Faire. She tripped and landed hard on the ground; masculine laughter followed her as I moved to help her up.

  “You can’t interact,” Lucian growled as his eyes consumed the woman as if he knew her. “Bloody hell,” he growled thickly as he pushed my head against his chest.

  A horrified scream ripped from the woman as she jumped to her feet and fled through the brush once more. I tore myself from Lucian, needing to see what it was that she was so terrified of. Her screaming escalated as I moved closer to her, and the smoke grew even thicker as I pushed through the bushes, Lucian hot on my heels.

  I skidded to a sudden halt as I broke free from the forest. Bodies littered the ground, pools of blood everywhere. Something had torn these humans into pieces. Fucking pieces! I covered my mouth to muffle my own scream of horror as the terrifying sight sank in. Sadistic laughter sounded from the bushes, growing closer with every second.