Stolen Flame

by D W Marshall

  “I know we’re never to speak our given names in The Chamber, but somehow, under the circumstances, I think we’re far beyond pseudonyms.”

  I never called you Serge, either.

  “Dear Flame, Vladimir doesn’t get “past” anything. I am a rich and powerful man. I have been waiting for the right time…the right moment.”

  The words pour out of him and affect me like a poison. Dread fills me. “I see.” I start looking around. Do I call for Tyson now? No, I wait. Let him lay his cards on the table. I don’t want Tyson to walk into a setup. I know that he’s watching. The second this creep walked into my Chamber, I know Tyson was on alert. “And what time is that?” I dare ask.

  “It’s time that you, your personal guard, Mason, and the guards who attacked me pay,” he threatens.

  I try to buy myself some time. “That sounds expensive.”

  He’s immediately annoyed with me. His dead, beady eyes pierce through me. “Not with money, you stupid bitch! With your lives! No one disrespects Vladimir, especially for some insolent whore! I want you to call for your guard so that I can kill him!” He leans forward. His breath smells of hard liquor.

  “I can’t do that.” I’m not lying, either. If he’s going to kill me, then so be it. But I refuse to be the cause of Tyson’s death, too. I love him and I will not willingly kill someone I love.

  His hand flies up, and before I have a chance to react a hard object connects violently with my face. I fly out of my chair and land on the floor in a heap. Pain blazes across my face where he struck me and my eye immediately swells shut.

  He stalks over to me, a gun brushing the side of his leg. I didn’t even know that he had a gun. “He will come, and like you he will suffer.”

  Mr. Creepy kicks me in the ribs with brute force. The pain is so severe that I see stars. The next thing I feel is the cold metal of the gun pressing against my head.

  “Call him!” he yells at close range.

  My head splits with pain. There are two of him now. I don’t know which one to focus on. “No!” I try to match his bravado, but I’m too weak and my face is broken. He cocks the trigger.

  I am going to die here on my Chamber floor at the hands of Mr. Creepy. This is not fair. No one should have to meet their end at his hand. I close my eye, the other is already sealed shut.

  I hear a commotion coming from the stairs leading from the gentlemen’s area.

  “I blocked the bookcase. I wanted more time with you. Besides, I can’t have your fucking guard sneaking up on us. I was hoping I had more time. I wanted to shove my dick into you one last time before I killed you,” he sneers, “but it seems my attention is needed at the entrance.” His lips smash into mine, roughly. Bile rises in my throat competing with the lump that is sitting there.

  I watch Vladimir stand. There are still two of him, but they are blurred together, touching. “Please don’t hurt him!” I call out.

  He is not listening. He points his gun down the entrance stairs. I hear more commotion and then light floods the stairs.

  “No! Tyson, he has a gun! Don’t come up here! I love you.” I know that he can’t hear me, my voice is weakened to barely a whisper. I can hardly keep my eyes open. Darkness wants to find me.

  “Quiet! You stupid whore!” Vladimir shouts at me.

  The scene unfolds in a blur. Tyson appears at the other entrance, the one that leads to my bedroom downstairs. Vladimir unknowingly stands vigilant at the wrong entrance. Tyson’s gun fires a single, accurate shot to the back of Vladimir’s head, and he tumbles down the stairs of my Chamber. My ears ring from the gunshot.

  “Vivian!” Tyson yells and scoops me up.

  He’s alive. I can let go now. Welcomed darkness overcomes me.

  I awake to pain everywhere.

  My head, my face, my stomach, and my side are all in excruciating, mind-numbing pain. My right eye won’t open. I gaze around the too-bright room and find Tyson sleeping in a chair next to my bed.

  “Hey there,” I croak. My voice is dry.

  Tyson is at my side at once. He looks worse for wear, like he hasn’t moved from that spot in days.

  “You’re awake. How are you feeling?” His relief is palpable.

  “Like a truck ran over me, to be honest.” My head is foggy, but images flash through my head—Mr. Creepy smashing my face with his gun, kicking me, Tyson shooting him.

  Oh my goodness, is he dead?

  “Where am I?”

  I squint to take in surroundings that resemble a hospital room. Tyson takes my hand in his. His eyes are laced with worry and pain. There’s a crease in his forehead.

  “You’re in the infirmary. Mason brought a doctor in to treat your injuries.” He spits the last word out. “I am so sorry I didn’t get to you sooner.” He inhales a deep breath before continuing, rubbing his thumb back and forth across my hand tenderly.

  “At first, when that bastard was sitting across the table from you I thought he came to play nice, like he had been,” Tyson says. “The next thing I know, he starts yelling and then he attacks you. I almost left my skin in my haste to get to you, but that fucker rigged the bookshelf so that I couldn’t get it open. Those bookshelves may look old and worn, but they’re made with reinforced steel on purpose, in case we need to lock this place down and hide you guys. I had no choice but to run as fast as I could to your Chamber entrance. I called Mason and more guards to rally to get the other door open. I was banking on the fact that he didn’t know I couldn’t break down the door, and that he didn’t know about the other entrance. I have never been so scared in my whole life, Vivian.” His eyes, filled with tears, lock with mine, and it hurts me to see the torment etched in his creased brow, the tightness of his mouth, and the muscle in his jaw flexing. “I didn’t think I was going to make it to you in time.” The tears spill over onto his cheeks.

  “But you did. You saved me.”

  “You should never have been harmed. That fucker should’ve been banished the first time. Now he’s dead and won’t be around to hurt anyone else.”

  Dead. I have never been this close to death before.

  “Can I get you anything? How’s your pain?” he asks.

  “Um. My side hurts and my head and my face. Um, my throat is dry. I would like some water, please.”

  Tyson jumps up and crosses the room. He grabs a pitcher of water and pours a glass for me. He rushes back to my side. I take it in my hand and drink small sips. “Ahh.” The cool liquid feels heavenly as it washes the dryness away. “Thank you.” I hand him the cup. “How long have I been out?”

  “Almost twenty-four hours. The doctor says you have three broken ribs.” He takes my hand into his. “Your cheek isn’t fractured, thankfully, but bruised pretty bad. The drugs they gave you knocked you out. All of the girls have come to visit—Mason and Zion, too. Everybody is worried about you.”

  I attempt to sit up. My ribs scream at me the second I try. Tyson immediately assists me by using the bed controls to raise my head. The movement still hurts, but significantly less. “I’ve been out that long? How long will my injuries take to heal?” I don’t want to ask the real question. Will Mason try to extend my time here?

  “Baby, please don’t worry about that. It’ll be weeks before you’re Chamber-ready. Mason is as angry as I am. This has never happened before.”

  Baby? The endearment soothes me to great depths. “I thought he was going to kill us. That’s what he said, that he was going to kill us. He wanted me to call you up to my Chamber, but I refused.”

  I can tell immediately that he’s not happy with my decision. “Vivian, why?” His pained expression grows graver.

  “Because…because I love you. I didn’t want anything to happen to you. That thought scared me more than anything he could do to me,” I confess. “I’m sorry.”

  For the first time since I wake, I see light in his face and in his eyes. Any signs of anger are replaced with joy. He inches closer to me and kisses me tenderly on the uninjured side
of my face.

  “My brave, beautiful girl. I love you, too, but if you ever do anything as foolish as that again, I may not forgive you so easily. I’m here to protect you in all ways. That’s not just my job. It’s my mission to protect the one person I love above all others.” He kisses me again.

  When I look at myself in the mirror, I’m unrecognizable. I look exactly like what you would expect me to look like in a place like this. My right eye is swollen shut. The right side of my face is a rainbow of black and blue. My lips are swollen and painful-looking. In other words, I’m a hot mess.

  The way Tyson gazes at me when he visits, you would think not a thing is wrong with me. I guess that is what you do when you love someone. You see around the ugly, because you have glimpsed the beauty inside. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Tyson loves me. More than that, I know that I love him. Leaving him in a few months, when my sentence here ends, will be one of the hardest things that I will ever do.

  It takes six weeks for me to heal enough to return to my regular duties. I only spend the first week of it in the actual infirmary. Tyson visits with me every day the entire week that I’m there, spending most of the days and nights with me.

  On my last night in the infirmary, he asks me to fall asleep in my Chamber my first night back. I tell him I will count the days.

  I find my time very restful. My days are spent with my sisters, and my nights spent where any normal girl who isn’t kidnapped would spend her nights…in bed. No Chamber.

  I haven’t seen Tyson since I was released from medical care. No letters, either. I don’t check for a letter today. In my heart, I know there will not be one. I’m sure he’s watching me. That thought makes me smile.

  Finally, it’s my first night back in The Chamber. I’m fully healed and recovered.

  Physically, anyway.

  I never expected to find love in a place like this, but I did. I’m not thrilled about going back to the task of satisfying the sexual desires of so many men, but I’ll go at my job with a light heart knowing that my love will be there when my work is done. I don’t wait for Zion. I head up to my Chamber and run a bath.

  Zion comes in about thirty minutes later to find me soaking in the tub. “Are you okay, Flame?”

  “Yep,” I say in a flat tone. “I’m just getting a jump on the evening. Six weeks is a long time. I’m sure I will be rusty.” My eyes never open. The water feels splendid. I wish I could stay in this bliss forever.

  I climb out of the tub when I’m a prune. Zion works on fixing me up for the night. My list is remarkably easy. No one who wants it too rough and no one who wants a fake relationship. Right now, I don’t think I could handle either.

  Really, I just want to take Tyson up on getting me out of here. I’m exhausted.

  I do the math and know that I have been here for close to nine months. I can’t believe that almost a year ago I was brought here against my will. What have I missed in my life? In the world? I’ve been so cut off from everything, the whole world could be gone and I would have no clue.

  The theme tonight is one of compassion, proving that although the lottery winners are sexually perverted, they are still gentlemen.

  My first guest asks me how I am feeling. He apologizes for what happened to me. Wow, that was nice. He’s gentle even, during our sexual encounter. He actually treats me as if I was recently beaten. His touch is caressing. When he comes inside of me, it isn’t with the usual explosiveness. Unexpected.

  I coast through my evening. I thank each man for his kindness and gentle nature. When the last one leaves for the night, I can’t wait to pretend fall asleep.

  I don’t even get off of my bed when I’m finally alone. I simply roll over and close my eyes. Within a few minutes, I feel the room lighten when the now-repaired bookshelf slides open. I smile inside knowing that my love is here. The bed depresses under his weight. I wait patiently for his lips to touch me, for him to whisper my name. I wait for butterflies to burst forth in my stomach. It has been five weeks.

  Still, I wait.

  I realize that something is wrong. The energy is off. My scalp prickles. My skin crawls. This is not my love. Fear shoots through me like a firework. I turn in haste to face my visitor. I recognize him from the guard. I believe his name is Carson. He’s blond and good-looking. None of that matters, though. He could be the hottest guy on earth, but who cares? He isn’t Tyson.

  Fuck me.

  “Where is Tyson?”

  “He’s not here.”

  I want to smack the stupid grin off of his face. “I can see that. Where is he, exactly?”

  “He’s gone. Mason kicked him out. He said if he wasn’t in love with you then they wouldn’t have to cover up what happened to that dickhead who attacked you. Mason thinks he can’t see clearly because of you, so he’s gone. He left about an hour ago. I hear it took several guards to put him out. I’m your new guard.” His smile is overly happy. “Seems to me like we need to stop talking and get to fucking. You fell asleep in your Chamber.”

  Panic rips through me. I’ve lost all the strength I had gained in my time here. For the third time, the hood is back over my head. I’m back to my first night here.

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. There’s no way I can do this without Tyson. How can he be gone? He left me. He left without me.

  “Get out of your head. Your boy is gone, but I’m here. Put that ass in the air.”

  My own personal hell. I do as I am told. I position myself on all fours. I arch my back and stick my rump in the air, thankful that he can’t see my face. Heavy tears fall from my eyes. Everything slows around me, and I fall and fall. I have nothing.

  When he sinks his cock inside of me I don’t care. I don’t escape into my special place. What’s the point? There’s no place that I can hide from this pain. He is gone. I am alone. Carson continues to pound his cock into me with force and enthusiasm. His moans only sicken me.

  He smacks my rump, pulling me toward him, causing me to arch my back more. I wince at the pain that settles into my rib cage from the extreme position. He slams into me in a flurry of convulsions and shivers.

  Carson isn’t done with me by a long shot. He came to play.

  “Go on and hop on that there pleasure horse I’ve heard the other guards talking about.” He sits on the edge of the bed, his erection as hard and stiff as it was when he was inside of me.

  I have no feelings in this moment. I am numb. I walk over to the cabinet of horror and grab a dildo. I grab a Dominic-sized one, thinking perhaps it can fill the emptiness that is growing inside of me. I cross the room, feeling too naked in front of this guard. He slaps my ass when I pass him. This causes tears to fall harder. He doesn’t know that I’m crying. That, or he just doesn’t fucking care. Why should he? Who am I to him but a piece of ass to play with tonight?

  I screw the dildo onto Dominic the Pleasure Horse and climb on. I depress the button and watch as the lubricant spills around the shaft. I close my eyes and see Dominic’s face. Tears continue to fall from my eyes.

  I sink down onto the long cock. It fills me completely, just like Dominic would. I feel heat stir between my legs at the fullness, never letting go of Dominic’s image. I grind my sex around the shaft, pulsating myself around it. I lift off of the shaft, but before it is completely out of me, I fall back onto it, forcing it deep inside me. I whimper at the feel of it, as something builds inside of me.

  “Yeah, girl, get it!” Carson yells, reminding me that he is in the room.

  I open my eyes to see him stroking his own cock and rolling his hips. He has a smile of pure excitement on his face. I close my eyes and search for Dominic’s image again. It takes a minute, but when I see him he’s hovering over me, telling me he loves me, before he slides his scrumptious Thunderdick inside of me.

  I really start working it. I grind around and around. I grind forward and back until I come unhinged. I shudder so hard that it hurts. I cry heavy, broken, ugly tears. I’m fractured and empty.

 
“That was the sexiest shit I’ve ever seen. Now, come over here and suck this dick so I can get out of here. Next time you fall asleep, there won’t be none of that crying bullshit. You’re a big girl. Get over it.”

  Fuck you. You say that to me and I’m about to put your dick in my mouth? My mouth that is full of teeth? I should bite it off.

  I climb off of Dominic. I walk over to Carson and I don’t make any eye contact with him. I just take his erection into my mouth and suck it, hard. I want him to come so he can get the fuck out of my Chamber and leave me the hell alone. And I will never fall asleep in my Chamber again.

  His hips flex forward. “Ahh. Hmm. Slow down, girl,” he says.

  I don’t listen. Instead I suck harder. He is endowed, but nothing like Dominic. I take his entire length into my mouth, until it is hitting the back of my throat. That does it.

  I feel him tense and shake. He calls out random bullshit and my mouth is full of him. I can’t swallow it. If I do, I will throw up. Instead, in a sneaky move that one of my sisters shared with me, I bend down as if getting up from the floor takes great effort and I let it run out of my mouth.

  “You are the real deal, girl! Amazing! No wonder Tyson wanted to keep you all to himself. But now, you’re mine.”

  The look I shoot him is completely involuntary, but I know that he can feel my fury. His hands fly up in front of himself as if he is surrendering.

  “Whoa, girl. Goodnight.”

  I take my cue and run faster than the wind down the stairs that lead to my bedchamber. I crash through the bathroom door, head into my personal stall, and empty my stomach into the toilet. When I have nothing left inside of me but organs, I climb onto the toilet and wail, until my head pounds and my throat is raw.

  I gather myself together because I need to wash Carson off of my body. I need to erase my evening. I will never survive without Dominic.

  With sluggish, deflated steps I make it to the walk-in shower. The water is so hot when I step in that it scalds my skin. I don’t care. I don’t even flinch. More tears come. I can’t stop them. I slide down the shower wall in a heap. The hot water continues to pound my raw flesh as I weep.