24. Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

Felix

This used to bother me.

Watching Davina get railed by one or two of her guards.

The first time it happened, I thought she was being attacked, that the males were forcing her, because I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of the female I loved committing an act of adultery. She’d always been clear that my infidelity would lead to death, that she was my first and only for as long as I lived, but we never talked about her.

I knew there were lovers before me, I wasn’t stupid and Davina is old as fuck, but I didn’t seriously expect any after me. Not with the way she drilled loyalty into my head.

So, each time—because it happened frequently before I caught on—I walked in to find her in bed with sometimes up to five partners, I would lose my goddamn mind and kill everyone but her. Davina played the part, too. She’d scream and wail, plead with me to save her, beg the males to stop hurting her. Then, after I “ saved” her , she’d cry while I held her.

Right up until she managed to turn me on enough to try to fuck me in all the bloodshed.

I felt like a goddamn hero, and Davina was my spoils of war but I couldn’t do that.

Solely because I was too fucking worried about her . The adrenaline and hero complex was enough to turn me on but I was so focused on making sure she wasn’t hurt that I got her cleaned up and cared for and I couldn’t do anything more.

Which is why it kept happening.

It was a sick game, this weird method of turning me into her super soldier or whatever.

Fighting for her, killing anyone who threatened her, the adrenaline and endorphins, the dopamine that was released over being the hero coupled with sex. It worked for a while and once I realized she was willingly sleeping with those males she claimed were raping her, the rage I experienced turned all of that into one hell of a cocktail.

I almost killed her because of it.

Davina didn’t think I’d lose it when the realization sunk in, but I did. I almost murdered her and it took a very long time for me to calm the fuck down and forgive her… like a fucking moron.

None of it could really be helped, though.

I was naive as fuck, Davina was literally all I’d ever known, and my loyalty was practically hardwired to override any logic or intelligence I had. Not to mention the copious amounts of demon blood she was pumping into me on a regular basis. That took gluttony to an entirely new level and it’s exactly why I was such a monster for so long.

And it’s why her adulterous ways were hidden from that point forward.

Until she wanted to hurt me, anyway.

The last year I was here? Davina made me watch, just like she is now, while I was full of demon blood, just like I am now, and it was just to make everything I felt more intense so she could do the most damage.

The only difference is I don’t give a shit right now.

I’m fucking numb. I’m empty. I have literally nothing left, no fucks to give, and I couldn’t care less if Davina fucked a goddamn elephant in front of me.

Well…

Maybe not that. I’d feel terrible for the gentle beast, and I’d have a lot a questions about what the fuck she’d been doing since I left if she could take a bull elephant.

I still don’t give a shit about what she does, though.

I’ve been back in Purgatory for about a week, by my calculations, and I haven’t reacted to one single stunt she’s pulled.

Fucking males, fucking females. Gang bangs. The train her guards ran on her for about three hours. None of it moved my meter one way or the other and when I actually fell asleep during her BDSM session with Bythor—the biggest, ugliest vampire to ever live, who has one eye and more boils than I’ve ever seen on one living thing—I thought Davina’s head was going to explode.

Which is what led to my current position.

About forty eight hours ago, she had her men bring in something comparable to a St. Andrew’s Cross, hang it from the ceiling of her dungeon by a series of ropes and pulleys, then they strapped me to it. Naked as the day I was born, spread out like a goddamn starfish, and permanently facing Davina’s bedroom portion. I’m affixed like a fucking decoration and it’s killing my back. The muscles had already started to shift and now that I’m flat against the wood, I wish they hadn’t.

They’ve been pumping me with demon and human blood, live sources that they suspend over me when they tip the cross back so it’s horizontal. Which is absolutely done when that bitch wants to fuck me instead of whatever idiot was stupid enough to climb into her bed.

She’s been pissed off because I can’t get it up for her.

Not just because Davina fucking disgusts me, but also because I just don’t feel anything. I’m fucking hallow.

So, she plies me with fresh blood and uses some sort of stimulant to make my dick hard, then fucks herself on me until she either climaxes or gets pissed that I don’t. Aside from the assault and ridiculous performances I’m subjected to multiple times a day, Davina hasn’t exactly carried out the threat she made a few years ago.

I figured I’d be dead by now. At least, I hoped so, and since she hasn’t done anything that isn’t sexual in some way, I’m not sure what to expect.

Not entirely.

Something is coming, that much I know.

Once Davina finishes with Bythor, I can tell he isn’t leaving.

Up until now, she’s never let anyone else lay a finger on me. Not outside of battle. No one could fuck me, no one could touch me, no one could discipline me or heal me. Everything that ever happened to me was delivered by the goddamn queen, including the year I was physically abused.

It was all her.

Tonight is different.

The vibes she’s throwing, the way Davina seems to be working harder to make her body move the way I used to like, the way she’s trying to channel the female I once loved. It feels a little last ditch to me, and I’m sure that means I’m about to have a real bad fucking time.

Closing my eyes, I try to erase everything from my mind. Good or bad, sad or… I guess there isn’t much happiness, not really. Nothing that wasn’t tainted by the bitch queen.

Silas is a bright spot, one of the best friends anyone could ask for, and while I pray to god he doesn’t come looking for me, I know he already is because of that.

Roger. My sweet, grumpy chunk of a cat. I’ll miss him, I already do, and I hope my landlord continues to take care of him when I don’t come back.

Zia flashes in my mind briefly, the last time we were together up top.

Before she stabbed me in the fucking back and stepped on my goddamn heart.

I squeeze my eyes tight and try to push those thoughts away and just when I can’t, when I start to see more of that night, I’m pulled from my thoughts all together.

”No!” Davina screeches like a brat. “How dare you? Closing your eyes when I’ve not commanded it.”

If they were open, I’d be rolling them but I don’t bother.

”Enough!” she shouts, the sound of quick movements in front of me has them slowly opening. “I’ve had enough. My games are through.”

I track her every move as she rolls off the bed, twisting her wrists until the loose rope comes free. Davina quickly discards them before removing her harness and I do roll my eyes because even her BDSM attempts were completely half assed.

She marches toward me, tugging on a sheer robe as Bythor tucks his extremely crooked and deformed dick into his pants. Davina stops directly in front of me, anger burning hot inside her eyes.

“Why won’t you beg for me, darling?”

I quietly stare back, my lips in a thin line while I bite my tongue.

”Felix,” she growls, her hand shooting out lightning quick, icy fingers wrapping around my dick and squeezing so hard I cough. “I want you to beg for me. I want my special boy to love me again.”

Still refusing to speak, I take a deep breath and look over her shoulder, staring at a point on the wall across the way.

Davina squeezes me again, stroking me in a way that would have worked before, and when it doesn’t now, she loses her mind and does exactly what I thought she would.

“So be it!” she screams, releasing my dick before slapping me across the face, her nails catching my cheek when she does.

Davina grabs the lever and yanks, sending the cross horizontal so fast I get lightheaded, then she climbs on top of me. She straddles my hips, her hand diving between my legs where she starts working me again, only this time she’s using that shit and my dick is getting hard regardless of how empty the rest of me feels.

“Do it!” Davina barks as she stares daggers at me, lining me up with her frozen core before slamming herself down onto me. “Do it now, you overgrown ogre!”

I wretch as Davina starts to move, rolling her hips before she starts to slide up and down on my erection.

I hate this.

Ever since I realized what this was, what being special to Davina actually meant, I haven’t been able to be in her presence without wanting to vomit.

The day her counsel became so afraid of me that they forced her to send me away, it was the best day of my life. They were right, if she kept overfeeding me like she was, I was going to be able to wipe out the entire royal office. It wasn’t that easy, though.

Davina agreed but only to exile me one year from their request, and that’s when my own personal hell began. And it was why I was so fucking small when I got to earth.

Part of her sick game was starvation, and I didn’t care what happened to me back then, same as I don’t give a shit now, but I can’t stand having this disgusting female use me the way she is right this second.

Dry heaving, I turn my head away but Davina reaches out and slaps me again before tearing a path down the center of my chest all the way to where she’s forcing us to join. She moves faster as I start to bleed, raising her hand to lick it from her fingers while she pumps herself up and down on my dick.

”Do it, Bythor,” she moans, riding me harder, working herself into a frenzy. “Oh, do it now you lump of shit! I want it done while I climax all over my special boy!”

Bile rushes up my throat and I turn away but Davina grabs my face, forcing me to look at her. She leans down, rubbing her breasts in my blood, chasing that grotesque release she so desperately wants. Davina kisses me, my body locking the second she does, and despite the way I roll my lips over my teeth, I realize I’m essentially frozen in place.

Practically paralyzed.

Which is when I feel the back of the cross drop away in two places and my— oh no.

”Oh yes,” Davina moans. “I know I sent you away before but it’s never going to happen again.” She pushes herself upright, rocking back and forth so fucking fast, working not only her body but forcing mine. “Never, ever. You won’t be able to leave me, Felix. I won’t allow it.”

My wings fall from my back, my body’s natural reaction to sex, to any intense emotion, while I’m properly fed. They reach toward the floor as Bythor lifts the cross higher, pulling the ropes and raising us until the tips of my long-unused wings barely touch the floor.

”You will never,” Davina pants. “Leave me again.”

The first slice to my left wing is enough to have my back arching, something that has her crying out in pleasure and as that horrible beast of a vampire cuts away the thin, fragile pieces of my wings, shredding them until all that’s left is the bones, Davina climaxes all over me just like she wanted. And she does it until I fucking black out.

“Oh, my sweet, special boy. Why did you make me hurt you?”

My head turns slightly toward Davina’s voice, instinctively following the sound but I struggle to force my eyes open. My eyelids feel heavy, every movement is like sandpaper dragging against my eyeballs.

“I didn’t want to, Felix,” Davina coos, her presence closer now than it was a second ago. “I never wanted to hurt you but you made me.”

Out of pure curiosity, I push to open my eyes. I’m not afraid, I don’t feel anything at all and I honestly welcome the possibility of this bitch snapping fast enough to kill me but the tone she’s using, it has me curious.

Davina has been angry, so fucking angry since I’ve been here, and the flip to something more docile, something I’d almost call remorseful if I didn’t know better, that’s why I need to see her.

Slowly and rather painfully, my eyes open just as I feel a cool cloth gently applied to what’s left of my right wing. I suck in a sharp breath as it moves along the torn flesh and exposed bone, and my mouth pops open when it’s wrapped around the individual, tiny spindly fragments at various increments.

“I told you, though, didn’t I?” Davina continues tending to my wounds , and I flinch and grit my teeth. “When you came back to me, I told you I’d make you miserable, and I’d make sure you couldn’t leave me again. Didn’t I say that to you?”

Clearing my throat, I nod the best I can. “You did.”

She doesn’t need to hear me say it, and I don’t really need to talk to this bitch but there’s always a chance I could piss her off enough to end things right here, right now. She has me where she wants me. I’m completely at Davina’s mercy and that’s how she likes it.

“I was going to let you come back on your own,” she says as she scoots closer. “I knew you’d miss me enough to come home, and when you did, you wouldn’t be a threat to anyone anymore. You’d be my special boy again.”

The way my stomach twists is almost enough to overpower the pain she’s inflicting while she tries to take care of me but it isn’t, and I start to shake because of it.

“I didn’t think you’d last so long up there.” Then she growls, squeezing one of those small bones until it breaks. “And I had no idea I’d have to use a demon whore to get you to come back to me.”

“Fuck off,” I growl, spitting the words as she breaks another small bone. “Nothing was worth coming back here.” Not anymore.

“Felix,” she snaps. Her shrewd eyes come into view as she dips her head, tilting it with an empty grin. “I’ll not have you saying things like that about our home.” Davina pushes me over some and I only now realize I’m not strapped down to whatever she has me laid out on. “I should be grateful to that stupid little female.”

I swallow down my growl as she rests her elbows in front of me, setting her chin on her hands while those dead eyes search my face.

Looking for a reaction.

She won’t find one, not after a betrayal like that.

I might not want to hear her talk shit about Zia now but that’ll pass, just like anything else I felt for her.

Davina reaches out and lifts a few strands of hair from my eyes. “It was so easy. Once Prazin said he felt the shift, when he knew for sure she made it to earth, everything fell into place.”

I don’t need to hear this.

I know she’s telling me this just to hurt me. To hurt me, and to make sure I know she’s always been in control.

“Xadrian was all too willing to play my games. A big brainless warlord who only wants power. His stupid little wife happily followed orders, stepping right into her role as the helpless though obsessed and unhinged female who was head over heels for the nerdy vampire.” She rolls her eyes with a chuckle. “It all came together beautifully and when everything was in place, all Prazin had to do was give your Azizia a little nudge, and she took care of the rest.”

My hands roll into fists, unsure if it’s the pang of betrayal or straight up annoyance I’m feeling but either way, if this bitch doesn’t shut the fuck up, I’ll—

“Prazin and his magic, it’s gold, darling. I wasn’t sure it would work on you, sickly or not, but it did. For twenty years the ancient wizard’s magic worked.”

“What?” The word fell from my lips so fast there’s no way I could have stopped it. “What are you talking about?”

Davina cocks her head to the side like a confused dog. “Really? You don’t know?”

“No…” And I’m not sure I want to.

“Your landlord. Prazin. I sent the wizard to follow you; he’s how I was able to keep tabs on you for so long. Prazin’s magic has been an intricate piece of this puzzle from the moment you were banished right up until I clipped your wings. So much for that IQ of yours.”

Davina giggles, her head tipped back as that terrible sound fills the air. She flicks my shoulder just above my clipped wing, laughing harder now before she looks down at me again.

“And now? Now you’ll have no reason to ever leave me. No nasty little demon wench to fornicate with, no silly internet show, no wings to fly away from me. No gigantic naked feline to—”

“What?” I growl. It’s one thing to take everything from me, to use me, abuse me up until I die, but you threaten my good boy Roger and shit gets real.

Davina nods and gets to her feet with a grin. “Prazin has him locked up in that dingy apartment but as soon as he’s through with Xadrian, he has plans for that hideous little beast.”

I’m off the table with my hands around her throat and in her face faster than this insane female could even dream to move. Broken and bleeding doesn’t matter when my cat is brought into things.

Davina hisses as I slam her against the wall, squeezing until her veins start to bulge.

“Oh, Felix,” she purrs, but I don’t miss the malice in her eyes. “If I’d have known your stupid cat was the trigger to get you all hot and bothered, I would have had Prazin kill him ages ago.”

The pointed, broken, and exposed bony points of my wings dart out around me, pushing through the pain that radiates through every inch of my body. The tips pierce each of her temples, lighting quick strikes on either side of her head.

The remnants of my wings stay in place as I let go of her throat, straightening my spine the best I can while I say the last words I will ever say to this bitch.

“You have taken literally everything from me: mind, body, and soul. I gave you my surrender and submission, you broke me in ways you couldn’t even imagine, and I let you.” I shove the bones in further, all the way until they touch inside her skull, Davina’s dead eyes widen, her mouth gaping like a fucking fish. “I didn’t fight you once, and I accepted my fate, but you threatened my cat. You took everything from me but you don’t get to take Roger, too.”

I yank what’s left of my wings out of her head just as quickly as I stabbed her with them, the wet crunch of her brain matter exiting through bone something I’m sure they can hear all the way upstairs.

Davina slowly drops to her knees, blood oozing from her temples, and I go down as well, my knees buckling from the pain.

As my own personal nightmare finally comes to an end and I grab Davina by the neck, pulling her toward me so I can drink her dry before she dies, I realize that maybe this is the reason Zia was the instrument of my destruction.

Without that unhinged female, I wouldn’t have been able to kill this one, and even though I hope I never see the backstabbing demon again, I’ll send up a shot of gratitude for that.