CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 2 3

INTERLUDE

A cruel fate

WHEN I CAME to, the first thing I became aware of was pain. I opened my eyes and looked around, at first unsure of my surroundings. The moon was overhead, so I was still outside, but I was no longer in the field where Rosetta and I had been captured. I was surrounded by dark vines, and realized they were wrapped around my body. Something was digging into the flesh of my neck and wrists, and when I attempted to move, the pain became excruciating.

"Good. You're awake."

The voice I had once lusted for was cold and devoid of humanity, stirring nothing but fear and contempt in me now. I concentrated, willing my eyes to focus, and her face came into view.

The Contessa.

Anastacia.

The agent of my fate.

We were in the rose garden, I realized, and the bindings I felt were the ropes that hung from the bower. Thorns dug into my flesh where the thick vines were twisted around my neck and wrists. I was naked, and I when I looked down I could see rivulets of blood flowing across my chest and arms.

A shirtless Christopher stood next to the Contessa, his leering mouth smeared with blood, no doubt mine. "Thank fuck," he said. "Now the fun can begin."

Someone whimpered, and I looked behind him to see Rosetta bound to one of the posts of the arbor, her dress ripped open and her exposed flesh smeared with blood. A gag was tried across her mouth and her eyes were wide with fear as she stared at me. Seeing her like that caused something to snap inside me. I growled and struggled against the bindings, but all I managed to do was cause the thorns to dig deeper into my flesh, eliciting a hiss of pain from me.

"At this rate we won't need to bleed you." Christopher grinned as he stepped closer to me and dipped his finger in the blood running down my chest. He brought it to his lips and sucked it dry, his eyes never leaving mine. "Yummy."

"You fucking sadist." I lunged forward, but the thorns did their cruel work, holding me in check.

"Still got some fight in you. Good. It'll make this more fun. I hate the ones who just lie there."

He turned and sauntered back to Rosetta, and with a look over his shoulder at me, grabbed her by the neck and sank his teeth into her throat. She screamed behind the gag and struggled vainly to escape his grip, causing him to ravage her even harder. I thought I would lose my mind .

"Leave her alone!"

He pulled his mouth away from her and turned to smile at me. "I must say, Anastacia, this is the most fun I've had in ages. I wish I had known about their little affair when I played with her the other night." His tongue snaked out and licked the blood from his lips. "Mmm. She's even sweeter than you. Maybe it's the fear."

The Contessa sighed as if she was bored and thumbed her lip. "I really am disappointed in you, Julianus. I thought we had something special."

"Fuck you," I spat through gritted teeth. "You're just as bad as him."

I probably shouldn't have antagonized her further, considering she held our fate in her hands, but I was pretty sure she meant to kill both of us before the night was done. At this point I'd just as soon get it over with rather than deal with any more of their sadistic games. She seemed to be contemplating that very thing when she turned to Rosetta.

"And you. This is how you repay my generosity?" She stepped closer to her, her eyes flashing rage. "How dare you try to run away, you ungrateful wretch. I own you!"

She reached back and delivered a resounding slap across Rosetta's face, sending her head banging into the post. "Your betrayal has even stolen my appetite. At this point I should just have Giovanni take both your heads."

"Or," Christopher interrupted her, his deviant face lighting up. "I have another idea."

She crossed her arms and stared at him. "Well?"

He stepped closer to me, his eyes roving hungrily over my body. "I like him. He's got a nice ass and knows how to use his tongue."

"He betrayed my trust. "

"Which makes him perfect."

"For what?"

"Us." He grabbed my chin in his iron grip, planting a bloody kiss on my lips. "Why don't we turn him? If you don't want him, I'll keep him. He's trainable."

I didn't know what they were talking about, but the thought of being Christopher's permanent pet sounded even less appealing than death.

The Contessa seemed to be considering his proposal. "I haven't done it in a while."

"Inconsequential," he quipped. "It's like falling off a wagon."

"What about her?"

They both looked at Rosetta, whose eyes widened in terror.

Christopher shrugged. "Kill her. She's just a maid. They're easy to replace."

The Contessa offered a cold smile. "Actually, I have a better idea. In fact, it's perfect."

? ? ?

The two of them left us alone in the garden for what felt like hours while they plotted whatever devious fate they had up their sleeves. I tried to console Rosetta, who continued to cry softly behind the gag, but we both knew there was nothing I could do to help her. The vines that bound my body grew tighter with every movement, the hooked thorns digging into my flesh, the blood loss weakening me more with each passing moment. Even if I could somehow free myself, I was still at the mercy of two bloodthirsty fiends.

"I'm sorry," I called to her when Giovanni arrived to untie her. "I should never have tried to take you away."

She shook her head, her tearful eyes entreating me as the coachman dragged her away, and I knew as long as I still drew breath, her muffled sobs would haunt me.

"Where are you taking her?" I demanded, which only caused Christopher to laugh harder.

After she was gone, the Contessa approached me, her dark eyes roving over my broken body, and I wondered how I had ever found her attractive. If she had a soul, it was as rotten as this godforsaken garden. She reached out and dragged her nails through the blood on my chest, digging fresh furrows in their wake, adding a new layer to my suffering. She brought her hand to her mouth and licked the blood off her fingers one by one, her eyes never leaving mine. My lips curled in disgust.

"Soon you won't find this so distasteful, Julianus." She leaned closer. "Did you think…" she grabbed the vine that circled my neck, oblivious to the thorns that also dug into her hand "…when I told you that you belonged to me…" she yanked on the vine, strangling off my air "…that I was being insincere?" The thorns dug deeper into my neck and I gagged, struggling to breathe.

"I'm going to bleed you out," she whispered. "It'll be slow and agonizing, but it won't end there." She tugged on the vine again while squeezing the one wrapped around my left wrist. I hissed and tried to swallow the pain, but my eyes gave me away, clouding with tears. Her lips curled up in a satisfied smile.

"I could do this more quickly, but I like watching you suffer. I think I deserve that privilege, don't you?" She reached behind me and grabbed another vine, pulling it out and wrapping it around my cock. I sobbed out loud then, unable to control myself .

"Just kill me."

She offered a throaty laugh. "Kill you? Oh no, Julianus. I'm not going to kill you." She tightened her grip on my cock. "I'm going to remake you. You'll become my most perfect creation."

She leaned closer, her mouth pressed against my ear, her breath still sending hot tendrils of lust through my traitorous body. "Christopher wants you, but I think I'll keep you for myself and watch you terrorize everything you once held sacred."

It was at that moment that I resolved if I made it out of this alive, I would dedicate whatever was left of my life to destroying hers.

"I'm all for torture and mayhem," Christopher spoke up behind her, "but can we move this along? I'm getting bored."

"You always were an impatient one," Anastacia murmured. "It takes as long as it takes." She squeezed my cock again and smiled. "You'd like me to end things, wouldn't you? Send you off to Hell with a goodbye kiss?"

She released me and I sucked in a breath, willing my mind to focus past the pain. In this case I agreed with Christopher; just get whatever she was going to do over with. If that was death, then so be it. I knew from the moment I woke up in this garden that my life was forfeit. My rashness had landed not only myself but Rosetta in dire straits, and hers was one death I didn't want to live with. All I'd wanted to do was to get us away from this madness.

"You've made a mess of him, which I'm sure you don't want all over your bed," Christopher mused, strutting past her to stand in front of me, his cold eyes roving over me.

"I was going to use the playroom in the cellar. "

He nodded. "Good choice. Might as well have some fun with him while we do this."

She sighed. "Very well. Untie him."

If I thought getting freed from the bower was a blessing, the reality of how that was accomplished soon erased any hope of relief. Christopher wasn't at all concerned with how he untied me. He grabbed hold of the vines and ripped them away from me, tearing bloody trenches in my flesh that ran so deep I could see the white of bone. If the intention was for me to bleed out, I'd say they accomplished their objective.

With the vines out of the way, he took his time with the ropes, lingering over me to lick the blood off my arms, and despite my disgust, I had no control over how my weakened body responded to the touch of his cursed tongue. Even in my contempt, I couldn't stop craving these two. Whatever witchcraft had brought them to their current forms had twisted my own lust into an unwilling slave to their whims.

Once my arms were free, I sank to my knees, too weak to support my own weight. "Oh, bugger," Christopher swore before reaching down and effortlessly lifting me up to swing over his shoulder. "Lead the way," he said to Anastacia.

In my current position, I couldn't see where we were going, my head banging against Christopher's ass as we left the garden and reentered the house, descending into what I assumed was the cellar. It was noticeably colder and damper here, and I nearly gagged from the smell of feces and rot. We moved down a long corridor lit by sporadic lanterns mounted on the walls, passing several rusted metal doors, and I wondered if Rosetta was behind one of them.

When we finally stopped, I heard the click of a lock echo in the stillness. A door was opened, then Christopher followed Anastacia into a cavernous room and waited while she lit several lanterns, throwing the space into dim, flickering light.

I was deposited on the bare mattress of an iron-framed bed in the middle of the room. I looked around and sucked in a breath at my surroundings. There were metal cages and wooden tables equipped with machinery, for what purpose I did not know. Hooks were embedded in the stone walls and several chains hung from the ceiling, two of which were placed right over the bed where I lie.

I had never seen one before, but I had heard stories of torture chambers, though I had always thought they were found mainly in prisons. It seemed the Contessa had her own version right here in her cellar. The fact that they had brought me here did not bode well for my future, and I swallowed the dry lump that had formed in my throat and steeled myself for my fate.

I didn't recognize my voice when I asked, "What is this place?"

Christopher spread his arms and grinned at me. "The playroom. Like it?"

I shook my head. My first instinct was to run, but I could barely move my head, much less my feet. Christopher sat down on the edge of the bed and dragged a single finger across my thigh, eliciting goosebumps in its wake. "Think of it as the last place you'll see in your human life."

"Tie him up," Anastacia ordered.

"I don't think he has the strength to go anywhere," Christopher replied, his hand sliding around to cup my ass.

"I don't care. I want him tied up."

Christopher shrugged and, with a final pat on my ass, stood up and dragged my body to the middle of the bed before stretching my arms and legs out. I wanted to fight him as he began to lash my appendages with ropes secured to the four posts of the bedframe, but all I could do was watch helplessly as though I was a passenger in my own body.

When he was done, he stood back to admire his work. "He really is a pretty one," he murmured. "I can't wait to see what kind of monster he'll make."

The Contessa had started to undress. "Get him hard."

Christopher glanced at her. "Me? What's wrong with your mouth?"

"You like his cock so much, I thought you would jump at the chance."

"As I recall, you're the one who screamed when he fucked you."

She sighed. "Just do it."

He grinned at her and climbed onto the bed between my legs. "I thought you were the one who wanted to make him suffer. I can do the turning myself, if you're bored."

She quirked a brow at him and he laughed and bent his head over my cock, wrapping his lips around my head and running his tongue down its length. Despite my weakness, I couldn't stop my dick from growing harder. The wounds left from the thorns burned when his tongue lapped at them, causing me to try to squirm away, but he persisted, sucking my cock down until it hit the back of his throat. When he opened wider and swallowed the tip, my eyes rolled back in my head. I bucked against him, trying to drive deeper into his mouth, surprised that I had the strength to do even that. It seemed my cock had decided it wasn't party to the weakness and injuries in the rest of my body.

I was rock hard when he pulled away with a last flick of his tongue and sat back. "He's all yours, darling. "

He pushed up off the bed and stopped to smash his mouth into hers before she replaced him between my legs. She was nude now, and while my rational mind still hated her with every fiber of my being, my body still craved her touch like a shameless whore. She squatted over my cock and lowered herself onto me, burying me inside her to the hilt in one try. She then leaned forward, her arms on either side of my head, and started rocking up and down while she ran her tongue over my lips. I shuddered and bit back a cry, though of what I couldn't say. She smiled as though she knew how conflicted I was feeling.

"You might as well enjoy it," she whispered in my ear, her breath sending shivers of lust through me. "It'll be the last thing you do as a human being."

I didn't know what she meant and had no time to ask before her mouth drifted down to my throat and her teeth bit into my flesh. I arched my back and tried to pull away, but she had my neck trapped as surely as my cock. Even while she sucked the life out of me, she continued to fuck me. I could feel my grip on reality start to loosen, the light from the room dimming as my body grew weaker. My heart pounded in my ears while the muscles of her mouth worked against the wound on my neck, all while my cock, in its single-minded quest for release, neared climax. Apparently dying wasn't even enough to kill that need. Her cunt clenched around me, milking me until, with a final gasp, I felt everything let go and the world slowly fade to black.

I don't know how much time passed. It could have been an eternity. There was no reference point anymore.

I thought I was dead and gone, my body finally spent and useless, then I heard someone whisper in my ear.

"Drink. "

One word that pulled me back from the abyss.

Something cool was pressed against my lips, a coppery taste coating my tongue. I sampled it, swallowing, and felt a fire ignite within me. I reached up and wrapped my fingers around the source of this wondrous elixir, sucking greedily, as though I couldn't get enough. As though this was suddenly the most important thing in my dim world.

Other things became known to me in that single moment. Scents I had never smelled before bombarded my senses. The simple touch of flesh against my flesh was both intensely raw and light as a kiss.

And then there was the need. The lust. It was all-consuming. It came from deep within me and was impossible to ignore. No simple matter of desire was this. My cock, rock hard now, screamed for relief.

But all of that paled in comparison to the thirst. It was a living thing. Like I had crawled across the dryest desert, and I knew no matter how much I drank, it would still be there. That there was only one thing that could satisfy it, and finding it was the most important thing in my existence.

I opened my eyes and looked around. In some logical part of me I knew the room was dark, but I could still see shadows. I was lying on a hard bed with the outline of a person standing above me.

"Rest now," said the same voice that had entreated me to drink, and then a door opened and closed, and the presence was gone.

I was alone.

Bereft.

And so, so…thirsty.