Chapter 73 There Is No Surviving #2
He lifted the thing he’d procured from his pocket: a tiny vial, barely the size of her pinky, filled with light pink liquid.
He threw it and caught it in a hand, then, before she could try to flee once more, he was upon her, kneeling over her legs and crawling up her body as he pulled the stopper free from the vial.
His hands pressed into the stone by her shoulders, caging her as his knees pinned her hips into the ground.
He was going to—
"I’m going to take your innocence first before my master can.
I’ll be the first to get between your thighs and tear into you.
Don’t be scared, heirus." He held up the vial. It was pink like a sunset, unfitting for the horrors of this prison. "This’ll make it feel better for you. I can’t tear you too much.
He’ll be mad, you see. Open wide." His fingers gripped her jaw, trying to pry open her lips.
Luella pinched her lips closed, breathing heavily through her nose.
She tried to twist her head away, but his grip was too tight.
Pain bloomed in her gut as he punched her.
Her mouth opened reflexively with a gasp, and he poured the liquid into her mouth.
She choked, trying to spit it up, but he pinched her nose, forcing her to swallow it all.
He threw the empty vial to the side, and the glass shattered. She was barely aware of the sound. His hold loosened slightly, and she turned her head, gagging, wishing she could throw it up.
"What did you give me? What was that?" she asked, trembling.
"Something to make you wet."
No sooner had he said the words than a strange sensation bloomed in Luella’s lower stomach. She began to feel heat slip through her veins, coiling tightly right under her navel. Her breathing grew labored. She wanted it out—wanted the feeling to go away.
She fell back against the ground, skull thudding. Her vision blurred as all her focus narrowed in on the heat between her thighs. Her shift was rolled up; she felt it but didn’t care.
She almost begged him to take the feeling away.
A wetness began to dribble from between her legs as the intensity increased. Her back bowed as stuttered gasps fell from her bitten lips. Her body betrayed her. Heat coiled low, and she wanted to claw it out of herself.
"Please," she begged—for mercy, for death, for escape, for the feeling to abate.
Lips brushed beneath her ear. "All it took was a little help, and you’re dripping for me. My master won’t fault me when he knows how sweet you sound like this, how fucking delicious you look when there’s nothing left in your head but the need to be fucked. I rather think he’ll understand."
Everything grew hazy.
Fingers against her inner thighs, gathering the wetness on them and forcing it to her lips. "Taste it."
Fingers in her mouth, against her tongue. She tried to bite down, but was struck in reprimand. Her cheek stung.
Cool air between her legs, drifting over her core. Hands moving higher and higher and higher and—
She sobbed, crying. "Please. Don’t. Please. Please. Please…"
The words blended, unintelligible.
Just before the fingers touched her there, there was a deafening crash.
"What have you done?" A voice filled the cell, echoing off the stone. It was so loud, it felt unnatural.
A god, not a male.
Ambrose stiffened atop her.
Luella tried to look, but he blocked her sight, pressing firmly on top of her. Her vision was fuzzy regardless.
"Master, she was begging for me. I wanted to have a taste." Ambrose’s voice rumbled through her.
He was pulled off of her. Her legs were splayed, shift rolled high onto her hips, not quite revealing the space between her thighs. She closed her legs, feeling her wetness against her inner thighs as she curled into a ball on her side, broken sobs filling the air.
"I take you in. I give you a home. I show you love. And you have the effrontery to undermine me this way. To hurt me this way!" Caliban roared.
Not Caliban. He was too much of a god now. This was the Tenebrae.
She forced her eyes to drift up, flinching at what she saw. Shadows curled around every space of the Tenebrae’s flesh, drifting over the stone ground and slithering up Ambrose’s legs. He was forced against the wall, neck tilted back, tendons visible as he strained away from the frigid shadows.
"Master. Please—I’m sorry. I thought you would understand."
The Tenebrae stepped closer to Ambrose. "Understand what?
That you wish to steal from me? That you have been scheming behind my back this whole time to take what is mine?
I should have ripped your heart out then, in the foyer.
But I was weak. My vessel faltered. He does not like violence.
Now, I have buried him deep. Caliban is not around.
It is just you"—the Tenebrae reached forward with a shadow-tipped hand, grabbing a chain that was around Ambrose’s neck, causing Ambrose to let out a startled cry—"and me. "
The shadows tightened around Ambrose’s neck. The blue lights above had been covered by the darkness, peeking through just enough to make the whole thing appear nightmarish.
Darkness. Blue light broke through in thin rays. More darkness.
"I can take just as easily as I can give." The Tenebrae tightened his hold on the chain. Luella saw blood drip down Ambrose’s neck as it cut into his flesh.
"Master, I love you. I never meant for this to hurt you. Fuck—if I knew, I would not have..." Ambrose trailed off, as if unable to come up with a proper excuse for what he had done to her.
"You love me?" The Tenebrae gripped Ambrose’s chin, holding his head just as Ambrose had held hers.
"My god, I do."
How could one proclaim to love such an evil, monstrous god?
The Tenebrae leaned forward and kissed Ambrose right on the lips.
It turned passionate quickly. She watched through half-lidded eyes, agonizing need coursing through her—and mental anguish that she wished would consume her, for it would be better than feeling desire—as Ambrose opened his mouth under the Tenebrae’s lips.
She saw a flash of their tongues, shadows curling inside Ambrose’s mouth.
Then the Tenebrae pulled away, only slightly. His chest was heaving, as if from exertion. "No one touches what is mine to destroy." His fingers curled in the chain around Ambrose’s neck, then he yanked it.
The clasp broke as it snapped free. Ambrose cried out, clutching at his now bare neck.
In shadowy hands, the Tenebrae raised the chain.
Luella saw there was a small, pure onyx stone hanging from it—it looked fine, delicate.
The Tenebrae tightened his hand into a fist. She heard a small crack.
Then it shattered in his grip. A black substance dripped from between the Tenebrae’s fingers and fell to the ground.
He opened his hand, revealing the shards of the stone, easily broken from the strength of one palm. The glass-like pieces fell to the ground, crunching beneath his boots as he took a step back, away from Ambrose’s wide-eyed form.
Ambrose was frozen, hand at his neck, lips wet from the Tenebrae’s kiss. His eyes fell to Luella on the ground, and he snarled, "This is your fault, you bitch!"
Shadows tangled up his legs and kept him pinned to the wall, tightening around his throat to cut off the rest of his threatening words.
The Tenebrae tutted and canted his head predatorily. He turned to look at Luella, but remained silent. There was something on his face. Regret? Loathing? Disgust? It flickered away like the dying embers of a fire, gone like the green in his eyes, replaced by shadows.
"Master, why would you take this from me?" Ambrose begged.
"You fucking dare ask such a thing after you take from me?
" The Tenebrae took the other male’s chin, as if to kiss him again.
"Nothing lasts forever—even your foolish, petty love. You hurt the things you love the most. And by trying to take her innocence and corrupt her—hurt her—before I can wed her, you demonstrated this so clearly. Your love will turn to resentment. It always does. Then hatred. I know you love me, as more than a mere master. I’m doing you a favor; you hastened your demise by acting so recklessly. "
The Tenebrae moved his fingers over the other male’s chest softly; though, his words were harsh, imbued with a simmering anger.
He pulled his hand away, as if warring with the idea of touching him or not, then, before Luella could so much as take in air to her tight lungs, he made a fist and punched it straight through Ambrose’s chest.
Flesh tore, bone cracked, and red blood poured over the Tenebrae’s hand.
Ambrose gasped in shock, pinned to the wall by the shadows. His hand fell from his bare neck. His face grew pale as blood seeped from within his chest cavity. It trickled past his lips as he coughed.
"Punishment begets punishment begets punishment," the Tenebrae said. He did something inside the other male’s chest that made him seize against the wall, then, with a sucking sound, he pulled free a red beating mass.
She watched their side profiles, disgusted with herself, with them, as the Tenebrae crushed Ambrose’s heart in his palm, just as he did the onyx stone.
Ambrose died immediately. He fell to the ground, and the Tenebrae dropped the heart carelessly on the ground and wiped his bloodied hand on his thigh.
Luella’s eyes were drawn to the gaping, empty mass in Ambrose’s chest.
She waited for him to awaken. She’d seen him survive this before. But with every passing moment, more blood pooled from within the hole in his chest, and his eyes remained unseeing.
The Tenebrae crouched by her side, covering Ambrose’s body from her sight. He touched her cheek with bloodied, warm fingers. She felt a streak of wetness left on her tender flesh.
The Tenebrae raised a hand, the delicate links of a silver chain twined between his bloody fingers.
The end bumped her chin as he dangled it over her face like a swinging pendulum.
"That stone I crushed in my hand was a gift to him. It kept him alive, and I took it back, just like I took his heart away—he had wanted to give it to me, after all. When you love someone, you’re turned into the most selfless version of yourself, the worst version you could possibly be.
He would’ve given me his heart if I had only asked, so I took it without asking. "
He gripped her chin, just as he had Ambrose’s. She waited for his fist to punch through her chest and claim her heart. Would it hurt? Surely only for a moment, then death. She could endure anything for a moment.
"I imbued my blood within the stone. It let him utilize my shadows, heal quicker. The greatest of gifts, squandered for you." His shadowed eyes trailed down to her shift still sitting high on her thighs. "Did he fuck you?"
Luella didn’t answer, trembling in waves of tired, wretched want.
She wished Az would show up. Could she will him to?
She would sink willingly into the madness if it meant she could see his face right now.
Could he help her—help take away this need burning inside her?
She nearly called out for him. For anyone.
"Look at me right now."
Her face was forced back to his. How had she not seen it sooner? Just how devoid of any soul or life or warmth, the being that inhabited Caliban’s body was.
"Were you claimed by him?" the Tenebrae demanded. He rarely raised his voice, but even the softest whisper felt like a thunderclap.
"No—" Her voice was a broken thing. "He tried. He almost—did." She felt more wetness trickle down her thighs and sobbed.
The Tenebrae let her face go, then stood, towering over her. "I will send for the healers. And someone for the body. Don’t be frightened, he cannot hurt you now." His tone dropped into a singing whisper. "His heart beats for no one."
He turned and left. The door to her cell clanged shut violently, making her flinch. She was left lying on the floor, blood on her face from his touch and desire coursing through her. Only silence remained—and a heart that would never beat, lying an arm’s length away.