Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
AIDEN
There’s a monster in my bed.
It creeps up when I least expect it, ghostly tendrils wrapping around my ankles.
I don’t dare speak. I don’t dare move. I lie very still, staring up at the ceiling, waiting for it to consume me.
“It’ll be our little secret.”
I shock myself awake, butting my forehead against something hard, and wince. I clear my sleep-crusted eyes and see Levi standing by the side of the bed, head tipped down as if?—
“Were you watching me sleep?”
“Yes,” he answers very matter-a-factly, not even blinking. He wrinkles his nose. “You were having a bad dream.”
No. Bad dreams are figments of the imagination. The real terror lies in memories buried so deep underground whose zombie hands try to dig their way through cracked soil.
“I have to go,” he says, frowning as he wipes his hand against my sweaty forehead.
For some reason, I grab onto his shirt before he can take a step back. It has to be out of self-preservation. What if he leaves and never comes back and I starve? Rot away in this dark room filled with?—
Are those fucking skulls?
He looks down curiously at the hands that hold a razor tight grip on his shirt and I let go quickly, rubbing my hands together as I sit up. I gulp, confused at my reaction. “Am I allowed to leave this room?”
“It wouldn’t be safe,” he rushes out, and for some reason, I believe him. He chews on the inside of his cheek, almost hesitating, before gesturing next to the bed. “There’s your yarn.”
He’s pointing at a brand new knitting kit. A fluffy pink bag that looks to be filled with several different types of yarn and needles. It’s stupid the way my eyes start to water looking at them. I don’t know what they’re supposed to mean, thinking it might just be a way to appease me, and I try my hardest to smile.
“Is that right?” he asks, an almost defensive lilt to his voice.
I nod slowly, clutching the blanket close to my chest. “Yes.”
“Good.” He takes a step back to leave but stops. He cocks his head, fists clenching and unclenching before he bends down and presses a small kiss to my lips. “Don’t go anywhere, little lamb. I mean it.”
I’m left speechless as he turns and leaves the room, the sound of several locks engaging echoing in the space. I let out a shaky breath, once again the reality of my situation hitting me. I really am trapped here, kidnapped by some deranged lunatic who thinks we’re soulmates, with no way to escape. He said to stay in here for my own safety, and the thought of there being something worse than him lurking outside his bedroom is enough to stop me from even trying to leave.
Like always. So spineless, so pathetic, so cowardly.
I’m only brave enough to get out of bed and stand in the center of the room, the light shining in from outside finally showcasing all the horrors in here. There’s a cracked mirror hanging on the wall, and I hiss when I step on something sharp that cuts into my foot. I look down and see shards of shattered glass, carefully sidestepping them as I make my way to the wall. It’s covered with… pictures. Images so horrible that bile pools in my throat. Decapitated heads and mutilated body parts paint the wall like some fucked-up gory recreation of an artistic masterpiece. Lining the drawer that rests against the entire back wall, there are jars filled with dismembered fingers and tongues floating in some sort of colorless liquid. It’s repulsive and vile and?—
SO BEAUTIFUL.
Fuck. I take a step back, cursing when I step on another piece of glass. I hop my way to the bathroom, sitting down on the toilet as I clean my foot. I manage to find a first aid kit under the sink and patch myself up, doing a crude job of wrapping the gauze. When it’s secure, I get up and head back into the bedroom, going straight for the window. I move over the already parted blackout curtains and, for a second, I think I must be going crazy.
We’re in suburbia.
No, worse than that. We’re in the most affluent gated community on the island. I recognize the familiar-styled mansions from when I drive past the gate on my way to school in the mornings. The lawns are perfectly green and manicured despite the snow, each house so opulent the people living in them should almost be ashamed of themselves. There are people out and about too, mothers holding their children’s hands, and fathers making polite conversation over hedges.
“What the hell…” I mumble to myself. My fingers dart to the window sill, trying to pull it up, but it won’t budge. Escape seems impossibly fruitless, but I bang on the window anyway. “Help me!”
But no one turns. They don’t even blink. No matter how much I scream my lungs out or bang on the glass, no one comes to my rescue.
“Christ, can you keep it down? We were trying to fuck in there.”
I gasp as I spin around, relief flooding through me, but it’s quickly washed away when I take in the man standing at the open door. He’s shorter than me and slender, with bright blue hair, and mismatched eyes. It’s not his lack of clothing or his jutting cock that scares me, but the rusted pliers in one hand and the leather whip in the other.
I stumble back and collide against the window, too frightened to even open my mouth as the man tips his head. He wrinkles his nose, confused, until he looks at the pliers and laughs. “Oh, shit. No. I’m not here to pull your teeth out or anything. Sometimes Gore just likes to pretend I’m going to clip his manly bits.”
“Bel, come back. I want to keep playing sexy mechanic. I’m losing wood here.” Another man appears at the door, also naked, and holding his apparently soft dick in his hands. He’s even more petite than his friend, his slender face framed by locks of neon green hair. When he notices me, he raises both brows, and his jaw drops in amusement before turning to Bel. “No way. You broke into Leviathan’s room?”
Bel shrugs and points his pliers at me. “He wouldn’t shut up.”
“I…” I cower underneath both their stares and goosebumps prickle my skin. It’s like when I’m around Levi—not exactly—but a similar sensation where my body just knows something’s wrong. When fight or flight tries to kick in. When instincts are telling me to do something but, as usual, I just become very still.
Gore cocks his head. “Did you break him? Levi isn’t going to be happy.”
“I found him like this,” Bel argues, waving the whip around before looking at me. “You’re fine, right?”
“Y-Yes,” I stutter, wringing my hands together.
“ See ,” Bel says, petting the back of Gore’s head. “Now, where were we, baby?—”
Bel reaches for Gore’s cock but Gore sidesteps him, marching into the room, not even flinching when he walks on cracked glass. “Aiden Walker, right?”
My breath hitches. “How do you know my name?”
“You’re famous here, bounty,” he chuckles, clicking his fingers against my glasses. “Getting dicked-down by the rabid dog will do it. Tell me, how does he fuck?”
I’m so confused that I don’t even know how to respond to any of that. Bounty? Rabid dog? And fuck the way my cheeks flush at the mention of me getting ‘dicked-down’ .
“Alright, fine.” Bel hops into the room, wearing a pair of torn jeans now, and he slaps Gore’s ass. “Get dressed. We’ll get him some cookies or something while we wait for Levi to come back.”
Gore shrugs and walks out, leaving me alone with Bel who’s… still hard? I shrink away from him when he tries to grab my arm, not liking the idea of being touched by anybody right now. It’s obvious these are Levi’s accomplices, sick and twisted just like he is, and I can’t risk losing my shit and offending them.
“Well?” Bel asks, looking over his shoulder as he walks toward the door. “Do you want cookies or not? I think Asi left Gerald with some of his fingers and it’s butterscotch day.”
“Okay,” I whisper. I only make it to the door frame before stopping in my tracks. Levi said not to go out of his room, that it wasn’t safe for me, but while these two are a little bit odd, they haven’t choked, assaulted, or promised to kill me yet. Not like the psycho my fucked-up brain wants here as a security blanket.
When Gore reappears, he smiles kindly and waves me over, like an old man trying to lure me with the promise of candy. Still, I follow. We head down a large hallway lined with classy art pieces and mahogany end tables. The stairs we descend are pure white marble and look like they’re covered in gold leaf. When I woke up here however many days ago, I expected to be in some sort of backwoods torture shack, not… this .
I don’t know which one would be worse.
I hear a chirp behind me and immediately recognize that sound.
“Zeus!” I don’t think, I just run toward him, not giving a shit that I nearly cause Gore to tumble down the stairs. I scoop Zeus up in my arms, rubbing my cheek against his back as he purrs. “Where have you been, boy?”
“Zeus?” Gore asks, wrinkling his nose in disgust. “We’ve been calling him General Whiskerton.”
“Why is my cat here?” I snap, only realizing my tone when Bel starts to chuckle. “S-Sorry.”
Bel shakes his head. “No, it’s okay. I like my bounties with a little fight in them.”
“He’s not yours to fuck with or fuck,” Gore teases, kissing his cheek. He scratches under Zeus’ jaw and coos at him. “Levi brought this little terror over two weeks ago.”
I pause at that and, despite my current situation, I laugh. Out of all the fucked up things that have happened to me, out of all the mental torture I’ve endured, out of everything, now I find it cosmically hilarious that Levi kidnapped not only me but my cat as well.
Thankfully, Zeus seems to be in one piece, and a little plumper than I remember him. I’m too distracted by my relief at seeing him that I don’t even notice when one of them guides me the rest of the way down the stairs.
We enter a modern-looking kitchen that’s twice the size of my living room. There are pastries and treats on the kitchen island, presented on fancy china. I spot a man in the corner wearing something an old-time butler would wear with his head hung down and his hands clasped in front of him. He doesn’t acknowledge us as we pass him and I wonder why he’s just standing there until the dining room table comes into view.
There’s a man sitting there, legs thrown on top of the table as he writes something in a notebook. He sighs, not looking up as we approach. “Cookies should be done in ten minutes.”
Bel sidles up beside me, practically wagging his tail with excitement. “Look what we found!”
“I don’t want to see any more of your kinky shit,” the man grumbles, flipping a page. “And for the third time, no. I’m not going to be the bratwurst in you and Gore’s sadistic fucking hot dog.”
Gore comes up on my other side and I flinch when he throws his arm over my shoulders. “Come on, Asi. You’re really going to want to see this.”
Asi sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose as he sets down his sketchbook. “This better be—” He cuts himself off the minute he sees me, and when I see him, I’m overcome with just how painfully beautiful he is. He’s… archaic. Supernaturally gorgeous. So mesmerizing that you’re almost repulsed by seeing something so ethereal in front of you. That beauty only lasts a fleeting second before irritation prickles in his eyes and his nostrils flare. “What did you two idiots do?”
“We freed the bounty!” Bel cheers, clapping his hands. “Want to bet Levi’s going to lose his shit?”
“Want to bet I will?”
Suddenly, it feels like all the air in the room is sucked out. The booming voice behind me commands all authority, unflinching in its menacing lilt. I clutch Zeus tighter in my arms when he squirms, yowling as he tries to get away. The animal inside him bites down on my hand, and I yelp as I release him. He runs away at full speed, escaping past the dining room table, and leaving me to my fate.
Smart cat.
I don’t turn around as footsteps move closer and closer to me. Glancing up at Asi’s face, I see a slight bit of trepidation in his disinterested expression. There’s a warning in his eyes, something that tells me I need to keep my mouth shut, and I brace for whatever might be coming my way.
I keep my eyes level, only shaking slightly when a broad chest comes into view. The man is massive, and when I finally have the courage to look up, I want to laugh. He’s like a doll come to life, both in the literal and sinister sense. Perfect blond hair, perfect blue eyes, perfect lips whose smile could probably charm anybody. But those same happy lips are dipped into a scowl, an irritation so furious in his golden boy eyes.
“What is this?” he asks, his voice is harsh and rings out with a barely repressed Southern accent as he refuses to break eye contact with me.
“Your two-man fan club let him out,” Asi sighs.
The man nods slowly, eyes tracking me from the tips of my bare toes, up my body covered in Levi’s clothes, and to my cracked glasses. The rage dissipates some, interest and curiosity intermingling the longer he assesses me.
“I’m Mammon,” he says. “Where’s Leviathan?”
“I-I don’t k-know,” I stutter, my teeth clattering the longer he looks at me. There’s nothing particularly unhinged about him, nothing that would cause anyone to walk a little faster on the other side of the street, but again, it’s a deeply-ingrained, unspeakable knowledge that makes me wish I had just stayed in Levi’s room.
He hums to himself at my answer, bringing a hand up to pluck my glasses from the bridge of my nose. He studies them, angling them this way and that, before a quick flick of his wrist snaps them. I gasp, watching through blurry eyes as the broken pieces of my glasses fall to the floor.
“Oh shit,” someone breathes behind me, but I’m not too sure if it was Gore or Bel, because I’m too caught up with the overwhelming shame that hits me.
Despite what’s happened since Levi entered my life, I haven’t felt this… violated . Like someone took a piece of me away, carved a knife inside of my vulnerability, and left me naked for the world to see. I don’t know what my glasses have to do with it, or why it’s hitting me this way, but a weak cry escapes me.
Mammon bends down, lips right at my ear, and the cruelty in his voice is enough to have my knees shaking. “It’s easy to break delicate things. Especially when they’re already cracked to begin with. Don’t forget that. Now, pick it up.”
I suck in a sharp breath.
FUCK.
I crack my neck, an aching building just at the top of my spine.
DO IT.
I ball my hands into fists.
LET US OUT!
“No.”
You could hear a pin drop with the way everyone—including myself—stops breathing. Even through fuzzy eyes, I can see the way his jaw ticks, and how Asi brings his feet off the table as if he’s about to stand.
“What did you say, bounty?” Mammon asks in a deadly whisper.
“I said no ,” I repeat, wiping away my tears with the back of my hand, not recognizing my own voice. “You pick it up.”
The tension is tight and palpable. I've never been an alpha male, never been the one in control, or someone that even wanted it, but I imagine this is what it’s like when two dominance-hungry wolves try to stake their claim on the same land. It’s all bared teeth and slobbering snaps of jaws that brim in both our eyes.
Somewhere in the distance, a door opens, but I don’t break my foggy gaze from Mammon’s. Vile thoughts fill my brain of pretty blond hair drenched in red and bright blue eyes bisected at the tip of a scalpel. Every part of him so still besides me?—
A roar rumbles behind me, knocking me out of my daze. I blink repeatedly, sucking in small breaths as I take a step back. Before I know it, long arms are locking around me and pulling me away until I’m sent crashing into the kitchen island. I squint to try and see better, but it’s hard to focus with Bel and Gore hooting and hollering beside me.
Still, I don’t need clear vision to know who’s in front of me with their hands around Mammon’s neck as he forces him to the floor.
The prickle in my skin erupts. The uneasiness fills my gut. That same almost paranormal fog smothers me, its inky tendrils slithering across the cut on my neck and down my throat. He once asked if I knew who he was, if I recognized him, if I sensed him, and now I do.
Levi tackles Mammon, two blurry figures wrestling on the ground right at my feet. I’m surprised that no one intervenes when I catch a glint of something silver flash in the air above Mammon’s head. Bel and Gore are cheering Levi on, Asi’s just standing there watching it all unfold, and I’m…
Everyone’s distracted.
I may be blind, and I may not have a clear idea of where the front door is, but nobody would notice me slink away while this is happening. I could just turn and run. I have Levi’s face practically memorized—the little scars, the long dark hair, those silver fucking eyes—and I could go to the police.
I could?—
“Did you touch him!” Levi barks, sounding so cracked open it almost hurts to hear.
NO!
A headache splits my brain, making it impossible for me to think.
Run. Run. Run.
STOP!
I press the heel of my palms against my eyes, rubbing until the visions of red and black and silver go away, but they don’t. Fight, flight, even fucking freeze doesn’t apply here anymore. A force that isn’t my own moves my body, not away, but into the direction of the violence. I crouch, mouth dry and heart racing as I lay my hands on Levi’s back.
“Levi,” I breathe, my voice straining with the effort not to scream. “Leviathan.”
He doesn’t stop. Mammon’s shouting something I can’t make out and my body works for me. My fingertips buzz as they walk up Levi’s back, possessed to grab his collar and give him a solid yank.
His back stiffens and the silver in the air clatters to the floor. He nearly knocks me over as he turns, reaching for my hips and hauling me onto his lap. My legs wrap around his waist as he buries his face in the crook of my shoulder. His panting breaths are moist and hot, a low rumble coming from his throat as his hands find my ass and grind me against him.
My eyes fall shut as the noise begins to quiet, and I say the first thing I can think of. “He broke my glasses.”
Levi lifts his head, lips ghosting over my own as he hums. “You don’t need to see when you’re with me.”
Behind the darkness of my eyes I allow myself to feel him. The scar on his top lip as he slots his mouth against mine and guides me open with his tongue. Long thick hair that’s silk in my hands when I pet it. The beating of his heart that synchronizes with my own.
There…
Isn’t that better…
I’m not in the state of mind to argue with the voices in my head. A low catcall whistles in the distance, but it’s a faraway echo. I keep my eyes closed as Levi gets up, taking me along with him, and we start to move.
Eyes closed as his sinful smell fills my lungs. Eyes closed as he hugs me closer to him. Eyes closed as we leave the earth behind.
“Aiden,” he mumbles, brushing his nose against mine. “We’re where you belong.”
Finally, I open my eyes, and I can make out the blurred images of torture on the walls. The sunlight is too bright, burning my blurry vision, and I whine and cover my face as I’m settled on the bed. Moments later, a whooshing is heard as blackness reigns.
I sink into the comfort of the dullness as I’m stripped. The slick sensation of one, then two, then three fingers slipping in and out of me cause me to smile, reveling in the wickedness.
I can’t see a thing.
I can only just feel .
One sharp thrust and I’m full, a breathy sigh leaving me as Levi drags his tongue up the column of my throat. “You should have stayed here.”
“I’m sorry,” I whimper but only out of toe-curling pleasure when a sharp sting meets my cheek. “I’m sorry.”
He presses his forehead against mine, vicious as he pounds into me, knocking my body up and up until my head is banging against the wall. “You’re mine. Mine . Say it.”
“Yours,” I mumble, tracing over rough edges on his back that makes him purr, compelled to dig my fingers into his skin and pull until he howls. “Fuck me, please.”
“What do you want, little lamb?”
Something cool presses against my collarbone.
“I want it to hurt.”
A slice of pain.
“For how long?”
Wetness seeps down my chest.
“Until it kills me.”
“I told you,” he rasps against my lips, one hand anchored on my hip to pull me to meet his thrusts, while the other forces my jaw down until spit is slobbering down my chin. “We’re part of each other now. I’ll treasure your broken soul until it comes back from hell to haunt me. No one is taking your life but me .”
My eyes roll to the back of my head at his words. It’s too much. Far too much. I’m floating above my own body, unable to see what’s being done to me, unable to see the filthy mess I’ve been made into, but I don’t care.
He slams into me without restraint and without mercy. My body is begging for relief, pushed to its breaking point, twisted with pain and pleasure and anticipation and?—
“You just pissed yourself, little lamb,” he chuckles darkly, the end of his sentence breaking out into a long drawn out moan when I start to cry. “Fuck, you’re perfect. So fucking perfect. I’m… Fuck …Aiden, I?—”
He peaks on a growl but doesn’t stop. He doesn’t stop tunneling in and out of me, the drag of his cock inside of me making my hard dick swell. I twist under him, not to escape, but for the imitation of a fight.
“Touch me,” I beg, my head sore, my body tired, my mind completely lost. “Leviathan. Jack me off. Fuck the cum out of me. Fucking do it !”
His hand wraps around my cock. It’s too rough and a pinch painful, but I come anyway from one sticky stroke of his hand. The noises I make are ones I’ve never heard before that sound like they were pulled out of a circus of misery.
I black out, only coming to when I’m raised from death and deposited on the bed. I’m… wet. A soft towel works its way through my hair as lips and teeth nip at my chest and my stomach. I collapse onto my back, almost like I’ve been drugged, incapable of doing anything but lie here.
Lie here in the wicked stillness.
A shirt is dragged over my head and the familiar smell of vanilla from my home brings tears to my eyes. Boxers are put on me next, and I breathe a sigh of relief when a hot wet cave envelops my cock. Trembling fingers reach up to sift through Levi’s hair, encouraging his gentle pulls and low hums.
I can’t see anything.
So I just feel.