Chapter Six #2
I sensed his confusion. I shivered as we both stood there in chains, forming a triangle with Henri at the top, bound on the stage.
For over two hours, we stood there like unseen pets.
No one fed us. No one talked to us.
Victor laughed often, Rachel kept giving us horrified glances, and the only ones who paid any attention to us were the other kneeling jewels. Their matching worry built and built until the sense of anticipation scratched down my spine with poisonous claws.
By the time dessert was served and my stomach had twisted itself into a hundred empty agonising knots, my system threatened to faint from exhaustion.
Victor finished his raspberry crumble and wiped his mouth daintily with his napkin.
Standing and resting his hand on Rachel’s thick dark hair, he said, “Gentlemen. Friends. I’m sure you’re aware there hasn’t been a show tonight.”
“Is Henri starring in a new porno, Vic? Who gets to bugger him first?”
Victor grinned. “Why? Would you pay to pop his cherry, Mark?”
“I’ll pay.” Roland stood up. “I’ll pay to have an hour alone with him. With the proviso I don’t have to give him back breathing.”
“You know, I might take you up on that offer one day, Roland.” Victor smirked.
“Is he fair game, Vic?” a Master I didn’t know piped up. “He’s a jewel, after all.”
“Thank you for giving me an opportunity to explain Henri’s new position, Jon.” Victor bent and kissed Rachel’s forehead before striding from the table and leaping onto the stage.
Henri stiffened.
The chains holding him jingled a little as he stood taller. His hollow belly flexed as his ribs expanded with heavy breaths.
Victor smiled and cupped Henri’s cheek. “No need to be afraid, my sweetling.”
“You’re the one who will be afraid, Vic.” Henri bared his teeth. “One day, it will be you in motherfucking chains.”
Victor laughed and patted him gently. “Such a comedian.”
“So?” a Master called from the back. “Do we get a try or not? How about we all break him in for you? All of us. Right here. Right now.”
“I’ve got lube!” Another Master snickered, tossing a bottle of KY onto his empty dessert plate. “I’m happy to break him for you, Victor!”
Victor slung an arm around Henri’s trim waist, looking out at the crowd. “I had no idea so many of you would suddenly want a belligerent man in your bed instead of a pretty obedient jewel.”
“It’s not about the sex,” Ian muttered with a sly grin. “It’s the fact that he used to be one of us. We all have someone in our lives who fucked us off and we couldn’t do a damn thing about it. An old boss. An idiotic father-in-law. Even an old friend who betrayed us at some point.”
Pointing at Henri, Ian added, “He represents all those cocksuckers we couldn’t touch. I don’t want to fuck him for pleasure. I want to fuck him to make him pay.”
My heart stopped as every Master turned into an animal.
Henri had stabbed quite a few. I’d seen a couple on the floor of the cave and hoped he’d killed them. But he hadn’t stopped the rest of these sadistic psychopaths from wanting to tear him into pieces.
Victor snickered. “I’m excited to see how you make him pay, my friends. But...seeing as he tried to kill me first and shoved my hospitality rather rudely in my face, I think I deserve first retribution, no?”
“Fine.” A splattering of grumbles. “What’s your first task for him, then?”
“Well...” Victor let Henri go with a conniving smile. “We all know the levels of ownership. Henri wasn’t interested in extracting them from Ilyana. But I’m looking forward to extracting them from him. Tell me, where should I start with Henri’s training?”
“Just skip straight to owning his soul, Vic. Fuck the rest.”
“Unfortunately, that will not work for him.” Victor smiled. “He’s stubborn, you see. I’ve had the enjoyment of getting to know him quite well, and I’m afraid there’ll be no cutting corners if we wish to break him into a well-behaved jewel.”
“I will never be what you want me to be, Vic. I will never give you what you want. You’ll have to kill me—”
“See? Now that just pisses me off,” Victor snapped.
“Do you truly wish to die, mon ami?” Victor spun on him.
“Are you that weak? Tell me truthfully. If I shot you right here, right now. If I put you out of all the misery in your future, would you take it? Knowing full well that the moment I tossed your body into the sea, I’d do everything I’m going to do to you to Ilyana? ”
Henri shuddered.
Fresh grief rolled down my cheeks. Peter gave me a heartbreaking look, but I couldn’t tear my eyes from Henri’s.
I didn’t know what I wanted.
I didn’t want him to die. I didn’t want to be in pain. But I couldn’t watch Henri be tortured. I wouldn’t survive watching a loved one be brutalised and beaten.
Maybe the Vedic astrologer was right all along.
Perhaps this was how we would destroy each other.
By loving each other so much yet being utterly helpless to protect.
My heart shattered into teeny tiny pieces as Henri’s lips quirked into a sexy half smile. Instead of submitting to Victor and accepting his new place as his prisoner, he stood so regally, so resolutely, I fell in love all over again.
“Do whatever you want to me, Vic. Play your games. Break my bones. Make me scream. I don’t care.” His gaze left mine and narrowed on Victor. “But I suggest you keep record of every lash you give me, every droplet of blood you claim, because one day I’ll do the same to you.”
A few Masters laughed.
Victor glowered. “I knew you’d be proud, my pet.
But I didn’t know you’d be stupid.” Crossing his arms, he backed up.
“I had planned on giving you a choice tonight. A choice of obeying me without question. If you had, I would’ve fed Ilyana your reward.
I would’ve ensured she went to bed—a warm comfy bed—with a full belly.
You would’ve been in pain but at least you would’ve been content knowing you provided for her. ”
Henri shot me a glance. His nostrils flared. “Feed her and Peter, promise me they won’t be touched, and I’ll do whatever you ask.”
“Nope. Not tonight. You no longer get a choice.” Victor snapped his fingers. “Blind him. Gag him. Deafen him. Let’s see how he behaves after a night of no senses.”
A guard stepped forward with a black bag dangling in his hands. Marching up the stage steps, he clamped a pair of noise cancelling headphones over Henri’s ears, shoved a ball gag between his teeth and buckled it into place, then wrenched a black hood over Henri’s head.
The last thing I saw was a flash of panic in his gorgeous grey eyes before the hood hung down to his shoulders, and Victor swept out of the ballroom in a huff.
* * * * *
That night was the longest of my life.
The Masters left with their jewels. Dirty dishes were cleared away. The lights were turned off. And the sliding doors were left wide open, allowing an icy breeze to kick through the tablecloths and soak into our frozen limbs.
One a.m., two a.m., three...
No one came to unchain us.
No one offered us food or comfort.
Peter shifted from standing to sitting to lying on the wooden floor.
I followed.
I huddled in a tiny silver-clad ball, shuddering and twitching with bone-deep cold.
My teeth chattered, and I longed for the dirty, scratchy blanket from the dungeon. At least down there, we had each other. We had facilities when our bladders grew too full and a sense of safety when panic became too thick.
Somehow, the richly decorated ballroom became an even worse cell than the dew-dripping, rat-infested caves below.
We didn’t talk.
What could we say?
Henri couldn’t hear us.
He couldn’t speak.
Couldn’t see.
By four a.m., I tripped in and out of desperate, despairing sleep. I woke to a slicing pain deep in my middle from hunger or horror—I could no longer tell the difference.
I glanced at Henri.
His knees had buckled, his arms stretched high and holding him upright.
I hoped he slept.
I hoped he’d passed out from the pain and claustrophobia of being so shackled.
A trickle of saliva ran down his naked chest, catching the moonlight outside.
I cried myself back to sleep, imagining the agony of his jaw with the ball gag locked between his teeth.
The way he wouldn’t be able to stop drooling.
The absolute panic he must feel being so vulnerable and bound while blindfolded, gagged, and deafened.
I’m here. I opened my heart and sent him all the love I had left. I’m here. You’re not alone.
He groaned and sagged against the pole.
Peter shivered quietly in the dark.
And I begged the sun to rise before we froze.
* * * * *
“Did you piss on my floor, Paavak?”
I shot awake just as Victor kicked Peter across the room.
He grunted as Victor’s loafer caught him in the side.
Backing away, Victor growled at the closest guard. “Get a cleaner to disinfect the floor. He’s made a fucking mess.”
“Yes, Sir V.” The guard took off but not before his gaze narrowed on me as I fought trembling, exhausted limbs and tried to sit upright.
I’d managed to ignore the slicing pain in my bladder, but...
I wouldn’t be able to for much longer. And the thought of wetting myself added yet another layer of horror.
I stopped breathing as the guard skidded to a stop on the threshold and looked back. His gaze met mine. He sighed with a wince as if unable to stand our condition, then took off before I could decide if it was real or fanciful wishing.
Was that one of the guards Ben and Stewart said were on our side?
Closing my eyes, I committed him to memory. Lean but tall, narrow chin and short dark hair. Clean-shaven with a tattoo of a fading butterfly on his hand.
Henri cried out, wrenching my attention to him.
“D-Don’t...” I reached a feeble hand toward Victor as he wrenched off Henri’s hood.
My heart fisted with despair as I caught Henri’s gaze.
Last night, his eyes had been clear and fierce. Lucid and full of fury. Now...
God, now...