Onyx
Not when the last time…
And with it? Well, they knew his reputation.
They had probably thought he was strong until this.
Bitterness seeped into him. They’d talk about him now — about how pathetic he was, about how Dominic had broken him until he’d turned toward the source of so much pain instead of away from it.
Drowning in his misery, Onyx ignored Dominic as the Bancroft witch chatted with his guests. He didn’t look up until a servant arrived to inform them that dinner was ready. Even then, he didn’t move until Dominic urged him to his feet.
They kept their distance from Nathan, much to Onyx’s relief. He didn’t know what would happen if the blond witch did try to crowd him. What would be the best course of action, if he felt obligated to fight or take flight? What would he do then?
He wasn’t sure.
He followed Dominic and knelt beside his chair, shifting awkwardly as he tried to keep from drawing further attention to himself. Unlike the other two pets, he wasn’t graceful and still, and he didn’t want to be.
Scorn raced through him as he watched them being hand-fed, right up until Dominic offered him a small piece of bread.
Onyx reached up to take it, but Dominic withdrew it before he could grab the food.
His eyes narrowed. He didn’t want to eat from Dominic’s fingers, especially in a setting like this. They already thought he was pathetic based on his reactions to Nathan, and they’d think even less of him if he did this.
He shouldn’t have cared what they thought. But he did.
As hungry as he was, he couldn’t bring himself to eat directly from Dominic’s hand. He shook his head, glowering down at the floor. He’d just starve.
Dominic went back to eating without uttering a word, but Nathan commented, “Raynes are dramatic, aren’t they?”
Dramatic.
Dominic chuckled. “They can be,” he agreed, though his words held the faintest bit of warning in them.
Good. Onyx would show them dramatic if Nathan didn’t shut the fuck up.
Onyx glanced up only briefly as Nathan’s pet took a morsel of food from his fingers with his lips, his own lips curling in disgust. The emotion only worsened when he realized that that pet was a witch, too.
Just like Onyx, he’d had everything taken from him… but he acted like all of this was normal.
This was what Dominic wanted to turn him into.
He didn’t want to be that. Not then, not ever.
That didn’t stop him from sitting silently beside Dominic’s chair right up until the point when the Bancroft witch urged him back to his feet. He led Onyx and his guests to a different room, filled with dark wood and leather furniture that reminded Onyx entirely too much of the playroom.
Unease raced down his back, but he fought not to show any further emotions as he surveyed the room.
Separate from where the chairs and couches were, a corner of the room had been set up with a small open space with cushions like those that had been in the sitting and dining rooms. Was that where he was expected to sit?
With the other pets?
Dominic guided Onyx to one of the cushions before crossing the room and leaving him there with the other two.
Onyx hovered there, on the verge of flight instead of seating himself.
Dominic would not be pleased if he decided to cause issues, but the idea of sitting and talking to other people — other pets — agitated him.
It took Dominic giving him a quirk of a brow from the other side of the room to get him to sit down.
The other two looked normal enough, for all that the witch had some sort of weird piercings in his cheeks, and Onyx wondered just what else was beneath his clothes.
If Nathan had detailed so many things to Dominic that he could do to Onyx, it stood to reason that he’d done that or worse to his own slaves.
A shudder ran through him.
He wasn’t going to ask. He did not want to know.
“You can relax,” the male slave told him. “I’m Tristan.”
To be an enslaved witch, Tristan had had to have either done something really stupid, or he’d had the ill luck to be born into the Rayne family, too. That was likely, given what Nathan had said during dinner. Onyx didn’t recognize him, but the family was large.
Onyx stared at the slave’s bare throat, nearly choking on his jealousy.
Why did Tristan get to go uncollared?
Well, all right, it was because Dominic knew Onyx would set the place on fire if he wasn’t, but it still didn’t feel fair. He loathed the witch for being so well-behaved that he didn’t need a collar.
Would that be Onyx, eventually? If he surrendered enough, if he was broken enough? He doubted it. As long as Onyx had any sort of fire left to him, he was a threat, and Dominic knew it.
But Dominic’s claims that he wanted to keep his fire meant little when he obviously expected Onyx to behave during a gathering like this, like he really was a trained and broken pet.
“I’m Marissa,” the female slave offered. She was wearing next to nothing, and Onyx eyed her for a moment. She was human, unlike Onyx and Tristan, and he could see that she had several piercings and the same kind of slave mark that Onyx and Tristan had.
“Onyx,” he muttered, fighting the urge to look in Dominic’s direction.
“Yeah, I know who you are,” Tristan said. “You’re the Rayne witch who was with the rebellion.”
Onyx’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t know anything about me,” he hissed.
Tristan frowned at him. “You’re right. I don’t. Calm down. No one’s threatening you.”
Onyx hated this. He didn’t want to make nice with obedient slaves, especially an obedient slave who could go around uncollared with full access to his magic. It made Onyx feel wild, feral, and he shifted restlessly on the cushion.
This had been a bad idea. What had Dominic been thinking in arranging this? Didn’t he know Onyx didn’t know how to talk to people like this? He had nothing in common with them at all!
Except… Except he did, because he let Dominic touch him and kiss him and give him things, all at the low, low cost of his soul.
And his sanity, because that was the reality of the situation, wasn’t it?
He wasn’t going to make his way through this intact, no matter what Dominic might think.
He could bend, but how far could he bend before he broke — for real this time, forever, and not in a moment of temporary insanity?
He didn’t know what to say to either of them. He couldn’t relate to broken pets.
Not yet, a dark voice whispered in the back of his mind.
The only sort of friend he had was Shane, but that was different. Shane at least understood fighting and independence and aggression.
Tristan turned to Marissa, and the two of them started to chat in low tones about nothing at all, exchanging gossip that meant nothing to Onyx.
Onyx shifted again, restless and getting more agitated by the minute.
Tristan paused mid-sentence to look at Onyx. “You’re still new to this, right?” There was something Onyx clocked as pity in Tristan's voice that made him want to punch him in the face. “You’ll get used to it. It’s not so bad, after a while.”
Onyx scoffed. It absolutely was that bad. He was already starting to lose himself, and in Tristan, he could see the tame, docile pet he could become.
The pet he was becoming.
The evidence was there in front of him. Onyx might be collared, but he was unbound, and Dominic had left him alone over here without much supervision at all.
Would he be here gossiping about others, given enough time, a pampered slave who was comfortable being left to his own devices?
Dominic had to have an eye on him, but Onyx wanted badly to get up and leave the room.
Would he get into trouble if he did? If he went upstairs and sat on the bed and did nothing else wrong?
Definitely.
He glanced across the room, trying to catch Dominic’s eye as he fought to keep his breathing even.
He didn’t think he could do this.
How he could keep looking to his tormentor, the person who was guiding him into becoming the very thing he was terrified of turning into, for solace, he didn’t know.
Dominic, who had been watching him, apparently, beckoned to Onyx.
Onyx realized too late that the problem with catching Dominic’s attention and being gestured over was that then it meant he would be closer to Nathan — to Tristan’s owner — and he wasn’t sure he could handle that in his agitated state.
He hesitated, looking from the other two slaves to Dominic and those near him, then back, the indecision clear in his expression.
He just wanted to be alone.
He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t.
He didn’t want the only person he had to be Dominic — well, Dominic, and Shane. He did want to talk to more people, didn’t he? But he didn’t want them to be broken, well-trained, obedient slaves.
He was better than they were.
Which is why you’re about to run away from them like a coward?
His breathing was starting to come a bit quicker, and he froze, unsure of what to do.
“I think your master wants you over there,” Tristan told him, like he didn’t already know that Dominic had gestured for him.
His master.
Onyx’s eyes snapped to Tristan, and he glared hatefully at the other witch. “Yeah, and?” he snarled, his voice raising in volume.
The idle chatter around Dominic paused in the wake of Onyx’s outburst.
“Onyx.” Dominic's voice was calm, but there was a clear warning note in it.
Onyx took a deep breath, his eyes trained on Tristan — who shifted uncomfortably beneath Onyx’s gaze before looking to Nathan with an uncertain look on his face.
Onyx’s hands clenched at his sides, and he forced himself to take several more deep breaths as he fought not to lash out. It wasn’t the slave’s fault he was pathetic.
It wasn’t the slave’s fault that Onyx felt like he was looking into an unbreakable mirror of what was to come.
He stood up and turned on his heel, stalking toward Dominic.
There were too many people here for him to attack. But then, one of them might take him out if he presented a threat. If he severely injured or even killed one of them, they’d be forced to take him seriously.
Dominic would be pissed, sure, but that wouldn’t be Onyx’s problem.
Until he woke up.
Because he would wake up as long as the vampire blood was in his system. Fuck. Fuck!
He stopped at Dominic’s side, but he was still not calm. He had to get out of here before he lost it, before he gave Dominic a reason to punish him.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Dominic said to the others, setting down his glass and rising to his feet. His hand slid under Onyx’s hair and around the back of his neck.
Onyx flinched when Dominic touched him, but he — if only barely — kept himself from pulling away.
He was on the verge of losing control, so close he could taste what it would be like to lash out without caring about the consequences.
It was only when Dominic started to guide him out of the room that he felt…
Well. No. He was still on the edge of losing it; the only thing that had changed was that his potential target would be Dominic if he felt any more cornered.
“That was unfortunate,” Dominic said quietly as he guided Onyx upstairs and to his bedroom. “Still, you did well enough.”
Onyx didn’t want to have done well, because he knew that doing well meant he’d been obedient, that he’d done what the other two insipid fucks would’ve done. They were obedient; they were everything Onyx didn’t want to be.
So why wasn’t he fighting Dominic? Why was he just walking at his side, allowing himself to be walked upstairs in silence?
On the way, Dominic caught a servant, giving her instructions that Onyx didn’t even pay attention to.
“Change out of those clothes before I cuff you,” Dominic ordered once they’d gotten to the bedroom.
Onyx yanked the shirt over his head and went for a more comfortable t-shirt instead. He changed into a pair of shorts, too, the glint of the cock cage catching his attention and reminding him all over again of the things that witch had done to him.
Nathan Warwick was downstairs. Onyx should’ve killed him when he’d had the chance.
He didn’t know what would’ve happened to himself if he had, but it would’ve been better, wouldn’t it? It would be worth it to repay him tenfold for the shame and humiliation and nightmares.
Except Dominic was the real villain in all of this, wasn’t he? He was the reason Nathan had done those things to begin with.
Still breathing unsteadily, still unsure of whether he could continue to be obedient, Onyx stared at Dominic instead of going to the bed to allow himself to be quietly cuffed to the headboard.
But then, if he did it, he’d be able to be alone, even for just a little while… and he wouldn’t be punished.
He didn’t want to be punished.
He ducked his head, crossing over to the bed and wordlessly offering his hand out to Dominic.
Dominic secured the cuff around Onyx’s wrist. The chain was loose enough that he would be able to have a significant range of movement while also making sure that he wouldn’t be able to go too far.
Dominic used a finger to tilt Onyx’s face up and stroked his cheek. “Dinner will be brought in for you. Would you like your headphones?”
Why was Dominic being like this? Onyx had embarrassed him in front of his guests, hadn’t he?
Shouldn’t he have been angry? It would’ve been easier if he had been.
He could’ve lashed out without feeling the slightest bit of remorse.
But no. Dominic was pretending to be gentle, and he was treating Onyx as though he’d done everything right when he hadn’t.
Except he had. This had been a test to see if he’d act out, if he’d obey while unchained, he knew, and he’d passed that. He wished that didn’t make him feel so sick.
He nodded, his gaze averted so he wouldn’t have to meet Dominic’s eyes.
“Very well,” Dominic said. He pressed a kiss to Onyx’s forehead before going to his desk and getting the headphones out of the drawer on his desk. “I shouldn’t be much longer." He crossed back over to offer them to Onyx. “An hour, perhaps two at most.”
Onyx nodded again, taking the headphones. He didn’t know what he’d say if he did speak, but he didn’t think it would be to his benefit.
So instead of risking it, he kept silent, even as he thought about the strange piercings in Tristan’s cheeks and the fact that he’d been uncollared while out in another witch’s home.
Fuck.
Dominic had expected him to befriend them, hadn’t he? He’d thought that Onyx might like it? Well, he’d been dead wrong.