Chapter 11
Oshruli woke me up by flopping on my head. I grumbled and swore a little as I sat up. He had the nerve to giggle at me from where he was sprawled out across my pillow. I offered him an exaggerated pout and gave in to the impulse to tickle his tummy. He squealed and laughed before making a break for the chamber pot. I noted the cause and effect and decided to refrain from early morning tickles in the future.
Not that I knew for sure it was morning. My sense of time had completely faded away in the few days I’d been recovering here.
The only way I knew for sure that a day had passed was the arrival of meals and I was fairly certain that I was nearing day four. My body felt stronger and my head clear. Lucky since today would be the day I unlocked that door and quietly slit as many throats as I could on my way out of this hellhole. Sneaking wasn’t typically how I operated, but I had to keep the violence down to a minimum with a child in tow.
I taught Oshruli how to wash his face and hands. Or at least I assumed nobody taught him to do it. He seemed confused by the task but followed my actions better than I anticipated. His eyes went wide when I slipped the knife out of its hiding place and tucked it in my hip pocket. He murmured nervously and I had to hope he was bright enough to remain silent about its presence. I held a finger to my lips and begged with my eyes. He nodded, though his brows pinched in worry.
Then came the scrape of a key in the lock. While time had been difficult to track, it felt early for a meal. I watched the door swing open and scowled when Dulanzo stepped into the room. Oshruli silently disappeared under the bed, and I positioned myself between him and the door.
Dulanzo didn’t look quite as put together as before. His hair was messy and loose, wavy from an earlier braid. The black vest he wore was undone and the wrap around blouse beneath was somewhat disheveled. I could smell the bite of alcohol around him when his movement stirred the air, but his presence was just as heavy and overwhelming as before.
“Woodland child,” he crooned as he approached, a smug lopsided grin on his face. “Am I mistaken in thinking you feel more like yourself today?”
I’d known this was coming the moment he’d given me someone to protect. Oshruli’s presence guaranteed my resistance, and I couldn’t even pretend it didn’t. Couldn’t he have waited a few more hours to come take advantage of it? Dread gripped my heart, but I grit my teeth and met his eyes anyway. “My name is Ozanna.”
He loomed over me, examining my face with narrowed eyes. “O-zanna,” he said, letting the syllables linger on his tongue, as if he were tasting them. “How do you find your quarters, Ozanna?”
“It’s not as nice as my room at the chateau,” I replied cautiously. This was a very different approach from yesterday. “Though I’ve seen worse.”
“Excellent,” he replied, with a false smile, as if he were a gracious host and pleased to hear I was happy with my accommodations. “And your new friend?” He gestured casually to where Oshruli was hiding.
I didn’t answer.
“Ahh, well, if he isn’t the source of your new-found courage, perhaps I should take him away.”
“Or better yet hurt him in order to get a rise out of me,” I spat. “Yes, yes, Dulanzo, I understand what you’re doing. You don’t have to dance around it.”
“Oh.” He grimaced in distaste and clucked his tongue at me, “It’s gauche to do otherwise. Or perhaps you’re just not bright enough to banter?”
I lifted my chin and poked him in the chest with my left index finger while my right hand, obscured by the angle of my stance, went for the blade in my pocket. “No, it’s a waste of energy,” I sneered.
He caught my left hand in his cold fingers and yanked me into him, adding a little extra power to the forward thrust of the stolen knife. My eyes widened in anticipation of the small grunt that typically followed such a blow, instead the knife shattered against his abdomen. He grabbed my knife hand, bloody from colliding with the shards against his shirt, and met my eyes with a smile.
If you could even call it a smile. It had the shape of one, yes, but this was pure, pointed, vicious anticipation—a promise to methodically obliterate my spirit. He meant to strip me bare of all the things that make a vital, sentient being—joy, pride, empathy, purpose, freedom, anything that gave me a sense of self. He wanted to reduce me to something so insignificant I wouldn’t be worth the effort of scraping off his boots when it was all over. He would probably enjoy it two-fold knowing I’d given my heart to one of his brothers. He’d make them bear witness to it, too, just like he’d done with Lobikno and his children.
Cold terror twisted in my gut while I read every appalling intention behind that perverse delight, and I finally understood Lhoris’ fear of this thing that was his brother.
“I see you,” he hissed, and, with his inhuman strength, squeezed my wrists. I groaned in pain, feeling bones grind and joints stretch under the pressure. My chest heaved against his when I realized I was too scared to react, my training and instinct paralyzed under the weight of his awful, crushing presence. “Ah, little pet, don’t be so fearful that you can’t deliver what I need,” he said and loosened his grip.
Only then did I snap out of my stupor. Twisting out of his grasp and putting space between us was the easy part. Coming up with a strategy would be tricky. I could scarcely wrap my head around the fact that the blow didn’t pierce his skin. There was some kind of magic on him for the knife to break the way it had. Would it protect him from a choke? Could I break his bones? Would his skin tear if I tried to rip it away instead of cut?
He prowled toward me, and I darted to the side, so fast I must have been channeling the magic Lhoris believed I had. It left me dizzy and a little disoriented. Before I knew what was happening, he had me against the wall.
“I will enjoy chasing you another day, little pet,” Dulanzo purred and pressed against me, his weight holding me in place. “That little trick of yours needs more power than you have right now. You’re still recovering—your magic depleted from keeping you and the child alive.”
We grappled, or at least I tried to, but the fucking wall grabbed my wrists. The godsdamned stone shifted to burning sand and enveloped my aching wrists. I managed to rip them free once, but Dulanzo was there to catch them and hold them in place at the level of my ears until the hot sand went cold and solidified once more. I twisted in the rings, the rough mineral rubbing the skin raw in seconds. Dulanzo took a step back to watch, satisfied I was secure, and shucked off the vest before undoing the buttons of his black leather trousers. The gray undershorts did little to disguise his erect cock.
“At least send the boy away,” I snarled.
“No,” Dulanzo answered with a laugh. “Let this be his first lesson on how to wield the only weapon at his constant disposal.” He yanked the front of my pants, buttons tearing from the fabric and bouncing across the floor. “The one he was born with.” He tugged the string that held my undershorts in place. “So many ways to wield a cock, little pet. For pleasure, for pain, for power ...” He rubbed himself and sighed. “… for shame.”
I knew that boys were groomed to be monsters here, but to witness it firsthand ... I hated that I understood this elf was the end product of that horrifying cycle. I hated and pitied him. But I drowned that pity in the river of disgust and fury that rose above the fear I’d felt only moments before.
“Send. The boy. Away.” I said through gritted teeth. “Send him away and I will give you my wrath,” I ground out, the words low, seething, and venomous. “Send him away and I will fight you and fuck you like you’ve never been fought or fucked before, you twisted dick!”
His chest heaved and his eyes fixated on mine, boring a hole all the way to the rage burning in the center of my being. “You swear it?” The words came out in a hiss.
“Try me,” I unfisted my hands and tipped my head. “Send him away and release me,” I challenged. “Find out if you’ve bitten off more than you can chew this time.”
In an instant, Dulanzo had Oshruli by the back of his shirt collar, dragging the boy out from his hiding spot. Oshruli’s eyes were wide, and his mouth drawn back in sheer terror, but he didn’t make a sound. Not a peep. Dulanzo shoved him out the door and had quick words with someone in the corridor before turning back to me.
With a wave of his hand, the stone shifted back into hot sand, slowly retreating from my wrists, and I was free. I kicked off the useless pants since I’d just trip over them without buttons to hold them in place. But I did retie the drawstring on my undershorts.
His eyes burned over my form, and he slipped out of his shirt and pants, then we stood facing each other. From that moment on, things moved very quickly. He lunged and I hip tossed him into the bed frame breaking the side panel, separating it from the footboard. He laughed and knocked my feet out from under me with a sweep of his leg, though he broke my fall. Whether it was to keep me from getting hurt or to prevent me from rolling back to my feet, I couldn’t say. We grappled on the cold stone floor, teeth bared and snarling at one another between gasping breaths.
My body and I were accustomed to the intimate violence of infighting and the thrill of it had always been the life-or-death competition. But to claim I’d never enjoyed a little violence in my sex would be a lie. It was exactly that energy Dulanzo was bringing to our struggle. His body tension, the pressure of his attention, wasn’t that of survival, it was sensual. Or so the traitorous ache between my thighs told me. He wasn’t handling me like he was fighting. It was as if he were simply staving me, the weaker opponent, off. Humoring me. Toying with me. He pinned my arms to the ground and buried his face in the crook of my neck with a deep inhale before setting his lips and tongue to teasing the sensitive flesh there. Nearly my entire body broke out in gooseflesh, and I had to bite my lip to stifle the shuddering moan that threatened to bubble up from my chest. Then he laughed at me.
It was infuriating!
I bit his shoulder in retaliation. He panted another laugh while my teeth worried fruitlessly at his flesh. “Careful, little pet, your teeth will fail like the knife if you keep trying to break my skin.”
I fought harder and he gleefully accepted the fistful of strikes I landed after I finally wrestled him onto his back. There were blows that would normally split an opponent’s skin, but they didn’t faze him. The smudges of blood on his cheek were from my knuckles.
I wrapped my fingers around his throat, but he ripped my shirt open with one hand before clutching my hips and pulling me down to grind against him. I abandoned the grip on his throat to pry his hands off of me, but he gasped in a breath, as though the choke had been working.
He must have seen the realization in my eyes and relinquished the grasp on my hips to push me aside. We grappled again. This time he stopped teasing and subdued me.
I couldn’t win this. How could I fight someone so much stronger than I? There was no way to get the choke I desperately needed to end this. He took my back within a few heartbeats and trapped one arm behind my shoulder blades. I was exhausted. My wrath played out. All that was left was the ache between my legs. I gasped, ass in the air, flushed cheek against the cold stone of the floor.
The fingers of his free hand curled into the waistband of my undershorts and with one painfully abrasive tug, he tore them off.
“Oh, the fun we will have when you’ve completely recovered your strength, little pet,” he panted and shifted behind me. I felt the crown of his cock against my entrance. “You’re right that nobody has fought me quite like that before.” He pushed in a fraction. “Let’s see if you can keep up the second part of your promise.”
Dulanzo eased himself in a little at a time, as if savoring every inch while he caught his breath. The head of his cock must have been enormous because I felt it’s edge all the way up and denied myself a groan of pleasure when he was pressed flush against me.
He grunted and pushed my arm up higher between my shoulder blades, drawing a breathy whimper from my lips.
“You either have to fight or fuck,” he rumbled. “You’re wet enough that I’m sure you know what to do next.”
“Fine,” I spat. “I didn’t feel anything. Are you sure you’re in?”
He laughed. “I’m quite sure that’s a lie.” But the pressure came off of my arm and he rolled his hips before slamming back into me. I gasped. “Did you feel that?”
“I felt a little something that time,” I drawled. He released my arm, and I dragged it beneath me for stability. Limbs trembling under my weight, I shifted to glide up and down his length, to crash against him while he held still, vice like fingers digging into my hips for guidance.
“Very nice, pet,” he said with a rasp. “Tell me, who do you wish you were with right now instead of me? Hm?”
Lhoris. The answer would naturally be Lhoris. And Dulanzo was trying to remind me, despite my bluster, that I didn’t want to do this.
“Zelfek,” I growled over my shoulder. “His cock was so good. I came hard and often.”
Dulanzo didn’t like that. He yanked a fist full of my hair and brought me to my feet along with him. “I know you’re lying,” he seethed by my ear. “I’m no idiot. Zelfek couldn’t bring himself to do it.”
He reached with his empty hand to drag the straw mattress off the broken bed frame and onto the floor.
“You’re going to ride me now, little pet,” he said, dragging me down to the mattress with him, his grasp in my hair relentless. “And you’re going to do it until you tell me the truth about who you’d rather be screwing. That cunt better suck my soul out through my cock.”
He let go of my hair when I finally straddled his hips. I glanced down and found that I hadn’t been wrong about the crown of his cock. “That thing looks stupid,” I grumbled. “Like it’s wearing a helmet that’s two sizes too big for it.”
“Sit on it,” he said through clenched teeth. “Then you don’t have to look at it.”
“I loathe you,” I said while easing myself over the bulbous head and, godsdamn him, it felt even better at this angle.
“Really? Because I’m growing rather fond of you,” he said, kneading my thighs when I started rolling my hips. His head fell back on the mattress and his next breath escaped in a rumbling groan. “Who do you wish I was, little pet?”
“Zel-fek,” I barked. “The things his voice alone does to me …”
Dulanzo’s hand shot up and grabbed my throat, yanking me down to his face. “You think you’re driving a wedge between the subcommander and me, but you’re not. Nor do I have feelings for you to hurt,” he seethed. “You’re dripping down my balls, so I know you’re enjoying yourself. Your mouth is amusing, but if you keep lying so blatantly, little pet, I’ll shove this stupid looking cock in your ass without any preparation.” He yanked me closer still and snarled in my face. “Ride. My. Cock.”
My temper flared once more, delivering one last surge of energy to my exhausted body. I rocked my hips and tried to keep up with the pace of his upward thrusts, the edge of his huge crown massaging the exact right spot, driving me headlong into the most unwanted orgasm of my life. His fingers twitched and clenched around my throat, cutting off my air. I grabbed his wrist and tried to pull out of his grasp, but he kept driving into me and that orgasm was so much closer. My head pounded in time with my racing heart and my traitorous fucking body spasmed as I came hard, trembling and clawing at his wrist. His grip loosened enough that I could gasp and sob.
“Who?” he demanded in a whisper, still hard inside me.
“Lhoris,” I whimpered. Shame spread over me instead of the gentle, soothing wash of pleasure that should have followed. Something snapped in my heart then, just a tiny chip. I knew I had nothing to be ashamed of. But nevertheless, there shame was. A weakness exposed. A weakness to be exploited. And fucking Dulanzo was there to watch it all unfold a few inches from my face.
“Ah, there it is,” he crooned.
I didn’t struggle when he rolled me onto my back and reseated himself. The damage had been done. He’d maneuvered me into an active participant of my own undoing, which I’d known would happen the moment I was given someone to protect. I hadn’t made it easy for him, at least. His body was as bruised as mine felt.
Dulanzo moved against me, arms cradling my upper back and shoulders, fingers buried in my hair, his cheek nestled in the crook of my neck, while he rutted me. I was oddly ambivalent about it. If the encounter had just been this, an exchange of sex for the child’s safety, I might even have taken a little, I don’t know, pride in my actions. But the way he’d inserted shame into the mix, bringing my inexperienced heart into it, that part hurt. Rationally, I knew Lhoris wouldn’t hold my decision to engage with this asshole against me. After what I’d witnessed in the short time I’d been imprisoned, and the way Lhoris had reacted after the incident in the tower, I suspected he’d been forced to make similar choices.
When Dulanzo finally came in a spasmatic jerk of his body and contented sigh I murmured, “You’re an awful lay.”
He laughed and planted his hands on the mattress, pushing to lift his head and shoulders to peer down at me, eyes merry in the pits of the skull tattoo. “What did I say about lying, little pet?” He shifted one hand, grabbed my ass cheek and squeezed it. I slapped him and he laughed again. “Wet as you are, I’m certain it won’t be long before you’re delighted to receive me.”
“I won’t lower my standards for the likes you,” I scoffed.
“What standards?” He snorted and rose to his knees. “Your body knows all too well what it likes. Don’t act as though you’re more than a common whore—that what you just did is beneath you.”
I bared my teeth. “The only thing wrong here is you.”
“Perhaps,” he tipped his head and peered down at me thoughtfully, “but I’m not ashamed of it.”
And that was a truth I couldn’t argue. No amount of pithy comments on my part would make him feel more than amusement. I bit my tongue and glared back at him. He picked up my shredded tunic to wipe the slippery mess off himself while he got to his feet.
“You’re still angry,” he observed. “Good.” He started gathering his clothes from the destruction around us. “I’ve never had anyone take hate-fucking so seriously before.” He pulled his shirt on. “You were good to your word, on the fighting, though. The fucking was merely adequate, but I know you’re still recovering. I’ll expect better next time.” He looked me over, his eyes lingering over my cunt. I bent a knee and shielded it from his sight.
Dulanzo’s grin was broad and genuine. It didn’t suit him.
“I’ll send the healer down,” he gestured to his throat and nodded at me. “We don’t want your throat swelling up after all that.”
“Go fuck yourself,” I shouted and dragged a blanket over myself. The chill was getting to me again now that I wasn’t active, and his body heat wasn’t surrounding me.
“I don’t need to,” he laughed and pulled on his pants. “I’ll give you time to recover before I come back for more. Though if you still find yourself in need of attention, I do have some half-brothers I could send your way. You could complete the set.”
I didn’t respond and he took the light with him when he left.