Chapter 5 Winter
~Winter~
I awoke to a slapping sound.
And grunting.
Groaning… maybe.
What was happening?
I struggled to open my eyes. They were so heavy with an awful grogginess that just wouldn’t go away. It kept making me drift in and out for ages. I didn’t even know how long. Just like the entire time I’d been here.
Because of the Nihilumbra torture that Ruxnoth was subjecting me to without reprieve.
Except sleep.
Sleep was a reprieve.
From all of it.
The pain.
The ice-like stabbing sensation.
The fear.
The rage.
And worst of all… the grief.
I jolted then, as a flicker of sickeningly familiar power touched me.
His. That monster’s.
And I hated that it helped me, roused me, enabled me to open my eyes without so much strain.
I looked around to see that I was still bound against a wall by the awful glowing white binds, my bare feet trapped in that gooey substance as had become the norm. I wasn’t naked this time, but I also wasn’t comfortably clothed either. I was just wearing a pair of navy boxer briefs.
And I wasn’t in the same room anymore.
The towering arches and fancy drapes framing the alcoves were the same, the decadent gold and midnight-blue everywhere, the polished floors, all that overdone opulence… but there were notable differences to the room I’d woken up in before.
This one was more spacious. There was no sunken pool. The seating area was much larger. There was a dining table with one high-backed blue chair encrusted with rubies and diamonds just like the rectangular table itself.
As I was in the process of scanning everything, much slower than I would have liked, because even though the grogginess had been eased, my brain was still struggling a little—while I was being physically fucking tortured—voices reached me.
“Deeper. Deeper, Sire. Please. More.”
I jolted at the unknown voice.
But obviously mostly at the words themselves.
“Patience. All in good time.”
That earned more startlement from me. Ruxnoth’s familiar voice.
“No… I can’t… keeping me on the edge like this… it hurts.”
“A small price to pay for the end result.”
More slapping sounds followed.
Moaning and groaning.
Whimpers of need—physical need.
Oh no.
He wasn’t.
Was he?
“That’s right, miraculous boy, over to your right just a little more.”
I inadvertently turned at Ruxnoth addressing me—and immediately wished I hadn’t.
Because there, at the far end of the room was a large four-poster bed with gold drapes embellished with blue jewels cascading down and sweeping the navy stone platform.
And the bastard was on it fully fucking naked as he powered into a guy beneath him who he was holding down with a hand to his back, another shoving his head into the sheets.
His fingers were tangled in the shoulder-length dark blond hair of the guy who was shirtless, but had a pair of jeans shoved down to his knees.
Ruxnoth smirked out at me and gave a brutal thrust into the guy that had him crying out in rapture. “My power woke you up very nicely.”
I screwed up my face and looked away.
But a spark of his power right in front of my face, forced my head to turn back to face the scene. I even tried to squeeze my eyes shut, but I couldn’t.
He tutted. “I specifically roused you so you could bear witness to this. Isn’t it an appetizing show to be treated to upon returning to consciousness?”
“No,” I ground out.
“It’s your treat, Winter.”
“Seems the treat is all yours. Not even your partner’s with you being such a withholding bastard.”
Ruxnoth’s eyes narrowed, but I caught sight of his sex partner’s lips quirking unbeknown to the dominating force behind him.
“Still so na?ve due to your stubborn insistence to continue with your uncooperative approach. This is a demonstration of what will be for you. It’s to show you that you will have what you need in my domain.”
“What I need?”
“Your overabundant carnal appetite satiated.”
Urgh.
He went on, “You are sensually voracious. I’ve been within you, if you recall, cataloguing your nature, your responses, thought processes.
You need a great deal of erotic stimuli.
Many of my cherished helpers here have already expressed great interest in attending to your pleasure.
” He stroked the hair of the guy beneath him, who he was now grinding into, no longer thrusting, so he could talk with me.
“Not this one. He requires special care that only I can provide.” He gave a rough shove of his hips, and the guy cried out, digging his fingers into the sheets. “Isn’t that right, princess?”
“Mmm… fuck,” was the only response he got.
“Not interested,” I told Ruxnoth.
“Of course you are. You are just allowing leashes that are now broken to continue to restrict you. Your ice dragon, your fireborn, and your serpent prince belong to a world that failed you. I have already severed you from that life. They are closed to you. Accepting that is key to your wellbeing.” He slammed rapid-fire into the guy.
“If you had already done that, you wouldn’t see me forcing you to view this erotic tableau as a violation. And that is how you see it, yes?”
“Yes,” I hissed.
“The only one who should be uncomfortable here is him.” He grabbed the guy’s hair and then licked his jaw. “He doesn’t like an audience, but I’ve arranged it to make him uncomfortable while he also experiences extreme pleasure, as a lesson for his insolence earlier.”
“Oh my God,” I breathed.
“Don’t feel upset for him. I don’t deliver harsh punishments down here, just mild lessons to keep everyone on course. Besides, he will receive what he needs, regardless, so you can take comfort in that.”
“What he needs? Your dick? That’s some next-level narcissistic framing there.”
“It’s a great deal more than that.” His eyes narrowed dangerously. “And you shall see. You shall watch. And you shall be stirred by it in the process, letting that erotic need spark in you.”
“No.”
“Yes. And at that point, you will kneel to my will in the name of being fully satiated. Then we will move forward with you recognizing that your cooperation will lead to a fulfilling life in Sanctus—sexual gratification from some, familial love from others, and care from me, along with understanding from one abomination to another.”
This situation was fast becoming… unconquerable.
Specifically, while I was in this de-powered and weakened state.
While thoughts of the loss of my dad strangled me, while they were all that I could see and breathe, while I was responding to that anguish with rage and bursts of intense, unchecked emotion.
And that wasn’t what Dad would have done.
When Mom had briefly died many years ago, he’d channeled that into action—dangerous action, yeah, but definitive action, nonetheless.
Powerful fucking action. He’d formulated a complex plan.
That was how my family had survived—complex plans with layers upon layers.
Tempering their reactions and… channeling them into being effective against their enemies.
If I continued in my current way, Ruxnoth would go further and further. He’d retaliate in other ways. He’d already threatened to harm my family and my loves. He’d take more of them from me. And I’d be stuck imprisoned in this Nihilumbra nightmare, powerless.
And I wasn’t powerless.
I was a fucking god among them all.
The supernatural world was afraid of me for a reason.
And it was time Ruxnoth got a demonstration of that.
It was time for me to rise.
That would honor Dad, and it would protect everyone left behind.
I averted my gaze just enough from the actual fucking taking place, picking a spot just off to the side of Ruxnoth’s shoulder that he would read as me still partaking in his fucked-up voyeuristic show, then I said, “That’s quite the plan you’ve got there.
On the surface, it seems infallible, the perfect course of events to get what you want, get me right where you want. ”
“Then we are in agreement? You will fall into watching this erotic scene, allow it to—”
“That’s the thing. It doesn’t work like that.”
“Excuse me?” he asked, slowing his thrusts, and then grasping the guy’s cock in a harsh grip that had me wincing. His whimpers followed as Ruxnoth stilled completely, not even paying attention to his partner’s needs. Urgh, I was still registering too much of it in my peripheral vision.
But it did tell me something—well, confirm something.
The fact he could stop like that… he couldn’t experience sexual pleasure in the way the rest of us knew of it.
He wasn’t extremely controlled, there was nothing to control in that respect.
So, his magic… that was where he experienced something close enough to that?
Made sense with the living warmth he’d been infusing me with, and his reactions to it.
“This little tableau isn’t doing what you planned.
And it won’t. You see, I can’t get turned on by random displays of sex or eroticism involving people I’m not emotionally connected to.
It’s just… motion to me, another form of interaction.
” At his frown, I went on, “Something you can’t recognize because there’s an emotional disconnect in you.
” I smirked. “You forget, almighty one, I’ve been inside your head as well—all those dreamscapes required your mind to be partially open to me. ”
He snarled then raised his hand, clearly intending to hit me with his power, or probably more likely, turn the notch up on the Nihilumbra and worsen the torment.
I saw his partner’s eyes flame with coral magic. Was he… trying to help me? Defend me?
“Wait,” I called out, which had Ruxnoth holding his power at bay, and the guy’s eyes settling, calling back his magic, something Ruxnoth hadn’t registered with all the other fuckery going on—pun intended, as Evira would say.
“Hold up. I’m not done.”
He arched an eyebrow.
“I was about to say, what you are right about is that me being uncooperative is definitely detrimental. Continuing to be this way, I mean.”
“Yes?” he queried, unsure. Good.