“Powell, I’m not going to brawl with you like two kids in a school yard. Skip the goading insults and tell me what you want.”
Powell stepped forward and, sensing trouble coming, Mac got off the bike to face him.
“You got me kicked out of The Zone. You’re welcome to your opinion but not the right to interfere in my personal dealings.”
“Wrong. Protecting a woman, even if she’s not his own, is every man’s business.” Jonathan sneered. “If she’d chosen me, she’d be so twisted around my dick by now she might as well be on her knees sucking on it.” 174
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“You’re an asshole, and what burns you is that Violet didn’t choose you. She’s beautiful, she has taste, and she knows trouble when she sees it. You don’t need a Mistress. You need to be neutered.”
He knew how to handle an idiot like Powell, so he was ready for the lunge, the swipe of Powell’s fist, his keys clutched in them. But Mac was angry as well. Not enough to let it control him, but enough for him to take a split second to consider and then take great satisfaction in following up his block with a clip to Jonathan’s jaw.
Powell sagged forward and Mac caught him. The sharp jab in his neck spun him around, and he was vaguely aware of Jonathan regaining his balance at his back as Kiera pulled the syringe out.
There was no time for anything. The helmet dropped from his fingers and his body fell into their hands. They effectively used his momentum to roll him into the open door of the van next to his bike. All over in five seconds, and likely not a person around to see it. Jesus Christ, he was in trouble.
* * * *
“Wake up, sweet thing. Wake up.”
The soft crooning of the gentle voice was as melodious as a Motown lullaby, but it brought Mac back to consciousness like a cold spike shoved into his vitals. It took his mind a moment to catch up with the reaction, but the abrupt attempt to lunge to his feet got him nowhere.
He was in Tyler’s dungeon, secured over the large spanking bench, stripped naked.
Bolted securely to the floor, the bench didn’t even quiver when he yanked against his bonds. His waist was on the edge of the bench, his knees pressed into the cold floor. An iron bar attached to a strap around his legs just above each knee held his thighs apart, wide enough that the position caused painful tension in his lower back, buttocks and thighs. He was hyperaware that the position made his cock and balls hang out free and accessible to anything anyone wanted to do to them.
Close to the juncture between testicle and leg, another strap had been buckled around each thigh. His wrists were cuffed and the rings on those cuffs clipped to the straps, so his arms were held immobile at his sides. He had no way to protect his skull from the single bullet he was sure the woman somewhere beyond his field of vision intended to put into it. His head was unsupported over the edge of the bench, his neck muscles groaning in protest.
“Would you like to hear my secrets, Mac? The ones you’ve been trying so hard to figure out?”
Her voice stayed whisper soft. He knew that type of voice, knew the ice that climbed up his spine from hearing it was not an overreaction.
“I’d rather have you turn me loose,” he said mildly, “but since I suspect that’s out of the question, go for it.”
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Blab all you want. Give me some time to think, figure out what chance I’ve got not to be vic number four.
“You try to play it down,” she observed, “But I know how miserable you are. How miserable all of us are. But a Dom cannot escape the pain. She must face it, help her slaves find a release to it, ironically through the experience of physical pain. Do you know what the source of all of it is?”
Mac shook his head. “No.”
Abruptly his back was on fire, as a lash came down on his back from somewhere behind him. Hooked with barbed tips, it took his flesh with it when it was yanked away.
“No, Mistress,” she snapped.
Swearing through a haze of pain, Mac bared his teeth. “You’re not my Mistress, bitch, so beat me to death, you won’t hear it from my lips.” He heard the movement of air as an arm was drawn back for another strike, but the blow did not come. Ten tense seconds passed before she spoke again, and this time her voice was laced with amusement.
“As we told Violet, you’re a treasure. Jonathan, please put down the cat and go get the other item I wanted to use.”
As Jonathan’s footsteps retreated, Kiera’s came closer, and then she was in his field of vision, standing before him. She wore a black unitard, no jewelry, her hair slicked back from her face, her boots laced securely to her thighs. Latex black gloves covered her hands up to her elbows. She took a seat on the couch, crossed her legs and laid an arm along the back, as if she had nothing but time, but her eyes had a singular intensity that felt like she was drilling holes in his head already.
“So where is your sister? Is she part of this unholy trinity?”
“Mac,” she said, “you don’t need to worry about being a cop. You’re going to be dead shortly, and all that matters is you’ll be free of pain, of having to hide who you are.”
“I admit, Jonathan surprises me. You’re not a tremendous surprise, all in all, but he is.”
“Oh, there are even more startling things than that.” Powell’s footsteps returned.
Mac jerked away at the rough touch on his jaw, but it was a futile gesture. Jonathan merely wrenched back his head with enough force to sprain muscles and shoved the ball gag into Mac’s mouth, strapping it tightly around his head.
Kiera watched them impassively, then waved Jonathan back. “Give him ten lashes, love, to focus him on what I’m about to tell him, and then I want you to go cuff your left hand and left foot on the St. Andrew’s cross. I’ll come finish binding you in a moment.
We want to be all ready to play when Mistress Violet gets here.” That cold hand around his intestines tightened exponentially and Mac’s lips lifted in a snarl he could not voice around the gag.
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“Ten, Mistress? With the barb?”
“Yes. Don’t worry, love. I told you, he likes pain. Violet will be fine with it.” She looked down at Mac, the corner of her mouth curving. Those large dark eyes were trapped somewhere between lust and pain. Both characteristics obviously dwelled within her in such phenomenal quantities that it was like looking at a person with a demon inside her. The monster was far larger than the body housing it, so that it made every word she said seem distorted, every facial expression an obscene aberration. It was something Mac was sure Powell could not see. He could, because in his line of work, he had seen it up close and personal. A person so far gone in death, blood and their own pain that there was nothing that could save them.
“I told Jonathan how you and I used to play together, and that you enjoyed kidnap scenarios,” she said evenly. “I asked Tyler to leave Violet a message this morning, before he went out of town on his book tour, asking her to meet me here this evening for a very special surprise for her. Tyler’s very generous with his dungeon for those he trusts, and Tamara and I have used it often. Jonathan rather hates you, so he wasn’t keen on helping fulfill one of your fantasies at first. Then I told him you didn’t really have any set boundaries, though I’d discovered there are certain things you truly dislike. So my gift to Jonathan for helping was going to be letting him fuck you in the ass. Jonathan’s not really into men, but he does have an appreciation for the things that can cut someone’s ego down to size, and I personally will enjoy seeing you suffer a bit.
He really is like a Dom in sub clothing, a sort of twisted one, but an interesting specimen altogether.” A fond look came into her eyes at something Mac was glad he could not see. “Look at him. He’s getting hard, just thinking about it. Jonathan, do my bidding.”
“With pleasure, Mistress.”
Mac sunk his teeth into the heavy rubber of the gag as the metal barb tips struck his back, jerked off more flesh.
Kiera watched him, her face detached. She was in a place where she was seeing things that weren’t visible to the rest of them, Mac knew, and it did not seem to bring her any joy, just a grim purpose that boded ill for all of them.
“I can lash you so you’ll feel the pain, but it won’t draw blood. Jonathan has less experience at that. You’ll just have to live with the scarring, at least for a short time.” She blinked once.
A second and third strike fell, and Mac felt the pain jolt through his body like electrical current. His shoulder began to itch, as blood made its way down his back over his bicep, getting slowed in the hair on his arms.
“Very few can take it without screaming, but I know you can. Violet is going to be so impressed with your stamina.”
The last stroke fell a few moments later, when all of them had merged into one vibrating field of pain on his back. Just as he released his breath, an eleventh came, 177
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striking across his ass, a barb catching his scrotum. His incisors sank down, slicing through the hard rubber, the reaction singing up through his gums and jaw.
“Jonathan, that was very naughty. Go cuff yourself.”
“Yes, Mistress. My apologies, Mistress.” Jonathan snickered.