Page 66 of Taken By Touch and Torment

I held her as she cried in my arms.

27

SCARLETT

Despite Durian freely giving me to Kole, my Master did not delight in sharing me. Especially not when he’d confirmed how valuable I was, the addictive nature of my blood.

I should’ve predicted his reaction.

“That’s a good pet,” he said as I crawled to him in one of his upstairs drawing rooms, adjacent to the deliberations room. The room was full almost entirely of lords and the most powerful born men, save for Kole, Liza, and Evangeline.

I’d only been summoned after their important deliberations had concluded. I was entertainment, not a confidant. My collar was on too tight, my straps of blood-red lingerie more revealing than ever.

Despite my hard work and intricate webs, I still wasn’t permitted anywhere important. I wished I had more information of value to report back to the turned, more than what scraps I’d gained by my eavesdropping and reading of desire.

Brennan was right. Kole had been so intoxicated that it was easy for him to convince himself that he’d fed from me and couldn’t remember it. That, or he was too confused and embarrassed to say anything to the contrary.

I raised my gaze from Durian’s sleek black boots to his beady black eyes. His blond hair was perfectly straight as it fell to his shoulders, his black and burgundy attire meticulous. Royal wealth with a flare of ancient holiness. His hands were tucked into his pockets as he stared down at me, cold and unflinching.

The sound of a woman screaming had me turning my head. I caught a glimpse of one of the lords hitting Mairin, tearing into her slim neck far too violently. He was imagining it was me.

At a harsh slap across my face, I realized I’d fucked up.

“Bad girl,” Durian chided. “Did your time off leash undo my weeks of careful training?”

Panic bubbled in my chest, my throat tight. The blow had tears springing to my eyes unconsciously.

“No, Master. I’m sorry, Master,” I said quickly.

I felt Brennan’s eyes boring into me, though I didn’t dare look. Nearby lords chuckled. Even the ones immersed in conversation and feeding still had half their attention on me, the talk of the palace.

“I’m afraid you’ve forgotten your fucking place, pet,” Durian spat.

Paranoia clouded his desires. I had the sick urge to beg, to earn back his praise. It had been carved into me—this desire to please him, to earn my right to exist. I feared how deeply he’d dug himself into my brain with his magick, his mind games, and the pain and humiliation he’d steadily supplied.

“I’m sorry, Master,” I repeated, knowing it was useless. His mind was made up. He needed to reclaim me. And I wouldn’t waste my power trying to change his decision so close to freedom.

Stay in your body, Rune’s phantom voice whispered to my mind.

Durian shoved me to the ground, his boot on my chest in a flash. He pulled out his favorite cane.

“Tell me, pet, are you really Lillian’s purest, most innocent lamb?” he asked. He brought the black implement down across my upper thighs.

I screamed. The sting reverberated through my body in harsh waves.

“Or are you a worthless, filthy whore?”

I flinched as if he’d struck me again. When Durian called me a whore, it was the same as when Isabella had. He wanted me smaller. He wanted me to feel stupid, weak, and pathetic—wholly dependent on him to earn back my worth.

Rune had called me demeaning names before, but it hadn’t provoked remotely the same feeling. It had never been a slap. Only a caress, a depraved game, or a wicked show of dominance. He’d fulfilled my every last desire, and I’d never once felt unsafe in his powerful grip. His cruelty was for me. It had never actually been cruelty at all.

“You know how much I hate when you don’t answer me promptly, slut,” Durian hissed. This time when he caned me, it wasn’t just one, two, or three strikes. His desire spun out of my control. His pent-up aggression and need to own me multiplied like a disease.

In strengthening my threads to Brennan, Kole, and the palace at large, I’d neglected the one thread that controlled my fate above all others.

Durian beat me until I bled, and then he licked my bloody thighs. He flipped me over as I cried, eaten away by pain and shame.

“Position five.”

---