Page 154 of Taken By Touch and Torment

Slaves milled about, cruel aunts watching them with sharp eyes. When the aunts saw me, I earned prying curiosity and disdain. I wondered if they had any idea what had happened to Aunt Carol. It was unlikely, as I presumed she’d been sworn to secrecy.

So many secrets, so many threads I couldn’t quite wrangle together.

Audaciously, Brennan guided me without touch to join him in standing at the front of the room, directly in line with the empty head of the table. He pointed to the ground and snapped. His eyes displayed a flicker of softness that was soon to disappear as he stepped into his confident, powerful role.

I sunk to my knees. A hush fell over the room. The lords were speechless, none more so than the ones entering the space for the first time. Some of them stopped walking entirely, looking back behind them as if waiting for someone.

It only took a few seconds for that man to appear in a rush of vampire speed.

My body trembled beyond my conscious control, and I couldn’t remember a single breathing exercise as I quickly ran out of air.

Durian’s fangs were bared, his cold, dark glare trained on me. His blond hair was perfectly straight, his burgundy attire meticulously ironed.

For a frightening moment, I regressed completely to who I was before my escape. Panic squeezed my heart, and I quickly averted my eyes. I wasn’t allowed to look Master in the eyes so unabashedly. My every muscle tensed, and I heard the whoosh of air before a cane strike loud in my ears.

“I wanted her to be a surprise,” Brennan said.

If I had to hear the word surprise one more time, I thought I might actually puncture my eardrums. That word would need to be retired from my vocabulary for the next several years.

At the relief of my sense of humor, I came back to myself. One foot firmly planted back inside my present reality.

I inhaled deeply, watching Durian’s black boots slowly approach.

“I stole her back from Rune, with a meticulously orchestrated plan,” Brennan said, and I realized he was speaking more to the lords now than he was to Durian. “Rune is furious.”

Durian planted himself right in front of us, and I slowly lifted my gaze to see that his glare had moved to Brennan.

“You’re the imbecile who lost her to Rune in the first place. I’m not sure why you’re begging for a victory medal for cleaning up your own shameful mess,” Durian spat.

A single lord chuckled, and I could see that these men’s desires were all over the place, too. They were all watching Brennan very, very closely. And I didn’t miss that more than half of them were doing so with more than mere admiration.

But with expectation.

Brennan was unaffected, his smile teetering between cocky and peaceful. He knew something that Durian didn’t, something huge. Brennan felt as though he’d already won.

I couldn’t make sense of any of it.

Durian finally swept his gaze back to me, and I looked at the floor.

“I’m pleased to see my pet hasn’t lost her manners,” he said.

Though his tone was mostly even, there was this unsettling craze lurking beneath the surface. His breathing was rapid, his voice slightly raspy. His desires had only gotten colder, more erratic and frighteningly psychotic. Like a collar or a noose, a suffocating amount of his desire lassoed around my throat. The hairs on the back of my neck stood in warning.

Durian’s obsession was so far off the edge of sanity that I feared I’d lost control completely.

“Although it would appear you’ve also been more than sufficiently fed,” he said with disdain.

His words shocked me, my cheeks instantly heating with shame. When Rune had rescued me, I was a shell of what I’d once been—body and soul. I was unwell, gaunt.

Durian preferred me weak and sickly looking over healthy and strong.

My humiliation quickly transformed into dangerous anger, my palms itching to clench into fists.

Fuel, Sadie’s voice reminded me.

“What are you still doing standing here? Take your seat, Brennan,” Durian barked.

I glanced quickly at Brennan, who didn’t for a moment show defeat or bashfulness. He turned and faced the lords with that same sly smile, unnoticed by Durian, who was in a state of frenzy as his eyes roamed over me.

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