Page 26 of The Flesh Remembers
Eleanor stepped into the room, and she felt the eyes of the hooded figures lining the walls follow her as she made her way inside. Their gazes bore into her, hungry and unrelenting, stripping her bare before she even shed her gown.
“Dr. Ashcroft,” Lord Blackwood intoned, his voice deep and resonant, “tonight, you become the vessel, the key. Through you, we will bind James’s soul to this world. Are you ready to give everything?”
Her throat tightened, but she put on as bold a look as she could manage and lifted her chin. “I thought the last ritual was me giving everything? Isn’t that what you said the other night? It seems you push the finish line further each time I give.”
Blackwood smiled coolly. “What we are doing here is hard, Eleanor. It requires multiple sacrifices. Yes, you will be required to give of yourself often and completely. But, of course, if you no longer wish to bring James back, I’m sure we can find someone else to benefit from our work.”
Eleanor doubted that they would throw away all the efforts they had already made with James, but she also knew she couldn’t say no. She didn’t like to give in to Blackwood as she didn’t trust him in the slightest, but if it were the only way to achieve her goal of getting James back, she would have to deal with him as best she could.
“Fine,” Eleanor said coldly, “I will do what is required. But know this, Blackwood, I debase myself not for you or your perverse pleasure. It is only for James that I suffer these indignations.”
Blackwood’s lips curved into a predatory smile. “Strip.”
She willed her hands to be steady as she untied her gown, the fabric sliding from her shoulders to pool at her feet. The cool air kissed her skin, making her shiver as she stepped forward, vulnerable under the weight of their stares.
Blackwood guided her onto the dais, his hands firm but reverent as he secured the leather straps around her wrists and ankles. Each buckle clicked with a finality that sent a shiver of both fear and anticipation through her.
“You are the bridge between worlds,” he murmured, his fingers brushing the silver disk at her throat. “Your body, your pain, your pleasure, they will feed the apparatus, forging the link that will bring him back.”
The first participant approached: Marian Collins. Her hands shook as she climbed onto the dais, her face pale and her eyes filled with conflict. Eleanor met her gaze, seeing the war raging within her: guilt, desire, and a desperate need for absolution.
“I… I don’t know if I can do this,” Marian whispered, her voice barely audible.
“You must,” Blackwood said sharply. “Her grief alone is not enough. Your longing, your shame, they are essential. Let them consume you.”
Marian hesitated a moment longer before shedding her robe and lowering herself beside Eleanor. Her fingers brushed against Eleanor’s arm, tentative but growing bolder with each stroke.
Eleanor shivered under her touch, her body reacting instinctively as Marian’s hands roamed across her skin. The galvanic rods flared faintly, their glow pulsing in time with Eleanor’s racing heart.
“Feel her pain,” Blackwood commanded. “Amplify it. Let it flow through you both.”
Marian’s touch became more insistent, her fingers pressing into Eleanor’s flesh with a desperation mirrored by her own. Eleanor gasped, her back arching as the first wave of galvanic energy surged through her, igniting every nerve ending.
Eleanor moaned softly as the other woman’s mouth found her breasts and she began to lick and suck at Eleanor’s hardened nipples. Each wave of pleasure she felt brought an equally intense wave of burning pain as the energy of the mechanism around her surged with each moan and cry. But Eleanor did not care. That primal, uncontrollable desire returned to her, and she had no choice this time but to give in to it. If she wanted the process to work, she would have to allow herself to fall into that abyss of unending pleasure and torment.
“More,” Eleanor whispered as Marian pulled back from her. “Don’t stop, please!” The nurse seemed unsure but glanced at Blackwood, who watched them intently. His dark eyes were filled with lust and something yet darker. Blackwood nodded to her.
Marian bent her head again and began to kiss Eleanor deeply. Her tongue slipping into Eleanor’s mouth. As their tongues entwined, Marian moved her hands lower down Eleanor’s soft, white abdomen and then lower still till she reached the apex of her thighs.
Her fingers slipped down into the wet depths between Eleanor’s legs until she found that swollen spot that begged for her attention. Marian began to rub her there in small, firm circles, their kiss still not yet broken. Any hesitation Marian had up to that point slipped away as she, too, was now lost on that sea of dark pleasure, unable to stop even if she still desired to do so.
Eleanor arched up against her as Marian rubbed her harder and faster. Since her arms and legs were chained down to the platform, Eleanor could do nothing but lie there and drown in the sensations of her body. Marian slipped a finger inside of her then and Eleanor let out a loud cry, her hips thrusting up against the fingers that now penetrated her.
“Yes, yes, please!” Eleanor tossed her head from side to side as the pleasure and exquisite reciprocating pain flowed through her body in wave after wave.
Marian then shifted herself down between Eleanor’s spread legs. The nurse seemed to have fully committed herself to this dark path, as there was no hesitation. She lovingly spread Eleanor’s pink folds open with her hands and gazed at the swollen, wet flesh. At the sight, a lustful smile played upon her lips, and she fell upon Eleanor, almost like a wolf falling upon its prey.
With her fingers still buried deeply inside Eleanor, she bent her head and began to use her tongue on that swollen center of pleasure above her opening, lapping up Eleanor’s arousal eagerly. She moaned against the other woman’s flesh, her lips and tongue working frantically, sucking, licking then even biting, bringing Eleanor to greater and greater heights of both intense pain and pleasure.
When Eleanor thought she could take no more of either pleasure or pain, and she felt the inevitable crescendo building, Marian abruptly stopped her onslaught. Eleanor cried out in dismay.
“Please!” she begged, her eyes on Blackwood as he approached the platform. “Please, I need release.”
“And you shall have it, my dear Dr. Ashcroft, but not quite yet.” Blackwood smiled at her, his cool hand stroking Eleanor’s flushed cheek.
As he pulled back from her, Blackwood allowed his hand to trail down Eleanor’s neck and then her breast, his fingers lingering on her hard nipple. He gave it a light pinch, chuckling at the moan it elicited from her.
Frye stepped forward next, his muscular body taunt and tense as he looked down on her. A mixture of shame and desire seemed at war within him, his large hands clenched into fists as he approached the platform.
