Page 36 of Iblis' Affliction
“You just said it…”
“Ohhh… Yeah…” Talha rubbed his tired eye, looking at Slater with only the left one open. “I don’t have the right to kill you, because I don’t think you have ever had a choice about what you became… Some bastard stole your life and made you… this.” He pointed at Slater. “Death with an angel face. I wish I know who did this to you. All those scars… I wonder if you have ever been treated normally? How can I kill someone who had never been given a chance to live a normal life? You could have a beautiful wife, lots of kids, you know?”
“Slater doesn’t like women or kids.” A weird expression crossed Slater’s face. Talha’s drunken mind was unable to identify it. But it looked like a twisted amusement.
“A man? Whatever, I don’t wanna know…” Talha shook his head. “Tonight, when I’ve been with Aylín, I finally realized why I met you. Because I’m the only one who is right for you. Not a sick psycho who tells you to slaughter women and children, not some sick sadist who enjoys doing this…” He stretched out his hand and tugged down the collar of Slater’s gray t-shirt, having a glimpse at the white rash of old cigarette burns. “You need to be given a chance. And, maybe, for everything I’ve done, I have to pay. You are my punishment, my curse because I’m not sure you will ever appreciate what I offer you. However, I have decided to try anyway… as long as you give me the chance.”
Slater opened his mouth, then closed it. Licking his lips, he swallowed. With his eyes glossy and deep, decorated with long black lashes Slater looked young.Too young to be a monster.This could have been Ejder…
“Go and sleep, Slater. Master is tired.”
“Slater stays here…” A hoarse voice lacked the liquid intonation, but Talha was too tired to look for a meaning in it.
“Whatever you please.” He flicked his wrist in the air again, and closed his eyes, welcoming the heavy wave of sleep.
That night, Talha dreamed about Slater tugging off his pants, then his trunks. Face red, he positioned himself between Talha’s legs and commented, “You reek of a woman…”
“Sorry, I’ll take a shower.” Talha frowned, tried to get up, but Slater’s strong hand, pressing against his chest, pinned him down.
“It’s okay, Master. Slater doesn’t mind.”
Then Talha dreamed about the hot softness of Slater’s mouth and a sweet tingling sensation in his groin, foretelling his building orgasm. Slater, suddenly naked, straddled him. Moving his hips, he lowered himself over Talha’s length with a painful hiss.
Talha forgot how to breathe, mesmerized, as every muscle in Slater’s body, following silent music, moved in a wild rhythm of an entrancing dance. Unable to tear his gaze away, he drunk Slater in. He seized strong hips. The flesh under his fingers whitened as his tongue buzzed with a desire to lean closer and taste Slater’s sultry skin.
Face red, lips parted, Slater slanted to the side, grabbed a cigarette pack and a lighter. Talha couldn’t say where they came from as he didn’t smoke cigarettes, but as in any dream, events didn’t have to be logical. Slater sucked in acrid smoke, held it inside, and a bliss relaxed his facial muscles. His nostrils emitted a heavy rush of smoke, and Talha couldn’t help but joke, “I thought Iblis was made of smokeless fire.”
Slater chuckled, looking down at him with something similar to affection. His lips stretched in a wicked smile, and the mood changed. Grabbing Talha’s hand, Slater shoved a cigarette between Talha’s fingers, then guided his hand toward his chest, crushing the smoldering tip against his own skin.
“No, what are you doing?” Talha cringed as his chest contracted with empathic pain.
“It’s okay. Master misunderstood. Slater wants it. Slater loves it.”
Talha tried to tear his hand away, but Slater’s iron grip held his hand until the skin sizzled.
Gathering all his strength, Talha forced his hand out of Slater’s grip and crushed the cigarette in his fist. The dream changed its course once again, and now he was holding Slater’s body in his arms, kissing and licking the salty burn, until the darkness swallowed them both.
TALHA JERKED UPRIGHT,gasping for air. The unsettling sound and the disgusting smell of burning skin wrenched his stomach.
“Fuck this dream…” he breathed the exact moment the door to his room flew open, and Ejder’s face whitened.
“Abi? What the hell is going on?”
Following his gaze, Talha faced the other side of his bed, where the naked frame of Slater sprawled on the crumpled linens. Slowly, as if still in a dream, Talha raised his palm where the cigarette burn marked his skin. “Fuck my life…”
“I SAID, I DON’T KNOWhow it happened!” Talha snapped at Ejder. Sitting on a brown and white cowhide sofa, Talha shoved a morning paper off a dark wood coffee table to the black wooden floor. Grabbing a jar of weed from the shelf behind his back, he hurriedly rolled up a joint dying with the need to calm his nerves. “Anyway, I don’t want to talk about it. It was a drunken mistake and will not happen again.”
He shook his head, thrusting the thoughts about last night out of his mind, but gut-wrenching nausea clutched his stomach.
“Ugh, fuck. I’m gonna puke…” he groaned, clasping his mouth with his free hand then demanded, “Give me something! My head is killing me.”
“Is Master unwell?” Talha cringed as Slater’s voice scratched his ears. He hadn’t heard the door to his office open, and still naked, Slater made his way in.
Talha’s eyes fixed on the round, angry-red burn glowing on Slater’s chest, then slipped down to the red soaked bandage and the blue bruises from his grip that decorated Slater’s hips. Guilt, regret, confusion, and anger joined in a soul-destroying conflagration. Unable to deal with it, he pointed to the door. “You. Get the fuck out and stay in the bedroom, or I swear to God, I’ll kill you! I don’t know what happened last night, but I don’t want to discuss it. Is it clear?”
“Is Master mad?” Slater cocked his head.
“Mad? I’m fucking furious!”
