She watched, entranced, as one of the
smaller cuts closed, the flesh binding by invisible needles. Jamie
wished she could deny that she had known in the back of her mind
that he was different, that he could be like Auro and Lyne. Earlier
she had watched the wounds mend themselves, but she was closer, the
lighting was better, and his skin was clear of dirt and
blood.
Her chest tightened. Dipping the cloth
into the tub, feeling it soak up warm water, she brought the thing
to his shoulder and began dabbing. The blood had spread because of
the water, but she cleaned around it before getting to the actual
wound. Jamie wondered if he could feel her trembling hand. Hell,
she wondered if he could feel anything.
Talon barred his teeth at the wall,
jaw clenching as the pain in his arm amplified. He almost reached
around and tore her hair out, but he knew how frightened she
already was. He shouldn’t care, he told himself. He shouldn’t give
a rats ass if she was about to piss herself because of
him.
But he did.
Her soft hands, running smoothly along
his back and his arm, had him squeezing himself against the side of
the tub. He was desperate. To get away, to get closer, to turn to
her, to turn away from her. Talon’s chest constricted painfully.
Nothing he could do. Nothing he could say.
“
Talon?” she asked, a mere
whisper. Despite the lighting, bright and consuming, their
proximity made it feel like it was dark, enclosed,
comfortable.
He hesitated before answer, his voice
nothing but a coarse scratch against his throat, his ears, even her
ears. “Jamie.” Just saying her name was a blessing. It calmed,
healed, made the pain durable. Her innocent hands lessened their
pressure, before moving to his neck.
“
It might be too much to
ask — hell, it might even be too much for you,” she said with a
bitter snort, her hands pausing on his neck.
“
What is it.” He couldn’t
force himself to say it as a question, Asking for something would
make him feel weak, even weaker than he felt at not behind able to
form a coherent question.
“
We need to escape,” she
said quietly, the trembling in her fingers returning. For a second,
it had stopped, not now she shuddered behind him as if a breeze was
in the room. Talon almost turned to look at her, to stare at her in
disbelief.
He said nothing.
“
Talon,” she said, her
voice beseeching. Her fingers wrapped around his throat, seemingly
unconscious of her actions. The warmth of her fingers seared
him.
Talon’s lip curled as he wrenched
himself from her grip. Familiar torment ran through him as he
remembered the helplessness of Auro’s hand around his neck so many
times before, of Lyne continuing the torture while he struggled to
breath.
Jamie let out a high pitched gasp. He
looked back at her sharply, eyes blazing, to see her leaning
against the wall, legs drawn up and arms around her knees. He felt
his heart turn over, the anger dimming only slightly.
“
You think I haven’t
tried?” he growled, jerking into a sitting position. He ignored her
roaming eyes, ignored the becoming blush that settled on her pale
face. “You think I haven’t tried, haven’t gotten beaten for my
attempts? What would you do if they caught you — the torture they
plan for you would be ten times as worse.”
Water flew from his hand as it lashed
out, the slicing motion igniting fear into her already pale face.
He rose to his feet, uncaring of his nakedness. “Stupid woman. They
would only get us again,” he snarled, the vicious sound ringing
through the room. “I don’t think you want to feel their hands on
your skin any more than I do.”
Jamie’s only reaction was a stiff nod,
her face lined with fear. When he stepped from the tub, the
trembling of his knees was absent. A flash of relief ran through
him when he realized he was not as weak as before. He forced
himself to ignore the glazed eyes that stared past his head, forced
himself to ignore the slow slide of the tear as it fell down her
face.
His movements were angry as he jerked
the towel around his glistening form. The scars bothered him
minimally — he was more concerned about finding clothes to wear. He
gestured to her with an abrupt wave of his hand.
“Clothes.”
Jamie knew what he meant, but shook
her head. Bitterness ran through her as he realized he didn’t want
to help her escape, let alone speak to her. “I had these on when
they took me.” She stood, hand pausing on the lock.
Her voice held a world of pain. “We
could help each other...”
Talon roared, lashing out
at the counter. “
Get
out
!” His chest heaved, helpless fury
running through him.
The door slammed behind
him.
Jamie was foolish, still
young enough to have a child’s dreams. Hearing talk of escape,
of
help
, almost
had him attacking her. Would she not realize that they were damned?
His snarl ripped through the air, more animal than human. His
shoulders tensed.
He tried to calm his breathing. She
had taken care of him, had tried to help him get better despite her
fear of him. He realized that she had only done that to help
herself. Hurt flashed through him, then cold fury. It was as slick
as ice as it slid through him, around him, inside of him. He wasn’t
made to be cared for, and he would accept nothing that Jamie had to
offer him.
Talon stayed in the bathroom, steeling
himself against her. The woman was weak, incompetent, needy. A
woman was meant to be used and discarded, and Jamie was no
different. If that was what Auro and Lyne wanted in return for his
freedom...
Then that’s exactly what
they’ll get.
Chapter 7
“
Auro.”
The bastard had incredibly sharp
hearing, almost as good as Talon’s. It was just a whisper, a soft
calling of his name. He knew he didn’t have to wait long before the
man would show up.
Although he answered to no
one, Talon knew he would come. Because his “pet” had called him,
because he never spoke a word to them, because it was
his call
. Jamie was in
the room, her light breathing barely audible. The rapid pulse of
her heart filled the room, filled
him
. She was asleep, blissfully
unaware of the door opening.
Talon refused to open it for Auro. The
man had caused him enough pain over the months, and now that he had
a sliver of freedom he refused to bow before him. The collar, while
in the bathtub, had blissfully been gone. The strange magic the
thing held angered him, because he knew no one other than Auro and
Lyne could see it. Jamie would have known and would have tried to
take it off of him, if she had been able to see it.
Soft creaks of the bathroom door
opening had him turning, had his gut clenching. He almost puked,
almost attacked, almost killed him.
But he couldn’t, not yet. He wasn’t
strong enough, wasn’t capable of taking down Auro and then Lyne,
once the brother found out that his dear sibling was
dead.
The sneer that Auro gave him was
chilling, disgusting. A deranged scent coming from him had Talon
almost gagging.
“
My brother and I were
busy,” he sneered, stepping farther into the room. The door closed
behind him.
Talon was grateful that Jamie had
fallen asleep. It had seemed like hours before he had been able to
calm down enough to call on Auro. He wanted to rip at his head,
wanted to feel the sticky blood of his enemy running through his
hand, but knew that he couldn’t.
He said nothing in response to Auro’s
words. He felt sick as he realized what the scent coming from him
was. Talon turned to look at him fully, tightening the towel around
his waist. Still, he said nothing.
“
That woman is lucky,” Auro
suddenly snapped, the silence of Talon getting to him.
He merely raised a brow, leaning
against the counter, folding his arms over his chest. He no longer
felt like vomiting, but he barely restrained from coldcocking
him.
“
Will you say nothing to
me? You took my from my brothers embrace. I had thought you would
be ready to —”
“
What, exactly, do you want
Jamie and I to do?”
The question drew Auro up short. Talon
took the moment to guard himself against the smell of sex,
revulsion making the hair on the back of his neck stand. He stared
at Auro, taking in his appearance.
He had his familiar dark garb on, his
shirt was unbuttoned partially at the top, and his feet were bare.
They really must have been at it, he thought with a curl of his
lip. Not once had he seen Auro even partially
disheveled.
Red marks shown beneath the shirt, the
imprints clearly claws.
“
I told you,
and
the woman, what you
must do. What more is there to explain?” he asked, cautiously. He
placed himself in front of the mirror, pale hands nimbly picking at
his buttons and placing them inside the small holes. The damning
red marks disappeared, hidden by the dark silk of his
shirt.
Talon stared at him. It felt natural,
but so natural that it was almost unreal, a dream almost. His nails
dug into his biceps, reveling in the pain. “What happens when I
fuck her?”
The blunt question seemed to have
startled Auro. Then his lips pressed tightly, his crimson eyes
staring at Talon through the mirror. “I don’t reserve the right to
tell you.”
Talon’s eyes flashed. A dark brow
rose. “So, someone is above you.” He knew the statement would make
Auro angry, and that’s exactly what it did. Auro turned on him, his
eyes like fire and teeth like daggers.
“
I take orders from no one!
This is between my brother and you. I refuse to tell someone so
lower than me as you about his plans. To do so would sully all he
has worked for,” he spat, his hand curling.
Talon waited for the slap, for the
sting. His hackles rose, knowing that if Auro laid a hand on him,
it would be ripped off...just like the rest of his limbs. Talon’s
teeth flashed, snarling. “I will not touch her —”
“
You will —”
He held up a hand, snarling, “Unless I
am freed.”
Auro’s eyes held an indecision that
made Talon feel like there might be hope. He unclenched his hands
and set them on the counter, the setting so unreal between them
that it almost made him believe it was a dream, once
again.
Talon saw an unreadable look come into
Auro’s eyes. Then his lips curled into a sneer. “And what about the
woman —”
“
I could care less. Do with
her what you will,” he said, waving a large hand. The color on his
neck seemed so heavy, it was like the world was weighing on him. It
was a cruel reminder that he could do nothing to Auro.
The shock was quickly hidden by
malice. Auro’s hands clasped in front of him. Talon stared at them,
his arm pulsing. “Anything?”
Talon shrugged, ignoring the itchy
feeling in his throat. “I will be free. She will be no use to me at
all.”
“
The price of you
leaving...” Auro looked at him, a calm facade covering his face.
“Alright. You may be free after coupling with her — but you will
watch her die before I allow you to leave. Lyne will not know of
this,” he said, lip curling dangerously.
Talon shrugged. “Seeing her
demise would be no bother to me.”
Liar
.
“
You know the ways of
wooing a woman, I presume?” Auro asked, changing the subject. He
saw the guarded look in Talon’s eyes. He scoffed. “How do you plan
to take her if you cannot woo her? My pet, this would go with much
more ease if you did not force her...”
He paused for a second, looking at
Talon through the mirror, considering. “If you had more strength,
though, you could overcome her weakness and take her...”
Talon may be a murderer, he
may be a traitor, he may be whatever Lyne sneered at him, but he
was
not
a rapist.
The woman meant nothing to him, and taking her body would not
change that. He refused to take an unwilling woman.
“
I understand that you are
a barbarian. But if you wish to be free, then put on a mask.
Pretend that you are someone else. Convince her that you —” he
sneered — “love her, or at the most care for her. The sooner you
take her, the sooner you will be rid of her,
and
us.”
The promise of freedom was too much
for Talon to pass up. Jamie was nothing but a pawn, a piece in a
dangerous game. She would not be a loss to him.
Auro’s smile made his back
stiffen.
“
You have until tomorrow
night to make this happen.” He left like a phantom, his words a
whisper against his conscious, his presence as non-existent as a
ghost. The air was colder, or at least it seemed like that. Talon
slammed his fist on the counter, a great rush falling off his
chest.
He slid to the ground, head light. If
he weren’t trying so hard to keep his eyes dry, he would have
sobbed with relief. He would be free --but with a price.