Daughter of Nyx (Book Three)

Chapter Two

Draven's eyes traveled the length of the scar over her abdomen. She longed to cover it, but the chains held her arms tight.

"What happened?" he asked, running the tip of the whip handle along the puckered flesh.

"Monsters," she breathed through her fear.

He hadn't done anything yet, simply walked around her nude form. But every touch of his eyes felt like a blow.

"That's who did it, not what happened."

"I can't—"

He was fast and she sucked in a breath at the burning line that ran the length of her back as she twisted in her bindings.

"I asked you a question." He stepped back in front of her and she slowly exhaled.

"Why answer when this is what you want to do anyway?"

He disappeared and this time, there were two strikes. She bit off a cry as her flesh tried to crawl off her body, her back bowing, as if trying to ease the fire.

"I didn't expect to start like this. I was going to work up to it. But while you belong to me, you will answer me. You will do as I say. Or fight and I will enjoy it more."

She looked up at him. "It's going to end in blood. Had I known you wanted to make conversation, I would have negotiated it out."

"As you wish."

This time, the line appeared down her chest and abdomen. Her fingers gripped the chains, pulling in an effort to get away. Before she could breathe, another lit up her nerves, then another. The last one drawing a thin line of warmth.

"Christ," he said and as she forced an eye open, she watched as he reached out and ran a finger through her blood.

Lightening fast, three more lashes hit her, this time down her back and the chains sang as she twisted frantically, trying to escape the blows. Her breath stopped as she trembled from the torment and fought the screams.

"Come, my little darkness, let me hear you."

She couldn't look at him. Could barely focus through the flames in her skin. There was another cut, this time on her back.

"No," she whispered.

His fingers touched her chin, forcing her head up. Opening her eyes to slits, she found him smiling.

"Then, keep fighting, by all means."

The blows came as she dropped her head, one after another in a slow, methodical pattern and she lost her fight. She twitched and twisted, trying to get away from the thin piece of leather that was destroying her. Her voice betrayed her, breaking as she called out useless words. Stop, stop, fucking stop, red, red, red. But this wasn't that relationship and they grew heavier, faster and he got what he wanted.

Her knees buckled and the weight pulled at her arms and her back bowed and she screamed her anguish into the room. Still the thin leather fell and she watched as her blood dripped onto the ground. The edges of her vision grew hazy and she no longer had the energy to fight.

The leather stopped and he knelt in front of her. "Still no tears."

She couldn't speak. Couldn't ask why it mattered that she cried when it was the screams he wanted. The screams he got. She blinked the sweat out of her eyes and found his wrist in front of her.

"Drink," he said and she shook her head.

"No," she whispered, the darkness growing.

Watching his blood hit the earth beside hers, she sighed as she fell into the black.