Dahlia's Kiss

WATCHING

He tookme into a different room then before. This one was outfitted with a wall of screens from cameras located in the house and on the property outside. They were all high definition color screens, turning the night into day with their crystal-clear resolution. There was a cot against the wall and a small folding chair before the surveillance monitors. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t see, and I realized, every time we’d had sex, we were in a place that could be seen and recorded. Even the large bathtub stood out prominently on its own screen.

“You are a psychopath,” I whispered.

He looked at me with a devilish smirk. “This is nothing. I have them at work too. They are just in places you wouldn’t look for them. How do you think I knew you were fucking CeeCee? I know you wiped her memories of it each time. She might have forgotten, but I didn’t. That’s why she died.”

I was repelled by his depravity. “You’re a sick fuck! I had to feed, Drake! I couldn’t just not have sex. It’s not like I did it for fun.”

“But you had me!” he screamed, lunging for me. His hand twisted around my throat, tilting my face towards his at a painful angle. “After the first time you crawled under my desk and took my dick into your mouth, you should have felt the tie that bound us. Humans shouldn’t have had any further interest to you. You were just too wrapped up in fucking to see it was there. This is your fault. Everyone died because of you!”

“Stop it!” I screamed, twisting out of his grip. “I didn’t feel anything between us because there is nothing there! It’s all in your mind, Drake! You’re not my chosen mate. If you were, we would both feel it!”

“You’re wrong!” His voice ricocheted off the stone walls. Grabbing the edge of the metal chair, he tossed it across the room. Rock and mortar crumbled to the floor beneath where it crashed.

I shook my head slowly. “I’m not wrong. There is a mate out there somewhere for you, but it is not me. You’ve done all this for nothing. No one you killed had to die. You were so desperate for it to be true that you tried to force it into reality. It’s a beautiful thing when you find your mate. Does this feel like bliss to you? Do I look happy?”

He grabbed my hands and yanked my body against his. “You will be. When the other Incubi are dead, when their hold on you has withered, you’ll be happy. You’ll be so glad I did this for you. You’ll never stop thanking me for freeing you from them.” His smile sickened me. What happened to the calm and collected lawyer who could outsmart anyone in the room? Is this what happened when an Incubus lost his mind?

“What if I don’t?” I asked. “What if I’m never happy with you? What then?”

His expression fell to a blank canvas, devoid of anything I could read. “Then I’ll kill you. If you won’t be mine, you won’t be anyone’s. So, I suggest you give this the best shot you can. It’s the only card you have to play.”

Movement on the far screen caught my eye. I watched in my peripheral vision so as not to draw his attention to what I was seeing. Sterling was crouched, damn near crawling on the edge of the property with his weapon brandished before him. My heart hammered, ecstatic that they’d found me. On another screen, Damian came into view, and I wanted to leap for joy. When Cole’s face emerged on a third, I wanted to scream, ‘I’m here! Please! Save me!’ But I remained quiet. I couldn’t take the risk that Drake would see them.

“How could you kill your mate?” I slid over closer to him, smiling ever so slightly.

“Don’t play me. I’m not falling for that again.” Drake shoved me hard, and I stumbled. My ankle twisted beneath me, the pain roaring up my leg angrily. “Don’t pretend to love me. I’ll know when you really come around, and it won’t be until they are all dead. Now, I’m going to tie you up, and you’re going to stay here like a good girl. I have to go hunt. Not for sex, mind you, but for your make-believe suitors.” Drake’s eyes glowed with an effervescence I’d never seen before. He was well and truly mad. His eyelids were a little too wide, his jaw slightly slack. It wouldn’t have surprised me if he’d begun to drool.

“I don’t want to be tied up again!” I shouted as he started to turn to the monitors. “Please don’t tie me up!”

Drake grinned wildly. “You’ve already proved I can’t trust you, Dahlia. You’re not the delicate flower your name suggests. Although, you do have a lovely set of petals between your legs that I am itching to have in my mouth again. Perhaps once I kill your men, I’ll come fuck you while I’m still covered in their blood. How does that sound?”

Sterling inched closer to the door. If I could just hold him off for a little while longer, I could be rescued. Drake was unarmed, and even though I hated guns with a passion, I was elated to know that Sterling had his in his hand. I only hoped the crazy fucker met him before the other two. The thought of him hurting any of the three made my stomach clench in terror, but at least Sterling had a fighting chance.

“That sounds repugnant,” I said, trying to come up with the most appropriate word for the feelings it inspired in me.

“Perfect. That’s what we’ll aim for then.”

I reached out to grab him as he turned to face the screens, but I was too late. My hands remained suspended in the air as his body froze. His shoulders dropped and the muscles in his neck bunched. Turning back to me, his eyes were on fire with rage.

“How the fuck did they know to look for you here?” He grabbed my shoulders and shook me. My head slung forward and back as if I was on a rollercoaster. “How do they know where I live? What do they know?”

My teeth hit together in my mouth. I bit my tongue and tasted my own blood inside my mouth. But I couldn’t help but to smile. There was no way he could prepare for everything. Some things were just out of his control. My men were three of those things. They were tenacious, and good where he was just plain crazy. I met his eyes and felt my satisfaction spread to my features. Even if he killed me now, I would still win, because they would kill him. I would be vindicated.

Drake reclaimed the chair he’d thrown and forced me into it. The ropes were reapplied with lightning speed. They were tighter than before, and my skin burned where they rested, cutting into me like razor blades. “It’s so tight!” I screamed.

“Shut the fuck up.” He pulled the last strap tighter, and I breathed heavily through my pain. “Tell me how they knew where you were. Tell the truth and maybe I’ll loosen these a little.” He tried to get a finger under the rope on my right arm and failed. There was just no give in its length.

He pulled the end hard.

“My cell phone!” I screamed. “There is a tracking device on my phone. Sterling installed it so he could find me if anything happened.”

Drake backed away from me with his fingers on his chin. “Clever cop,” he said. “I should have destroyed that damn thing when I first brought you down here. Guess I have to take the blame for that little fuck up.”

“Please,” I pleaded. “Loosen these ropes. They’re cutting off my circulation!”

“Sorry, baby.” He turned and headed toward the steps. “I can’t take any chances at you wiggling out of those and getting yourself hurt. Now you stay here like a good girl while I go defend our castle. Oh, here. I almost forgot.”

He walked back to me and dragged my chair in a half circle so I could see the screens in their full glory.

“I wouldn’t want you to miss the show. I want you to see every one of their deaths. It will help break the ties you think you have for them to watch them die.” He smiled before walking away again.

I spit in his direction. “I hate you, Drake Sullivan! I will never love you! No matter what! I will tell you till the day you die what a monster I think you are!”

Before mounting the stairs, he retrieved a parcel hidden in the darkness behind the risers. Unfolding the black fabric in his hands, he produced a nine-millimeter handgun, and my breath froze in my throat. I couldn’t help but to weep. He would get the drop on them. They would never see him coming in his own house, and I would have to watch each of the men I loved die by his hand. How awful was it, that I realized I did, in fact, love each and every one of them the moment I knew they were going to die? If only I had told them sooner.

The key was audible in the lock as he made sure no one could get to me. His footfalls were silent. I wanted to scream for help, but I didn’t want them to be distracted by my sounds. If they were focused on me, they would fall to him. I needed them to pay attention to their surroundings.

On the screens in front of me, I saw the men breach the perimeter, each through a different door. Damian broke the lock on the sliding glass and entered that way, finding his way to a main hallway. All the lights were off, but I could see them clearly through the cameras. Drake was waiting around a corner. He knew Damian was there. I screamed for him to watch out as he passed the madman, but he couldn’t hear me.

The butt of Drake’s gun came down hard on the other man’s head and I watched him collapse to the floor. Careful not to make a lot of noise and draw the others to where he was, he dragged Damian’s unconscious body to a closet and locked him in. I was grateful he didn’t shoot him, but I could see the trail of blood on the screen. He would be lucky if he didn’t bleed out from the head wound.

“Oh, Damian,” I cried. “My sweet, Damian. Please be okay.” I squeezed my eyes closed from the horrors unfolding.