Author's Note: As usual, thank you for any comments or feedback. This is a completely unedited chapter, so there are probably more than the usual amount of mistakes. Like the last one, this has some non-con elements to it.
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I woke swinging from the hook in Asher's room, and the scene was much the same as it had been over the last year or so. I couldn't remember how long ago it had been when Chaz started sending me to him, but I knew he paid a lot to have me once or twice a week. The white tile was stained with my blood, and I had seen it often enough that it had stopped terrifying me. My body was a web of welts and deeper cuts from the whip in Asher's hand, and I must have passed out at some point because I didn't remember him stopping.
"You've lasted so long, Jezza," I hated the way he said my name, as though I were a beloved partner instead of a punching bag. "I have to cover it up before I take you back, but I wish Chaz could see what true art this was painted across your body. He never did have the stomach for what we do together."
The hook lowered and my legs wouldn't hold my weight so I tumbled to the floor. My shoulders hurt, but it was a pain I had grown accustomed to. It didn't matter if I couldn't walk because Asher was there, healing me enough to walk and then doing something that covered up what he had done. This was the worst he had done so far, but I could still see the fading bruises from the last session a few days before until his power washed over me and even those marks disappeared. He had done this week after week, and my power never once rose up against him. Sure, it helped me to get some pleasure out of what he did to me but I had stopped trying to use it against him. Every time we had sex now my power would wake, his eyes would glow, and I would get the feeling that I was almost there. Where, I didn't know, but the feeling kept getting stronger and stronger.
Asher lifted me to my feet and I was able to walk behind him to the door and out into the glaring sunlight to his car. How dare the world be bright and happy while this happened? My skin rubbed painfully over the scratchy cloth seats of the classic muscle car Asher had chosen to drive today.
We turned into the driveway to Chaz's and I realized I must have passed out again because I didn't remember any of the scenery or the city that we drove past. Asher did his usual stop in front of the house, the tires throwing gravel all over the place, and I made a mental note to apologize to Ferrel for it since he was the one who had to rake the gravel back into place. I knew and he knew that I couldn't do anything about it, but it was because of me that he had that extra chore. The door opened and I all but fell out of the car before Asher leaned over and pulled it shut behind me. I almost didn't move fast enough to get out of the way of the tires as he took off. As it was I was pelted with small rocks and dirt.
Ferrel was at the door and he helped me get to the attic without a word. Sophia and Kenzie - who had finally come around to admitting that I really did have it worse than her - helped me with the shower and into bed, and Kelsey slipped the newest package from Asher into the trunk with all the rest that I would never open. It registered that there was a new girl on the bed that had been empty, but I had a moment to think that I knew she was transient before sleep took me.
The next morning, Sophia helped me get to the top of the stairs before she left me to make my way down on my own. We had learned that Chaz did not like for us to help each other make it to muster, and my foot hit the bottom stair as the clock struck six. I just sank down onto the stairs while he frowned at me and dismissed the others before jerking me to my feet with a hand in my hair and all bu dragging me to his office.
"You were late," he said, dropping me near where the hook hung so he could get the cuffs. I said nothing and thought nothing, and this didn't seem to make him any happier. I couldn't win for losing. He closed the cuffs over my wrists and had gotten the hook to raise me to my knees when his phone rang. He cursed, but thankfully the hook stopped rising.
"What are you talking about? Yes," he was getting angrier by the moment and I had a feeling he was going to take it out on me. "I've been trying to get hold of Bane for months now. Why is he just now calling me back? Tell him to come next week, that's the earliest I have time to see him." He slammed the phone back into its cradle and I spared a thought to how odd it was to see a functioning rotary phone next to a high-end laptop on a desk that predated the inventions of either machine. Funny how that had never struck me before.
"Why were you late, girl?"
"Asher wore me out yesterday, sir, and I am very sore."
His hand pressed into my stomach and I groaned at the knotting pain that formed there. He walked around me trailing his hand across my side and I could feel the blood running over my hip. There was a time, I'm sure that this would have made me scream. Now I just hoped he would make me pass out and leave me alone. Then he hit one of the welts Asher had covered up, and I let out a muffled scream.
Suddenly, the hook came down and I crashed to the floor at his feet, holding my side and feeling my hands getting slick with my own blood. It wasn't the first time he had done that, but I failed the test when I just let myself fall. I should have tried to catch myself, I thought as he raised me with the hook again until I swung in front of him. This time the touch of his hand on my thigh made me scream, and try to pull away from him.
"I trust you won't be late again due to being sore?" his hand moved up my thigh and over my other hip and I whimpered.
"I won't be late again, sir," my voice was hoarse.
"Good girl," he lowered the hook until my feet touched the floor and I held my own weight. "Larian is in the blue room. Go to him, but leave your uniform here."
The blue room was as badly decorated as the yellow room, but at least it fit my mood better. What didn't fit was that Chaz had put the largest man I had ever met in the smallest room in his house. Larian sat on the bed and just looked uncomfortable. He grimaced when he saw me standing in the door, but held a hand out to me anyway.
His power washed over me and the pain faded, and unlike the first time he had done this I didn't try to jump him. I never thought I would have missed seeing a demon until I realized that Larian wouldn't just show up after I had been with Asher each time. For the first time, I hugged him and my power didn't rise to feed or fuck. I only protested a little bit when he stood and set me on the bed before turning to take his clothes off, but he left his shorts on and then climbed in behind me. His deep voice caressed my spine through his chest as he spoke in a language I didn't recognize, and then I was blissfully and dreamlessly asleep.
I woke with a very large hand on my hip and a very happy man behind me.
"Not so happy, actually," Larian's voice rumbled across my back. "But I can't help what happens naturally after I sleep for a while."
"I'm sorry," I whispered, turning to face him. "I didn't mean..."
"I know what you meant, child," he smiled, which was something I didn't think he did too often. I jumped when there was a loud knock on the door that Larian went to answer. He wasn't shy about opening the door far enough for whoever had knocked to get an eyeful, either. When he returned to the bed he only sat next to me instead of climbing back in, though. "You needed the sleep, child, and I was happy to pay for it to keep you from completely withdrawing into yourself, but I won't be able to stop him if he comes looking for you again. And I fed your power in your sleep," he held his hand up when I was about to ask how he had pulled that off. "You don't always need to have sex to feed your power, Jezza. It makes it easier, but it's not required. Chaz has made another contract with Asher to take you for the night. I won't be here when you get back."
"I..." I broke off before I voiced a thought. "Thank you, Larian." I sat up and kissed him, letting him know just how much it meant to me that he had given me a day of sleep that wasn't filled with pain and dreams of Asher. He pulled me onto his lap sideways and the kiss deepened just as the door opened.
