Ember Ch. 05

He'd almost lost her. Again. She was never getting out of his sight for the rest of her life. And when the bond was complete, that was going to be a long, long time.

He shut off the water, reached for a towel, and gently patted her dry. Releasing the manacle chain, he sat with her on his lap as he combed her hair free of tangles, carried her to bed, and tucked her in. He pressed the manacle chain into the wall, securing her to the bed, but leaving enough chain so she could move around, and kept watch over her as she slept.

"I see you still think you can strip me whenever you want to," Ember said acidly when she woke to find herself naked and in his bed again.

"Yes, I do." Stryx tugged on the covers until they fell away and Ember was bare before him. He crawled onto the bed and up her body. When she tried to deny him access to her body and close her legs he simply lay between them.

Placing his mouth at the juncture of her thigh and body he bit, injecting her with the venom he'd had building up. The relief he felt as he sent his venom flowing into her was almost as good as being inside her.

She panted and writhed, but he held her in place, and when she stilled, he lowered his mouth to her sex. She was already wet for him but he needed her wetter for what he planned to do. Her initial sounds of protest quickly turned into begrudging sounds of pleasure as he worked his tongue and lips against her, only teasing, refusing to give her satisfaction yet.

He drove her to near orgasm again and again, stopping every time she moved and telling her to settle, reinforcing she would only get what she wanted when she did what he said. He moved his mouth back and forth between her thigh and her sex, alternately pleasuring her and injecting her with more venom.

"You are back where you belong." Stryx crawled up her body. "In my bed and under me. You will learn to obey, and when you do I will give you what you need. Nothing has changed."

Ember had lost track of the number of times she had almost had an orgasm. She balled her hands together in one big fist and lashed out at him. She struck him in the face, hard, shocking both of them. His head was knocked to the side, and when he turned his face back to her, she was looking up into a terrifying visage of Stryx.

His fang had cut deep into his bottom lip which bled freely. His eyes were a darker black than she'd ever seen them before. She had always thought looking into his black eyes was like looking into the night. Now, though, she was looking into an abyss. An abyss where a monster lived. And the monster was looking back at her. "I'm sorry, I—"

He cut off her words by sealing his mouth over hers. She tasted herself and his blood as he plundered her mouth ruthlessly. Abruptly, he pulled away from her, and flipped her onto her stomach. Before she thought to get away, he was on her again.

He ran his hands over her ass, spreading her open. No one had ever fucked her ass before, and she didn't want that now. She fought to her knees and scrambled forward, but there was no escape. She was manacled, and the headboard and a wall we directly in front of her.

He pounced, slamming himself into her pussy instead of her ass. Ember screamed as she took all of him all at once. She was wet enough, he'd seen to that, but as deep as he'd been in her before, with her on her knees and him behind her, he went much deeper now. He growled in satisfaction as he took her from behind, holding her in place, head down with a heavy hand on her neck.

"You wanted to leave me. You put yourself in danger."

In her position, Ember could only take what he did to her and she understood this was punishment, whether it was for leaving him, striking him, or both she wasn't sure. She grunted on the harder impacts of his hips against her, and panted as she felt an orgasm coming.

He didn't even seem to notice as she came for him, keeping his brutal pace. This was not the playfully aggressive lover she had always had before. This new lover made her nervous, and yet she did not feel unsafe. She knew he wouldn't hurt her, not like the mage had, but he was not being gentle. She would have bruises from this. She was scared. Not of him, but of herself. She wanted him to be even rougher with her.

His grip on her neck tightened, and he yanked her up so her back was against his chest. Her flailing arms found the wall in front of them, and she placed her palms against it. Stryx drove himself into her harder, using both his hands to pull her hips back against him as he thrust forward.

Ember wanted to touch him, and tried to reach for him. Annoyed, Stryx reached for her wrists and pressed her manacles to the wall. The chain disappeared, and Ember's wrists were pinned directly in place. Grunting in satisfaction, Stryx turned brutal in his thrusts. Ember pushed back against him, but he snarled in her ear.

His hands moved possessively over her body. He touched her everywhere, marking her as his, even if there was no physical mark left behind. His message was clear—she belonged to him.

Eventually his anger seemed to abate, and he slowed his pace. Yanking on her manacles he pulled out of her and threw her onto her back. Tangling a hand in her hair, he put his mouth next to her ear. Roughly parting her legs he lined his cock up with her sex and pushed in, slowly this time. This was now for claiming, not punishment.

He caught her gaze and held her captive with his eyes. "You belong with me. Deny it," he dared her as he filled her.

When she didn't, he rewarded her cupping a breast and lightly pinching her nipple.

He pulled out almost all the way. "You will never have another. Deny it," he ordered as he thrust into her.

When she didn't, he slid his hand to her sex, fingering her where she split and stretched to take him before moving to her clit and rubbing in gentle circles.

"You have never felt like this before. Deny it."

When she didn't, he released her breast, and tangled his hand in her hair. "You are mine. Deny it."

When she didn't, he bit her neck, injecting her with venom.

She felt him sucking on her neck. He was feeding, taking deep pulls of her blood that she felt all the way down to her toes. He fingered her clit harder and faster until she came for him. A long, tortured moan escaped her lips before she thought to stop it.

She couldn't deny any of it. She wanted to deny the last one, and bristled at the thought of him treating her like property or not having her own free will, but she felt that argument was probably best made when he did not literally have his hands all over her, and she wasn't stuck to a wall.

So she didn't argue. She didn't struggle as he wrung another orgasms out of her. He yanked her head back. Her mouth opened against the shock and slight pain of her neck bending so far.

He pressed something to her mouth. His wrist, she realized. He'd bitten himself, and was pressing his bloody wrist to her mouth. It was a deep wound, and the blood poured freely. He kept a tight grip in her hair, keeping her head still, and with her wrists manacled to the wall, and him above and still inside her, she could only make a whining sound in protest.

"Swallow it," he commanded her as he pressed his wrist harder against her mouth. "It's time to finish the bonding between us. You will always be mine."

Ember avoided swallowing the blood, trying to push it back out of her mouth with her tongue until she remembered Serene had said the only way to be free was to let him complete the bond. Her mouth filled, and rather than being disgusted, she actually wanted the blood. She'd never tasted anything like it before, and now that she had, her body craved it.

She swallowed, and Stryx moaned in her ear.

"Suck," he ordered her in a hoarse voice, pulling his arm away from her slightly.

Ember closed her lips over the wound he'd made and ran her tongue over it. Stryx groaned and moved his hips again, sliding in and out of her in slow, deep, penetrating strokes. "Suck," he said again.

The wound was starting to close, and Ember wanted more blood. She used her teeth to tear at the wound to reopen it, and sucked hard. He shuddered as she drew his blood into her mouth and swallowed it in large mouthfuls. Ember leaned forward, pressing her mouth against him harder, tearing at the wound again. He groaned again and sped up his thrusts, driving himself deep into her.

"Enough," he said, trying to pull his wrist away from her. She growled at him.

"Enough," he said in a harsher voice. He yanked his arm away from her, used both hands to hold her hips in place, and went into a frenzy, bucking against her hard. He bit her neck again, and she clenched down on him, coming on his cock as he finally emptied himself into her. He fell heavily atop her, pinning her in place and resting his head in the crook of her neck as he licked up and down her throat, humming in pure satisfaction.

He released her manacles from the wall, and dragged her down onto the bed, curling himself around her. Ember knew this was not cuddling. This was possession, a way of him maintaining control over her. She lay perfectly still as he ran his hands over her, petting her like she was a cat and murmured things to her in a language she didn't understand.

The bond he'd used his blood to create between them asserted itself in her mind. The words he was murmuring to her translated themselves in her head. She could feel him, not just behind her, but all around her. She felt his smug satisfaction in knowing she would never leave him now. His need to protect her. His love for her. He loved her? He seriously needed to work on his communication skills. She felt him searching for the bond she already felt, and his fear that it hadn't already started forming.

Curious, she sent a tiny bit of her emotions toward him. She didn't even know how she did it, it was all instinct. She let him feel just the slightest bit of the resentment she felt towards him. He went still, and she felt his anxiety and puzzlement before he pulled her closer to him. His hands still roamed over her, but instead of possession, he was trying to offer reassurance.

Interesting.

She sent a little bit of contentment to him. She was feeling very satisfied and content at the moment, but she would not let him know that. He was already insufferably smug as things were. The moment he sensed that little bit of contentment from her, he relaxed, his relief almost audible to her in her head.

Very interesting.

When he relaxed, she felt how tired he was. She felt how scared and worried he'd been when he didn't know where she was. The rage he felt toward the mages that had hurt her and her sister. Her sister! She clamped down on the sudden need to find out how her sister was doing, and sent him massive amounts of feeling sleepy.

Stryx pressed a kiss to the back of her neck and murmured something about getting her something to eat. He pressed her manacles to the headboard, rose, dressed, and left the room.

**********

Stryx found Ciaran in the kitchen, and all the calm and reasonable he was trying to be left him in an instant. He stormed across the kitchen, grabbed Ciaran around the neck, and tossed him into the nearest wall. Before Ciaran could recover, Stryx was on him, sitting on his stomach as he rained blows down onto his face and chest. "You let her out!" he raged as he threw another punch. "You betrayed me!"

Boots pounded towards him. He knew on some level that when the footsteps reached him they would stop him, so he threw his punches faster, one after another, his fists a blur as they thudded into Ciaran.

Ciaran didn't even try to defend himself. His nose shattered, his ribs snapped. Dissatisfied Ciaran wasn't fighting back, Stryx hit him harder, wanting a fight. Then others were there, pulling Stryx off his prey.

"The boy didn't deserve that," Jael said, as he and Zeke dragged Stryx from Ciaran's still form. "You need to get a grip before you lose everyone."

"He betrayed me," Stryx seethed, trying to break free of their grip. The rage was still on him, and he wanted to kill Ciaran for letting Ember out. He had put her in danger. He might as well have handed her over to the mages himself.

**********

Ember could feel changes happening in her. In addition to the bond she now had with Stryx, something else was happening. Her blood thrummed with magic. It was the same feeling she'd had when Mjesec touched her, but thousands of times more intense.

There was a pressure in her head, but not in her head. Something was happening to her mind. But this wasn't something trying to get in like Stryx and the bond he'd created, this was something already in her trying to get out.

She closed her eyes and concentrated. Fleeting images that made no sense to her played behind her eyelids like a movie on fast forward. She had no context and there was no sound. She saw naked women with black hair and silver eyes laughing and playing. One of them lifted her arms to the sky and lightning flashed. Another make a series of random things appear in her hands. A third woman disappeared and reappeared in a different place.

She saw them being hunted down and killed. Silver spirits left their bodies and vanished as each one fell at the hands of a snarling man.

Whatever was trying to get out pushed hard, and she winced, pushing back.

The silver spirits converged on a woman that looked lot like Selene, only she was much younger. She held two identical young boys in her arms and a man with dark blue eyes the same color as Stryx's was arguing with her.

More snarling men knocked down a door and the blue-eyed man ran at them, yelling something at the young Selene over his shoulder. Selene disappeared with the boys as the man with dark blue eyes was buried under the rush of snarling men.

Something pushed again, and this time she didn't push back. A bright, silver light exploded behind her eyes and magic—there was no other word for it—filled her.

Soră! Selene's excited voice exalted in her head.

Soră. Sister, I think you have some explaining to do.

I will. I'll explain everything. Come see me.

I need to do something first. Is Musette with you? Is she okay?

She is here, but she still sleeps. Idris watches over her.

Ember tried to get out of bed but fell back. She had forgotten Stryx had left her shackled to the bed. She glared at the manacles and they snapped open to release her.

Actually rising this time, she crossed to the mirror and gasped. Her red hair was gone. It had been replaced by a glossy, ebony mane that fell perfectly straight down her back. Her green eyes were now silver.

What happened to me? What am I?

You are strygoi, like me.

Strygoi. The strange word translated itself in her head. Ghost witch.

Yes. We are rarely seen and can disappear at will. It is an accurate name for us.

I don't think this is what Stryx had in mind when he used his blood to create a bond with me.

No, it wasn't. There hasn't been a new strygoi in a very long time. He holds no power over a strygoi. Being strygoi means you can control him, and will allow you to close the bond if you choose to leave.

Ember smiled. You know this was going to happen?

I hoped. I have been the only one for so long I didn't dare speak of the possibility.I thought I would be the last.

Ember peered at herself in the mirror. Will I always look like this now? While she didn't like to think of herself as vain she missed her red hair.

No, Soră. Only when you are Strygoi. Ember will still be Ember with red hair and green eyes.

The mages had been sure she had magic. Selene had told her the same thing. But she hadn't really believed them. Of course, she hadn't really believed in vampires not too long ago, or that she would be bonded to the biggest asshole in the world.

She was starving. Although, now, she supposed, she could go wherever she liked and get something to eat if there wasn't anything in the kitchen. Or she could make something just appear. She really had to get control of her powers before she went crazy using them, though. Her vision had showed her what she could do, but she still wasn't sure exactly how to do anything. There was still so much she didn't understand about what she was and what she could do now.

She didn't bother to get dressed. She didn't want to dampen or hide the silver glow around her. As she stalked through the house Stryx's men gaped at her and whispered about strygoi when she passed them. They didn't try to stop her, and fell in behind her as she walked.

When she neared the kitchen she heard the meaty thuds of fists impacting flesh, and Stryx was bellowing about betrayal.

She ran the rest of the way. Jael and Zeke were holding Stryx by his arms. They'd clearly just pulled him off Ciaran and Stryx was fighting to get back to him. Ciaran was laid out on the floor, beaten bloody.

Furious, she rounded on Stryx and magic sang in her blood. Without thinking about it she threw a hand at him. Stryx was pulled from Jael and Zeke's grips and thrown into the wall hard enough to make a Stryx shaped indent in it. He hung there, unable to move.

"Why?" she demanded, oblivious to the gaping vampires staring at her. "Why would you beat him like this?" Stryx didn't reply, but as soon as she asked the question, the answer came to her. "That's okay, you don't have to answer. You think he let me go."

Stryx still didn't answer her.

"You are psychotic." She opened the bond between them and let him feel all her disgust, enjoying it when he flinched.

Turning her back on Syrx she helped Ciaran sit up. "You need some ice on those eyes, and some of these cuts need stitches. Why are you holding your ribs?"

"I'll be fine." Ciaran demurred her help. "I, er, just need to, um...go out."

"You need blood," Ember said, understanding what he didn't want to say. "Take mine." she held out her arm.

"I can't do that," Ciaran said leaning away from her.

"No, he can't," Stryx finally said something. "If he bites you I will kill him." He strained to move, but couldn't. He was stuck.

"Yes, you can," Ember insisted, ignoring Stryx. "He beat you because you helped me. The least I can do is help you heal. I insist."

"You don't understand..." Ciaran said.

Ember words were for Stryx as she spoke them to Ciaran. "I understand perfectly well that this fucking neanderthal beat you half to death because you didn't help him keep me prisoner here and reinforce his belief that it's okay to treat me like a sex slave."

"He's just set in his ways," Ciaran said. "He's lived a long time, and—"

"No," Ember said, her voice rising. She glared at Stryx. "I can't believe even now, after you beat him half to death that he is trying to defend you." She glanced around at all the other vampires standing around. "And if you all feel the same way you disgust me as much as he does."

She whirled to face Stryx. "Listen to me, you overbearing, condescending, chauvinistic jerk. You're going to have to get a few things straight. I don't care how long you've been alive. You learned to drive a car, didn't you? Use a cell phone? You have internet in the house? Electricity and indoor plumbing? Credit cards?" Ember ranted. "So it seems to me the only thing you haven't changed in all your years is how you treat people, and women in particular. You don't get to use the set in your ways defense when it's your fucking choice, and you choose to treat people badly."

She rounded on the other vampires again. "And you all let him! It's not the goddamn middle ages anymore, and women have rights! People have rights! He, and he alone is responsible for how he treats people. It has nothing to do with being set in his ways, or all of you would do it too, and none of you are like him! But in some ways you're all worse because you know better and just stand by and let him!" She was screaming now.