Fire and Ash (Immortal Touch) (19 page)

Oh…
kinky.

From behind her came the metallic sound of a key turning, and she realized with growing apprehension that he had locked them both in with a deadbolt. He held up the key with a daunting smile. “We won’t be needing this, will we?”

Her tawny eyes widened and followed him as he strolled over to the glass door and pulled it open part way. Then to her amazement and dismay, he tossed the key over the edge of the balcony and closed the door again. Whatever happened, there was no escape now. She said nothing. It was far too late for that anyway.

“
Is there anything you need to take care of first?”

She opened her mouth, almost spoke the forbidden word, then snapped it shut again.

His laughter was soft, amused. “That wasn’t a trick question. Just nod
yes
or
no.
”

She shook her head.

He stripped the bedclothes from the neatly made bed, flinging them to the floor to leave it bare except for the bottom sheet. “Take off your shoes and come lie here,” he demanded. She did as he told her, and crawling across the smooth sheet she couldn’t help but notice that it was white satin. For some reason that made her want to laugh.

“How are we doing so far?” Ash grinned at her while he opened a bedside table drawer and retrieved two lengths of hemp rope. “Your pupils are starting to dilate. Are you feeling it yet?”

Sami opened her mouth to respond, but the only thing that came out was a rush of giggles that seemed to come from someone else. God, this was funny…it was all so
absurd
…and now he was tying her wrists to the teak headboard and that made her laugh even harder. Just where did he think she was going to go?

“Oh
, yeah…you’re getting there.” He disappeared from her line of sight, and a moment later she could hear music coming from someplace, she wasn’t sure where. Something freaky…psychedelic…oh, it was
White Rabbit
. Of course it was, what else would it be when she’d fallen down the rabbit hole?

He returned,
bounding onto the mattress to straddle her hips.

She stopped laughing.

“What? Not funny anymore?” Leaning in, he brushed her lips with his, the touch as light as a feather. She closed her eyes and sighed, squirming a little beneath him. “It didn’t take you long to come around, did it? Not once you got a taste for it. Now you want something you never realized you were capable of wanting, and suddenly you’re willing to submit unconditionally just to find out what it is.”

Sami moaned in ecstasy when he kissed her at last, so deeply she could barely breathe, and it was delicious, exquisite torment.
She wanted more, so much more. She wanted to melt into him like ice. By the time he pulled away,
White
Rabbit
had morphed into
Stairway to Heaven
.

T
he surgical scalpel glinted in his hand.

And in that moment she knew that he’d been wrong about one thing. There definitely were some actions that warranted regret.

~*~*~*~

Her eyes flew open, and right away she knew something was amiss.

Eva sat up in bed, scanning the quiet room for the cause of her unease. It was empty and still…dark but not so much that she couldn’t make out the familiar surroundings. They were viewed as if through a dream, unchanged but remote, disproportionate. But she knew she was awake. She could see, but not hear, the slow, steady rhythm of Julian breathing as he lay asleep beside her, one arm thrown across her and yet…

S
he couldn’t feel the weight of it. Couldn’t feel her own weight, for that matter.

Turning her head, the shock of seeing her own sleeping face sent her flying out of bed with a gasp that made no audible sound.
Her body remained where it was, peaceful and serene in heedless slumber, chest rising and falling with each breath. And yet she stood beside the bed, unable to feel the cold walnut floor beneath her feet. Astounded, she brought one hand in front of her face and saw nothing. There
was
nothing. Her body lay on the bed, separate from her.

Well, this is new…

Could she wake her own self up? It was a profound concept…but when she reached for her sleeping form she found the effort futile. There was no means of physical contact, and when she called out nothing emerged from her but silence. She had no luck trying to reach Julian either.

Taking a few tentative steps, she found that her movements were smooth
and continuous, a gliding motion almost akin to sliding across ice. Before she knew what had happened, she was outside in the night without the solid barrier of the wall to hinder her. She’d gone right through it as if it were only a hologram. There was no impact with the ground - instead she floated down as daintily as a feather on a breeze. The air held no chill, the wind no sensation. There was no sound out here either. Other than sight, all her senses were muted.

Astral projection? Spirit walking? She didn’t know what to make of it. The deathly silence was deafening, unnerving. And even spookier than that was not being able to
feel.

Enough of this. It was just too bizarre.

Reentering the house, she drifted about downstairs in an aimless fog until Rio, from his spot in front of the fireplace, lifted his head to hiss and growl.
He
saw her - or felt her presence - she couldn’t be sure which, but he definitely knew something was there. She’d always heard that animals had a sixth sense…maybe there was some truth to that. Maybe the cat would be able to feel her touch.

She
tried to reach for Rio, and felt something within her shift. The room lost its dreamlike surrealism, the grandfather clock at the end of the upstairs hallway chimed eleven times. Her ears twitched, and she tried to speak but the only sound her larynx produced was a high-pitched
meow.

Startled, she bounded upstairs, leaping
lightly onto the bed where her own body still lay, and nudged Julian anxiously with a furry paw. He stirred, his drowsy eyes opened, and a hand touched the top of her head to scratch her gently behind the ears. “What are you doing up here, buddy?”

“
I am not a cat!
” Eva screamed in her own voice, her body jerking upright in bed.

Poor
Rio bolted out of the room so fast he skidded across the floor and ran smack into the wall in the hallway.

~*~*~*~

“Don’t make a sound.”

Sami managed not to
scream, but her arms pulled reflexively against the rope restraints that held her wrists tightly in place. Her clouded mind tried sluggishly to think, to reason.
Don’t panic…whatever you do, don’t panic…

He used the scalpel to
slowly slit her dress down the front, beginning at the neckline and traveling all the way down to her belly, the cotton making a harsh ripping sound. Parting the fabric, he bent forward to kiss the bare flesh of her stomach, tickling her navel with his tongue. In spite of her hazy fear, the sensation elicited a wanton thrill.

“
Are you still with me, Sami?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Don’t be afraid.”

Tell me not to
exist…it would be a simpler request…

“Your skin is so beautiful.
It’s a blank canvas waiting to be filled.” He rested the tip of the sharp blade gently against her abdomen, and her whole body quaked in response. “No need to fear the blade. See how cool and soothing it feels? Relax, baby. Breathe.”

She closed her eyes, trying to take slow and steady breaths as he’d instructed. His voice was starting to sound strange, like it was coming from
someplace far away. He drew the tip of the scalpel lightly across her skin, back and forth, slowly and softly. “You wanted a glimpse into my world. I welcome you to it. You, my sweet angel, are a neophyte in a realm that harbors no fear. It doesn’t exist here.”

The blade touched her throat, ran
delicately down it. “I wanted you to submit yourself to me willingly. And you’ve done that, haven’t you? The question is, will you follow me down the path until it reaches the end? Or will you run and hide?” The tip pressed noticeably harder. “I expect an answer.”

“I…
I’ll follow you. I will.” Her voice shook.

“First you must learn absolute
, unquestioning obedience. Trust in the one who holds your life in his hands. Leave your fear behind now, sweetheart. Do. Not. Scream.”

The words echoed through her head. The music had turned into garbled, nonsensical sounds that seemed to speed up, then slow down. She felt the scalpel return to her abdomen.

He applied pressure, and a sharp, stinging pain woke her foggy senses. Her lips pressed together in a firm line, her body stiffened and she kept her eyes tightly shut. A drop of something wet made its way across her belly, trickling slowly, but she refused to look down to see what it was. She didn’t want to know.

“
Tonight I want every breath you take to be for me.”

The pain traveled agonizingly slow.

“I think I would like to start by carving my name into your flesh. Is your desire to please me strong enough to grant me that request?”

She knew better than to say no. Her eyes opened
then, and the room seemed brighter than before. There were a million shooting stars crossing the sky, flying in all directions. She wanted to touch them. They glittered like gold dust. “Yes…” she breathed.

The pain grew more intense.
Her knees bent, her feet pushed frantically against the slick satin. He was killing her. She was going to die here tonight, in his bed.

“You’re doing beautifully,” he praised her.

Tears ran from the corners of her eyes and helplessly she cried out. He brushed her tears away with a gentle hand. “Don’t be afraid of the pain, Samara. Embrace it. It can be a powerful aphrodisiac. Only fear and ignorance make it seem unwelcome.”

Her
skin was stinging now, growing wet and sticky, the pain worsening while she moaned through the agony, head thrashing back and forth. Voices in the music laughed at her, shrieked at her, retreated, returned. Eventually the torture took on something of a different form, something distinctly and strangely hedonistic.

His work of art complete, Ash licked her
wounds with a burning tongue and then kissed her and she tasted her own metallic blood on him. It was then that she lost all reticence, all sense of rationality, all sanity. Deliriously she wrapped her legs around him and watched as the walls themselves wept blood. It ran down slowly like thick maple sap.

Then somehow she was
naked, the remnants of her shredded clothing gone, and he was impaling her, thrusting like a frenzied animal and his movements were seismic, her ecstasy celestial, and she did scream then but it wasn’t in pain.

Time had no meaning anymore. He lay beside her, but whether it was five minutes or five hours later she couldn’t say.
His body was fluid against hers, like liquid. The bed floated through space and she twisted one of her legs around his to prevent herself from falling off. He looked into her eyes and chuckled softly. “You’re really tripping now, aren’t you?”

“
I have to get up…I need to walk around…please…” She tugged impatiently at the ropes that felt as if they were shifting and moving on their own. The walls no longer bled but they breathed and pulsed as if alive. The flames from the candles stretched and grew longer, taking on weird shapes that danced lewdly.

“
Hold still. I’m going to cut the ropes for you.” He freed her hands, and she slid out of bed and began to pace the length of the room. Catching sight of herself in one of the mirrored walls by the whirlpool, she paused to stare at the reflection, some sort of kaleidoscopic kinetic image that had its own unique beauty. It smiled at her. The blood smeared across the image was a vivid, indescribable color and there were angled patterns within it.

Another figure appeared in the mirror
, that of a naked statue. He had her blood on him. She watched in rapt enthrallment as he began to fill the tub, the running water sounding like a rushing waterfall. She gazed into the pouring water and could swear she saw every individual drop. In the mirror, Ash was now seated on the edge of the bed holding something against his arm.

The drops of water
whispered. They had their own secrets.

From behind, he
grasped her shoulders and turned her around to face him. “You’ve pleased me, Sami. You followed my instructions perfectly…I’m proud of you. Now we’re going to try something different. Are you ready?”

“Yes
.” She felt euphoric, intoxicated with corrupt pleasure.

Stepping into the
tub, he held his hand out to her. “In you go. Watch your step.” She eased herself into the hot water, feeling the massaging pressure of the jets. Unable to curb her enthusiasm, she pressed her slippery body against his. “Does the water hurt your cuts?” he wanted to know.