The Life of Anna, Part 4: Ensnared (45 page)

She leaned into his cheek and closed her
eyes. “I dream. I dream all the time. I don’t even know if this is
real, but I like it.” She opened her eyes. He could see the
internal battle rage within her. “Help me,” she whispered and then
closed her eyes again as if she were in pain.

He looked up to see Devin walking to them,
his face inscrutable. “Anna,” he said in a firm tone.

She opened her eyes and they were distant
again. Wilhelm dropped his hand and she stood and went to Devin’s
side.

Wilhelm stood and glared at Devin. “What did
you do to her?”

Devin grinned. “I finally made her into who
she is supposed to be. And she’s much happier now, don’t you
think?”

“Who she is supposed to be?”

“Yes, the way she would have been had your
son not interfered in the bonding ritual.”

Wilhelm stared. How was this possible?

“She’s much happier now, Wilhelm. Why don’t
you just let her be?”

The irony of the question wasn’t lost on
Wilhelm. Devin hadn’t let her alone; did he really expect Wilhelm
to do the same? It occurred to Wilhelm that Devin might not have
seen Anna’s internal struggle. Maybe there was still hope. He
calmed his features.

“I would like to spend time with her while I
am here.” He glanced at Anna, who was watching him with a pleasant
though vacant look in her eyes.

“You are still technically her Master. I
suppose you still have a right to be with her.” He paused. “She
needs to rest between performances. I will have her come to your
hotel Sunday night after the evening performance. I am establishing
her place in society tonight, and I don’t want anyone to be
confused as to who she belongs to.”

“She still belongs to me.”

“Technically, yes. But she won’t likely
respond to you as she does me. I am her sole Master and she does as
I want her to.”

Wilhelm saw that was true. Everything in her
demeanor spoke of devotion and loyalty to Devin. They gave the
appearance of being a couple, but Wilhelm knew better. Devin had
gotten his mindless slave. But Wilhelm had also seen that Anna was
still in there. Maybe, with enough time, he could bring her out
again.

Devin having control over her was dangerous.
If Devin was wielding that much power, the stories he’d been
hearing from other Elders and on the news made a lot more sense
now. Even the slightly vacant look in their president’s eyes made
more sense now.

He had to get Anna away from him.

“We are staying at the Ritz presidential
suite. I expect her there immediately after the performance.”

Devin smiled. “Of course.” He turned and
walked away with his arm around Anna.

Kurt rushed over. “Vati, what’s going
on?”

Wilhelm shook his head as he watched Anna
walk away with her head inclined to Devin. “He’s...made her his
puppet.” He looked at Kurt. “But she’s still in there. I saw it for
a short moment. She asked me to help her.” Wilhelm turned to look
at the wall, his heart aching at the pain he’d seen in her eyes. He
ran his hands through his hair. “I don’t know what to do.”

“She’s still there?”

Wilhelm turned to see Travis standing
casually next to him with Justin. He looked as if he had just asked
about the weather, except for the intensity in his eyes. “She’s not
completely gone?”

“What do you know about it?” Wilhelm
asked.

“He’s taken control of her. She doesn’t act
like herself. I don’t know how he did it, but he did.”

“Why did you not tell me before now?”

“Because we thought she’d be gone by now,”
Travis sighed. “And we didn’t want to risk...others...finding
out.”

“Gone?” Wilhelm frowned.

Travis looked around. “Out of the city,” he
said in a very soft tone.

Wilhelm’s eyes widened. “What? How?” How
could he do that without Devin knowing?

Travis and Justin looked at each other. “Have
you ever been to O’Brien’s Pub on Market?” Justin asked.

Wilhelm shook his head, not understanding
what a pub had to do with Anna.

“We like to go there for a late breakfast
after morning rehearsals.” Justin gave him a pointed look.

“Irish, eh?” Wilhelm commented, forcing a
smile. “I have an Irish son-in-law. Good food.” He glanced at Kurt.
“Sounds like a good place for breakfast.”

Kurt nodded in agreement.

Justin nodded. “You should try it.”

“We might just do that.”

“Good.” Travis said. He looked at Justin. “We
should go.”

The two dancers walked away, walking almost
shoulder to shoulder. Travis leaned over and whispered something to
Justin, who laughed and put his hand on Travis’ shoulder in a
rather intimate way. Were they a couple?

Wilhelm watched Anna the rest of the evening
as he socialized in the elegant lobby. She gave all appearances
that she was in love with Devin and if he hadn’t seen her up close,
Wilhelm would have been devastated. But he knew something was
wrong. Anna was still in there, fighting to survive. He had to help
her, but how?

She smiled and flirted with the men Devin
spoke with and the men were smitten with her. A few times she
walked away with a man and disappeared. Wilhelm hated to think what
she was doing.

Kurt growled next to him.

“What’s wrong?”

“That man Anna is talking to? That’s the
senator that hurts her.”

Wilhelm looked across the room to see Anna
smiling at a man about Kurt’s age with dark blond hair and a
politician’s smile. The way he looked at her sent shivers down
Wilhelm’s spine. No wonder Devin liked him.

“I don’t know how much more of this I can
stand,” Wilhelm muttered, and looked at Kurt. “Should we be
relieved that she probably doesn’t know what’s going on?”

“You think it’s that bad?”

“Her eyes are almost vacant. She said she
dreamed all the time.” Wilhelm shook his head. “I feel so
helpless.” He looked at the ceiling. “I feel like I’ve failed Alex.
He entrusted me with her and she’s suffered so much while she has
supposedly been under my care.”

“Vati, there’s little you can do. Alex was
the one who was supposed to be able to deal with Devin. I spoke
with Travis and Justin a bit more.” He shrugged when Wilhelm arched
a brow at him. “I’m their age. It’s not as obvious as you talking
with them.” He looked across the room at Anna. “She hasn’t shown up
with bruises or anything that would indicate he’s abusing her.
Aside from the distance, she seems okay. We need to go to breakfast
tomorrow.”

“Yes, Kurt. I understood that.” He smiled to
let Kurt know he wasn’t rebuking him. He was just anxious. “It’s
painful being in the same room with her and yet...not.”

“I know the feeling.”

Devin stroked his cock slowly as he watched
Anna hang from the cuffs in the ceiling of his room later that
night. It was late, but Kaveh would be here soon to nurse her back
to health. It was an odd cycle, but one that worked. Kaveh gave her
his essence, which Devin then took from her, and then took every
ounce she had managed to replenish since the night before. Then
Kaveh gave her enough to awaken her and Devin finished revitalizing
her with a hard fuck. Odd, but not unpleasant for any of them. By
Kaveh only partially reviving her, Devin was able to keep her under
his control using her own life-force, or essence, against her. It
was no hardship to fuck her nightly. He had to be gentler in the
mornings, but even then, he could get away with not being overly
loving.

She obeyed him exquisitely. He knew she
wouldn’t move if he lay her on the bed while he consumed his
nightly ‘meal,’ but he loved watching her hang there when he was
finished, pale and limp with bright red pussy lips raw from his
mouth. Most times her eyes weren’t even open and he wondered how
much she knew of what went on. Did she pass out, or was she just so
spent that she couldn’t respond, yet felt everything?

He had a feeling it was the latter because he
had used a riding crop on her a few times to see if she reacted.
She jumped slightly and her eyes opened just enough for him to see
the pain in them. She never said anything about it, though.
Momentary pain all but forgotten a few minutes later. The thought
was appealing.

He reached out and pinched her nipples
between his knuckles, a move that would normally make her cry out
in pain. Her body jerked slightly and her eyes fluttered, but no
other reaction. His cock throbbed at the idea of ramming himself
into her ass to see what happened, but he needed to keep himself
ready for later.

He looked around his room and spotted an
empty beer bottle on the table next to the fireplace. He had
finished it while Anna sucked him off earlier in the day. That had
potential. He picked it up and walked back to Anna.

“I think you have fond memories of beer
bottles, don’t you Baby?”

Her eyes fluttered slightly and filled with
fear. So she
was
conscious.

He grinned wickedly as he spread open her ass
cheeks and began working the bottle into the tiny hole. It went in
surprisingly easy. She couldn’t move her body and likely wouldn’t
be able to tighten these muscles either.

Anna saw Devin hold the brown bottle up in
front of her. After his ‘feeding’ times, she was surprisingly
lucid, even though she couldn’t move her body. She knew the
difference between reality and dreams when she hung from Devin’s
ceiling. This was certainly reality, but it looked like it was
going to turn into a nightmare.

No, Devin. Don’t!
She struggled to
make her body move, to show him she was afraid. Why did he want to
hurt her? She loved him. What had she done to make him want to
inflict pain on her?

The cool glass breached the ring easily and
her body put up no resistance, but it was dry and the friction
burned. He continued to push inside, placing a hand on her hip when
she began to move forward from the pressure.

Oh, the fire! The burn! The tapered neck of
the bottle gave way to the wider body and she screamed in her head.
She tried to scream out loud, but couldn’t. It surprised her, when
she felt tears running down her cheeks at the fiery pain. Deeper
and deeper he pushed and then stopped at the widest part. The most
painful part and there was nothing she could do about it but hang
there in agonizing pain.

“Does that hurt, Baby?” he asked with a
wicked smile, tapping the bottle with his fingernail.

Her eyes fluttered and her body jerked. It
was the only thing she could do. What had she done to anger
him?

She watched him through hooded eyelids as he
studied her. “It hurts, doesn’t it?”

Yes, it hurts so much.

He smacked her ass several times, her body
swaying from her wrists. The bottle jerked against the stretched
ring, increasing the burn. He laughed in delight.

“Are you punishing her?” Kaveh’s deep voice
interrupted the silent torture.

“No,” Devin answered. “I was just curious if
she could feel anything.”

Kaveh came into her line of sight and studied
her. “Yes, she is in an incredible amount of pain.” He moved away.
“Is that what you want?”

“The tears make my cock throb with
desire.”

Kaveh chuckled. “You are a sick man to
torture one who cannot scream.”

“Then maybe we should make it so she can
scream.” Devin uncuffed her wrists and carried her to the bed where
Kaveh offered her his cock.

She lay on her side, drinking in Kaveh’s
offering and Devin tapped on the bottle and twisted it, causing
agonizing pain. Finally, she pulled back from Kaveh and
screamed.

“There she is.”

“You want to torture her while she’s half
revived?”

“She won't react if she’s fully revived, will
she?”

“No.”

“Then yes. It’s been a while since I’ve heard
her scream in pain.”

Wilhelm watched Kurt tap the table with his
fingertips and stare out the window of the Irish pub. Kurt still
cared for Anna a lot, though his feelings weren’t as strong as they
had been. Wilhelm suspected that Anna had more to do with his faded
feelings than a natural decline on Kurt’s part. At one point, Kurt
had even asked him if he could somehow step into Alex’s shoes and
fight Devin himself.

Wilhelm had honestly been shocked at the
question. Kurt was a good man. A very good man, but he wasn’t a
fighter like Alex had been. To be willing to risk his life to fight
for someone else was a new trait that Kurt was picking up. Wilhelm
didn’t know if it was possible, but they had begun looking through
the old books that Alex had used, and Alex’s notes to see if they
could find a way. Kurt was making progress but Wilhelm was afraid
to hope too much, although he would never discourage Kurt in his
endeavor. He was so proud of his son.

They had ordered their breakfast, since he
had a feeling the meeting was supposed to look like a chance
encounter, and it arrived a few minutes later. A few bites into
their meals, Justin and Travis walked through the doorway holding
hands. They looked around casually and greeted the hostess as if
they frequented the establishment. She gave them a big toothy grin
and led them towards a table near Wilhelm and Kurt’s.

“Kurt!” Travis grinned and they walked over.
“Took our advice, huh?”

Wilhelm smiled and wondered what he would
learn that necessitated such subterfuge.

“It is good food,” Kurt grinned. “Care to
join us?”

The two dancers glanced at each other and
nodded. They smiled at the waitress and she handed them their menus
and walked away. Kurt moved to the seat next to Wilhelm and the
other two men sat down and opened their menus.

They chatted causally until the waitress came
over. The waitress seemed to know them as well and flirted while
she wrote down their order.