Vicious In Love - D.D. Dass (book club suggestions txt) 📗

to know the answer.” Hot, red tears rushed to her eyes, deceiving her as they oozed down her flushed cheeks.

“Did they mean anything? Did I?”

There was a shift and then he was directly in front of her, on his knees with his left hand over his heart. “Stop…Stop it. They meant nothing. Nothing. Just stop –don’t cry…” Hastily, she wiped at them, knowing he was just telling her that so she’d quit being such a baby.

Still, a few more came, but he brushed them away with gentle hands, ignoring how she flinched under the touch. Suck it up Beth, he was never yours and you’ve known it.

She listened to her conscious, stepping away to survey the room but avoiding the bed. “Where are we?”

He rose stiffly, creating more distance. “Townhouse,” he responded flatly.

Ah, so he returns. Fortunately, so did her emotional-filter, which was up and running, hiding the pain for later, when she was alone.

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Your mother went into her need and your father is seeing to her. I would have taken you back to the manor, but two females in the same household under such conditions…” his mouth became a thin line of horror as he tucked his hands into his pockets.

“Oh…” There was an awkward pause before, “How long am I hostage here then? I’ve got a life too you know…”

“Two days.”

She crossed her arms again, grimacing. “And what are we supposed to do here for two days?”

Ian shot her a wary glance. “I don’t suppose you’ll stay put?” Yeah right.

She snorted.

His jaw ticked as he ground out an answer. “Fine. For now, I’m going to catch up on my rest. The door is open and there are about five stories, so you can look about the rooms. I don’t care, just don’t talk to anybody or leave the premises. Try it and you will be punished.” The double meaning in that threat ran up her spine hotly, but she simply rolled her eyes.

“Anything else, father?” His eyes glinted, mouth seeming to soften into a half-smile.

“Keep out of here until I come for you. And don’t bother my guards either.”

Beth nodded, grabbing her phone back from the nightstand and starting for the door. It opened easily now –of course –greeting her with a brightly lit, wide foyer.

It was elegant, so much that it reminded her of her mother’s own décor. She sucked in a sharp breath, poking her head to the left.

Whoa. Yeah, she’d be preoccupied for a while.  

Chapter Seven:

Ian struggled to breathe, vision fading around the edges, the length of his small body trembling uncontrollably. It was pitch black around him. He could see nothing, but knew everything. He knew that the diminutive expanse of his childhood holding were to close in on him. The heady smell of damp mould and rusted chains invading his nostrils. The heavy footsteps and weight-like mechanicals ricocheted along the strings of his sanity.

It was inevitable, he was going to drown. Alone, weak and worthless.

“N-nay,” he muttered forcefully, hands clamping over his ringing ears. “Nay!”

Nobody would listen. They never did.

And the footsteps did not cease, they continued onward, nearer and nearer until he was curled in on himself, praying silently to any God or Goddess that would listen, to have him stronger. To have him a worthy enough male. But they had always seemingly detested him, because he grew no stronger, he grew no more worthy, and a large hand coiled around his protruding shoulder bone, the other in his matted hair.

He was trained better than to make a sound but Goddess, his entire body was crawling with pain. He was so very hungry…He was tired…He was filthy…Worse, he was ashamed. “Please,” the words disgusted him, but he could not keep silent. “I b-beg of you, father, p –,” the hand in his hair tightened, dragging him to a stance where everything spun around him. There was two of his father, and that terrified him more than the thought of death.

…Something warm wisped its way down the skin of his throat, so warm and inviting that his eyes fell shut and he leant into it. In that instant the warmth turned blazing, the sharp point of some sort of needle dragging over his collarbone and a scream, unlike any other he’d given, pierced the black air. It was as if acid was fusing itself into his bloodstream. It was –It was...

“Ian!” With a jolt, Ian hissed out of the memory, scrambling to escape the harsh voice. His vision would not focus, but he could make out Nick’s figure, crouching beside him. He became aware of his surroundings then, finding that he was on his knees, leaning forward, toward the pools depthless waters. Immediately, he cringed backwards, squeezing his eyes shut in his terror.

“Is there anything I can do, son?” His tone was its natural soft, patient tenor. If he’d been more in tuned with himself he would have simply shrugged, but this was Nick, the only comfort he’d had thus far…Nick who loved him in some sick, twisted way. 

“End this, please,” he whispered, eyes stinging weirdly. “Do not make me continue like this, my lord. Take my life, I ask of you this.” The other male was silent for a stretched time.

“You ask that of me why?” Ian forced his eyes open and met the intense blues of Nick’s.

“Nicholas, look unto me. I am one and twenty years of age and have yet to meet my worth.” He held his arms out for inspection, avoiding the look of him: deathly skinny from the lack of food and pale as sin. “It’s as if I am a female. How am I to find my irryn with the looks of me?” He gave a bitter laugh. “I am nothing.”

The other smiled, as if it was funny. And perhaps, to him, it was. “I say otherwise, Ian. You’ve yet to meet your strength, not your worth, son. Hell, a century past I was much the same. Am I worthless? I think not. Verily, you shall get there.”

Ian shook his head faintly.  “I do not wish to live any longer…” It was out then, the dark secret which he’d harbored inside as long as he could remember.

Nick sighed heavily, mouth opening to most likely deny what was painfully true when a female descended the stairs. In the dim light, Ian’s eyes widened at the very sight of her.

She was awe-worthy. It wasn’t as if Ian wanted her, not at all, but there was something from which animated from the very core of her, the form of soul –pure and giving, that which a male searched for ‘til death. He could not stop staring, even as she approached in easy steps, beaming incredibly at Nick, who was suddenly in a stance.

“Verona,” the male spoke softly, softer than he did even with Ian.

The female, Verona, stopped at Nick’s side, taking her dark hair into one hand, seemingly ill at ease of sudden. Ian swallowed, but managed to rise to his feet, just barely keeping from swaying once he bowed respectively.

“Tis a pleasure my lady.” It was the sincerest of greetings he’d ever given.

The female glanced at Nick, questions in her dark eyes. “Likewise, my lord.” Ian did not know how to respond to the same sincere words…

She continued easily. “It was no intention of mine to be a bother, my lords, but I would request your presences amid supper.” Ian flinched, prepared to decline because there was no hope in him even swallowing down another meal when Nick added heedlessly, “There will be pudding for dessert, if you are not hungry Ian…”

His throat tightened and he had the distinct sense that he might cry if he did not know how to act by now. Of course Nicholas would know exactly what to say when he could not, of course Nicholas would not make him seem as less of a male because Nicholas was, from the very beginning, in sync with him always.

He nodded and Verona flashed a brilliant smile before excusing herself. When she was out of sight, Ian inclined his head; the words fell from his lips in a breath, “Thank you…”

The larger male stepped forward, but Ian made no move, even as he firmly pressed his lips to Ian’s lengthy hair, a silent avow to loyalty. “See you at dinner, son.”

The memory began to crumble under of the force of consciousness as Ian’s eyes flew open. Slowly, he looked down at himself, almost afraid that he would find himself in that same figure, but no, his body was as lean as it’d been the last thirty or so years.

The little boy was long gone, but the remembrance was forever there. He cursed himself for that, for keeping with him the pointless issues. It wasn’t as if he could change them.

Guilt settled in his chest because there was no explanation for his actions…or whatever the hell was making it harder to breathe whenever he thought about Beth. As his body relaxed, he groaned, it was clear how this might have happened. How he might have easily been captivated by someone as pure as Beth, especially when her Mother was that of all he’d hoped to find as an adolescent.

Except the two were nothing alike in another sense. Verona was what was expected from the ramai. She did not speak out of turn, she did not have the fighting spark as Beth did…And somehow, Ian found that was why Beth was so much more special.

“Stop it,” he grunted through gritted teeth.

But she was everywhere, all over his skin, the room, and yeah, he was thinking into it again. Time to go find –do something, because hell, he was not going to search for her. If he so happened to come across her then fine, but he wasn’t going to track her scent. Even as he told himself this, he breathed that scent into his lungs, rising in one fluid movement.

The comfort of being alone suddenly didn’t seem entirely comfortable as he put back on the Converses, grimacing at their loose feel, but ignoring it too slip out of the room. Outside, he started to the left, completely lost to the scent that was compelling him in its direction.

He tried holding a languid pace, all too content with lingering in the shadows, but as he neared the library entrance dread smothered the air. A bloodcurdling shriek sliced the eerie silence.   

 

-o-
~~

 

Beth smiled softly, running her fingers along the leather spines of the seemingly ancient writings. Much to her mother’s frustration, for as long as she could remember she had always been eased with the whirlwinds of life, favoring to face its dangers rather than sit back and watch as they passed her by. And after many years of her childhood, she’d come to accept she would never fit in with other females. She had no wish to quietly fawn over males, to gossip about other girls, or any other pointless doings. Most importantly, she did not wish to allow males to fight for her when she was capable of fighting for herself.

Beth belonged to the outside world, she just needed to leave the confines of her races society. She’d promised herself after her transition she would. She just needed time