The Salvation of Daniel (The Blue Butterfly Book 2) (10 page)

“Hello, Connie.”

I didn’t answer but kept my gaze trained on him as he approached. He stood before me and dropped his eyes to roam my nakedness. A lift of his lips showed me his approval.

“Are you thirsty?” His tone was bland, almost ghostly, like his soul had fucked off and left behind a shell containing nothing but immorality and callousness.

He circled round me then stopped dead behind me. I heard his heavy swallow. Straightening my shoulders I hardened myself to his reaction, so why I flinched when he trailed a finger along one of my welts was beyond me. A shiver raced through me and I closed my eyes. His touch burned me, scorched fire through every single nerve ending.

“So,” he whispered, “you’re very much like your sister after all.” He spoke so quietly I wasn’t sure he was even talking to me. “However, I am aware that for you to butcher your own body, brutalising your own back would be somewhat of a problem.” He came round to the front of me, a finger lifting my chin until I was looking at him. “Who did this?”

I quirked an eyebrow. “And you care, why?”

He chuckled. “Oh, I don’t
care
. Your disfigurement lowers your value, causing us quite the problem.”

I scoffed. “I’m so sorry,
Master
. I would have asked them to stop to save you the misfortune of losing a few pounds, but at the time I didn’t think they cared about my opinion.”

He lifted his chin, narrowing his eyes. “Training?” He whispered the word. I nodded subtly.

“To fear pain is a burden. To feed from agony is of profit.”

“Mmm, well let’s hope the training prepares you for the devil’s wrath, Connie Swift.”

I smirked at him. “I’ll survive.”

He tipped his head, deliberating my statement. “That remains to be seen.”

I pursed my lips. “You need to be aware that Helen is under strict instruction to return Annie to me only. She is now at an undisclosed address. If I don’t make it back, then you don’t see your daughter again.” He glared at me, anger morphing his face. “Just a small insurance policy in case you had other ideas about how this would play out.”

I hissed when he punched me in the face, his furious spittle spraying over me as he made me pay for my foresight. I let him play, because after all, this was what it was compared to what I had endured at the hands of Isaac – mere child’s play.

He yanked me close with a hard grip on my hair, his face an inch from mine. “You want destroying? Then let me accommodate. You’ll wish you never met me.”

“Oh, Daniel. I wish you’d never met Mae. Maybe she would have had something to fight for if you hadn’t decimated her.”

He spun round. His body was rigid and hard, the deep contours of his back muscles straining against the material of his shirt. Anger and fury poured from him, its presence smothering and crippling. Rolling his head around his shoulders he ran a finger along the many instruments lined up on the wall until he stopped at a long thin crop.

“How Mae loved this particular piece.”

Fury surged through me but I closed off to it, refused to let it and him eat at me.

“Her pale skin glowed so beautifully under the thrash of leather.” He turned to me, his eyes hard and full of wicked intent. “Her sweet voice as she begged me to stop was most lyrical, her cries as hypnotising as the starlings’ morning chorus.”

Breathe. In. Out. In. Out

“The way she arched beneath my hand. The way she came apart underneath me was quite something. Simply mesmerising.”

He orbited me slowly, dragging out his vocal torture until I struggled to blink back the tears that pooled behind my eyes. His words brought visions of Mae’s torture, her need for me, her want for the pain to end.

“She even asked for it. Did you know that, Connie? Begged me to hurt her.”

Breathe. In. Out. In. Out.

“She craved the dark side. Needed the pain to breathe. And I had no trouble obliging her with every sick and twisted need she had.”

“You bastard!”

I was almost glad when he finally ended his verbal assault and brought forth the physical. The pain from each of his lashes didn’t reach into my soul like his words had. My body was trained to accept the pain and I let it flow, allowed it to empower the hatred that was always inside me, authorised each slash of agony to awaken the dormant passion inside me. I moved into each hit, taking its full strength and devouring the power it gave me.

My skin tingled, my nerve endings coming to life as my mind closed off to the world and concentrated on the adrenaline flowing through my veins. Channelling it, my training kicked in intuitively. I consumed it, let it curl around me and bring out the side of me that needed pain.

Daniel was unaware of my arousal, oblivious to the energy he was building in me. He was ignorant to the fact that the first lesson as a Phantom was the adaptation of pain, the conversion that took place in each of us until our bodies literally hummed on the rawness that slithered over us.

I was no longer breathing, I was absorbing air. My lungs didn’t inflate and deflate, they just magnetised the air from around me. My body no longer felt the slice of pain, only the eruption of vigour. My mind gave me no thoughts, only a serene void.

I was no longer a person.

I was a Phantom.

I TWISTED HER hair in my fists, thrusting my dick further into her mouth. She lifted her eyes to me, adoration and the need to please in her gaze threatening to choke me. She never failed to amaze me, her mouth always open to accommodate my length, her legs sliding apart so easily when the need to fuck overtook me. In a way I had missed Demi, the easiness to her, the simplicity she offered to the sexual side of me was uncomplicated, well it was for me. She’d always had a ‘soft spot’ for me, always saw me as hers and although part of that was true, she never quite did it for me. The pleasure she brought from me wasn’t rapturous, nor was it earth shattering but it was a release, and an easy outlet.

Her suction intensified when she felt me swell on her tongue. Her fingers clawed at my balls, her nails stroking the tight skin underneath me. Everything tightened until my cum shot forth, filling her hot little mouth, the excess of it dribbling down the edge of her mouth and dripping over her generous cleavage.

I sighed and pulled out of her mouth, tucking my cock away. I had never managed to find that shot of exquisite heat like I had with Mae. Every partner I’d had since her, and even before her, had brought me off but never with the bliss that had come with filling Mae, stretching her tight little cunt – making her bleed.

“Better?” Father asked as Demi smiled up at me. I nodded in reply but kept my gaze on Demi.

“I missed you, Master.” Her whispered devotion caused me to smile. She really was quite stupid.

“And you, Demi.”

She grinned, showing me the perfection of her whitened teeth, the precision to her faults. Raising to her feet, she tipped her head then left the room.

I could feel his smirk on me and I turned to look at him. He quirked an eyebrow and shook his head slowly. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

I nodded. I was more than one hundred percent fucking sure. “Absolutely. It’s time now.”

He sighed and shrugged. “Your choice, Daniel but completely understandable. We all like new pussy to break and even I admit that your old whore is just that, an old whore.”

I chuckled and received the tumbler of whisky from him with a nod of thanks.

“Talking of fresh pussy,” he continued as he settled in the chair opposite me, his eyes gleeful and secured on me. “Your gift is being received rather optimistically in the circle already.”

“I thought she might. But I must admit I’m rather surprised that you intend to auction. I thought you’d have preferred a more… personal enactment of punishment.”

He sighed and pursed his lips, pausing to take another sip of liquor. “To be frank, Daniel, I owe her to Franco.”

My eyes snapped in his direction but I composed myself, taking a gulp of the luxury contained in my glass, making myself savour the smooth burn of my throat and drawing my shock inside. He didn’t seem to notice my reaction and carried on.

“I’m somewhat… aggrieved and reasonably saddened by his decision to educate but after the Mae fiasco, what can one do?”

“And how is Franco?”

“He’s very well. Business is back to near full strength. The previous
troubles
, I will admit, caused quite a bit of unease for our clients, yet they’ve learnt to trust me and Franco has managed to sweeten a few palms so to speak.” He chuckled and eyed me proudly. “And he’s very eager to meet our new guest. He was extremely happy with your reappearance, especially after the souvenir you brought with you from your travels.”

“Mmm.”

“I must ask though, however did you find her?”

Licking my lips I eyed him with a shrewd smile, chuckling to refine my lie. “She was quite easy prey actually. I’d had an inkling that she had, how do we say? Pulled the wool over her family’s eyes. Things that didn’t fit right whilst I’d been watching Mae every year. The stupid girl thought she could shroud herself from a hunter. I just picked up some leads, contacts and other means of information. Quite simple really when your quarry thinks itself safe.”

He nodded in agreement. “Yes, we all suffer from being too comfortable.” He stood up, walking towards me then placed his hand on my shoulder. “Well I must say, it is good to have you back.”

I didn’t reply. I couldn’t. I didn’t feel his sentiment, nor did I feel the conviction in his statement. As if to prove me right, he halted after he opened the door and turned back to me. “Oh and Daniel.” I turned my head to show him my attention, as was expected, always. “This one is special. I’ll be watching your training quite closely.” I didn’t miss the hidden message. I was on probation, from my own father. He was known for his lack of trust in anyone, especially me.

“I would expect it, Father.”

Smiling, he nodded then left, pulling the door closed behind him. I blew out a breath and leaned forward, rubbing my hands over my face, wiping away the distress. I needed to be strong. I
was
strong but fuck, if I didn’t see Mae everywhere in this damn place. Her ghost dominated every corner, the echo of her soft cries constantly making my cock throb. Her blood still stained the walls, her pain potent in the air.

I knew I was sick but even I was shocked at how easy it was to slip back into the role of Master as soon as my foot had crossed the threshold. This house, this business called to something inside me, it fed the hunger for carnage and violence that lived deep inside me.

For two years I had managed to bury that side of me, concentrate on the love that my daughter brought. Her gentleness and innocence had given me a chance to find a part of me I never knew had existed. Yet here I was again; sex, depravity and bloodshed growing stronger inside me every fucking second I breathed in a house that exuded sin and debauchery.

The fact that Connie had been placed for auction was a good thing, it gave us time, time to shift through this mess. She wouldn’t risk slaughter until she had all her targets in one place together, the exposure that would come with killing them one by one would jeopardise the end game. So the fact that Franco was already informed was a godsend. I knew him, he wouldn’t wait to deal his revenge. He would be here shortly. But until then I would relent to the calling inside me. Connie had said she would survive, and truth be told, I needed her to survive if I was to see Annie again. However, that didn’t mean that the monster in me couldn’t play before that time came.