Pretty Painful by K.A Knight
Dabria
Warmth, breath blowing over me, the smell of blood, metal, and something… darker…something…all man. That’s what I notice first before I even open my eyes. My body is sluggish, probably from the drug they pumped into it again, and I can tell by the cool floor I’m lying on that I’m no longer in the same cell. They moved me…but to where?
I manage to finally blink my eyes open, my lashes heavy, and my eyes sore and dry. The room beyond is blurry, all apart from the floor I’m currently lying on, with my cheek pressing into the grey concrete.
Groaning, I slowly flip onto my back, my body uncoordinated and hard to control. My head connects hard with the cement, forcing a grunt from my mouth, but I slam my lips shut when something slithers in the room with me. Pushing to my knees, my body weak, I peer into the darkness eclipsing the other half of the room. A twisted laugh tumbles from inside it and my eyes widen, my heart racing as I freeze in terror. My body recognizes a predator when it feels one and right now…I’m prey.
The slithering sound comes again, like metal being dragged on the floor, and I squint my eyes, trying to see who else is here with me. It reminds me of being a child who’s scared of the dark, like if you don’t move or look then it won’t see you. But this one does, he does more than see you.
Something darts out of the darkness, snapping at my face and making me scream, before I fall back on my ass and then to my back. That laugh comes again and I stop breathing as my eyes finally clear enough to see the male face hovering over my prone body.
“You smell like food,” he whispers, licking his lips. “Well, are you? There are only three reasons they throw someone in here with me—to kill, eat, or fuck. Which are you, little one?” he growls, his voice deep and rumbly, like ocean waves crashing against the cliff below.
His tone is so deep and dark I shiver again, and the growl he makes in response is purely animal so I freeze, my chest barely moving as he leans closer, sniffing the air above my face before he leans down and licks blood from my cheek. Pulling back, he closes his eyes with a groan before they snap open and focus on me, unblinking and intense.
His eyes are black, like a bottomless pit or the night sky. Just utter blackness that when I stare too long at, I feel like I might fall in. He has a trimmed beard, with pink, plump lips, dark slanting eyebrows, and short black hair. He is perfection, like a Greek god, all hard lines and sharp edges. His chest is bare, his shoulders wide and bulging, his arms muscular and tanned. His torso is the same as his face—all hard lines. A six-pack is carved there, so deep the lines look painful. I try to peer down to see the rest of him, but he begins sniffing again which has my eyes darting back to his.
A pulse of something I don’t want to look too closely at shoots through me, mixing with my fear at the stark, hungry look on his face. I don’t know whether he’s going to eat me or kill me, but my mind hangs on his fuck me option and I find myself shivering for a whole different reason before I drag my mind from the gutter. If this man is chained up, even inside a cell, then he is dangerous. Not to mention I can taste his power on my tongue, his strength and darkness. There is nothing soft about this man, he is a monster, a cold, dark monster.
“What’s the matter, little one, cat got your tongue?” he jokes.
“No,” I whisper shakily. “Where are we?”
He grins, it stretches slowly across his face, and drawing dimples on his cheeks, but it has a mocking edge to it that has me swallowing hard, and finally remembering my backbone. I sit up and push him away, hoping he doesn’t attack me. He watches me with interest as he sits back on the floor, his arms behind him, chained, and stretched to their limits just to meet me. I cross my legs and tilt my head higher, not wanting him to see how utterly terrified and confused I am. They have at least covered my body this time. I can feel panties on under the plain, loose white dress.
He sniffs the air again. “I can smell your fear, little one, no point trying to hide it.”
Despite his words, he hasn’t touched me yet, so I find myself relaxing, stupid but true. Even if he is a monster, he can’t be any worse than what those animals did to me. “I’m not, I’m just done being afraid. It didn’t stop them from raping me, it didn’t stop them from killing my sister. It didn’t stop them from throwing me in here.” I shrug, my voice catching over my words. Rachel’s empty, dead eyes flash in my mind, making me wrap my arms around myself to hold it together.
“Pigs,” he spits, and I tilt my head, considering him.
The dark surrounds him, almost shadowing his face and body, but I can still see his muscles tensing and the sheen of sweat across his tanned skin.
“Raping women, probably the only way they can get them,” he snarls.
“You offered to eat, fuck, or kill me,” I remind him with a horrible smile.
“I don’t rape anyone,” he roars, but I sit in the face of it. “It is dishonourable,” he finishes.
“Huh, you don’t rape them,” I mutter, and before I know it, he’s in my face again, those black eyes taking up my whole view.
“If I was to fuck you, little one, it would be because you were begging for my fat cock and come to fill you,” he says bluntly.
I suck in a shaky breath as a strange warmth unfurls in my stomach at his dirty words.
“They will be back soon enough, wondering if I have killed you,” he offers, before standing up.
I stare up at his face, my eyes dragging up his thick thighs and body. He looks like a mountain. He’s huge, towering over me, with strength and hunger in every line of his body, but all he does is turn away, his chains slithering with him as he moves into the darkness. His back is covered in scars, some look like whip marks, other burns, disrupting the huge, black dragon tattooed there. I gasp at all the proof of his suffering and he turns his head, looking at me over his shoulder.
“Do not pity me, little one, I have done worse to them, and once I get free from these infernal chains, I will rip them to pieces with my bare hands and wear their blood like a coat,” he vows, before disappearing into the dark.
His words should horrify me, but I find myself nodding with a small smile on my face. These men deserve death and if this…creature thinks he can give them that, then I should help. Maybe I could get him free somehow? Earn his trust? He might not kill me then. It seems strange, seeking protection from a monster against humans, but then again, the monster you know is better than the one you don’t.
I shuffle back until I sit in the corner, tilting my head against the wall as I close my eyes, trying to push away the memory of Rachel. Maybe I’m being too accepting of this and what happened to me back there. I killed those men like they were toys. I don’t understand and that terrifies me. Is there something inside me?
Something that likes the taste of blood and death? I shiver again and wrap my arms around my knees, bringing them to my chest and pressing my head to them, trying to force myself to sleep. I don’t know how, but I can still feel his eyes on me, and for some reason that settles me, so I find myself drifting to sleep under his watchful gaze.
