King of Me (8 page)

She has no fucking clue what lies ahead—the darkness, the pleasure.

She turns to run, but there is nowhere to hide on this island.
Oh, yes, fight, little Mia, fight. It will make tonight so much more exhilarating.
After I’m done with her—breaking her, hurting her, fucking her—she will realize how I have only given her what she truly desires, what she truly needs from me, but is too afraid to ask for. Yes, I am her king, and it is my blackened soul she longs for.

“Don’t fucking touch her.”

I laugh. It pleases me when the king’s feathers ruffle. “I bet she’ll enjoy the whip, too. I know you do.”

The king says nothing at first. He is realizing he cannot win.

“If you do this, there is no going back. And the outcome will not be in your favor. Best to cut your losses and let her go.”

“Let her go? And deny myself the pleasure I’ve waited so long for?” Yes, she wants me to tear away her clothes, to make her scream, to claim her.

“For fuck’s sake, you are goddamned sick. Which is why your plan will not work.
”

He’s doing it again. Trying to undermine me, make me doubt myself. But I will not fall for his tricks. I am the stronger one, the smarter one.

“Let her be, and end this. It is time for our suffering to be over. Time for
us
to move on.”

I think it over. Part of me shares the old king’s desire to stop our pain. But I want what I want. I want to finally take what’s mine. I want to fuck her and hurt her and break her. I know she will love it.

And when the time comes, she will choose me.

“It will never work.”

“Shut the fuck up. No one is asking you.”

CHAPTER SIX

Red.
I saw nothing but red light in King’s eyes. And I knew without a doubt that he intended to harm me.

I screamed, struggling in his iron grip while we moved up the hill with a speed my brain could not process. When he stopped, he threw me to the ground, and I landed with a thump in the darkness onto a hard wooden surface.

Torches burst to life around us, and I quickly saw we were underneath some sort of large circular thatched roof structure. In the middle was an enormous bed with restraints. I sat up staring at it, my mind buzzing with adrenaline. “Why are you doing this, King?”

He stood next to the bed and began removing his white shirt, one leisurely button at a time. “I know you’ve dreamed of this, Mia. Of me fucking you like a savage, of me taking you hard. And I plan to make all of your dreams come true tonight.”

“Those were my nightmares.”

He walked over and crouched in front of me, the fire dancing in his eyes and the red light of his evil soul swirling all around him. “Come, come now, my sweet Miss Turner; there is no reason to hide the truth from me.”

“What’s happened to you, King?” I whispered, desperately trying not to think about the things Mack had said. Because he had been right: this was not the King we knew. This was not that same disciplined and calculating man. This King was out of control. Vicious. And he had the right aura to prove it.

No, I must keep my thoughts to myself.

He laughed. “There are no secrets between us, Mia. I can crawl inside your mind and take what you won’t give me. Just as I can take from your body.”

King’s handsome face looked almost demonic.

“Did the 10 Club do something to you?” I whispered. “Did they put some sort of spell on you?” It was the only explanation I could think of.

“The 10 Club?” He roared with laughter. “I own those fucking clowns. They can’t touch me!”

Was he serious?

He grabbed me by the hair and dragged me to the bed. I kicked and screamed, but it only seemed to amuse him, make him laugh.

He threw me onto the bed, face down, and I felt him harnessing my ankle and then the other. I looked up at my wrist and caught sight of the gleaming silver cuff. I only had a moment before he tied my arms. I slid the cuff over to my left wrist to cover my “K” tattoo and shut my eyes, hoping something might happen—him suddenly unable to see me or…something.

Instead, I felt my right wrist being bound. “King, please stop! Please, I don’t want this. I won’t ever love you if you do this.” He tightened the restraint over my left wrist, and knowing that there was nothing I could do now, I started to pray for my life.

“You won’t be needing this.” He slid the diamond ring from my finger.

Oh fuck. He’s going to kill me.

“Not yet.” He laughed. I felt him rip my dress down the back and whip it from my body. “Oh yes, look at that fucking ass.” He palmed my flesh and slapped it hard.

I sucked in a sharp breath from the pain and tried not to cry, because it only made him more excited.

No, must remain calm. Try to talk to him, make him see this is wrong.

“King, please stop,” I said. “I know there’s something inside you that understands what you’re doing isn’t right. I know a part of you cares.”
I just don’t know where it went. But please come back to me. Please.

His sharp teeth bit into my back as he stripped away my panties and strapless bra, leaving me completely bare and face down.
This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. I don’t want this.

He slid his hand between my legs from behind and stroked me hard.

I cried out.

“Yes. Scream, just like that, my little Seer bitch. Just like that.”

I held my breath, bracing for what I knew would come next: a horrible nightmare coming to life.

Where had he gone? The King who’d saved my mother, who’d save me once, too. I thought of that man, and of how Mack tried to warn me. “Run, Mia. Fucking run.” Why hadn’t I listened this time?

The tears of desperation poured from my eyes as I felt King lay over my unwilling body, prodding me with his erection through his black jeans.

“This is what you want, isn’t it?” he asked.

“No.”
Dear God, no.

“Yes, it is. That’s the good little girl speaking. But I’m not giving you your prize just yet.” He backed off, reaching for something. “First, a little foreplay. Then I will fuck you until that boring bitch is purged from your body.” He leaned over to whisper in my ear. “We’ll be together, Mia. You, me, and that black little heart of yours. Because I know you love me…I know I am what you really want.” He straddled me, and from the corner of my eye, I saw his hand lift high into the air. In it he held a whip with multiple arms and knots on the ends, the kind that looked like it could take the skin clean off.

My heart isn’t black. I’ll never love you.

He roared with laughter. “Says the woman who slit a man’s throat today and enjoyed it; just as I’d hoped. Now try not to move. This will only hurt a little,” he said with a sinister tone that clearly meant it would hurt a lot.

My mind, perhaps to protect me from the horror, instantly focused on a place that was safe, a place where King couldn’t go: my heart. He could never touch it. I would be safe there.

I felt a sharp pain and heard my cries fade into the distance.

~~~

The gentle sound of waves caressed my mind in a peaceful dream, a dream where my body lay resting on powdery sand, the warm sun cocooning me in a blanket woven from clouds and tropical air. I couldn’t recall ever feeling so at peace or so comfortable. Was I dead? Was I somewhere inside my mind, hiding from King?

I rubbed my eyes and slowly sat up to take in the long stretch of sand and deep green forest skirting the pristine beach. The sun was high in the sky, about noonish, and I wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing.

No clothes.
I winced and then closed my eyes, pushing away the dark images of King, of that horrible island. If this was a dream, I didn’t want to wake. Not ever. I would rather die naked in a strange place than return to that nightmare.

How could he do that to me? How?
It didn’t make sense. Not when King needed me to free him from his torment.

Mack had been right, that’s how.
That had been a monster back on the island. And that monster wanted me to fall into some dark, delusional state where I’d learn to love him.
After he’d beaten and raped me.

No.
I shook my head slowly. That had to be another one of those strange visions like I’d had in Vaughn’s cell, or like the time of Justin’s death when my mind had been there but my body hadn’t.

Maybe I’m having a vision now.

But as I surveyed my body, the burn marks on my wrists and ankles, which were red and raw, certainly felt real.

I blew out a heartbroken breath that hurt just as badly as my wounds. I suddenly felt the bile creep from my stomach and launch over my naked chest. “Oh God.” I flipped over and heaved.

After a minute or so, the pain subsided. I stood and stumbled my way to the water. Dream or not, I didn’t want to be covered in my own sick.

The warm ocean water simultaneously stung my fresh wounds but felt soothing on my trembling body. I walked out as far as I could and then dove head first into a cresting wave. Yes, the water felt real. The salt in my mouth tasted real, too. But how did I get here? This couldn’t be right.

Another of King’s tricks?
After all, the man had powers I couldn’t begin to comprehend, one of which was the ability to crawl inside my body and show me his memories. He’d done it once before.

Yes. That had to be what was happening. The only issue was that this felt real, not like a memory or watching a movie.

My head pounded and my stomach began to cramp again, but I held it together. And that’s when it hit me. My nausea and headaches only came when my mind didn’t want to accept reality. It’d happened on the day I’d learned about being a Seer and I’d felt my two conflicting realities collide.

Christ. It just happened when Mack tried to warn you about King.

But this can’t be real.
I felt my face turn hot and more bile creep up.

There was my proof: more resistance, more nausea.

I dove underneath the waves, allowing the ocean to pacify my angry, frayed nerves. When I brought my head up for a breath, I spotted a young woman with dark hair and skin, wearing a white dress, standing on the beach and staring at me.

I stared back but didn’t speak. Besides, what would I say? “Hey! I’m naked. Got any idea where I am and how I got here?” Instead, I waded in the water for several moments and then hesitantly lifted my shaky hand to wave.

A look of surprise overtook her face, and she sprinted away, disappearing into the forest.

At that moment, something sharp jabbed my toe as I bounced along the bottom. “Shit!” The pain seared its way up my leg, and I paddled back to the shore where I crawled from the water.

“Oh no.” Blood seeped from a small puncture wound. My vision blurred, and I tried to blink it away, but the burn traveled quickly into my chest, cramping every muscle I had.

I fell onto my back.
Real. Not a dream. Real, Mia.

~~~

Sharp-toned words, spoken in a loud hiss, were what woke me this second time around. I couldn’t understand a single damned thing, but a woman and man argued over something.

Cautiously, I popped open one eye and found myself lying on a wooden table. The home looked to have three rooms without any doors. The walls were made of smooth white plaster and a thatched roof with wooden beams. Wherever we were, these were very simple people who lived without electricity or running water.

I slowly began to move the rest of my body, surveying the damage. Someone had draped a flimsy piece of fabric, too small to be called a sheet, over most of my torso. My leg throbbed, too, but my foot burned like a sonofabitch. Both had been bandaged.

Shit. What happened?
I wasn’t sure what to do or say because the situation had zero explanation. Not only that, but I didn’t know where I was or how I’d gotten there. I only knew I didn’t ever want to go back to the hell I’d run from. There would be no saving myself in that place, which meant there’d be no redemption for that evil bastard I’d trusted like a fool, which meant there’d be no saving Justin. What would happen to my poor parents now?

Simply put, everything was fucked. Fucked up beyond salvation.

And if I ever get the chance, I will hunt King down and end him.
What King did to me, whatever the reason, there would be no forgiving. No amount of hate in this world could measure up to the rage I felt.
Evil bastard. I hope you burn in hell.

The only questions now were: Where the hell was I? And how long would it take for King to find me?

I hope never.

I then realized I still wore the silver cuff on my left wrist. Was there some chance that the bracelet had worked and taken me somewhere “far, far away where King would never find me”?

I sat up slowly, and the young woman shrieked and jumped back, as did the man. It was the same woman who’d watched me on the beach.

“Anyone happen to speak English?” I ground out my words, my brain throbbing against the inner walls of my skull.

The man with deep brown skin, in his late forties perhaps, wearing a simple-looking, cream-colored tunic that hung down to his knees, pointed at me and barked a few angry words.

“I don’t understand,” I said.

He grabbed a clump of my blonde hair and shouted as if accusing me of some wrongdoing. Was I in a country where women showing hair was a crime? But no, the young woman in the room wore hers loose, and her dress, though long and unrevealing, showed plenty of shoulder and neck.

He looked at the young woman—also with dark skin and hair and perhaps in her late teens—and screamed at her again before storming outside.

“What was that about?” I asked.

The woman and I exchanged several awkward glances, but she didn’t speak.

I carefully swung my feet to the dirt floor. “I’m Mia. Mia.” I pointed to myself.