Iniquitous (The Marked #3)(8)
I smiled back at him. I hadn't really meant to, but my mouth seemed to have a mind of its own.
“You do know what this means, don't you?” he asked, crooking an eyebrow at me.
I rolled my eyes in response. “We're still not friends, Dominic.”
His grin widened, lighting up his smoldering eyes. “I'd venture to say we're going to be a lot more than that.”
I swallowed down the knot at the back of my throat.
“You'll be bonded to me, angel. In every way. Are you prepared to willingly enter into that bond with me? To submit to me entirely?” He blinked impishly as his loaded words speared through my body like a dagger.
The room suddenly felt as though it were shrinking, closing in on me. My mouth opened to speak, but it was as though the words refused to pass from my lips.
“You'd be trusting me with the one true thing you have left in this world,” he continued, seeing how deep he could drive his weapon. “Trusting that I’d return it to you when this was all over.”
“It?” Biting my lip, I tried to ignore the acid rising from the pit of my stomach.
His eyes sparkled with sin as he lowered his gaze to my mouth. “Your free will, of course.”
“My free will. Right.” Oh, God, the room was definitely shrinking. And where the hell did all the air go?
I wasn't sure what to say at that point. Did I trust Dominic? And if so, could I actually trust him with my life? I'd essentially be turning myself into a puppet. Dominic's puppet. All on the slim glimmer of hope that when this was all over and done with, he'd cut the strings and set me free. I wasn't sure if I could trust him. Heck, I wasn't sure there was anyone on this green earth that I would trust with that kind of power over me, but it was the only option I had right now. My only chance at an escape.
It was him or Engel.
“I trust you, Dominic,” I said, trying not to trip on the words as they came out of my mouth. Pulling up my cuff bracelet, I raised my hand to the small peeper window and slipped it through the bars, giving him full access to my wrist. “I have no other choice.”
Something dark and wild flickered through his expression, but I didn’t have the nerve to figure it out.
“I know you'll do the right thing,” I continued, watching the ravenous look in his eyes as he took my wrist in his hand and exposed his fangs, ready and willing to indulge in me.
“I'm certainly glad one of us does, angel,” he said and then bit down into my flesh.
4. BONDED BY BLOOD
I wasn't sure if it was because of the budding bond I'd already established with Dominic, or just that I was too tired and weak to feel anything, but the pain from his bite never came. The instant his fangs broke through my skin, my entire body surged with rapture, with euphoria, with an unbearable need for more, and all I could do was bow down and obey it. Lurching forward, I pressed myself against the door that no longer held me prisoner and sucked in a breath of air I forgot to let out. Every inch of my body begged for more of my newfound escape, and Dominic happily obliged.
The cruel world slipped away from me, and with it went all the other bad things in my life; the dungeon I was locked inside of, the putrid smell of death that was always in the air, the agonizing loss of the boy I loved. It was just me and my medicine now. My cure. My only reprieve from the onslaught of pain that rained down on me time and time again.
In that brief moment, I was as free as the wind.
As he drank, tiny black dots began to paint my peripheral, further melting away my view of the doomed world I now lived in. And I welcomed them, basked in them, until there was nothing left but the utterly blinding blackness of a peaceful end. I crumbled through the air and fell to the ground in a pile of lifeless limbs.
I wanted to shout out at him to take more. To give me more. To break down the door and give me all of it. But I couldn't speak. I couldn't move. I was in a catatonic state of nothingness. Of everythingness.
“I'll be seeing you, angel,” I heard him say as sleep came down on me and took me once again.
I woke up alone in the dark sometime later. I wasn't sure how much time had gone by, but I felt colder and more alone than ever. Dominic's face flashed through my mind and I found myself wanting for him, knowing he was the only one who could make this nightmare go away again. My eyes scanned the door, hoping I’d find him there watching me sleep, waiting to give me another dose of my medicine, but there was no one there.
Pulling my knees up to my chest, I hugged myself for warmth and lowered my disappointed eyes to the ground. Before I could release even a single disappointed sigh, something at the floor by the prison door snagged my attention. Bold, vibrant colors scattered on the ground amidst the grimy lifeless palette of dirt and concrete.
Food!
I lunged forward on all fours and scurried across the cell like a wild, starving animal. I didn’t even bother to clean it or inspect it; I just snatched up every piece of food I could find on the ground and shoveled it into my mouth. Sweet nectar splashed over my tongue, tickling every taste bud I had and even those I didn't know existed.
My eyes rolled back in my head as I swallowed my mouthful and then packed in some more, barely chewing as I devoured everything that was in my hands. I never remembered food tasting so good—so magical. In mere seconds, it was all gone, wholly and heartily devoured, and already I was feeling better. Invigorated.