Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 44088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 220(@200wpm)___ 176(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
I scream as a blazing harsh lash lands across my ass. Kail has never purposefully caused me pain before, and the breaking of that barrier hurts almost as much as the physical blow, which is swiftly repeated again and again, lashing harshly. I cannot see what he is using, but the sensation suggests something thick, flexible, and strong.
I have to draw breath deeply to keep my composure. I don’t want to thrash and scream. I don’t want to beg for mercy, because I do not deserve mercy. I deserve this.
Eventually it is impossible to stop myself from crying out. Kail shows me no quarter. He whips me as I deserve to be whipped, hard, fast, and at a steady pace without ceasing.
I throw myself into the abyssal heat and pain. I feel my mind start to fuzz and my body begin to react in new ways, absorbing and accepting the pain, melting around it.
“More,” I sob when he lays down the lash. “I deserve more.”
“If I give you any more, you will bleed,” he says. “And that is something I am not prepared to do to you, no matter what you have done. We will resume your punishment later. For now you have taken all I will give.”
Kail
She would gladly let me kill her. In such a state, punishment is nothing but playing into her guilt. She loathes herself to protect herself against my loathing. She wants me to hurt her, because she fears me hurting her. Animal instincts are twisted up in this lying human, woven in such a way as to make her crave what she should avoid.
I have reddened her rear, but it is not enough. I have to talk some sense into her as well. “I need you to get your self-preservation back, and quickly. If we are going to survive out here, we need to protect ourselves.”
“I didn’t protect you,” she whimpers with reddened eyes.
“Of course you did. I was barely captured before you released me. You suffered a longer imprisonment than I did, and that was because I had to develop a plan of attack. I understand you feel bad, but you feel much worse than I do.”
“You do? You don’t hate me?”
“I told you I did not hate you.”
“I thought you were just saying that to be polite.”
“I am not someone who says things to be polite.”
“That’s true.”
“I forgive you.” I try to reassure her, but she cannot process forgiveness.
“You’re only forgiving me because otherwise you’re afraid I’ll wallow in self-pity and get us both killed.”
I growl. “You are the most… I forgive you because we were enemy actors. Both of us. Have you forgiven me? I intended you harm.”
She makes a face. “But you didn’t, though.”
“Yes, I did.”
“No. I knew you didn’t.”
“Listen to me, animal, I intended you great harm.”
“You wanted to intend me harm,” she says. “But you could never have hurt me.”
She lives in a world of her own mental construction, navigating around obstacles that may or may not exist. It must be part of her life of deception, to constantly imagine the thoughts and impulses of others. Perhaps she is right some of the time. Perhaps she is right now. Maybe I am retroactively claiming greater villainy than I was capable of…
“You make my head hurt, human.”
She gives a sad little smile. “I make my head hurt too.”
9
Tarni
“It tickles, animal.” Kail shifts uncomfortably.
He used to call me animal to keep a separation between us, but now there is a certain affection in his tone when he uses the moniker. He said he forgives me, and I think I have to either believe him, or go straight up insane with guilt.
“Stay still, savage,” I rejoin. “Nope. Don’t like the way that sounds in my mouth. Sorry about that.”
“Don’t apologize for words. Be sorry for the torture.”
He’s being dramatic, which is very uncommon for him, but that is because what is happening is very uncommon too. He is sitting naked on a stool and I am painting his muscles with a yellow paint that turns his green skin blue. Color theory, baby. Everything is a weapon in my hands. I’ve never had so much free rein before to do whatever I need to do. Prior missions always had their boundaries, but now I am fighting for my life, and Kail’s. I’m pulling out all the stops. By the time I am done with Kail, he is going to be completely unrecognizable.
He really does not like the touch of the brush. It is too wet and too tickly for his liking, but Kail allows me to do this because he trusts me, and he trusts me because he loves me. Not because I deserve it, or because I’m manipulating him into it, but because he just fucking does. It’s quite a novel experience for me. I’m not sure what to do with it, or how to trust it.