Defeat the Darkness (Hearts of Darkness) (9 page)

Kyle closed his eyes and endured the burning pain. He withstood her assault, wondering what evil thing she’d shared blood with to take on this power.

And to think, she planned to make him like her.
Never!

While she wreaked havoc on his body, Kyle swore he would never allow himself to become what she was. Despite the painful tearing at his flesh, she forced him to remain conscious.

The room grew darker all around him as she took more and more of his blood, draining him until he was close to death. His heartbeat slowed and he wondered if this was how it would happen, how she would drain him and feed him her own tainted blood. The blood loss made him so weak and thirsty, the idea of drinking from her had merit, but the consequences reminded him why he should die first.

“Now, doctor?”

Chapter 11 Release

She lifted her face from his chest and wiped his blood from her lips. When he opened his eyes to hers, wondering what she expected, he realized her demon had faded, and the vision of the painfully beautiful woman he’d first seen in the compound had returned.

“Will you accept my blood, now?”

The silver in her eyes still swirled with the demon bloodlust, not fooling Kyle. Too weak to speak, he slowly moved his head from side to side denying her what she wanted.

He flinched at her high-pitched scream.

She spit out orders to her surprised female guard. “Take him and punish him.” They remained in a terrifying state, half shifted—part female—part jaguar as Amyra spun on her heels and disappeared through the far door.

Punish?
There was more? He could barely see his eyes were so heavy, mere slits.

The first guard with the partial facial features of a jaguar, had fully assumed her human form. She whipped her finger over the blood on Kyle’s body and sucked it from her fingers.

“Taste his power,” she whispered. Her voice sounded like nothing more than a garbled growl as she spoke to the other guard in the local dialect.

The other shook her head. “He is weak from the bloodletting. The blood will be thin, not worth the risk.” She looked down at him, then at the door where Amyra had exited. The guard’s face and body was almost entirely human again. Kyle wasn’t fooled. He knew they retained the super strength of the jaguar.

“It is not thin.” The first guard bent down and licked him. “He is part shifter now. He smells delicious, and his blood has the properties of both human and shifter. She keeps him drained on purpose. Until he drinks pure human blood, he will remain weak and under her control.”

The information registered as Kyle cringed. The shifter’s coarse tongue was enough to flake away his sensitive skin.

“Be careful with him. Do not injure him further.”

“I have no intention of damaging him. I intend to follow orders and torture him with pleasure as she instructed.”

The shifter spent time teasing him with her hands and tongue. The forced attentions, though degrading, were both pleasurable and painful. Still stimulated from Amyra’s seduction, Kyle couldn’t help responding.

He arced against the shifter’s hands, hating her for arousing him and himself for wanting just a single touch. His erection wouldn’t subside no matter how he tried to ignore it.

“I should help.” The second Jaguar shifter joined the first and ran her tongue over an open wound eliciting a groan from Kyle. “You are right. Even weakened as he is, his blood is rich.”

They swirled their tongues over every inch of his skin and occasionally nipped him with their sharp teeth, drawing more blood before licking him clean. Careful not to take too much, they also managed to arouse him. For the sole reason of keeping him from coming, they skirted the one spot on his body that needed just a single touch for his relief.

Torture.

Kyle’s whole body was hot, tense, and vibrated with desperation. For a split second, he remembered the way Shelby’s mouth felt devou
ring his length and sucking him.

This was sick. He cleared his mind of her. He didn’t want to think about her while he was here being sexually tortured by two other women—half jaguar, half shifter. His feelings for Shelby were pure. This was filthy. Making love to her was more than a physical act or animal instinct. Not this, this perverted arousal—a sick reaction to pure physical stimuli.

The pain made him weak, and he needed his strength to survive. Although he couldn’t stand the way his body betrayed him, he knew she’d understand. Not just understand. She’d be furious that he’d been subjected to this treatment.

He smiled.
Shelby would fight like a she-devil for him.

As a tongue whipped ever closer to his cock, he groaned and arched his back. Thoughts of Shelby would help him come without their touch. Memories of her took him away from this place and would soon relieve the pain. He imagined her eyes and her full generous lips—how she licked them like a cat covered in cream when she stared at his cock.

The image made him ache.

She would bend over, take one or two long swipes with her soft tongue, and then nuzzle his groin. Finally, she’d kiss her way up his shaft, teasing it with her tongue until she reached the tip...

Kyle screamed as he ejaculated into the air, spilling himself all over his chest and abdomen while the jaguar guards screamed at him to stop.

Females! What did they know about a man’s need? He wanted to laugh.
Stop?
As if he could.

He continued erupting like an over-active volcano, and when he thought he couldn’t possibly produce any more, the creamy liquid jettisoned again until he pumped himself dry.
Finally.

He closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.

“No, no! You were not to bring yourself to completion.” The one guard shouted and struck him hard in the head.

“The queen will be furious.” The other guard removed Kyle’s shackles from the bed and dragged him out of Amyra’s, room, shouting orders back to the other guard. “You clean up in here. I will take him to his room and throw him in the shower to get rid of any evidence. She must never know.”

~~~~

Kyle must have passed out because he didn’t remember the trip to his room, and when he came to the shifter guard was in her full human form, naked, holding Kyle up against the wall. To his disgust, the guard tried licking his chest.

“Stop that,” he said, weakly pushing the female aside. He had to escape the madness.

“To us jaguars, your essence is said to be more powerful than your blood.” She backed away as if thinking better of what they were doing. “But you shouldn’t have come. The mistress will be furious if she finds out. We must remove all trace of your release.”

“Try the soap and water technique. It’s worked for me for years.”

He moved under the warm shower stream and the guard soaped up Kyle’s body. While he weakly hung on to the towel bar to keep upright, the guard massaged the soreness from his shoulders. Kyle relaxed his bunched muscles. This was nice a change from the constant torture, especially since they always dumped him on the floor in his suite.

If he could think straighter, he’s figure out what this was all about. This good guy, bad guy approach was different and...weird.

There was no denying it felt wonderful to get Amyra’s cardamom and sex smell off him, and the heat from the shower seeped into his soul pulling the tension from his muscles. He closed his eyes, ready to relax just when he felt the woman’s soapy hands between his legs and her mouth covered his. For a moment, Kyle was tempted to just give in and go with it. Then his eyes popped open and he shoved the guard away with more strength than he knew he had.

“But you are still hard,” the female argued.

Kyle looked down at himself. The swollen member between his legs was still erect despite pumping out a larger load than ever before.

“We will relieve each other and she needn’t know.” The jaguar woman smiled and tried to place his hand between her legs.

Kyle groaned. “Leave me. I’ll take care of this myself.”

The woman ran a hand over Kyle’s chest. “You are an exceptional human. Your blood and your essence have much flavor.” Her fingers traced Kyle’s nipples while Kyle batted them away. The guard licked her lips as she stared at him. “I wish to take your length in my mouth and swallow your essence.”

“No, sorry. Not gonna happen. My essence will go down the drain. Thank you anyway.” He opened the shower door and pointed.

Reluctantly, the guard stepped out and toweled off, but Kyle noticed she didn’t bother with her clothes. She paused and posed with her sleek, beautiful body aroused for him. “Perhaps another time?”

“Thanks, but no thanks.”

She tilted her head to the side and shrugged.

Thank God, she left without argument. He was seriously too weak to fight the jaguar woman. He slumped against the tile and waited, tension simmering through his nerves. When he heard the lock click in the outside door, he relaxed.

Finally, he was alone.

~~~~

Kyle woke up on his stomach in his bed. He barely recalled how he’d managed his way there, but he did remember elements of a dream and Julian’s words from the day he’d shifted for the first time.

The boy said if he tried focusing on the jaguar he could shift. If he could manage to assume the body of the jaguar inside him, his wounds would heal, and he could regain some of his strength.

He couldn’t deal with much more of this. Every chance he had, he practiced shifting, focusing on the jaguar. The difference between days and nights were subtle, not easily determined by the lack of routine or the perpetual half-light in the underground maze where Amyra resided. Time in the dark jungle and below ground was deceiving. How long had he been held captive—six maybe seven days?

At times, Kyle presumed while she slept, he was kept in the locked suite, free to roam the three rooms, but too weak to do much more. Each morning, one of the villagers brought him food, but there was always a jaguar guard with him, usually one of the large males.

If he could figure out how to shift, at least he’d be stronger if the jaguar within him had to take on the guards. Maybe he could escape with one of the villagers.

Later that night, he would be brought to Amyra’s rooms and bound to her bed. They would go through the same routine as always.

She’d asked him the same question. “Are you ready for your transmutation?”

He would reply the same way he had each time she asked. “No.”

Every time she started out patient and seductive.

It was too late to seduce him. He’d already seen her true nature. No matter what he was or what had happened to him, he couldn’t imagine becoming that kind of monster.

So later tonight, like every other night, he would deny her again…unless he could escape.

A noise at his door drew his attention.

Today the villager was alone. “Where is the guard?” Kyle asked in Spanish.

The young man answered in the native dialect, “He is just down the hall, signore.”

“Do you know why I am being kept here?”

“
Si
, the dark one needs you for her strength. She grows older and needs more power.” The young man glanced around the room, his attention on the door.

“Why me?”

“You are the human who survived the jaguar shift, no? You are different. She believes you are strong enough to also survive the change to vampire,” he whispered under his breath. The man didn’t look at Kyle while he picked up the baskets and trays from the previous day.

Kyle kept his eye on the door, waiting for the guard to arrive. “Do you know why she asks my permission?”

The young man turned and stared at him, then smiled. “Because you are now a jaguar shifter. You cannot be turned without your cooperation. You must submit willingly.”

“One last question before the guard shows up. The boy, Julian, is he safe?”

“
Sí, sí
. The queen is very angry. He has disappeared into the jungle.”

Kyle breathed a long sigh of relief.

The door opened and the large male jaguar-shifter, Amyra’s favorite rogue, stepped into the room. His body was entirely human, yet his eyes revealed the evil within. “What’s going on?” He shoved the young man out the door. “I heard voices.”

“I was just asking him if he could bring more bread tomorrow.”

“If you need anything, you should ask the queen.” He snarled and sneered.

Kyle wanted to laugh. The likelihood of her doing him any favors after he kept refusing her was slim to none.

“Salir de aquí.”
The guard ordered the villager out, and the man scurried away with yesterday’s waste and dishes.

After sending the servant off, the guard turned his orders on Kyle. “Come. You have been summoned.

He shoved Kyle into the corridor and followed him to Amyra’s room.

It seemed earlier than usual. As a rule, Amyra didn’t call for him until after sunset. Although it was still hard to tell night from day, he was getting better at judging time.

The room was empty and the guard left him standing, alone and unbound for a change. He wondered about the change in routine but didn’t wonder long before the door from Amyra’s room opened.

When she entered, looking more exquisite than ever, she paced the room without a glance in his direction.

Kyle had a bad feeling about all this.

“I heard you were talking to the village servant, today,” Amyra said.

“It was nothing. I just wondered if I could have more bread tomorrow.”

“That’s not true.” She turned and sneered at him. “Even when I sleep I can hear you.”

Kyle’s insides twisted, and he knew not to lie again. He may as well tell the truth. Even if he managed to block his own thoughts, he’d forgotten about the villagers’. “I asked after Julian.”