The collar laid discarded in the cell, the drug in the vials abandoned with it.
His fingers were still shaking as he stroked his neck, feeling the citrus and lavender-scented watered soothe the wounds that remained. He lowered his hand, his head and back pressed against the pool’s smooth pebbled edge. He pried his fingers from his bruised neck, watching a perfectly round drop float downwards, pushing into the water. The surface rippled slowly, a crown rising from the liquid before sinking back down. The pearl itself splintered into smaller pieces that melted back into the soothing, steaming sea.
His fingers tips stroked the bath’s surface; the current back and forth sparkled like stars, and when he lifted his fingertips, he watched the pearls drop, and the crowns rise before melting back down. The liquid beads gliding down and uniting with the pool soothed him, distracted him from the absolute wreck he was earlier.
His body pummeled and stained with blood, his nerves erupting with carnal pleasure and horrendous pain. His emotions taking him over, forcing him to break down in front of the one person he needed to hate more than anyone. He had sought comfort from the woman who handled his torment in the first place!
He grimaced, closing his eyes tightly.
Of course, he sought comfort! She left him in a cell with a deranged, vengeful animal!
Before that, she and that fucking Scientist molested and beaten him, all to ‘test’ his mutation.
He lifted his palms and pressed them against his face, taking slow, shuddering breaths as thoughts raced through his throbbing mind.
I defended myself.
I have fought plenty of crooks and scumbags before.
Fuck, Eric was one of them!
He was going to kill me! It was self-defense!
He bit his lip, chewing on it. He ground his teeth against the bruised and swollen flesh, tasting the blood and pus that busted out.
He was rotting away. That poor bastard was dying.
So what if he’s dead?!
So what if I killed him?!
He pulled his hands away from his face, looking at his scarred, twitching fingers. The pain from the persistent chewing on his lip, combined with the swirling tempest in his brain made him moan. Much to his anguish, the double dose of misery also released dopamine. Pleasure centers fired as he lowered his hands into the water, his tongue running over the self-inflicted open wound.
I had to kill him. Just like I had to kill mom. If I didn’t, I would’ve been trapped. Raped… killed…
Abandoned.
I had no choice.
Salty, massive drops slid from his eyes, down his cheek to his chin. His face flushed, and his brow crunched upwards. He smiled through the tears. Each drop broke his reflection hitting the surface, sparkling ripples moving outwards from where each tear landed.
“I had no choice… She made me do it.”
Waves crashed against his bruised chest, the ripples from his tears interrupted by a sudden thud splashing into the bath. The water got hotter, streams of humidity dripping down the blue and cold tiles of the spa walls. The bath temperature must’ve risen several degrees as a familiar, sultry sigh accompanied the current hitting him. He grimaced, looking up from the aggravated surface, towards his unwanted bathing companion’s muscular, dark bronze knees.
Ira was with him the entire time.
Leading him from the prison that held the carcass of a beast that was once human. She had commanded the guards to stay outside the bathing suite and ordered the maids away from them.
She didn’t want anyone else to tend to him. She washed him with most incredible gentleness, removing the dried browns and rest of blood and mashed entrails from his flesh. With her touch, she revealed purple and blue blotches marbling porcelain skin. She brushed through the tangled locks of his hair with her left arm, the prosthetic covered with a malleable rubber while her right hand massaged his neck with her heated fleshy fingers. She washed his hair, and once she finished rinsing his body, she took his hand with delicacy unbecoming of her and lead him into the pool-sized, heated spring.
She did all of this in soothing silence.
He had nothing to say to her.
She had nothing he wanted to hear.
“I think we both needed this.” Ira purred softly, her arms resting on the edge of the bath, her legs falling open as she moaned and shimmied downward, her breasts submerged into the water. She gazed at him, a small smile gracing her face as she admired his freshly cleaned body, “I’ve wanted to take you here. To spoil you a bit.” She flicked her long orange curls over her shoulders, coiling rivers of lava floating on the aqua spring, “This is one of several large baths on our Island. The training grounds; remember, that? There is also a similarly sized spa underground.” Her eyes shifted downwards, her smile fading into a shamed frown, “Perhaps I should’ve taken you there after our first bout.”
He closed his eyes, one word in her inane ramblings leveling a precise strike against his chest. He shook suddenly, the shock of it infuriating and pleasing him. Rolling the words over and over in his head, his copper-covered lips parted, “O-our Island?”
That shamed frown turned into a wide grin, “Of course. This is your home.”
“… Are you serious…?” His eyes widened, unblinking, before he gripped his sides, shaking as he laughed, “You still think I-I want to stay here?”
That grin faded, and Ira’s brow lifted slightly as she stared at him blankly, “Do you have a choice?”
He clenched his teeth, leaning his head back and covering his eyes with his hand. Despite the heat, his hand was shivering. His shoulders sagged, and he spat out with disgruntled defeat, “No. No, I don’t.”
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