“Ani.”
She flinched as the familiar voice caressed her in the darkness she was now accustomed to. Sharply turning her head around, she looked into the black void. “Who are you?” she demanded. “Why do you keep bringing me in here?”
“Why do you keep putting yourself in situations where I need to?”
“What?”
A wet tongue slathered up the blood dripping down from the nick against her collarbones. When hands cupped her cheeks, she looked up. She didn't see anyone. Again.
The urge to scream in frustration overcame her. She was exhausted of being powerless. How many more times did she have to endure ignorance?
“Scream,” the voice encouraged her softly. “Don’t suppress it, and let it go.”
Her eyes widened. “How…”
She felt warmth at her back, but when she looked behind, only vapors existed. “I’ve seen inside your mind. Ani’s mind. Helene’s mind. Whoever you choose to be, whichever face you choose to wear, I’ve tasted your thoughts and desires. And do you know what I think?”
Ani swallowed, not wanting to hear the answer. If this…entity had truly invaded her most inner thoughts — the place where she hid the most depraved parts of her soul — she didn’t want to face it.
“No, Ani,” it answered her thoughts, shocking her once again. “You think it’ll scare me? It thrills me.”
A hot breeze encircled her waist, pulling her towards a destination in the abyss she couldn’t even see. “You thrill me,” it continued. “You tried avoiding me, but here you are again. Why, Ani? Why are you trying to fight it?”
A phantom hand gripped her hip firmly. “I don’t even know what you are to fight you,” she argued, touching her waist to find the touch. She came into contact with her own body. “Why can’t I see you? Touch you? Why am I the only one in the dark?”
It gave a pleased chuckle. “Do you want to see me, beautiful? Touch me?”
I want to know, she thought to herself.
“Close your eyes,” it whispered into her ear.
She closed them, though not much changed in her vision as the back of her eyelids mirrored the darkness of the abyss.
Hands slowly trailed down the lengths of her arms, causing her to shiver in its wake. It reached her hands, lifting them to place on a hard surface — something that felt like the powerful chest of a man. She peeked an eye open but still saw nothing.
“Tsk,” it chided, slapping her rear. Ani jolted. “Keep them closed.”
She shut her eyes again, her heart beats fluttering and her rear tingling. What was this heat climbing down her body?
“Clear your mind,” it purred. “Don’t be afraid of me. Of the dark. Of the abyss. Of yourself. Let down you walls. Let me in.”
It’s words were a seductive pull, softening her senses and easing the ball of tension that had gathered in the pit of her gut from…she didn’t remember. How did she get here? Wasn’t there something important she had to get back to? It didn’t matter. The thoughts and memories escaped her.
“How?” she asked, it's invitation feeling so warm and easy and preferable to pressing it all down and suffocating the deepest parts of herself.
It moved her hands to travel across the length of the phantom body, moving them from it’s chest to it’s broad, muscled shoulders. Ani felt wet lips grazing her ear. “You have to want it. Want me.”
“I want to see you,” she whispered. “I want to know.”
“More,” it urged, her cloak falling to the ground.
“I want to show you.”
She felt it’s fingers deftly unbuttoning her tunic. “Show me what, beautiful?”
Ani's chest heaved in uneven breaths as the chill air touched the bare expanse of her stomach. “Who I am.”
The clasp of her pants came undone next. “Why?” it growled, it’s own breaths sounding heavier.
She tried to think, but as the material slid down her legs, it was hard to complete a single thought. The voice in the back of her mind told her to wake up and take back her senses, but she chased it away. For once, she felt good. She wasn’t afraid, and it empowered her. With the last few months weighing her down and the moments of complete helplessness and desperation that had stifled her, she wanted it.
“Why?” she repeated it’s question. She knew her answer now. “Because I want to be free.”
Silence. The only sound was her thrashing pulse.
This time it’s voice was clear, deep, and so close. “Open your eyes.”
She did.
It wasn’t a phantom or a force standing before her. It was a man. A colossal one with strength etched into his very skin. Her eyes wandered up. Black eyes clashed with hers. Ani gasped. He was stunning, with locks of luscious black hair that brushed against his powerful shoulders and a sharply cut face holding plush lips and a straight nose.
His smirk was purely carnal as he looked at her with glazed eyes. “Hello, beautiful.”
Closing in on her, his very real hands stroked her naked waist, slowly inching it way up to the garments hiding her breasts. “You, my dear, are absolutely exquisite,” he breathed into her ears.
She swiftly clutched his hands away before he could snap the hook open. “Who are you?”
Now that a real man was before her instead of an unknown breeze or a ghost she could tell herself were all imagined in her head, wariness and embarrassment trickled into her. Undressed in front of a stranger and still trapped in a place that made no sense, Ani’s awareness prickled back to life.
He grabbed her chin, bringing her eyes to look up at him again. “Don’t do that,” he snapped, his black eyes looking angry. “Don’t shut me out again.”
His voice sounded distant, and his body started to fade — as if her thoughts were taking her away from him again. He stepped into her, walking closer and closer as she stepped back. Ani’s legs hit a hard surface and then she was falling onto a soft mattress. He came with her, resting his elbows on each side of her face as he hovered over her body.
“I can be whoever you need me to be,” he whispered, kissing the skin behind her neck.
Ani closed her eyes, tilting her head as a warm sensation washed over her. A part of her knew she shouldn’t be doing this and that there were so many things she couldn’t recall right now that needed to be resolved. But the way he was nipping at her skin and grazing her waist felt too good to care.
When his hips settled down, her legs automatically opened. A hoarse groan escaped him as he sucked on her neck, grinding against her mound until she sighed in pleasure. She wrapped her arms around the expanse of his shoulders, holding on as his arousal hardened against her.
“You feel good,” he rasped, kissing down her throat until his lips closed around her nipples through the fabric. She gasped when he caught her pebbled flesh between his teeth. “I love the way you sound, writhing beneath me.”
In a flash, he snapped open her garments, baring her sensitive breasts. Looking down at them with animalistic desire, he surged down to suck at her nipples until the pull of his teeth connected to the pulse between her thighs. A moan escaped and she undulated her hips to match his movements. He grew feral at that, kneeling to tear off his tunic and raining kisses up her legs until he reached her covered sex. She stared down at him with wide eyes, the sight of her widely parted legs pinned down by the breadth of his shoulders looking obscene. He gave her a wicked smile, roving his lips across the fabric separating him from his destination. Using his teeth, he leisurely pulled her underwear down, never breaking contact with her heavy eyes drooping from the anticipation. When they closed, he gnawed at her skin.
“Eyes on me,” he ordered.
She looked at him, watching him unveil the pink, wet flesh hiding underneath. “Look at you,” he marveled, licking his lips. “So ready for me already.”
Her hands clutched the sheets tangled around them. At the first contact of his tongue against her folds, she twitched, crying out loudly. It only encouraged him further, his mouth closing over a particularly sensitive nub that drew sparks across her nerves. He sucked on her there, desperately savoring her as if she were his last meal.
Wake up.
Ani. Wake up.
ANI.
She sat forward, looking around. That voice. She knew that voice.
The man still eating at her with unrelenting reserve waved his hand in the air and her back fell back against the bed. When was there a bed in the abyss? Who was she with —
Long, thick fingers entered her, curling as it pumped rhythmically. Ani cried out in pleasure.
“I’m not done with you yet,” he growled, using his thumb to rub her in circles while his fingers drove her mad.
ANI. WAKE UP.
Her eyes flew open, her lust subsiding. “Rafe,” she gasped, her memories slamming back into her. Rafe was trapped under the cells, injured and susceptible. She had to get to him.
Darkness came over her again, the bed and the man both fading. He cursed, looking around as the void started coming back into her vision. “Damn it, Ani.”
She looked down at her bare body then back into the black eyes of the man who was slowly disappearing. What had she just allowed to happen?
His nostrils flaring and anger flashing in his gaze, she saw him abruptly reach for her, placing a phantom hand on her head. “It pains me, but you can’t remember this,” he muttered. “It’s the only way.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but it was too late.
Gone.
Darkness.
Abyss.
“Ani, wake up.”
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