Page 90 of Reforging Onyx

Onyx

Onyx wasn’t so sure.

“I want freedom if something happens to you." He grabbed Dominic’s wrist to still his hand. “Not to go live with your family as their slave. But freedom.”

“My sister’s instructions are to free you. To remove the collar however she can and to assist you,” Dominic replied. “They always have been.”

Onyx’s heart dropped into his stomach. “So if I’d killed you today…”

“Yes.” The word was absolute, terrible in its simplicity.

Onyx was going to be sick.

He’d thought Dominic’s sister would own him every bit as much as Dominic did, that he’d be trapped.

Not that he’d be free.

“Why are you telling me this?” he whispered, his voice jagged.

“So long as I live, you are mine,” Dominic murmured. “But when I am dead, I’ll have no one else despoil what is mine.” He pressed a light kiss to Onyx’s lips. “If you kill me, you’ve earned your freedom. If something else kills me, I want no one else to have you. But if you try to kill me and fail, then our agreement ends.”

Onyx swallowed hard, trying to make amends with the thoughts, trying to figure out what the hell he’d have done with that information if he’d had it before. He still might not have done it because he didn’t know how to contact Dominic’s sister — and he’d have needed her help. She was in England, presumably, and by the time they reached her…

Why was his mind grasping at excuses?

“And if I find someone when you’re dead and gone?” Onyx asked, knowing he was playing with fire but unable to keep from biting out the words.

He wouldn’t.

Dominic had left too many cracks in his mind and psyche, and there was no way past that.

And the idea of trying to kill Dominic and failing, of things going back to how they’d been? It was so much. Too much. Could they really, after the progress they’d made? Would Dominic really do that to Onyx again?

“You will always be mine,” Dominic stated. “Even if you find someone else, you will be mine.”

“I want the drug,” Onyx found himself saying before the thought had even entered his mind. But if he was going to do this, he would need the aphrodisiac. He couldn’t do this in full control of himself, knowing and remembering. “If I don’t have a choice, if you’re going to push and push until I do this, I want it.”

Onyx should’ve killed him.

He still could.

“Very well.” Dominic shut off the water, then stepped back, holding out his hand to Onyx.

All he had to do was take advantage of Dominic’s guard being down. He could sweep his legs out from under him and ensure he took a hard fall, kick him in the head, crack his skull. He could use his own body as a weapon. He didn’t even need his magic.

But this time, there would be no sense in it because Dominic would almost certainly come back as a vampire — assuming the wounds didn’t instantly heal from the blood in his veins. Onyx couldn’t behead him, and he couldn’t call his fire to burn the body before it could reawaken.

This wasn’t the time and place for that risk. He’d have to wait it out. Bad enough that Dominic might have Onyx for a lifetime, but worse still if that became eternity.

Dominic was already insane, and adding immortality to the mix…

Onyx took the offered hand with his own trembling one.

Dominic led Onyx out of the bathroom, and Onyx felt the light brush of a quick spell as it banished the water from his body. His breaths were coming more swiftly, and he didn’t know what the fuck he was thinking. What was he doing?

He needed to be fighting… but if he fought, he’d nullify their agreement.

If he didn’t fight…