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"Ela?" I asked.
He was breathing too hard. He looked like he was about to fall into bed with someone. All of his reactions read as sexual, but I knew better. This was his tipping point. This was the monster he was so afraid of letting out. The man I loved wasn't kind or gentle, and I didn't want him to be - but losing control could get him kicked out of the temple.
"Talk to me, babe?" I begged.
"I need to see her bleed," he whispered.
"Let me go!" Ciella demanded.
Ela's hand twitched, shifting the blade just enough to cut deeper. At the same time, I said, "Shut up, Ciella. You have a punisher with a blade against your throat. Right about now, you learn how to be submissive, and you learn fast, because that man is dangerous enough to kill even me."
"If I angle the blade," Ela said, his voice sounding both turned on and oddly detached at the same time, "I could cut out her voice box. I could make sure that sound never grates on our ears again."
"But then you'd get blood all over my nice shirt," I reminded him. "Babe? Look at me, Ela. Me, not her."
His reply was just to growl, the rumble deep in his throat.
"Babe, we're supposed to meet Nari, remember?" I asked, doing my best to talk him down.
I should've paid more attention to how Nari did this. What was her trick? What the fuck was I missing, because it seemed like the more I tried to calm him, the more he became set on hurting Ciella.
"I need a fucking candle," he snapped. "Wax, Talin. This bitch tied me down. She laughed as she tortured me. Me!" The last was a roar. "She's never said she was sorry. She never tried to make up for it. She made me, and now she goes after the things that matter most to the monster she created? She thinks she can taunt Nari and I won't care? She dared to fuckingkissyou?" His eyes met mine. "I want her dead."
Dark eyes. Beautiful eyes, set in a beautiful face. Ciella was a trinket, but I wasn't. Nari wasn't. That was how she did it. She was his limit, but I had a feeling that it was more about how she reacted to him than how much he cared about her. Nari wasn't scared of Ela. I was - a bit - but only because I knew the kind of trouble he could get into. I also knew that it wouldn't ever make me stop loving him.
But Nari loved this part of him as much as the rest. She was turned on by it because she knew that he would hurt people for her, but he'd never hurther. She had once explained it like controlling a weapon. Right now, he was the sword. I was the swordsman.
"So cut her a little," I told him, reaching around Ciella's body to caress Ela's side. "Make it just deep enough to scar, babe. Maybe give her a snake to remember she's supposed to worship her god?"
"A triangle," Ela said almost dismissively. "Too hard to draw a snake from back here."
The blade began to move. Ciella struggled, so I grabbed her arms, holding her in place. "You wanted what Nari has," I reminded her. "You like pain? Or do you just like making others hurt because you have nothing else? Deeper, Ela."
His lips curled into a smile and he made the next line. No, the cuts weren't truly deep. He'd done worse to Faylie in that last session. This was just a reminder. A warning of sorts. And while Ela cut that triangle right around the little spot at the base of her throat, I held the idiot still, helping in my own way.
There was a rush that came with it. A sense of power I couldn't begin to describe. Ela was the punisher, but he was mine. He was dangerous, deadly, and completely in love with me. As the blade made its last cut, I pushed the idiot girl out of the way, closed the distance between the wall and Ela, and kissed him as hard as I could.
He angled the knife away out of habit and his mouth took my mouth with force. He wanted to push me back, but I refused. There, in the hall with people around us, our tongues dueled for dominance, only the sound of Ciella running away to ruin the moment.
"I love you," I breathed against his lips.
He smiled. "Thank you. Now, I'm going to crash. You know that, right?"
"And I still love you," I promised. "Can you make it to get Nari, or do we need to head home?"
He tilted his head, pressing his brow to mine. "Home, Talin. Nari's a guardian. She's safe. Zeal watches over her." He paused long enough for two breaths. "I'm not. I could kill someone - preferably that sniveling little cunt you just let go."
So I kissed him again. "But never alone. I'd be right there with you, Ela. So would all of us. C'mon, I think I know how to make you feel better. It usually starts with a bath."
