Master for Tonight (13 page)

night?

Mazzie: Okay… How long am I staying?

Kate: A few weeks?

Mazzie: K, I want to talk to you live.

Kate: No, please. Just please come over as
soon as you can.

Mazzie: I’ll be there Friday.

Kate: Thank you!

Mazzie: I’ll be there as soon as I can.

Kate: I know.

Mazzie: And you’re going to spill it.

Kate: We’ll talk when you get here.

Kate was still sitting at her kitchen table,
staring into space, tapping a pen against the empty notebook in
front of her when her doorbell rang a few hours later. Shuffling
her bare feet on the hardwood floor, she trudged to the door. She
didn’t want visitors. She wanted to write out ideas of what
happened. Not as if any were coming.

Looking through the peephole, she saw John
standing with his hands in his pockets, rocking back and forth on
his heels, a smile on his face. She leaned her forehead against the
door and closed her eyes.

“What is it, John?” She spoke through the
door, rather than opening it.

“Oh, hey, Kate! Helen left me a note to come
check on you this morning because you didn’t answer your phone last
night. You okay? She said it wasn’t like you not to pick up. Hey,
uh, why are all your curtains shut?”

She forced a bubbly tone in her voice before
replying, “Yeah, I’m fine! Must not have heard it ring. I’ll call
Helen later. Thanks for checking!”

“Uh, okay, Kate. Aren’t you going to open
the door and let me in?”

The impact of the words hit her hard. She
flipped the locks and jerked the door open with such force it hit
the opposite wall, bouncing back where she caught it without
looking. Her hair blew back and front in the breeze of it.

“What did you just say?” she asked, leaning
in towards him with widened eyes.

“Um, is there something wrong, Kate? Do you
need help?” He looked everywhere except directly at her.

“Say it again.”

“Is there something—”

“Not that! What you said before! Say it
again! Please!” she cried, and gripped the door harder.

“Was it, ‘Aren’t you going to open the door
and let me in’? Is that it?” He glanced at her, and his eyes
tracked her movements. He took a few more steps away from her,
pulled his car keys out of his pocket, and angled his body to the
side as if preparing to run.

“Go home, John. I’m fine.” She slammed the
door and locked it.

Running back to the table, she sat down and
wrote, “Let me in,” petrified she would lose the three words before
getting ink to paper. As she stared at the words, she knew with
certainty they meant
something,
even though she didn’t know
what. She clung to the idea of prompting recall of anything by
those three words.

“Let me in. Let me in. Let me in.”

She said the words aloud as she wrote them
on the page, filling the lines and all the empty spaces until there
was no more room.

When inspiration did not come, she placed
her elbows on the table, put her head in her hands, and tapped her
skull with her fingertips. The murkiness in her brain continued to
swirl, as it refused to yield even the tiniest of clues.

“Tell me what it means! I have to know!” She
stared at the paper until her eyes were red, glazed over, and
crusty in lack of sleep.

Moving to the couch, she turned on the end
table lamp and clicked the TV to a national news station. She
pulled her knees up to her chest and buried herself under a thick
blanket. Still awake when the TV timed out and shut down, she
turned it back on and listened to the latest news again, not
registering it. She only heard the voices in the night until her
thoughts slowed enough for her to fall asleep.

Upon waking the next day, she decided to use
the rest of the week to move out of her upstairs master bedroom,
into the guest bedroom on the first floor. Mazzie would put a stop
to Kate’s sleeping on the living room couch once she arrived.

I don’t know why, but I can’t stay in my
bedroom. We’ll figure this out. We have to.

“So many days you’ve been here, lover. What
are you thinking?” Evangeline cooed at Julian as she ran her
fingers through his hair, pushing it out of his eyes.

What am I thinking? I’m thinking you’re a
psychotic bitch, you fucking cunt. You’re fucking destroyed, once
I’m free. I will find a way.

His wrists steadily dripped blood where the
silver had cut into his skin, leaving angry, red burn pocks and
blisters. One of the blisters popped, spraying blood onto his face.
The cuffs had sunk to his bones and his skin fought to heal around
them.

Evangeline had spent the time Julian was
shackled tormenting him, using the two worst things he could
imagine—forcing herself on him sexually and blood deprivation.

He didn’t know which was worse. Each time
his cock was inside her, he wanted to vomit, and the way his
stomach roiled in hunger made him feel the same. She waited to feed
him until he was close to insanity with the blood lust before
offering a different part of her for him to sink his fangs in to
drink. Her favorite was to climb onto his face to have multiple
orgasms at his ravenously feeding mouth and tongue. She would ride
his mouth, demanding he say he belonged to her, and he did.

The abuse she wielded so easily on his body
and mind made him give up any notion he could continue the charade.
He couldn’t do it. When he thought of eternity falsely partnered to
Evangeline, his immediate reaction was, “Fuck, no!” He wanted
Kate—needed her.

Deciding to play the game, he waited for his
chance when he could end it. End her. He knew Evangeline would slip
up. It was a matter of time. Differing schemes ran through his head
before the blood lust reared, returning with heightened rapidity by
the continual blood loss from his ripped wrists, to sear them from
his consciousness.

“Julian, I asked you a question.” She
smacked his cheek.

“I’m not thinking. I know I belong to you
and only you. My purpose is to please you. I am yours completely,
lover, as I always have been. It is why you created me. You are
everything to me. I have told you this so many times. Why do you
continue to ask? My words are true.”

He thought his acting good enough to win an
award. He didn’t care about the lies. She was a lie. This
relationship
was a lie. It had to end. He would not be
conditioned to care for her.

“Just a few more days for you here, then. I
think you’re almost where I want you, lover.” She ran her fingers
over his member until the traitorous thing was rigid. Using a thin
piece of fabric, she picked up a small silver chain from behind her
and wrapped it in a wide circle around his cock. She tied the
material tightly around his base to keep his blood in his cock and
keep him hard. He inhaled deeply, trying to control the pain of
such intense heat so close to him.

“Why? Why torture me like this?” He pleaded
with her to stop. It didn’t matter that he would heal from almost
any injury. The pain she inflicted was severe.

“I wish you had learned this lesson sooner.
We could have shared that bitch’s body and blood together and not
gone through this rough patch. But because you didn’t, you will
burn, lover. You will learn to burn for no other than me.” She
settled herself on his groin and started to grind, hissing when the
silver touched her thighs.

He tried to control his voice as the pain
raced through his abdomen and hips, forcing them to buck in an
attempt to shift the chain off his skin and onto the mattress
below. His actions made him thrust into her deeper as the chain
sunk into his skin.

You fucking bitch! You’ll touch Kate over my
fucking dead body.

“I don’t want her, lover!” His voice cracked
with effort, and he took deep breaths. “I want you. I told you
already, you are mistaken about that night and that woman. I don’t
even remember her name. Why should she matter to you? Have I not
expressed my emotions for you eloquently enough?” He held a scream
in his throat, and forced the sickeningly saccharine words out.

“Who do you burn for, lover? Kate or
Evangeline?”

“You, Evangeline, I burn for you! Always for
you! Ahhh!”

He couldn’t hold his silence any longer, and
screamed from the pain shooting through his lower body. The spasms
in his back intensified with each thrust into her. As his hips
pummeled from below, she angled to admire the sight of him moving
in and out of her a few strokes before sitting straight.

“Say my name! Say who you burn for!”

She rode him up and down, barking out the
order as his skin curled around the chain, sealing it into his
body.

“You, Evangeline!”

She bent to kiss him, running her serpentine
tongue over his as he forced his responsiveness to her. He’d say
anything, do anything, agree to anything, if it meant he would be
released and could develop a scheme he could put into motion.

“Yessssss!”

She sliced her nails down his chest, licking
the blood which bubbled up as she forced herself down against him
as hard as she could. After she came, she stood up and picked at
the chain embedded in his skin with her nail.

“No, please!” Julian begged. “Release me,
and I will remove it myself!”

Ignoring him, she ripped the chain from his
skin and he jerked, screaming again. His eyes were closed tight.
His entire body was tense until the worst of the pain subsided.

“Don’t want to hurt you, lover. Removing it
slowly would have been much more painful. Have to do it quick.” She
licked the blood around his cock until the swirling wounds
healed.

“You’re right. Thank you for thinking of
me.”

*

At the honk of a car horn, Kate went to the
living room window and pulled back the heavy curtain to see
Mazzie’s black SUV coming up the driveway. She opened the front
door and waited for her to park before stepping out of the house,
and making her way to where the car sat. The pops of heated metal
and the gurgling of various liquids she couldn’t name sounded as
the engine cooled in the crisp fall air.

Mazzie’s car door opened with a creak, and
she stepped into Kate’s waiting arms.

“Thank you for coming!” Kate clutched her
friend, who had been the only steadfast person in her life for more
than ten years.

“Girl, you knew I’d be here.” Mazzie hugged
her back just as strongly.

Kate released Mazzie and took her hands.
“Let’s get your stuff and go inside, okay? It’s cold out here.
Brrr!”

She hopped back and forth on her feet in her
pajamas and house shoes.

“Sure! Let me pop the back.”

Kate went to the rear of the vehicle and
unloaded all the bags while Mazzie took a moment to check her phone
for missed messages. Sliding one bag’s strap over one shoulder, she
placed another on the opposite side. Hefting another strap around
her neck, she settled the bag at her front, and picked up two
others with her hands. She left two large suitcases and a smaller
cosmetics bag for Mazzie to carry.

“Kate, you’re going to hurt yourself. Give
me some of that.” Mazzie reached out, motioning for one of the
bags.

“No, I’ve got it. Let’s go.”

Kate walked slowly to the three porch steps,
made her way up them leaning forward, and stumbled into the house.
She bent her neck and untangled all the luggage, breathing
heavily.

“We could have made two trips,” Mazzie
said.

“Yes, we could have, but why?”

“Why? Never mind. Let’s get these into your
guest room.”

“Um, no. Actually, I’d like you to take my
room.”

Her eyebrows raised, and Kate held her hands
out for patience.

“Okay. Let’s go, but we’re making two or
three trips up those stairs, and then you’re going to tell me what
the hell is going on. Got it?”

“Yeah. I got it.”

After a few trips, all the luggage was in
the room.

“I’m going to whip up a snack for you while
you get unpacked. The dressers and closet are empty, so don’t worry
about crowding my stuff. Okay?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Okay! Be down whenever. No rush. So glad
you’re here.”

Later, Mazzie joined Kate at the kitchen
table as she gazed at the floor. Mazzie snapped her fingers at Kate
to get her attention.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Uh-huh.” Mazzie took a seat and reached for
the chips and dip Kate had set out. “I brought my digital camera to
show you the pics I took on the trip.”

“Three states. Amazing, that you did that.
I’m glad you did.” She peered into the viewing screen and covered
her mouth.

“I had to stop for that shot,” she said,
laughing.

Kate stifled a giggle and smacked her
lightly on the arm. “You are so bad!”

“That outcropping of rocks looks just like a
dick and balls! How am I
not
going to stop and capture it in
digital glory? I may frame it!” She laughed so hard, she snorted.
She placed the camera down on the table, and sat back in her
chair.

“Okay, enough. Spill it. Where were you when
I walked in?”

“I really don’t know where to start.”

“Was it Stan? Fucking asshole! I’ll—”

“No. It wasn’t Stan. I don’t know who it
was.”

“Who it was that did what?”

Tears welled in Kate’s eyes, and she wiped
at them. “God! I have got to stop crying. I don’t know what’s wrong
with me!” She rang her hands out beside her before wrapping her
arms around herself.

“Just tell me. Whatever it is, we’ll get
through it.”

Kate stood and began to pace while Mazzie
looked on.

“The other day, Helen sent me home because I
was stressing. You know how I get sometimes?” She paused to look at
her friend.