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Dead men told no tales, but they did fill my bank account. The ones worth a damn anyway.
Grave robber, grave digger, tomb raider… There were many names for my chosen career path, but I preferred asset repossessor. It had a nice ring to it. It wasn’t honest work, but I didn’t give two fucks about that.
In the beginning I’d planned for her to be a pampered pet, something to bring life to my castle, but in the end, she’d been nothing but a prisoner. The never-ending, labyrinthine hallways of my palace had driven her to madness. When she failed to escape, she tried to leave me in the only way she could.
should have felt more than nothingness each time those lifeless eyes stared up at me, a pool of dark red blood spreading beneath her. Maybe if I had, I would have kept it up longer. Eventually, I tired of the constant cycle. So, one day when I found her, I decided it would be the last.
I’d brought her body back to the surface to be buried in her family crypt. I would have buried her on the grounds of my palace, but the poor girl had worked so tirelessly to free herself of me and my realm.
I could tie her naked to my bed, and keep her there for all eternity, for the mere purpose of scenting my sheets. My own living potpourri. She could have other uses, tied to my bed…
Whatever punishment I deemed worthy of her crime, I’d draw it out.
I’d take her for myself now, with her heart still beating. I’d make her my slave. I’d be her lord and master. And I would ruin her for stealing from death himself.
One thing was certain: I couldn’t lose my mind in this room if I was going to get out of here. I was going to escape, one way or another.
Honestly, it didn’t make a difference who or what he was. He was still an asshole. A cruel asshole who’d killed Mark, dragged me through a portal, and chained me up.
I might not have excelled at much, but if there was one thing I was really fucking good at, it was breaking into things. And if I was good at breaking in, breaking out would be a breeze.
I couldn’t blame him. Catherine’s stay here had been traumatic for us all. Limbo was depressing enough for the souls who called my realm home. The last thing they needed was another lost mortal throwing itself onto every sharp edge or off whatever balcony it stumbled across in a vain attempt to escape my labyrinth.
Forever. Such a long time. Yet, when it came to my little thief, I had a feeling it wouldn’t be long at all.
“Who was she, exactly?” “The queen who never was. The beauty cursed with the love of a beast.”
If I was destined to be the Lord of Bones’ prisoner, I would be the most hellish one he’d ever had.
“Did they enter you?” The flames in his eye sockets glowed with malice, and his deep as Hell growl had the corpses shrinking back into their cells. “Did they touch what’s mine?”
“They touched you. Defiled you.” I gritted my many teeth. “Just as I will make you suffer for defiling my Catherine, I will make anything and anyone suffer for defiling you. I protect those who belong to me.” “Catherine…That’s the woman from the portrait, isn’t it? You were in love with her, that’s why I’m being punished. Because I took her necklace?”
“Remember this. In the dark hours of the night, after I’ve crawled under that delectable skin of yours, invaded your every cell, peeled back your layers, and branded myself onto every bone of your body, know that you brought this on yourself.”
“What curse is that?” she whispered. I laughed, the sound deep and grating. “Me.”
“Not babysit, but tend to, yes. To help keep her alive, tend to her basic needs, but you won’t have to coddle her,” I explained. “I don’t plan to keep this one safe from me.”
“Who knows what the Lord has planned for you, Lady Rayven. He never bedded Catherine. Thank the Darkness for that. Poor thing would never have handled him.”
The horny little goth girl inside wanted to stay in the realm of the dead and play the pet of the evil bone monster. Obviously, good ol’ survival skills weren’t going to let that happen. If I wanted to survive, I could never submit to him that way. I had to keep my distance, had to escape. It was the logical thing to do.
“I guess I am. You’re not the real you, so it’s perfectly fine if, you know, the whole ‘bone daddy’ thing you got going on actually does it for me.”
“You’re enjoying this.” He sounded surprised again. “You’re shaking from pleasure, not shame.” “The shame brings me pleasure, My Lord.”
“You can try to escape, but you will fail. Then, you’ll be mine forever. Is that such a terrible fate? You’re not like Catherine. There’s a part of you that wants me, a twisted, dark little part that I’ll uncover.”
My little thief was becoming a very serious problem. It was happening again. I was becoming obsessed with another human woman, letting her consume far too many of my thoughts. I’d been foolish to think history wouldn’t repeat itself. Though, this time, it was different. I’d only wanted Catherine’s love. With my little thief, I wanted everything.
My heart ached at the notion of revealing this face to her, the one I’d had before I became this monster so long ago.
with—my little thief had won my obsession. But she’d never have my heart, nor my trust. I’d buried that with Catherine’s body.
Hells. I wanted her, but if I woke her now, I’d have to build her trust enough to allow me to touch her. If she let me touch her at all.
More than anything, I wanted her to want me.
Death falling in love with life was a tale as old as fucking time. I’d been warned, so many times. I couldn't help it. This was my weakness. She was my weakness.
“Do not thank me. You will be my ruin, and I will be yours in return.”
“God has no place here, nor prayers made to him. Here, there is no hope of his salvation. Only dust, darkness, and the screams of the damned.” He leaned forward, so close his breath swept over me, heating my flesh. “Soon, your screams will join their forsaken chorus, and it will be my name in your mouth. Not God’s.”
“Oh I do, little human. That’s the problem. I want you too much. If I fuck you, and I feel the pound of that mortal heart kiss the tip of my dick, it’s all over. I’ll never let you go. You don’t want that.”
Still, I couldn’t stay in the land of the dead just because it had better dick.
“It will be a gilded cage, the prettiest one ever gifted to a mortal.” “What am I supposed to do? Sit around and be your palace pet?
This was my punishment for desecrating Catherine’s corpse. I was her replacement. He would torture me. He’d drive me to madness, just as he’d probably done to her. Unlike Catherine, though, there was a part of me that would enjoy the way he’d hurt me. And he knew it.
“Then I’ll hate you forever, just like Catherine. Is that what you want? Give me a chance to get back home, and if I fail, then I’ll accept my fate. I’ll be your mate and queen.”
“So how about it, little thief? Do we have a deal? You have three days to escape. If you fail, you become mine. Forever.”
“Thank you for saving me, even if your timing was shit,” I said spitefully. “Now let me go.”
For hours, I’d watched her in the maze as she tried, and failed, to get anywhere. It shouldn’t have been as entertaining as it was, but…I could watch her forever.
Then, when her time ran out, she would belong to me… not that she didn't already. At least this way, she’d come to accept that fact once she failed. In the meantime, I’d let her come crawling to me for my help, thinking she had an ally in the masked ferryman. I couldn’t wait to see her break when she discovered the truth.
“When I protect you and save you from everything but me, thank me.”
If I took her now, I’d drag her from the maze kicking and screaming back to my castle. I’d go back on my word to give her three days to escape, and I’d spend the rest of eternity nestled between her thighs, fucking her into oblivion. She’d hate me for it. I couldn’t bear any more hatred, not after Catherine. Besides, I had enough self-loathing for the both of us for what I was doing to her, how I was driving her into my arms with lies and deceit.
Hells, if I could die, my little human would have been the death of me.
My obsession with her was turning into something so much more than what I’d held for Catherine. I wanted her body and her soul. As the King of Limbo, I could have those things if she was dead. They’d become mine by right. Alas… I wanted her alive and breathing, with her beating heart and her flush lips, her flesh raw, red and bloody from my abuse, her lips swollen from my kisses, and not from putrefaction.
I wanted her so badly it scared me, and nothing fucking scared me.
It burned so hot, it threatened to burn me and my entire world down, and I didn't even care, as long as I rose from the ashes with her in my arms and her heart still beating.
She didn't want my help, and that only heightened my curiosity. It made me want her to need me even more.
I wanted her to call for me, to admit she needed my help, and it infuriated me after a few hours when she still refused to do so. I’d make her see. If she wouldn’t call for me on her own, I’d make her need me.
