Grey IV - Chains

Chapter 24 - Nightmarish

Amb was happy with me. I was good at my job. So good, she gave me a reward, taught me a new trick, and fuck, did it feel good.

I'd done particularly well, slaughtering a whole lodge of her enemies, hiding out in the woods like the dogs they were, and we had been celebrating in her favorite way. I laid with my hands behind my head, her thin curves straddling my hips, looking down at me louchely. The pale skin of her chest was mottled with flush and my own slick, blood and sweat soaking into our bed. Her eyes went black and I felt the thrill I always did when she was like this. Beautiful and deadly and cold like steel.

"I have something for you."

Her razored teeth were still pink from when she had bit me. She said I tasted sweet, and I didn't mind the sharp sting anymore.

"Mmh?" I answered, the sound rumbled from my throat, halfway between a growl and a purr. I felt my blood heating again as I looked up at her icy beauty, the sheen of sweat making her glow in the moonlight, my blood on her like artwork.

"I think you've given enough. It's my turn to return the favor."

I showed my teeth, something like a smirk, as I pulled from my speed. I was faster than her when she allowed it. I scooped her up and flipped her onto her back under me, caging her in with my hands pressed to the mattress on either side of her head. I stole a rough kiss before moving to her neck to the spot she liked. She rolled her body up to meet me out of habit, her breath hitching as she arched her back, her chest straining to brush against mine.

"Stop."

She whined the word breathlessly, and though she clearly didn't mean it, the command held anyway. The power felt strange as it locked my muscles in place. She hadn't used her control of me in weeks, or maybe it was months, I wasn't great at tracking time. She said time didn't matter to things like us anyway. We were eternal.

She pulled a heavy breath in through her teeth and relaxed back into the bed in increments. Once she regained some semblance of control, she spoke, still using her commands. Usually she simply spoke to me, knowing I would obey, but sometimes she'd lace the same words with her power. I found it strange she was using it now. She had no need. I always did what she wanted.

"Sit back. I want to see your face."

So this gift would hurt then, she liked watching when she hurt me. I wasn't surprised, most of her rewards - most of our interactions - involved at least some measure of pain. And I didn't mind.

My body moved again without me and I sat back on my thighs, her tiny frame easily threaded under me like an icy river running beneath a mountain, cutting through it with its constant, chipping hunger. That's what she was, arctic water that slowly wore it's way through even the most solid of stone, carrying away little pieces, eating away at it slowly, forever. And I was her stone, feigning to the world that I was the strong one, her mountain. She made sure I looked the part too.

She didn't like me skinny. She said I used to be, before I died. She said she brought me back because she loved me. But I wasn't him anymore, frail and weak and so easily killed. Human. If I wasn't out working toward her goals or reveling with her in our room, I was eating or training. I assume I had always towered over her, but now I could hide her in my shadow. I was easily double her lithe, willowy width, double her slight weight.

Her heart was beating fast. I could see the pulse rapidly thrumming in her neck, right where I had been kissing just a minute earlier, but it wasn't like usual, she smelled wrong, like my targets or my practice. She seemed wary, worried. She was trying very hard to hide it with her black eyes and calm movements, but I recognized the scent: fear. I knew her so well.