Fae Nuptials: The Witch

Chrys: Chapter Ten

Chrys

Nighttime was the worst part of my everyday life since I moved in with Jacob. My days weren't too bad. He definitely had some Jekyll and Hyde moments because he acted like a normal person during the day. I almost enjoyed being around him sometimes.

He planned movie days and would pile all of the blankets of the house in the living room and make several buckets of popcorn and snacks, then cuddled me the entire time.

I didn't like the cuddling part, but I had learned quickly to deal with it. He would cook and clean and everything too, which was unusual to me. Those were women's jobs. But he always did it without complaint.

We would go outside and he helped me start a garden, and we would sip teas out on the front porch and watch the sunset. It was good.

But every night he turned into someone completely different. Hidden in his bedroom, where he made me sleep, were chains and hooks and a variety of other instruments that he used on me.

It wasn't a s*x thing either. I thought they were in the beginning, but after being introduced to the internet that didn't block me out of inappropriate sites, I learned that the stuff he did to me wasn't even close to being right.

The first night, Jacob made me get naked, tied my wrists and my ankles to the bedposts where he had hooks set up and r*ped me repeatedly, face down against the mattress. It wasn't just that, though. I expected the r*pe. What I didn't expect was the searing pain from cuts he made all over my back and sides. He collected my blood in test tubes and then proceeded to sprinkle stuff into the wounds that made me scream all night from the pain.

He laughed at me and cut some of my hair from the bottom and clipped all of my toenails to the quick. Then he made himself room beside me on one side and fell asleep, still covered in blood, and left me tied like that for the entire night.

Other nights he would tie to me a post he had in the corner of his bedroom and cut me more on my stomach and breasts. He would make me ingest some awful concoctions that would sometimes do nothing and other times make my skin breakout in hives or grow hair or various other horrible things.

That wasn't the worst part though. The worst part of it all was when he would be finished doing all of his depraved sh*t to me and kneel or lay next to my stomach and talk to it as if I was already pregnant.

Which I found out happens when you have s*x and the male ejaculates into you. So that happened a lot and it scared me half to death. I didn't want to have a child. I didn't want to put a fetus even through the horrors Jacob was putting me through.

"Flower, I'm going out tonight, don't wait up."

I raise my eyes from the plate of steak and potatoes he cooked for us and raised my eyebrows. "You're leaving?"

He smiles and cups my face in his hand. "Yes, but only for the night. I have a few errands to run. You'll be okay, right?"

I hold in my sigh of relief and press my lips together. I was a great actress. I knew that if I said yes, he would be upset. He wanted me to miss him. He wanted me to beg him and tell him to stay.

"I'm kind of scared."

"Of what? You're perfectly safe here. No one knows where I live and they would have hell getting into the property. I have wards up that will kill perpetrators instantly. And...some that will kill them slower."

He smiles at me, his blue eyes shining as he strokes my cheek. I smile back at him and nod. "If you're sure, then I guess I will be okay."

He nods and taps his fingers under my chin. "Eat up, Flower. Our baby needs all the nutrition you can give it so it will give us powerful blood."

I can't help myself flinch at his words. He raises an eyebrow and I smile, trying to fix my error. "Sorry, I just...I don't even think I am pregnant yet. It's too early to tell, right?"

He shrugs. "Either way, eat. You're too skinny for your own good. I'll be back by dawn and we can go into town tomorrow and buy you more dresses. Sound good?"

I nod and he stands up straight, grabbing his empty plate and taking it to the sink. I watch him wash it methodically before he comes back, presses a kiss to my forehead and leaves through the front door.

I wait five minutes before I bound from my chair and look out of the front window, my hands shaking on the sill. I peer down the dirt road driveway and see his SUV gone. I take a few deep breaths and my mind begins racing.

I could run. I could leave and see how far I can get. Dying out there even with his 'wards' would be much better than dying in here without trying, right?

I ran up the stairs to his bedroom and rifle through all of the clothes he had waiting for me as soon as we arrived here.

I go through my drawers and try to find clothes that would be suitable for trekking the desert. I know it gets a little cooler at night but the days are dreary with heat.

Dresses. I have dresses and underwear. He or they didn't supply me with anything that I didn't already wear with the Fae at the canyon. They were all light and airy. I groan but pull on a new summer dress and find a pair of gardening boots.

I grab a duffel bag he had stuffed in the back of his closet and grab a few more pairs of dresses, socks and underwear then run down the stairs and pack it with food and water.

If I can get past his wards, whatever they are, I will need this stuff. But I also feel like I'm weighing everything down by packing so much.

I don't think about it much though as I rush to the front door. I pull at the knob and stare at it as it doesn't turn.

I pull at it a few more times and sob in despair as I realize he knew I would try to run. But I don't give up. I try the back door to no avail and then the downstairs windows.

Nothing. None of them will open. I drop my bag in defeat and slump on the floor in the living room where I last tried to pry a window open.

I'm trapped. I'm going to die here. He's going to go too far one night and kill me. I'm going to suffer and for what? For my father to bathe in the blood money they paid for me? For some stupid contract and experiment, they are doing for the betterment of Fae kind?

I laugh. I sit and laugh beneath the window until tears begin leaking out of my eyes and begin sobbing. It's no use. There's no point. I should probably go into his torture chamber in his basement and just get it done and over with.

I don't even know what he needs me for. I'm just a toy to him. I think of Anise and Olly and the Fae men that courted me and wonder why I wasn't good enough for them.

Maybe if they had shown any interest in me, Daddy wouldn't have sold me. I would have been home and doing everything I always did. And I wouldn't have complained. I would have done it with a smile on my face, knowing that there were worse fates out there.

After what felt like hours, I got up and took the bag back to the kitchen and emptied all of the water and food back into the refrigerator then dragged the bag back up the stairs to our bedroom.

I didn't bother emptying the clothes out of it. I just stuffed it back into the closet and laid on the bed I shared with him and stared at the ceiling. I placed a hand on my flat stomach and prayed to the Gods that nothing ever quickened there. That he would never be able to touch one of my children for his vicious experimentation.

I don't know when I fell asleep but it was probably the most sleep I had ever gotten since I had met this man. I dreamed of blue eyes, similar to his but not. Softer. I dreamed of days spent in woods and laughter with a sense of belonging. Something I knew I would never get. Not anymore.

But the sense of peace it gave me helped me sleep soundly for the first time in a while. So there was that.

When I awoke the next morning, Jacob still wasn't home. It was strange. I was used to him being there and having breakfast made. He was spoiling me at the same time as ruining me. I walked down the stairs and realized as I did that I had my boots still on my feet. I took them off by the door and peered out of the window in the livingroom and frowned.

Parked in the driveway was his SUV. I looked behind me but everything looked untouched. I ventured through the house looking for him. Why? I don't know. I just thought it was strange that his vehicle was back, but he was nowhere to be seen.

When I found all of the rooms empty, I swallowed hard and looked at the door that led down to the basement. He usually kept it locked, mostly because I knew he had some deadly herbs and stuff down there.

But when I turned the knob the door came open. I debated on whether I should go down there or not.

He hadn't gone down there since we came from our honeymoon. Two weeks. I walked slowly down the stairs my stomach tightening. What did he have down there right now?

I opened the door at the bottom of the stairs and stood at the doorway. He looked up from a table he was working at then looked at his watch and smiled.

"Good morning, Flower. Sorry about breakfast. The time must have flown while I was in here."

He wipes his hands on a leather-looking apron he was wearing and I notice it is stained with similar reddish brown from the package he gave me at the hotel.

I look around the room and freeze when I see something huddled in the corner of the cell he has in the corner of the basement.

He turns to see where I'm looking and excitement fills his expression. "Oh! I forgot to tell you! I went hunting. He's too old for his blood to be any good to me but...I can use other parts for this new experiment I'm working on."

I clench my fists to keep them from shaking and force a smile on my face. I feel my heart thunder in my chest as I continue to look at what looks like a teenaged boy.

"Okay, I'm going to start breakfast. Will you come eat with me?"

He waves me off as he goes back to his table. He unrolls something filled with different types of knives.

"Go ahead and eat without me. I'll be busy today."

I feel tears threaten as I hear the boys whimper. I want to help him but I have no idea how. I nod and turn, feeling like a giant pile of sh*t.

As I walk up the steps, I hear the boys start yelling and I run the rest of the way up, holding in a sob. I'm just as horrible as him. That's all I can think about as I reach the door and slam it shut behind me.