Prologue
I seldom fell asleep in this place, but I often succumbed to the pain.
As I swam back to consciousness, faces flashed through my mind. Each one had a name—and a price tag. Some were underworld hits, individuals who were as slimy as those who had paid to have them taken out. But others were not.
I came from a world where money replaced judge and jury. And I was the executioner. Some would say that I had no choice. But itwasa choice.
One I had made. Multiple times. It had been my life, or theirs.
Now their faces and voices were breaking free from the walls within which I’d caged them. And it wasn’t just Xumi that was causing that to happen.
It was Anna.
Because somehow, she was dismantling those walls and hooking into who I used to be. Releasing the faces, with their dark, accusing eyes.
The torture Xumi inflicted was almost a relief now. A way to escape them. She had the pain and the pleasure so interwoven that I no longer knew what I wanted.
Or who I was.
Under her sadistic touch, the faces faded away.
Perhaps it was time to end it. I could embrace my Dragon. Or stop resisting her. She would lose interest and toss me to the guards. Go in search of different entertainment.
But I was damned stubborn, and it kept me coming back. At least, that was what I told myself. Better that, than admit I might be seeking the pain to get to the pleasure.
Or to make the faces disappear.
One surfaced now. Female. Large, dark, terrified eyes staring back at me—
Rather than remember all that she had been and would never be again, I yanked myself back to awareness.
The instant I did so, I sensed something different.
Different was seldom good.
I gritted my teeth, and opened my eyes.
As soon as I did so, I closed them again. I must be hallucinating. It happened sometimes. The pheromones seriously messed with my mind.
“G’day, you bleedin’ bludger. Do you know the trouble you’ve caused?”
Okay, if it was a hallucination, it was a damned annoying one. I blinked.
A new figure hung in the second set of chains. A familiar one, naked and covered in blood.
“Matt?”
“Well, good to see you haven’t totally lost your mind.”
“What in the shards are you doing here?”
“Rescuing you.”
I stared at him. He stared back.
“That’s going well,” I said.
His rugged face contorted. “Yeah. It hit a bit of a bleedin’ snag, I admit.”
