Lily: Captive to the Dark Read online

  LILY

  Captive to the Dark

  Special Edition 1

  Alaska Angelini

  LILY

  Captive to the Dark

  Special Edition 1

  Alaska Angelini

  Copyright © 2014 by Alaska Angelini

  ISBN: 978193807642 8

  All Rights Reserved

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and is punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  Dedication

  To amazing author, Allyson Young. Your insight and critique means more to me than you will ever know. I can never truly express how much it means to have your support. Thank you so much for everything you do.

  Also, to my girls. My Sexy Subs (AKA: Boss Ass Bitches). You girls rock my world! Nadia, thank you for all of the amazing graphics, and Dee, for your ability to create videos that bring me to tears. To see my stories come to life in your eyes moves me so much.

  And to all of you who are constantly sharing my teasers, voting in contests, and promoting me in any way you can…THANK YOU! Seriously, you have my heart. I can’t thank you enough.

  Last, but definitely not least. MJ. Miranda Sue, lol. I love you, girl. You have my back when I need it the most and you’re always there for me. Your friendship is something I know will last a lifetime. I look forward to many, many more years of having you by my side. Not just as my PA, but as the dear friend you are. You’re an amazingly beautiful person and I’m lucky to have you in my life.

  Prologue

  Lily

  I never had an enemy quite like nostalgia. The comforting blanket that cloaked around me, trying to change my mind, had me battling myself more than I ever had to physically fight anything in my past. I could so easily look back and let myself believe that everything happened for a reason. That fate had caused me to be taken and forever changed so the result would help me grow as a person. But in reality, I’d been a captive — a sex slave who had been through hell and yet thought herself in love with her Master.

  Even now, my heart ached for the man I thought I’d been meant for. It was a lie. A twisted, coping mechanism I’d forced myself to accept in order to survive. At least, that’s how my shrink described it. Nostalgia…that bitch continued to trick me into believing the four months I spent in Afghanistan wasn’t so bad. It made me want to return. Want…him.

  I refused. I’d forever deny these feelings that destroy me.

  The things I witnessed, undergone…lived. They would be seared into my memory just as deep as the scars that cover my body from the girls his family tortured. So many, and nothing either of us could do unless we wanted to die. Yes…there were times I had wanted death as a way to erase what I’d seen from helping those girls. If it weren’t for the strength I’d been forced to portray from the beginning, I might have been able to disappear from this world. But it wasn’t meant to be. Once my Master got ahold of me, he refused to let me be weak. He’d made me fight from the beginning, and showed me how much I could love it. How we could disappear from the lives we’d been trapped in and lose ourselves in each other. I longed for those moments the most. Especially now, as I stared out the dark windows of my lonely penthouse. My brother, Slade’s old penthouse.

  Flashes of memories blinded me like they always did when I finally left the office and came home. So clearly, I could still see the details of my abduction, as if I’d watched a movie of myself being lured out of the nightclub by a woman insisting on my help. The lights of downtown San Francisco blurred in my mind while I helped the staggering blonde from Vixen’s main entrance toward the parking garage across the street. The pop-playing, upscale establishment sat atop a luxurious building, the last few floors covered by fog as I glanced up to where my friends were.

  I should have never left Samantha’s side. If it weren’t for the woman nearly passed out on the bathroom floor, insisting I take her to her car so she could get her phone to call her dad, I probably wouldn’t have been taken. But someone else would have. I couldn’t bear the thought of another girl going through what I had.

  Back then, I’d been too nice. All I wanted was to please people. That had been my biggest mistake.

  Not anymore.

  The sound of the brakes squealing from the road behind us barely registered as my sole focus was on not letting the older girl fall. She was heavier than I imagined and I knew it had to do with her height. She looked like a model —blonde, tall, amazing green eyes. She was beautiful and shitfaced drunk, crying over her boyfriend cheating. All the while, I told her everything would be alright. How stupid I had been.

  Those had been my last moments as an innocent girl. An arm locked around my waist and a leather bound hand slammed over my mouth. A scream didn’t even register until the SUV’s door slammed shut and the force of the acceleration jerked me back. When the woman began laughing and spouting off orders to the man holding me down, I knew I’d been played.

  I fought against the man with everything I was capable of, but it hadn’t been enough. Back then, I’d been weak in that way of life, too. They’d taken me, put me in a room full of other girls and sold me, but not before the real damage was done.

  Tears collected in my eyes as my fingers pushed against the glass. I momentarily came back to the present, but the past wouldn’t be stopped tonight. There would be no more escaping what I’d spent weeks trying to push away.

  Master.

  The moment our stares met, my whole world stopped. I’d never seen a more handsome man. Dark hair, lightly tanned skin. His eyes…they were so close to the color of the sun. Orange mixed with gold, yet surrounded by a dark green. The shade mesmerized me. Even considering the distance that separated us, they seemed to glow. I stood there with my hands clutched together, trying to stop shaking. Nothing was working. I was scared. Nervous as to why these people in this fancy house would want me. Nothing made sense.

  Whack!

  The brute force of the back of a hand connecting with my cheek left me almost positive that my eye had somehow exploded. Colors flickered and mixed with bright lights. My body crumbled to the floor from pain and shock. I couldn’t even comprehend what had happened until the voice of the older man standing beside me came though, an unrecognizable accent confusing me even more. I could barely make out his words due to exhaustion.

  “Did I tell you to look at my son?”

  Before I could answer, multiple kicks to my stomach had me curling up on the marble floor. I didn’t miss the stranger walking forward in my peripheral vision, or how he had his fists balled up at his side.

  “I asked you a question, slave. Did I give you permission to look at my son?”

  All I could do was shake my head as I fought not to get sick. Pain seared my scalp as I was jerked to stand. Although my stare wanted to return to the man watching at the far side of the room, I kept my focus on the floor. Raped by multiple men, surviving off stale bread and water for the last few days, I knew when not to be stupid.

  “Look at her, Zain. She already learns. She will do you well.”

  My gazed snapped up in time to see his blurry, shocked expression, but I quickly let it fall back to the marble. Throbbing pulsed in my head and my heart ached with the weird twist of terror and desperation. All I wanted was to wake up from this nightmare.

  “Me? What am I supposed to do with a slave? I have responsibilities. The las
t thing I need to do is care for a…girl. Fuck, how old is she, Father?”

  “Not of consequence. You’ll take her. She’s yours. A gift for all of your hard work.”

  American. The son sure sounded like it. So, how was this man his father? Although they shared a slight resemblance, I would have never pinned them for relatives if they hadn’t spoken of the connection. And the son wasn’t young. Maybe thirty, from what I could tell. Possibly younger, by a year or two.

  “Come.” The growled command had me fleeing from the father as fast as I could with a throbbing side. As we swept through the large home, I tried to take in everything. And not the expensive vases or golden statues off in the distance. Escape was my main focus. The reality of fleeing disappeared as I took in the guards that stood post throughout the large space. They looked out of place, dirty in the sparkling interior.

  Stairs showed in the distance, but we turned down a dark hall until we reached the end.

  “You’ll stay here. If you leave this room, they’ll kill you.” His distinct eyes rooted me to the floor as he pushed the wooden barrier open. “They’ll cut off your head where you stand. Don’t disobey me or do anything stupid. Leaving here is impossible. Trust me,” he said, lowly.

  With that, he ushered me inside and locked us in. The palace we’d just been in almost seemed a dream in contrast to the room that surrounded us. A bed sat on the cement floor in the far corner. The walls were bare except for some chains mounted to the top of one. It looked like a cell.

  Was this what my life had come to?

  Involuntarily, I edged back to the door. “Is this my room?” The strength I’d displayed was disappearing as my new life was became apparent.

  “Our room now. This was mine.”

  My head shook at his words. Our…no…

  “Send me home. My brother is rich. He’ll pay you whatever you want. Please.” My knees nearly gave out at my surge forward. I stopped a few feet away, half tempted to sink to the ground and beg.

  He laughed. “Did you not see where you are? Do you really think I need money?”

  “I see this,” I gestured, cautiously. “Your father has the money. Not you. I’ll make you a millionaire if that’s what you want. Just help me get out of here. Please?”

  Again, he laughed. “You think because of this,” he said, waving his hand around, “that I don’t have money? You have a lot to learn. Bribery will get you nowhere but killed here. I suggest you not do it again. Especially not with anyone else, slave.”

  “Lily,” I snapped, growing angry. “I’m no one’s slave.” The word disgusted me. Slavery was over. Everyone was equal. At least, in my eyes.

  “Lily,” he repeated, cocking his head, a smile edging his lips. I took a step back at his narrowed expression. There was something there I didn’t like. Something…scarier than the man who’d just used me as a punching bag. “Such a pretty flower. But you’re not pretty.”

  My mind all but stopped at his rudeness and I temporarily forgot what my intuition had been warning me of. “I don’t give a shit what you think of me. As long as you help me get out of here, that’s all that matters. Besides, you’re not very attractive yourself. You’re probably nothing but a spoiled, rich, pansy ass…son of a criminal.”

  His eyebrow rose in what looked to be surprise, but faded as rage took the prominent role. “Who do you think you’re talking to? You think you know me?”

  The stranger was on me so fast, I didn’t have time to prepare myself. Panic and visions of the attack from my rapists surged to the forefront and my arms were already swinging.

  “Get off!” I screamed, planting my palm against his cheek to push his face further from mine. My feet kicked as I was picked up and spun toward the bed. It only had me struggling even harder.

  “Fight all you want. It’s not going to change your situation. You’re mine now, Lily, and you’re going to learn my rules real fast.” I was rotated and put across his lap, stomach down, like a child. The robe was lifted and I tried to twist in his grasp. Pressure from his forearm pushed into the middle of my back, leaving me rooted to his thighs. My toes searched for some sort of leverage, but I was too short to reach the floor.

  “You’ll learn these rules and obey my commands or else you’re not going to like what happens when you fuck up. I can’t have you disobeying here. I may have a hell of a lot of pull, but I won’t be around at all times. If you don’t want something worse happening to you, you’ll do as I say.”

  Whack! Heat scorched my ass and my head flew up, both from the pain and his words. “Rule one. Simplest rule of them all. Obey every single command I give you. I don’t care what it is. Your life depends on it. Understood?”

  My life…was it really my life anymore?

  Whack! Whack! Whack!

  The last had me sobbing.

  “I said, understood? You better hope this time you answer.”

  I nodded, a cry breaking through as fatigue kicked in full force. “I’ll only obey your commands on how to act. Anything else…” It was almost impossible to swallow past the lump in my throat.

  “You’ll obey everything,” he stressed. “No matter what that is.” Whack! “Rule two. I’ll provide a wrap. You are to cover your face outside of this room from here on out. Within these walls is a world you can’t even imagine. No one is to know what you look like. If they’ve already seen you, I want the memory to fade. Rape, Lily. Use that as your reason to conceal. You’re too beautiful, not pretty, but beautiful,” he emphasized, “and I don’t want you catching anyone’s attention. Do you hear me? This is for your safety. Agree.”

  Whack!

  Rape. I was nodding before he even finished.

  “Last rule and just as important as the first.” I was spun over, the robe pooling in my lap as he settled me to sit on my throbbing ass. “Never lie to me. Ever. About anything. Fear of admission will fail in comparison to the punishment of a lie.” His fingers gripped my cheek, his thumb pushing in to angle my face toward him. “Now, answer my questions honestly. How old are you?”

  I sniffled past the tears that involuntarily came. “Nineteen.”

  “Young,” he breathed out. “But not as young as I thought. Did they rape you before you were brought over?”

  My body stiffened and I couldn’t stop the caving of my shoulders as the tears grew heavier. He didn’t appear to need my answer to know the truth.

  “Were you a virgin? Did they use protection?”

  All I could do was fight to catch my breath. I wasn’t sure why he cared or where the sudden softness of his tone had come from, but I clung to it in hopes that I could change his mind on helping me escape. “Yes, to both.”

  “How many men hurt you?”

  The tick in his jaw tightening off and on had my brain kicking back to attention. The memory made me shudder. “Four. They…took turns.”

  Slowly, his head nodded and he licked his lips as he kept his stare fixed on mine. “You may not want this, but it’s done. We are each other’s and the only way around that is death on one of our parts. To give you away is an insult to my father. As much as I hate him, you’re safer with me.” His hand hesitantly came forward, tucking my hair behind my ear. “I’ve never had anything belong to me before. Or anyone,” he said, moving in closer. “For you, my gift, I’ll find out who your rapists were and I will kill them. You’re mine now. Nobody hurts what’s mine. You’re going to learn that very fast. Unfortunately, you’re going to learn a lot of other things you’re not going to like.”

  And I had. My master was both kind and cruel. A lethal combination for the girl looking for a hero and the woman I’d been forced to become.

  Chapter 1

  Zain

  “Did you think I’d let you get away with what you’ve done? All those girls, dead, broken.”

  The smell of sweat, sex, and expensive liquor assaulted my senses, making the hate I had for my uncle come to a boiling point in my veins. My fist tightened in his hair and I pushed the ti
p of the angled blade deeper into the top of his neck. He was silent, but I didn’t expect him to beg for his life. He had too much pride for that. Instead, a grunt followed as he turned his body to try to break my hold.

  “Your father will know it was you. You won’t get away with this. He’ll kill you like he did your whore mother.”

  Blood soaked into the collar of his robe and I pushed in deeper. He spoke Arabic. I refused to in the moment. English had always been my primary and although I could speak four different languages, I stuck to what spoke of home. Of America. A land that had been stolen from me at the tender age of eight. Stolen, kidnapped to live with my real father. Not the one my mother had married and tried to pass off as my dad. Maybe I’d always known Jeff wasn’t my blood, but I loved him as if he had been. Their deaths had broken my childhood. Turned me from an innocent little boy into an angry kid who longed for revenge. My rebirth landed me in years of beatings and training. I took everything, embraced the evil man I’d been made into, letting the horrors I saw become ammunition for the day I could put an end to it all.

  Amir saw me as his successor and I allowed it.

  “My mother was smart to hide from that bastard. If you think I’m going to let him get away with what he did, what he’s done, you’re stupider than I thought. Taking me and turning me in to his own personal killer was the biggest mistake he ever made.”

  “Wrong.” Another sound came from his mouth as he tried to pull his head further away from my knife. “He wanted what was best for you. You’re blood, Zain. You’re an Amari. You can’t escape that.”

  “Watch me.” His blood poured over my hand as I drove the blade home and let his lifeless body fall to the floor, not far from the slave he’d raped and beaten to death. Shuffling outside his room didn’t give me time to contemplate what I should do. The flight back to the US would allow me to process my next move. Right now, I had to get back to San Francisco. Back to Lily and the life I’d created outside of the one I was trying to cut ties with. If…I ever could. Even if I killed my other two uncles and my father, there were still people who knew who I was. I might never be safe. Not without some sort of inside help.