Page 70 of When Roses Burn

My fangs extended as my knuckles popped and the beast sought to break free. If it had its way, it would lay her down and fuck her right now, but I wouldn’t lose my chance of breaking the curse to sate its animalistic impulses.

I made my way to the first floor without seeing anyone, but once there, a couple of sprites flew into the room. They stopped to hover as they gawked at us.

“Get out of here,” I growled at them.

Briar placed her hands against my back and tried to push herself up. When she moved, a shudder ran through her. She started to rub herself against me again, but stopped.

“Put me down,” she breathed, her voice hoarse and desperate.

I didn’t abide by her command as the sprites flew from the room and I entered another hallway. I carried her down to the door to the training room.

This room was one of the few in the keep without any windows, plants, or rosebushes. The design of the castle had made it so that everyone in this room was solely focused on their training. There were to be no distractions.

The walls were barren and white. All the weapons were stored in an attached room, almost the same size as this one. In preparation for this, I’d added chains I’d bolted into the ceiling and floor. They weren’t as vicious as the vines that once restrained me, but they’d keep her restrained.

I set Briar on the ground near the chains and grabbed one for her ankle. She jerked her foot away when I grasped it.

“Don’t touch me,” she whispered. “Please.”

I hesitated at the word please, but since I wasn’t given a choice, she didn’t get one either. When I grasped her calf, she groaned again and her legs fell open, but instead of trying to get closer, as so many of her kind would have, she closed her thighs and jerked at her leg as she tried to free it from my grasp.

I refused to let her retreat and clicked the manacle shut around her ankle. Briar curled in on herself but jerked back as if her touch burned. Her fingers flexed as she clawed at the floor again, spilling more blood when she tried to crawl away. The chain rattled when she jerked it tight, halting her movements.

Without a word, I shackled her other ankle before lifting her off the ground and locking her wrists into place. She stood with her arms stretched over her head while her feet remained solidly on the ground.

Her head rolled forward as she shuddered, and her fingers flexed. Her body was as exquisite as I recalled it being. Even after I learned about her betrayal and who she truly was, I’d dreamed incessantly of her. I’d recalled every delicate curve, the silken feel of her skin, and the way she intrinsically knew how best to please me, like we were two pieces of one whole.

Unable to resist the lure of her scent and enticing figure, I traced the swell of her hip to the hollow of her belly and up to the delicate ribs barely visible beneath her ivory skin. Beneath those ribs beat the most treacherous heart. I never could have guessed it by looking at all her glorious beauty.

When she moaned, I snatched my hand back. I wasn’t here to give her release; I was here to make her suffer and learn everything she knew.

During the Needing, all casters were unable to stop themselves from constantly fucking. They sometimes spent days seeking sex over and over again. They never rested as their compulsion for more drove them from one eternal to another.

When it was over, they often collapsed and slept where they fell for at least a few hours and sometimes a day or more, before rising and returning home. The aftermath of their uncontrolled sexual impulses was felt for days in the harem as the rest of us came to terms with the frenzy we’d witnessed.

When the night casters returned to use the harem for their own twisted desires, they did so without the compulsion of their Needing driving them. They still used and abused whoever they chose in corrupt and vile ways, but they didn’t do it for hours upon hours on end.

I didn’t know how the casters pussies and dicks could keep going the way they did during their Needing, but they never relented in the pursuit of their orgasms. And now Briar’s Needing was upon her, and not only didn’t she have someone to fuck, but she couldn’t even play with herself. It was the worst form of torture I could have devised for a caster.

I walked over and grasped the chair I’d placed in this room, just for this occasion, and set it before her. Sitting down, I rested my arms on my thighs and clasped my hands before me as I battled my own lustful urges.

It took a few minutes for me to settle enough to speak. When I did, my voice was hoarse and fangs filled my mouth, but I wouldn’t give in until I knew everything she did.

“So, Briar, what do you know about the curse?”

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Briar

Every part of me hungered in a way it never had before. I wanted free of these chains, yet they were the best thing that ever happened to me.

Before my Needing was upon me, I was determined to get through it without succumbing to the urges that drove my kind during this time. I would not be like either the night casters who raped everyone they could or the day casters who endlessly masturbated all the way through it.

I wanted nothing to do with either of my kind, but I hurt so badly and so endlessly, I wasn’t sure willpower alone was enough to get me through this. Chains helped ensure I made it through, and I welcomed the cold metal even as my belly clenched with a desperate need for something more.

My nipples were so hard it felt like someone was poking them with needles. Everything in me longed for his touch, and I was sure I’d die if I didn’t get it.

Is it possible to die during the Needing? The possibility had never occurred to me before, but it sure felt like I would now.