Blue (Darkness Falls #3) (20 page)

“I’ll be fine.” Blue told the officers as the distinct sound of a gun chamber racking into place sounded down the line. “I’m going in.”

“Mr Blue-…”

“Three…two…” Blue shoved people aside and sprinted for the house.

“I’m coming!” He roared, pushing
everyone out of his way. Behind him he heard the senior officers shouting for everyone to hold and was grateful no-one tried to stop him or shoot him. He had to get in there and take Alexandra out before she hurt Noelle.

In a brief moment of clarity, he shoved the phone into the hands of a startled officer by the door, realising it would be more helpful if they could listen in. He could only hope that Alexandra forgot to hang up. Then he was in, crashing through the door as he searched everything in sight for a sign of the woman he loved.

“I’m up here.” Alexandra’s sultry voice floated down the stairs and he could hardly bear to hear it, cringing away from the memories it stirred up. “Come to me, lover.”

As he ascended the stairs it felt like he was going to pass out. He was lightheaded from fear and adrenaline and he didn’t know what he was going to find when he got to the top. He hadn’t heard from Noelle at all on the phone. It was possible she was already dead and Alexandra was just playing him.
Each step was like climbing a mountain.

He paused near the top, knowing that he was only two steps away from not being able to turn back. If he
stepped onto the landing and saw Noelle’s lifeless body lying there, he’d never be able to unsee it. He didn’t know what he would do without her; he could barely remember what life was like before she’d crashed into his and stolen his heart.

He was hyperventilating and he needed to calm the fuck down. Freaking out wasn’t going to help anyone. If she was already dead, there was nothing he could do and he just needed to get it over with. He was in the house now; it was too late to be having second thoughts. It was best to do it like ripping off a plaster.

Before he could think about it, he surged up the last couple of steps and spun to face the landing, his knees wobbling with relief when he didn’t see any blood anywhere. Instead, the upper floor was conspicuously normal. The landing was tiny and an open door to his right led to an empty bathroom. The door in front of him was closed and he was trying to get his bearings when the door to his right opened and she was there…Alexandra.

God, she looked like she hadn’t aged a day and the compulsion to fall to his knees was painful and almost overwhelming. She had the face of Lucifer, the most beautiful of all God’s angels before his fall. In all his years he had never met another woman as spectacularly beautiful as she was. Noelle’s sweet features paled in comparison, but his Red was so damn beautiful in other ways. In her eyes he found strength, compassion, humour, wickedness and a love as infinite as the universe. In Alexandra’s eyes, there was only madness.

“Where is she?” He growled and Alexandra tutted.

“Is that any way to greet your Mistress, sweet boy?” She flicked her wrist and a riding crop spun up into her hand. “Kneel and greet me properly.”

“Not until I know she’s alive.” His throat had gone dry at the sight of the crop. It looked like the same one she used to beat him with all those years ago, but she couldn’t have kept it for this long, surely?

“Disobedience?” She quirked an eye brow and once again he had to steel his legs from folding.

“I obey only one Mistress.” He met her gaze. “And that isn’t you.”

“You would submit to this tiny thing?” She glanced behind her, disgust twisting her gorgeous features. The differences between them struck him once again. Alexandra was so tall and willowy that, in another life, she could have been a supermodel. He’d once thought that she was the epitome of visual loveliness but his fantasies now were filled with soft, lush curves and tumbling red curls.

“Don’t confuse size with strength.” He was struggling to keep his emotions in check, but slipping into Master mode wouldn’t help either of them here. “You should know that, Alexandra.”
Mistress
. “She took down that new sub of yours with little effort.”

“She was foolish to refuse his service.” She disagreed. “Mark is most…amenable.”

“You don’t get it, do you?” Blue shook his head, astonished anew at her insanity and self-delusion. “He’s not doing this for you. He’s doing it to get back at her. That makes him more under her power than yours.”

Her façade finally cracked. “He’s mine!” She snapped and he smirked.

“You think? Where is he, anyway?”

“He’s here.” She stepped into the room and Blue followed as far as the edge of the door, his heart pounding. It had to be a trap but he was almost certain that Noelle was in there and he needed to know she was okay. To his astonishment, Mark was chained and squeezed into a dog cage in the corner. What the hell had Alexandra been thinking? Or
Mark for that matter. They had to have known that the Police would be coming for them. Why would Mark have let her chain him up? If he’d had any sense he should have run.

Then he saw the blood, seeping from beneath the cage, and realised Mark wasn’t breathing. “Fuck!” Struggling to process the fact that she’d killed
the sub, Blue relied on his instincts which were screaming at him that the main threat had been eliminated and he needed to get Noelle out of there immediately.

Pushing Alexandra further into the room, he took a couple more steps and finally saw Red. She was lying on the floor, unconscious but breathing. He could see the gentle rise and fall of her chest.

“Kill her for me.” Alexandra whispered in his ear and his whole body shuddered.

“No.” Before he could register what he was doing, he’d grabbed her by the neck and slammed her into the wall. “I love her.”

“You love me!” She choked out laughter. “You wouldn’t hurt me, Blue. You wouldn’t kill me. It’s not in you.”

He wanted to argue, wanted to let the rage swelling through him squeeze the life out of her. He had murder at his fingertips
but he knew she was right. It wasn’t in him to be a cold blooded killer. She had been his first love and despite the madness in her eyes, somewhere in there was the woman that had saved him from a life as a whore.

“I don’t love you.” His nose was inches from hers. “You understand me, Alexandra
? I despise you and all that you stand for. I will never be yours again. I am Noelle’s, body and soul, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.”

“I’ll kill her!” Her face was turning beet red and he nodded.

“You can try, but if you kill her, you kill me too. I won’t live in a world if she isn’t in it and I would follow her to the grave gladly. This is where you lose, Alexandra, because you love me too much.” He tossed her aside and while she sprawled gracelessly on the floor, he scooped Noelle up and headed for the stairs.

“Come back here!” Alexandra screeched, but Blue ignored her. Noelle’s eyelids fluttered and he kissed her forehead.

“You’ll be safe soon.” He promised, his steps gentle so he didn’t jar her ribs. He didn’t know how much damage they’d done while bringing her here.

“
Sebastien!” A line of fiery agony streaked across his back and he flinched but didn’t stop. “Stop, this instant!” Another slash of excruciating pain.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered to Noelle, curling her tighter in his arms so that Alexandra’s flailing whip wouldn’t touch her.

“You are mine!” Alexandra was in a frenzy, beating him with the crop as she followed him down the stairs, her madness all-consuming, but Blue just ignored her. She had no power over him any more.

“Blue?” Noelle’s eyes were glazed with pain but she was
surfacing into consciousness.

“Red, I need you to get the door for me.” He murmured, hunching over her to shelter her from the falling blows. He could feel blood trickling down his back and didn’t dare release Noelle to get the door himself. She fumbled clumsily for the handle, her hand slipping on it before she managed to get it open and then they were out into the fresh air and sunshine.

Blue staggered halfway up the path and then the blows stopped and Alexandra started screaming like a wild animal as Police officers swarmed them and took her down.

“I need an ambulance.” He croaked, coming to a halt. In a daze, he searched the field of blue lights for something that looked medical. There, paramedics were shoving through the melee towards him with a stretcher. He made for them, trying to protect Noelle’s head and feet from the people crowding around them and growling at anyone that tried to take her.

He managed to get her on the stretcher and followed her up to the ambulance. He tried to climb in, but the EMT had noticed his injuries. “Are you bleeding?” She stepped around to look at his back and gasped. “We need another ambulance!” She shouted over the chaos and another team responded, but Blue wouldn’t let anyone touch him.

“You deal with Noelle!” He roared. “I’m not important. You see to her first!”

“Blue!” Cal appeared before him and his tone said he was not to be messed with. “You
will
get in that ambulance and you
will
go to the hospital and have your wounds treated.”

“But-…”

“No buts.” Anyone else would have shouted the command, but Cal almost whispered it in his silk and steel voice and it was like dumping a bucket of ice water over Blue.

“Will you go with her?” He asked instead and the older Master nodded.

“Of course. We’ll see you there.”

“Yes
, Master.” Blue wasn’t happy, but he let them take him into the ambulance and try to stem the bleeding.

At the hospital he ended up in the operating theatre. She’d beaten him so hard with the crop, one he remembered as having a steel core, that she’d laid him open to the ribs, even through his shirt. The plastic surgeon who stitched him up said the scars would be faint, that they’d tidied him up quite neatly, but he’d taken more than a hundred stitches and would be feeling the pain for a considerable time.

At least Noelle had got off more lightly.
Mark had drugged her when they’d snatched her from the house and she’d passed out almost instantly so they hadn’t even had to struggle. She had a few scrapes and bruises, probably from the transport, but other than that she’d left the house with the same injuries as she’d gone in with.

When they finally let him in to see her, she grasped his hand and smiled, her eyes glassy with drugs as they tried to medicate the pain. He still thought she looked beautiful. She would always be beautiful.

The next few days were a blur of statements and interviews, dressings and tablets. Noelle couldn’t tell them much because she’d been mostly unconscious, but Blue was in with officers for more than eight hours, detailing what he’d seen, what had happened and his past involvement with Alexandra.

She’d been charged with
one count of murder, one of causing death by dangerous driving, kidnapping, assault and attempted murder, and denied bail, but Cal’s people were hearing on the grapevine that it was looking like she wouldn’t ever get to trial. Blue’s rejection of her had pushed her into a complete psychotic break and they had taken her to a maximum security psychiatric institution while they decided what to do with her. It was almost certain that she’d never be free again, but Blue couldn’t find any guilt in himself about that. She had pushed and he had pushed back. She’d become another Gabriel, forgetting that the sub always had the power.

Six weeks after they’d both been released from hospital, Blue sat on the edge of their bed in the master bedroom and gazed out of the window. It was pouring with rain outside but the house was quiet. The girls were at school and Thomas and James were both out at work. The camera crew had stopped filming three days beforehand, having finally got enough footage to produce their show, so the only other person in the house was Noelle. He could hear her somewhere downstairs moving around and the smell of fresh cakes was wafting up the stairs, so she was probably baking.

Reaching into his pocket, he drew out the length of scarlet ribbon that he’d taken from his room at The Manor. It was battered and crumpled from having been in his keepsake box for all this time but if he brought it to his nose and inhaled
deeply he could almost detect a faint trace of Noelle and it took him back to that day in his play room. She’d been so brave, so determined, so incredibly courageous that he still felt humbled by it now. She’d gifted him with her trust and she had finally welcomed his family into her home on a more permanent basis, but he still saw the misgivings on her face when she thought he wasn’t looking.

He couldn’t blame her. He hadn’t been able to hurt Alexandra, however much he’d wanted to. He hadn’t been able to let her go. She was still the only Mistress he’d ever had and as long as she had that dominion over him, he would belong to her. It had to end.

“Blue? What are you doing up here?” Noelle looked like an angel, standing in the doorway. Her hair was loose and her cheeks were flushed with warmth and joy. She was wearing a white strapped summer dress that swirled loosely about her knees and he couldn’t help the tears that welled up in his eyes. She was so fucking beautiful.

“I’ve been thinking.” He choked out. “It’s time.” He held out the ribbon and she came closer to see what it was. At first she didn’t recognise it and then her eyes went wide.

“You kept it? All this time?” Her hands were trembling as she traced fingertips across the ribbon in his palm. “I wondered where it had gone.”

“How could I not keep it?” He swallowed, trying to overcome the lump in his throat. “It was one of the most profound experiences of my life.”

“And mine.” She sat down next to him.

“I want you to take me into your play room.” His tone matched the sombre mood.

“Why?” She took his hand and interlaced their fingers.

“You know why.”

“Humour me.” She leaned against his shoulder. “I know why I needed it. I just want to hear why you do.”

“Because I need the reclamation and I need to let go of my fear. If I can’t trust you to help me with this, I’ll never be the man you need me to be. I want to own you and possess everything you are, but I don’t want to control you, Noelle. I love you too much for that.” He kissed the top of her head. “I need you to break me because I don’t know how to do it on my own.”

For a long moment she thought about it and then she pressed a kiss to his shoulder, sitting upright. “Then ask me properly.”

Sinking to his knees
before her, he held the ribbon up in supplication. “Please, Mistress Red. Will you set me free?”

“Yes.” She took the ribbon and tied it around his neck. It wasn’t long enough to do a pretty bow like he’d managed on her neck, but it didn’t matter. It was the symbolism of it. They’d come full circle –
he had unbound her chains and now she would return the favour. They would set each other free.

“Fetch my corset.” She ruffled his hair and he tried to smile, going to fetch her under-bust utility corset. She’d been wearing it a lot in the play room recently. Her ribs still ached on the odd occasion and if she was going to wear it for support today, it meant she had no intention of going easy on him. It both pleased and terrified him that she was taking this as seriously as he had. He’d been a bastard when it was her turn in the collar, threatening her
squicks and all sorts. It had been necessary at the time, but yeah…karma was a bitch. He wondered if he’d have played it differently if he’d had even the slightest inkling that their roles would one day be reversed. “You may dress me.” She smiled, her features soft with understanding, and he smiled back. He’d always loved dressing her.

He took his time lacing her in, making sure not to tighten the strings too much and hurt her tender ribs. When he was done and the strings were neatly tucked in, she sent him for her boots and he laced her into those too. She looked amazing. The contrast of the dark leather against the snowy whiteness of her summer dress made her look like some warrior goddess of old, her wild hair completing the image.

“Come.” She took his hand and they made their way down to the custom play room she’d had built at the back of the house. One of them always wore the key around their neck these days. The last thing they wanted was one of the girls wandering in and finding all the equipment.

“You can get undressed.” She
pushed the door closed and leaned against the wall to watch him and he felt a sudden flush of self-consciousness as he pulled his T-shirt off. This was something very different to getting undressed for bed and the proprietary smirk on her face said she knew it. At least it was over quickly. He hadn’t been wearing anything under his jeans and he was barefoot, so there were only two items of clothing to remove and he folded them neatly, setting them aside.

Sensing his discomfort, she took her time walking around him, an idle finger trailing over the ridges of his muscles. “Sometimes I forget how beautiful you are.” She murmured when he was starting to find the scrutiny unbearable. “
What’s your safe word?”

He wanted to tell her a safe word but when she had let him take her, she
had refused to give one. “I don’t need one.” He followed her example, but she frowned at him.

“Give me a safe word, Blue. This is non-negotiable. If you don’t give me a word, I’m walking away right now.”

“I don’t…” He tried to think of a word, but his mind had gone blank.

Reaching up, she cupped his cheek. “What was your word when you were with her?”

“Asterix.”

She fought a smile. “Like the cartoon character?”

“I was a kid.” He shrugged. “She asked me much like you had and I couldn’t think. I had been reading it the day she asked.” He’d loved those comics. They’d been a staple of every French childhood of his generation.

“
Asterix it is.” She patted his cheek and backed off. “Go and find me a short skein of four mil rope.”

“Yes, Mistress.” He went to the cabinet, his mind racing. Four mil was tiny so there was no way she was going to tie him with it
. What did she want it for?

It became horribly clear when he returned with it and she stroked his cock. “I’ve often wondered what this would look like tied up.” Leaning down, she kissed the tip and then straightened. “Let’s find out, shall we?” Oh God, this was going to be worse than he could ever have imagined
but he couldn’t stop himself getting semi-hard. The woman he loved was touching his cock with her soft as fuck hands, but she was also deftly stringing the prickly jute around it and his balls. He wished he’d picked cotton.

When she was done, it was uncomfortable but not as deeply unpleasant as he’d feared. He just had to try his hardest not to get an erection because that would seriously suck. Unfortunately she had other ideas. “You have such a pretty peen.” She ran her hand over the neatly criss-crossed ropes and his dick jerked into her hand. If he’d
been calmer he’d have cracked a joke likening it to Mjolnir called to the hand of Thor, but he couldn’t even think straight. “It looks good in rope. It doesn’t look as good on your cock as I do though.”

He groaned, his flesh straining helplessly against the rope. “I’d have to agree with that, Mistress. You look amazing on my cock. I don’t think anything in the world would look better.”

“Soon.” She promised, stroking it one last time before she stepped back. “I want eight mil this time, two long lengths.”

“Yes, Mistress.” Walking wasn’t awkward but it did remind him with every step who his dick belonged to at that moment. The longer it was on, the less he minded it though. He liked that it was hers and it always would be. If today went as planned he would never fuck another woman for as long as he lived
, unless she gave him permission to. The reminder just felt like a mark of belonging.

He handed her the rope and she made short work of securing his arms in a column tie, looping the second length of rope through the tie and pulling it through one of the hooks on the ceiling. She pulled until he was standing on his tiptoes and then tied it off to an anchor hook on the ground.

“This is cruel.” He gritted his teeth, his feet and calves already aching.

“You didn’t come to me so I could treat you like cotton candy.” She pointed out and he realised it had been a pretty stupid thing to say. Strung up as he was, he had to twist, shuffling around on his toes, to see what she was doing. Glancing back at him, she ran her hands over the various paddles and implements in the cabinet against the far wall. Part of him knew she was dragging it out on purpose, it was part of the psychological thrill, but he still flinched internally whenever she got near anything he knew would hurt like hell.

Eventually she selected a paddle and he relaxed into the ropes as much as he could. He didn’t have a problem with the paddle – it would warm him up for whatever was coming. It didn’t make it any more dignified when she started working him over with it, but he bore it in stoic silence.

“You have such beautiful skin.” She remarked almost conversationally between smacks. “It colours like a setting sun. Glorious.” She punctuated the last word with a particularly vicious strike and his toes scrabbled for purchase as he flinched and overbalanced. “How are you doing?” She walked around in front of him and he wished he could kiss her. She was glowing.

“I’m good, Mistress.” He knew his smile was cheeky and provocative, but he couldn’t help it.

“Then we’ll have to work you harder.” She went back to the cabinet and selected a single-tail. Fuck. This was going to hurt, even though he’d seen her use it and knew how good she was. Flexing and rolling her wrist, she cracked the whip once or twice for dramatic effect and then smirked at him. “Any last requests?”

“No, ma’am.” Resigned to his fate, he hung in the ropes and tried not to react when the leather kissed his skin with stinging welts. At first he managed, but the pain accumulated into a wave that overtook him, leaving him gasping and groaning in its wake. She worked it up and down his buttocks and thighs, careful not to touch the scar tissue on his back. She’d told him the plastic surgeon had done a good job just a few nights before and he knew there was no way she’d risk damaging it further. It was a small mercy. She was good enough to use the whip on his ribs if she wanted to without causing any permanent damage, but it would hurt like a motherfucker.

When he’d lost count, somewhere after fifty, he gave up trying to hold the sounds in and just let it go.
He almost didn’t register when she stopped. The wall of pain was constant and each new lick of fire was like trying to pick a singular note out of the sound of a full orchestra.

“Breathe it in.” He blinked down at her through the sweat as she rested her palms on his chest. “Breathe in
the pain and let it cleanse you, Blue. Let it burn out all the old hurts and replace them with the good ones. Just let it roll through you.”

He did. He welcomed the pain, letting it wash away his old grief and anger, scouring the recesses of his soul. It hurt, by God it hurt, but it was restoring his inner peace, inch by agonising inch. The pain from his thighs rebounded from the pain his calves and feet, swarming up his body to crash into the torsion pain in his shoulders and exploding in a maelstrom in his chest. His eyes closed as he sank into it so the warm breath against his pectoral was all the warning he had that she was going to bite him, hard.

“Fuck!” He jerked away and she burst out laughing.

“I just had to check you were paying attention.” She winked and admired her handiwork, a neat pair of half-moons imprinted into his chest.
“That is a really fucking good look on you, Blue. You wear my mark well.”

This time he saw it coming and was helpless to do anything about it as she gave him a matching set on the other side.