Let your guard down

Damon’s POV

The manor was unusually eery and quiet as I turned off the engine of my black Griffin Marauder. I smoothed the wheel—this car was a treasure I had inherited from my grandfather—and I sat there in my treasured baby, stroking my beard.

Even now, I was stalling to go into my own house. A place that had offered me so much solace.

Because of her. Iris.

What the hell?

I didn’t want to admit it, but I knew deep down that I was slowly getting obsessed.

If this wasn't an obsession, then what?

I sighed, very much frustrated. I haven’t seen her for over two weeks now. What would she look like now? How would she react when she sees me?

Forcing the whirling thoughts of Iris away from my mind, I got out of the car and made my way to the manor. I was going to see her soon, anyway. There was no need to torment myself any further.

Ryder came scurrying as soon as I walked through the front door. “Welcome, sir,” he greeted, with a slight bow of his head.

“I’ve told you to drop the honorifics, Ryder,” I scolded, handing him my jacket. “You’re much older than I am, you know.”

He looked up at me, his eyes crinkling around the corners. “I’m well aware, sir.”

I shook my head as I walked further into the house. “You’re just a stubborn old man,” I muttered under my breath, then asked a little more loudly, “Where’s everyone?”

Ryder quirked a perfect, gray-haired eyebrow. “Uhm, by everyone, you mean-“

“Mary,” I interrupted impatiently, “Iris..”

Ryder gulped quickly, and I saw a flash of dread in his eyes before it disappeared.

Something was wrong.

“Ryder?” I prompted quietly, an underlying warning in my tone.

“Uhm, well, Mary’s in the back of the house, and Iris is..”

“She’s where?” I barked, my patience fully ran out now.

Ryder swallowed hard. “Well, sir, since you’re asking, I don’t think you’re aware of the current development.”

“What development?”

“She’s in the dungeon,” he announced, and I felt a wave of rage course through my veins. The dungeon?

“Why’s she in the dungeon?” I asked quietly, my voice strained. “Before I left here, two weeks ago, I instructed Mary to show her to her room, and make sure she’s comfortable.” I paused, my jaw working in quick succession of clenching and unclenching.

“So, why’s she in the dungeon?”

The dungeon was not meant for Iris.

“Sir, it was Julian that..” Ryder was saying, but as soon as Julian’s name was mentioned, my thoughts trailed off to two weeks ago, when Julian had announced to me that Iris had escaped.

I remembered seeing his eyes light up with excitement when I instructed him to go after her.

The sly bastard.

I cursed under my breath as it dawned on me that I might have made a wrong, hasty decision. A mistake.

Enraged, frustrated, and guilt-stricken, I suddenly rammed my fist into the wall, bringing an abrupt halt to Ryder’s incessant report. “Fuck!”

I threaded my fingers through my hair. “Who gives the orders around here, huh?!” I barked.

Remembering I had earlier sent Julian to the manor, to get some documents for me, I turned on my heels and bounded down the underground steps, leaving Ryder shaking like a leaf on the spot.

I cursed again.

Poor, innocent, Iris.

I didn’t even want to think about what the bastard Julian might have done to her.

He was an evil man, through and through, and I was goddamn sure he would have hurt her so much.

He might even be hurting her now…

The thought pushed my legs faster and further, down the steps.

***

Iris’s POV

My screams did nothing to stop Julian. If anything, they only fueled him up even more. He didn’t let me get very far before he grabbed my ankles and pulled me roughly across the hard floor, towards him.

“Shut the fuck up!” he screamed, slapping me hard across the face. “Your voice is just too loud and whiny.”

He dragged his rough hands down to the spot just to stop my breasts, and then he paused, a smirk spreading across his face. He was teasing me, mocking me. Daring me to do my worst, even though we both knew I could do nothing in this state. I wasn’t a weakling, but he was by far, stronger than me.

I shut my eyes and held my breath, making a desperate plea in my mind. A plea for a savior. I have kept myself for years now, virginity because the church says it’s the right thing to do.

Now, God, would you just sit back and let this beast take advantage of this temple I have kept holy for years?

It had been a really difficult task, keeping my virginity, what with the amount of attention I got from both men and women.

The church had been my haven, so I had survived.

Without warning, Julian stuck his thumb into my mouth, forcing the thoughts out of my head. I gasped in shock and started to choke as he forced his thumb down my throat.

What the fuck? This man was insane.

I struggled to break free, but his thighs held my small body, and my hands tightly in place, and I could hardly wiggle out.

“Fuck,” he rasped, his eyes rolling backward, “even your tongue feels so good.”

He didn’t stop there. His free hands closed around my left breast, and my body jerked in shock. No one had ever fondled my breast, so I didn’t know what it should feel like.

But I knew it wasn’t supposed to feel this way. This…wrong. I was being ravaged and molested, and I was helpless.

I couldn’t help myself, and no one could come to my aid. Julian had said the walls of this dungeon were soundproof, and no one would hear me no matter how much I screamed.

So I was pretty much at the mercy of this evil man.

The tears that I had fought so hard to keep in, started to escape through the corners of my eyes, as he took his thumb out from my mouth, and tore my dress even more, exposing my body further.

“I’ll take you slow and steady, okay?” he said, as he started to unbuckle his belt, “so there’s nothing to worry about.”

“You’re a beast,” I cried, my whole body racking with painful sobs.

I closed my eyes again, and shook my head, still unable to believe that this man would rape me.

I wasn’t going to accept this fate. It surely wasn’t God’s plan for me.

He would intervene, that I knew. I just didn’t know how.

The show showed up a few minutes later, just as I was slowly starting to give up hope.

The door to the dungeon suddenly flew open, and my eyes did too.

“Fucking bastard!” The intruder screamed—wait a minute, that voice…

Julian’s head jerked backward, and through my blurry eyes, I saw the bulk of a man fly towards us in what seemed like a mad rage.

Julian was yanked up effortlessly from atop me and flung across the walls. I blinked repeatedly, trying to get the tears out of the way, so I could see who my savior was.

I suspected it from the voice, but I didn’t want to believe it was him.

Hadn’t he left me here for two weeks, not caring if I starved, rotted, or died?

As my eyes focused on the man who had pounced on Julian, they grew wide in shock and recognition. It was him.

The Don. Damon.

He had come to save me.

I immediately became self-aware and scrambled to cover up my nakedness with what was left of my dress.

“You,” Damon continued, still punching the bloodied face of Julian, who just lay there, weak, taking the beatings. “You should know better,” Damon growled, punctuating each word with a blow.

“No one touches what belongs to me and gets away with it!” Tired from the incessant punching, he stood to his full height and delivered a sharp kick to Julian’s face.

“I’m sorry, boss,” Julian managed, baring his blood-red teeth.

“No, Julian. You should be sorry for yourself. I trusted you, man! And who said you could do this to her?! Throw her in my fucking dungeon? And you wanna have a taste of what belongs to me?!” His veins were almost popping out, and I shrank back even farther, my heart thudding against my chest.

“Boss, please, spare me,” Julian pleaded, spitting out blood from his chest.

Damon’s eyes flickered across the room, at Leo’s body that was sprawled askew. “Damn, man. You killed Leo?”

“I-I didn’t mean to,” Julian lied. “It was simply a misunderstanding. Please, boss, spare my life.”

“Now you know I’m your boss? Did you forget that when you went around my house, barking orders to my staff? And you even killed my man?!” “I don’t care if you’re my right-hand man, Julian. You’re a dead man today.”

He had just raised his leg to kick Julian again, when I suddenly spoke up, interrupting him. “So now you decide to show up?”

He froze mid-movement, and he slowly turned to look at me. His face was a mask of rage and agony, and his eyes were filled with an emotion I couldn’t understand.

“Look,” he started to walk towards me, “I-“

Just then, a shot rang out in the room, deafening me. Where had the shot come from?

My eyes flickered to Julian’s bloodied frame, and my heart jumped at the wicked smile spread across his face. He had a gun in his left hand, and it was aimed at me now.

“You let your guard down, boss,” he said, laughing. He had shot Damon in the shoulder. “Too bad I didn’t aim right.”

He glanced at me, “but this time, I aimed right. I’m going to blow the brains of this pretty little thing that you claim belongs to you, and I will make sure we travel across the underworld together, all the way to hell. I would-“

The rest of the words flew out of his mouth, as Damon delivered a flying kick to his jaw.

Damn. The bullet in his shoulder couldn’t even stop him.

Damon then threw himself at Julian, punching him until he just lay there, lifeless. Was he dead?

Tired, Damon threw down his body and got to his feet. “Even when you’re reborn, never mess with me, or my property.”

He turned towards me again, wincing. His shoulder was bleeding profusely, but he didn’t seem to mind, neither did he seem affected by the injury.

Slowly, he walked towards me, the anger in his eyes giving way to sheer pain. When he was close enough to me, he squatted, a small smile playing on his lips. “Did I come too late, little petal?”

I felt a surge of anger, and as I opened my mouth to curse at him, he did the most unexpected thing.

And this unexpected thing stirred a flutter in my chest.

He lifted his bloodied fist and wiped the tears from my cheek, and my eyes caught a drop of the mixture of my tears and his blood, falling between us.

“I’m here now,” he whispered, and that broke the dam in me.