I roll over on the side of my body with a groan. After raping me brutally he made good on his promise to turn my skin blue and black. It only frustrated him when I would heal fast, encouraging him to beat me harder. Bruise me deeper.?

He cracked my ribs, broke both my arms, both my legs, and even managed to detach my shoulders from their socket. All in a span of half an hour.

With the amount of stress my body��s been put under, it took longer to heal then normal. But, thankfully, my injuries are already almost gone. He left about an hour ago after beating me to a pulp, promising that he would show me the true meaning of hell if I tried to get away.?

Even if I wanted to run, I couldn��t. There��s a metal cuff around my ankle trapping me on the dungeon bed.?

It��s a nice bed--stark contrast to the rest of the dungeon which is filled with instruments of torture. Ares is yet to use any of those on me, he mentioned he preferred simply using his hands for now, and that we would move onto more later.

As he was beating me there were moments he would stop, look into my eyes, and remind me in the most gentle voice that none of this would have happened if I had stayed with him. He told me he would have treated me pristinely if I hadn��t run from him.

I swipe away tears that can��t seem to stop falling down my cheeks, thinking back to my father. No wonder he never let me go swim alone. He must be worried sick, scouring the arctic to find me.

He��ll have to look farther than our ocean to get to me.

I sit up, wincing at the soreness between my legs. That��s one thing that isn��t going away. Ares proved himself to be...incredibly well-endowed. Painfully so, for me.

Bending over my legs, I examine the cuff around my ankle that holds me prisoner to the bed, sparing a brief glance to the metal table that I was raped on. The worst part is that it wasn��t all bad. I��m ashamed of the fact that it felt good for a little bit. Ares wasn��t focusing on my pleasure, so I didn��t climax, but for a few seconds it felt like I was getting close.

I hate it. I hate my body��s reaction to him.?

The dungeon door slams open, immediately drawing my attention.?

In the doorway, cascading in the fluorescent light of the hallway, stands Ares.?

He��s shirtless, and without a doubt the singular most deadly weapon on this earth. His muscles are sculpted like a god��s, giving him more power than one body should contain.?

And he��s looking at me like he wants to fuck me until I pass out. Or die.

Probably both considering the murder in his eyes.

I inch backwards on the bed as he begins to walk towards me, narrowing his eyes at my actions.

��Don��t. Stay still, or I��ll make you.��

He��ll make me? He can��t bend my free will.?

So I don��t stay still. I keep on inching back until he reaches me, yanking the chain around my ankle to pull me towards him.?

He stares at me for several moments with those deep, bottomless pools, before taking a key out of his pocket and slowly unlocking the chain on my ankle.

Is he letting me go?

��Come with me,�� he says in a low voice that rubs against my skin like velvet.?

Not wanting to be raped again, I swiftly comply. We exit my cell and emerge into the dungeon, he leads me to the corner, in front of a clear tank filled with murky water. I wrinkle my nose at the scent that assaults me.

��Get in.��

Two simply words that nearly cause me to vomit.?

He wouldn��t make me bathe in feces. He��d never want to have sex with me again, and I��m his mate.

When I don��t move, his eyes darken.

��I said get in,�� he warns, stepping closer to me.

He��s being serious?

��No,�� I mumble, looking from him to the tank. My fear increases exponentially when a dark smile graces his face.

Without a second��s notice he grips my arm, dragging me up a few stairs until we��re on the platform right above the tank. The platform ends about halfway across the tank, one half of it being protected from the water and the other not.

Ares shoves me in.

I flail my arms as my legs merge and turn into my tail, surfacing almost immediately, and as soon as I do Ares snags one of my hands, locking them into a chain ending about two feet above the water. Before I can retaliate, he repeats the action with my other hand. Then, slowly backing up, he examines his work. Me, stuck in a tank of what I can now confirm is sewer water, staring up at him. My naked chest is displayed just above the water line as my upper body is slightly raised from the chains hold on my wrists.

Several tense seconds of silence later, he finally speaks.

��This is one method that I must admit I didn��t invent. Unfortunately, I stole it. From the Russians.��

The Russians.

A truly barbaric race. One that has the part of their brains geared towards war slightly enlarged, meaning they can rival supernatural creatures in battle intelligence.

Not people you want to take torture from.

��See, they used this method just after the Soviet Union, Russia��s former primary communist party, fell. The new government wanted any suspected communists to sign a document confirming they were communists. Anyone that refused got thrown in the sewer, after a few hours of being beaten.��

I feel bile rise in my throat as he continues.

��A human��s skin isn��t as tough as a Siren��s. So it only took 12 hours until their skin slid off of their bodies. We are, after all, organic matter--that sewer water can easily break down. After the skin falls off, all of the worms and parasites residing in the water burrow in. Eating away at tissue. Again, a longer process for a supernatural.��

His smile widens before he delivers the final blow.?

��In 18 hours, a human is dead. For a substantially matured Siren, as I have proven time and time again, it takes about a hundred and twenty hours. Over six and a half times what a human endures before they��re dead.��

He won��t. He can��t kill me. There��s a chance he��d die along with me, and he would never risk that.

��My sweet, little mate...don��t look so frightened. I won��t leave you here for five days. You, being fairly young, would die much sooner. I��ll leave you here for 24 hours�� six hours past the point your skin will start sliding off.��

He turns away from me, walking down the steps and towards the dungeon exit.

��Your skin will heal soon once you��re out, but your legs will be too weak to support you for weeks. In other words, you won��t have a chance to get away until I��m done with you.��?