His true nature was to be dominant and strong. Kasper had seen that in him. That’s why he’d chosen him and given him his blood. Blood that was evil to the core. Blood that made him want to do terrible things. He’d been fighting against it every day of his life, ever since he’d left Kasper. Back then, he’d thought that once he withdrew from Kasper’s influence, the thirst for power would subside, but he’d been wrong. It was still there, running through his body like an undercurrent, like a dangerous riptide that nobody noticed until it was too late.

Thomas spread his legs and focused his gaze on the wall ahead of him. He took deep breaths, readying himself for what was to come. His heartbeat slowed. By the time the door opened a few minutes later, he was entirely calm and ready.

Footsteps approached. He didn’t turn, not wanting to see who the man was who would deliver his punishment. When it was over, he would wipe the person’s memory so nobody would ever find out what had happened here. He’d done it many times before, and tonight wouldn’t be the last time.

“The leather cat,” Thomas instructed simply. It was a flogger with nine long leather strips.

The hardest leather had been used to fashion it. It was what he needed tonight.

The man didn’t answer, but Thomas heard him take one of the tools from the wall and step closer.

Thomas’s palms tightened around the straps. Simultaneously, he clenched his teeth, preparing himself.

Without warning, the first lash whipped across his naked back. Pain radiated through his body, making him cry out involuntarily. He sucked in a quick breath, but there was no relief in sight: the second lash followed instantly. Then a third and a fourth. His skin broke, and he smelled the blood that started oozing from the open wounds. It mingled with the scent of the human who was flogging him with unerring precision.

He felt the dark power inside him wanting to fight back against his punisher. Thomas gritted his teeth. “Harder!” he ordered the stranger.

The man complied without a word, slashing the flogger over Thomas’s back with more ferocity now.

“Yes!” he cried out. He would beat the dark power. He would win this battle! He had to.

Losing wasn’t an option. Losing meant destruction.

As the pain became sharper and more intense, Thomas tried to separate his mind from his body. He focused on the wall in front of him as if wanting to drill holes into it. Every lash tried to pull him back and made him lose focus. Every bolt of searing pain that shot through his entire body made his gums itch. His fangs begged to be released, hungering for a vicious bite. They wanted to drive into the man who was flogging him, to punish him, to destroy him. But he fought against the urge to harm the man.

Instead, he focused back on the wall, on the emptiness of it. He inhaled, but the scent he picked up was Eddie’s. It was still there, still tormenting him. He closed his eyes, and suddenly every lash of the whip felt like a caress by Eddie’s hands. As if Eddie were stroking his back.

“Lower!” he ordered. And his mind gave the men another order. Gentler!

The whip moved lower, the leather strips lashing over his ass. He didn’t feel the pain this time. He felt a firm touch, the touch of Eddie’s hands on him. His fingers spreading over his backside, sliding down, caressing him.

“Yes!” Thomas cried out.

Every single leather strip felt like a finger sliding gently over his ass. When one caught in his crack, Thomas groaned out his pleasure. His cock hardened, curving against his stomach, yearning for release.

“More,” he begged. “More!”

Again and again, the whip touched his ass and his mind conjured up the feeling of Eddie’s hands stroking him with more passion, more determination. Again he felt the pressure between his ass cheeks. And again, he cried out. Bending forward as much as the restraints around his wrists allowed, he offered his backside for a more thorough flogging.

On the next stroke, his fangs extended and a bolt of lust shot through him. The whip lashed at him again, and this time it not only hit the full length of his crack, it also touched his balls, sending a shot of electricity right into his cock. His balls pulled up, tightening.

His eyes shot open. Fuck! He was going to come.

The flogger changed his angle, cracking the whip not from above, but from below now, hitting his balls again. His vision blurred. Without thinking, Thomas ripped his right hand free of the restraints and gripped his cock. With the same hand with which he’d pleasured Eddie, he now tugged on his own cock, jerking it up and down in vampire speed, while the flogging continued.

He closed his eyes, once again imagining the leather strips that slashed his ass and slipped into his crack to be Eddie’s caressing fingers that drove into him to explore him.