Read The Flesh Cartel - Episode #4: Consequences for Free Online Page B

spent the last few weeks in Madame’s dubious care. He
    ground his teeth, waited for the fire to start.
    It didn’t. He opened one eye, then the other. Looked down at the needle, suddenly unsure he’d
    gotten it into himself. But no, there it was, sticking out of his thigh like some kind of grotesque
    sideshow. He pulled it out, watched a single bead of blood well up.
    “You see?” Nikolai sounded pleased. When Mat looked up, he found him smiling.
    “Unquestioning obedience, Mathias. This was never meant as a punishment.”
    A test? Some kind of sick fucking test ?
    “But it could have been, had you refused me. Do you understand now?”
    “Ye . . .” He blinked, his tongue thick in his mouth, like it was made of toffee or something. No,
    that didn’t make sense. “Yessir.” Oh God, he was slurring.
    Oh. It felt good. His vision swam, his body pulsed with warmth, and he should have been
    frightened or furious at being drugged like this but God it felt so damn fucking fantastic . Christ, he even had the beginnings of a hard-on.
    “Your brother has taken well to this lesson already, Mathias. Life here need not hurt. Well . . .”
    he shrugged. “Yours may no matter what you do, and I’d be remiss to pretend it might be otherwise.
    But there can be much pleasure as a pleasure slave, if you allow it. Embrace it. Or, in your case, don’t fight it too hard. Remember this: you must struggle, but you must always let your master win in the end. And the end comes when he decides it, not when you do. Follow those rules and you may
    find yourself feeling this good again.”
    Token resistance, then give in. Got it. It all seemed so simple when he put it like that. So easy.
    Mat slumped back in his chair. Would Nikolai mind if he went to bed now? He just wanted to close
    his eyes. Float. Bask in this . . . whatever it was. Not hurting. Yeah, that was it—bask in not hurting.
    “I’d like to talk to you now, Mathias. Honestly.”
    Honest. He could do honest. “You suck. Um, sir .”
    Oh God, had he said that out loud ?
    Nikolai laughed. “I’ll forgive that on account of the drug, Mathias. But what I would really like
    to talk about is your brother. Will you tell me about him?”
    “Doan’ wanna talk about him,” Mat replied.
    “I’d prefer if you did.” Nikolai’s tone was warning. Even high out of his mind, Mat picked up on
    that.
    “What d’you wan’ me to say? He’s my brother. I love him. I miss him. I’m afraid for him.”
    “He’s flourishing here, you know.”
    No. “Bullshit. No.”
    “Yes. I think in less than a month, he’ll have learned to be very happy here. With me. With his
    new purpose.”
    “He adapts.” The thought made Mat suddenly, blindingly proud. “He’s a smart kid, no’ like me.
    He does what he’s gotta to get by.”
    “How do you feel about that?”
    “Scares me. Makes me feel like . . . like I dunno him. Can’t know him. Me, I’m always the same
    no matter what. Him, he’s who he needs to be.”
    God, why was he saying all this stuff? Couldn’t seem to stop it. “Chameleon,” his mouth added,
    as if he hadn’t spewed enough secrets to Nikolai already.
    “Scares you? Do you think if it would save himself, he’d hurt you?”
    “Done it already, hasn’e. You saw. At the auction. Fucking raped me with that . . . that thing .
    Tortured me. Held me still while I begged him to stop—” No. No. He didn’t mean any of that. Didn’t mean it. He knew Dougie had only done what he’d had to do, had only done what Madame had forced him to do . . . But why couldn’t he say that? Where was all this awful shit coming from? “I can’t . . . I can’t trust him.” Yes, I can. I can and shut up, stop talking, stop talking stop talking you don’t mean any of this stop talking. “He can trust me, but I can’t trust him.”
    “Why do you think that is? Would you have done things differently?”
    “I’d have let those fuckers kill me before I hurt him. But I’m an