Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
What was surprising was that when they came for me, I was taken outside, across the courtyard, and up hundreds of spiraling stairs to a room in a tower overlooking the grounds. The chamber at the top had no bars on the open windows, and I could easily make a run for it and jump. But the fall, without my power, would certainly kill me. And if somehow I survived, the spikes below would be my end.
“Oh, look who it is,” a woman said.
Glancing around, I saw a blonde woman dressed in what could only be described as a vampire goth dress. It was all black lace with a plunging neckline, and the long sleeves appeared to be chiffon and tulle but could be black spiderwebs for all I knew. It clung to her ample bosom and all the rest of her voluptuous curves. Her skin was like white marble, and her eyes were a deep midnight blue. The only other color on her was the crimson lip stain, which might have been blood. This was hell after all.
“Do I know you?” I asked her.
The smile I received was utterly full of hate.
“Huh,” I grunted.
“What’s that, warder?” she asked, crossing the floor to me.
“You’re not at all what I expected,” I told Moira.
She nodded slowly. “It’s been weeks, did you know?”
I wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction of seeing any pain on my face.
“The archangel Raphael…” She laughed then, and it was a vicious sound. “And who could’ve known that? I mean, I should have. What kyrie could kill a demon lord?”
I stayed silent.
“But the archangel Raphael,” she went on, “is said to have gone quite mad after being parted from his mate. He’s inconsolable, and his fellow archangels, including Gabriel, the herald and servitor of the Almighty,” she sneered, “have imprisoned him for his own good.”
My heart sank, but I didn’t let her see even a flicker of my grief. I thought, of course, that he would save me, but that was not meant to be. I would need to save myself. The small spike inside the tie of the robe, now pressing against my back, would have to do.
“I never thought I could actually drive him mad,” she cackled. “I mean, how fortuitous that Gabriel threw you away like the piece of trash you are.”
Stupidly, I’d been so focused on her, I hadn’t noticed the men until they were on me. The robe was stripped off fast, falling to the ground, and I was dragged, fighting, to a large bed where there were ropes, so many ropes. I was put on my knees with my ass in the air and my chest flat on the bed. My arms were yanked back so I was folded in half, and my wrists were tied together, behind my thighs, to my ankles.
Moira clapped when it was done, and a large, heavyset man walked through the door.
Trussed up and helpless, I was trying to drag in air even as I felt the fear roll through me. I wasn’t proud of the sound that came out of me, and that, again, made Moira laugh.
“You shouldn’t laugh, pet,” the man scolded her, then walked over and slapped my ass hard. “It’s not kind to enjoy anothers’ misfortune.”
His words only made her laugh harder.
“Is his ass greased?” he asked Farren, who came around the side of the bed, naked, his shaft erect and dripping.
“No, my lord,” he said, holding out a bowl. “I wasn’t certain if you wanted to punch your fist into him first. I know you enjoy it when the blood makes them slick.”
It was disgusting and vile, and I conjured every member of my clutch in my mind and what they would do if they were here. Somehow, it was comforting, and I could breathe again.
“Yes, but not with this one,” the man said and bent so I could see his face. He didn’t look like the monster he was. Up close he was ordinary, nothing that spoke to his sadism or his lust to degrade and desecrate others. “I’m Baron Dollo, and you are in my holding of Rae in Gehenna, the dominion of the damned.”
I breathed in and out through my nose. Finally, I knew where I was. Not that it mattered, but still, for me, I liked knowing.
“Your body is beautiful, warder, and I will break you and then again, and what’s left I will give to my men, and when you’re dead, we will cut you in pieces and send them to the angel Raphael so he can keep them in a reliquary for all time.”
“No fire for me?” I asked him.
He chuckled. “I like your spirit.”
The ropes were too tight, I couldn’t even twitch, and so I tensed for the violation that was coming that would not only wound me, body and soul, but would damage my connection to my mate if I ever saw him again. He would never forgive me for being defiled instead of killed, I knew that in my heart. I should have leaped out the window instead. It would have been better.