The light inside my hawkmoths display case was strong enough that I could get the blonde restrained in the special chair without having to fiddle with the lights.
Peace disturbed, the silk moths began to flutter about in their cage, the sound of their little wings flapping was relaxing.
I got to work, prepping the blonde for tonight.
Maneuvering her limbs was like trying to control a frozen puppet.
“Fucking asshole!” she gasped when I pinned her head by the throat.
“Is that the best you can come up with? Do you know how many times I’ve heard that?” I strapped one of the leather buckles her chest.
That ensured her arms would remain locked down while I did everything else.
The chairs in our red rooms were much like the ones at the dentist. We also had examination tables from the same medical stature, equipped down to the stirrups.
It was our theme that differed. Some of the rooms were interchangeable for our hosts to do what they did best, put on one helluva show.
My room, Mason’s room, and my Uncles’ rooms were off limits.
They were a place of solace and comfort, hence why mine was modeled as a replica of my bedroom.
At the Château we could safely indulge our most depraved thoughts and desires without consequence.
And all the while we provided our elite number of spectators a release of the filthiest kind. Our benefactors got the same deal, with an added portion of profits, of course.
The truth was, my family had been doing this shit for a long time. I didn’t see it ending anytime soon.
We had too many connections.
Too much money that opened all the doors usually shut for everyone else. We knew how to navigate the dark side of life with a blindfold on.
No one missed the people who had no family, worked shitty jobs, lived on the streets, or sold their ass and pussy for a cheap motel room to live in.
No one bothered to look for the ones that were set up to be brought here by someone with enough funds to make it look like they never existed.
Like the blonde.
It was easier for her husband, a politician, to make it seem as if she took off with the man she’d been fucking behind his back than drag out a messy divorce.
Her boy toy was no longer in the kennel room, leading me to believe that’s who Mason was entertaining.
I grabbed one of her kicking legs and strapped it down, doing the same to other, ensuring they were splayed wide open and tightly secure.
I paid little attention to her bare pussy.
Walking over to the counter where my mini-fridge sat, I grabbed a container of maggots from the door.
I’d obtained them a few days ago, and this seemed like a good time to let the larvae get some fresh air.
Behind me, blondie went from calling me all sorts of creative names to begging.
Because if insulting me didn’t make me let her go this would definitely do the trick.
Where the hell did people’s brains go when they were kidnapped?
“Please, please let me go I—.”
“You won’t tell anyone, heard that one a few dozen times too. I’m going to need a bit more creative effort.”
I approached with the container, giving it a sight shake to rile the little buggers up.
“W-what are you going to do to me?”
“Hmmm,” I pretended to contemplate, staring down at her round tear-stained face. She had a lot of freckles.
“You sure you wanna know?”
A jerky nod in response.
“I drink your blood, I eat your flesh.”
Her lashes fluttered rapidly over hazel orbs, brain needing a minute to process what I’d said. When it set in, cue more begging, sobbing and screaming.
“Wow, that Hannibal Lector reference went right over your head.”
I stared at her, completely unimpressed. “I take it you’ve never seen Silence of the Lambs? It’s a great film, started my moth obsession.”
Her face went slack before contorting in anger, turning a deep reddish color.
“You fucking psycho! Let me go!”
“Still? You’re still going to be uncreative? You must be a shit ton of fun at parties.” I sighed and popped the lid off the container, walking around so that I was between her legs.
Why was that always the go to? People who killed were not automatically psychopaths. I was thoroughly convinced half the population didn’t even know what the hell a real psychopath was.
It surely wasn’t I.
I just had a psychopathic need to kill.
I loved the art of it; death had such terribly profound beauty. The terror, the pain, the blood, it was euphoric.
There were tons of people just like me. They worked real jobs, they taught schoolchildren, they were in positions of government, they lived next door and their kids played with others.
People like me passed the mundane every single day, and they were never the wiser.
Like blondie here.
“For the record, before you die an extremely painful death, I’m not a psychopath. I’m just a beautiful man in a suit.”
With that out of the way, I dumped the maggots from her navel to her pussy.
They writhed; the sound of their bodies sliding against one another was like music to my ears.
Blondie’s eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw what was on her.
I used a hand to spread her pussy lips apart, sweeping a few of the larvae between them with a thumb.
The loudest scream yet erupted from the blonde’s mouth; restraints were tugged at without an inch of give.
.Seeing a few stragglers in the bottom of the container, I upturned it and slapped the bottom, sending them straight into her wide open mouth.
“I’ll be back in a bit, enjoy your alone time.” I drawled, patting her cheek as she coughed and choked.
I pitched my container into the trash bin, and then stepped back into the hall, shutting the door behind me.
My phone vibrated again, reminding me I had an unread message.
I retrieved it from my rear pocket and saw it was from Ethan.
Ethan: Got our girl.
Ethan: Watch this!
Was Helena at home?
Disregarding his second text for a moment, I immediately set off down the hall. I knew he’d been going to get her; I just hadn’t realized so much time had passed.
Finally hitting play on the multimedia message, it took three seconds to understand what I was looking at.
I stopped in my tracks; heart pounding as it all played out in zoomed in HD.
There was nothing but pure concentration on her beautiful face. Even more astounding was the fact she had to have felt some level of comfort around Ethan.
The same Ethan who was just as much of a stranger to her as I was.
The other option just wasn’t logical.
Helena was different sure, but I knew our girl was far from fucking stupid.
Her hair was a glorious mess, and the tops of her creamy thighs peaked out from beneath one of Ethan’s shirts.
My dick was on board already. The fire burning through my veins as I watched her said something else was too. And fuck if that made much sense because I didn’t know her.
There this gorgeous anomaly sat, mutilating a bird on my damn coffee table, and sewing it back together.
She didn’t give a shit that Ethan could be watching, or what he would think of her.
This was her craft, ‘fixing’ things.
She was deadly and stunning and didn’t even know it. How could you not love a girl like her at first sight?
She could take my life without any warning. Why the fuck was that so enticing?
I watched the entire video from start to finish three more times, an idea forming clearer and clearer with each playback.
Heath said her ‘sickness’ was like a seed. Why hadn’t I taken advantage of that Easter egg right away?
Helena
was practically begging to complete her metamorphosis.
The seed was already there. It just needed to be nourished for the beautiful petals of depravity to fully bloom.
Knowing what I wanted to do, I approached Mason’s playroom and knocked twice.
Not a minute later the door was opening, and he was in front of me with a pair of bloody gloves on his hands.
Taking a glance past him I saw Katie still scraping the flesh away from the skull they were degloving.
Beyond her, his easels lined the walls beneath his shelves of skulls. He truly had a gift, an odd one, but a gift nevertheless.
I had one on my dining table.
“What is it?” he asked, ever the impatient gentleman.
“When you’re done, do you want to help me with something?”
“Does it involve the girl?”
Odd question considering this was Mason, but whatever.
“Yes.”
“Give me five. Wait,” he looked over his shoulder at Katie. “Give me fifteen.”
I caught the tail end of his smirk as he slammed the door in my face.
Chapter Fifteen
Declan
The smell of fresh pasta assaulted my senses as I entered the house.
After working with Mason on tonight’s reveal, I’d gotten held up by my father telling me my Grandmother was coming for a family dinner this week.
Walking into the main area, I instantly spotted Helena setting the table.
She was in a different shirt; having showered at Ethan’s urging no doubt and thank fuck. Birds carried so many diseases.
Her blue eyes shot to mine as I approached. Getting closer I could tell she smelled like my body wash.
“Declan,” her soft monotone voice greeted.
“Helena.” I went right up to her and placed a kiss on the top of her head, refraining from inhaling a giant breath like a goddamn weirdo.
I wanted to drop down, put her legs over my shoulders, and inhale the scent of her pussy before I worshipped it with my tongue.
It was apparent Ethan felt the same.
He was staring at her as if she’d just been hand-delivered by Satan wrapped in a pink satin bow.
His eyes met mine conveying one thing.
Soon.
I returned the silent message.
So. Fucking. Soon.
After tonight there would be no kid gloves or walking on eggshells. That’s not what Helena needed.
I was going to shove this depraved princess into our world headfirst, and love every single minute of the carnage we would create.
When I stepped away, she blinked at me. Her expression almost looked a little surprised.
She was remarkably calm about this whole situation. Then again, what else would she be? A small part of me held out hope that she actually wanted to be with us.
Stranger things had happened.
It was hard to tell what she was thinking when her poker face may have been better than mine.
“Hey,” Ethan greeted casually.
Usually, we’d have our bodies together fighting to undress.
With Helena here, I wanted to tell her in a different way than bending Ethan over the table.
I gave a head nod in response, angling it towards the stairs to let him know we needed to talk. He needed to be fully aware of my plans for Helena over the next few days, seeing as he was majorly involved.
“You ready to eat?” he asked, spaghetti spoon in hand.
“Yeah, just let me get cleaned up.”
I headed for the stairs, briefly wondering how our schedules would need to be arranged.
He’d cooked tonight.
Did that mean I cooked tomorrow?
Could Helena cook? Fuck, was it even safe for her to try? Last thing I wanted to do was drop dead over a plate of shit food because I was poisoned.
What a fucking way that would be to go.
I was obviously not great at this domesticated thing.
I’d work on it.
Entering the bedroom, I released a breath, loving the feeling I got every time I stepped in here.
Aside from my playroom, this is where I came to unwind.
The lighting was minimal for a reason. My bed: a massive California king baroque in black satin finish, identical to the one against the back wall of my playroom.
The walls were the same as the rest of the house, done up in gothic-y damask wallpaper.
I’d purchased a replicated version of the silver antique mirror in my playroom, and hung it where a television would normally go.
Across the room was the setup I had for my hawk-moths.
As it was, for this particular species I was waiting until spring to start caring for a new batch in pupation.
They weren’t indigenous to Riverview, and the hand feedings took time. They were fascinating creatures aside from the fact that they had a lifespan of maybe a month. Thier sole purpose in life was to hatch, eat, and fuck.
Sounded ideal until the egg part came in.
I walked across the room to my attached bath, washing my hands as I waited for Ethan.
He showed up just as I finished, shutting the door behind him.
“That girl,” he pointed to the floor, “is going to cause us hell.”
I laughed at his expression, as if he were already being tortured.
“She can’t be that bad.”
“She’s bad and doesn’t even know she’s bad. How does that compute? How is someone so…so fucked up this innocent?”
“You know when I picked her up, I’m driving down the road and she comes bounding from the trees like a fuckin wood nymph, complete with her tits basically showing, which are much bigger than predicted by the way.
“Then I try to be a gentleman for once in my life and direct her to the bathroom to change. She strips ass naked right in front of me and then walks over to the coffee table to play operation on a bird.”
I hid another grin; glad this wasn’t going to be a big adjustment just for me. But we wanted her, and now we had her, so it was a necessary one.
“Do I need to burn the coffee table?” I joked.
He let out a breath and cracked a smile, stepping right into my face. His hard chest was nearly pressing against mine.
“Nah, I bleached it so much I can’t smell right.”
“Unfortunate,” I deadpanned, “Sounds like your day was terrible.” I trailed a feather touch over his dick.
He grabbed my wrist and stopped me from touching any further.
“If you’re going to tease, I’m either fucking your ass or your mouth later.”
“You can…another day. I’m going to fill you in on what we’re doing.”
It had been a while since I had an ass full of his thick dick, and I had a position in mind that would work out nicely for all three of us.
“Okay.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“First, tell me how Heath behaved.”
“Uhhh,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “About that.”
“Did you kill him? Because if you did, my Uncle—.”
“No, why is that always your first thought?” He made a fake play of being offended, but Ethan was a shit poker player. He always had a smile on his face.
“Because you have a knack for exterminating our issues before we can discuss how to deal with them.”
“That’s the point, Declan. We don’t have to deal with them if they’re dead. And what does your uncle have to do with this?”
“He has plans for Heath.” I shrugged. “And I’m guessing by your non-answer he doesn’t know Helena is here already.”
“Oh, he knows. And he’s pissed. It’s Helena that doesn’t know.”
That made more sense, actually. We could work around that though. I told him as much.
“Sounds good, but what is this big plan because she’s downstairs probably wondering what we’re doing and I don’t exactly trust her not to go wandering off.”
I smiled, pulling
my keys from my pocket. “Do you remember that safe of DVDs we’ve got hid?”
Chapter Sixteen
Helena
I sat at their table enjoying my meal with no amount of discomfort.
Their home was clean, warm, and quiet. Being here felt natural, almost as if I’d done it before.
It was odd.
Two beautiful strangers made me feel more accepted than my family ever had.
I knew they could hurt me if they desired, do all the terrible things normal people couldn’t wrap their minds around, those fascinating things you hear about on the early morning news.
And then, they could leave me to rot at the bottom of a ravine where earthworms would feast on my remains.
If they wanted to, but they hadn’t yet, and if they did… I think that might be a good way to die. In a death like that, I mattered, I belonged in that moment.
That’s all I ever really wanted, was to belong, just like the family of geese, flying in the sky on a chilly autumn day.
So, even when Declan and Ethan began to ask questions, I was not bothered because no one ever asked about me. I simply existed, like the air that people breathed but rarely acknowledged.
“Do you miss your Mother, Lea?” was Ethan’s first question.
I didn’t react to his sudden shortening of my name.
“No,” I replied. “And she won’t miss me. I made her and Buddy smile, and then got them sent away. My sickness can’t scare them anymore.”
“Your sickness,” Declan stated, taking a bite of his pasta. “It’s not a bad thing,” he finished after he swallowed.
“He’s right,” Ethan co-signed.
Not a bad thing?
This was the first time anyone had ever come right out and said that. There was instant lightness in my chest from his words.
“Mother said the sickness would scare everyone away.”
“Well, is either of us running? Do we look scared?” Ethan tested.
My eyes shifted between them, from silver to copper.
I slowly shook my head back and forth.
“Remember that question and always remember that answer because it’s never going to change.”
Dinner lapsed into an easy silence after that. And…I think I felt something. Lighter somehow, not so imposing.
As I finished eating, the skull in the center of the table kept garnering my attention.
DEPRAVITY: Love Depraved Page 9