Monsters in the Dark

by Winters, Pepper

  For a moment it looked as if Angel Q would tear the man apart, but eventually he gritted his jaw and jerked away. “You’re right.”

  He spun to face me. The agony in his eyes shut down until nothing existed but grim determination. His large hand landed on my wrist, fumbling with the rope.

  I sighed, watching him, wanting to stroke his feathers, feel the softness of his wings.

  Once my wrists were free, he ran a thumb over my tattooed skin, his face spasming with such awful regret. “I’ll make it my life’s work to keep you safe, Tess. Tu es à moi.” You’re mine. “And I’ll never let you down again.”

  Releasing me, he turned to my ankles.

  “He came for you, Tessie. That’s nice. He did more than I ever did.” Brax stood over me, smiling softly.

  I shook my head. “He isn’t real. I’ve finally cracked, Brax. I’m not returning after this. I’m leaving. Dying. I don’t care as long I don’t have to live this life anymore.”

  He shook his head. “You’ll survive. You always do.”

  The vision shattered as Q leaned over me, pressing his forehead against mine. I breathed in his deep scent, drowning in musk and something heady—a dirtier smell of sweat and blood and toil.

  Q’s face twisted with heartbreaking grief. “I’m going to murder the men who did this to you. I’m going to make them fucking scream.” His anger buffeted me, sending my heart rate spiralling.

  “He’s going to hit you. And you deserve it for what you’ve done.” My mother appeared.

  Q touched my cheek softly, but I cried out. Expecting more pain. Expecting more torture.

  He jerked back, eyes glassing with remorse. “Someone get me a fucking blanket!”

  His face came over mine again, pale eyes searching mine. “Tess. I’m going to pick you up. I swear on my mother’s grave I will not hurt you. You have nothing to fear. I promise.”

  Nothing to fear.

  Nothing to fear.

  “How can he say that when he whipped you, Tessie? He drew blood from you.” Brax scowled at Q, crossing his arms.

  “I asked for that, though. I wanted it. I begged for it.” Even as I said the words, I couldn’t remember why I would ask for such agony.

  “Did you, Tessie? I’m not so sure…”

  Time shot forward and another block of awareness was stolen.

  Stabbing, intense pain from my finger consumed me. Someone wrapped a piece of bedding around it, but already blood stained the cotton.

  Swallowing hard, I noticed something warm and scratchy covered me, chasing away the icy chill I’d lived with for weeks. Hard muscle cradled me; Q murmured, “I’m going to take you home and fix this, esclave.”

  Esclave.

  The word shocked me from my drug-stupor; I blinked. Q carried me toward the door, his ebony wings shimmered with every colour as he strode beneath dangling lightbulbs.

  His jaw was covered in a thicker shadow, lines etched his mouth, and his eyes were aged and sleep-weary. The strain wasn’t in keeping with the perfection of my illusion.

  Why did my angel look so…so human?

  My eyes distorted, flickering with another vision. An image of Q in a dirty rumpled suit, carrying me as if I was a long ago misplaced possession. Something he had no intention of ever letting go again. Anger permeated around him while sadness wept from every pore.

  My heart picked up its sad little rhythm.

  Q found me. He’s here.

  “Don’t be so stupid.” My mother sneered. “He wasn’t looking for you in the first place. No one wants you, Tess. Stop making up such fanciful stories.”

  My lungs faltered in the quest to breathe as pain ricocheted around me.

  Why would he come? After all, I was an enemy now. I hurt women. I had blood beneath my fingernails and a kill staining my soul.

  “Are you r—real?” I whispered, wincing at the ache in my lungs.

  Q faltered, pale eyes connecting with mine. For a never-ending moment he just stared until his mouth tightened and he murmured, “I’m real. It’s over, Tess. You’re safe.”

  I tried to smile but centipedes chewed my lips off. I shuddered, slurring, “That’s n—nice. See, Brax. He did come.”

  Brax appeared, running a gentle hand through my hair. “He did, Tessie. But you can’t be so naïve to think you can go back to the past. Not now. Not after what you did.”

  My heart smashed into pieces. He was right.

  Q’s muscles bunched beneath me, hoisting me higher, bringing my chest to his face. He trembled as he whispered tortured words into my neck. “Your mind is not broken. Your mind is not fucking broken.”

  Somehow, I didn’t think he spoke to me.

  He rambled in French. “Si vous me l’enlevez, je le jure devant Dieu je vais ... Je vais ...” If you take her from me, I swear to fucking God I'll... I'll... He didn’t finish. Instead, he lowered me in his arms, bundled me tight, and roared at White Rodent, “Did you fucking think you could get away with this? Rape women? Traffic them? Drug them? You’re a fucking dead man and the only place you’re going to is hell. I guarantee your corpse will be chopped into little pieces.” Q chewed on every word. His anger was palpable, filling the room with thick tension.

  I looked up, bewitched with the way his wings rustled with ferocity and he stood so rigid and unswerving. He looked toward Franco. “Bring them. The pliers, too.”

  Q turned on his heel and strode out the room. I curled tighter into his body as the corridor contracted around us, making me feel like I lived in the belly of a ginormous snake. My snapped finger threatened to send me into darkness again, but I held on. More insects came to nibble on my brain and a procession of visions trailed after us. My mum, dad, and Brax all followed as Angel Q whisked me off to safety.

  Q bent his head. “I’ll pay them back like for like, esclave. Mark my fucking words, they’ll wish they were dead before I’ve finished.”

  A burst of heat filled me as black wings fanned around us, entrapping us in a cocoon. His hotness was a bonfire against my chilled skin, and he carried me as if I was a feather.

  A damaged and broken feather.

  I didn’t trust anything anymore. This couldn’t be real. I’d done nothing to warrant such saving.

  If only this was real. If only I was being taken away. Maybe I was dying. Maybe my brain created its own sense of finality. Saying goodbye to Q. Majestic Q with his raven wings and cloud of crows.

  “You are dying. Confess your sins now, child, or you’ll never be welcomed into heaven.” My mother wrung her hands. “Confess how you screwed up our life. How you ruined your brother’s life. How you’ve ruined a man’s heart. Just die already.”

  I choked on the intense hatred gleaming in my mother’s eyes. I couldn’t believe the pain she caused.

  “I never wa—wanted to be a burden.” The tears I’d been holding all this time spilled. Once they started, they wouldn’t stop.

  Q jerked to a halt. “No, esclave. Stop it. You’re not a burden. Never.”

  With a shaky hand, I reached up and caught a black oily feather from his wings. They quivered as he wrapped them tighter around us like a shield. I ran my fingers over the quill. “I confess to everything. I’m worthless and want to die.”

  Then I passed out.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Quincy

  You’re my obsession, I’m your possession. You own the deepest part of me…

  Words lost all meaning.

  I became a creature of suffering.

  Tess wanted to die. My Tess. The woman who made my heart keep beating had resorted to the last option available.

  She wants to die.

  She wants to leave me permanently.

  Whatever she’d lived through had been too much. Gone was the strong woman I knew, replaced with a shadow, a damaged hologram of who she used to be.

  My arms tightened so hard I worried I might snap her in half. My entire body suffered jittery horror at the thought that even though I held he
r, I’d lost her.

  I was too late.

  The image of that fucking naked bastard with his rancid cock and the pitiful blonde girl beside Tess raped my mind.

  My heart combusted with horror when I saw how similar Tess and the blonde looked. Their hair colour was so alike it tore my soul into pieces at the thought that I might’ve been too late. Too late to stop Tess being raped. Too late to stop her from suffering such tragedy again.

  But I checked. When Tess passed out as I wrapped her snapped finger in some sheeting, I made sure to check she hadn’t been used. It killed me to invade her privacy, but I needed to know.

  I had to know. I wouldn’t live with myself if she’d been violated again. Not after Lefebvre. Not after what I put her through. No one person should ever live through as much as Tess.

  I wanted to howl to the bloody moon and shed my body in favour for something vicious with claws and fangs and no fucking conscience. I wanted to be the devil.

  My mind dismembered from rational thought. I couldn’t think straight. I doubted I’d ever be sane again. The fact that Tess wasn’t bleeding between her legs helped me stay human for a little longer.

  Tess weighed nothing in my arms as I carried her back the way we came. She’d lost so much weight she looked like a wraith. A blonde, delicate wraith with so many black bruises all over her she looked like a fucking domino.

  My body wouldn’t stop trembling as every emotion went on hyper-drive. I wanted to kill. Fucking kill and kill and kill.

  Tess thrashed, her face scrunched up with whatever hallucination she suffered. The track marks on her arms gave a vivid story of just what she’d endured.

  I kept begging over and over. Her mind isn’t broken. Her mind isn’t broken. Once she detoxed, she’d be fine. I had to believe that.

  My teeth clacked hard as I remembered what she’d said. She fucking talked to Brax. He lived in her mind, whispering to her, offering all sorts of comfort. Why didn’t she dream of me? I would give anything for her to think of me. To find solace in my memory.

  You were never comforting. You were her master who played with her mind. How could she ever think of you fondly?

  I couldn’t answer and it killed me all over again.

  Coming to the fork in the corridor, I turned left, heading toward the large factory floor where we’d snuck inside.

  We found the old fish-processing warehouse after a day of bribing the head of police. He’d had morals and refused for a time, but then we’d found out via other means that Smith paid off airport officials to transport his cargo.

  I admit I went berserk at the thought of Tess flying away from me again. I grabbed the police chief by the throat and pulled out my trusty knife, all while Franco kept watch so we weren’t disturbed.

  Faced with losing his life, the police bastard spilled his guts. He knew Smith. He knew enough to make me want to exterminate him, too. However, once he squealed, we walked. Someone else would kill him. I had other men I wanted to bleed.

  My skin wouldn’t stop crawling as we entered the compound, moving in shadows and silence. When I found Tess, my heart spontaneously exploded into shards.

  I’d never felt this way before. So weak. So afraid. So helpless.

  The tightness around my throat squeezed harder as I looked at the unconscious woman in my arms. Blood oozed through the sheet around her finger, and I would never be able to erase the image of her bone sticking through her skin.

  Her jaw was swollen and shadowed while other abuse marked her perfect skin. Every mark punctured a hole into my soul.

  If only I never went to work. If only I was strong enough to be open and tell Tess I cared deeply for her. Be brave enough to share every secret and swear every promise.

  If only I’d asked her for proof that she removed the fucking tracker.

  Because of me the Red Wolverine saw through my act and took revenge on Tess. He managed to cut my balls off and bury me alive by taking the one thing I couldn’t live without.

  I did this by being selfish. I wanted her too much to let her go, but at the same time she lived in constant danger thanks to me. And it would only get worse. The word was out that I killed cocksuckers who traded women. Death threats were coming and I knew I had to kill them, before they killed me.

  I cradled Tess closer, willing my heat to enter her freezing form. Franco appeared, striding toward me, carrying the other blonde girl who had blood smeared on the insides of her thighs. She was white as a corpse and her eyes held an expression I knew all too well: the expression of no return. An empty shell where a soul had flown free to escape reality.

  So many slaves had come to me with that look. They were the hardest to fix. To coax back into their bodies and not let them whither into nothingness as they lost the will to live.

  Franco set his jaw and didn’t say a word.

  I hugged Tess ever harder and strode toward the back of the warehouse. The whole place was black with filth and stank. Unused for years, it’d found a new purpose: trafficking.

  Normally, if I found a place like this, I would dispatch Franco and a few of his best men. I would let them infiltrate and get their hands dirty. My profile as CEO was too well known to risk becoming a vigilante.

  But that was over now. I could indulge in a little ‘kill the fucking rapist.’

  This time I would tear every motherfucker into pieces. I would dance in the cooling puddles of their blood as I burned the entire place to the ground. Q Mercer no longer existed. I didn’t care about my company or image.

  Now all I cared about was smashing every single fucker who hurt women. Who hurt my woman.

  Gone was my act. This would be the first time I’d fully let myself go, and I didn’t want witnesses. I planned to savour the kill. Drag it out, taunt my prey until he begged. And then, when they could no longer speak from such agony, I’d dispatch them with no mercy.

  “Frederick has taken Alpha team to round up the remaining assholes while Beta squadron has found over twenty girls in numerous rooms.”

  Tess coughed, wheezing loudly in my arms. My heart lurched at the sound. It wasn’t good. She was sick. Her pallor and fever scared me shitless.

  Franco muttered, “She’ll be fine. We just need to get her home.”

  Home.

  A place where I used to be free, but not anymore.

  The moment Tess walked into my life she owned me. I would never be free again. I never wanted to be free again. If Tess thought she’d leave me by killing herself, she’d hate me for eternity when I kept her alive.

  Footsteps sounded behind us. Franco and I turned to face the crowd of people as they arrived from the corridor. The cavernous factory floor with old rusty machinery and decrepit conveyor belts welcomed both traffickers and slaves.

  Frederick ushered in the malnourished and dirty women. They blinked when they came closer to me.

  Franco murmured to the girl in his arms, “Can you stand on your own?”

  The girl took a while to reply, and even then it was a vacant nod. Franco settled her on her feet, making sure the blanket covered her.

  The girls all came to a stop, clutching each other’s hands, looking frantically around the room.

  Now his arms were free, Franco strode toward his team who had guns trained on the ten or so traffickers who moved forward in a mixture of hatred and guilt.

  When the naked asshole who’d raped the blonde girl walked past, Franco slapped him around the head. I’d never seen such a black look of rage in Franco’s eyes. He’d always been so good at hiding it, but I guessed tonight was a first for all of us. He would kill and love it and I’d let him. There were enough for both of us to sate our murderous hunger.

  Violence was permitted when such fuckers existed as these.

  “Where do you want them?” Franco asked, looking at me with anger glowing in his eyes.

  I jiggled Tess in my arms, positioning her higher all the while I itched to go and finish what I promised.

  Surveying the bes
t place for a massacre, I pointed with my chin. “Line them up over there.” Directly in the middle of the factory floor, with the conveyer belt to their backs and spray-painted windows to the front. No one would see and at two a.m. in the morning, I doubted anyone would hear. But just to be sure.

  “Gag them. All of them.”

  Franco smiled tightly. “No fucking problem.”

  I stayed frozen with a fitful, unconscious Tess in my grip while Franco ordered everyone onto their knees and directed his team to stuff old packing material into their mouths before sealing with duct tape.

  “Take the women outside,” I ordered one of Franco’s men. They shouldn’t have to see this.

  The man nodded and motioned for the women to leave. They shuffled away, looking over their shoulders, seeing their kidnappers for the last time.

  Once they were gone, the naked rapist tried to stand and fight. “You won’t fucking get away with this. People will come and slit your throats in your sleep. They’ll put a bounty on your head.”

  Franco pushed him back, almost forcing his fist inside his mouth as he stuffed him like a Christmas turkey. “We’re counting on it, you dickshit. The more of your kind we can cull the better.”

  The man in the blue shirt and jeans—obviously the fucking ringleader—said softly, “You’re making a huge mistake, my friend. Just take your girl and go, but leave the rest with us. I’ll pretend this never happened and I won’t tell the Wolverine a thing.”

  My hands clenched around Tess. This was the bastard who ordered every diabolical thing that’d been done to my woman. I trembled with ferocity, forcing myself not to break Tess’s fragile form.

  “You’re not my fucking friend and I will take my girl and leave, but I’m not leaving you alive.” I took a few steps closer. “The Wolverine is already dead. Just like you.”

  A woman whimpered; my heart hardened to rock. Her long black hair was tangled, her cheeks stretched with the duct tape over her mouth. A woman involved with trafficking women? I couldn’t think of anything more traitorous. She’d be the first to die.

  Some men cried, some moaned, others pleaded, warbling around their gags, but it fell on deaf ears.