by April Lust
I shook my head in answer, but said nothing. I knew if I did, my voice would come out as a terrible, trembling mess.
Blade fake pouted, then threw it between the bars towards me. It landed near my feet and I actually took a step back from it, as though the piece of lacy lingerie might burn me.
“Too bad,” Blade told me, not seeming to care one way or the other. “Put it on.”
I stood frozen, arms still crossed over my chest, unwilling to even look at that damn thing again. I shook my head once more.
Blade stepped forward, leaning against the bars. I imagined I could smell his breath, though he was really too far away for that. When he spoke, I shuddered. “Put it on,” he repeated, quietly, calmly, “Or I’ll come in there and put it on for you.”
My heart pounded in my chest. I imagined him coming in here. If it weren’t for the two men behind him, maybe that would have been an opportunity. I could find a way to incapacitate him and make a run for it, but those two bodyguards of his were there and if Blade came in here…I knew I’d struggle against him, but he’d be too strong for me. His hands would grab at my clothes. He’d tear them off me. Would he fondle me, too? Defile me? Would he put his hands between my legs and—
The thoughts were too much. The images made me feel like I wanted to hurl, like he’d already done those things to me instead of only promising to do them, and I knew as I sank down to the floor of the cage I would have to do as he asked. I would have to.
With trembling hands, I reached out for the garment lying on the floor. I picked it up and brought it to me, then looked up at Blade. He was grinning maliciously at me, the movement pulling at the awful scars across his face, making him look as grotesque on the outside as I knew he was on the inside.
“That’s a good girl.”
I clutched the fabric to me, and waited for the men to leave. Except they didn’t. No one moved. They all just stood there—staring at me, leering at me. I began to shake harder as I realized this was as much a strip tease as a means of making me feel…violated.
“Go on,” Blade prompted me, and I clutched my eyes tightly shut against his words and his gaze.
I turned away from the men, so at least I couldn’t see them, then I did the unthinkable. I began to undress. My shirt, my pants, my underwear…It all dropped to the floor. I tried to hide as much of my body as I could from the awful gazes of the men, but there was only so much I could do.
They wolf whistled at me the entire time. They said terrible things:
“Nice ass, honey. Can’t want to get my dick in it.”
“When’re you gonna show me those tits, baby?
“Gonna wait until we come all over them before you show ‘em off?”
I did my best to ignore their taunts, telling myself it wouldn’t come to that. This was about torture, not sex, and I would be saved before…before it came to that. Max would come. I would find a way out of this. Everything would be okay.
I had to believe that, had to tell myself that.
Slipping on the negligée as quickly as I could, I felt better that I was at least partially covered, though the little scrap of fabric did little to hide my assets. My breasts were barely restrained, the fabric stopping just shy of exposing my nipples, and my cleavage was so prominent that I almost felt that it might have been better to be naked. The material covering my midsection was mesh, see-through save for the red lines of ribbon that started at my tits and went down to attach to my panties. Tiny black panties with little red lace edging the holes of it.
I didn’t turn when I was finished, just knelt down on the floor, curling in on myself, trying to be as small as I could.
Even so, I heard Blade mutter, “You look very fuckable. I think we should do it now.”
I pulled in tighter on myself, like that might have been enough to protect me, but it wasn’t. The cage door opened and I heard footsteps shuffling in towards me. It wasn’t Blade himself who picked me up, but one of the other men. He grabbed me around the middle and threw me over his shoulder.
His touch finally threw me into defense mode. I screamed and I wailed. I pounded my tiny fists against the man’s huge back and kicked at his front, but it did nothing. Nothing at all. He didn’t even seem to notice it.
They took me upstairs. I screamed myself hoarse, but Blade just laughed, saying no one was around. I didn’t quit trying.
He said to the other guy, the one who wasn’t holding me, “You know, I kinda like the way she screams. I was going to drug her before, but maybe I should just let her be awake for it. What do you think?”
The other man looked over at me. I caught sight of him as I struggled to get myself down, saw he was staring at my barely covered ass. He finally said, “I don’t know. I like it when they’re just lying there when you do them, you know?”
I felt sick. They couldn’t be doing this. They couldn’t be talking about this. They couldn’t be so casual about…about raping me!
I struggled as hard as I could until my throat was sore and I was exhausted, but to no avail. When I was finally put down, it was thanks to absolutely nothing on my part. The man carrying me just threw me down once we’d gotten into a room. He’d at least thrown me down onto a bed, though the mattress was dirty and stained. I looked up, scrambling away across the mattress to put some distance between the large, burly man and myself. As I did, I realized what sort of room we were in.
A studio.
The bed I was on was a prop. It was slid up against a wall that looked like it was completely unnecessary, just a prop made specifically for use with the bed and nothing more. There were probably support beams behind it, since it didn’t look to be attached to anything.
In front of the bed was a large, expensive-looking camera. It was old and a little beat up, but definitely better quality than any I'd seen before. There were a bunch of lights set up around it, too, most of them pointed directly at me so I was completely illuminated in an otherwise mostly dark room.
Behind the camera was a group of three or four men. Some were big and burly, others leaner, looking every bit like drug addicts.
One stepped forward. He was a large man, taller than me by a foot or better with bulging muscles that seemed to be everywhere. He stripped off his shirt as he approached me and my heart dropped low into my stomach. I realized it before he said anything that this man would be the one to actually do the deed. He would be the one to force himself upon me.
I dared to look at the camera and realized we’d be doing this on film. I was about to be violated and these sick bastards wanted it on film.
I felt sick and, for a moment, I really thought I might through up. If I’d thought maybe they would be stop—out of disgust, not concern—I would have tried to force myself, but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t matter one way or the other. This was going to happen.
The man grinned at me, not as malicious as Blade, but just as eager. His expression was a mask of lust, but not that delightful, edible lust I saw shine in Max’s eyes before he took me until I screamed. No, this was different. This lust was as much for the violence as it was for my body.
I couldn’t let this happen.
I watched as the man began to undo his belt buckle. I realized beneath his jeans there was already a bulge, telling me he wouldn’t need any time to get ready for me.
Bile rose in my throat, but I pushed it down forcibly this time. I needed to try to find a way out of here. I had to get out of here before—
I was in the midst of a panicked, desperate search for a way out when I felt a pinch in my arm. I whirled around to see Blade had come up behind me. He was grinning and held an empty syringe in his hand.
“I changed my mind,” he said easily. “I figured I’d do you this small mercy. Besides, I can’t have you trying to run away, now can I?” He pointed to the camera then. “Don’t forget to give me the money shot.”
I wanted to hit him. I wanted to fight. I wanted to run. I wanted to be anywhere but here.
B
ut I couldn’t do anything. Whatever Blade had given me raced through my body so quickly that it was already starting to take effect. My body suddenly felt heavy and I became increasingly woozy. If I’d been standing, I would have stumbled. As it was, I just fell back onto the bed and once I was there, I knew I couldn’t get up.
The last thing I could distinguish clearly was that large man leaning over me, grinning at me. His face was distorted already, my vision blurring. He said to me, “I’d shake your hand or something first before I use you up, but I don’t like soft touching.”
I didn’t even have the strength to shudder and did my very best to brace myself for what was coming. Then the noise came. Shouting, grunting, screaming. Things breaking. Lights shifting.
And then a touch, a touch that was too soft to be anyone in this room.
Chapter 24
Max
I was reminded of storming the castle. Like some knight sent by a king or a queen to rescue the damsel in distress, the princess, the love of my life. Of course, that was little more than a fantastical idea, a little kernel of strange truth buried deep in the back of my mind without any real evidence to back it up.
Every Reaper was here. Our bikes weren’t exactly silent, so we’d had to park a way back and that left a few of my guys in a little bit of a rough shape. Not all of us were at our physical peak. Thunder was taking the short hike to the abandoned house a little rougher than most, his heavy-set frame groaning against the effort, but he didn’t complain. Not even as he huffed and blew out fat breaths.
I’d decided a while ago that I liked Thunder, despite his unattractive appearance and the gut that hung so obviously over his belt. He was several paces back, but I had a couple of other guys right beside me. I’d instructed everyone to follow my lead, which they did unquestioningly, and I led them straight to the old train yard I had first followed Bills to that day I’d been so suspicious of him. We all parked our bikes behind that same billboard as before, the one where I’d hid to spy on Bills.
Of course, Bills wasn’t with us today. I’d made it a point to him that his cover was not to be blown, which meant he couldn’t be in on the raid, no matter how much I wished I could use him today. My first priority was and always would be Lucy, but I understood the importance of putting a stop to what Blade and his hell-raisers were doing, too. If I didn’t want them doing this shit to Lucy, then I didn’t want them doing it to anyone. Not a soul. No one deserved to be treated like this, which meant I needed to stop the person at the top, cut off the head of the snake, if I wanted to permanently put an end to Blade and his operation.
That being said, I wasn’t giving them any more time alone with Lucy than absolutely necessary. Any time was too much time and, now that I’d learned what they’d done to Mary, I was out for blood.
We were nearing the abandoned house. It was a real piece of work. The building was dilapidated, the paint on it fading and coming off in sharp, ugly chips. It had probably been white at one point, but it had faded and molded into some sort of greenish grey that looked to be on the verge of making people sick simply by looking at it. The windows were cracked or shot out entirely, framed in splintering pieces of wood, some broken into large chunks. It wasn’t a huge place, but it was sizable enough. Bigger than the house I shared with Lucy.
I knew she was in the basement, so that was my ultimate goal. The goal of everyone, as things were. I’d finally caved and explained the full extent of the situation. Whether anything had happened at this point or not, they needed to know what was at stake. This was Lucy. And, to their credit, my boys responded in spades. They were up in arms about it, ready to storm the castle immediately. If we got there too late, well, I’d kill any man that gave Lucy grief about it.
Any man.
With my men behind me, I finally gave them the signal to rush the place. We had some backup in the form of Blackbird, Billy, and several of the Vultures, but it was hard to say whether we were outnumbered. Most likely, we still were. Even with the added assistance, it was difficult to say how many Slayers there were and I knew for a fact we didn’t have the full Vulture force. Only the ones most loyal to Billy and who had a soft spot for the Preacher’s only daughter had come.
It was enough, though. I’d have gone in with less if I had had to, so I was grateful for any numbers I could get.
We dove into the house like firecrackers on the Fourth of July. There were bullets flying before I even saw targets, their bodies hitting the floor as my men and those of the Vultures spotted the Slayers and took them down. I was too focused to care about small peanuts anyway. I wanted them dead—all of them—but I had one specific monster in mind that I had to hunt. Blackbird was nearby, just to the left of me. I caught him just out of the corner of my eye, ducking down behind the back of a chair, gun in hand. When a bullet went whizzing by him, he straightened up just slightly so he could reach over the chair, and fired. A man went down. Blackbird—despite his age or maybe because of it—was a damn fine shot.
Nearby, I could hear Billy cry out in a mixture of excitement and anger. He was younger than Blackbird by several years, closer to my age, and it seemed like the thrill of the fight itself was more than enough for him.
Thunder raced into the room and just bowled people over. He wasn’t the greatest shot, but his size worked in his favor. Despite making him a much bigger target, it seemed like no one had hit him yet, but he’d caught a few of them. He slammed into them like a pro wrestler, completely knocking the wind out of them, causing the men to drop hard to the ground, breathless. Others he just beat on, cracking skulls and breaking bones.
I moved forward through the house, counting seconds as I went, knowing that each one I wasted was one that could hurt Lucy. The drive to protect her was so intense that I barely noticed the bullets flying about my head. I didn’t notice as I caught one—just a scratch—across the arm, the searing pain of it just another wake up call. It fueled me, gave me focus, and I kept my eyes open for a door or a set of stairs, anything that might lead me to the basement and Lucy.
Bullets were flying, cries of pain and anger alike mixed into the air like a spark to hydrogen, the whole place exploding with them. I fired again and again, not even seeing the faces of men as they went down, not caring who they were or whether they were deeply involved. They were Slayers; they knew what sort of monsters they were.
I spotted Blade. His mottled face was pulled taut with fear as his eyes frantically searched through the army I had brought with me. He must have realized something quickly, because he caught my gaze for just a moment, before turning and making a run for it. I saw the stairs to the left and the room Blade dove into on my right. I had to make a choice.
It was made before I even bothered to consider it, my feelings on the matter consistent and all-consuming. I was halfway to the stairs leading to what I hoped was the basement and Lucy inside, when another man—one of mine—came back up them, stopping me before I could even step down. He shook his head, and I blanched. Were we too late? Was it more than just rape they were doing here?
Had I lost Lucy forever?
Before my thoughts could drown me in depression, the man spoke. “She’s not there!” he yelled amidst the noisy battle. “The cage down there, it was open! She’s gotta be somewhere else!”
I clenched my jaw together tightly and turned back towards the room where Blade had hidden himself. It was reassuring to know he hadn’t found her dead, but it did nothing to ease my other thoughts and worries. I’d have to get more information, and I knew the best place to get it was from the horse’s mouth.
The door was locked, so I pounded on it, yelling at him to let me in. “Open the fucking door, Blade, you coward!”
At first, he wouldn’t respond. He must have known how things were stacked against him and how angry I was, how ready to kill him I was. Then, a muffled, terrified voice filtered through the door. “I’m not coming out! You assholes clear out, because I’ve got a bomb and I’ll set it off if I catch even
a single fucking Reaper left in this shithole!”
I sincerely doubted he had a bomb. Blade had already proved himself a coward. He didn’t have the balls to set the whole place up, not with himself still in the building.
I was about to bang on the door again, when one of the Vultures came up to me. I saw that Thunder was in tow and he had something cradled gently in his arms. A person. A woman.
Lucy.
Her hair hung down across one of Thunder’s beefy arms and her legs were long and bare, slung over the other. She was dressed in—well, I guessed I should have just been grateful she was dressed at all, but I knew damn good and well that she hadn’t left the house in that. She’d been put into it and it made my blood boil.
They’d pay. I was beginning to think they knew it, too.
I was a little concerned that Lucy was unconscious. She made little sounds now and again, so I knew she was alive at the very least, but that was all I could tell. She didn’t look like she was bruised or beat up, but I also knew there were places that might be bruised that I couldn’t see just then.