Blessed (The Chosen Book 2)

by Mayburn, Ann

  Finally opening her eyes, she looked to see Kyle and a skinny older guy with black hair looking at her. They think I'm still drugged out of my gourd. I need to play it up.

  She let out what she hoped was a sexually frustrated groan. Blinking her eyes and squinting as they adjusted to the lights, she said with a slight slur, “Kyle, what's going on? I feel so...funny.”

  The older guy leaned next to her and peered into her face. His eyes were as black as stones, seeming to have no pupil in the low light. He must be shielding like a motherfucker, she thought as she fought the urge to recoil from him. I can't smell him at all.

  “Hello, Eliana. I'm David. I'm afraid you're in a bad situation at the moment,” he said with mock pity.

  Trying to appear confused, she said, “David, what happened? Was I in an accident? I feel so warm, and my body feels funny.”

  Kyle laughed over David's shoulder and rubbed his groin while looking at her. She tried to not let the disgust show in her eyes, keeping them focused on David's chin.

  David stroked her hair. “I need to know something. It's very important, Eliana. Are you a virgin?”

  Trying her best to fake a blush, she lowered her eyes. “I know it's old-fashioned, but I'm trying to save myself for when I get married...like my mom did.”

  David patted her head as he stood and turned to Kyle. “Take care of it.” David started to walk out the door.

  “Hey, aren't you going to stay and watch?” Kyle asked in surprise.

  David didn't turn around, but his shoulders tightened. “I've lost my taste for rape. I'll be waiting for you at the house. Our goddess will be pleased at your devotion. After you're done, dump her on the side of the road. Remember, keep her alive and bring me her virgin's blood on her panties. If you kill her I will be very, very upset. I need her for additional rituals and trust me when I say you don’t want to take her place.”

  She groaned and ran her bound hands over her breasts with a gasp of pleasure. Kyle glanced back at her with a disturbing grin. “Can't rape the willing.”

  Gods, is that the motto of the creepy molester handbook? She thought as she writhed on the dirty floor.

  “Wait, David.” Kyle lifted his backpack. “I brought some of my knives with me. Can I cut her?”

  David turned and looked at Kyle with a soft smile. “You can cut her, Kyle. But if she dies before you bring her to me, I will keep you alive for nine long days and peel your skin off like a banana.”

  “I won't fail you, David.” Kyle's voice shook.

  “No, you won't fail our goddess.” David closed the door after himself with a soft click.

  With his legs spread and his hand massaging himself, Kyle stood looking at the backdoor for a minute before turning around to her.

  Time to go for broke. She tried to purse her lips into a sexy pout, licking them with the tip of her tongue.

  “Kyle, my body is burning. I need...I need something. My clothes feel so tight.” She groaned softly as he knelt next to her.

  He smiled and adjusted himself. “Ellie, I want to help you. You need my dick inside of you to make that burn go away.”

  She blinked at him and rubbed her chest across his knee. “I don't know. Everyone says it hurts bad the first time. I'm scared.”

  His breathing hitched in his chest. She had hit his pervert button just right. She’d figured him for a sadist when he started talking about knives and scaring the shit out of her.

  With her bound hands, she reached out and ran her hands along his leg. “Please help me. I've always wanted you, but I was too scared to ask. With this fire in my body, I know the time is right for me to give myself to you. To surrender to your strength.”

  Preening, Kyle leaned down and gave her a wet and sloppy kiss that felt more like he was trying to lick her throat than anything else. Hoping to end it as soon as possible, Eliana moaned into his mouth and tried to lift herself. He tasted like stale coffee and bad breath. “I want to touch you, but it's hard with my hands bound like this.”

  Kyle frowned at her and began to unzip her jacket and unbutton her shirt. Fearing that she had overplayed her hand, she tried to moan as he slipped his sweaty palm beneath her shirt and forced her bra over to the side. She closed her eyes so she didn't have to look at his face as he groped and squeezed her breast as if it were a water balloon.

  Come on. Take the bait. Aloud she said, “Oh Gods, it feels so good. I didn't know it would feel like that. More, please more!”

  “Hold on, baby.” Kneeling next to her, Kyle unbuckled his pants and pulled out his dick.

  Making her eyes big and round, she said, “I've never seen one up close before. Can I touch it, Kyle?”

  “Yeah, baby, you can touch it. I'll even let you suck it.”

  She pretended to reach for him with her hands bound and purposely lost her balance before she could touch him. “Shit, I can't with my hands tied. Please untie me. I want to touch myself while I taste you.”

  He stared at her for a minute, and she moved her shoulders so that a portion of her breast slid out. With that, he reached a decision, and Kyle reached into his backpack and held up a scalpel, turning it in the light.

  Don't think about what he wants to do with that. You will start screaming and not be able to stop, she thought fiercely as she held out her hands and licked her lips.

  “Hold still, baby. I don't want to cut you on accident,” Kyle said as he watched the flash of the blade as it sawed through her bindings in the lamplight. She kept her hands limp and said a prayer for help to anyone who was listening.

  Chapter

  Aiden leaned forward and gripped the steering wheel of the Hummer so hard his fingers turned white. In the passenger seat, Devon slapped a silencer onto his Heckler and Koch MP5. Jack sat in the backseat, sorting out various amulets and charms. He wasn't saying anything because he didn't want to accidentally invoke any of their powers and turn everyone in the car into a pile of bones and goo. Jack had told Aiden that after Aiden kept asking him questions about what he’d brought, annoying Jack and interrupting his train of thought.

  Devon gazed into the dark hills through the windshield. “We're getting closer. I can feel her somewhere to the north of us,” he said as he glanced at the GPS on Aiden's dashboard.

  “Got it,” Aiden replied as he floored the Hummer.

  He was going as fast as he dared on the dark country roads. Whoever’d taken her had held her for close to three hours now, and all the terrible things that could have been done to her in that time tortured Aiden. Images of his dream, with her crying and in terrible pain, kept filling his mind.

  Devon was silent in the seat next to him, as he had been for most of the ride. Everyone had met at Aiden's house, where they’d packed the Hummer full of gear before heading out. Jack had brought a RPG 7 grenade launcher, and Devon added some C-4 plastique to the assortment of guns and night vision goggles in the trunk. They drove around until Aiden and Devon could feel her getting farther away and then they’d driven in the opposite direction. It was time consuming, and the car was full of pent-up hostility and frustration.

  Heading west out of the city on I-68, they soon began to climb into the hills. The darkness became more absolute as civilization fell behind them. Aiden had to slow on the steep curves as the roads became less maintained. Trees surrounded the road on all sides, broke up by an occasional house or farm.

  All three were dressed from head to toe in black, with Dragon Skin Kevlar vests in the trunk. They had all been on rescue missions like this before, and they had all returned with a body instead of a person.

  “I can feel an edge of anger and fear from her now,” Devon rumbled. He leaned forward and pointed to a spot on the GPS. “Somewhere around here I think.”

  Hoping that anger was a good sign, Aiden turned north and prayed.

  ****

  “There you go, baby,” Kyle said as he rubbed her wrists. They were slightly numb from the ropes, and her fingers tingled fiercely. He was still holdi
ng the scalpel, and he ran the dull edge of it along her cheekbone. “Your eyes are the color of knives.”

  Hoping he thought her shudder of fear was one of desire, she purred at him, “You make me feel so good. Let me make you feel good too.” The unnatural calm the blessing bestowed on her continued to hold, giving her the strength she needed to think.

  She ran her hands across her breasts with a moan, cupping their weight and mounding them together. Kyle's eyes got big, and he reached for her breast with a greedy look in his eyes. Taking a deep breath, she ran her hand over her throat and broke the Cupid bead from Billy she wore on the thong around her neck as Kyle harshly twisted her nipple. Her hair slid forward and hid her hand behind its thick length. A gasp of pain escaped her lips, and he laughed and gave her nipple another harsh twist.

  She tossed her hair back with a moan and knelt between his legs, forcing him to move his hand with the scalpel. Tapping the bead three times with her fingernail, she murmured, “Cupido, Cupido, Cupido” as she bent over to kiss his hipbone.

  “Stop teasing, baby. If you want this big dick inside of you, you need to earn it. Now suck me,” Kyle said as he put his hands in her hair and yanked hard enough to make her eyes water.

  Looking at him from between his legs, Eliana whipped the bead against his ass where it broke with a purple puff.

  “What the fuck was that?” Kyle yelled at her, grabbing a handful of her hair and jerking her face upward. Kyle's teeth were bared in a furious scowl, his eyebrows drawn down so far his dark eyes blended into them. It was not the face of a man in love.

  How long does it take for Cupid's arrow to work? Frantic, she stared at him.

  “I'll teach you to slap my ass, you bitch! I'm the one who does the slapping around here. Did you hear me!” Kyle screamed in her face and slapped her repeatedly, hard enough so she saw stars and tasted blood as he held her head by her hair.

  “Think you're so fucking hot. You're a fucking bitch like the rest of them. Let's see how fucking hot you think you are without your hair, bitch!”

  Her head jerked as he gathered a thick fistful of her hair and held it painfully above her head. On the edge of blacking out, she tried to focus her vision. Her head jerked around as Kyle sawed at her hair with his scalpel.

  She spat out blood on the floor and realized she was spitting on a pile of her hair. The rush of anger cleared her head enough to focus her thoughts. She was too furious to notice he had stopped sawing at her hair as she stared at the pile of long honey-brown strands glistening with her blood.

  With a growl, she tried to glare at him through her watering eyes. The hot liquid running down her chin from her savagely split lip dripped onto her chest.

  To her surprise, Kyle was staring at her with a dumbfounded look as he said, “I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I would never hurt you. I would never let anyone hurt you.”

  An expression of horror crossed Kyle's face. “We have to fuck right now, baby. If David finds out you're still a virgin, he'll kill you.”

  She grabbed the scalpel from where he’d dropped it and swiftly sawed at the rope around her feet. “Don't worry, honey. I'm not a virgin.” Her voice sounded all funny as she tried to talk through her swollen lips. Wiping her hand across her mouth, her stomach clenched at how much blood came away on her fingers. He must have cut her lip against her teeth when he was beating her.

  He let out a sigh. Gone was the snarling goblin with the knife. In his place was the familiar all-American college boy. “Oh good. You're the most precious thing in the world. I have to keep you safe. You're my everything.”

  “Kyle,” she said in a false-sweet voice as she stood and kicked the cut rope away, “if you love me, you will stay kneeling on the floor with your hands in front of you.”

  He frowned at his hands then held them together in front of him. “Of course, baby. Anything you want.” Kyle continued to watch her with a soft and happy smile.

  It was deeply disturbing.

  “I'm going to call some friends to help you keep me safe. They are going to help you take the best care of me ever. And we can go and live a long and happy life together,” she continued as she flipped open her cell phone, saying a silent prayer of thanks as she saw that she had a signal.

  “Oh, and, Kyle, put your dick away.”

  He seemed ashamed as he tucked himself back into his pants. Then he knelt in the pile of hair at her feet and stared at her with complete adoration. It made her want to throw up.

  “Eliana?” Aiden said in a frantic voice.

  “Yeah, it's me,” she said in a garbled voice and had to spit out some blood before she could continue again. “Sorry, mouth full of blood. It's me. I need your help.”

  From her feet, Kyle said, “What do you need? Anything I can do to make you happy, it's a done deal.”

  “Who is that?” Aiden growled.

  “It's Kyle. The guy who kidnapped me, drugged me, and tried to rape me. But who now is evidently in love with me,” she said as Kyle looked at his hands, a tear running down his cheek. “I used Cupid's arrow on him.”

  “Where are you?” he asked. She heard male voices talking loudly in the background as an engine sped up.

  “I have no fucking idea. On an abandoned farm, it looks like. Listen, I'm going to get in Kyle's truck, and we're going to drive out to the main road and wait there with our hazards on.”

  From her feet, Kyle said, “They need to hurry. David will be wondering where I am. If I don't come soon, he will come looking for you. We're off Tisbury Road by the 9-mile marker. My grandpa used to have a farm out here,” he finished cheerfully.

  Fucking creepy, she thought as she glanced at Kyle. “Did you get that, Aiden?”

  “Yes. We will be there soon.” He drew in a deep breath and his voice came out in a growl as he said, “Eliana, did he...hurt you?”

  “Well, he drugged me, slapped me around, and tried to lick my tonsils. Oh and he squeezed my breast like it was stress ball, but other than that, I'm fine.” She looked at Kyle and spit more blood from her leaking lip on the floor.

  “He’s dead.”

  “I'm hanging up now, Aiden. I need to deal with some shit here. Meet you at the road.”

  She snapped the phone shut as Aiden began to protest and ignored the cell phone as it rang a second later. Kyle watched her from her feet and rubbed his face on her leg with a happy sigh.

  “Kyle, I'm not the first girl you've used knives on, am I?”

  “No, but you're not like those bitches. I would never hurt you. You're my world.”

  “How many bitches have you taken care of, Kyle?” she asked gently, trying to keep the anger out of her voice.

  “Only four. Well, five if you count that cunt that tried to get me arrested. But I didn't cut her. I burned her.”

  Breathing shallowly through her nose, she stood and lost her balance. Kyle reached to steady her, and she screamed, “Don't touch me!”

  He started to cry. “I'm sorry, baby. Please don't be mad at me. I'll do whatever you want. You have to know how much I love you.”

  Gripping her hands into fists, she said, “Kyle, I'm going to tie your hands together. That will make me happy. Do you have any more rope?”

  “No,” he said, looking crestfallen, then brightened. “But I do have duct tape in my pack.”

  “Perfect. I'm going to duct tape your hands together. Okay?”

  “Sure, whatever makes you feel good,” Kyle said eagerly, holding his hands together for her and giving her a winning smile.

  She taped his wrists together with shaking hands, trying to stop the images of five faceless girls who had suffered what had no doubt been a terrible death. Had they felt the same fear she had? Did they have families missing them, praying every night that they came home? How long did he keep them alive before he finally gave them the release of death?

  Alternating between feeling sick and wanting to scream with fury, she marched them out to his truck and removed the keys from
his pocket. She drove down the long, weedy road and came to pavement. Pulling over to the side, she put the truck's hazards on and waited.

  Chapter

  “Kyle,” Eliana said into the darkness of the cab as the hazards flashed, “do you think you'll ever not want to hurt women you think of as bitches?”

  His lips turned down in a puzzled frown. “I won't want to rape them anymore. I'll save myself for you. But stop wanting to hurt them? No, I don't think that will ever happen.”

  She swallowed hard to keep her nausea under control, totally creeped out by sitting in the car with a serial killer.

  He sighed happily and continued in a chipper voice. “You'll like Eris. She'll keep us safe as long as we provide her with sacrifices. I know she's going to love you. You're all she has been talking about.” Kyle studied her face in the light of the dash. “Don't worry. You won't have to kill anyone. I'll do all the killing for both us. Eris always has a list of bitches who need a lesson.”

  Eliana rolled down the window and spat onto the road. Kyle's words made her feel ill, and her stomach clenched.

  The seat creaked as Kyle sighed and shifted. “Even thinking about it makes me hard. Do you want to suck me?”

  “No, I don't. I need you to shut up now, okay?”

  “Whatever you want, baby,” Kyle agreed happily as he stared at her with a wonderstruck smile on his face.

  They sat in silence, the click of the hazards’ flashing marking the passage of time. She was getting more and more uneasy as she watched the lights flash off the trees. Kyle continued to stare at her with big puppy dog eyes wearing a shiny smile and occasionally sighing with happiness.

  The chirping of the crickets outside their windows stopped as a pair of headlights came speeding down the road at them. With a shriek of locking tires, the black Hummer stopped in front of them, and three doors flew open as the men inside ran out. She’d never been so happy to see anyone in her life.