I shook my head, trying to clear away the disheartening concoction of the sedative, my own fears, and my father’s words. If what my father said was right, and I could truly have no children, what did that mean for my marriage? If Zander found out about this, would he even still want me? My thoughts lingered back to my father’s first bride, and her unfortunate fate. I had no desire to repeat the past. For now, this needed to stay locked away. I couldn’t tell Zander, at least, not yet.
I lifted the blanket even though the pain was excruciating and peeled the gauze back. The slit in my stomach was small, and once the red was gone, you’d never even know it was there without really looking for it, but I saw it and it set off another panic in my brain.
I had to keep this information to myself. I couldn’t let Zander see the mutilation my father had caused. Zander didn’t seem like the killing type, but there was no way I intended to find out, and if I misjudged him, and he really did want to kill me for this, I would let him. I didn’t want to die, but there was no way on God’s green earth I would ever share a bed with my father.
I would rather die.
Chapter 19
Zander
I came around the corner and watched as Wayne exited Phoenix’s room. My instinct told me to rush in there to make sure she was alright, but I waited for my quick onset of rage to calm down. The man was a scourge to both Phoenix and The Faith, and regardless of my intentions to leave, he needed to be dealt with.
Getting rid of him wouldn’t be very easy, since he was a predominant member of the community, but I would figure it out; I had to, and the look on Phoenix’s face when I entered the room several minutes later was enough to confirm the thought.
“Are you ok?” I asked her. “Are you in pain?”
She nodded. “It hurts Zander,” she cried.
Twice now she had addressed me as Zander. My instinct had been to correct her the first time, but my heart told me to ignore it. This time a little warm feeling erupted in my belly when she said my name.
“Here,” I said, handing her a button attached to a wire. “This is morphine. When the pain gets to be too much, press that button and it will release some medicine into your IV. It will only do it every few hours so don’t worry about pressing it too much,” I told her.
“Thank you,” she smiled, pressing the button and sniffling.”
“What did he want?” I asked her.
“Who?”
“Your father,” I rolled my eyes.
“Oh. He um, just wanted to check and make sure I was alright.”
She was lying.
“Phoenix,” I warned her.
She looked down at the button in her hands, guilt reading across her face.
“He told me why my mother hates me so much,” she said, just barely over a whisper.
“Tell me,” I commanded.
For the next few minutes, she told me everything her father had told her. I shouldn’t have been shocked by his unstable and unforgivable acts, but I wasn’t. He was psychotic. When she finished her story, I knew there had to have been more but her eyes were having a hard time staying open.
“Get some rest, little bird. I will be here when you wake up.” I leaned over and kissed her forehead, but she was already out.
She would probably be asleep for a few hours which worked out well as I had some errands to run. I wanted to check on my sisters and see how they were doing. I hadn’t heard from Jenny in a few weeks which was rare because she and Bella always found time to call me if allowed.
Claire drove me over to Bella’s house first as it was closer and I knocked on the door. I tried not to just show up, preferring to make plans with my sisters ahead of time, but with everything that had happened over the past few weeks, plans had just simply, slipped my mind.
“Zander! What are you doing here?” My sister pulled me in for a hug her belly already forming to the baby inside.
“I should have called, but I wanted to speak to you,” I told her as she ushered me into her house.
“You’re my brother, this one’s uncle and soon to be High Master, you never have to call to come to our home. It’s our pleasure,” she said as we walked into her living area rubbing her tummy.
Corbin was sitting in a large leather chair and looked up at my arrival.
“Ah. Master Zander. Good to see you, is everything alright?” He asked shaking my pre-offered hand.
“Thank you Master Corbin, I addressed him before sitting on the couch. Yes, everything is in order, I just wanted to check in with Bella if you don’t mind.”
Asking for him to leave in his own home was overstepping but I didn’t need an extra set of ears that I didn’t trust listening in.
He snapped at Bella and pointed at the floor near his feet. I watched as she immediately dropped down to her knees with no hesitation. She looked up at Corbin and smiled, love shining through her brown eyes, and he looked back at her with the same intensity. This is what The Faith should have been about; not the removal of rib bones.
“Permission to speak freely, Master,” Bella asked him.
“Granted,” he nodded.
“Brother, anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of Master. I trust him implicitly as he trusts me.”
Corbin sat down and smiled at her, patting her head.
I didn’t like it. She may have trusted Corbin, but I trusted no one besides my sisters, Mildred, and Claire. The irony of trusting only the women in my life was not lost on me, but I had to speak to someone about my internal dilemmas.
“Master Corbin,” I spoke to him.
“Just Corbin is fine, Zander,” he said smiling. His eyes were kind and I knew Bella was in good hands.
“Corbin,” I corrected. “Did you happen to hear what the new slave’s second task was?”
It was risky, but if his reaction to the task was similar to mine, rage and horror, I wouldn’t feel quite so suspicious talking to Bella about the High Master position problem I found myself in.
“I did not,” he said, continuing to pet Bella’s head.
“Wayne Ainsworth facilitated it,” I said first, making both Bella and Corbin cringe. A good sign. “He had a rib removed from each of the girls.” I didn’t elaborate as everyone over the age of five knew the significance the rib held in the bible.
“You’re not serious,” Corbin asked, shocked and disgusted.
I nodded.
“What in the hell was he thinking?” Corbin commented.
“He’s deranged,” Bella agreed.
“Without a High Master, he’s been appointed interim High Master, until I either claim it or the twelve months’ time frame expires.”
Bella nodded but Corbin looked confused.
“Why haven’t you taken your rightful spot?” He asked.
“That’s why I’m here,” I told them both. “I don’t want it.”
Bella didn’t react since she already knew it, but Corbin held enough astonishment in his gaze for the both of them.
“Why the hell not?” He asked.
“Because I don’t believe in it,” I simply shrugged.
“That’s blasphemous,” Corbin said, no judgment in his tone, but simply factual.
“Yes, I know. But how can I believe in something, how can you believe in something that says it’s ok to mutilate another person’s body?”
They both nodded, lost in their own thoughts.
“Look,” I said, “What you two have is real, and if I’m being honest, it’s beautiful, and that is something I can get behind, but what Wayne wants to do to this community is something altogether different.”
They both looked at each other and smiled before Bella’s mouth popped open, a question on her lips.
She turned to me, “So, why not claim what is yours, and change it?”
I opened my mouth to reply, but no sounds came out. Why didn’t I change it and why hadn’t I thought of that myself?
The answer was a hard one to figure out. The Fait
h had been like it was for so many generations, the only real change was the members alive and the technology and tools used to control the slaves. Wayne wanted to tip the scales in one direction, and I wanted it tipped in the other.
“Zander, listen to me,” Corbin drew me out of my head. “From the moment I found out about what The Faith was and what it stood for, I knew it wasn’t for me, but like you I didn’t have a choice. Our fathers controlled everything and they were okay with keeping things as it was, as it has always been. But we are the new generation. We get to decide how the next part of the story plays out. Yes, there will be people who oppose this change, but as High Master, they will listen to you and fall in line. This is your chance.”
His words made sense, but everything in my brain was scattered and confused. Half of me wanted to take the reigns and charge into this battle with guns ablazing. The other half of me wanted to run and forget everything and everyone. The monster residing in my soul wanted to let Wayne rule the world and cause as much chaos as humanly possible. It was too bad the beast didn’t get a vote.
“You’re a good man, brother,” Bella told me, getting permission from Corbin’s eyes to join me on the couch and comfort me. “You just need to step up and take what’s yours.”
“I know, Bella, but I don’t know if I can do it.”
I hated the feeling of vulnerability spinning around me.
“You can,” Corbin said. “And Bella and I stand with you.”
I nodded to him my thanks and looked back to Bella.
“Tyler won’t like this,” I told her.
She nodded in agreement. “No, he won’t. Have you heard from Jenny?” She asked.
“No. You?”
She shook her head.
“I was going to go over there after we spoke before I head back to check on Phoenix.”
I hadn’t noticed a change in my tone when I said her name, but Bella had.
“You care for her, don’t you?” She smiled and I nodded. “It’s good to see someone can make the almighty Zander happy,” she laughed, squeezing my hand and heading back over to her Master. “Please let me know how Jenny is when you see her?”
I stood and headed for the door. “I will. I love you Bella-Bean.”
“I love you more Zander-Mander,” she smirked at our childhood nicknames.
Back in the car, I smiled. Bella really was living the life she loved with the man she loved. Just as she worshipped him, it was all too clear, he worshipped her as well. This is what our community should be about, but how hard would it be to convince other people of that? People who had been living it this way their entire life.
Twenty minutes later, we pulled up in front of Jenny and Master Tyler’s house. I knew I wouldn’t get the same greeting I had with Corbin. My only hope was that Tyler wasn’t even there so I could speak with her freely. I knocked and waited.
The door opened slowly, and Tyler appeared.
“Master Zander, how can I help you?”
His tone was clipped and it was clear I had interrupted something.
“I’m here to see my sister,” I told him.
“No can do. She’s a little tied up at the moment,” he snickered, as if the pun was new and he’d been the first to say it.
“Why?” I growled.
“Are you questioning me, Zander? What I do in my house with my slave is none of your fucking business.”
I freely opened the cage for the beast and let him come barreling out.
My arm raised and with one single blow and a loud crunch, Tyler was on the ground, clutching his bleeding and broken nose.
“Everything is my business,” I seethed, stepping over him and walking into the house. I had only been here once before, but I knew the bedrooms were on the second level and I guessed that’s where Jenny was.
I took the stairs two at a time and headed left throwing open all of the doors in search my sister. When I found her, it was far worse than I thought.
“Jenny, can you hear me?” I ran to her, unlocking the cuffs around her bloody wrists as she hung from the ceiling.
“Zander?” she choked out. “What are you doing here?”
“You haven’t called and I got worried.
“I’m ok,” she tried to reassure me, but the state of her naked body told me otherwise.
Bruises covered almost every inch of her flesh; some yellow and older, some still purple and just barely forming. Her lip was bleeding and both of her eyes were black and blue. I carried her over to the bed.
“On my front, Zander. Don’t lay me on my back.”
When I laid her down I could see why. Her back was flayed open and bleeding. Bits of skin were hanging from her body and there wasn’t a space between her neck and the top of her thighs that hadn’t seen the mark from a spiked cat-o-nine tails. My anger reached to uncharted territory.
“I’ll be right back,” I told her.
I ran out of the room, my vision foggy with rage. The source of my ire at the end of the hall.
“How fucking dare you come into my home, Zander,” he yelled, charging at me.
I was ready for him.
We both collided and fell to the ground, me on top of him our fists flying fast. Where his anger made him sloppy, most of his blows missing me, mine centered me and made me focused, landing every punch.
I kept punching, over and over, his face turning back and forth with each hit, blood shooting out and covering the carpet underneath us, but I didn’t stop.
Even when the skin on my knuckles were covered in his blood and my own, I didn’t stop.
Even when he stopped responding, I didn’t stop.
He was dead, and I still didn’t stop.
“Zander,” a small voice sounded behind me. “He’s gone.”
I hit him one more time and then fell backwards onto my ass, my adrenaline leaving my body just as fast as it had come. Jenny came over to me, wrapped in a light silk robe and placed her hand on my shoulder.
“Call Claire,” I told her. “She’s downstairs in the car.”
Slowly, she made her way down the staircase as I stood and headed into a spare room on my right. I grabbed the sheet off the bed and used it to cover Tyler’s corpse.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Zander. What did you do?” Claire said as the sheet fell into place.
I didn’t answer her. Instead I walked up to my sister and put my hands very carefully on each side of her face. “You’ll never have to worry about him again.”
“Thank you, brother,” she whimpered.
“Claire, help Jenny pack as much as she can and take her back to my house. Mildred will tend to her.”
Claire nodded and whisked Jenny away from the carnage that was her former Master and her only brother. I stood for a while just staring at the dead man at my feet. I would be in serious trouble for this, but I didn’t give a fuck. This was the last straw. Right then and there I made my decision.
I would take what was mine by birthright.
I would be the High Master.
Changes were coming.
Chapter 20
Phoenix
My eyes opened and I looked around at the seemingly empty room. Normally Gwen was somewhere nearby when I woke up to help me sit up and give me a sponge bath and breakfast, but I didn’t see her anywhere. It had been almost a week since my double surgery, and five days since I was allowed to go home, and so much had happened. I laid my head back down and thought about the last few days.
When I woke from my nap, Zander was sitting next to my bed, his hands bandaged, blood seeping through the stark white gauze. He was snoring.
“What happened?” I gasped, his eyes opening immediately.
“How are you feeling?” He asked ignoring my question.
“I’m fine, Zander, but what the hell happened to you?” I reached out and took one of his hands in mine and ran my thumb over the bandages.
“It doesn’t matter,” he shook his head, pulling his hand away.
I foun
d out when I got home what had happened. She probably wasn’t supposed to, but Jenny, Zander’s sister told me the entire story. It was gruesome, as were the marks all over Jenny, but the only thing I could really feel was pride. I was proud of Zander for protecting his sister like he had. It told me he really would be a good husband, and probably a good father.
I reached my hand down my body and felt the ever-shrinking scar just below my navel. I would never be able to make him a father and the thought of that had weighed heavily on my mind since my father had told me. What scared me was what would happen when he did find out. I wasn’t ready to tell him, but my first day home, he almost found out anyways.
“Miss Phoenix! What is this?” Gwen cried out looking directly at the red small cut underneath my belly button.
“Lower your voice, Gwen,” I scolded her.
“Should I go get Master Zander?” She asked, dropping the sponge into the bucket of soapy water and heading for the door.
“NO! Don’t go anywhere. Please,” I cried, not ready to be abandoned or killed.
Gwen came over and sat down next to me, brushing the hair out of my face. She was so much wiser and older than her actual fourteen years and my heart ached for her and her lack of childhood.
“You can’t tell Master Zander this Gwen. I’m trusting you.”
I had to tell someone or my head might explode with the secret.
“I won’t Miss Phoenix. I promise. You’re like a sister to me,” she blushed and I grabbed her hand.
“When they removed my rib, my father had them tie my tubes. Do you know what that means?”
She shook her head, her naiveté revealing her age.
“They made it so I can’t have babies,” I told her.
She gasped as her eyes filled up with tears.
“Why?” She asked me.
“Because my father is an evil and spiteful man and he wants to be High Master.”
“I don’t understand,” she told me.
“If I can’t give Zander kids--”
“Then someone else can be High Master after Master Zander,” she said cutting me off, catching on very quickly.
Unmasked Page 15
