by E. S. Carter
Alec Craven has played this game better than I. His very existence now a threat to not only the lives he holds captive but to my only family. Luke.
If we fail, we die.
If we fail, Faye may as well die with us as I refuse to think about the horrors that await her if she falls back into her father’s clutches.
I should be downstairs with my men, planning our attack with pinpoint precision, ensuring our success, not lying on a filthy bed with Faye Craven asleep in my arms, the intoxicating scent of her cunt on my fingers.
Faye Hunter.
She is not a Craven anymore.
No one, no one, will take her from me.
When she fractured into a million pieces in my arms, when her tight, virgin pussy gripped my fingers like a vice and her screams poured into my lungs invigorating my beast, she sealed her fate.
Mine. Forever mine.
Till death us do part.
“Wake-up, Princess. You’re coming with us.”
The voice breaks into my slumber, and I stretch, my aching muscles protesting at the movement. Something tickles my nose, and I begin to cough, my eyes shooting open at the sensation.
A cloud of dust surrounds me, displaced by my movements on the ratty, old bed.
Cole stands before the open window, barely visible in the light from the moon. He’s all shadows and dark places. It’s a fitting visual for a man who thrives in the darkness.
Memories of our earlier activity flood my mind, reddening my cheeks. Lucky for me the darkness covers my reaction but my ever watchful husband doesn’t miss me rubbing my thighs together in a feeble attempt to stifle the ache that throbs inside my core whenever he is near.
“Ah, Princess,” he soothes, abandoning his position at the window and prowling towards me. “I know you still ache for me. If we had more time I could remedy that for you, but let’s leave that for our victory celebration, shall we?” His hand reaches out and cups my jaw, his fingers splayed wide enabling his thumb to press against the corner of my lips and his pinky to stroke along the sensitive skin of my neck.
As I did the very first time we were alone, I ease my tongue from between my lips to lick at the skin of his thumb. His taste along with something spicy yet sweet explodes over my senses.
“Can you taste yourself, Princess?” He pushes his thumb into my mouth for me to suckle. “I can’t wait to eat at your cunt and drink you dry.” The ache between my thighs increases and I emit an involuntary moan. He chuckles, pulls his thumb from my mouth and, just like before in the car, he sucks it dry.
“My needy wife, so eager for more now that you’ve finally submitted to me. Oh, the things I will show you, Faye. Your body belongs to me now as does your soul. Come.”
He extends his palm, and just as I always do, but this time more willingly than ever before, I take it.
“Am I coming to Craven Hall with you?”
Part of me wants to watch this event unfold while a bigger part, the saner part of my brain, wants to be as far away from my childhood home as possible.
“No. You will be taken to our safe house. You’re too much of a liability.”
His words hurt. They slice through my recently softened chest and pierce my now open heart.
“A wiser man would use me; a more prudent man would allow me to show him a way in undetected.”
My words are meant as a barb but fall from my lips like a sulk.
“Nice try, Princess. We have the building covered. There are no secret entrances.”
He pulls me towards the door and my pride, my silly, foolish pride causes me to spill my secrets.
“So you don’t know of the bunker and the tunnels beneath Craven Hall? Huh, I guessed a man of your capabilities would have had that covered.”
He stops at the top of the stairs, his back stiffening at my weak attempt to insult his intelligence.
“I guess you’re coming with us after all, Princess. You can divulge your knowledge of secret passageways and hidden entrances on the way.” His voice is cold. Angry. But not with me. Cole doesn’t like to be blindsided, and my information has done just that.
Waiting for us at the foot of the stairs is Luke.
He glares at me as we descend, his hatred of me pouring off him in waves of emerald green.
“The car is here to take your pet to-“
“She’s coming with us.” Cole interrupts before he can finish. His tone not one to argue with.
“Like hell is she-“ Luke begins to protest before Cole slices his hand through the air to silence him.
“She has information, information you should have found out, so enough with all the bullshit, Luke. She’s coming.”
“What information?” He narrows his eyes at me disbelievingly as my foot steps onto the final rotting stair.
Cole doesn’t answer the question. Instead, he drags me towards the door before throwing over his shoulder, “Send in the teams, my pet will fill us in during the journey.”
We emerge into the muggy night air beneath a familiar fat moon. It is not cold, but the sense of deja-vu crawling over my skin causes me to shiver.
“Cold, Princess?”
In an act I would never have expected from my husband, he shrugs off his jacket and slips it over my shoulders. His heady scent invades my senses and banishes the feeling of foreboding that permeates my skin. I welcome the warmth, despite the lack of cold. His jacket feels like an impenetrable armour and I have a feeling I will need it before this night ends.
Slipping my arms into the sleeves, I let Cole lead me to the dark SUV. Its blacked out windows hiding any current passengers.
When he opens the door wide and motions me to enter, I come face-to-face with Grim.
His dark, almost black eyes meet mine through the swirl of blood red mist that surrounds him. Nervous energy pours from him, the need to kill coating him a tumultuous haze.
He nods at Cole and climbs into the rear seats, leaving the front row empty for us to take.
“Get in, Princess. The time has come to end this, and if you are correct with the information you share, you could be the key to every one of us still being alive tomorrow.”
Anxiety thrums through my veins. I know my information to be right, but that doesn’t mean my father won’t have plans in place to thwart all attempts to gain entry to the hall.
Cole climbs in behind me, swiftly followed by Luke who gives the order for us to leave. As we drive over the potholed road, away from the rotting carcass of the cottage, it is Cole who demands I spill all my secrets.
“Tell us, everything. Every passageway, every hidden alcove.”
My eyes meet his and I hesitate.
“I could tell you, but we’d need days. There is a maze of tunnels beneath Craven Hall, some are dead ends, some lead to crypts or cellars. If you want to access the underbelly and to surprise the monster within, you’ll have to let me show you the way.”
All eyes are on me as Cole decides whether or not to accept my offer. The truth is, they would never find the correct path undetected. They need me and judging by the look on my husband’s face he knows it. It doesn’t mean he has to like it.
“You win, Princess,” he finally concedes. “You get to show us the pathway to hell.”
I hold his gaze, while I listen to Luke issue new orders via a hidden earpiece, relaying what I’ve just shared with the various teams.
Once he’s finished, he looks at me and warns, “New sister or not, if you are leading us into a trap, not even my brother will stop me from gutting you.”
I instruct Cole to take us to a paddock about a quarter of a mile away from the walls of Craven Hall.
To anyone else, it looks like a nondescript field used for livestock or horses, but I know differently. I know that behind a decrepit looking barn that remains standing despite missing its roof and one of its sides, hides the hatch to the bunker. I found it once, many years ago, when I was hiding from Magdalene. Having exhausted all the hiding places on the top floor, my
floor, I’d gone in search of a sanctuary on the ground floor, knowing that my father was on business for a few days.
It was during my father’s absence on his many trips away from the hall that Grant would pay me visits. Magdalene eager to allow him entry under the guise of them conducting an affair, all to satisfy her sadistic whims.
In reality, I was their plaything, a sick toy for them both to molest.
On watching my father’s car pull away from the drive, I knew I had an hour at most to disappear. Determined to find somewhere she would never find me, I tiptoed down the three flights of stairs, into the library and by pure chance, I stumbled and knocked a lever, disguised as a candlestick that sat on a small occasional table against the far wall. A deep grinding sound echoed throughout the large room, and I froze, fearing I’d unleashed something monstrous that my father had kept hidden. What I’d uncovered was a false wall of books, one that opened just enough for me to squeeze through.
Hearing Magdalene’s voice calling me from the upper floors of the house, I scurried through the gap like a mouse scuttling into a hole. The damp, cold air and blackness before me should have put me off going further but I preferred it to what awaited me if I went back. I fumbled forward, my hands running over exposed brick, deeper and deeper into the dark until I hit an old fashioned light switch, bringing to life the antiquated lamps that adorned the walls. What opened up before me was a series of narrow corridors. Corridors that, over the coming days and weeks, I escaped through frequently, earning Magdalene’s wrath because Grant would have to leave without getting his playtime.
On the final day before my father was due to return home, Magdalene threatened to bind me to the bed to stop my pathetic game of cat and mouse. I swore, and I promised that I would behave, and she believed me. I wasn’t sure why, maybe it was because they both liked me appearing to be a willing participant in their sick games and a bound child wouldn’t look so pretty in their vile photographs. Whatever her reason, that was the day I went further into the bowels of Craven Hall and found the bunker.
When I twisted the lock of the strange looking door on the ceiling of the metal room, I gasped as clumps of grass and dirt poured over me before bright sunlight stung my eyes revealing the outside world that I yearned to explore.
Unfortunately for me, that was where Magdalene found me.
She hadn’t bound me because she wanted to find my hiding place. She’d watched as I entered the hidden door, and followed me the entire time.
I never used the secret passages again, and she promised not to tell my father as long as I let Grant stick his cock in my mouth and as long as I swallowed the foul smelling liquid that spurted from the tip.
I was more scared of the punishment my father would give than the thought of Magdalene and Grant, so I agreed, and the last piece of my childhood was stripped away.
We pull into the field, and I don’t bother to wait for instructions. My memories, still fresh in my mind, tug me from the car, and I jog towards the back of the barn with my companions hot on my heels.
My eyes scan the grass, looking for any signs of disturbance and find nothing. I know the opening is here somewhere, I just have to find it. Lifting my feet, I stamp around in the soft grass, the moon spilling just enough light to showcase how stupid I must look.
When I raise my head to the three men, they stare at me, each with a different look on their faces, none of them happy to watch me march around in circles, trying in vain to find a secret doorway.
“Enough.” Luke bellows, on my third circle of the area. With one last stamp of my foot, I stop but not before everyone hears the echo of my foot on metal.
It’s almost comical to see their reaction, they all go from staring at me like I’ve lost my mind and they want to kill me, to utter disbelief.
Grim is the first to move, running towards where I stand, he throws himself down on his knees and begins to scrabble at the dirt like a man possessed. In mere moments the remnants of dirt and grass have been shoved to one side completely revealing the small hatch.
He lifts his head and grins at me, his white teeth shining ominously in the moonlight, the sweeping scar on his face contorting with every twitch of his features.
“The Pet did good.”
His eyes glimmer with the tiniest amount of respect. I’ve somehow earned this madman’s approval, and it’s a chilling realisation.
I wonder if it’s locked.
As quick as the thought enters my head, Grim’s fingers prise under the outer edge of the hatch, and he pulls. The screech of metal against metal echoes out into the night.
“Fuck me,” Luke exclaims as he steps forward and peers into the gloom below. His eyes narrow as he looks from the hatch opening to me. “It could still be a trap. She’s still a Craven whore after all.”
His words bounce off me. The relief of not just finding the bunker but of it being open has washed over me and cleansed me of my worries.
Cole steps forward and stands next to his brother, his eyes calculating when they land back on me.
“That it could be, Brother. That’s why Faye will enter first, and we will follow. Inform the Forces to await our command and prepare for the signal to attack.”
Luke smirks at me, his aura betraying his thoughts. He thinks his brother once again sees me for what I am. An enemy whore. When I look from Luke to Cole, I see something else. I see that short burst of violet, the colour I have no knowledge of, the colour that perplexes me and makes me want to ask what he’s feeling just so that I know how to read it in the future.
“Come, Faye. It’s time for you to lead. You have all the power here; I don’t want to regret giving it to you.”
The thinly veiled threat both hurt yet bolstered me. Have I not yet proved my worth? Am I still so untrustworthy?
Flashes of me arching against his back, his fingers deep in my pussy assault me.
Have I not already given him everything?
A single nod is all I offer as I straighten my spine and step closer to the hole in the ground. Cole pushes something cold into my hand, a flashlight, and I quickly flick the button, illuminating the darkness that stretches out below.
Nothing has changed since the last time I’d been here many years ago. Nothing has been disturbed, and the knowledge calms my racing heart. I can do this. We can do this.
I point the torch to where I remembered the ladder to be, and sure enough, it sits there, beckoning us, inviting us into the bowels of hell.
Tucking the flashlight into the waist of my trousers, I slowly descend the dozen or so rungs, until my feet hit the floor below. I am quietly checking out the unused space when I hear three sets of feet jump to the ground behind me.
“Which way now, Princess?”
Cole’s warm hand grips my upper arm, and I point my torch towards the far end of the space and the metal door that is set into the stone wall.
As one, we walk towards the doorway, the old metal giving little resistance to Grim’s shoulder as he pushes it open.
“There are dozens of corridors down here, but only one leads to the library. Your men need to enter at the exact time as us to create confusion. My father will be expecting you to come in from the outside, but he will never expect us to enter from inside.”
I hope.
I guide them through the maze of tunnels, my mind searching for the correct path, letting old memories lead the way. When I see a familiar alcove set back in the next tunnel, I turn to face the three men behind me and whisper, “Around the next corner, at the edge of the passageway is the false door into the library. It will take you no more than a few minutes to get there, so now is the time to signal your forces.”
Cole’s eyes sparkle in the harsh glint of the flashlight, his face tells of appreciation and pride. He’s proud of me. The knowledge burns my cheeks and makes me yearn to taste his lips, makes me want to risk everything by initiating a kiss.
Luke leaves us, taking a few steps back into the darkness to signal their
men. He gives Cole the nod when everything is in place, and both he and Grim squeeze past us and walk around the corner towards the end of the passageway and the secret entrance to Craven Hall.
When we are alone, Cole’s hands gently reach up and cup my face, the gesture sweet, the look in his icy blue eyes, anything but.
“You will stay here. Do not move, stay hidden until I come and find you. If I’m not back within thirty minutes, leave. Go back the way we came, get in the car that has been left for you and drive. Drive and never stop. Do you understand me, Faye?”
“You will come back for me.” It’s a statement, not a question.
“I will do everything in my power to come back, but you need to promise me that you will do as I’ve said. Don’t become what you once were, Princess. Now, fucking promise me.”
His face is stern, even in the dim light I can see swirls of black and red engulfing him, but within those are sparks of violet, and it hits me, he cares for me. I’ve never seen that colour before because since my mother, since before I had this gift, no one ever has. It makes my next words easier to speak.
“I promise.”
He doesn’t kiss me, doesn’t promise to return, and with one last look, he’s gone. Gone. Leaving me alone once more in the darkness.
Chaos.
I emerge into blood and death and chaos.
Children scream, women weep, guns fire and darkness reigns.
We exit the secret passageway unseen, creeping through the library and encountering no one. Then the screams begin.
The noise coming from the upper floors.
The likelihood is that our men have breached the roof and are securing Craven Hall, while Alec and his men slaughter his captives.
As we rush up the grand staircase, me first, with Luke and Grim hot on my heels, I sense death before I see it.
The first body we find is that of a young boy, maybe ten or eleven. Bruises and cuts mar every inch of his naked skin, a single bullet wound to his head indicating his assassination.
Someone’s son lies at my feet and the beast inside roars, demanding blood.
