Darkest Sin

by Ashton Blackthorne

  My screams soon accompanied hers. I roared loudly as I came deep inside her. Grabbing her hips roughly, I drove myself deep inside her thrusting violently as I came again.

  I felt dizzy as I collapsed onto the pillows next to her. My lips brushed hers before I closed my eyes. The hot sand spewed into the tent as a storm began to whip through the air.

  “Nephiri, Nephiri,” I chanted her name softly as I stroked her hair.

  Her emerald green eyes gazed back at me. “Shall I be your queen now, Amon?”

  Her eyes, so familiar, enchanted me even after I was spent. “Of course.”

  “Ash! Ash!” I heard a voice calling me through the darkness. My eyes fluttered open to see Amber standing by my right. I was lying on the ground. I looked up and saw Ayden and Reese on my left looking concerned.

  “Are you okay?” Ayden held his hand out to me. He helped me to my feet.

  “What the hell happened?” I rubbed my head and felt my normal short hair again. There was a huge, painful lump on the back of my head.

  “You grabbed the statue and then fell backwards,” Reese replied.

  “Why did I—why would I do that?”

  “I warned you, didn’t I?” Ava emerged from behind the altar. She had replaced the statue next to the medallion.

  I nodded rubbing my head.

  “Now let’s get the hell out of here before someone finds us,” Ava advised.

  She didn’t have to tell us twice. We all grabbed our gear and followed to the stone steps.

  “Push the door back into place,” Ava instructed. “We need to leave this place as we found it.”

  “Why? Don’t you think they’ll want to retrieve the rest of the spiders?” Ayden asked casting a weary glance at the shovels we’d left lying in the sand.

  It was still the middle of the night and we were both exhausted. The last thing either of us wanted was to shovel all that damn sand back into place.

  “They don’t need to. I took several spiders and their venom. They can mate the spiders in the lab.”

  My head ached too much to argue with her. If Ava said we were to replace the sand, then we would. Quickly, we pushed the sand back over the huge metal door.

  We trudged back through the desert to the van that was still waiting for us. The driver was sleeping. “I was getting worried about you. Did you all get what you came for?” he asked.

  “Of course. I always do.” Ava winked.

  As the van rumbled its way through the desert back onto the road, we were accosted by a long black car.

  Abruptly, the van came to a halt. “It’s the CPD. Get out,” the driver hissed. “Do whatever they say. Get your papers ready.”

  My head throbbed with pain. All I wanted to do was get back to the hotel. I could still smell the scent of Nephiri’s perfume in my nostrils. I had no idea what I’d just experienced, but it frightened me nonetheless. We scrambled out of the van clutching our passports.

  “Who are you? Why are you out here in the middle of the night?” Several guards armed with machine guns demanded as we stood before them. The lights of the city flickered in the distance.

  “We’re Americans,” Ava asserted gesturing for us to show our passports.

  They murmured something in Arabic we couldn’t understand. They took our passports and passed them amongst themselves. They all nodded several times then laughed.

  “Who’s the Americans?”

  “We all are,” Ava answered looking annoyed.

  The night air was startlingly cool and we shivered in our jackets.

  “This says you’re not American. They are all American, but this says you’re British.” One of the guards with a thick black mustache gestured to her passport.

  She peered at it closely. “So? British, American, who cares?”

  “Miss….Jaynes, is it?”

  We all looked at each other. Why had she given him a fake passport? Ayden’s was fake, but why was hers?

  “Yes, Samantha Jaynes. I’m from Liverpool.”

  They all laughed loudly.

  The driver was sweating so badly his collar was soaked.

  “Really? You don’t have a Scouse accent,” one of the guards spoke in a clearly British accent.

  Ava glared at him. “I didn’t say I lived there all my life, you fucking moron. Liverpool is my current residence. I was born in the United States.”

  The guard scowled at her and motioned to the rest of us. “Get back in the fucking van. Get back to your hotel and don’t let us catch you out here again.”

  Eagerly, we opened the van door, but the guard grabbed Ava’s arm. “You’re not going anywhere. This passport is obviously fake.”

  “Get your fucking hands off of me.” Ava squirmed in his grip.

  “You all go now. You can retrieve your friend tomorrow at the police station if she can prove her correct identity.”

  I didn’t know what to do. Should we leave? Was Ava safe with these assholes?

  “We must go now, please.” The driver urged us.

  “Go, Ash. I’ll figure this out.” Ava nodded at me.

  Worriedly, I huddled inside the van with the others. As we headed towards the hotel, I thought about Ava. She was strong to be sure, but how was she going to get herself out of this?

  Our plane was on the tarmac getting ready for takeoff. The pilot had advised me that we couldn’t wait much longer. Ayden had left early this morning to find Ava. They still hadn’t returned. “We have to wait for Ava and Ayden. I’m not leaving here without them,” I stated firmly.

  Reese and Amber gave me worried looks.

  We kept looking out the window praying for their safe return.

  Amy, the flight attendant touched my shoulder. “We can’t wait any longer. A huge storm is coming in. If we don’t leave now, we’ll be stuck here for a while.”

  “I’m not leaving without my brother and sister!” I shouted standing up.

  Before I could go any further, the plane door opened. Ayden appeared with Ava in tow. Her long black hair was disheveled, but otherwise she appeared to be okay. “Oh my God, how did you get her out?” I asked Ayden.

  He flopped down onto the chair grabbing a bottle of water. “Why don’t you let her tell you?” he asked panting for breath.

  Ava gave a sardonic grin.

  The policemen took me to what they called a ‘holding center’. I assumed it would be like a jail. However, the primitive quarters reminded me more of a Russian gulag than a jail. I was shoved into a tiny cell with cold, cement floors and walls stained with dried blood. I sat down on a hard metal bunk covered in a flimsy cot mattress and shivered.

  I’d been in several jails in the U.S. before for various crimes, but I never had to stay very long. I’d always had various members of law enforcement in my back pocket so I never really had to worry.

  But this was Egypt.

  As I sat there trying to think of who I could contact to assist me, an attractive younger guard came to my cell.

  “Is this her? The British American?” The guard laughed motioning to me. He spoke in accented Arabic. I sensed his native tongue wasn’t Arabic rather a Romance language perhaps French or Spanish.

  “That’s her.” The fat guard who’d brought me in tossed him the keys. “See what you can do with her. Maybe she’ll talk to you.”

  The young guard smiled at me knowingly. I met his eyes squarely to let him know I wasn’t afraid of him. Indeed, I wasn’t. I had yet to meet a man who could make cower in fear. I’d lived through enough hell as a young girl with my own mother who would lock me in a closet for days on end. There was nothing this asshole could do to me that I couldn’t handle.

  Or didn’t want to.

  He threw open the cell door.

  Calmly, I stood up from the bed. With a quick jut of my chin, I let him know I wasn’t some weak woman to push around. If he wanted to take me, he was going to have to work for it.

  His boots clicked on the tile floor as he inched closer. I braced my
self against the bunk. My eyes darted about to see if anyone else was around.

  We were all alone.

  The overhead lights case an eerie glow to the dank room. The heavy, musky scent of urine stung my nostrils. Ignoring it, I pressed the back of my head to the bunk.

  He moved towards me until we were toe to toe. I could see tiny hairs he’d missed while shaving. His eyes were dark brown nearly black and glittered with hatred. I could see large pores in his face and he reeked of garlic. I nearly gagged from his body odor and longed to hold my nose.

  But I held his gaze. If this motherfucker wanted a challenge, I was more than ready to give it to him.

  “So you’re the dirty sow who thinks she can deceive the Egyptian government?”

  I smirked raising my eyebrow.“I don’t think it. I know it. Got a problem with that?”

  His eyes widened slightly.

  I knew he considered me more than brazen to confront him.

  “You know, Miss, I could ensure you never leave this cell alive.”

  I laughed drawing clenching my hands. “I could say the same.”

  He looked me up and down slowly then burst out laughing. “You’re going to fight me? A tiny thing like you? Please, I don’t fight women. I fuck them.” He drew his hand to my breast cupping it lightly.

  I cringed beneath his touch. His breath was hot on my face making my stomach churn. “So that’s what you want? Why didn’t you just say so?” I batted my eyes at him.

  He grinned unbuckling his pants. He pushed me down onto the flimsy cot. “Are you going to strip or do I have to cut your clothes off?” He removed a large hunting knife from a leather sheath on his hip.

  I admired its’ length. I imagined it was bigger than his cock. The thought made me laugh.

  Infuriated by my laughter, he brought the knife to my throat.

  The blade nicked my skin causing blood to trickle from the cut on my neck. I winced, but kept my gaze steady.

  “You think this is funny? How about I fuck your tight hole with this knife first? Then I’ll do whatever is left.” Tiny droplets of his saliva sprayed me as he spoke.

  “You do whatever you have to do to keep your boss happy. Whatever makes you feel like a real man. I was laughing because that knife is probably a lot bigger than your cock. That’s why you carry it around.”

  His face turned bright red.

  It was comical to see him struggle to comprehend a woman pinned beneath him about to be assaulted was refusing to give into his petty threats. I imagined all the women that had been in this cell before me had cowered before him inflating his ego before he terrorized them. The thought enraged me strengthening me.

  “Any last words before I tear you apart?” He hissed in my ear as the knife was still pressing at my throat.

  “Just a question.”

  “What?” He withdrew the knife from my throat dragging it slowly down my body to my stomach.

  “Has any woman actually wanted to fuck you? Or did you have to terrorize them to get pussy?”

  “Bitch,” he seethed slicing my clothes apart. “I’m gonna love cutting you up after I fuck you until you scream.”

  Brutally, he shoved my legs open. He drew the knife down between my breasts to the top of my pussy. “Ohhhhh, that’s a pretty little box you have there. It’s a shame I’m going to have to tear it up.”

  I’d had just about enough of this asshole.

  As he pulled his cock out of his pants, he let the knife clatter to the floor. He fisted his cock which was, indeed, quite small and positioned himself to thrust into me.

  The whole jail was deathly quiet.

  “Stop,” I uttered one word that echoed throughout the cell.

  “Fuck you.” His hand struck me in the face whipping my head to the side. My mouth was flooded with the taste of blood.

  “This is your final warning.” My words uttered with calm as I closed my eyes briefly. He ignored me and I felt his flesh touch my opening.

  “Nyet!” I called. As the large spider hiding in my pocket raced up my arm onto his neck.

  “What is this?” He screamed jumping back as the spider’s fangs bit deeply into his skin pumping its’ venom into his veins. He fell backwards hitting his head on the concrete. He writhed in agony from the spider bite kicking his feet on the floor. His face turned bright red his hands clasping his neck as he struggled to breathe.

  I stood up wrapping myself in the shreds of my clothes. As his struggle came to an end, I watched as foam sputtered from his mouth. I spat down into his face.

  “Who’s not leaving this cell? I think that would be you.” I yanked the keys from his pocket and gave his body a vicious kick.

  “Come,” I called to the spider bending down for her to run up my arm.

  It was good to be the queen.

  We all stared at her our mouths agape.

  I cringed thinking the spider was on board the plane somewhere.

  “Are you all just going to sit there like that? It’s going to be a pretty boring trip.” Ava rolled her eyes leaning her head back against the seat.

  “That’s how you got away?” Amber asked incredulously.

  “Pretty much.” She smirked looking like the cat who ate the canary. The rest of trip went smoothly.

  A jerking motion awoke me as we touched down in New York City. The plane skidded onto the runway. Gripping the arms of the seat, I said a silent prayer of thanks that we were back safely in the U.S.

  Turning to me, Ava flashed a wicked grin. “Now we just have to meet with Global Medical Management and see what they say.”

  After the harrowing adventure in Egypt, I was ready to deal with anything.

  “Be quiet,” Ava whispered as we walked through the corridor of the main building.

  It was one of the most elaborate office buildings I’d ever been inside and I was from Manhattan.

  Massive Greek Ionic columns surrounded the outside of the building. The inside was decorated in lavish classical style paintings. Old fashioned gas lamps adorned the walls. It certainly wasn’t the type of place you would expect to house a modern pharmaceutical company.

  Ava was certainly dressed for the occasion. She had her long black hair swept back into a low ponytail. She was wearing a light gray suit jacket and pencil skirt with a dark blue blouse. Her high heels were black. Ayden and I both wore our regular suits and ties.

  Arriving on the top floor, Ava, Ayden, and I walked into the waiting area. Plush leather couches littered the room as we waited for our appointment. Ava carried the bag that held the spiders and the venom. I loathed for that bag to even be near me. I had to admit it made me nervous to think the spiders would get out.

  “Blackthorne?” the redheaded receptionist called our names.

  Ava gathered her bag and we walked inside the office. If the outside of the building had been lavish, then the private office was extraordinary.

  “You are Ava Blackthorne?” A tall thin man in his early 50s nodded at her. Another shorter man with a huge bald spot stood beside him.

  “Yes, and these are my brothers, Ayden and Ashton. We have a proposal for you I believe your company would benefit from.”

  “I’m Robert Thomas and this is Dr. Miles Fordham.”

  We shook their hands. I knew who Robert Thomas was. He held a great amount of power and had government and business contacts everywhere. He was revered as much as he was loathed.

  “Have a seat. Miss Blackthorne informed us that there was something remarkable you all found on a recent trip to Egypt.” Robert sat across from us at the long conference table.

  “Ava,” she corrected.

  “Alright, Ava, you spoke of the elusive spider species, theraphosa cavaticus. Where did you uncover them?” Dr. Fordham eyed us suspiciously.

  Ava propped the tan briefcase on the table. She unlocked it and placed a glass jar containing two spiders on the table.

  The two men sat back in awe.

  “Behold, gentlemen, theraphosa cavaticus
. I have two jars full of venom and three jars containing more live spiders. This is the real deal.” Ava looked at us both.

  Dr. Fordham picked up the jar containing the spiders and turned it over in his hands. He reached for a slim black case opening it to remove a magnifying glass. He peered at them through the glass turning it over again and again mumbling to himself.

  “What do you think, Dr. Fordham?” Robert asked as he glanced at the insects.

  “These appear to be theraphosa cavaticus. I won’t know for sure until I take a sample back to the lab. May I?” he asked Ava.

  “Of course.”

  He donned a pair of white latex gloves before pouring a bit of the venom into a test tube. He took one of the spiders and placed in a petri dish. “I’ll be right back.”

  Robert continued to make small talk with us.

  We all rolled our eyes as we waited to hear if we were going to make several billion dollars on this deal.

  About a half an hour later, Dr. Fordham came back surrounded by several doctors. “Where did you get these spiders?” he demanded slapping his hand on the table in front of us.

  Ayden and I jumped, but Ava remained calm. “Egypt, but that is irrelevant. These are the species you were looking for, are they not? That’s what you’ve been looking for, isn’t it? These spiders are the Holy Grail of the cancer world.” Ava folded her arms across her chest. I could tell from the way she sighed she wasn’t in the mood for the academia world’s shit.

  “Yes, they are, but what I want to know is how did you find them? We’ve been looking for this species of spiders for more than twenty years!” Another doctor raged at us.

  Ava looked nonplussed. She reached across the table and snatched the vial with the spider in it. “If you don’t want what we have to offer, then fuck off.”

  Another doctor who resembled a Nazi with his pinched face and tight smile grabbed her arm. “Not so fast, Miss Blackthorne.”

  I had half-expected him to call her ‘Fraulein’ as he even spoke in a German accent.

  “Do you want it or not? I want to talk terms,” Ava spat her words angrily at them.

  Both Ayden and I nervously sat in our chairs waiting their replies.

  The doctors and Robert whispered amongst themselves. Finally, they addressed us. “Of course we do. What are the terms you are proposing?” Robert drummed his fingers on the table.