Wicked Weapon (Dark Hearts Book 2)

by Cari Silverwood

  “I’m so damn sorry,” I whispered. “I –”

  “Don’t be. Hairpin.” Her hand appeared at my shoulder.

  After a small hesitation, I placed the hairpin on her palm. Paranoia had grabbed me. If she stuck it in my back, so be it. Goosebumps ran down my neck and arms.

  “I’d rather be me, aware of all this, than just be their thing. Zorie, can you get me, us, out? You’re the only one of us who can think properly, right?”

  I was silent awhile. It wasn’t that simple but I wanted to give her hope. “I plan to get us out. I want them dead – Einar and Kaage.”

  “And their men, those too.” I could hear grit in her voice. Raw emotion. Feel it too, in her mind. She shoved the hairpin into the bun she’d created with such force that I jumped. “I want them all dead.”

  “Yes. I agree.” I dragged in a breath. “All of them.”

  And here I was, about to go to Grimm, and ask for his help. If I could find him again. I needed him but he might be with the enemy by now. He might betray me. As if fucking me at the behest of those two ogres wasn’t already betrayal. Whatever his excuses, he’d become a mesmer of his own volition. It was near impossible to excuse that.

  Knight in cracked and bloody armor? More like black, and a knight in black armor was no knight at all – put diamonds and sprinkles on him and he was still a big, nasty, bad guy.

  “I’m going for help.” I touched the end of the hairpin where it butted up against my hair. “Wish me luck.”

  “Luck? Baby, you got every bit of that I can throw at you. Go kill me some villains.”

  I turned and clasped her hand. “Not yet, soon though. If I go, once I see how to do this, you’re coming with me.”

  The sadness and hope in her eyes would crack a stone-cold heart.

  I had better get this right. “I just wish I had a gun and not a bloody hairpin.”

  “That’s no ordinary hairpin. Didn’t I tell you what you have there?” Eyes gleaming, she nodded at my hair. “I helped my father with his antique shop for years. That’s a kansashi, made for the samurai or their women to use as a weapon. You can pierce thin bone with it.”

  “Good.” I smiled. “All I want to do is shove it through the foramen in the skull inside the ear, the hole that leads into the brain.”

  She grinned. “May the force be with you.”

  “And my anatomy lessons.” Sometimes being a biology lecturer with a rabid desire for knowledge had its uses.

  “Those too. Make ’em dead, Zorie, please.” Some of the glee left her expression. “If you need me, wake me. I’d like to help.”

  From the subdued terror in her eyes, when she said wake, she didn’t mean from sleep.

  “Sure. Bye.” I kissed her cheek, laid my hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Be seeing you. Stay safe.”

  And with that thoroughly impossible request, I left her.

  I closed the door.

  After one or two sobs, her room stayed quiet and I walked off down the corridor.

  A taste...

  A scent, a strange color in my mind – they roused memories of a girl.

  I held my breath, listening beyond what I could hear. It was she. As with Grimm and Peta, I had felt a wisp of a connection. A new person and I’d recognized her instantly. Cherie was somewhere in this house.

  Finally. Here, in this house of evil men.

  Gone now, and I squared my shoulders and centered my mind on a trail that would lead me to Grimm.

  So many people were relying on me. On a scale of one to a hundred, our cause had possibly a zero chance of success. Was I trying to be a hero?

  I took a moment and propped my hand on the stone, then my forehead, working my jaw and forcing down the sudden queasiness and exhaustion. The cold grittiness on my skin brought me back. None of us would get out of here intact, if I didn’t stay strong.

  I’d been without sleep for too long, that was all this was.

  Never think of this as hopeless. Never.

  I stepped out, heading for him. If I shut my eyes, I would still find Grimm. Unsettling, to know we shared this weird mental link.

  What if...

  What if I could control men, like I had Peta?

  Oh now, wouldn’t that turn the fucking tables on them.

  I could test it on Grimm. Logically, of all the people in the world, mesmers were the least likely to be affected. It wouldn’t hurt to try?

  Chapter 22

  Grimm

  “Shit.”

  I restrained myself from throwing the sharpened teaspoon across the room and instead tucked it under the mattress. My hand was shaking and I held it up, frowning at the back of it. I hadn’t been doing this for long. A full body shiver rocked me and I felt a chill in the air. Their heating might need fixing, or I was catching a cold. Just what I needed.

  I couldn’t pick the manacle lock with just a teaspoon. Like the book had said, the lock needed two picks. I’d have to snare another spoon at meal times. I hadn’t seen Zorie at the table for two days. They were leaving her in her room for some reason, maybe.

  Or letting someone else fuck her. Or they’d killed her. Would they tell me if they did either? I trusted Einar and Kaage as far as I could kick them.

  The sick roll of my stomach at either of those possibilities had me wanting to punch something.

  We had to leave ASAP, but I couldn’t get to her yet. If she died here because I’d fucked up, Christ. I smeared my hands across my face, squashing my nose and eyebrows out of shape.

  The next trip up to the dining room, I’d strangle the guards, put them out of commission, somehow. I had to get us out. I could throat stab them with the teaspoon even. I’d seen a man taken down with one punch there.

  I stood.

  I felt her. Coming here. Zorie was coming here. I prayed my on-and-off mesmer ability would stay enabled. My chain let me get to within a yard of the door, with my arm fully extended. I couldn’t grab her if she went by, but I could yell.

  So I waited there. She seemed to walk so slowly, but maybe it was just me. The last torture orgy had left me both appalled and keyed up.

  The closer she came, the more my cock stirred. My mesmer senses were working just fine, though they had the priorities wrong. She was more than just a fuck to me, far more.

  She stopped outside my door, peeked in then opened it, pushing the door so it swung slowly inward. At least she’d come to me.

  My breath caught, then I let it out slow, enjoying the view.

  Still as pretty as ever. The sway of the flimsy dress she wore gave a man no doubt about the curves of her hips or the fullness of her breasts. As enticing to me were the delicate lines of her ears, her lips, and even the way her eyebrows moved when she scowled. They softened that vengeful Valkyrie aura she projected.

  My cracked knight speech must’ve gone missing from her memory.

  Fucking her on the command of the two assholes was not helping our relationship.

  “Grimm.” Zorie smiled, though her eyes were bleak. “Back off, please. I’ll come in, but I want you to keep away. We have to talk.”

  I opened my hands. “Sure. Bathroom again?”

  For a second she thought then she shook her head. “I’d rather be out here.”

  Where she could run? That was the only reason I could think of and it sparked anger. After all the consideration I’d showed her, this was a little petty.

  “If they’ve bugged the room –”

  “I’ll take that chance.”

  “You don’t trust me.”

  “Hell, no. I don’t Grimm. I can feel when the mesmer in you is running high. You’re lit up with it right now. I guess that’s how I found you.”

  “Oh?” I quirked an eyebrow, amused. This woman could be as irritating as a burr. “You can, what, track me by it?”

  “Yes.”

  Fascinating. I toyed with how I had felt her coming, and realized that I could probably do this too. I could track her, if she was close enough. Mav
ros had hinted at something like this. The bug must therefore be working on her. What else was it doing to her?

  “I know Mavros kissed you to give you...capabilities of some sort. What else can you do?”

  She shrugged, seeming wary. “Things.”

  And she wasn’t going to tell me. I felt so damn trusted.

  But I slowly backed away until the bed was at my knees and I lowered myself. She followed me, picked up a chair and put it down, out of my immediate reach unless I lunged. Then she sat.

  I spoke quietly. This was stupid, talking out loud like this but I had to chance it. “Zorie, I’ve decided we’re going to try to leave, next time they come for me. Pretty sure they get me before you. I get three guards, every time. I’ll dispose of them, then come for –”

  “No.” Her mouth firmed. “Cherie is here. Give me a day to find her. I can sense her too, same as I do you. I feel you, her, another woman.”

  “Ah-huh. All the collectable women.”

  “Some of them.” She frowned and I noticed her hands scrunching in on her skirt. Her eyes were reddened, with darkness around them. This place was taking a severe physical toll on her, more than the others. How long before she broke, before she was irreparable? Her hands trembled at odd moments, though I wasn’t sure she noticed.

  “I’ll try to find her tonight.”

  “You want to go wandering? They’ll catch you. Coming here is bad enough. And how much sleep have you had?” No answer. Not much then. “I’m glad you agree we have to go, but I’ve seen terrible things, Zorie. Things I won’t detail, but it’s even more urgent that we get out. Another day?” I shook my head, dubious.

  Zorie gestured. “You’re still chained.”

  “That’s why I have to do it when they come to take me upstairs. One of the guards usually has a gun, once I get that –”

  “Okay.” She sucked in her lip and I watched it slide through her little teeth as she let it go. “Not today though. Tomorrow.”

  One more day and night? What was she planning?

  Those teeth made me imagine myself biting her – her ass, her neck, the insides of her thighs. I felt a flush creep up my neck.

  “Grimm? Are you with me? You spaced out.”

  I shook my head. She was distracting me too much. “Agreed. I’m glad we’re talking. I was afraid everything had soured between us.”

  “Everything?” Though her gaze softened, she’d winced. “I know we were friends, before. I don’t know what we can be after this. I need you to get out, yes. I can’t walk out...the house changes. I can’t get through some sort of illusion they’ve cast.” She snorted. “Sounds like Hansel and Gretel and the gingerbread house. If you see an oven, run. Grimm, look, I do need you, but I don’t want to lie about what might come after we get out.”

  The conclusion from that, she left it hanging. I could follow the clues. Not friends even? What the fuck? I stood, slowly. “Zorie –”

  “Wait.” She held out a palm. “I asked you to stay there.”

  “Let me speak. You have to let me have a say about this, now. I’m not letting it go, not when you’re so set on hating what I’ve done.” I took a small step. “We’re in an artificial situation. I’m trying as much as I can to keep you safe.”

  “You mean, apart from fucking me like a jackrabbit. Okay, sorry. Sort of. I know what you mean but this is like asking a dog that’s been zapped every time it goes to wag its tail to be happy about the man with the Taser.” She smirked, stone-faced. The sadness shone through. “I don’t know if I can get over this... Sit down, Grimm. Please.”

  I didn’t move. “I’m not your bitch, Zorie.”

  “Sit!”

  Fuck this. I wasn’t going to leave this be. I’d done that and as a result she’d decided I was a milder version of Einar. Very deliberately, I took another step until I towered over her, then I reached down and took her by the wrist. Her mouth fell open. The shock of contact, I’d been ready for it, but this had roared in.

  I shuddered, noting a gasp escape her lips and the rapid widening of her pupils. The mesmer effect. I knew that, couldn’t stop it happening. Maybe I didn’t want to.

  “Come with me.” Shuffling backward, I coaxed her gently from the chair and toward the bed, and then...then I realized what she’d done. What she’d just tried to do to me. That sit command had been more than a word.

  If I let her go, she’d run. If I didn’t do something, now, she’d walk away from me, if we got out of here. I’d been her aversion therapy for too long. She loved what I did, when I did it, and felt disgust afterward.

  After I sat, I had her sit on my lap. With her wrists trapped beneath my left hand, I drew a long, considered breath. Touching, it was letting me control her.

  I’d never done this by myself. It gave me a dose of vertigo. The room beyond her swam, because the center of my universe, right then, was her. The addiction of power, oh, I understood it well. Too well.

  And she would hate me afterward. I might hate myself.

  Fucked if I did nothing. Fucked if I forced her.

  I steered her head around and her chin up with a finger. “The funny thing is...”

  She blinked innocently up at me and my balls zinged with the allure of this.

  “The funny thing is, that I know you were trying to make me sit, using this budding power you have.”

  It hadn’t come close to achieving anything, but I recognized it for what it was: a mesmer command.

  She’d hate me for doing to her what she had tried to do to me. Bloody ironic.

  Her scent was driving me wild. I put my nose to her red hair and let myself breath her in, quietly, making a little island of serenity. She shifted on my lap as my chest pushed at her back.

  Her dress had rucked up to mid-thigh due to how I’d used my hands to arrange her position.

  Such beautiful lips. I traced the lower edge. The chain of my manacles trailed over her shoulder. How precisely her mouth cut back into those contours. I pushed my fingertip deeper between her lips and felt her lick me with her tongue.

  No man could resist that.

  The way she watched my face, waiting for me to move...to do something to her.

  This was like being her god.

  Mavros had trained her, but it hadn’t made her tougher. Here was I, a baby mesmer, with her ready to lick my balls if I told her to. My cock twitched at the thought. With it stuck there nudging her ass, I was having big problems.

  I could be inside her now, if I wanted. Push aside her skirt, undo my fly, lift her up so my cock was...

  I halted that train of thought. I should do this right.

  “Guess I have to convince you,” I murmured. I tilted her head downward and held her hair aside while I kissed her beneath her ear then down her neck. Three small kisses. One small bite. The sigh that elicited...electrifying.

  I could make her like this. I could give her an experience to sit side by side with those others. A gentler one, where she had some say. Not all, because she’d run. Some. I needed to wake her from this deep realm of obedience or this would be no different to the other times.

  I needed her to be her, shallow pools of obedience, not so deep she could barely resist or lift a finger. This was like being an apprentice engineer and trying to construct a skyscraper. I’d never tried this before.

  Though I already had a fucking tower of immense proportions in my pants.

  Get her on her back and screw her was hammering away at my brain. Screw the fuck out of her.

  I was battling myself; the mesmer in me was still me.

  Could a bug make me someone else? Fuck no. I pictured the mesmer infection nestling in that part of my brain where sex was king. Primitive, Neanderthal. The part of me that said reproduce or die out; fuck any woman you can; get that sperm inside females.

  I counted to ten. My heart didn’t slow, my cock stayed hard with a truckload of blood throbbing through it, but I wrestled my head into a more civilized space.

  “I don�
�t want you scared of me, and I can’t think of any other way to do this.”

  So I kissed her, on the mouth, softly, to start with. I let go of her wrists and took her face between my hands, and I kissed her properly. Mouth on mouth, moving, engulfing her lips, biting enough to make her noises get louder – sweet, little noises from deep in her chest.

  When her lips parted in a moan, I worked my tongue into her mouth. I licked her, I fucked her mouth some more, I bit her bottom lip until she squeaked. Smiling at that, I let my fingers drift, and they found a home in her hair.

  Just holding her head would be fine, normally, today, I clawed my fingers into her strands, screwed them tight. Now she couldn’t get away no matter what. I held her in place, while I tortured her mouth. Tendrils of my mesmer senses penetrated her body, worming in. I knew when she was about to squirm or squeal or groan a microsecond before it happened. Without touching her there, I stirred her pussy then, specifically, her clit, making it stand up in a proud little nub.

  I could drive her wild.

  Beneath her dress I found the wettest panties ever. I moved the crotch over and played in her moisture, teasing her with the hope of finger fucking by trailing my fingers over all the hills and dales of her labia.

  “You feel so good.”

  She squirmed at my finger where I’d poised it at her entrance, stiff as my cock. I circled her there and she began to fuck herself on it.

  “What a good girl.” I held her hair while I watched her do it, while she rode my fingers, screwing herself down.

  I fumbled between us and found my zip, freed my cock. “Next, girl, you can stick that –”

  Then she twisted about and her hands were in my hair.

  I ground to a halt.

  Fuck.

  I stood up, dumping her to the bed. My cock was near on fire with my need to get inside her, but I stood there, not touching her, desperately winding down my control.

  Shallow, remember!

  I withdrew, tamped down the passion in my mind, let hers do what it wanted...within reason.

  I grabbed my cock in one fist, half to satisfy the need, half to maybe stop the thing making me do...stuff to her.