by C. Lymari
It smelled like Chanel Allure mixed with snow and nicotine. My lower lip trembled, my body shivered, and the warm clothes I wore seemed useless. A body pressed against my back, and arms covered by a dark sleeve caged me in. A whimper left my lips, and I bit them so hard until the metallic taste of blood coated my tongue. I looked at the skeletal tattoo and the broken crown in disbelief.
Before looking behind me, I looked across the room to where Damian was. He was watching us with keen interest, Bas next to him with a blank look.
I turned my head to the side, and my eyes clashed with whiskey ones. I wasn’t sure I was missing them until the sight of them got me drunk on impact. Had you told me that I was drowning without water, I would have believed you.
“No.” I breathed the words so low, but I knew he heard them.
His jaw went hard, his eyes cold. He licked his lips, leaving a faint trace of moisture behind. “Was it hard to wash my blood off your hands, love?”
I wasn’t Petal nor babe—I was “love” just like all the other women before me, and that made my throat get tighter. Something pointy was digging into my back, and I felt it scraping to the side of me, past my ribs, until he dropped something in my lap.
“You left that in my back,” he spat at me, and without another word, he walked past me without looking back. My eyes followed him as he went to take a seat across from Francesca, who smirked at me. Bitch.
Damian chose that moment to take the podium and speak with his devoted followers.
I had been betrayed. My eyes searched for Bastian, and when they found them, his gaze gave nothing away. The inky eyes were an abyss of deception. Suddenly I had lost my appetite. I grabbed my dagger, the one I had used to bind Gideon to the bed, and left the common room.
Even if I pretended not to watch her, it wasn’t like I wasn’t aware of her every move. When she walked out, I wanted to run after her, but my eyes caught with Bastian before I could make a move, and he gave me a head shake. It wouldn’t be wise for me to run after her, after telling Damian I didn’t care for her.
“God, one day, that bitch will get what’s coming to her,” the bitch next to me said.
“You don’t like her?” I played stupid. I remember her from the meet in Moscow. She thought she was someone around here because she was Damian’s cum bucket.
The brunette rolled her eyes. “No one likes her.”
My eyes cut to everyone in the room, and I knew it had to be over thirty people, at least, and that was just the ones who had arrived so far. Everyone here was a trained killer, and it didn’t sit right with me.
I couldn’t even say I was surprised that their lair was a fucking castle. The stone building should be visible aerially, but you couldn’t get a clear Google image from these coordinates, and the nearest airstrip was still too far off. Bas said they had a lot of people protecting this secret. I pitied the poor soul who ever stumbled upon these grounds.
“That’s a pretty hefty accusation.” I leaned back and took a sip of my water.
Francesca flipped her hair, then grabbed her fork and took a bite of her salad. Once she was done chewing, she answered me.
“She killed another member with no retribution, and that doesn’t sit right with many of us. Johnny’s cousin isn’t happy about it, and he might just do something about it.” She shrugged it off like it was no big deal.
Fighting the urge to get up and go find my little petal, I forced myself to finish my meal. The room quieted down once they saw Damian take the podium. As I looked around, I watched everyone stop what they were doing and give him their undivided attention. My eyes met Bastian, and he raised a brow.
They feared Damian, they revered him—he was their king. He was also Daphne’s number one enemy, and now I understood a little bit more about her.
“Welcome back home. Many of you haven’t been back here in a year or more. We look forward to hearing all about your travels. Enjoy your night tonight, and let the games begin tomorrow.” He gave a cruel smile that was all sharp teeth. He raised his drink in the air, and everyone else toasted.
“Games?” I asked Francesca.
“Training, hunting, weapons. I mean, who better to train with than each other? We are the best of the best. The most vicious, cunning, and deceiving. What your fellow members can and will do to you might just save your life in the real world.” She took a sip of water and then got up to where Damian was eating and sat on his lap.
“It’s like being back in high school, right? Everyone wants to be prom queen and king,” Bas said as he took the seat next to me.
“Why would he let me join right before your gathering?” I asked the question I should have asked since Chicago.
Bastian put his elbow on the table and brought his hand to his mouth so no one could read his lips. “You’re being tested. One month in close quarters with Daphne. Who will bend, or who will break?”
“And what’s the big deal? Just by looking at these fuckers, I can tell a lot of them are fucking.”
“You’re so stupid, it’s cute.” Bas grinned at me.
“Fuck off.”
“You wish,” the bastard smirked at me.
Grabbing my drink, I looked at Damian, and his eyes met mine, cold, cunning, victorious. He raised his hand, the one with the drink, toward me.
“Why am I being tested?”
Bas got up, patting me on the back. “Settle, and I’ll explain later. Too many prying eyes.”
He walked away to mingle with other members as I ate my meal alone, observing everyone else because they, as sure as hell, were watching me. It was like being under a microscope, and I wondered how they lived like this.
After fifteen minutes, I left in search of a room to occupy. The castle was cold but not as cold as I thought it would be. I noticed that the floor had a lot of little vents, and I assumed they were vents that carried heat from below.
On the plane, Bas said to pick any room I wanted and to make sure I always locked it—any room but the ones in the lower level near the catacombs.
Forty minutes later, I was going out of my damn mind. The room I picked was one of the last ones closer to the lower levels near a tower. If you told me not to do something, naturally, I would want to do it more. And staying away from Daphne at this point was fucking killing me. I wanted to see her, hurt her—fuck, I didn’t even know anymore.
When I left Colombia, I had a plan, and then Yoro and Damian happened—her tears fucking happened—and it messed with my plans.
Even when she was under the same roof, she felt miles away.
My room was spacious, with a fireplace for warmth, a fur blanket, a mirrored ceiling, and a shower. As I’d made my way to my room, I noticed the lack of cameras. Either I was losing my touch, or there were none in here.
There was a knock on my door. Grabbing my gun, I cocked it before opening the door.
Bas looked at the gun and at me, not at all amused. “Leave the toys for the big boys, won’t you, honey.”
“You said to lock the fucking door.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you can’t kill anyone either unless you want to become the fastest-booted member in Sekten history.”
I groaned. “Don’t tell me I have to take some classes and shit.”
“Yes,” he deadpanned.
Fuck.
“Psychopath 101 and How To Get Away With Murder.”
I raised my finger and flicked him off.
“I need to see her,” I said, getting to the fucking point. I couldn’t wait anymore. There was so much I wanted to do to Daphne on that table, but I held back, and I needed space away from everyone to do what I set out to do.
“Man, I don’t know if that’s wise.”
“If I don’t see her soon, what will come next won’t be wise… Why aren’t there any cameras?” That was my first question. I’d expected more security, I didn’t know, maybe a guard standing point in specific entrances?
“Do you not feel safe amongst your new brot
hers and sisters?”
I raised my brow and gave Bas an exasperated look.
“Mostly because everything runs on solar power, so they leave the energy for the most important rooms. Don’t get us wrong, it’s not like we couldn’t wire it with today’s technology, but this is our home, so we try to trust each other.”
It made sense. I mean, the rooms had a regal feel to them, so did the halls, and even though it had a gothic feeling inside the castle, it also had a modern twist all around.
Now I really was going out of my damn mind.
“I need to see her now, or I’m going to fucking lose it.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly why you can’t see her. Damian likes to use people, and so far Daphne is the one person who he has no leverage over, and you’re here because he is trying to change that.”
I was so fucked.
told me where to find her; she was down in the catacombs.
Of course she fucking is. It was like she had something to prove since she was born. Give her a monster, and she would tame it. Give her fears, and she’d conquer it. Give her a heart, and she would rip it out of your damn chest.
You could say I was still fucking salty.
The lower I descended, the colder it got. Hell wasn’t warm; it was frozen over, and Lucifer didn’t rule here, but an ice queen did. I grabbed the skeleton key Bas had given me from my back pocket and got to work on the lock.
Lack of technology was going to work in my favor. Had this place been with the latest gadgets, sneaking into her room would have been damn near impossible.
When I heard the click of the lock, I smiled. Slowly I twisted the knob, and before I walked in, I made sure no one was around.
The room was spacious, twice as big as mine. Lamps decorated the walls, giving a low glow to the whole space. In one of the corners was a fireplace, and the fire was burning brightly, a thick rug near it. The California king bed had a black duvet and a shit ton of black and gray pillows. A pelt blanket was in the middle.
The room had a touch of femininity and allure with a sense of darkness around it.
Slowly I closed the door, and on the opposite end, I saw another door which I bet led to the closet and bathroom.
I walked to the bed and sat on it slowly. Sooner or later, she had to come out, and I was going to be waiting for her. Upon touching the blanket, I noticed how soft it was and gave a dark chuckle when I saw it was wolf fur. It was ironic yet fitting.
While I waited, I saw her luggage, and if I knew the bitch—and I liked to think I knew her pretty well—she had to have some weapons in there.
Digging through her clothes, I found her passports, and I stashed those in my jacket. The gun I felt I left alone, and then I saw the long, thin scalpel and smiled a bit as I made contact with it. Just as I was about to pull my hand out, two things happened.
The first was the feel of a small rectangular object small enough to be a lighter.
“What are you doing here?”
The second thing was that she came out of the shower. Her black hair was dripping wet, her skin striking against the black towel she had wrapped around her body. She clutched her hand to her chest, and she stared at me.
We both knew she was asking what I was doing here in general and not just in her room.
I threw the luggage to the side, holding in my hand a small scalpel and the Zippo lighter.
“What am I doing here?” I hissed as I got up and walked toward her. Her silver eyes flashed, but she stood her ground. “Do you even care that I didn’t die?” I spat the words in her face, making her flinch. While I had the upper hand, I grabbed her by the throat and punched her against the wall.
“Answer me,” I demanded as I brought the scalpel to her throat, mimicking a line like the one Robinson had made me.
When she didn’t speak and instead raised her chin defiantly, I gave her a cruel smile. Adding pressure to her neck, my blood sped up as it cut through her delicate skin. A faint line of blood appeared as I slashed across her throat.
“That’s precisely how Robinson cut me—” I whispered as I used my thumb to remove the blood. “—only deeper.”
I brought the thumb to my mouth, licking it.
Her eyes followed the movement, and then they landed on the scar on my eye, and they flashed, and that fucking triggered me. She did not get to feel any fucking remorse for leaving me out there to die.
I stabbed the scalpel to the wall, nicking her neck in the process. Oops, my bad. Then I forced her to give me her hand, grabbed her fingers, rubbed them over the roughness of my eye.
“He almost stabbed my fucking eye out,” I said, inching my face closer to her. Rage and lust coursed through my every pore. I wanted her to beg, I wanted her to scream. Our foreheads pressed together, and I was well aware she had not moved an inch at all since I pinned her to the wall. “I swore…” I said, my nose gliding down hers. “That if I got out of the jungle alive…” I whispered against her soft, plump lips. I wanted her to fucking kneel at my feet—yet the urge to claim her lips was right there.
“I would kill you,” I said through gritted teeth before I fucking bit her lower lip. Daphne opened her mouth and screamed into my mouth.
I pulled back as soon as I swallowed her pain. “Now, kneel and beg me for your life.”
She licked the blood of her lips, and her unwavering stare penetrated me.
“No,” she said.
I yanked her toward me by her hair, holding her in a tight fist so she wouldn’t go anywhere.
“No?” I mocked. “Are you ready to die?”
“You won’t kill me,” she said, so sure of herself, and it irritated me and made my cock hard as fuck at the same time.
I chuckled, the grip on her hair getting tighter, aware that I was going to leave her scalp burning and red. She didn’t show that she was in pain, and I hated that. I hated it when I got the version of herself she gave the whole world.
“Answer me.” I seethed.
When she spoke, her words were low but precise, shaking me enough to remove my hold on her.
“For the same reason I could never kill you.”
I took a step back, aware that I was laughing maniacally.
“Fuck you bitch, you left me out there to fucking die!” I screamed the words at her. She blinked and tears fell down her cheeks.
It was getting to the point that I didn’t know if I was angry or hurt, and if her crying made it better or worse.
“I gave you a chance,” she whispered. “We both know that had I wanted you dead, you would have died a long time ago.”
My chest was rising and falling as I heaved. I grabbed her arm and pushed her, making her fall on the bed. The towel she was wrapped in opened. My mouth watered, but I ignored it.
“Is that supposed to make me feel better? You left me a knife—was that supposed to be enough?”
She immediately sat up, grabbing the fur blanket and wrapping it around herself.
“You are notorious for making it out alive from impossible situations…” She looked down at the floor, and I saw the sparkle of a tear fall from her cheeks. “I had hoped you survived this too.”
I couldn’t believe what she was telling me. It was unexpected, and I was unsure if it was welcomed. I took a step back because if I took one forward, I would fuck her and then probably kill her right after.
Daphne turned toward me, her gray eyes wide, looking at me like she never had before. There was a warmth in her eyes that was all for me—because of me.
“It’s not like it matters anymore,” she told me, her voice low and cold. “If we had a small chance before, all of that went to hell the moment you made a deal with Damian.”
My throat was clogged tight with all the anger flowing through me, making it painful to swallow. “What. Fucking. Chance?”
Shaking my head, I couldn’t even look at her. I turned around, ready to leave her room and think straight because I was teetering between two outcomes. Both sounded fine to m
e at the moment, but each would have repercussions.
Just as I opened the door, she spoke again.
“Did you ever wonder why I didn’t want you here in the first place?” Her voice was soft, with no malice.
I punched the wall because if I didn’t release my rage, it was going to burn me alive. My knuckles split open the moment they hit the concrete wall. I heard her get off the bed but I walked out of her room slamming the door in process.
Walking over to the wall Gideon had punched, I traced my fingers over the little droplets of blood. I’d never felt as tired and drained as I did now. It would be easy to give in to lust and desire, but doing that would be a betrayal against everything I was fighting for.
I closed my eyes, and I saw his face angry at me. The look in his eyes. The sight that was now scarred and marred because of me. It was going to be a permanent reminder of my betrayal.
How did we get like this?
Feeling something for someone and seeing them only moments at a time through the years was not enough to unravel you. But now we were stuck in a castle for a month, and everything that had lain between us from the start was going to come to the surface.
Damian had a file on everyone except for me, because I never allowed myself to love anything or anyone. I had to make sure that at the end of the month, it remained that way because the things I‘d liked and loved had ended up dead or broken.
I walked to the fireplace and added more wood. Then I changed into black leggings and a long-sleeve. I grabbed the old flats that somehow still fit and my wireless headphones, and I made my way out of my room. No one ever ventured deep enough into the catacombs because of the cold temperature. The left wing was where the scientists worked with level-four agents. The temperature was naturally cold, which made it easier to power the rest of their lab equipment.
People got so used to their luxuries that often they forgot how to do essential things themselves. I grabbed a torch that was hanging on the wall that led to the entrance of the science floor, and I made my way deeper to where our most guarded treasure lay: the Amber Room.
