“So you did this? This whole slaughter was designed by you?” I spat out the words.
“I played my part,” Balthazar said, easing up on my wrists. He sat up, suffocating me with the weight of his body against my diaphragm.
I let my hands lay limply, allowing the cold rain to soothe my blistered skin as I struggled to breathe beneath him.
“You had one mission, one task to accomplish—all you had to do was find Alina’s journal, and you failed. You betrayed me, and for that, you will pay a higher price and remember who is in power.”
“I tried to find it! Do you know how hard it is to find something that no one knows anything about? I don’t even think the journal exists,” I managed to say. “Get off of me! I can barely breathe.”Is his weight hurting my baby? Oh, God, please let my child be all right.
He calmly stood and held out his hand for me to get up.
Is this guy for real? First, he tries to kill me, then he tries to help me up?
“Fuck off, asshole.” I rolled to my side, pushed to my hands and knees, and stood on shaking legs with my back to this madman.
Balthazar seized a handful of my wet hair and torqued my head backward.
I shrieked from the pain.
“You listen to me,” he hissed in my ear. “I don’t give a fuck how hard you’ve looked or how much you’ve endured to find that journal. Youwillfind it for me.”
I was so scared that I couldn’t think of anything. My mind was a black hole of nothingness, focused on a single thought—let my baby be all right. “I’ll find the journal. I promise I will. I’ll start again tomorrow. We’ve been snowed in for weeks, but I’ll start the journey anew first thing.”
I babbled in a torrent of words. A cascade of shivers seized my limbs from the cold, driving rain, or my terror, or maybe both.
He wrapped my hair around his hand, sending sharp prickles of pain shooting through my scalp.
“Why do you even think begging for your life or the life of someone you love will help you? Don’t you know begging turns me on? I could listen to you plead with me all day.” A smile of pure evil stretched across his face. “Look.”
He inclined my face toward his crotch.
Sure enough, a prominent bulge poked from his trousers.
I whimpered from the pain in my scalp and from his threats.
“Keep it up, and soon I’ll show you how good it feels to have me inside you. You’ll never want for Alexander once you’ve experienced me.”
Using his free hand, he seized a knife from a sheath on his belt.
I tried to kick him, but he simply lifted me higher with inhuman strength until my legs dangled in the air.
I grabbed his wrists to try to lessen the pain. Still, I kept flailing and kicking as he ran the blade tip across the front of my fur robe. The hide split apart.
I couldn’t let him see the bulge in my belly. “No, no,no. Balthazar,please.”
“Which one of us is in power here, hmm?” His evil gaze bore right through me.
“You are, Balthazar. Is that what you want? You want me to be subservient to you? I’ll do it. I’ll worship you.” I was hysterical, sobbing, saying stupid things, and trying to reason with a sociopath.
Balthazar yanked the blade across my deerskin dress.
The hide parted, and beads of blood filled the shallow gash he’d carved in my skin.
“Don’t, Balthazar, please. Do you want sexual favors? I’ll do it. I swear I’ll find the journal. Please.” I could barely understand what I was saying. I was sobbing so hard.
The rain pelted me, washing away my blood, and I thought I might be okay.
Maybe once he sees my fear, he’ll feel satisfied and leave me alone again.
