"NO," Cross roars, spittle flying, his face a mask of rage. "No control, not with her.I can't." His words might as well be a declaration of his weakness, of the cracking of the tight, ruthless shell he has always maintained. It looks like River and I are not the only ones struggling with our feelings for Olivia Springhill. The funny thing is, this could have gone differently if the three of us had thought it through; we could have attempted to charm her, and force her under our spell. The minute I think of it, an unhinged laugh works its way from my chest and into the fresh air, yeah, that never would have worked with my little monster. She's too smart, and would have seen right through us.
I ignore them, and their struggle against each other, my eyes sliding back to Olivia. Her back is pressed against a tree, herchest is heaving, and her legs are trembling. She can barely keep herself standing, her grip on the bark doing all of the work. She's out of steam, and what little energy she has left won't be enough to fight the three of us off now. Her pupils are blown wide and black with fear, as she watches each of us, and every possible angle for an escape. She's searching for a break, a weakness, a path out of this mess. I know what she sees when she looks at me. Not the voices, or the disorder they claim I have. Just thehunger, the thrill of the chase, the game I refuse to lose.
I step toward her slowly, letting the shadows slide with me. "Run again,little monster, but if you fail to escape us, you have to submit your body to us, and let us use you like the slut you are, no more fighting back," I whisper, smiling. "I fucking dark dare you."
Her throat tightens around a single, shaking breath, then she bolts, and the chase begins again, but this time, I have no intentions of allowing her to make it more than a few steps. My cock is hard and leaking precum, and it wants to be buried in its new home inside of my unhinged princess.
CHAPTER 34
OLLY
"Run again, little monster, but if you fail to escape us, you have to submit your body to us, and let us use you like the slut you are, no more fighting back. I fuckingdark dareyou." His voice slithers over my bare skin, with the threat of his cruel smile. How can something so beautiful be so evil and depraved?
I can see it in his features and body language; he wants to hurt me. A deep, cold dread grips me, making me feel exposed and fragile, yet exhaustion threatens to drag me down. Every inch of my body is begging for a reprieve, just a moment to recover from everything I've been put through tonight, but I know that could lead to my death. You don't lie down for the monsters without being prepared to be consumed.
I dart in the opposite direction from the other two, still hearing them fight like demented gorillas, and attempt to evade Damon. His threat that he's going to use my body for his pleasure both terrifies me, and causes a dark coiling sensation low in my core. I'm starting to wonder if I might have hit my head harder than I thought, because a part of me doesn't necessarily find the prospect of that happening as repulsive as I should.
"That's my girl!Run, unhinged princess, run! Make sure you give me a good chase," he taunts me before darting after me. Tears fall down my face like a cold river, as I zip around another tree, no longer hearing the sound of the other two. My blood is whooshing in my ears, and my harsh panting breath puffs out before me. I don't feel my legs anymore, only the vicious burn, and the frantic slap of wet leaves against my skin, as I tear through the forest. Bare, cruel branches whip at my arms, ribs, and face, leaving behind a sharp sting. The cold keeps biting into me, like it wants a piece too, like the night itself is hungry, and I'm meant to be everyone's meal.
My breath shudders, breaks, and reforms into something ragged and desperate. I don't dare look back. I canhearDamon moving through the underbrush with a sinuous, predatory grace, and he's getting closer and closer. He doesn't crash through branches like a normal person, nor shout threats like Cross, or call my name with a forced calm like River. No, Damon stalks, gliding silently like a creature of the night. His deranged laughter echoes with insanity, making his approach even more terrifying, as if the darkness itself is alive and hunting me.
The forest pushes me forward, roots tangling my bare feet, threatening to take me down, frigid mud caking my skin, and shadows concealing all the lurking danger. My vision flickers at the edges, warning me that my body wants to shut down, and I'll be trapped here at Damon's mercy if it does. I push harder, my lungs burning like they're splitting open, and I swear I can taste blood inside my mouth. I burst through a wall of thick branches, and suddenly the ground almost vanishes beneath me. A shriek leaves my lips, as I realize my mistake nearly too late. I skid to a halt at a jagged cliff edge, my toes hanging over open air, and an abyss twenty feet or more below, yawning like a hungry maw. My stomach drops with despair, and terror, at where I've ended up.Fuck, fuck, fuck.
A cliff, a fucking high one. Jesus fuck, I could have died just now.A fierce wind roars up from below, cold and furious, as if it wants to swallow me whole. The dwindling night is beginning to vanish, and with it go my hopes of escaping this mess. I stagger backward, heart hammering against my ribs, as if it's begging to flee before I do. "No, fuck," I whisper, as even my vocal cords abandon me. I grasp onto a skinny tree trunk, barely hanging on to the ground itself, and use it to center myself before I go tripping over.
Then I hear him, a slow exhale behind me, too close, as the hair on my arms stands on end, but not from the cold wind. I turn slightly, pebbles and loose ground under the blistered soles of my feet, and there's Damon emerging from the treeline like he's being born from the shadows themselves. His sinister smile is the first thing I see.Stretching. Unsettling. Delighted. Victorious.It's filled with too many white, sharp teeth in the diminishing light. "Little monster," he whispers, head tilting, pupils wide and wild. "You shouldn't have run this far, naughty girl."
I back up instinctively until my heels touch nothing but open air. The drop cascades behind me, waiting to swallow me whole, and my grip on the tree tightens, until my numb fingers feel a burst of pain. My voice, filled with desperation, barely leaves my throat as panic threatens to drown me. "Stay back!"
Damon steps forward, ignoring my demand. It's just one step, but it's enough to cage me between him and the abyss. For a brief nanosecond, I debate which one will hurt me more, the drop or him. My heart beats erratically in my chest, as he simply studies me as if I were a desperate animal, displaying my last movements before a trap springs harshly shut on me. His expression fractures, fearlessly calm one second, twitching with frenetic excitement the next. "You hear it?" He murmurs. "The woods go quiet for you." He presses a finger to his temple,tapping lightly. "The dark knows when prey's cornered. It's hungry, so hungry, little monster, and you're its favorite kind of meal."
"Yes, she looks so beautifully hopeless. Perhaps I'll let you have a taste after I'm done with her," Damon utters to the emptiness at his side, and that terrifies me even more. Who the hell is he talking to? My pulse pounds in my neck as I scan the edges of the tree line, and the rocks that have me cornered. There's no path out or down, and no way around him unless I fight him off, and in my current condition, I can't do that and win.Fuck, I'm trapped and doomed,and yet a fire is burning within me, rejecting that this is the end for me, that I've lost.
The night sky is beginning to lighten further, bleeding color like someone dragging a brush through murky water, and my heart clenches in my chest. The darkness thins from inky-black to bruised violet, before a seam of gold tears open along the horizon. It glows so fiercely it looks molten, a line of pure light forcing its way through the last scraps of night. Smudges of amber and rose, each one touched as if by fire, their edges coral, peach. A breath of lavender greets me, and I realize that I would have never made it out, despite my attempts. It was all for nothing. I've lost this sick game of chase with these assholes. The question now running through my panicked brain is, will I now lose my life as well? What do they have in store for me next, and will I be able to endure it with my mind and soul intact?
Damon must notice the moment of realization flickering across my features, reflecting my inner thoughts. His sadistic eyes narrow, and the corner of his mouth lifts in a condescending smirk. "You're so lovely in your despair. Is your heart crumbling, little monster?" His teeth snarl as he swipes at the air around him, as if something was touching him, and he was fighting against it.Jesus fuck, this guy is certifiable.What small hope I was still clinging to is fleeting, and it's exiting mefaster than the little body heat I'm retaining. "There it is," he says softly, almost tenderly, as his gaze meets mine, and I see the madness within him reflected back at me. "The moment you understand. There's nowhere left to run, you belong tome, tous, toMayhem."
I feel the void behind me, and the monster in front of me, and my terror spikes so sharply it feels like someone plunges an icicle through my chest. I reach to grip the air behind me, as if it might suddenly turn into a ledge, offering me a way out, but nothing meets my grasp except the realization that I've lost. My knees want to collapse, and my throat tightens, until breathing feels optional, because he's right, there is nowhere left, no shadows to disappear into, or thickets to crawl through. There is no more darkness to hide inside; all that's left now is the cliff, the drop, andhim.
"Don't touch her! She's mine, you don't get to play first," he growls at nothing, his teeth white against his already pale complexion. I'm not sure if I should ignore his madness, or attempt to push him over the edge. Which one will serve me better? Which choice allows me to continue breathing?
"Why?Just tell me why? I don't even know you. Why do this to me?" My voice trembles as I meet his molten gaze, filled with vibrant ambers, greens, and browns, as he stares at me with anticipation and victory across his features.
He cocks his head as if he's listening to someone else speak, and for a moment I don't think he'll answer me. "Your defiance and resilience are a drug, one so pure and addicting that there was never going to be a way to ignore you. Everything about you, every particle, was made forus,as if you were molded into our every need and desire, even the ones none of us would have dreamed of."
"I don't understand, you're not making any sense, asshole!" I scream hoarsely, no longer caring who hears me. There has tobe a way out of this. I don't want to die here in these woods, or down that drop, but I also don't want to be torn apart by this psychopath and his friends.Keep him talking, buy yourself time to come up with a solution. Don't let him win against you.
"You don't need to. All you need to know is that you'remine." Damon reaches toward me, slow, savoring, certain that I won't jump to my death, but I shield my body, releasing the tree and wrapping my arms tightly around myself, like that could afford me some protection from him, and I sway in the sharp wind. "If you don't want to die in these woods,surrenderto me, tous, unhinged princess, and live asoursfor as long as we allow you to continue to breathe."
Surrender to him?Absofuckinglutely not. I would rather die than fully surrender. I need to change my course of action. I need to buy time to figure a way out of this. These three are monsters, no different than Rawdon, and they think they can take what is not theirs without consequences. Even if it takes my last breath, I'll make sure they all pay for what they've done to me. "What does that even mean?" My voice is strong, demanding, even if I feel anything but at the moment. "You're going to kill me after raping me. You have me defenseless right now, so how can I even trust you?"
A hoarse, unhinged laugh vacates his lips as he once more swipes at the air. "Yes, she's scared,so what?We like her like that. Her terror tastes delicious, like warm apple pie on a cold day." While he's busy talking to himself, I try to take a small step forward, hoping to gain some stable ground, and find a way around him without him detecting it, but he must notice it from his peripheral vision.
His grin widens further, as if I were a naughty schoolgirl being caught cheating on a test. "You still have power, little monster, power over me, power over us, even if I wish you didn't. I might be the victor in this little game of hide and seek, but youcan win the war against us if you're smart enough." He takes a step closer to me, and all I want to do is run again. If he reaches his long, tattooed arms out, he'll be able to grab me. "Do exactly as I say, and I will make sure you make it out of these woods, relatively unscathed. Relinquish control to me, to us, and you will survive."
How can I trust a single word coming from his malevolent mouth? My eyes trail over all the healing bruises I've left on his features, before meeting his eyes, and seeing the determination in their depths. All of my instincts are telling me death would be preferable to being raped and tortured by this monster, and his friends, but I refuse to allow this to be my end. I didn't survive everything I have in life, to die like an animal, cornered, and ready for the slaughter. Even as I try to hold on to my conviction, I glance behind me at the drop, wondering if it wouldn't be a small mercy to allow myself to fall, and end all of this now. At least it would deprive them of their fun, and I wouldn't have to endure being raped again.
"Show me what belongs to me, Olivia. Show me all of you." The defiant part of me wants to rebuke him, denying his request, but pettiness has no place in survival, and I mean to live long past this psychotic night to avenge myself. I allow images of myself stabbing him over and over to enter my mind. In them, he's crying out in pain as I carve him into pieces, stabbing out his beautiful gem colored eyes, and cutting off the part of him that he values the most, and then shoving it down his miserable, lying throat. The images soothe me somehow with the thought that I'll get my revenge on all three of them, and when I do, it will be bloody. It's with those thoughts in mind that I unwind my arms from around my trembling body, and hold them at my sides, awaiting his next demand, even though everything in me rages against it. "Step forward away from the edge, and run your hands down your body, cradle your breasts for me."
