Multiple spots are soft, and as I walk over them, I leave footprints. I see three spots with small sticks sticking out, like gravestones. I kneel and grab one. It comes out of the dirt easily, meaning it was placed here recently.
“You sick motherfucker!” I shout, throwing the hollow stick in his direction. “You buried her alive?!”
I immediately dig the ground away with my hands, and when my fingers touch something soft, a shudder travels down my spine. I grab whatever it is and pull it roughly. Someone coughs, and I scoop more ground away as I realize that by removing the stick, I cut off her air supply.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I whisper.
Marvin drops to all fours beside me with a guttural grunt. He looks up furiously, but my monster stills him with a single, dangerous glance. Marvin shrinks back, cowed.
“Starling, get up, darling. Marvin, dig,” he snarls.
I rise slowly to my feet. The minute I’m within reach, Jasper takes my hands in his, turning them carefully as he inspects my skin for cuts, for blood, for anything broken. When he’s satisfied, convinced I’m unharmed, he lets me go. I brush the dirt from my knees.
Strangely, it isn’t the thought that I might have killed her that unsettles me—it’s the possibility that I’ve destroyed my only witness by accident. I know Jasper believes me, but I need confirmation for my own peace of mind.
Jasper pulls me against his chest. I tilt my head back as his strong arms close around me, solid and possessive. Together, we stare down the man who was once Jasper’s trusted employee, perhaps even his friend.
Marvin scoops the dirt aside with lazy strokes, in no hurry, understanding the same thing I do: if she comes out alive, she could turn on him.
Chapter Eighteen
It takes everything in me not to kick Marvin straight in the face. To split his lip to a bloody pulp and break his lower jaw into fractured, tiny pieces. Jasper feels my body tense as I strain in his embrace. I know Marvin is doing this on purpose, the slow pacing. Jasper had already kicked him once in the ribs, which only slowed him down even more. Marvin wants her to die, and if she does, it’s because of my stupidity.
After what feels like forever, her dirt-covered face comes into view, white as a sheet, and I hold my breath as I study her for any signs she might still be alive. My eyes linger on her. Oddly enough, she reminds me of a Victorian child asleep for eternity, her features so peaceful. Disappointment at her death hums in my veins when her eyes fly open, and the serenity that had been on her face mere seconds ago shatters. She glances frantically around, her eyelashes fluttering. She coughs up dirt,and her eyes land on me the moment she sees me. I want to sob with happiness. The bitch is still alive. Marvin stills.
“I’m so happy you’re still with us,” I say gently to the woman.
Her eyes dart from me to Marvin, but her bloodshot eyes widen in shock when she sees Jasper. She immediately backs away from him, kicking her feet to free herself from the makeshift grave. She lets out strange groans, and when she opens her mouth for another frightened moan, I notice her tongue is missing. The woman gets to her feet and stumbles backward over the soft ground, a muffled grunt following. I arch an eyebrow at her, then glance at the ground she’s standing on. She understands immediately and falls to her knees, her hands driving into the sand. She keeps stealing glances at Jasper, as if worried he’ll close the distance between them. Jasper doesn’t pay her any attention; his focus is on Marvin, and the rage he exudes is palpable. It’s as if the air thickens, right before a heavy rainfall.
“What is the meaning of this?” He snarls.
Marvin stares hard at the ground. His lips don’t move, and no words spill.
Jasper’s upper lip begins to twitch as his face hardens the longer Marvin ignores him. I see a vein in his neck trembling, and he flexes his fists. It’s a rage I haven’t seen in him before, and part of me fears him, the monster he’s about to unleash.
“I saved them.”
The words sound small and helpless, like a child being punished for something they don’t understand.
In a few long strides, Jasper is next to Marvin, and his hand flies to Marvin’s throat. A territory his fingers are now well acquainted with. His eyes bulge from the pressure, and without thinking, I clasp a hand over my mouth.
Jasper’s voice is dangerously low, a calm that makes your heart pound faster, not from excitement but from cold terror.
“Not only did you try to hurt the one person I love, but you also willingly betrayed my trust.”
Wet spots form in the corners of Marvin’s eyes as he tries to inhale a hint of oxygen. His skin discolors from deep red to pale blueish purple. Saliva bubbles as he froths at the mouth.
“You threatened the beacon of my existence and allowed the demons from my nightmares to persist. You returned them to me to scare the person who brings me light.”
Small vessels begin to break in Marvin’s eyes, the blood that springs free beginning to bloom like ink dipped into water.
“Suffocation is too quick a death for someone like you. People like you deserve to suffer.”
With those words, he lets go of Marvin, and as he catches his breath, short and choked, Jasper strikes. With a firm backhand, Marvin’s head spins to the side, and he loses consciousness. A strangled shriek demands his attention, and I turn my head as well.
The blonde woman is holding another woman, both of them disfigured, staring wildly at Jasper. I repeat Marvin’s words in my head.I saved them.
“These are some of the women Marvin brought to you…” I say, more a statement than a question.
