SWNOVELS The Sacrifice: Chapter 2
INITIATION
Devotion
Sophomore year at Barrington University
I hold the knife down to my side, and blood drips from the tip onto the once pristine white marble floor. I had to kill the two guards to gain access to the house. They never saw us coming.
The woman lies on her stomach, hands tied behind her back with duct tape over her mouth, silently sobbing. Pathetic really if you think of why we’re here. Don’t ever let a pretty face and tits fool you. A woman can be just as ruthless as a Lord. She’s as bad as they come. So I’ve been told. We weren’t given much about why we’re here. Other than to collect another Lord and do whatever needed to be done to fulfill the assignment.
I kneel next to her, using the bloody blade of the knife to push her bleach-blond hair away from her face. “Where is he?”
She shakes her head quickly, informing me she doesn’t know. She’s lying. “Bring me the girl.” I stand, snapping my fingers.
The woman starts screaming behind the tape, her body thrashing on the floor. She goes to get up, but I place my black boot in the middle of her back, holding her down.
A fellow Lord, Miles Hopper, was given this assignment with me. He enters the living room, his arm wrapped around the girl’s upper arms. He shoves her into the room and she trips, falling to her knees. Her arms are also tied behind her back. She leans forward, her long, dark hair shielding her face from me.
I step into her and place the tip of the knife under her chin, forcing her head up. Bright blue eyes glare up at me. “Where is your brother?” I ask her.
“I’ll never tell you,” she says through gritted teeth.
Sighing, I crouch in front of her, my elbows resting on my thighs. “You understand that I have to hurt you if you choose to protect him, right?” I run the blade over her heaving chest.
Her brother has betrayed the Lords. There’s always someone who can’t fulfill their oath. That one Lord that risks it all and then runs, leaving behind a family to take his punishment. It’s a shame really. We’re taught to rule the world, but no one wants to take responsibility when we fuck it over.
“Do what you have to do,” she spits out.
Standing, I shake my head at her. “What a waste.”
“You’re the waste.” She pulls her lips back with a growl. “Doing whatever the Lords tell you to do. You’re nothing but a fucking puppet.”
I throw my head back, laughing. “What’s that make your brother?”
“He had the balls to stand up for himself,” she snaps. “To get away from them.”
Smiling, I wonder, “Why didn’t he take you and your mother with him?” The poor thing has no clue as to why he really left them. Or why we’re here. Not like it matters. Her knowing won’t change the outcome.
“He’ll come back for us when the time is right.” The way she lifts her chin, I think she truly believes that. But why wouldn’t she? He’s her brother. He’s supposed to protect her.
But rules are rules. I have an assignment to complete, and they are at the top of my list. If we don’t retrieve the Lord, we are not to leave anything for him to return to.
I move over to her mother lying on her stomach and pick her up by her hair, making her scream into the tape over her mouth. I stab her in the chest. Yanking the knife out, she falls to the floor dead.
“MOM!” Her daughter jumps to her feet to rush over to the body.
I step in front of her, wrapping my hand around her neck, lifting her feet up off the floor. Placing my face in front of hers, I say, “Still want me to do whatever I have to do?” I arch a brow.
She’s sobbing, body shaking. I loosen my grip on her neck, and she chokes out, “I … don’t know anything.”
Miles enters the room, and I didn’t realize he had left. He holds up the girl’s cell phone. “Let’s see if we can get him to come to us.”
I tighten my hand on her throat once more and she thrashes in my hold as I watch her face turn white, lips blue. When her eyes start to roll into the back of her head, I let go and step back. She falls to her knees, coughing and spit flying from her mouth, sobbing once again.
Moving to stand behind her, I grip her dark hair, yanking her head back as Miles stands in front of her and holds up her phone. “Smile for the camera,” he tells her, and it makes her sob harder.
He types out a message and sends it. I yank her to her feet by her hair and drag her over to the couch, forcing her down onto it. I sit across from her, on the coffee table, and grip her chin, forcing her to look up at me. “You better hope he’s as loyal to you as you are to him.”
The cell in Miles’s hand rings and he looks at me. “Blocked number.”
“That’s not a good start,” I say, and her shoulders shake while she rocks back and forth on the couch.
He hits answer and places it on speakerphone. “What the fuck?” her brother’s voice demands.
“Help me!” she cries, jumping to her feet as if he’s here in person to save her.
I leap forward, shoving her onto her back on the couch and I straddle her chest the best I can, placing my hand over her mouth to shut her up. He’s seen the situation she’s in and understands her life is in our hands. We want him to talk.
“Who the fuck is this?” her brother shouts. “What the fuck do you want?”
“You,” I say simply.
He goes silent, and her muffled cries grow louder while her small body tries to fight me.
“The Lords sent us to collect you,” Miles goes on. “Either you’re here in an hour or your sister is dead like your mother.” He hangs up the phone and turns it off, tossing it into the vase filled with red roses on the end table by the couch.
I get up off her and make it back to where I was sitting across from her on the coffee table. I watch her slowly get up and try to stretch her arms that are still tied behind her back.
“Don’t worry,” Miles begins, walking behind the couch. He pulls back the slide, cocking his gun, and her body trembles at the sound. “If he doesn’t come to your rescue, we’ll show you mercy and make it quick.” He grips her hair, yanking her head back, and pushes the end of the barrel into her temple.
She’s gasping for breath, her black mascara running down her face. “Please … I didn’t do anything.” I watch her neck work as she swallows.
I get up, and she must hear my movement because she starts thrashing around on the couch, trying to get up and see what I’m doing, but Miles has her head pinned to the cushion by her hair. I open the bag we brought and remove what I need.
Walking back over to her, I fall down onto the couch, straddling her legs, making her scream at the top of her lungs for anyone to help her. But no one is coming. I know it, and she knows it.
She’ll die tonight for her piece of shit brother. He’s willing to kill others to be initiated into the Lords, but he’ll willingly let his family die for his mistakes. He’s a fucking coward.
“Please …” she sobs, her small body trying to throw me off of her but it’s useless.
I shove the cloth into her mouth, silencing her, and then I rip off the duct tape, tearing it with my teeth, and roughly place it over her lips. Her tear-filled eyes meet mine and the life fades out of them, knowing it’s over. Nothing is worse than not being able to plead your case. Especially when you’re innocent. She’ll have less than an hour to come to terms with facing her death.
Getting up, I find myself wandering over to the fireplace to look over the pictures that sit in various sized frames of her and her mother. Not a single one has a father figure in it. Or her brother.
I’m not surprised. There’s a reason he isn’t going to return to try to save anyone in this house. But I’m still in initiation and I must do what is required of me. I won’t go soft to save someone else’s ass. Not when mine’s on the line.
“Fuck!” I hear Miles hiss behind me.
I turn to see he had taken his eyes off of her for a second and she got up off the couch to run. He grips her hair and yanks her back into him. Her feet come up off the floor as she kicks them out, fighting him with all she has.
“Goddammit,” he growls, throwing her face down on the floor next to her mother’s body. “Fucking bitch.” He falls to straddle her back, grips her hair, and yanks her head up off the marble.
Her bloodshot eyes met mine while she tries to breathe through her nose.
“I was going to make it quick.” He grabs his pocketknife out of his jeans and flips it open. He places it against her neck, pushing it into her skin, and she closes her eyes tightly. Her face scrunching as blood trails down her neck. “Now I’m going to take my time. Split this little body of yours open one slice at a time. You’ll be begging for us to kill you soon.”
Looking over, I see her ruined cell phone while it sits in the water at the bottom of the vase. I walk toward them and kneel, pulling mine out. “Look at me,” I command.
She opens her eyes, her wet lashes clumped together from the makeup she had on when we arrived. I take a picture of her once more, making sure not to get Miles’s face.
“Just a little something for us to jack off to later.” Miles laughs, reaching around with his free hand and pinching off her nose, making her buck wildly underneath him.
I pull up the phone number in my cell and send the picture, knowing it will get the reaction that I want.