Page 44 of Be My Sacrifice
So many questions that I have no answers for. The truth is that if death indeed calls for me, I don’t know if I would answer or try to resist its grasp. How can I go to my rest at Dinah’s side, knowing that I am leaving them all behind to suffer? She would never want that. She would be disappointed in me.
Another loud explosion sounds, and it forces me to try to sit up, even as the thick metal chains that have me confined, like a dog, to this cellar, rattle on the ground next to me. One holds tight to my wrist, while the other has a confining hold on my ankle. I guess that cunt Noah Rothesay didn’t want to take any chances with me escaping, not that I could have gotten far in the state that I am in.
So much for all the healing I did from the last beating I took at Noah’s guards’ fists and feet. I’m positive that not only is my hand and wrist rebroken, but my elbow is dislocated and currently protruding at an odd angle. The throbbing, almost unbearable pain in my shoulder tells me it’s once again dislocated. The bile rising at the back of my throat, and the sharp pain in my abdomen, tell me I most likely have internal bleeding, maybe my spleen.Fuck, I may just die this time of my injuries, regardless of if I want to or not. Then Ezekiel, once again sacrificing himself for me, will have done it for nothing.
A smirk makes its way to my lips unbidden, as the memory of me asking him if he would be my sacrifice re-enters my mind. The fucker looked me straight in the eyes, with those unnerving cat-like green eyes of his, and told me it would be his duty and pleasure. I won’t lie, at least not to myself; those words made me hard. That was sexy as fuck, not that I would ever confess that to him.
The sound and feeling of multiple smaller explosions going off at once have me straining to place my ear against the thick concrete walls, to see if I can hear anything that makes sense of what may be happening above me at the moment.Fireworks?Is that asshole Noah setting off fireworks to celebrate his son marrying another unfortunate woman?Jesus fucking Christ, what a cunt.
The sound goes off again, and my mouth goes slack. No, not fireworks, gunfire, I’m positive that’s what I hear.What the fuck is going on up there? Is Ezekiel alright?I immediately chastise myself for caring about the welfare of that tattooed cunt. I shouldn’t, I know I shouldn’t. He betrayed Dinah to save Abraham. Even as my thoughts try to convince me, I know I no longer believe that.
He was placed in an impossible situation, one that even I would have struggled with. He did what he had to, to protect the person he loved most in this world. I would have done the same to save my Nightstar. I would have done worse, and slaughtered all of them without any hesitation, if it meant that she could live.
Could it be the rebels, led by Abraham, attacking us? Could Abraham Mercier be the copycatUnholy Ghost?It would certainly make the most sense. I wouldn’t put it past the fucker; he’s ruthless, violent, and a psychopath. He also watched the woman I know, deep down in my heart, that he loved, to be murdered on Noah Rothesay’s orders. He heard how Noah murdered Gabriel because he had defected to the rebels. He would want revenge for everything that has been taken from him. He would be craving bloodshed and war on the Brotherhood.
A few minutes go by, and the house’s foundations stop shaking, even as dust continues to fly through the air, coating the inside of my nose and choking my throat. I stare longingly, in the light of the one electrical bulb in the room, at the jarred peaches just out of my reach. Talk about fucking sadistic cruelty, making a starving man stare at the food that could save him. I always knew that Noah Rothesay was a psychopathic monster, and this just confirms it.
Just as I’m dreaming about all the dishes those peaches could make, my mouth watering, and the pangs in my stomach causing me further distress, the cellar door slams open without warning, and two of the gorillas Noah calls his guards storm inside, followed by the devil himself.Ah, fuck, this can’t be good.
“Get him the fuck up, re-shackled so he can’t escape us, and let’s get the fuck out of here. They are close, too fucking close.” Noah looks not only irate but frightened. His clothes are dirty and disheveled, as is his hair. His green eyes, the same ones that Ezekiel inherited, are wide with fear, and he keeps looking over his shoulder, as if he fears the boogeyman may appear at any moment. As much as it pleases me to see the cunt scared for his life, it also sends a wave of apprehension through me.
“What’s happened?” I question through gritted teeth, as one of the gorillas pulls on my shackled arm, attempting to release it. I’m immediately rewarded for my question with a slap to the face.
“Keep your mouth shut, asshole, or I’ll break all your teeth.”
I happen to like my teeth, thank you very fucking much, and I need them to release me if I have any chance of fighting them off. Who am I kidding? Three against one, and I’m already broken beyond possible repair; the odds are not in my favor. That still won’t stop me, though.
Although, I do worry about what has happened to Ezekiel, if his father is down here looking panic-stricken. I keep my mouth shut as one of them works to release my leg. A glint of light shines off a shard of one of the broken Mason jars, and catches my eye. It’s sitting there just out of reach, waiting for me to get my hands on it and use it to defend myself.
I immediately avert my eyes so as not to draw attention to it, and my thoughts race inside my mind. Fuck, I won’t be able to do much damage with that, but if I am lucky, I’ll at least be able to take one of them down with me.
“Hurry the fuck up. We don’t have much time to make it to the tunnels before she’s made it within the residence.”
Noah’s words catch my immediate attention. He said,‘she,’I am positive of it. What female could he be concerned with? What female would be attacking the house? My heart starts pounding rapidly in my chest, so quickly that it steals my very breath, and has the sound of my blood rushing in my ears. My vision blurs and comes back as I try not to have a panic attack.
He said it was a female, not possible. It couldn’t be, could it?No, no, it’s not possible. I watched her die, both Ezekiel and I did.We watched her take her last breath, before the rebels stole her body from us. She was already dead when that happened, wasn’t she?
“You said,‘she,’who are you speaking of? Who is attacking?“ Even as I pose the question, I have no true hope that the asshole will answer me. I’m rewarded with another slap to the side of my face that makes my eye sting. This motherfucker is going to be the first one I murder for continuously putting his hands on me. “Noah, who is attacking? Where is Ezekiel?”
The gorilla raises his hand to hit me again, but Noah stops him with his words. “Leave him. We need him conscious if we are going to use him as a human shield, and if you keep smacking him, he won’t be, and you’ll have to carry him.” The guards both grumble under their breaths, but gorilla number one doesn’t raise his hand again to me.
“To answer your question, not that I owe you shit, but you might as well know before you die. It seems that theUnholy Ghosthas arrived to rescue you and my son, or maybe just to murder him and me.“ He shrugs his shoulders like it means nothing to him either way. “She is alive. Apparently, the whore survived, and now she wants vengeance.”
The sound of the unlocking shackles becomes a background noise to my heart racing in my ears. “You lie!” I immediately yank forward forcefully, catching both guards off balance and causing them to stumble backward, as I rush forward in the direction of the shard of glass, grabbing it in my fingers, and trying to attack Noah with it. I don’t make it far before the two have recovered, and body slam me like linebackers during a football game, down to the concrete floor. All the air leaves my lungs with the impact, and my fingers release their grasp on the glass, blood pouring from my new wounds.
“No, Sammy. She’s alive. She survived. Dinah Camrose lives, but it won’t matter; she will never get her hands on you. I’ll make sure of that. When I kill her this time, and I will, mark my fucking words, I will make sure she stays dead.”
Dinah is alive.My Nightstar survived somehow, and is here trying to rescue me. I fight with all that I have left inside of me against my capturers. I need to get to her. I need to see her breathing with my own eyes, because this could be a trick. Noah is a liar. I need to make sure that Ezekiel still lives.
All the thoughts jumble inside my brain, and then, just as I make it back to my knees with the hefty weight still on top of me, something crashes on the top of my head, and all the lights go out.
“Dinah! Dinah, I’m here!” I slur the words as darkness takes me.
Chapter twenty-nine
The Liar
Abe