Page 5 of Be My Sacrifice
“What do you want?” I spit out through gritted teeth, as a bead of sweat trails down from my hairline to my chin. My hands clench into tight fists, and I ponder if there is any way I can possibly manage to wrap them around his neck, and snap it before his guards undoubtedly murder me.
“Want? Son, I want what is owed to me! I want what was promised to me. I want what I have waited patiently all these years to have. Something you, my fucking despicable spawn, thought you could take from me.”
He leans forward and fists my hair, yanking on the dark strands and forcing my head to tip back. “Power, boy. I want power. Ideservepower. More power than anyone else, and that psychotic she-devil wields wealth and power with her name, and her corrupt womb. Power that was meant to be mine through your marriage. She was to be mine, just like her cunt mother should have been, and yet you had the fucking gall to threaten me, to try to take it away.”
“She was never yours,” I spit with venom, pulling against the guards’ restraining arms.
“EVERYTHING IN THIS FUCKING WORLD BELONGS TO ME!” He shouts, spittle flying from his lips and landing on my face. For a moment, I think he’ll actually swing at me as his rage pollutes him, but just as I brace myself to absorb the shot, a disquieting calmness descends over him, as his eyes sparkle with more madness than I have ever seen. I know the next words out of his mouth are going to wreck me.
“I know about the boy Gabriel spawned with the servant girl in the village all those years ago. The one you and Abe helped hide from the eyes of the Brotherhood. You two thought you managed to get him to safety after Gabriel’s death, but I intercepted him and his pathetic, weak mother. He is the true heir to the Camrose fortune. I pursued this path only because I thought it would be easier, but you see, I don’t need Dinah to get what I want, son.”
Shock infiltrates every part of my body, and alarm bells ring inside my mind. Could it be? Could he have Gabriel’s son? After all that Abe and I went through, to hide the boy’s existence from the Brotherhood, after we suspected them of murdering Gabriel. We made sure that he was taken to the rebels and protected, so that he would never fall into someone like my father’s hands.After everything, you still failed him, failed Gabriel,my mind screams.
“How?” I let the word fall from my lips, and see the truth and certainty written across his face. He has Gabriel’s son. Devastation rips through me with fear for the young boy in my father’s clutches.
“It is amazing what a man will confess to when he’s being raped, tortured, and filled with poison. Gabriel gave up the boy’s existence with his last breath, before we hung him from the rafters.” My father’s finger strokes down the side of my face. “He begged like a little whore for his life, Dinah’s, and that child’s. I made sure that he died thinking that you and Abe had betrayed him, that you two were the ones to give him up to the Brotherhood.”
The horrific picture that he paints of Gabriel’s last moments has my heart-shattering. Did Gabriel die believing that Abe and I could, and would, ever hurt him?Yes, my mind screams. This monster before me would have made sure of it. “I’ll fucking kill you, if it’s the last thing I do.” I snarl and lunge forward, snapping my teeth and trying to take a vicious bite out of my father’s face, only to have a fist slam into my jaw from the side.
“Oh, Ezekiel, you have no power here. Your threats are idle and beneath me. Though, if you’re not careful, son, I will not hesitate to have you murdered with that whore, consequences be damned.” He takes a step away from me, as one of the guards slides a sharp blade across my throat, nicking me in the process. My Adam’s apple moves up and down, swallowing the lump of dread in my throat.
“The whore will die regardless, Ezekiel. She needs to pay for her sins and the blood of our brethren on her hands. She is a demon that must be eliminated.” He motions to his guards with a movement of his fingers, and they tighten their grip on me, making breathing painful, but at least the blade moves away from my neck.
“In no world would I ever let her survive. I don’t need her alive to gain her power and wealth now that you have married her before the Brotherhood. However, the choice is yours on whether she should be tortured alone, so that her screams fill this home and your nightmares, or whether your precious Abe should fall at her side.” He leans closer, and the amber specks in his demented green eyes light up with the fires of hell.
“Abe, who you have been fornicating with all these years. Committing unforgivable sins against your family, the Order that you serve, and our God. You care deeply for him, don’t you, son? The same can be said about the boy, can’t it? You tried to protect him because of your revolting love for that pathetic and weak Gabriel. Ultimately, failing them both, and the Brotherhood that you served most of all. Rest assured, I will rectify your sins by having that child decapitated, and buried in a shallow grave, and his mother burned as a heretic and sinner for all to see.”
His fists clench as a red tinge crosses his features along with madness. He is insane with bloodlust and rage. “My plans for Abe are even better.” An evil smirk forces both sides of his lips to rise as a cold dread invades all of my pores.
“He will be ripped limb from limb while still alive. There will not be a single inch of his traitorous body left when my men are through with him. I will put his corpse on display, and label him as the criminal and sinner he is, as a reminder to the rest of the population, of who really holds the power in this world, and that crossing the Order comes with a price.”
“Peter will never allow you to do that to his only son,” I gasp.
“Peter is weak and useless, just like his offspring. He will have no say in the matter, and if he dares to cross me, he will die right along with him.”
He pauses, and I know that he’s just being a dramatic cunt. He doesn’t realize the feelings I already have for Dinah, that she means something to me too, or if he does, he doesn’t care. He knows with certainty though, that threatening me with Abe’s death would be the only way to bring me to heel.
He also knows that Gabriel’s child is the last true reminder of the man I once loved as much as I do Abe. Letting him die at the hands of my father would destroy everything left inside of me. Why is he telling me all this? Why would he share his plans with me? He needs something from me, something that is stopping him from murdering everyone in cold blood in this house. The question is, what?
“But you won’t dare kill me or charge me with their crimes, isn’t that right? You would lose face in front of the Brotherhood, if it were discovered that your son enjoys a hard cock up his ass, and was conspiring to bring down the Order.” I let a malicious, bloody grin cross my face.
One of the guards punches me on the side of my head, and my vision swims before my eyes once again, this time taking longer to clear. I can’t afford to lose consciousness, or who knows what these psychopaths would do to Abe, Dinah, and Sammy, then?
My father’s cruel green eyes meet mine, and in their depths, I see loathing. This man hates me and even wishes that I had never been born. “You will obey me, Ezekiel, or I will have no mercy on any of them. You will kill that whore with your own hands, for defying the Brotherhood and God, or I will murder Abe and that child painfully.”
He clenches his jaw, and a look of pleasure crosses his features, forcing the corner of his mouth to tilt up with a sadistic smile. “She will die regardless of whether you wield the blade or not, make no mistake, but I will give her over to my men first to enjoy, until all of her holes are torn apart and bleeding, and she begs for death. She will beg, son, I’ll make sure of it.”
The mere thought of all these men raping and abusing Dinah for their depraved pleasure has my heart cracking wide open. I do not doubt that my father will allow that to happen to her before gracing her with death. I can’t allow her to suffer unmeasurable horrors when I can prevent it, and give her a quick death. One I failed to give her brother. More than anything, I can’t allow my father to take Abe from me. I cannot survive a world where they are both gone, and I know that my father would force me to continue to live in agony, with the memory of their loss as a noose tied around my neck.
“What about Sammy?” I question, the taste of bile rising in the back of my throat, already knowing that there is zero chance that my father will allow him to live.
“He will die with the whore. He has betrayed his post, and cannot be allowed to return to the rebels he has conspired with.”
My eyes shut painfully at the impossible choice before me, visions of Dinah being raped over and over swimming before my eyes. There is no real choice; he will kill Dinah regardless, and it’s just whether I have the courage to watch her suffer horrifically before he does. I can still save Abe, though. I can still keep one of them alive.I can’t lose them all, I just can’t.
“Give me your word that if I take her life, Abe and the child will be released and safe. You will do nothing further to Abe, and will allow me to raise the boy as my son and heir, and I will fall in line with your plans to control the Brotherhood. I will obey you in all things. Father, please.”
My father stares at me, contemplation clear on his face. For a moment, I honestly believe that he will refuse my request, that he will kill them regardless, but then I witness the gleam of satisfaction in his greedy eyes. He hungers for the Camrose wealth and power too much to let it slip between his fingers. If I raise the boy, along with being Dinah’s husband, we will always be able to control it. The thought of how much I am betraying her makes me sick.