Page 41 of Blade

“I hope you know this is crazy,” Sage whispered as she shook her head and stepped back. Without another word, she quietly left. I heard the click of the lock before she closed the door.

“Blade… I—” Eliska began but then paused.

“Eliska? Pick up the whip.” I looked over my shoulder as I spoke.

“What? No—”

“Pick up the whip!” I raised my voice and she jumped, but immediately complied. Inwardly, I cringed that I’d had to do that.

“I’m not going to do that to you,” she whispered as she motioned toward the scars on my back. She’d obviously been too caught up in the moment earlier to notice them.

Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply and slowly let it out. “No. You won’t. That whip won’t do this kind of damage.”

No way was I telling her that the whip that had shredded my back was a cat o’ nine tails with embedded metal and spikes. I opened my eyes and fixed them on her again.

“Did she do that?” Her tone held disbelief and the faintest ripple of horror.

“Sage? No. Never.”

“But why? Why do you want me to hurt you?” she asked, her lower lip trembling. “Don’t make me do this.”

“Swing the whip.”

“No.”

“Swing the fucking whip!” I shouted.

Again, she jumped and cringed, but she did as she was told. It fell ineffectively against my shoulders.

“Harder!” I demanded.

She did as she was told but gasped when the whip snapped against my skin.

“All the men that hurt you… the things they did… I want you to focus on that. Take it out on me.”

“But—”

“Do it!”

Immediately, she swung again.

“Don’t stop until you’ve gotten it all out. A lash for every single injustice you faced.”

The next one was harder, and it stung. I winced but remained silent. Inside, I told myself I deserved this. This was my penance for my plethora of sins and my price to have her.

A soft cry escaped her when the whip made contact with my skin.

The lashes came again and again. My back was on fire, and she was openly sobbing.

As I nearly blacked out from the pain, I prayed I hadn’t fucked up.

“AnotherLife:MotionPictureCollection”—MotionlessInWhite(feat.Kerli)

Never in a million years would I have done something to intentionally inflict pain upon another human. I wasn’t a cruel person. Yet in the time that I’d been held captive, I’d been conditioned to obey, and I had instinctively complied with Blade’s demands.

Tears coursed down my cheeks. They dripped off my chin. They ran down my neck, wetting my shirt. With each swing of the soft and worn black leather, I saw a face. With that face, I sawthe things they did to me. Anger surged within and I lost myself in my painful rage.

Red obscured my vision as something snapped inside me, and I swung over and over.