CHAPTER 8
Revelator set Cherie’s plate in the sink, ready to get it all over with. “It’s time we have that talk,” he said, already knowing he’d get resistance. How much was the question. It didn’t matter. She needed to tell him everything without any kind of coercion from him.
He made his way to the fire and added several logs before taking a seat on the foot stool, casting a glance at her.
“I did things in college I’m not proud of,” she began, keeping her eyes on the fire. He set his gaze on it as well, waiting for the details he was sure she’d leave off. “I had a friend who invited me to a party with other friends. One thing led to another at this party and I was involved in sexual debauchery I didn’t approve of. I never told anybody because I knew it wouldn’t do any good, these kids were offspring of reputable families. As was I, and I surely didn’t want to shame them with what had happened.”
“You’re telling me you wanted this to happen?”
“Of course not,” she said, her tone going harder.
“Then why would it shame your family if you told?”
“Because I was stupid enough to let it happen. I should’ve seen that coming.”
“Really,” he said, recalling the little he’d seen when he’d touched her. “That’s not what I recall when I saw pieces of the incident.”
“So why am I telling you at all? Why not touch me and see it all for yourself.”
“Because it’s important for you to tell me.”
“I don’t see how.”
“Because evil hides its deeds in the darkness and I’m not allowing that anywhere near this light.”
“What light?” she asked, looking at him. “Your light?”
“And yours.”
She scoffed, aiming her gaze at the fire again. “There’s no light here.”
His head shook a little. “Is that what you believe?”
“That’s what I know,” she corrected softly, still holding her eyes to the flame.
“Well, you know wrong. Tell me about the one who hurt you in college. Who was he to you?”
“A friend,” she repeated. “As I said.”
“He was more than a friend.”
She shrugged, wiping quickly at the tears falling. “So what if he was? He’s not anymore.”
Her pain pierced him, making him need to heal that wound. “No, he’s not anymore. Now, he’s nothing and nobody but a memory the demons use to torment you with.”
“I’m not tormented,” she whispered.
“You’ve been tormented from the day I met you,” he assured. “And I’ve been dying to get my hands around the throats of your demons ever since.”
She finally looked at him. “Is that what you’re doing? Coming to strangle my demons?”
He stared at her. “I am.”
“And if they still have their fingers around my throat?”
“Then they’ll have to let go.”
“And if they refuse?” she whispered, tears falling again.
He slowly shook his head. “They won’t.” He turned more toward her, putting his elbows on his knees. “Tell me what they did to you.”
“Why?” she gasped, confused. “Why do I need to dig up those evil things? Do you want me to relive it?”
“No, I want you to bring it out so that I can judge it, Cherie, and send it to hell where it belongs.”
“Can’t you just…send it without that?” she whispered, looking at her lap while wiping the tears pouring now.
“Do you know what kind of hell I’m willing to go through to protect you? If there was an easier way to do this, you think I wouldn’t do it? Tell me what they did to you.”
“They raped me!” she shot out.
“Who raped you?”
A sob escaped her as she fought to catch her breath. “All of them,” she gasped. “I didn’t even know most of them, they just kept coming and hurting me and they never stopped, okay? They beat me and called me names,” she said, holding her chest. “They called me a fat cow and made animal noises while hurting me and mocked the way I cried.”
Revelator had to stand and pace when her pain suffocated him.
“They were my best friends!” she suddenly yelled at him, bitter sobs wracking her.
He resisted touching her, needing her to get it all out before he did.
“I wanted to tell my daddy, I knew he’d believe me. But then he’d kill them and go to prison for it, so I didn’t. I was the stupid na?ve one, I was the one who believed the best about people, tried to help people, and they did that to me!”
Revelator lowered next to her and pulled her into his embrace, holding her tight. “Shhhhhh, okay I got you. What they did was wrong, so wrong, Cherie. They hurt my angel, but they can’t hurt her anymore.” He held her face and kissed it all over. “You’re mine and nothing and nobody will ever hurt you, do you hear me? Tell me you hear me.”
“I hear you,” she cried hoarsely.
“Today, right now, I declare to the demons in your past—Cherie is mine. You have no more right to her. I command you to leave her mind and heart and go to the depths of hell where you came from. I’m breaking this curse by the authority and power of my love.” He put his hand on her head and closed his eyes, pulling the darkness to him. “Leave her,” he hissed, watching the light spread out like a scattershot in the void before kissing her with all the passion he had, mending the bloody wound with every breath.
When her soft moans of wonder filled his ears, he knew it was done and time for the next demon. He nipped softly at her lips, stroking her face. “I love you more than my own life. Know this.”
She nodded and kissed him back, her hunger getting explosive. He grabbed her hands and lowered them to her lap before he wasn’t able to. “Not yet Cherie. First you have to tell me what happened after college. I have to hear all of it.”
She searched his eyes as he gazed at her, seeming to realize there was no way out finally. She lowered her head, fresh tears pouring as if she’d just confessed the easy stuff.
“I…I tried to heal from what happened,” she whispered. “But…I felt so…stupid and dirty. I ended up homeless and jobless and…got involved in…” She aimed her teary eyes at him, her face crimped with shame. “Prostitution. I…slept with anybody and everybody.” She shook her head. “Not for food and housing, but for the drugs. They made me forget everything, I just wanted to forget what happened and who I’d become. And then…if I wasn’t evil enough, I started helping my pimp find other innocent girls to trap in that horrible life! For drugs, Samuel, I entrapped innocent girls for a fucking high,” she gasped, covering her mouth. “Why shouldn’t the worst things come to me? They should and they did!”
She fought him this time when he wrapped his arms around her. “Get off me! I don’t deserve forgiveness!”
“None of us do!” he yelled, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. “None of us deserve it, do you understand? God’s mercy isn’t for the worthy ones, it’s for those stolen by the enemy the way you were.”
“I wasn’t stolen,” she shot back hotly.
“Bullshit, Cherie,” he grit, grabbing her hands tightly. “If what happened to you happened to Tully, would you say that?”
“Tully was a child and I entrapped her in that hell,” she yelled at him.
“Because you were entrapped!” he yelled right back. You were an angel when they did that to you and you know it, don’t speak those lies to me. I see you! I saw you that night when they ripped your heart from your chest, it was pure. Try and fight that, I dare you, I fucking dare your biggest demon, right now.”
She fell into him and he wrapped his arms around her tight, holding her head to his chest, winded. He closed his eyes, drawing the darkness to him again. “By the power and authority of my love, I command the demons holding my wife to let her fucking go.” Again he kissed her, forcing her mouth open to take his truth, writing it with every breath and moan on their hearts and minds.
Revelator knew there was one more hiding in her. He’d wait a while and let her rest before he tackled it. He sensed with every bit of his seeing that what was coming would shake him.
He carried her to the bed and lay her down, kissing her forehead. “Sleep, my angel,” he whispered next to her ear. “I need you strong.”
She didn’t protest but slipped immediately into sleep while Revelator spent the next two hours in his swamp sanctuary. He got prostrate before God and begged for the strength he’d need to overcome this next fight.
By the time Revelator returned to the house, Cherie was in the shower. He hoped she rested because she was going to need it. He saw just enough while praying to know they were about to fight. And not just with her demons.
He paced in his kitchen, considering his options. He had to finish this. He had to know what she was hiding. And if he had to bind her in order to loose her, then that’s what he’d do.
He went to his closet and pulled out rope then looked around, spotting the bed posts. He brought the rope to the bed and created two slip knots for her arms. He considered the worst-case scenario and created two more at the foot of the bed for her legs. She’d been healing for only two days and he couldn’t risk injuring her again.
The tea.
Revelator hurried to the fireplace and put water on then gathered the mix Lesion left. The muscle relaxant would help loosen her.
He straightened from the fire, pouring hot water into the cup right as Cherie exited the bathroom. She made her way over to him and he handed her the cup. “Drink this,” he said, stroking her cheek then leaning to kiss it.
She took the cup and sipped without fuss then sat in the chair near the fireplace as he took the stool next to it. He angled his head at her. “The shower help?” His gaze moved over her breasts, naked under the white t-shirt. Hunger speared his gut to have her.
She gave a nod. “How’s my beautiful savior holding up?” she asked, eying him over the rim of the metal cup.
“Tired,” he said, beyond ready to defeat her darkness so he could love her.
“I’m a lot of trouble,” she whispered, staring in her cup.
“You are,” he said, aiming his grin at her. “But you’re worth it.”
Tears fell unchecked down her cheeks, clenching his heart. “Why do you love me?” she barely whispered, the crimp in her face bringing him to his knees at her side.
“Because you saved me,” he whispered, stroking his fingers along her face. “That day on the road, I was a man lost in his own darkness. You broke me out of that with your light.”
She met his gaze, blinking as she held his hand against her face. “You really saw light in me?”
He nodded with a certainty. “Beautiful and billowing,” he whispered, touching her chest. “From here.”
She choked out a sob and looked up at him. “There’s…something else I need to tell you, Samuel,” she whispered, tears pouring again.
He barely nodded, bringing his lips to her cheek as she wept bitterly. He scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed, his lips devouring her cries as he lay her down. “Shhhhh,” he whispered, raising up and removing his shirt then the rest of his clothes. He kissed her again, his breath rushing out at the eager stroke of her fingers along his chest and sides. He lifted the hem of her shirt and removed it then focused on the black shorts, removing those next.
He crawled over her body, his gaze taking in all that was his. He straddled her chest on his knees, her drunken gaze imprisoning his cock in its hot grip. “Put your hands above your head,” he ordered, sliding his finger over her lips. She closed her eyes, breathless, doing as he said.
He slid the rope over one wrist and she pulled in response, tightening it. She looked at him as he stroked his fist along his cock, her fear burning up with instant lust. She captured his shaft with her free hand and he allowed her to jack him off, allowed the fire to build, thrusting his hips for a glorious ten seconds. He forced himself from the flames and removed her hand, moving it in the second rope.
Again she pulled, tightening it, her gasp hitting the head of his cock as he pushed it in and out of her lips.
“My queen,” he whispered, going deeper as he stared into her eyes. “Suck your king.”
She moaned and he dropped his head back, moving his hips along the sharp edges of her teeth, hissing in the rapturous fire. He brought his gaze back to hers and locked it there till she brought his orgasm that lasted for an eternal fiery minute.
He pulled his cock slowly from her lips, allowing her to cover the head with satisfied moans before he climbed off and sat next to her. She met his gaze as his breaths slowed with his pulse. “Are you ready, Cherie?”
She stared at his mouth. “Ready for what?”
“To tell me about Lazarus.”
****
Cherie’s heart skipped several beats at hearing that name from his mouth. “How do you know that name?” she whispered.
He angled his handsome face at her. “I saw him when I touched a demon not long ago.”
“Why…do you think I know him?”
“Because I saw they’re hunting you. They think you’re going to kill him.”
“Me?”
The shock in her face meant she was definitely in the dark. “I never intend on seeing him again.”
“Tell me how you know him.”
“He’s…one of the bad people I got caught up with. Why did you tie me?”
“Because I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“Why would I get hurt?”
She stared at his lowered profile, his beauty distracting even with her ugliest nightmare on the table. “You wouldn’t…if you were able to confess.”
“Confess what?” Her heart hammered as she wondered what he knew. Was he bluffing?
“The thing you’re hiding from me.”
At realizing he didn’t know, her pulse scattered with the need to run and hide. She couldn’t tell him that. It would change everything for them.
“Cherie,” he mumbled, shaking his lowered head. “Don’t hide from me.”
“I can’t Samuel,” she whispered.
“You can’t or you won’t,” he said, his intense blue eyes on her.
She swallowed, understanding suddenly why she was tied. The urge to run itched in her muscles. But there was no running from him. Wasn’t it always supposed to come to this? Her facing the music? Wasn’t that what she’d deemed herself worthy of?
So face it, you coward.
He suddenly turned, his body hovering over hers, then slowly settling onto her. She couldn’t resist the gasp from how good he felt, his beautiful body pressing into her, his cock hard and hot against her leg. His mouth covered hers in a hungry kiss, driving all the demons back. When he pulled up and stared at her, they came racing back in, whispering how dirty and wrong it all was, would always be.
He lowered his head next to hers. “Tell me about the man they think you’re going to kill, Cherie.” The whispered words at her ear made her skin crawl.
Tell him. Just tell him.
“He…”
Samuel pulled up, staring at her then kissed at the edge of her mouth, his lips tender. “Bring the demon into the light for me.”
For him. Her breaths came faster as she pulled up the ugly truth and let it onto her tongue. She opened her mouth and a sob gushed out.
“Give me the demon, Cherie,” he demanded, his breaths unsteady now. “He’s mine. Don’t hide him.”
“He…he took me in and…made me do things,” she gasped.
“What things?”
“Stop…kissing me,” she whispered, fighting to get away from his lips on her neck.
“I will never stop kissing you.” His mouth covered hers, his tongue hungry and demanding. Then he gripped her jaw and forced it open, filling her mouth and mind and heart.
“Samuel, make love to me.”
“Not yet,” he said, winded above her. “Not while that demon is hiding in my wife,” he swore.
She closed her eyes, tears pouring out.
“What did he make you do, Cherie?”
“Why does it matter!” she screamed, her fury instant and hot. “He made me do evil things! So evil!”
“Tell me!” he thundered right in her face, his rage making her gasp and tremble.
“He…he made me…” She clenched her eyes shut. “Marry him,” she gasped. “And have a baby. And he…took it from me.”
She turned her face away and he forced it back. “Look at me,” he whispered, his voice rough and labored.
She did, hardly able to stand the sight of his shock and fury. “He married you?” he repeated, like the words weren’t English. “And…took your child?”
A sob burst forth and they didn’t stop, they just came and came until she wailed from the shame and agony. “He killed my baby!” The word tore from her chest, and the pain rushed in and ripped her to pieces. “He killed my baaaabyyyyy.”
Samuel shot off the bed and she realized he was pacing next to it. He started mumbling heated words about what things meant. “That’s why she’s the one who kills him. Because of me.”
“What are you doing?” she sobbed, watching him dress. He didn’t answer her as he pulled his t-shirt on and hurried to the closet. “Samuel, please talk to me,” she cried as he put on his boots and coat.
He came to the bed and held her face, kissing her until she had no breath. He pulled up and stroked her face with his warm, strong hands. “I’m going to kill that bastard for hurting my wife and murdering our child. What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is surely fucking mine.” He stood and leveled an ominous gaze on her. “You do kill Lazarus. Your confession just sealed his fate. ”