Sleeping Redemption (Feathers of Darkness Duet #1)

Chapter 35

Chapter Thirty-Five

(TW: NON-CON NOT BY MMCS)

M aybe any other angel would have been indifferent or perhaps unimpressed that Sylas had made them a ring. However, I knew exactly what went into anything he made that he created with his various metals.

In each creation, there was a little piece of his grace in all of it, and that was nothing to scoff at. There was a reason why he was considered a master at his craft back home and why other angels sought him out for their weaponry.

I marveled at the ring on my finger hours later while sitting on Sy’s lap on the couch. I couldn’t wait to show it to Atlas and Rook when they returned from Cioppino’s afternoon walk.

Distracted again, so easily? All over a stupid little trinket. Where are my answers, little one? We are due to speak in person once more. Meet me at Brixton Historic Cemetery, Plot 228. Do not keep me waiting. I have news of your sword.

Why did the Devil have such shit timing? Popping in my head at all the wrong times. I knew he was always watching, but this shit was getting annoying.

I slid off of Sy’s lap, but not before I gave him one final kiss.

Seeing his curiously perked brow, I smiled reassuringly at him. “Duties of Hell are calling.”

He grunted, bristling at the inconvenience. “Lucifer always was a needy bastard,” he griped.

“Stop,” I chided him. “Just because you don’t see eye-to-eye with him doesn’t mean you can’t just agree to disagree. There’s still important work to get done, especially regarding this whole balancing of powers fiasco.”

I patted his thigh gently. “I won’t be gone long.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?” he asked.

Giving him a stern look, I shook my head. “The last time you two were in the same vicinity, it resulted in the premature end of the Romanov Dynasty.”

He raised his hands defensively. “Point taken.”

With that, I left to get an update on my sword. This may be just the lead we all hoped for.

The sun barely dipped below the horizon as I pushed open the wrought iron gate leading into the historic cemetery. Fresh corpses weren’t buried here anymore, so it was only maintained enough to not look like an eyesore from the road.

Wandering along the dirt trail further back into the graveyard, you could see where the maintenance men neglected the grounds. Ivy sprawled out of control, headstones needed cleaning, some of the statues were crumbling at the edges, and the one or two lamp posts present had bulbs flickering under threat of going dark.

Looking around, everything was quiet. There wasn’t even the soft fluttering of bat wings in the sky or the rustling of leaves in the trees. Above me, the moon’s eerie glow was dampened by the thick cloud coverage. I was left with only the scent of dirt and decay all around me.

Stopping at the indicated meeting point, I stared up at the large stone angel looking down at me. Despite it being nothing more than an inanimate statue, I could still feel its judgment weighing down on my shoulders. The female angel’s wings were partially spread, with long curls framing the face and a bouquet of roses sculpted into her dainty hands.

“Kinley,” a voice spoke up from behind me.

Turning, I met an unfamiliar face. My brows pinched together in confusion. The man standing there had a rich olive complexion with neatly styled hair so dark it reminded me of the bottomless pits of the universe. The facial hair around his mouth was slightly lighter, but not by much. Looking into his eyes, there was no sign of Lucifer but all the presence of evil and pity.

He smiled at me, but it lacked any warmth. “I have your sword.”

“What? Did Lucifer send you?” I straightened, my body going rigid, as he immediately captured my attention.

As he took slow steps in my direction, my feet remained planted where they were.

“Christina was so kind to tell me where I could find it before I left her vessel on the train tracks.” His steps ceased a foot from me, enough to be within arm’s reach but far enough to breathe.

It was me who closed the gap between us the second he brought up the name of my human minion. My lips curled at the start of my anger flaring. “Nicodemus…” Disgust rolled off my tongue at the name of the demon who had haunted my past and now my present.

Now I could see it, I could see beyond the color of the host’s eyes and into the demon that animated the body it had possessed. It was a sight I wished I could unsee. The ugliness, the pathetic spawn, and the hatred that lay underneath the facade were all plain as day.

“Return my sword, and it will be a swift death.” Perhaps.

He tossed his head back as he laughed up into the murky sky above us. His hand rested on his stomach as the vigorous laughter was seemingly enough to prompt belly aches. “Oh, my dark little vixen,” he began.

What he had to say next? I didn’t give a shit. My hands shot forward and grabbed him by the shirt, tossing him at the wide trunk of a rotting tree. His back made an impact with the dying oak, but it seemed to do little to unsettle him.

“My sword, where is it!?” I screeched out, pained by the reality that killing him would get me no closer to having it back in my possession.

He withdrew a dagger; it couldn’t have been more than eight inches long. Laughable, really, that he was going to bring a knife to an angel fight. My unholy strength already rippled through my muscles in coordination with my rage.

“Did you not learn your lesson, Kinley? I know I have learned mine.” He charged at me, his body making contact with mine. We both stumbled as my hands fought to control the direction he wielded his dagger.

Nico’s eyes began to bleed fully black as he tapped into his powers. The last time I had seen his eyes fill with darkness like this, he had murdered the half-demon who had taught me how to love—using my own fucking sword.

Struggling to gain control, I growled in anger at his persistence.

A demented smirk pulled at his mouth. “I hope our children have half the spirit you do.”

The statement threw me for enough of a loop that I missed his foot, kicking my legs out from underneath me. I landed on my back with an aggressive thud, and the weight of his body landing on top of me equally knocked the wind from me.

Quickly, I learned I had made a horrible mistake. The tip of the blade in his hand made a small slice into my upper arm in what became a flash of blinding pain. A scream erupted from my throat, my mind overwhelmed by the onslaught of the agony. A typical blade should have been nothing more than a tickle.

My mind struggled to focus on the fight at hand. Even as Nico spoke, his words sounded distant over the roar of the fire, overwhelming each of my nerves.

“Burns like a bitch, doesn’t it? A little brugmansia and nightshade extracts combined with the saliva of a hellhound as a binding agent, and I’ve made quite the toxic serum.”

The scratch itself was nothing; it was what tainted the blade’s edge that annihilated every pain receptor in my body. All I could do was pray it would be short-lived and keep Nico at bay until it had run its course. Mustering all my might, I struck him across the face and rolled to pitch him off my body.

Successfully, I scrambled to my feet, still unable to see straight from the poison escalating to its full potency in my bloodstream. My steps forward were crooked as fuck as the earth felt as sturdy underneath me as a piece of driftwood caught in a riptide.

Nico’s grasp found me far too quickly, and he took advantage of my diminished strength as he tossed my body forward. I crashed into the unforgiving stone of the angel statue I had admired earlier. On impact, my body blew through the sculpture. Pieces of stone fell to the ground alongside my body as I landed face down in the dirt.

My hands pushed me up onto all fours, only for Nico to use his boot to shove me back down again. No matter how much I willed my lower body to find footing, there was nothing more than the searing sensation running through my muscle fibers.

Feeling the piece of shit lowering himself down to straddle my back, I had assumed death was rapidly approaching. Instead, it was so much worse. His knife had zero regard for my shirt as it sliced through it with ease and into the flesh on the middle of my back. I couldn’t hear myself screaming but was certain by the hoarseness in my throat that I was.

Six strokes. Six unimaginable strokes into my skin, all tainted with the poisonous concoction.

He leaned over, hissing into my ear, “Now everyone will see my name on you and know you belong to me.”

I writhed underneath him, wincing as my body begged for relief from this torture. My fingers dug into the dirt until his hand grabbed one of mine. Nico admired the ring Sylas had given me, with its row of jewels set on top of the band.

“What a lovely gift.” He pried the ring from my finger. “Such a shame that it is nothing more than a meaningless trinket.”

My eyes crossed as I fell victim to all the agony. Resting my cheek against the ground, I saw him slide Sy’s ring onto his finger, its narrow size stopping short at his first knuckle.

“J-just fucking kill me already…” I murmured. If he didn’t kill me after this, he better know how to fucking jump to a human on the International Space Station.

Nico laughed and ran a hand over the side of my face, brushing back my platinum blonde hair away from my cheek. “I don’t want to take your life,” he replied, attempting to sound tender in his words, but I knew better. “I want to use you to create it.”

I heard the dagger stab down into the dirt behind me, and Nico slid down my body. He made his intentions clear as his hands jerked my pants and underwear down past my knees, prompting a different surge of fear inside me.

As the most intimate parts of my body became exposed, I poured the last bit of fight I had into trying to overcome the pain at any cost. My hands dug at the dirt, clawing for anything I could, and my legs wildly kicked with the pitiful energy remaining in them. “Nico! You son of a bitch! Stop!”

He didn’t even have the decency to respond to my protests with words. Instead, his hand slammed down on the fresh wounds on my back, sending another tidal wave of paralyzing torment into my pain receptors.

“You’re only making this worse on yourself.” Keeping one hand on the bloody marks across my back, I felt his other hand slide between my thighs. The first of several tears began to leak from my eyes. The pain of the dagger’s toxic cuts was nothing in comparison to the way he thrust two fingers into my core.

I cried out at the invasion, squirming pathetically without the strength to pull myself away. “Nico, stop, please!” Knowing my words were falling on deaf ears, I whimpered.

He withdrew his fingers and rammed them into me again, the pain of the entry unexpectedly sharp. It wasn’t just his unkind touch; it was the pronged settings of the ring he had kept on his finger, brutally scratching at my insides.

“What’s the matter, Kinley? I thought you liked metal inside your tight cunt.” Nico continued to assault me with his fingers; my tears did nothing to deter him.

Laying there, unable to summon strength beyond the unfathomable pain rendering me defenseless, I tried to force my mind anywhere else but this graveyard. I shut my eyes, prompting more tears to spill out.

The stream of emotions falling from my sapphire hues wet my cheeks enough to pick up the soft dirt I was sprawled out on, muddying my face. Just as I thought I could mentally escape this horror show, Nico’s hand grabbed a fistful of my tresses near the scalp and jerked my head back.

“You don’t get to escape me so easily. Open those eyes, beautiful. If I’ve had to watch you whore yourself out to all your men, you owe it to me to be in the moment as I fuck you.”

A sob broke free, and I wasn’t even sure I knew how to open my eyes with how fractured every part of me was feeling. Nico forced a third finger into me and began to stab at my insides relentlessly. Each entry tore at the sensitive flesh inside my quivering body.

Through clenched teeth, he spewed out his vile words. “I will shove my entire hand up your pussy if you don’t start behaving, Kinley. Now, open your goddamn eyes!”

Every part of me shook beyond my control, and it took the last bit of will inside me to open my eyes, forcing me to stare at the grim surroundings of the graves all around us. I was both panting and choking on my sobs, and either my tears or the toxins blurred my vision.

With my eyes now open, he threw my head back down as he released my hair. My face met the cold cushion of the dirt, where it rubbed across my face with each thrust his fingers made into me. My inner walls were on fire, and I could feel the warmth of the damage he inflicted with my ring on his finger. What was supposed to have been a symbol of devotion and love slowly destroyed me.

“Such a slutty little angel you are.” He praised me like it was supposed to make me feel better. However, his fingers finally sliding out of me brought a hint of relief before the nightmare continued.

Thoughts of trying to fight back screamed inside my head, and yet my body couldn’t muster the ability to move past the whirlwind of pain and emotions.

He shoved my thighs further apart despite my effort to clench them together, and I felt the head of his cock take its place at my entrance. I begged through my shattered vocal cords, desperation lacing my voice. “Don’t do this to me, please, don’t.”

All he did was moan approvingly, “Mmm,” and he pushed his cock into me slowly, eliciting another round of tears to fall to the earth. “Look at the way your pussy bleeds for me, letting my cock slide right inside you so easily.”

Where he had been quick and rough with his fingers, he was starting things off slowly with his dick. His groans made it clear how much he was enjoying the moment, filling me with shame by using his body.

“You’re going to make me such beautiful Nephilim babies, and I’m going to take all the pleasure in putting them inside you.” He rocked himself into me again, and I swallowed a groan of pain.

“Moan out my name, Kinley.”

I shook my head slightly, already feeling incredibly ill at what he had taken from me so far. How could he ask anything of me right now? I had nothing left to give.

His hips violently shoved his length deep into me as he yelled out, “Fucking say it!”

“I-I… I can’t!” Pride was a bitch, and I knew I’d be dead if I gave it up.

Angrily driving himself to the hilt inside me, he pressed himself against my back, refreshing the pain of his signature on my bloodied back.

“I will break you more than you’ve ever broken your human dolls. You will be so broken, no one will ever want you. No amount of glue or tape will ever be able to make you whole again,” he darkly promised.

The words sank straight into me, deeper than his dick would ever reach, and it obliterated the last bit of hope I had.