3. The Forsaker
One minute, we are in the thralls of pleasure, the best fucking sex I’ve ever had, and the next, it’s pure chaos when the door bursts open with a loud crashing bang, and a bunch of Order guards come pouring inside the small confines of the bathroom. They come in armed to the teeth and pointing weapons at the four of us. Shock races through my body before being replaced with rage. What the fuck is going on here?
Sammy and I pull ourselves away from Dinah’s warm body, and use our large frames to shield her and get into a fighting stance, while Abe grabs her and secures her behind him despite the reckless little psycho trying to fight him off.
Before I can make a move, my psychotic father strolls in, looking as if he’s taking a Sunday walk in the park, with a devious and pleased grin gracing his face. My heart plummets into my stomach as a cold sweat breaks out across my body. I hear Abe from behind me mutter the word, “fuck,“ matching my own sentiments exactly. What the fuck is he doing here, never mind standing? That fucker snorted the equivalent of an eight-ball of coke earlier in the night, and he should be face down at the moment.
I step forward, keeping my back straight and head high, despite the fear churning in my guts. This is bad, really fucking bad. “What in the fuck is this?” I yell angrily, letting them hear the wrath in my voice. “How dare you intrude here! GET THE HELL OUT, IMMEDIATELY!”
“Oh, son,” my dad replies with a condescending sneer, as his eyes try to catch a glimpse of Dinah behind Abe’s naked body. “I’d advise you to temper that rage for a moment. Your demands are as worthless as your self-entitlement. It’s clear to me now that you’ve always been destined for failure, Ezekiel.”
His gaze travels over the length of my body with unrestrained disdain. “You’ve become a letdown to both your mother and me, despite our best efforts to mold you into something more than this pitiable creature you’ve become.”
A snort leaves my lips at my father’s words. He’s one to talk about self-entitlement, being worthless, and letting people down. He’s the biggest piece of shit human I know, so I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree by his assessment. His words are meant to hurt me, and they would hurt me if I desired his approval, and cared about what he thought of me, but I never have, and certainly have no plans to start now.
He must see something in my face that gives my thoughts away plainly because, in the next instant, he’s nodding to one of the guards who opens fire on the shower glass, causing it to shatter and rain pieces of glass down on its naked inhabitants. Abe uses his large body to protect Dinah, who releases a shriek with the impact, and Sammy and I each reach for a guard and use the only weapons we have at our disposal, our fists, to rain blows down on them.
I watch with horror out of the corner of my eye as three armed guards enter the shower area towards Dinah and Abe, one of them already firing a taser in Abe’s direction. They administer the electric current, and his body contorts painfully as a shout rips from his mouth. They tase him over and over until his body bows, and he’s thrown down to the glass-littered floor, while Dinah tries to help him by fighting off one of the other guards.
“STOP! You’re killing him!” Dinah screams as she’s grabbed from behind, the guard fisting her hair painfully and wrapping his large, meaty forearm around her neck to subdue her, and stop her from fighting them off. Even with the way he’s holding her, and reducing her ability to breathe, she keeps fighting back, trying to release herself to help Abe. I’m going to rip that fucker’s arms right off his body for touching what is mine.
I keep counterattacking, striking out as they keep coming at me and trying desperately to make my way over to her. My heart is pounding so loudly in my ears, and my breathing is becoming labored, but nothing short of death will stop me from getting to Dinah and Abe. Sammy is doing the same, and the loud sounds of fists striking flesh surround us. One of the guards manages to kick him in the stomach, and he goes flying back until his body slams into the bathroom wall, but mere seconds later, he’s back on his feet again and giving it his all.
“Tsk, tsk, Dinah. You really are a violent psychopath, aren’t you, my dear? Not obedient like your mother at all, but it seems you take cock well like her. Good to know that some things were passed on,” my dad chuckles as two of his personal guards force Dinah to her knees before him, and place a blade at her throat.
A red haze descends over my vision at the sight of that blade pressed against her delicate neck. A neck that fucking belongs to me. Fury fills me and gives me a boost of energy that has my fists flying out at the guard facing me, cracking his nose, and pushing him away from us. I’ll kill them all for touching her; each and every one of them will die painfully at my hands, starting with my father.
Dinah, my vicious little Snow, hawks up a glob of spit and aims it at my father’s face. It slides down his chin as I continue my attempt to make my way to her, my heart lodged in my throat with fear. I can see Abe regaining his feet, even though they are trying their best to take him down again. Sammy is almost free from the guards who had attacked and tried to overwhelm him, and most of them are now lying injured at his feet. Fear ricochets through me as even more pour into the room to take their place. Fuck! There are too many! We will never be able to get out of here.
My father’s green eyes flash, and his face contorts with rage as he swipes at his cheek and jaw. “Break her arm, the disrespectful cunt,” he orders.
One of the guards grabs her arm, yanking it back at a painful angle, and snaps her wrist against his knee, pulling forcefully on her arm until he’s dislocated her shoulder, while the one holding the blade to her neck cuts her, and blood begins to trickle down immediately from the wound. She stops fighting, her face going pale and etched in visible pain, and I can’t bear the gasp of distress that leaves her lips. My heart screams out to me to help her, to stop them from hurting her further.
“STOP! DON’T FUCKING HURT HER!” My voice rings out in desperation, the sound foreign to my ears as another guard tries to tackle me to the ground.
“Remove my son out into the hallway. I want to have a word with him without these sinners present,” my father orders, and three guards seize and shove me until I’m forced violently from the room, the door slamming behind my father ominously. Fuck, there are too many of them. How the fuck are we going to get out of here? I can’t let them hurt her or Abe.
I fight off the restraining hold of two of the guards, slamming one against the wall, while using my head to bash the other one in the face. Before I can do more damage, one of them punches me in the temple, and I crumple down, darkness partially invading my sight. Fuck! My vision swims, and bile races up my throat, as my stomach lurches as if it wants to expel its contents.
“Stay down, little prince, or you’re going to get really hurt,” one of my father’s guards says, breathing his hot, putrid breath in my face.
“Fuck you,” I spit as my vision starts to clear, and my mouth fills with the taste of blood.
“Ezekiel, Ezkiel, Ezekiel. Son, what am I to do with you? At every turn, you offer me nothing but disappointment and dissatisfaction.” My father moves closer; his despicable face is stern and locked in contemplation. “I gave you an easy task, one I’ll remind you that you demanded from me. You wanted the whore for yourself, and you wanted her to be your wife.”
He crouches down closer to me, but not close enough for me to reach out and do some damage. His dark green eyes are lit with madness, a sight that has me fearing not only for my safety, but also for the safety of everyone I care for in the room a wall away.
“Did you really think that you could manipulate me, son? That you were smarter than me? Did you think I wasn’t aware of every step you take?“ I don’t give him the satisfaction of answering him. I just stare darkly into the eyes of the man who has had a hand in destroying this world, and his only offspring’s life. The eyes of a demon straight out of hell.
There’s a twitch in his eye, and I know he is growing weary of waiting for me to react. He waits for another minute before a creepy, disgusting grin slowly appears on his face. “I know that she’s the Unholy Ghost, Ezekiel. I know that traitorous fucking guard has been helping her kill our brethren, and I know that you and that unhinged psychopath, Abe, have been protecting her.”
His lips rest in a hard line as his face tightens with rage. “Did you really think you could pull one over on me, son? That I didn’t automatically recognize your pathetic tricks? That I would be so careless as to leave myself vulnerable in your presence so you could commit patricide?”
My eyebrow rises before I can school my face, so as not to give away any of my thoughts, even though inside, panic is way past settling in. How can this be possible? How can he be here? Fuck, does he know about Abe and me being together? How does he know about Dinah being the Unholy Ghost? I’m getting ready to jump right out of my skin with all the thoughts racing through me.
This man has no love or loyalty for me, and would do anything to get what he wants. Right now, that is the power that the Camrose’s wield—the power that Dinah still has. “Were the drugs fake, or did you pretend to take a hit?”
A rough chuckle escapes his lips. “They were very much real, so much so that Peter is shitfaced and face down on your mother’s cunt right now, passed out, but I wasn’t stupid enough to actually partake, and allow my traitorous son the opportunity to slit my throat while I was incapacitated.”
“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. I deserve power. 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.
“I agree, son. Do not fail me, Ezekiel, or I will do more than follow through with my threats. I will make sure you die along with them.” He motions to one of the guards, and they slice a blade across my leg before kicking me.
“There now, little prince. You won’t be getting very far now, will you?” The guard cackles as they force me back to my feet, and my leg trembles beneath my heavy weight.