2. The Protector
Chapter two
The Protector
Sammy
B etrayal is a fickle thing. It often starts slow and creeps along, looking for a crevice to slip inside. When it finds its mark, it becomes a menacing virus, spreading, corrupting, and infecting everything that was once healthy and good, tarnishing it, and changing it until it’s unrecognizable.
Love is much the same, except you come to believe that the corruption won’t hurt you. That everything in your world will be alright in the end, if you can only hang on and weather the storm. Love makes you crave the poison, and you drink it willingly, believing that it is your salvation. You beg and plead for it on your knees, like a sinner before a saint. Cry tears of joy as it abuses you, because you are still basking in its light. The truth is that both are malignant entities. Both are destructive forces that, once they sink their claws into you, you will never be the same again.
Love betrayed me. Love abused me, and left me here to suffer and die. Love changed everything I believed to be true about myself, and the world I reside in, and gave me something that I never wished for: hope . It was love for her that I held onto, so strongly that it tore me apart, and turned me into what I am now. A walking shadow, not of this world, but not gone from it either. A man devoid now of any emotion except hate. See, that’s the thing about love: the other side of the coin is hate. When one side becomes so readily the other, it makes you wonder if anything you ever felt or believed in was real.
“I love you, Samuel Wendover. I always will.” Her husky voice calls out to me, like a nefarious spirit attempting to lure me into madness. Joke’s on her; I am already there, buried so deep that I know I will never find my way back out.
I know now that none of what I had with Dinah Camrose was real. It was a figment of my imagination, for a world where we could have been equals, where a woman so far above my station could have loved me. She used my emotions, and my love for her, to get what she really wanted; them . Once I was of no use to her, she discarded me like a piece of trash, so far beneath her stained soles, and never looked back. She left me to die, at the hands of the very enemies that I was helping her destroy.
“Hold on, Sammy. I’m coming for you,” the voice whispers, but all it does is anger me further. “ LIES! You’re a liar, Nightstar! A fucking villain!“ I call out into the darkness that surrounds me, my voice hoarse from screaming.
A blinding light makes me wince, and I have to force my swollen eyes open. A sharp pain immediately assaults me, and adds to the agony flowing through my battered body. I am not sure if there are any bones left unbroken, or skin unmarked by the acid they used to force my screams. “Talking to yourself again, boy?” A voice calls as it approaches me, as I attempt to clear my blurry vision, so I can track who is here with me. My head spins, and rapid nausea causes my throat to fill with bile, but I stifle a moan, refusing to show further weakness, even though I know my situation is hopeless. Fuck, gorilla number two, this asshole has a real hard-on for hurting me. I bite down on my ravaged cheek, tasting copper and the torn flesh I’ve destroyed with my teeth, to muffle the screams my body and mind are demanding. No more, please! I won’t survive. Every part of me wishes to die at this point. There is no surviving any more of the torture they are forcing me to endure. I have nothing left to tell them; all my secrets have been spewed.
Not all of them , my mind whispers. Despite seeing the evidence of Dinah’s betrayal, some part of me is still refusing to give them information on any of the safehouses that Dinah and I had set up as meeting points, in case we got separated. In fact, if these psychopaths were smarter, they would realize where she was likely heading to hide from them. Her old family home, which has been shuttered since her brother’s death. If things go south, that is where she will head, probably with those two assholes she chose over me. It would be so easy to get my vengeance on all of them with a few words. They would be overrun with Noah’s men, and she would be captured and tortured just like I am. That, however, is what prevents me from uttering a single syllable. No matter how much hate and rage flow through me, I hate Noah more, and can’t give her up to him.
“I’ll have you screaming for me shortly, don’t you worry. The boss wants answers, and you’ll give them up before you take your last breath,” he cackles with enjoyment.
“Stay strong, Sammy. I love you,” the specter’s voice whispers across my skin.
My blurry eyes track the movement from his hand to the long black whip in his tight grip. I try to swallow past the scream that is choking my throat, but a whimper escapes. His arm rises, and the first bite of the whip striking my shoulder ends any of my best attempts at silence. The skin was already destroyed by the acid they poured on me, and now it just wholly rips off, exposing nothing but muscle and ligaments below. My head spins from the pain, nausea, and blood loss, even though these fuckers hooked me up unwillingly to an intravenous drip, to replenish all they have taken from me. They really are determined to keep me alive, and that, more than anything else, terrifies me. The thought that they will never let me die, and it will be a continuous, vicious loop of pain. “Enough, you’ll kill him, and he will be useless to us!” A harsh voice blares through my semi-conscious state.
“You can’t allow them to take you from me, Sammy. You belong to me, and you will always belong to me,” Dinah calls, her voice filled with strength, and the need for my obedience. Where are you, Nightstar, why haven’t you come for me?
“Samuel, you have been such a disappointment, but I can give you another chance to do the right thing, and to survive. You want that, don’t you? You want the pain and torture to stop.” Noah’s slimy voice fills my ears, and I hear the falsity in it. “Tell me where she would go. Where would that vicious bitch hide from the Brotherhood? My sources tell me she’s not with the rebels.” Don’t tell them, my love, keep me safe.
Not with the rebels? Does that mean they have turned on her too? It doesn’t matter, she abandoned me. I need to stop my emotions from overtaking my reality. She’s left me to die, left me to the Brotherhood. She knew full well what I would suffer at their hands, and yet she’s done nothing to rescue me.
Grayish-blue eyes appear in my mind, filled with sorrow, and pleading for me not to betray her like she’s done to me. How I long to see them in person. Would I embrace and forgive her, or would I stab them out, for breaking faith with me? A hand fists my hair and forces my head to rise from its slumped position. My broken fingers spasm, useless with the urge to fight against this cunt, but I know I don’t have the energy left. I’m broken, Nightstar. I can’t keep holding on.
“It’s been days since I took you, Samuel, and she hasn’t even made a single attempt to save you, and yet you’re rewarding her treachery with loyalty. You reward her spreading her legs for my son, and that psycho, Abraham, while you’re here half dead at my hands.” He releases a frustrated sigh and his grip on my hair, stepping back from me with disgust on his malevolent face. “My sources say she’s going to go after the Holy Father. She will die, Samuel, either at his hands or at mine. I will make it quick. He will parade her before the Brotherhood, as a broken symbol of what happens to the resistance when they fight his control. He will have her raped by every man that wishes to have a taste of her. Wouldn’t you rather her die without having endured that? You still love her, so make the right choice.”
The images he paints fly through my mind. I see a terrified Dinah, fighting back against the Brotherhood men who are loyal to the Holy Father. I watch her succumb to their overwhelming numbers. They will make it a public shaming and punishment. She will be tied down where any man, regardless of station, can use her until she begs for death, and even then, they will continue to hurt her. My stomach lurches with the image of her beaten, battered, and bleeding from all her orifices. The depravity and horror are too much for me, and I vomit the bile that is in my stomach, until the only sounds I can hear are of me retching loudly, mixed with the rushing of my blood in my veins, and my heart pumping in my chest.
Can Abe and Zeke protect her against the Holy Father and his men? What has caused her to split from the rebels? Neither one of us genuinely believed their promises and intentions. They say they would do anything to decimate the Brotherhood, yet despite claiming to fight oppression, they will only do that as long as it’s convenient for them. Power calls to evil men, and corrupts all. I should know; look at what it’s done to my Nightstar. She used to be so innocent, my perfect beauty, and then she got a taste of power, vengeance, and rage, and became the Unholy Ghost. I should have never allowed her to act out her revenge. This all came from indulging her wishes to avenge her family. We could have been safe, and we could have still been together.
“Sammy, please, I need you!” Her sweet voice echoes in my mind, but I know it’s as false as her heart. Even still, no matter how her treachery stings, I still can’t allow the fate Noah paints to occur. A quick death is merciful, and unlike her intentions for me, I can still save her unnecessary suffering. Hopefully, they will allow me to die with her, so we can be reunited in hell, and I can take my retribution on her. I love you, Samuel Wendover, you are my everything. Lies, it’s all lies, every word from her viper’s tongue. My hesitation costs me, and the whip sails through the air once more, connecting with my ruined chest, and a hoarse scream leaves my lips. “House, where... she... grew up. She’ll... hide there.” My betrayal tastes like ashes in my mouth, mixed with acid, as what was left of my heart splinters into rubbish. I still love you, Nightstar, but I hate you more right now.
“Excellent, Samuel. I promise you death when we capture her, so that you can say your goodbyes in person.” Footsteps echo as they leave me to my desolate solace, knowing that I just murdered her, as sure as if I was the one holding the blade to her heart.
I am sorry, Nightstar, but we both need to die. My only hope is the other two have to live a painful existence without her, for having taken her from me. That would be justice served.