15. Chapter Fifteen
Chapter fifteen
I couldn’t stop looking at Maddox. He had never smiled so brightly. I just branded my name onto his back with the fourteen others, yet he looked as though I had given him a spa treatment. Maybe he was a masochist and not just a sadist.
I reached my hands down to help him rise, but he didn’t take my help. Instead, he kissed my fingers. This moment was light in this awful place. The ember that sparked since arriving in the dark halls of St. Valentine. But just like every flame, something was always there to snuff it out.
The hallway lit from afar, and that horrid priest came down the corridor. He was holding an unconscious man in his arms that I didn’t recognize at all. It was like a switch went down. That warm, bright smile on Maddox’s face fell, and the cold, cruel mask was firmly back into place.
He twisted his wrists, and the binding snapped off of him like a rubber band. He was never truly restrained. The way he got out of the leather in seconds showed me that. No other looks were spared as he stood up and left me alone on the ground.
“Why is my brother here?” he demanded, storming over to the man.
The priest had a sly grin on his ugly face and stroked the man's head like a dog. “Your father felt as though you may need a reminder, son. I am on my way to lay dear Hayes to bed, but I can change that direction if needed.”
Maddox cleared his throat and shook his head curtly. “No. Everything is going according to plan. The chosen will be prepared for the sacrifice within a few hours. Bring my brother back to his room. Now.”
The priest snickered and hefted Maddox’s brother higher on his arm. “Of course. I shall see you at the ritual, my King.”
Maddox had his back toward me, but I knew that wasn’t why I suddenly felt so cold. The priest left with the man, and Maddox stared long after their exit. He didn’t turn around when he spoke. His voice was a whisper.
“It doesn’t matter anyway, Vivian. You should be glad you’re dying soon. That is really the only freedom from our bloodline.”
The ember in my heart and the hope with it no longer smolder. It was completely extinguished.
I couldn’t feel my arms. I had been suspended in this fucked up crucifix for so long. I felt so defeated. I didn’t know how I could free myself from this. I was stuck. Maddox was gone after stringing me back up wordlessly.
He left me here to stare at nothing.
My ears were ringing from the deafening silence.
Dying would be a fucking mercy at this point. His words bounced around my head. I couldn’t shake them. The only freedom from our bloodline is to die. Otherwise, you were just a fucking puppet of fate.
I didn’t accept that. I chose my damn fate. I wasn’t going to allow some old fucking group of murderers to choose how I would die.
Maddox suddenly came back into the room with someone draped over his arm and halted my thoughts.
Was this some other sacrifice?
It was that man.
He held him with care and put him on the ground, being sure to watch his head. The man was passed out and smelled like a brewery. There was vomit on the guy’s clothes and stuck to the side of his mouth. Maddox had a wet cloth, dabbing his lips and wiping at his shirt.
“Hayes, you fucking idiot. When will you learn to pace yourself? You always are the reason my hands are tied. Why would I try to believe differently?”
The two silhouette shadows clouded my mind, and another puzzle piece slid into place. It was Maddox and this guy. All along, I was right. I likely saved that bitch that night, but something told me it didn’t matter.
“Who is he?” I said, not expecting an answer.
“Hayes Valentine. He’s my little brother.”
My eyes widened. “The Divine allow their monsters to have a family?”
Maddox sighed. “Hayes is meant to take my place one day. I have tried to teach him the way of the Divine, but he’s young and stupid.”
I realized that this was Maddox’s version of love. He seemed…afraid of the Divine. That made sense after torturing him, but there was more he wasn’t telling me.
“Did they threaten you, Maddox?”
Maddox was silent, continuing to care for his brother, cleaning and changing his clothing to fresh ones before pushing some form of medication into his mouth.
Threats wouldn’t matter to him unless they were about someone he loved. The Divine had threatened Hayes.
“You can’t run from fate, Vivian.” was all he said before he picked up his brother and walked out of the door again.
My head was spinning, partly from the horrible angle that my arms had been for so long, but also because I was feeling…bad? For a monster. A monster who intended to kill me. I was fucked up.
The door opened again sometime later, but it wasn’t Maddox.
“So beautiful, strung up and helpless, aren’t you, you mouthy girl?”
I kept my head down, trying to feign sleep as best I could. The priest walked up to me, grabbing my face and turning it side to side. He stuck some kind of herb in my mouth, and I hid it under my tongue, trying to keep from reacting to the bitter taste it left.
“That ought to keep you still. This herb makes you practically dead. I don’t need you fighting me during this, even if it only lasts for ten or so minutes. Let’s enjoy this, shall we?”
Dread entered my stomach, and I almost opened my eyes, prepared to spit in this creep’s face, but then an idea hatched in my brain. My last hope.
For ten minutes, I would appear dead?
I bit down, keeping the herb under my tongue. This bitter plant could be what saves my life…and ends Maddox.
The thought made me surprisingly sad.
He truly did seem to be a mindless soldier in all this. Maybe this would be a mercy for us both. The priest fondled my half-naked body, and I had to resist the bile forming in my throat. It had been a while since Maddox left with his brother. He had to come back soon.
Would it matter? Would he care?
I felt his old fingers penetrate me, and I kept biting my tongue so hard I felt the blood begin to pool into my mouth. I could hear his ragged pants, and I thought of Maddox instead, remembering his moans and his voice as he whispered in my ear and over my body, trying to make this hell into a memory of heaven.
It went on for what felt like hours, but finally, just as the priest grunted in what I surely felt would coat my body in his sin, the door slammed open, and the priest ran from my side.
“What the fuck!” Maddox screamed from the door.
His roar practically shook the small attic, and my ears rang as he bellowed a growl.
“Ma-Maddox! My king, I-I thought you were tending to your brother!”
I opened my eyes the slightest bit, using the blanket of my hair to look past where Maddox stood.
“You do not sully what it is mine! How fucking dare you.”
It all happened so fast. Maddox practically lunged forward toward the man, grabbing his dick in his hands and snapping upright with a sickening crack.
The priest screamed, his penis going completely flaccid as it laid down in a contorted angle. “You…you broke…
His face paled, and he fell to the ground.
I continued to feign sleep, knowing that despite my feelings, I needed to live this out…if I wanted to live at all.
Maddox lifted my head and patted my cheeks. I didn’t respond, letting my face fall back down painfully.
“Vivian? Are you okay?”
Maddox walked forward and kicked the priest in the ribcage. “What did you do to her?”
The priest groaned, curled in on himself, and held his sides. “I gave her a sedative herb! I am sorry, my king.”
Maddox walked back to me, assessing my body and covering my naked form with the blanket he had brought for his brother. My trembling stopped slightly when he tucked it around my shoulders and covered my waist.
“Her body is for my eyes only, you understand? Get out and consider each breath you take a mercy from your king. The last I shall ever give you.”
His voice was menacing and more powerful than I had ever heard. I gulped, being careful not to swallow the herb in my mouth.
“Oh, my Little Virgin. For the first time in a long time, I am sorry. So truly sorry. I can’t escape this. It is time.”
I pondered his words, but then he lifted me up out of the bindings and cradled me in his arms. My heart was pounding in my chest at what was about to happen, and I couldn’t hold back the tears behind my closed eyes.