Chapter 17 Mercy #5
Kit ripped open the top of her pants, sending the button skittering to the floor.
He yanked the edges to the side until her panties were revealed, pants half-hanging onto her hips, shoved low due to her seated position.
He bent, those cold brown eyes lifting to meet hers.
His breath was warm against her hipbones as he carefully, slowly, placed the last two electrodes under her navel, one on either side.
The back of his hand brushed her panties. Rin’s eyes filled with tears.
Kit stood. "Cooperate, and this will be over soon."
"What will be over?" The wires trembled from Rin’s shaking. "What are you going to do to me?" She was slowly realizing Kit was no longer a friend.
He was an enemy.
"I—" Kit’s eyes raised, pausing on her wet cheeks. He tilted his head as if the sight of her tears was strange to him. "I am doing what I was commanded. I will employ whatever means necessary to see my duties through."
He reached for a remote-like thing resting on the small metal cart near her chair. He held it in a gloved hand, thumb hovering over the dark red button.
"Take deep breaths," Kit said tonelessly, then he pressed the button.
Shocks of white-hot electricity lit her up in every spot the electrodes were stuck to.
Rin gasped, muscles seizing. Oh god, oh god—
It hurt—
Worse than the taser. Worse than any episode with her heart.
She felt like she was going to die.
She shook violently, tendons in her neck popping out, and her mouth stretched in a silent scream. Her jaw locked. Fingers twitched. Hips stuttering from the shocks at her stomach. The ones at her breasts sent straight fire roaring from her chest to the very tips of her fingers.
Just when she thought she couldn’t take any more, it stopped.
Rin gasped, boneless against the chair.
Residual shocks ran underneath her flesh; her vision wavered.
"W-w-why…?" she stuttered, incoherent.
Kit’s eyes kept flicking all over her face, curiously, in a way.
He changed a dial on the side of the remote. The next jolt was lighter, but no less painful.
Her legs and arms jerked. Tears slipped down her cheeks. "Kit!"
Rin must’ve blacked out.
When she awoke, her eyes drifted, watching speckled shapes take form in the light above. Like Stars…
A jolt ran down her spine, shocking her back awake. Her heart shifted from a gallop to a sluggish patter.
She wanted to go to sleep. Please—
Her body convulsed, but her mind screamed at her to stay still. Kit’s shadow leaned over, and panic burned hotter than the electricity.
The pain in her skull increased.
Her lips struggled to form words, but just one broke through:
"Mercy."
This was true hell.
Not the grief of losing Kit, not the death of her parents, or the discovery of having Soulbonds who would outlive her.
This.
Kit’s words fractured, coming in flashes. "Aetherborns need to be eradicated."
More shocks.
"Starting with you, Vesperin Vox."
Darkness.
"I will let you recuperate before we go again." Footsteps receded, and the door hissed open and shut.
Rin wept into the silence.
Atlas stepped out of the shadows and into the dark room where Vesperin lay, unresponsive.
Rage coiled inside him, making his fingers tighten at his sides, white sparks of Nova popping around his clenched fists. He drew it back.
The Celestial had known what was going to happen here, and he’d allowed it.
That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt him to see her like this.
Alone in the room, the two-way mirror reflected his dark hair and near-black eyes as he stood by her side.
Her exposed chest rose and fell with shallow breaths. Her whole body jerked every few seconds.
Atlas brushed her hair away from her closed eyes, feeling the dampness on her cheeks.
He touched the cuffs around her wrists, sending localized Nova to the bands. They fizzled to nothing. Then, he did the same to the ones around her legs.
Atlas removed his dark coat, draping it over Vesperin’s front. He fit an arm under her thighs, gently lifting her. The electrodes fell from her flesh. She didn’t stir. He soothed a hand over her sweat-damped temples.
She moaned, and the sound was a stuttered, ragged exhale.
"I know, Star of mine. This had to happen." Atlas kissed her brow. "I will atone for eternity for allowing this to come to pass."
She shifted in his arms, and he looked down to find her grey, dazed eyes peering up at him.
"I know—I know you from somewhere," she slurred.
Atlas’s hands tightened around her as he stepped back into the shadows. Darkness wrapped around them both. The only reason she could be here with him, untouched, was because of his Nova in her body.
"From everywhere," he answered.
The hollowed space of the parking garage made his footsteps thud as he stepped onto the dark concrete.
He bundled his coat around Vesperin, then gently laid her down by the door. Her eyes had fallen shut, once more. Her head lolled to the side.
It took everything within the Celestial to step away from her, back into the shadows.
Unseen, Atlas watched as the door opened, revealing the red-haired incubus. Confused, he stared into the darkness of the garage, then his purple eyes fell to Vesperin on the ground.
The incubus gasped and dropped to his knees by her side.
Vesperin was in good hands—soon, she would be in his. The Celestial would have his time with her.
Atlas let the scene fizzle away as his shadows took him elsewhere.