Chapter Twenty
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Henri
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I COULDN’T FUCKING MOVE AS thirty jewels appeared in the distance around the back of the castle. Some hobbled, some shuffled, some cried, some glowered, but all of them were marked with a target.
White and black circles with red marking the spot.
The gun in my hand weighed a million tonnes.
The top canister screwed into place was full of tiny balls containing paint.
I had no idea what colour had been assigned to me.
Didn’t want to know.
For all my urges and all my inhuman tendencies, I wasn’t down with this.
This wasn’t sexy or fun.
This was fucking...barbaric.
Other Masters chuckled and chatted amongst themselves.
Charles tried to strike up a conversation with me, but I turned my back and walked away.
I couldn’t.
Fuck, I could barely stop myself from shooting all these motherfuckers. Let alone indulge in blood sport convo before the big hunt.
Staff in frilly pinafores handed out flasks of liquor. Trays of dainty snacks and cakes were offered.
If the Masters wore tweed and hounds circled our feet, it truly would be a medieval hunt.
Instead of muskets and swords, the Masters mingled in modern dress and patrolled with paintball guns. Everything about it was a farce, a mockery but still so fucking...wrong.
“Ah!” Victor stepped onto the open drawbridge. The sun gilded him in sunshine like a demented god. “Here are my sweetlings now, and don’t they look so fine.”
“They’ll look better covered in my paint!” A Master cackled.
“Do you mean paint or cum?” Another winked.
“Both!”
Laughter broke out.
Sweat rolled down my spine.
My eyes raked down the line of slaves, searching, searching...
Ily.
I froze as our gazes locked.
She stood next to Peter with Rachel on the other side of him. Dressed in hideous underwear that didn’t match her gorgeous rich honey skin, the target lines painted on her chest made me see fucking red.
The treasure hunt had almost gotten her raped and me murdered.
That’d been tame compared to this.
A quick little game of hide-and-seek in thunder and lightning, compared to a full day of ‘shoot the mostly-naked slave’.
Peter limped strangely, his eyes overly wide, his chest dripping with sweat. Part of his target mark had run, streaking down his lean belly.
I waited for the sickening rush of jealousy.
The unquenchable desire to grab Ily and lock her by my side.
But whatever emotions existed within me were mysteriously absent. Buried beneath rapidly growing terror that no matter what happened here today...nothing would be the same afterward.
Counting silently, Victor darted his finger in the air, doing a head count of his jewels. When he reached thirty, he clasped his hands and grinned. “It seems we are all assembled! Who wants to hear what’s in store?”
Every Master apart from me shoved up their hand like a teacher’s pet.
Victor chuckled. “So eager.” Shooting me a questioning look, he said, “The rules are simple. You will have an hour before sundown to hunt. When you hear the gong, you must return.” He swept his stare over everyone, jewels included. “Everyone, do I make myself clear?”
His gems all nodded obediently.
“Good.” Slipping his hand into the pocket of his linen shorts, he held up a familiar black device.
Every jewel tensed. Some even dropped to their knees, anticipating a shock.
“No, no, it’s okay.” Victor soothed in a sinister sing-song voice. “Today, you have no need to fear electricity, my pets. See?” Stabbing his thumb into a second button on the remote, he pointed it at each jewel for a few seconds, slowly working his way down the line.
No one convulsed.
No one fried.
Only once he’d finished did he slip the remote back into his pocket and clasp his hands again. “Your collars have been deactivated.”
Instantly, the jewels looked at one another, sensing a trap.
Victor chuckled. “I’m not lying. For today only, your collars are completely useless in making you compliant.
You can run, fight, go wherever you please.
The invisible fence is shut off and you have my absolute word as a gentleman that you will not get shocked if you get too close to it.
In fact.” He side-stepped on the drawbridge, drawing everyone’s attention to the lush landing strip outside.
The tail of his private plane could just be seen peeking from the left.
“I’ve decided to give you all a sporting chance. ”
Jewels shrank back, bumping into one another as Masters bristled with eagerness.
“Here’s what’s going to happen, my sweetlings.
” Victor marched toward the edge of the drawbridge and dropped every poise and mask.
“You have all disappointed me, upset me, and shown me that I have been far too lenient with you. You are spoiled, lazy, and frankly...I would not be distraught if a few of you decided not to return tonight, after all.” He shrugged.
“The cliffs are right there if you wish to use them. Jump for all I care. End your life. The life I so painstakingly nurture and tend. If you don’t appreciate everything I fucking do for you, then fine. You’re free.”
A jewel dared step forward, her strawberry-blonde hair looking almost pink in the sun. “A-And if we don’t. If we come back like you request...will we be forgiven whatever transgressions we’ve committed?”
Ily sucked in a breath.
Peter chuckled.
Rachel seemed to sway.
Victor took his time answering. “You know how precious you are to me. Some of you have been here close to a decade and some of you are new. You know how kind I can be; you also know how strict I can be when that kindness is abused.” He smiled and placed a hand over his heart.
“You have my word that after today, I will judge your transgressions paid, and we can go on with fresh purpose. How about that?”
“Yes, Sir V. Thank you, Sir V.” The girl backed up and returned to her spot in the line.
Another girl squeezed her hand; they shared a look I couldn’t decipher.
Merde, how many of them would be missing by roll-call tonight? How many would take the leap? And why did that fucking wrench at my heart?
I felt responsible.
Like I’d failed even though their lives were not my responsibility.
Ily’s life was the only one I was in control of.
No one else’s.
“Q would disagree,” that angel on my shoulder muttered obnoxiously.
Q can bite my ass.
“Right, someone hand me a gun. Actually, Henri. Come up here and join me.” Victor beckoned, his greying blond hair twinkling like tinsel. “Don’t be shy.”
Jesus Christ.
He had to pick me.
Giving him a tight smile, I stepped around a few of the other Masters and joined Victor on the drawbridge. “What’s up?”
“Shoot one.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“Shoot one. Let’s see how the paintballs work, and then I’ll explain the rest. Hurry now. Snap, snap.”
God’s sake.
Who?
I wasn’t personally acquainted with the pain of being shot with a paintball, but I’d watched enough movies where people were shot to know it didn’t look pleasant. Especially without any shields or thick clothing.
Swinging my gun, I angled the muzzle at Peter.
He flung his arms out, puffing up his chest. “Shoot me, oh Master C!” He snickered. “Oh, sorry. Not C. Not cunt—”
“Hush.” Both Rachel and Ily dove for him, dragging his arms down and tripping with him as he swayed.
Bile filled my mouth as I noticed his hands.
His bleeding, burned hands.
My eyes shot to Victor’s. “You burned him?”
He shrugged. “The lightning storm gave me inspiration. Just a teeny reminder to behave, that’s all.
” Throwing a bemused smile at Peter, he laughed.
“I think someone is a little high, Peter sweetling. I’ll give you that one slip-up as it was rather amusing, but test me again, and your tongue will be next. ”
Peter didn’t blanch or bow or back down.
He merely saluted Victor like a drunken sailor. “Aye, aye, captain.”
Victor just snickered. “That boy. Honestly. I will miss him when he’s reached his use-by date.”
My stomach churned as Ily gave Peter a heartbroken look.
She pushed his thick brown hair aside, brushing it away from his sweaty forehead.
I froze.
I waited for rage. For possessiveness. For jealousy.
But...I finally saw what she’d been telling me all along.
He definitely had feelings for her.
I sensed it in every molecule of my body. But her...? The way she touched him and sniffed back tears at his abuse? The way she watched him, desperately wishing she could protect him, looked exactly like one would protect a...brother.
Shit.
My mind suddenly filled with a very different scene.
Children all tucked up in bed, some crying in the dark, others huddling together under blankets. Outside the barred window, the haunting hoots of owls terrified us along with the screams of our mothers.
The door slammed open.
A man marched in.
Drunk and slurring, French and rotten.
He tossed a woman into the middle of our bedroom and spat on the floor. “You have an hour with your spawn.”
The kid closest to me—a little girl who I did my best to keep smiling—flung herself into the woman’s arms and—
The vision ended.
I shook my head.
The rush of nausea crashed over me, remembering, realising...
I have siblings.
Not just the one I’d begged to accept me, but...
More.
Others.
Brothers and sisters all bred by the same monster who’d sired me.
I’d lived with them at the same estate where I’d gone to visit my eldest brother.
I’d once looked at them the way Ily looked at Peter.
That same despairing, harrowing look of wishing you were stronger, bigger, better—not to get yourself out of hell but to save all those in there with you.
“Henri...I’m waiting.” Victor tapped his watch.
I made a split-second decision.
The only choice I could as the monster inside me grew longer fangs and sharper claws. I shuddered on the drawbridge as my clothing felt too tight, and my feet ached to run.
Whatever creature lived within me woke up again.
Only this time...it didn’t want to dine on tears.
It wanted to dine on death.
Raising my gun, I pressed the trigger.
Ily cried out and staggered back, taking Peter and Rachel with her. Pressing her forefinger to the splodge of bright orange on her upper thigh, she looked at me as if I’d just shattered her already broken heart.
“There.” I lowered my arm. “I shot her. My colour is on her skin. No one else is to fire at what is already mine.”
Victor pursed his lips, watching Ily wince as she prodded the bruise I’d given her.
“Unfortunately, Henri...today the rules are slightly different.” Looking at his guests, he raised his voice.
“My island is large and can be quite dangerous if you don’t know the terrain.
There are loose rocks by the cliffs and blowholes by the ocean.
The caves burrow through the island like worms through soil, and some footing is unstable.
The forest is wild, and if I believe my land keepers’ remarks, there’s also quicksand in the marsh.
The tides come in fast, and if you’re caught in a part of the cave system that gets cut off at high tide, then you might very well drown.
But!” He grinned. “The stakes are worth it, gentlemen, because...my own personal favourite, Rachel, is available to anyone who can fire the most shots at her. And Henri’s—the forbidden jewel that started a war—is also free game. ”
“What?” I choked. “No, she’s—”
“The winner is whoever covers the jewel of his choice in as many paint bullets as possible. Empty your clip at them, my friends. Cover them in bruises. Your choice of what to do with the jewel you win is entirely up to you.”
Pulling a pistol from his waistband, he aimed it at my heart. “Any objections, mon ami?”
I shot Ily a look.
She gave me an unreadable stare back.
Her hate for me cloaked the entire drawbridge, but I didn’t care.
I would fight for her...like I fought for a sister I didn’t remember.
I would protect her...like the wife she would never be.
I gave her a nod; she looked away.
My heart twinged with despair.
Swallowing hard, I grunted, “No, Vic. No objections.”
I had none because no one would get within firing distance of her.
I’ll make fucking sure of it.
“Great!” Passing me the gun, he inconspicuously looked at the guards with their sniper rifles on the battlement. Snipers all aimed at me. “In that case, how about you do the honours?”
“Fine.” I took the Glock.
The temptation to shoot him in the head made my palm sweat.
Pasting on a smile, I raised the gun to the sky. “Ready whenever you are.”
Victor grinned. “How nice.” Looking at his jewels, he stepped off the drawbridge, beckoning me to follow him. The avenue leading through the wall and toward the outside world hummed with ocean song and freedom.
The jewels all naturally swayed toward it, summoned by the allure of hope.
“You have a fifteen-minute head start, my pets,” Victor said gleefully. “Fifteen minutes to scurry your way across my island before we come after you. And that countdown begins...”
I closed my eyes.
Begged the fucking universe to give me luck.
I fired at the clouds.
BANG.
Gunpowder.
Ears ringing.
Hand vibrating.
I almost swallowed my own tongue. “Emerald Bruises begins now.”
I looked at Ily and imprinted her to memory.
I memorised her golden eyes, inky hair, and the soul that’d ensnared mine the moment I’d seen her in Paris.
If we survived this, things were changing.
I didn’t know how.
I didn’t know what I’d become.
But I did know I couldn’t stand this level of emotion anymore.
This agony of wanting and not deserving.
This despair and desire and decimating thirst for things I’d never had and things I would never earn.
I would win this game.
I would become the worst fucking monster to triumph over all other beasts.
I would cut away the strings of feelings and sink deep, deep into the black-fanged creature within me.
Who knew if I’d ever be human again.
Who knew what I would do out there.
All I knew was...I’m done.
She needs to go.
The metallic rust of blood coated my tongue.
The urge to chase and pillage, savage and ruin made me shudder.
She needs to go now.
Smiling like a murderer, I lowered my arm and said softly, “What are you all doing standing there? Run.”
It took a moment for my command to ripple from ears to muscles.
A heartbeat for everyone to break ranks and go.
With sharp inhales and panicked looks, they bolted as one.
Up the drawbridge and across the heavy wooden bridge.
The thunder of thirty pairs of feet sounded like a stampede of wild horses.
Shadows swallowed them as they cut through the thick wall, then sunshine drenched them again as they reached the other side.
Water dapples from the moat painted their galloping legs.
Target marks bounced as they ran.
And like a flock of hungry birds, they all vanished to the left.
Thirty priceless jewels disappeared in a puff of diamond dust.
The Masters began to pace.
And I morphed into something obscene.
Black and seething.
Dreadful and diabolical.
Victor gave me a smile.
I sank into bloodshed.
And
the
clock
started
ticking
...
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