Chapter 73
“Ideas are bulletproof.”
—V, V FOR VENDETTA
“ P lease, Ramel… Just let me go… No more…” Rafael sobbed from where I had him strapped naked to a gurney.
“Stop begging, Raf. You’re making me hard,” Shemhazai muttered absently as he snapped on a pair of latex gloves.
It had taken both of us to get Raf out of his cell and into our torture chamber. He was a powerful angel, and we didn’t have access to the golden noose Yahweh used to bind powers. Not yet, anyway. That was another thing we were hoping Gabriel would help us get our hands on. Until then, good old-fashioned wood and steel would have to do.
Between the two of us, we could overpower Raf’s magic enough that he wasn’t a flight risk once we had him strapped down.
“We just need to test something, then you can go back to your cell,” I promised, though Raf didn’t seem comforted. I reached under the table and flipped up a pair of stirrups that were fastened to the bottom for such an occasion. “I’m going to unchain your legs. You can either put your legs in the stirrups on your own, or I will do it for you. If you make me do it, they’ll go in broken. You decide.”
Tears streamed down Raf’s cheeks. I gave him a small smile and tilted my head to the side .
“What’s it going to be?” I asked, and Raf choked but nodded.
“I’ll put my legs in the stirrups,” he said, his voice cracking. Hazai slapped him on his naked thigh jovially.
“Good choice, Raf.” He grinned and winked, undoing the cuff on his right ankle while I undid the one on his left. Raf’s face was so white that it was nearly green as he moved his shaking legs up into the stirrups, where Shem and I strapped him in with the thick leather straps.
Hazai hummed to himself as he moved to a small surgical table we had set up next to the gurney. Instead of surgical instruments, it hosted a nursery filled with the idea seeds we had harvested from the Infernal Woodlands. They were unassuming little plants. Just by looking at them, you would never guess the power they held. The tiny brown seed cases had already cracked and begun to grow little green idea shoots, each one standing erect like an army of soldiers readying themselves for battle.
“Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe…” Shem sang, pointing his finger to each of the seedlings in an attempt to determine which one we would be planting.
“What… what are you doing?” Raf asked.
“We’re picking an idea to shove up your hairy, angel ass. What the fuck does it look like?” I sneered. Lighting a cigarette, I leaned back against the gurney while I waited for Hazai to make a selection.
We had made sure to choose the most degrading ideas possible when we had combed the woods for our harvest. My personal favorite was the seed that would make him think he had an unquenchable desire to suck his own cock. The thought of him struggling to wrap his lips around his tiny dick was so amusing I nearly choked on my cigarette just thinking about it.
“Aha!” Shem exclaimed. I twisted to glance over my shoulder to find Shem holding up a seed triumphantly.
“What did you pick?” I asked, exhaling a plume of smoke through my nose.
Shem’s green eyes sparkled in the dim light of the underground torture chamber. “Self-castration,” he purred, and Rafael’s eyes bulged in horror just as my grin widened.
He started thrashing against the restraints, and my lip curled in disgust as his exposed cock flapped between his legs while he struggled. I pushed up off the gurney and moved to stand next to Shem, who had positioned himself between his legs.
“Please, no!” Raf was screaming, but I just took another lazy drag of my cigarette. Shem used a gloved hand to spread him open wider, positioning the seed against his asshole .
“Is that what Lilith said when you tried to rape her?” I asked, my bored tone doing nothing to portray the cold rage I felt at the thought of him touching my wife.
You would think that watching Raf struggle and fight his fate would make me feel better about what had happened, but it didn’t. Beating the shit out of him the other night hadn’t helped either. Maybe after a century or so of torture, I would feel like I had earned my pound of flesh, but for now, his pathetic little cries did little more than annoy me.
I watched with satisfaction as Shem pushed the seed all the way into his ass. Rafael screamed bloody murder through the entire procedure, and Shem rolled his eyes before stepping back and pulling off the surgical gloves with a snap .
“So dramatic. You’re lucky I didn’t fuck you with a dildo first. You can thank Ram for that. He was worried you would like it too much.”
I shrugged, putting my cigarette out on the back of Raf’s thigh, causing him to scream louder. “I figured after taking Yahweh’s cock up the ass for centuries, a little idea seed would have essentially been foreplay,” I drawled.
Shem smirked, just as the door to the torture chamber slammed open. We both turned to find Art standing in the doorway, his chest heaving as if he had run here.
“What is it?” I barked, suddenly concerned. Art looked like he was nearly in pain.
“It’s Lilith. I told Jezebel about Mike, and she let it slip.”
My concern quickly turned to rage. I didn’t remember moving or how my hand ended up wrapped around Art’s throat, but I already had him lifted in the air before me.
“I told you not to fucking tell her!” I snarled. Art wrapped both hands around my wrist, unable to respond as I cut off his air supply.
“Ram. Put him down,” Shem snapped as Rafael continued screaming and thrashing on the gurney behind us.
I snarled, annoyed that Shem was coming to Art’s defense. Shem had always had a soft spot for him. I assumed it was because they sometimes hooked up. Out of sheer respect for Hazai, I dropped Art, and he collapsed to the ground, rolling onto all fours and coughing.
“I know, I know. I’m sorry. I should have told Jez to keep her mouth shut. It’s my fault.”
I wanted to fucking rip his head off, but I forced myself to hold back. Beating the shit out of Art wasn’t going to undo the damage that had been done, and right now, I needed to find Lilith and make sure she didn’t do anything fucking stupid.
“Where is she now?” Even to me, my voice sounded like the cracking of a whip. Art flinched at my tone and didn’t move to get up. He kept his head bowed as he responded.
“She said she was going back to the room, but she was really upset. I thought you would want to know right away. ”
He thought fucking right about that. I glanced back at Shem, who was watching our interaction with pursed lips. Raf was still thrashing behind him, and I glanced back at our test subject.
“Stay here,” I barked at Hazai. “Give him a knife and untie one of his hands. See what he does. I’ll go make sure Lilith is okay.”
Shem nodded. He looked just as concerned as I felt. “Keep me updated,” he murmured quietly. He knew as well as I did how Lilith dealt with grief and death.
I blew out of the room, resisting the urge to kick Art in the ribs on my way by.
Fucking idiot.
However, my desire to punish Art was vastly outweighed by my need to make sure my wife didn’t try to hurt herself.
My brisk walk turned into a clipped jog as I made my way back to our bedroom. The thought of her dragging that dagger I had given her across her perfect skin was making my chest tight. My anxiety mounted as I imagined her crimson blood spilling from a self-inflicted wound and sliding down her perfect, porcelain thighs. I ripped into my Reaper form, shooting through the shadows to get to her faster.
I just fucking hoped I wouldn’t be too late.