Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
CJ
I didn’t expect my uncle and aunt to actually have come with Carlow, but they did. My hell started all over again when Carlow pushed me into the back of the van.
My first thoughts were to try and run. Unfortunately, that was nipped in the bud right away when my uncle grabbed hold of my hair.
“You stupid whore,” he spits, then runs his tongue along the side of my face.
“Even carrying your aunt’s marks, you’re still beautiful.
No wonder the Dark Lord has picked you as a ‘Chosen’.
” Reaching up with his free hand, he squeezes one of my breasts.
“Mother, drive,” Carlow orders gruffly and pushes his father away from me. “She is to be my bride, father, for I’m the vessel.”
“Oh, I know you are, my son. I’m just tasting what I’d been teased with for years,” my uncle cackles.
“Don’t worry, after I put her upon the sacrificial altar, I will give you a chance to play. Until then, I will enjoy preparing her,” Carlow snickers.
I try to fight him, kick him, and attempt to hurt him. Only I’m not able to do anything when he sticks me with something before clamping chains to both my wrists on either side of the van.
“I know you remember your shackles.” Eyes wide, I try to fight. To get my arms free of the chains now holding me in place. But my arms don’t move. I can’t move any part of my body.
I can’t even speak. What’s going on here? What did he stick me with?
“We won’t have much time and I’m ready to pull the Dark Lord forward to claim his bride.” Vomit threatens to come up at Carlow’s announcement.
No. No. No.
My only hope now is that Axe comes for me before it’s too late.
“Here, son, you prepare her,” my uncle says, handing Carlow a dagger I hadn’t seen in years, but it’s the same one they’ve used on me several times.
Taking the dagger in hand, Carlow tears it through my clothes, stripping me of everything until I’m naked before him. “Before we get there, my precious bride, you must be punished for allowing your body to be tainted by another.”
Tainted really?
“The Dark Lord is more than ready to take you; however, I believe he will allow me to take a pet for my own when he does not require you,” Carlow cackles.
“Carlow, don’t worry about a pet. You’ll have plenty of ‘Chosen’ by the time those who move in on the others have finished their job,” my aunt speaks up.
“I do not want those who have been tainted so much by another. This one is the only one. Another vessel can take them. I only require my precious, as her beauty shows through the scars. The Dark Lord wants her.”
I wish I could block out the sounds of their voices and what they’re saying.
“For she who is ‘Chosen’ will deliver. For the vessel will allow our lord, the leader of the darkness, to flow through them and plant his seed. ‘Chosen’ and vessel move forward as one in blood and son,” my uncle says venomously as Carlow runs the knife along my skin.
“Blood and son will unite as one,” Carlow begins to chant, and pain sears through my body when he sinks the dagger into my stomach four times.
His eyes lock on mine and he grins before doing it one last time, this one deeper than the rest. “For I am the vessel as you are my ‘Chosen’, blood and son will unite you to me,” he declares proudly.
Tears well in my eyes, and Carlow leans forward, placing the dagger on the floor of the van. Leaning over my stomach, he laps up my blood, drinking it as if it were wine.
Pulling back, he grins at me. “Once we get there, I will place you upon the sacrificial altar and complete the ceremony. We will be one, my precious.”
Carlow circles his fingers in my blood and lifts them up to paint the blood along my face.
Why was I born to live a life of hell? Why give me such a short amount of happiness with the man who holds my heart? Why take that happiness away once more?
My mind screams for Axe to come for me. To save me from what’s to come. I don’t want any of this. Finally, darkness starts to seep in and I’m more than happy to welcome it.
I only hope if Axe comes for me that it’s not too late.
My oblivion is short-lived when the van comes to a halt.
I can’t make out what’s going on around me. I don’t understand the commotion. My mind is fuzzy and I can barely comprehend what’s going on thanks to the drug they’d put into my body.
The shackles are removed from my body, and I’m dragged from the back of the van.
I struggle to open my eyes, but when I do, I’m faced with my aunt for the first time. She sneers and spits in my face. She then lifts the dagger up and places it on the top of my chest, where she carves something into my skin. My knees collapse under me at the burning pain of it all.
“It’s time. They are waiting,” someone says, and I’m lifted up into the air. Whoever’s carrying me doesn’t get three feet before gunfire resounds around us.
My heart rate picks up and I want to believe it’s Axe. He’d come for me, but I can’t be sure. The man holding me screams in agony, releasing me. I crumple to the ground with a painful thud.
I can hear my name screamed out from somewhere and I know if I die now, it will be okay. At least it won’t be on some sacrificial altar.
Darkness takes over again and this time, I don’t fear it as my last thoughts are of telling Axe, I love him.