Chapter 3
Chapter Three
PERILOUS
Sleep comes in the form of nightmares, one wave after another, leaving the night to blend into the morning. Morning is infused with caffeine, and then after a couple hours in the gym, I shower and nap for a few hours. The nightmares then are lesser.
Those nightmares are of screams and the crackling of fire. The smell of hot gasoline, one flickering second away from total explosion. Yet that explosion never comes.
Which is why I’m able to sleep through those nightmares.
There’s a sudden feeling outside the dreamworld telling me that I’m being watched. My eyes pop open and I reach to my left, ready to use anything as a weapon.
I see the three of them standing at the edge of my bed, dressed in their robes, wearing their masks.
Tyrant, Demo, and Vic.
I take a deep breath as slow as I can, not wanting anyone in the world to know I’m capable of feelings. I stand up from my bed and offer my wrists, unsure if I’m being punished or not.
Tyrant pushes my wrists away. He turns and begins to walk. Demo and Vic follow. I have just enough time to grab a T-shirt and slide my feet into my boots. They’re left untied, no choice.
We exit my room, then the building, and begin our ascent to the old cathedral. Once there, I have the ability to tie my boots, then get into my robe and put on my mask.
The four of us are standing in a mostly dark room that smells like dust and cloves, waiting. Staring at a thick, velvet curtain, waiting for something to happen. When the curtain opens, it’s Luc motioning for us to enter the room.
His large throne waits for him. There are at least a dozen of the Legion’s members standing all around the throne. We stand in a row, silent. Luc walks to his throne and sits.
A second later, a scream echoes to our right and a woman is thrown into the room. She’s naked, blindfolded, hands tied behind her back. She has small tits, jumpy, her nipples poking out like long pinky fingers.
Luc lifts a finger to his lips.
Shhh.
A figure walks into the room and up to the woman. He’s holding a thick leather belt in his hand. One swing from the belt and it cracks like summer thunder, striking just above the woman’s right ass cheek. There’s an instant welt and little specks of blood.
The woman falls to the floor. The man does it again, across the middle of her back. He grabs the woman’s hair and turns her around, standing over her.
He reaches down and quickly unzips his jeans and produces his cock. Long and semi-hard. He grabs the woman’s hair and lifts her.
“Your world has taught you comfort,” he says in a fake voice that’s deep. “Your world has given you thoughts of safety. Your world has offered nothing but lies. You are worthless. You are nothing. You are meant to be tortured and fucked. Right now all around you there are powerful men watching you. The most powerful men in the world. They want to see what you’re capable of before determining your fate.”
He pulls at the woman. She opens her mouth, eagerly awaiting for it to be filled with cock. To me, she’s too eager. She’s giving it away in a sense. The whole purpose of this is to be chased, tortured, fucked into submission. Battling yourself the entire time.
Her lips wrap around the man’s cock and she groans. The man pulls the back of her head with force, ramming his cock deep into her throat.
She gags. She throws up. But that doesn’t stop the scene from continuing.
And we all stand. In silence.
Listening to the naked woman gagging on her own vomit and the man’s cock.
I also have a feeling this isn’t the only reason we’ve been summoned to be here.
* * *
After ejaculating in her mouth and on her face, the man grabs the woman by her hair and drags her out of the Perg. This is a sacred room. That means whoever that was, they were either extremely powerful or a lot of money exchanged hands for that to happen.
Believe me, you’d be surprised at what lonely, rich wives will pay for a little excitement.
I must have turned my head or something because the first thing Luc does is point at me.
“Problem with what you just saw?” Luc asks.
I don’t respond.
Fuck Luc.
I don’t give a fuck about his throne or his gold mask. I don’t give a fuck that he’s Tyrant’s brother either. Yes, I’m here to serve the Perg and I’m here to serve the throne. I’m here to honor my brood and to protect the Legion . And, yes, all of that involves Luc.
With a hand gesture from Luc, two men dressed in black robes come for me. I could easily fight them and break their fucking necks. I don’t.
They grab me and pull me toward the throne. Luc stands up to face me, even though I’m taller than him.
“On your knees,” he whispers.
Not even a breath later I feel sharp pains at the backs of my knees. I grit my teeth not to yell out in pain. I’m on my knees. In front of Luc. Luc leans down toward me.
“Here I thought my brother was the fierce one,” he whispers at me. “You did what you were told to do. Want to carry that forever and act this way? I don’t mind having you beat senseless over and over.”
I grit my teeth even harder. Luc stands tall again and waves his hands, ushering everyone with him to leave the Perg .
Luc removes his mask. “Do the same. Time to talk.”
I hear the other guys taking off their masks. I remain on my knees and do not follow the command. I’m testing Luc to see if he’ll hit me on his own, instead of having his guys do it.
Come on, fucker. Come on. Do it. Attack me. Slit my throat. Put a fucking bullet in my fucking forehead.
I close my eyes to remain calm. My fucked up memory throws the sound of metal crunching with metal. My eyes open right back up. I jump to my feet, standing taller than Luc, and take my mask off.
“Good,” he says. “Let’s have a chat.” He walks around me. “The target spent the night in the hospital. That came after being rushed there in an ambulance. Basic diagnosis is that he partied too hard with some strippers and his body got a little too jumpy. He’s obviously scared shitless right now. That’s where he needs to be. Thinking he dodged a bullet yet a little paranoid.”
The room is silent. I slowly turn. Luc walks to his left so he can see us all.
“Tyrant, Vic, I know you had nothing to do with this target ,” Luke says. “But out of respect for your brood , I’ve included you in this meeting. You both can leave now.”
There’s hesitation and tension. It’s like a bomb going off. Tyrant isn’t exactly a fan of his brother. Can’t blame him for that.
Tyrant’s old man fathered Tyrant out of wedlock, during an affair, and Tyrant has been left as nothing more than a bastard. Except Tyrant is smart and a little insane.
When he and Vic finally do leave the Perg , Luc nods at Demo.
“You too,” he says.
“I was there,” Demo says.
“Get the fuck out,” Luc says in a calm voice.
Demo’s massive frame flexes. Given the chance, he could break Luc in half with one hand. Only this is about power. Not strength. Not money.
Power.
Demo exits the Perg.
I’m left alone with Luc. He grabs my right shoulder.
“We have him where we want him,” Luc says. “Either feeling great that he’s gotten a second chance at life or completely paranoid wondering if someone poisoned him.”
“What does that have to do with me?” I growl.
“All targets must be eliminated, Peri,” Luc says.
He squeezes my shoulder and nods.
I now have to kill the man I poisoned.
* * *
We sit on top of an old stone wall. Rumors of history and horror all around us due to the fact that SA is old as fuck. I’m not really a history guy. Chasing the past means you’re going in the wrong direction of life.
Demo scored a twelve pack of some fancy, European beer that’s twice the alcohol of a normal beer. I’m moving through my second bottle, drinking the stuff like it’s water. The thought of killing never bothered me once.
Except now…
I grit my teeth.
“Give me an empty bottle,” I say.
“Got to take a piss?” Demo asks.
My eyes gravitate toward two guys walking together. One has a bag over his shoulder. The other is in a hoodie, hands animated, talking about something important.
“Do we know them?” I ask.
“How the fuck would I know?” Vic asks.
“Peri, go lift weights or go to a bar and pick a fight,” Tyrant suggests. “You’re worked up. They’re testing you, that’s all.”
“I’m with Peri,” Demo says. “I was a crucial part with that target and now I’m pulled off it? You know what? Fuck it. I’ll do it.”
In a matter of a second, Demo grabs the bottle from my hand and throws it. It hits Hoodie Guy right in the face, his nose exploding open, his head snapping back, hands grabbing for his face, leaving him stumbling back and falling to the ground.
“Fuck,” Tyrant says.
“Great throw,” Vic says.
Bag Guy looks in our direction.
“Whoever threw that! Fuck you! You fucking pussy!”
Demo throws himself off the wall without hesitation. He’s like a pissed off bull charging at a red piece of cloth.
I stand up and step back off the wall, which leaves me with ground to walk on and a path to follow. All the while Demo is sliding down toward the narrow, paved walking path where all hell has broken loose.
As soon as Bag Guy realizes it’s Demo he’s called a fucking pussy , he drops to his knees and puts his hands together.
Demo doesn’t give a fuck about this guy’s begging. He charges forward and in one motion, grabs the guy’s head and pulls it forward as he brings his knee up into the guy’s face. The sound is a sickening crunch.
I take one look at Bag Guy and I swear on my life his fucking nose has been moved to under his left eye. His mouth opens, revealing his two front teeth are gone.
He falls back down to the ground, dazed, groaning and weeping.
This is my doing. My annoyance and the rage I’ve been letting pent up. Like a flickering flame and Demo a can of gasoline.
He turns and looks at me, grinning. His left knee is covered in blood and one of Bag Guy ’s fucking front teeth has literally stuck into Demo’s jeans.
There’s pure hatred in his eyes. Pure evil. I glance down at the two guys on the ground. Both are alert and trying to figure out what the fuck happened and why.
“Let me help with that nose,” I say to Bag Guy .
I swing my foot and kick his face, not even sure if I actually hit his nose or not. I step over toward Hoodie Guy . He’s got a massive welt on his forehead. Surprisingly enough, the bottle didn’t break.
I crouch down and hit the bottle as hard as I can against the ground, breaking it. Now I've got a jagged piece of glass in my hand.
Hoodie Guy looks right at me. Groaning in pain, shock in his eyes, he asks one simple thing.
“Why?”
I slammed the broken glass down into his face.
As far as the answer to his question? Why did we do this?
Because sometimes in life you’re in the wrong place at the wrong fucking time.