Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
ANNIKA
When I told Demonic I was going to cut his dick off if he didn’t let Molly into my apartment, he seemed excited about that. Which freaked me out. Grossed me out. And at the same time it made me feel safe. Peri and his friends were fucking psycho.
“Am I going to be threatened with a knife again?” Molly asks without so much as a hello .
I guess I can’t blame her for that. I did scare the hell out of her last time we spoke.
“I can’t promise anything,” I tell her, which is the dead honest truth. I don’t stop there. “I literally have no idea what’s happening next in my life.”
“And you’re happy with this?”
“I feel… visible .”
“Those guys are more than just insane, Annika. They are violent. They are dangerous. Everything we’ve ever heard about them has to be true. I don’t think you realize—”
“Do you know what being claimed means?” I cut in.
I suddenly have this sense of power over Molly. She’s no longer this wild card, kind-of-a-slutty best friend of mine. She’s feeble. Small. Scared of Demonic. Worried about Perilous.
For the first time ever I feel like I have the upper hand with her. This time Molly cannot outdo me. Not that I’m turning whatever my life is into a competition, it’s just nice to not give one fuck about Molly and her drama.
Which makes me wonder why the fuck I even asked Molly to come over. A force of habit thing I guess.
“Want something to drink?”
“Yeah. Alcohol. Lots of it.”
“Rough night or something?” I ask.
“No. Just watching my best friend turn into… this… ”
“Molly, I don’t know what you want me to say to that,” I tell her. “Something bad is happening in my life and right now, whether I like it or not, Perilous is the only one who is protecting me.”
“That makes no sense!” Molly cries out. “Explain that to me. Right now. Do it. Your father is filthy rich. Why can’t he help? Who is trying to hurt you? Huh? Where is this mysterious person. And why?”
“So you think Perilous is making it all up?” I ask. “For what reason? Just to mess with my head?”
“Maybe. Maybe it’s a game. Or maybe it’s some kind of… I don’t know. A ritual or something? Like he has to do this to you so he looks better to all those other fucking psychopaths.” Molly moves closer to me and takes my hand. “I’m really worried about you. This isn’t you. This isn’t the Annika I know.”
“Who is Annika then?” I whisper. “The shy, nerdy friend who never does anything crazy? So you can sort of parade me around as that friend and tease me?”
“Tease you? How have I teased you?”
“No matter where we went, you always tried to get me to fuck someone.”
“That’s not teasing. That’s just enjoying life.”
“And that’s what I’m doing,” I say with a bitchy grin on my face. “I found something I enjoy. I found a side of me that likes this. There’s danger in it and I…” I swallow hard. “You’re telling me you don’t have some fantasy that’s a little edgy, that makes your panties soaked?”
“I’m not wearing panties,” Molly smirks.
“Neither am I,” I throw back at her.
“When was the last time you got fucked?”
“Which hole?”
“Annika!” Molly yells and she starts to laugh.
I don’t know why I start to blush.
I’ve never been able to talk like this to Molly and have it mean something.
“You did butt stuff with him?” Molly whispers.
I put a finger to my lips and keep blushing.
Outside the door there’s a sudden commotion.
Voices growling, muffled by the heavy door.
A large thud hits the door and shakes the walls.
I grab for Molly and pull her out of the way. Whatever this is, it has nothing to do with her. This is me. This is my life. Molly does not need to be hurt as some kind of friendly casualty to whatever war is waging around me.
The door opens and in rushes Perilous. Fire in his eyes. His body puffed, flexed, muscles rippling, almost as though he’s about to turn into some kind of actual beast.
He looks at me. He looks at Molly.
“I invited her,” I say. “I needed to—”
“Get the fuck out of here,” Peri growls at Molly.
She jumps and gasps, not just startled but instantly terrified. I look at her and see that she’s crossed her legs.
Is she about to piss herself because of Peri?
I don’t have time to think before Peri charges at Molly. She lifts her arms to protect her face. I bring my hands to my face as I am now in complete shock over what I’m witnessing.
Somewhere in my head I’m already negotiating and making peace with the fact that Peri is about to kill my best friend, using his bare hands. When he grabs Molly by the hair and pulls, I swear he’s going to snap her neck like a thin branch hanging low on a tree.
Molly screams and Peri clamps his right hand over her mouth. Her eyes are wide. She’s already crying. She’s that scared. And I get it. Peri has been rough with me many times, but at least I know at the end of it he’s going to fuck me senseless.
Watching it from this angle though… his violence…
“You don’t fucking belong here, you fucking cunt,” Peri spits at my best friend.
I gasp.
Molly claws at his hand as he squeezes tighter, beginning to pinch her nose too, cutting off her supply of oxygen.
“Perilous,” I whisper.
His head turns and the look he gives me makes my blood freeze up. Chills attack my body.
“She’s my claimed one,” Peri says to Molly. “I protect her. I care for her. I fuck her. I am her only source of life and pleasure. Don’t ever come near her again. You are a worthless cunt.”
I start to shake.
Molly’s knees give out. Peri moves his hand from her mouth and she whimpers instead of screaming. He holds her by the hair as her legs no longer work. Peri drags her across the floor with ease, right to the open apartment door.
With one swing of his arm and a grunt, my best friend goes airborne. Right out of my apartment, hitting the wall across the hallway with a thud.
Molly breaks down into tears as Peri rubs his hands together, collecting strands of Molly’s hair from his violent outburst.
“All will be known,” Peri says just before slamming the door shut and locking it.
He turns toward me with the same look on his face.
This time he charges at me.
* * *
His fingers enter my mouth, going for the back of my mouth.
I bite at him, coughing and gagging at the same time. My eyes water as my body wants to vomit while I’m begging it to ignore the intrusion into my throat.
“Did she give you anything?” Peri yells at me.
I can’t comprehend a thing with his fingers flicking my uvula as though it’s my clit.
“Did you have a drink? Anything at all?”
I shake my head as I gag.
“Do you fucking swear on your life?”
I nod.
Peri pulls his fingers from my mouth and I push myself away from him. I run to the kitchen sink and hang over it, coughing, waiting to see if I’m going to actually vomit or not.
Anger floods my body. When I spin around, Peri is standing right there .
“What the fuck is your problem?” I scream into his face.
His right hand grabs my jaw. Hard.
I don’t care.
I swing my right hand and slap him across the face. The fucking psycho doesn’t even flinch. He doesn’t even blink.
Peri pushes me until I hit the counter near my lower back. My body starts to bend and Peri hovers over me.
“Everything you know, doll, is a lie,” Peri says in a deep yet calm voice. “And fuck me that I’m the one who has to tell you that.”
He releases his hold on my jaw and instead now touches my face. There’s some serious pain in his eyes now that the anger has cooled.
“Everything, Annika, is a lie.”
“What does that mean?” I whisper.
“It means you need to start drinking and you need to be ready.”
“Ready for what, Perilous ?” I ask.
He strokes my cheek. “I’m about to ruin your life for good, doll.”
* * *
“It’s for your own good.”
His voice runs deep as he takes a pair of dark green panties out of my drawer. They have a laced edge and would rest high on my hips. He walks to the bed, grabs my left ankle and pulls. I slide with ease.
In a few seconds, he’s wrapped the panties around my left ankle and around the frame of the bed. It’s tight. Very tight. It’s sort of too tight but there’s no way I’m telling him that.
“Can’t have you trying to fuck off and freak the fuck out,” he says as he returns to my panty drawer.
The next pair are ones I rarely wear. A sky-blue thong that looks more like a few pieces of shoelace string than actual panties. Peri ties my right ankle to the bed, almost at the same spot as my left. That means my legs are shut tight.
My ankles are throbbing, begging for a better supply of blood. The tips of my left toes are already starting to tingle. My heart races and I watch Peri pour me a drink of straight vodka.
“I’m not planning on adding anything to this,” he says. “Unless I have to.” He turns and nods. “Take a drink and we’ll get started.”
My jaw begins to quiver.
“ Perilous ,” I groan and then I sip the vodka.
My tongue burns, followed by my throat and then my stomach.
Peri touches my face again. Strong fingertips stroking cheek to cheek. His thumb slides over my bottom lip and I catch my lips chasing his finger, kissing it. I don’t know why but my eyes start to well with tears.
“It would have been easier and better to have just killed you,” Peri says.
My heart plummets into my stomach. Now those are the romantic words every woman wants to hear, right?
“I kept you alive. I claimed you. Now I own you. And I own everything that comes with you. You’re about to experience hell like you never thought possible, doll. It won’t be at my hands, but my hands will complete your suffering. There is no turning back.”
Peri leans closer to me. My lips quiver and ache for a kiss. I’m shocked when Peri actually kisses me. His lips gently brushing against mine. It fills me with a desire that’s like nothing I’ve ever felt. Yet, at the same time, I’m filled with pure dread.
“I went to visit your father,” Peri whispers.
Now chills hit me.
Is he dead?
“I drugged him. He was already drunk. A mess. I slipped him something and he passed out on the floor. I had no choice, doll. I had to find out the truth about you and about everything revolving around you.”
Peri’s lips touch mine one more time and then he steps back. I watch as he moves back to my panty drawer one more time. He retrieves a white pair of panties and he balls them up, getting ready to force them into my mouth if needed.
“You’re going to listen to me, Annika,” he says. “There is nothing I’m about to say that’s a lie. If you argue or you fight back, I’ll just kill you.”
I hate that I trust him. I hate that I believe him. I hate that if he wanted to actually kill me, I would just let him.
His right hand touches my throat.
“Know this, doll,” he says. “My job is to protect you. You are my claimed. I. Will. Kill. For. You.”
I gasp a shuddering breath.
And I ask him for more of the vodka before he starts talking.