Chapter 17
BELL
The feel of cool, gentle fingers brush over my forehead, and the weighted fog starts to lift as I try but fail to pry my eyes open. I feel so heavy.
“Bell?”
The small, scared voice at my ear has my sluggish brain trying to fire up, but the path to it is blocked.
“Bell, please wake up.”
Shit. Am I hallucinating?
“Please,” the voice whispers through a sob. “Wake up. I want to go home. I want my daddy.”
I can’t be hallucinating. She sounds so real.
Slowly, I manage to open one lid to see a blurry head of dark hair hovering at my side.
“Bell?”
“Libs,” I mumble as relief washes over me. “You okay?”
A loud sob escapes her. “I want my daddy. Please,” she cries, clawing at my arm like she never wants to let go. “I just want my daddy.”
I never knew my heart could break while woozy like this, but it fucking does.
“Help me… sit up,” I slur, forcing my other eye open, and Libi stands tugging frantically on my arm. Her small five-year-old strength hardly helps at all, but the fact she’s here, and alert is what fuels me to push off the cold concrete floor.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asks, hiccupping on another sob.
“The bad man forced drugs into me, sweetie. I’ll be alright,” I mutter, leaning forward to reach for my boot, pulling out the first blade from the heel, and then the other.
The room spins a little, and another round of relief washes over me as I realise I was injected with a sedative, and not something more potent. It was probably a fast-acting sedative, and I wonder if that’s what they used on Libi when they kidnapped her.
Probably.
“Is that a knife?” Libi asks, her little socked feet move into my line of sight, and I nod, glancing up to look at her.
She’s still in her black nightie with a skull head reindeer on it.
Fucking hell. How could anyone want to hurt or scare this beautiful little angel?
Her dark curls are a wild mess, and her big blue eyes are brimming with tears, those rosy cheeks soaked like she’s been crying for hours.
She must have been so scared.
“Your eyes look funny, Bell.”
I drop them from hers as I nod, hating that I probably look a little drunk.
“It’s the drugs, Libs. They are making it hard for me to move fast.”
“I’ll help you.” She holds out her hand, and I smile, I think, moving the two blades to my left hand while placing my right in her outstretched palm.
I take in the space as Libi holds my hand. It’s a small room that looks like it’s meant for storage, but there’s nothing in here but a couple of buckets, a stack of cardboard boxes, and a sink.
Shit. A sink.
Dropping Libi’s hand, I rush over to it, testing the tap, and putting my blades down on the edge, smiling when it turns on.
Bending, I drink straight out of the faucet, the cool rush of water an instant relief as it fills my mouth and I drink it down, hoping it will help to rehydrate my veins and flush the sedative faster.
Probably won’t but fuck it, that’s what I’m telling myself.
I finish up by splashing my face with the water, and then offer Libi some, hoisting her up a little so she can duck her head into the sink to drink the same way I did.
I don’t know how long she’s been here or if they’ve fed her, but I need her strong so we can try to escape.
When she’s done, I lower Libi back to the ground, turning off the water to look over her. Lowering to my haunches, I run my hands over her head and arms, checking for wounds, but nothing seems amiss.
“Did they hurt you?” I ask her, my eyes locking with those big blue ones that are still swimming with fear.
She shakes her head and starts crying again. “No. I just want to go home.”
“I know, sweetie.” I cup her little face and brush over her wet cheeks with my thumbs. “You’ll be back with your daddy in no time. I promise. Okay?”
She nods, completely trusting me, so I pull her into my arms and hug her close.
My eyes flick to the door to find three locks which makes escaping unnoticed out of the question.
Shit. This is a fucking conundrum if I ever saw it.
Now would probably be a good time to completely admit that I’ve fucked up. I did no research. No habit tracking or routine stalking. Just went in all bloody willy-nilly, and now, I’m locked in a room in a house somewhere south of Sydney.
The sound of heavy feet coming our way has us both stiffening, and I lurch up, pushing Libi towards the far corner and snatching up my blades.
Libi starts crying again, slapping her own hand over her mouth as she pushes herself flush into the corner, her little eyes terrified as they remain locked on the door.
Fuck.
I hate this.
I hate seeing her so scared.
If these fuckers have done something to her—
The sound of locks clicking open has me moving, and I rush over to Libi, spinning to face the door just as it slams open, bouncing off the wall.
A screech flies from Libi behind me, and I manage to hide the knives behind my back as I try to make myself bigger to hide Libi.
“Time for a top up,” one of the bouncers from earlier grunts, holding something up, and when he steps into the room, the moment the light hits him, I see the syringe.
Shit. I know what that is. It’s not the reddish colour of whatever sedative they injected me with before. It’s white.
Cocaine.
My heart flips at the sight of the drug of choice from my past.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
No. I don’t want that. I don’t.
“Stay back!” I yell, curling my lip as I bare my teeth, and I see the moment he realises I’m not the same damsel from the living room before.
“She has bark now.” He laughs. “But does she bite?”
He steps further into the room, and Libi shrieks from behind me.
“Get away!”
Spinning quickly to face her, I take her hand and wrap her tiny palm around the hilt of one of the knives.
“If he comes near you,” I whisper quickly, “stab him in the eye with this.”
She sobs but nods as I spin back to see the thug heading my way, and I quickly shuffle along the wall to put space between me and Libi.
“You can’t escape me,” he chuckles, like this is a game of chase.
“That’s funny,” I sneer. “I was just thinking, you can’t escape me.”
His brows hitch momentarily as confusion settles over him, and I see the cogs in his brain working as he slowly thinks about what’s happening here.
Whatever conclusion he comes to is the wrong one, because the idiot lunges for me.
The drugs in my system are still making me a little sluggish, so my reaction time is delayed, and I don’t get to swing the knife before the needle digs into my neck. But then, as he begins to inject it, I swing my hand and stab, and stab and stab, feeling him jerk with each plunge of the knife.
The rush of hot blood pours over my hand as I keep going, feeling the needle fall from my neck and clatter to the floor.
“Bell!” Libi cries from the corner as the thug and I go crashing to the ground, but I don’t stop stabbing, knowing her life depends on me.
I can’t stop. I can’t give up. I have to make sure he’s dead. That he can’t drug Libi too. I have to keep her safe.
A gurgling sound meets my ears, and I try to focus my blurred vision, taking in the bouncer lying on his back in a pool of blood.
My knife and my blood-soaked hands come into view next, moving slowly before my eyes as I study how bright the blood is against my skin.
Shit.
I glance over at the syringe on the floor to see he managed to inject half of it.
Cocaine shouldn’t make me sluggish like this though.
Snake’s words from earlier filter in…
“Shoot her up with a Spaceball.”
Fuck. A Spaceball… that means the coke is laced. Most likely with fentanyl.
“Bell!” Libi’s desperate cry drags my sluggish attention to her, and she points over her shoulder as a loud crash and yelling come from outside the room. “They’re coming!”
Fuck. I need to focus.
“Stay here,” I rush out, feeling my heart start to race, and I quickly stumble to the open door.
“Don’t leave me!” Libi cries, and my blood smeared hand grips the door as I turn back to look at her.
“I’m not leaving you, Libs. I’ll be back. You stay here, and stab anyone that tries to get close to you.”
I don’t wait for her to respond, hearing feet rushing down some stairs, and I glance up the passage to see a man I don’t recognise running my way.
There’s a fair chance I’m going to die here tonight, but I’ll go down slaying.
I smirk at that thought, the drugs obviously clouding how bloody dire this situation is.
But hey. I’m The Seduction Slayer. And tonight, I’m Slaying for Santa.
“How’d you get out?!” the idiot yells, rushing at me, obviously not seeing my blood coated hands on the knife in my death grip.
“Your buddy. You should fire him. He’s bad at his job.”
The guy frowns as he reaches me, and before he can comprehend what’s happening, I slash the knife across his throat.
Blood sprays across my chest as his eyes widen, panic contorting his features as he stumbles back, his hands instantly pressing to his throat, but it’s no use. My blades are sharp, and neck slashing has become my thing.
The adrenaline rush of what I just did spurs me on, and even though I know something like fentanyl is coursing through my veins with the half dose of coke, I still seem to be able to function enough to get the job done.
More rushing feet start coming down the stairs as someone yells to get the kid, so I duck into the closest open door, waiting for my next victim to appear.
“Hey, Azza! What the fuck are you doin—”
His words cut off as he passes the doorway I’m hiding in, his eyes trained on his gang mate bleeding out on the floor.
“What the fuck.”
And that’s my cue.
Stepping out, I reach up and tap the guy on the shoulder, readying myself as he spins in a panic to look at me.
Slash.
Shit. This really is too easy.
More blood coats me as the guy slides down the wall and he gargles, drowning in his own blood.
Well… this is fun—
A hard body slams into me from the side, and I go crashing to the floor as the sound of a war erupts on the floor above me.
“You fucking whore!” another unfamiliar voice snarls, fisting the back of my hair, and slamming my head to the floor.
Pain bursts through my skull, and darkness rims my vision, but the sound falling from my lips is a deranged laugh.
“You idiot,” I laugh, and he lurches off me, giving me space to roll over and look up at him. “Don’t you know how much I love pain. Keep roughing me up like this and I’m gonna come.”
“The fuck!”
He lunges for me again, and I go to swing my knife, only now realising I don’t have it anymore.
Whoops.
Spinning on the floor, I scurry on my hands and knees over my second victim, rushing for the open door of the room Libi is still huddled in.
“You like pain, do you?” the guy says before a boot comes down hard on my back.
I cry out as the pain hits, following it up with a laugh even as tears fill my eyes.
Okay. So maybe this isn’t so fun.
I like pain... in the bedroom.
I especially love it coming from Kit’s hands, or teeth, or dick… dammmnnn. Kit.
Now flat on my stomach, I cough and wheeze, deciding antagonising this guy needs to wait until I have a knife in my hand, so I army crawl to the open doorway.
“I was told not to kill you, but you have to fucking pay for killing a Serpent.”
I ignore him, dragging myself through the door, my eyes finding Libi, curled tightly in a ball in the corner as she rocks herself, her big eyes locking with mine.
“Knife.” I reach out towards her, the four metres of space between us feeling more like a football field. “Toss the knife to me.”
Libi whimpers as another heavy kick lands in my ribs, and I scream as I feel them crack, bending in half as the clatter of the knife meets my ears, falling short.
Shit!
I have to get to the knife. If I don’t kill this guy, he’ll hurt Libi.
Before I can get much further, the idiot fists my hair, dragging me further into the room, chuckling as he sees Libi.
“See this bitch?” he snarls. “This is what happens when you don’t do what you’re told.”
He lifts me by my hair, pain tearing at my scalp, my hands instinctively wrapping around his wrist to reduce the burn.
“Leave her alone!” Libi cries.
“Not until she pays,” he snarls, dropping me to the floor.
I try to hold in my sob, seeing him bend in my peripheral, and I’m too late to react when I realise what he’s doing.
With the syringe now in his hand, he leaps on me, forcing me to the floor in some sort of MMA grapple that I can’t get out of, my head slamming to the concrete floor again.
My dark rimmed vision finds Libi, and I see her more than I hear her as she screams, her little face red, her tears falling like a waterfall.
The biting sting of the needle pierces my skin in the bend of my elbow, and it’s too late, he’s found the vein and he’s injecting the rest of the Spaceball straight in.
My free arm flails, and I can see Libi pointing to something on the floor. I don’t know why I can’t hear her, but as the first rush starts to wash through me, my hand connects with something familiar, and I pick it up.
I feel like I’m having an out of body experience as I swing it towards the guy, plunging it into the side of his neck. This isn’t something I wanted Libi to see, but as his hold on me loosens, and the heat of his blood washes over me, I’m almost certain I feel a smile tugging at my lips.
There you go, Santa.
I slayed.