Chapter 10 Selma #2
Selma gaped at him. They had fought for centuries for the right to treat their own females as breeding slaves?
What hope did she have of ever being seen as anything more than a sweetly scented uterus, if that was all they wished for from their own species?
Even when she escaped Marathin, she would spend the rest of her life hiding the mark he’d given her, either to prevent herself from being killed or to escape being dragged back to perform her duty as a broodmare.
“Shh, don’t fear, my sweet.” He hugged her when her scent undoubtedly took on a fresh note of terror. “I will keep you safe and happy. You and our offspring.”
Selma stared down at Marathin’s hand as it once again caressed her belly, and another horrible thought made it to the forefront of her mind.
If she didn’t escape before she fell pregnant, she’d truly be bound to him.
Trapped for an eternity. She wouldn’t be able to flee with a baby, and as much as her gut clenched with terror at birthing his demon spawn, she knew deep down she’d never be able to abandon her child. Even if it had horns.
“I think it’s time I give you your second lesson,” Marathin whispered in her ear as he slid his hands down to grab the hem of her shirt. “I’ll show you I can take care of you. Protect you from all who’d do you harm. Who’d take you away from me.”
Selma stood still as he undressed her, raising goosebumps along her arms with every stroke of his warm fingers against her skin. There was nothing she could do to escape this—nothing more she could say to delay the inevitable.
When she was finally naked in front of him, he drew a finger through her slit, toying with the metal ring he’d placed the day before.
“Your smell drives me wild,” he murmured, the heat in his voice sending shivers down her back. “For centuries, no cunt has called to me like yours does. I know you don’t want this—not yet. That’s fine. You don’t have to want it. But I’ll teach you to take it.”
Selma closed her eyes tight, drawing in a breath to steel herself for the pinch when he’d twist the ring and bring on the dark magic meant to take over her mind.
But just as his fingers tightened on the metal, the sound of a lock sliding open echoed through the office like a gunshot.
They both looked at the door as it banged open, revealing a uniformed police officer holding a pistol, as well as a smaller form half-hiding behind him—Marie.
Terror tightened Selma’s throat as the officer’s eyes widened, then narrowed. He lifted the gun, aiming it at Marathin.
“That’s his patient,” Marie said, her voice thrill.
Oh god, no!
“I heard him threaten her,” she continued hastily. “He told her he’d kill me and anyone else who might get in the way if she didn’t... play along.”
The demon growled low in his throat, eyes locked on the officer who didn’t seem to realize just how much danger he was in.
“Step away from the girl,” the officer said. “No one needs to be harmed here, but you have five seconds to step away from her with your hands above your head, do you understand?”
Marathin’s growl only rose in volume, his lip curling high as the shadows thickened around him.
It was like watching a slow-moving horror film play out in front of her eyes.
Selma covered herself with both arms, trying to put herself between the demon and the two humans. “Please, you need to leave.” She pressed against Marathin as he shoved her to the side, desperately hoping to stop him from lashing out. “Right now! Marathin, don’t, please...”
“It’s gonna be all right, sweetheart. Stay calm,” the officer said, not realizing the irony in his chosen endearment and not taking his eyes off the demon. “Three seconds, doctor.”
Selma felt rather than saw Marathin’s back muscles flex, his growl rising as something dark swept through the room, dimming the lights.
“Two.”
Someone screamed. Selma wasn’t sure if it was her or Marie. Maybe it was both of them. She stared at the place the officer had stood less than a second ago, her eyes refusing to focus on what was there now.
But then a horrific clarity set in. Marathin, drenched in blood, stood in front of the small nurse, his hand outstretched and clenched around something round and red.
She could see his profile, see that his eyes were locked on Marie, who stood trembling in front of him, a small noise leaving her petrified lips with each of her rapid breaths.
The officer... Selma’s eyes shifted to the ground between the demon and the nurse, and her blood froze in her veins. The policeman’s chest cavity had been ripped open, blood oozing from the hole where his heart had been.
His heart.
The thing Marathin was clutching in his hand—the same hand that had been intimately caressing her not a moment ago—was a man’s heart.
Her mind went blank a second before she doubled over to throw up.
“No, no, no. Please, no!” The sound of Marie’s desperate voice rose over Selma’s retching. “Please, don’t kill me, please! Oh god, what are you? No! N—gh!”
“Don’t.” Selma gasped between heaves, supporting her trembling arms against the desk. “Don’t hurt her, please.”
When she looked up to plead with him, he’d already locked his bloodied fist around Marie’s slim neck, the heart tossed carelessly to the floor.
“Marathin!” Panic finally made its way through her disbelief and she stumbled around the desk to throw herself at the demon. “Please, no!”
He pushed her away with his free hand, ignoring her desperate attempts at wrestling his grip loose from the struggling woman. “Worthless human cunt.”
Then he clenched his fist, snapping the neck of the young woman who’d tried to save her.
“What did you do?” Bile filled Selma’s throat again as she slid to the floor where he tossed the nurse’s still-warm body next to the officer’s corpse.
“Oh god, no, no, no!” Her lungs felt too big for her body, pressing against her ribs and threatening to break them apart. How could he... How could they... They were dead. He’d killed them.
“Be calm.”
She looked up through her tears and saw his face smoothing into its normal lines, as if the savage snarl spread across his features mere moments ago had never existed. As if he hadn’t just slaughtered someone in front of her.
Calm?
“You killed them,” she croaked. A shiver was making its way through her body until she was shaking on the floor in front of him.
“Of course I did.” He frowned down at her.
“I will not tolerate human interference with our plans, and certainly not from some human thinking he can tell me to step away from my mate.” Without waiting for her response, he grabbed her underneath her armpits and lifted her up.
“Come. You need to go back to your room and clean up while I get rid of their bodies.”
She didn’t move. Blood dripped from her thighs and legs to the floor where he’d placed her. She’d sat in the officer’s blood without realizing it, and now she stared at the deep red streaked across her pale skin.
“Selma!” the demon snapped. She flinched when he pressed his large hand against her cheek to bring her into his chest. It was splattered with blood that smeared over her face when he crushed her against him.
“Humans,” he muttered against the top of her head before pulling back so he could lift her.
He carried her to his office chair where he sat her down, turning it away from the bodies. “Wait here. I will rinse my hands and get you something to help you relax.”
She sat silently, staring at his many books while he left the room. Moments later he was back, once again lifting her by the armpits as if she didn’t weigh more than a small child.
He got her dressed and pressed a blue pill into the palm of her hand.
“Look at me.”
She did, wondering how even a demon could be capable of such cruelty.
“You’re in shock, sweetheart.” His voice had once again lowered to the soft, kind tone he’d used to coax her to relax before.
“I apologize; I didn’t consider how a young Breeder would experience it.
I should have taken you back to your room first so you didn’t have to see it.
I will make it up to you later. For now, I need you to go back to the room and take a shower.
Then take this pill. It will help you sleep, and when you wake up, all this will be taken care of. ”
Was she in shock? There was an odd numbness in the pit of her stomach that had spread through her entire body, leaving an unpleasant sensation of an echo in her mind, but she heard everything he said. And she understood everything that had happened.
“Selma.” He stroked her hair. “Can you do this for me, my sweet?”
She nodded and he pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“Good girl. I will come for you in the morning.”
Selma moved across the floor, careful not to look down before she’d closed the door to his office firmly behind her.
Then she walked down the labyrinth of empty corridors and stairwells until she got to the small room she’d been kept in for the past few days.
There she walked into the shower to wash blood and tears off her stiff body before climbing into bed.
The blue pill she left on the nightstand.
He wanted her to sleep until morning so he could take her away. Even though she felt weak and hollow as she stared up at the ceiling, waiting for night to come, Selma knew this was likely the best chance she’d ever get to run. The only chance.
Two innocent people’s lives had bought her the opportunity she needed.
When darkness fell over Ravenswood, she got out of bed and walked on bare feet to the cupboard where her personal belongings had been stored upon her arrival.
Five minutes later, she snuck out of the unlocked room and across the hall where a large, bar-less window let her escape into the night.