Chapter 59
Nico
“What?” I mumbled to myself, immediately followed by a blinding wave of pain.
I tried to roll over, to tuck my arms over my head and block out any pain whilst I tried to figure out what the fuck was happening, but my arms met resistance.
I pulled on the ropes, my breathing picking up as I realised I was tied to a table, my arms locked at my side. The rope was around my upper arms, my lower arms, and my wrists. I tried to move my legs, only to meet the same result. My ankles, calves, and thighs each had a thick rope around them.
“You’re awake.”
My eyes snapped toward the voice.
And there he was.
Sat in the corner, his legs stretched out in front of him, his fingers linked across his stomach, he leaned back as though he had no cares in the world.
I fucking hated that man.
I should have finished him off whilst I had the chance.
I watched with a scowl on my face as Vienna stood up, cracking his back and then his neck, snapping his head from side to side.
“You snore in your sleep, did you know that?” he asked me.
I glared at him.
“Oh, don’t be like that, little prince,” he mocked me. “Are you comfortable enough?”
“Fuck you!”
“Maybe later,” Vienna shrugged. “We have so much foreplay to do first. Oh, you’re not overly familiar with that word, are you?
” he asked, coming over to me. He placed both hands on the table next to my waist and leaned down, smiling at me.
“Foreplay is the warmup to the big act. It gets all the right parts moving, and makes it all the more enjoyable. It might not be needed—I don’t know about you, but I’m already raring to go.
But I like to make sure my partners experience every last drop of what I’ve got to offer. ”
He ended his words by patting me on my cheek almost affectionately.
“Where’s Gabriella?” I asked, breathing heavily through my nose. “Where’s my princess?”
“Unfortunately, this won’t be a threesome,” Vienna said calmly, walking over to the corner, keeping his back to me. “But she’s safe, don’t worry about that. She’s wearing my cut after all. My colours. How could she not be safe?”
“She’s not fucking yours!” I screeched, my temper getting the better of me. “She’s mine! She’s always been fucking mine! We share the same blood!”
“And we don’t?” Vienna chuckled.
“What…”
He couldn’t mean what I thought he meant.
“Oh, didn’t she share the happy news?” Vienna said casually, still with his back to me.
Though he did throw me a mocking smile over his shoulder.
“I thought she was your princess? And yet she didn’t tell you how she currently carries the blood of another man in her belly?
She didn’t tell you how we created new life together? ”
I roared, thrashing around on the table.
She wouldn’t.
Not my princess.
She was made to carry my babies!
Mine!
“Not to worry. You know now, that’s the main thing.”
“That baby will die, just like the fucking last one,” I hissed at him.
Vienna’s back stiffened, his hands clenching on the table. I heard him breathe heavily for a few moments, and I smiled.
I’d got to him.
Just as I was about to open my mouth, he turned around, a big smile on his face.
“So, where were we?”
My eyes fell to the make-shift sword in his hands.
“Wha—”
“Ahh, yes. Foreplay.”
He grinned at me.
I didn’t like that fucking grin.
“Let me teach you how it works,” he said, slowly stalking towards me. “See these hands? You always used them to hurt. To take without permission. To inflict pain on those who couldn’t defend themselves.”
He tucked the sword under his arm and flattened my palm against the table. I tried to pull away, but as the pain exploded behind my eyes, Vienna’s strength overpowered me.
“You shouldn’t have done that. Hands are there to give pleasure. To comfort before they ever hurt. But we can make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
He brought the sword down, slicing my wrist clean off.
I howled in pain, but I couldn’t move.
My back arched off the table, and I thrashed wildly, but my arm was still pinned. I twisted my head and blew, trying to blow on the pain of my severed wrist, trying to blow away the sting and the blood that was pouring from me and onto the table.
Vienna calmly walked around until he was on my other side.
And then he brought the sword down on my other wrist.
He grunted with the effort, and then the air was filled with the sound of crunching bone and ripping skin.
“Oops. Missed a bit,” he chuckled, grabbing my wrist and twisting it, tearing through the remaining tendons.
I screamed in pain, an agonising, unimaginable pain that burnt through my arm and spread through my body. My head exploded in anguish, and a warm, wet feeling spread at the centre of my trousers.
“All done,” Vienna sang, waving my severed hand in my face.
“Fuck… fuck. You,” I panted, the sweat pouring from my forehead.
“Hey, now! That wasn’t very friendly,” he tutted, and then slapped me across my face with my own hand.
I gagged as my fingers dragged across my face, barely noticing what Vienna was up to until it was too late.
Not that I could have done anything about it anyway.
He went over to the table again and picked up a blow-torch.
“Just need to cauterise these,” he said in the same sing-song voice. “Can’t have you bleeding out on me. There’s still so much to teach you about foreplay!”
He brought the flame to my stump, and the last thing I remembered was the searing, mind-numbing flash of white-hot pain, and the overwhelming stench of burning flesh.
I woke with a gasp, spluttering on the freezing water that had been poured over my face.
“Wakey, wakey,” a bearded face smiled down at me. He picked up his beard and tickled my chin with it. “You’re missing the show!”
“Princess,” I mumbled.
“I’ve been called worse,” Vienna said. “I prefer ‘gallant knight’, but I can accept princess. I look mighty fine in a dress.”
“I want Gabriella. My Gabriella,” I mumbled, my head twisting back and forth on the table.
Pain.
My God, the fucking pain.
I could barely see through it. Could barely function with the force of it.
All my body knew right now was hurt.
“Do you think he deserves his princess?” Vienna asked. I squinted my eyes and almost groaned in horror, remembering everything.
Vienna had my hand on his shoulder and was talking to it like some fucked up version of the Addams Family.
“No, I didn’t think so, either,” he chuckled.
And then, in a flash, he shot forward, bringing his face close to mine again. “Where were we in our lessons? Because those nasty, nasty hands can’t cause pain anymore. But what else can we teach you?”
“Gabriella…” I mumbled.
Vienna’s face changed.
He snarled at me, his hand moving with lightning speed.
Something slammed into my groin, and the world disappeared beneath white-hot agony. Spit flew from my mouth, bubbling and foaming at the corners, my body jerking and shuddering. I looked down, seeing the knife protruding from my groin.
“Keep her name out of your mouth,” Vienna said quietly.
“In fact. I think your mouth has been used to cause plenty of pain, hasn’t it?
” he shook himself, seeming to discard his flash of anger like an unwanted coat.
“And in foreplay, a mouth can be a great tool. One of our greatest assets, in fact. I’ve had Gabriella singing with my mouth.
I’ve had her screaming, panting, pleading, all with what this thing can do. ”
He pointed at his lips, a gleam in his eyes. “But you took and didn’t give.”
He picked up the blow-torch again and adjusted the settings until the flame was low.
“We can do something to fix that, though. Open wide, princess,” he mocked.
And then he brought the flame to my lips.
The next time I awoke, it wasn’t through force.
My body naturally began screaming in pain—the force of it so hard that it woke me from the blackness that had mercifully spared me the worst of the blow-torch.
Breathing frantically through my nose, I tested my lips, my screams of agony muffled as I realised they were fused together.
I scanned the room, barely able to keep focus.
My eyes rolled into the back of my head as wave after wave of pain exploded through my entire body.
And then they landed on Vienna, who was clearing the dirt from his nails with the tip of his knife.
“Prince,” he grinned at me. “I thought for sure you were a goner that time. I’m so relieved.”
I moaned behind my fused lips, trying to turn away from him.
I heard Vienna move, and then he was behind my head, looking down at me with the same manic, terrifying grin.
“Boo,” he laughed, grabbing hold of my head and straightening me, keeping me steady, forcing me to look up at him.
“Bad news, I’m afraid,” he said, twisting his lips. “I don’t think you have long left. Which is a shame, I know, because we were having such fun together! But it does mean I need to speed our lessons along. You don’t mind, do you, prince?”
His hands moved, and the next thing I knew something was being forced around my neck, tight enough that it cut off my breathing, tight enough that I could no longer twist and turn.
The cold metal bit into my skin, and I knew then it was a clamp.
“So, having said that, we’re now onto our final lesson, and this one is the most important,” Vienna said from above me. “I can teach you all about foreplay. I can remind you of the importance of your hands. Your dick. Your mouth. But the real lesson comes from in here.”
He tapped my temples.
“If you don’t learn how to respect women, if you don’t retrain your mind, it doesn’t matter what your body knows. You’ll always revert back to violence. But luckily for you, I’m practically a brain surgeon. I can reprogram you.”
He brought the knife to my forehead, carving along the length of it. The knife travelled around the side of my head, and along my ears.
I tried to scream, tried to move, but I couldn’t do anything. My lips began to tear, the veins in my neck bulging.
Then Vienna dug his fingers into the split in my scalp and tugged, tearing the skin from my head.
I howled, my lips tearing open in one smooth movement as I screamed and screamed. Blood flooded my mouth, choking me, making every breath difficult. Vienna used my hair for momentum, grunting with the effort of scalping me.
My vision swam with black, and bloody vomit exploded from my lips.
Then my skin was slapped over my face, shrouding me in darkness.
“Goodnight, Nico. I’ll take good care of Princess for you.”
And then he slammed the knife into my brain.