Chapter 57
Myles
We’ve left a butcher’s trail through the farmhouse. Gore painted up the walls, covering the strange sigils on them.
We carved through every cult-fucker, but they kept coming. One of them swung a meat cleaver and caught Phoenix in the ribs before Zane dropped him.
There’s blood soaking our clothes, in our boots, in our mouths.
But my hands still shake on the machete handle.
It’s not enough. I want more.
Phoenix managed to stay strategic enough to keep one alive while we were slaughtering blindly. The guy he grabbed quickly squealed about the old stables, promising that Ivy was inside with “Father Bennett” and “Brother Derek”.
There’s nothing holy about what they’re doing here.
I want whoever’s in that barn.
Storming toward it, we fall into step. Zane charges through the doors like a battering ram. They explode inward, flooding the dark space in dim light. Shouts and chaos erupt immediately.
The air in the barn is thick enough to chew, stinking of wet hay and sweat.
Flies rise from the straw like black confetti, but the first thing I see is Ivy.
Hanging from the support beam, her arms are stretched high above her head, wrists shredded by the hemp binding. Her skin’s a battlefield of cuts and bruises.
For a second my knees nearly buckle. Only two days ago, her hair shone like spider’s silk and her skin glowed with a fulfillment I never thought I could give anyone.
Something punches my shoulder as I stand there, paralysed. A hot sting erupting like the bite of a bullet—probably is.
At that moment, a hillbilly-looking weasel looks up over her shoulder with wide eyes. He releases Ivy’s hips, leaving her body swinging as he stumbles back.
That’s when I see his cock is out, glistening but deflating quickly as it flops uselessly. His face is streaked with claw marks and his dirty singlet showcases a deep bite on his shoulder.
My vision tunnels as my blood starts to boil.
The sagging jeans around his ankles trip him, landing flat on his ass.
Crossing the distance, I slash at the scum’s legs with my machete.
I don’t want him to die just yet. When he keeps trying to crawl away as if he has a right to live, I kick him onto his stomach and slice through his Achilles tendons.
“You touched her?” I roar. “You fucking touched her!”
I want to tear the vermin to shreds but I need to focus on my girl. He won’t get far now.
Phoenix’s gun fires rapidly somewhere to my left, every shot a punctuation mark. Zane bellows, his chainsaw roaring through the mayhem as body parts hit the straw.
They’re turning this barn into a slaughterhouse but all I can see is her.
Her eyes are open.
Her mouth moves but no sound comes out, just trembling lips that make my heart shatter. Her body sways, legs powerless to steady her, wrists taking the entire weight of her body.
I’m at her side in an instant. “Ivy—I’ve got you.” My voice cracks, hands shaking. “I’ve got you. I’m here, baby, I’m here. Just hang on…”
Swinging my machete, I cut through the thick cord, catching her as she drops like deadweight. The self-inflicted wound on my chest burns with the movement but I relish the pain, knowing it’s Ivy’s name marking me forever.
She’s feverish, the cold sweat and gore are slick against my palms as I lower us to the floor. Then carefully, I peel the rest of the cord from her wrists.
Stripping off my shirt, I drape it over her body, shielding her nakedness. But the red smear between her thighs crushes me.
I try to tell myself there’d be more blood if the baby was harmed. But it does nothing to calm me.
Holding the limp body of the woman I love, I pull her into my lap, so her precious skin doesn’t touch the ground.
Images of her perfect hands in the soil flash through my mind, wrists unmarred. I can’t reconcile the two images.
I want to rip the world apart for letting this happen.
But her shallow breaths fan across my face, anchoring me in the turmoil threatening to rip me open.
Crouching beside me with a hand pressed to his ribs, Phoenix stifles a groan. His expression is torn between torment and fury, but he doesn’t speak as the carnage dies down.
“I’m here, baby,” I sob into her hair, rocking her back and forth. “You’re safe now. We’re here. We’ve got you.”
She smells like iron, dirt, and terror. Her hair is stiff with dried sweat, it’s salty taste coating my lips.
“That’s the filthy fuck who touched her,” Zane roars.
I glance up as Zane’s shadow falls over the vermin like a storm cloud.
He’s sobbing, dragging his useless legs through the straw with his jeans still around his ankles. His dick has gone soft, but it’s still smeared with her sacred blood.
Zane doesn’t charge.
He drops his chainsaw, letting it cough and stall while he stalks forward steadily. “Don’t die yet. I want you alive when I rip you apart.”
“I didn’t—I didn’t… she—she was…” he wails.
I almost hand Ivy to Phoenix just to help tear the fucker apart. But I can’t bring myself to let her go.
As Zane picks up a jagged piece of broken pitchfork, my heart pounds with a sick satisfaction, watching the worm cry pathetically.
“I’m gonna make you scream exactly like she did,” Zane growls, grinning demonically as he plunges the rusted metal straight into the fucker’s inner thigh.
He shrieks. So Zane twists it more.
Ivy whimpers in my arms. Cupping her face, I gently turn it toward me, away from the monstrous scene. But as I look down at her, panic grips my heart.
Her eyes look vacant, half open like she’s not awake nor unconscious. “Ivy. Ivy, look at me. Shit—fuck—can you hear me?”
“Zane,” Phoenix calls, voice low but sharp.
But he doesn’t seem to be able to hear.
He’s stabbing wildly into the rapist’s groin and upper thighs as he writhes on the floor, desperately trying to protect himself.
“Are you gonna stop him?” I ask Phoenix, unsure if I even want it to stop.
Emotionless eyes meet mine as he shakes his head once. “We don’t take prisoners,” he reminds me, voice deadly.
We watch as Zane stabs again. Then in one gruesome move, rips the metal upward from his thigh, through his groin, tendon and muscle, until the shrieks morph into a gargle.
Blood sprays outward and I wish I was sitting closer to see what was left of the fucker’s dick.
“You don’t get to die fast,” Zane snarls. “You die like her. Slow, scared and alone.”
He must be in one of his ‘Berserker hazes’. Because the way he’s butchered this guy already… he’ll be dead in an hour.
But he doesn’t stop. Grabbing a handful of Ivy’s attacker’s hair, he pulls his head up. Shoving the piece of pitchfork straight into his mouth, he punches it, driving it through the back of the guy’s skull.
Then Zane drops the body and the bloody shard, staring at the mess as if he’s still processing what just happened.
Satisfaction floods my body, stomach unclenching as I exhale.
That fucker didn’t deserve to take another breath.
Turning, he walks back toward us, blood caked on every inch of his body.
Phoenix leans in, brushing Ivy’s hair off her back, horrified eyes locked on something I can’t see. “Jesus—” His voice is hoarse. “She’s—”
Voice rumbling, Zane looks down at her limp, broken body in my arms. “We need to get her home. Now.”
Her fingers twitch against my arm, eyes rolling aimlessly before closing as her breathing becomes deeper.
“No… no, Ivy,” I sob, heart seizing in my chest. “Stay with me. You’re okay. We’ve got you. Please… baby, please.”
Her skin’s ice-cold against mine, but her breath fans weakly against my neck—the only proof she’s still here.
Zane drops to his haunches next to us. He brushes the hair from her face with one bloodstained hand, jaw tight with grief and regret. His eyes flick to me. “We should’ve been faster,” he mutters.
Phoenix buries his head in his hands. “We failed her.”
“No,” I croak, pulling her tighter into my arms. “We came.”
Even as Ivy’s pulse flutters against my palm, it doesn’t feel like a victory. It feels like ashes.
I press my forehead to hers, my knuckles aching to break more bones.
But there’s no one left to kill. All that’s left is an oath solidifying in my blood.
I’ll never let anything hurt her again.