AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The noise he makes sounds like a thunderstorm. Ominous and maliciously lurking on a distant horizon. “You’re nothing but a spoiled cunt. A precious little Noire House princess, aren’t you? Fucking pathetic.”
His boots with laces up the front of his shins fill my field of vision, even though everything in the background is a little blurry.
“I can’t,” I murmur.
“Don’t test my patience, or you’ll live to regret it.” With one of those boots I’m sure have stomped on countless windpipes, he pushes the plate even closer to me. If I wasn’t feeling so utterly defeated right now, I’d take the thing and smash it. A shard of porcelain to jab into his thigh might come in useful.
Maybe I’ll do that later after he leaves me alone again.
“Please don’t make me eat this.” Keeping my face tucked into the blanket, I curl away from him.
This man already believes I’m weak and disgusting. They’re all convinced I’m no different from my father, and maybe I should be fighting back against his bullying behavior, or standing up for myself, but something breaks inside me. Being considered pathetic like them is what splinters me into fragments on the floor at his feet.
“I’ll get sick.” The whisper is out of my mouth before I can take it back. My eyes stay glued to the mist drifting against the window outside. There’s no way I could handle seeing the disgust on his face at the pitiful state I’m in. Surely, all Raven’s preconceived notions about me have just been confirmed because he storms out and slams the door behind him. The lock turns aggressively, and I’m once again on my own.
This time, tears roll in silent tracks down my face.
But before he can return and force a feeding tube down my throat, I drag myself out of my makeshift nest on the floor. Picking up the plate, I carry it across to place it with the growing pile of untouched meals and make my way into the bathroom.
That’s where I stay for god knows how long.
I sit on the tiled floor and let the tears consume me at the same time as the hot water scalds my naked body. Hair plasters against my face and shoulders, and I don’t even care. There’s nothing I want to do other than wallow right here with my knees huddled against my chest and the wretchedness of my bloodline eroding my sanity.
When I’ve purged myself of every last sob and run through all scenarios I can imagine for trying to escape—none of which results in anything but my brains being splattered all over the wall—I crawl out of the shower and put on another one of the big masculine-smelling shirts from the folded pile stacked on the vanity. Avoiding the fogged-up mirror as I do so.
For once, I’m glad for the steam. I don’t need to witness my puffy, swollen state of dejection.
Defeat weighs me down as I unlock the bathroom door and head back into the bedroom, but I pull up short in the doorway. The nest I had been wallowing in on the floor for days now has been tidied up. My bed has been remade for me. Sitting on the end of the blanket is a tray containing a bowl of salad greens and chicken, plus an assortment of freshly cut fruit. Beside it is a steaming mug of black coffee and a pot of herbal tea. There’s also a notepad and pen.
I fall on the salad with a whimper. The thought briefly crosses my mind that maybe they’ve intentionally poisoned me with this offering, but hunger is a savage bitch and doesn’t care right now. Rather than exercise any form of caution, I practically inhale everything in one go.
It’s only once I’ve devoured every last scrap of food in front of me that I realize there’s something written on the notepad. Peering closer, I see neatly printed handwriting in black ballpoint that fills the topmost page.
“Write your list.”
8
The easiest thing would have been to put a bullet between the cunt’s eyes. To be over and done with it.
I told Thorne there was no sense in bringing her here. Despite his grand plans and schemes he’s got in that big brain of his, it’s all going to turn to shit.
I can smell it.
She’s Noire blood.
Which means we should have just chopped the bitch up and shipped her remains off to one of the pig farms.
But then again, the thirst for vengeance is feverish in my bones. When I heard that her father had been dealt with, my first emotion wasn’t relief that the monster who killed my sister was gone. But instead, it was jealousy. Thick and aggressive and demanding to be let out to play.
I wanted to smash something, or someone, into a pulp.
It churns inside me to think that anyone else got the opportunity to hack that piece of shit apart when I should have been the one to feast on his howls of agony for months on end.
So, this girl with her fucking purple hair and big doe eyes is going to have to suffice. I’ll bet she bruises easily, too.
The call I’ve been waiting on tonight comes through as I’m pacing the perimeter of the compound. The voice is a familiar metallic-sounding scrambler, giving me instructions on who my target is and which round of the fight they need to be taken out in.
My entire fucking life has been one endless cycle of blood and death. I’m soaked in the gore of all the bodies I’ve buried for the Anguis. But it allows me to inch closer to the ones I want to gut with my bare hands.
