AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sharah took me into the bedroom, along with Hanna, to examine us and tend to our wounds. As she examined my back, she said, “Do you know the one interesting thing about this?”
“I don’t think any of it is interesting.” I wasn’t feeling particularly chatty.
“You’ll want to know this. Your tattoos? They were right in line with several of the blows, but neither tattoo was touched. It’s obvious the chain landed along them, but where your tattoos are, there is no mark—no wound.”
I raised my head. “Really?”
“So help me, yes.” She traced the lines crisscrossing my back. “These will heal. You will have scars, but I think I can minimize most of them. You’ll need to rest, though—”
“I will rest when Hyto is dead and rotting. We have a dragon to kill, and Chase to find.” I then told her everything I could remember about seeing Chase on the astral. Even though she tried to remain professional, I could see the relief breaking in her eyes.
“I miss him so much. But Camille—you have to rest. I can dress these, but if you use them too much, they may tear open and scar—”
“Then color me marked. Menolly lives with her scars, and so can I. And if I am scarred, let it be a reminder that no man will ever touch me this way again. Be he dragon, demon, or devil. I have to get out there again. I have to see Hyto die. I can’t hide at home or I’ll never be able to go out again. Do you understand?”
I turned to her, grabbing her wrist and leaning forward. “Hyto taught me to fear in a way I’ve never, ever experienced. If I don’t conquer this, I’ll have nothing left. I don’t have Menolly’s strength, or Delilah’s athletic ability. All I have are a handful of spells, some of which work when they have a whim to. I can’t let this beat me. If I stay at home, cower in my room, Hyto will have won. I have to exorcise him from my mind. I have to get him out of my head.”
Hanna stood up. “Let her do as she will. Camille is a brave young woman, and I thought sure Hyto would kill her the first night. But she withstood his treatment and even managed to drive him into a rage like no other I’ve seen. If she can come down off that mountain with the wounds she has, then she can withstand another battle.”
She turned to me. “You would make the Northmen proud if you were one of us. You are a warrior woman in spirit, if not in body. And spirit is often far stronger than muscle and bone.”
Sharah let out a long sigh. “You’ll do as you wish, of course. You three always do. All right, but at least let me give you a painkiller. I have developed one that your system can withstand.”
“Will it take me off my game?” I stared into her eyes, challenging her. Flanked by my family, by Trillian and Smoky, I found my courage returning, and I wanted to make them proud. I wanted to make myself proud. I wanted to prove that no pervert could cow me. The memory of groveling at Hyto’s feet stung far more than the blows on my back or anything else he’d done to me. “I have to be alert.”
Sharah nodded, and something told me she knew what I was thinking and understood. “You won’t lose any speed with this one. But it will help you move around without as much pain, and so will the ointments I have for your wounds.”
“Then I will gratefully accept it.” I smiled then, and she leaned in and hugged me as a sister might. “Do you think Hyto might have given me a disease when he . . . when he . . .”
Sharah bit her lip. “You’re pretty bruised up down there. I can give you a potion to dispel any disease he might have. I’ve never had the opportunity to treat a dragon for wounds, let alone an STD. So I don’t really know.”
“I hate asking Smoky about it—just another reminder of what Hyto did to me. To us. But I’d better take the potion, just in case.” I kicked the ground, wincing as the blow ricocheted through my leg muscles. “Damned devil.”
“We all have our devils . . . yours is just larger than most,” she whispered as I downed the bottle of pink liquid she pressed into my hand. “Here, drink this for the pain. And if you need to talk, I’m here. You know that, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” I said softly. “If Hyto is my devil, then he’s going to find himself on the wrong end of the pitchfork.”
After she treated me, Sharah turned her attention to Hanna and I rejoined the others in the living room. Delilah motioned me toward the kitchen and, managing to convince Smoky and Trillian that I’d be all right without them joined to my hip, I followed her into the warm, cozy room.
As I slid into one of the distressed kitchen chairs, wincing, she pushed a sandwich in front of me. “You need to regain your strength. Eat more.”
“Yes, ma’am.” I pulled the sandwich to me—peanut butter and jelly? Since when did Smoky eat peanut butter?
As she sat down, staring at me, I felt my reserve slipping. “Camille . . . what do you need? You’ve always been here for us, and now it’s our turn. Whatever you need, just ask.”
She leaned forward and picked up a potato chip off the plate, lifting it to my lips. I obediently opened my mouth and accepted the crisp, chewing slowly as I thought over her question. What did I need? My emotions were racing between heartbroken and furious.
I let out a sigh and put down the sandwich as she stood and poured me a glass of milk. “What do I need? What I need is for none of this to have happened. But it did, and now I need to figure out how to cope with it. My emotions are all over the board. I haven’t had time to process what’s happened. Hyto . . . he humiliated me, Delilah. I can withstand a lot of things, but that—no. He stripped me of my dignity, and he hurt me.”
“How . . . how are you going to handle what he . . . the . . .”
I shrugged. “Rape isn’t about sex—it’s about wielding power. I know that much, and I refuse to let him destroy my passion. I won’t let him take that away from me. But the pain . . . the beatings . . . I’ve never experienced pain like that before. And you know I’ve been hurt a lot since we came over Earthside. I’m not as quick or physically as strong as you and Menolly. The pain scared me.”
Delilah bit her lip, then leaned forward. “You will get through this. It’s your nature, Camille. But whenever you need to vent, just tell me—or Menolly—and we’ll be there for you. If you need to scream in the woods, or beat up on some stupid troll, we’ll find you what you need and let you whop ass on it.”
I sucked in a long, deep breath and let it out with a shudder. “I thought I’d met evil before, but he is evil like . . . like Karvanak was—only less reasonable and far more dangerous. He’s a sadist. He drinks deep from the pain of others. And he’s jealous—he’s so jealous of Smoky.”
“It’s sad when a father can’t rejoice in the joys of his children.” Delilah frowned. “At least Smoky didn’t kill Vanzir. We thought he was going to, but when we found out you’d been captured, he went wild. He totally blames himself for it—if he hadn’t yelled at you and told you to get out of his sight, you wouldn’t have gone walking in the woods and been captured.”
