AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Spread out on her stomach, her arms and legs chained to the floor. Her back naked and bleeding. Her cheek pressed against the stone, her whole body trembling in shock and pain. The warmth of her own blood was a distant thought as she stared.
Hyde’s hands were almost perfectly over hers as he held himself above her. His body not touching hers at all as he balanced perfectly, covering every inch of her.
Draven’s voice cracked through the room, making her jump.
“Get me the inquisitors whip” his words held a sadistic eagerness that made her stomach clench with dread.
If she hadn’t been so close to him, Talia would have missed Hydes sharply indrawn breath. His whole body stiffening above her at Draven’s words.
“You don’t have to do this” her words were barely a breath. A tear slipping down her cheek as he tilted his head against hers for a moment. His breath warm in her ear.
“Close your eyes,” His words soft against her hair.
A murmur of anxious tension moved through the watching vampiric court. As Draven’s steps echoed across the floor, seeming to ring in her ears as he unfurled a new whip. The sound of it hitting the floor behind her was too loud in her ears. For a moment, everything was perfectly still.
Then the whip moved.
The crack of it slicing through the air into Hydes back was loud in the room. Flinching as he jolted in pain above her, Talia bit down on her bottom lip, hard. Hyde had never shown pain before.
But even as the whip was pulled back, he was bracing for the next strike. His breathing was a forced calm on her neck.
It cracked again, lashing through his shirt into his skin. No more than a sharp breath escaping his lips, his whole body shaking with the force of the blow.
His hands flexing around hers as he braced again. The next blow found fresh skin, as did the lash after that.
His body jerking and flinching under each crack. But not once did his position over her waver. His blood was warm as it dripped from his back over his ribs to fall on her skin.
“Please stop!” She pulled uselessly at the chains holding her down.
“Draven, please!” Sobs catching her screams in her throat as the crack of the whip snapped the air again and again.
He wasn’t healing. Something was wrong. Panic filling her as he shuddered above her.
“Fuck” His pain filled word was soft but tore through every inch of her being. His hands morphing into claws for the barest of seconds before he growled, absorbing the wolf’s claws back into his human hands.
The lash tearing across the open flesh of his back. Eyes widening past her tears, Talia could have sworn she smelt burning flesh.
“I’m sorry,” she begged. “Please, please stop,”
Draven didn’t stop. The only sound in the large room was the sound of the lash as it fell across his back so many times that she lost count. Her pleas going unheard as his blood no longer dripped but ran in slow rivers over the skin of her back.
His head hung low. Brushing her shoulders as his legs shook and collapsed under him. His weight pressing against her before forcing himself to raise over her.
