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Mackenzie’s howls fill my ears, drawing my attention to her. They’re in tandem with mine.She feels my pain, just like I feel hers.
23
MACKENZIE
“Stop,” I sob, bile rising in my throat with every crack of the whip against Chase’s back. His face contorts from the pain, his hisses of agony snaking deep inside me, winding into the fabric of my soul.
I can’t stand seeing him hurting like this. My own pain is minimized as I watch them whip Chase, the sound of it as it hisses before striking and tearing his skin pure agony. Droplets of his blood spray on my face.
With every strike of the whip, I jerk on the cold stone of the altar, feeling it hitting my back.
What I feel for Chase defies all logic. Once he guided my mind back to the Ferris Wheel, the memories engulfed me. The intense feelings for him that I kept hidden deep inside me rose up, infiltrating me with a truth I could no longer deny. I love Chase Landon. I have for quite some time.
I feel his pain because I’m in love with him.
It’s not the kind of love typical high school students fall in and out of. This love is all consuming and soul deep. The kind that rocks your world, transforming you from the magnitude of it. Our souls are bound and tethered together.
I hated Chase when he stepped through the door of my house, convinced he was only brought in as my foster sibling because my mom was desperate to replace Gavin. While I understood her loss and the resulting blinding pain from his absence, there was no replacing my brother.
As much as I tried to convince myself I hated Chase, there was something deep inside me that drew me to him. Whenever he wasn’t looking at me, I watched him, telling myself I needed to learn as much as I could about my enemy so I could expose him for the fraud he was.
I wasn’t supposed to fall for him, but that’s exactly what happened.
I fought my growing feelings, denying their existence.
When Chase took me to an amusement park this past summer, that moment on the Ferris Wheel changed everything between us.
Suddenly, I could no longer deny the electric charge in the air every time our eyes locked and held. Or the way a simple touch from him made my skin tingle, everything inside me coming alive. Since the car accident that killed my brother, I’d been either angry or numb. Chase changed all that. He made me smile and laugh again. I began noticing and appreciating colors, sights, and sounds I’d been apathetic to.
Still, I fought the attraction. Not only because of my dead brother but because he’s my foster sibling.
Right now, there’s no denying the overwhelming intense feelings between us. He felt my pain earlier, and I sure as fuck am feeling his right now as the whip strikes his back again, his blood splatter hitting my cheek.
Orpheus is still assaulting my body, his powerful thrusts and large size tearing my insides apart. It’s agony. But my screams and sobs worsen as I stare up at Chase, suspended above me, watching his face contort from the lashing. Sweat and blood mingle together on his body, dripping down his skin onto me. Somehow, the lifeforce that’s leaking from him is giving me strength.
I needed him earlier. He needs me now.
When the whip cracks against Chase’s back again, my eyes lift to the ropes, hope flaring inside me as they fray near the metal hook.Come on. Break.
Chase’s agonizing howl cut through me like the wind. The rope snaps, and he falls, dropping behind me onto the cement floor. I crane my neck, trying to see him, as I wiggle my tingling fingers, reaching for him. The fucking shackles on my wrist are too damn tight, limiting my movement, but still, I strain my arms and fingers, searching for him.
Searing pain rips through me as Orpheus digs his fingers into the pentagram one of the cult members carved on my upper thigh, drawing my attention to his black mask.
His eyes burn with rage. Ignoring the devil has pissed him the hell off.
Although pain sears through my private parts, Chase’s distraction made it bearable. I squeeze my eyes shut, agony coursing through me. Although the physical pain is terrible, being violated by Satan and having my innocence stolen from me with four cult members and Rosario watching makes it one hundred times worse.
What the fuck is wrong with her? How can she allow this to happen?
My eyes pop open, searching for her. When I meet her dark eyes, I glare at her with all the loathing I can muster while Orpheus continues ramming himself into me. Sympathy shines in her eyes as she twists a rosary between her fingers. I narrow my eyes at it, surprised at what I’m seeing, before they lift back to her face.Fuck you, Rosario. You’re just as guilty as the rest of these bastards.
Turning my head back to the ceiling, I pray that this will be over soon, but thus far, my prayers have gone unanswered.
God, I can’t stand it anymore.I break down, my hysterical sobs filling the basement.
And then I feel it. Warm fingers wrapping around mine. At first, I think I’ve lost my mind, but then the familiar musk and amber scent hits my nostrils seconds before his battered face appears over mine.
“Hold onto me, angel, and don’t let go.”
