Page 79 of Avelina

I stared up at him and shook my head, guilt creeping into my mind. No, I don’t.

“The Holy Daughter was right,” Axel said. I turned back to him to see that he’d been watching our interaction closely. “She is a talented connector. She’s already mastered internal communication. Interesting. She’d be a very valuable servant. And a healer as well.”

His eyes raked over my body again, lingering on my legs. Aaron’s warning about the tight pants suddenly made more sense. I would punch this douchebag right in his dick. If I could reach that high.

“Thanks, but I already have a job,” I said.

Axel chuckled. “Spirited,” he said. “The pit will fix that.”

“Your face is a pit,” I spat. I don’t know where it came from. The rain was pouring down, now, and we were all slowly sinking into the mud. I wasn’t so much terrified as I was pissed off. This guy was a lecherous, imbecilic troglodyte, and I wasn’t taking any more of his shit.

Lee, don’t taunt the psychopath.

Fuck this guy.

Aaron squeezed my hand, pulling me farther behind him so I couldn’t interact with Axel directly.

“Ellis, take out your weapon and point it at the dog’s head,” Axel said. Ellis did as he was told, and my heart skipped a beat. I became aware of the fact that the two überzombies who’d been guarding the back door were now slinking around the house through the dark. These two wore much finer clothes, similar to Axel’s, each with a wide hat and golden cloak. They were younger and much less bedraggled than the rest, though their hats didn’t save them from the deluge. They moved in to flank us. We were surrounded.

Aaron glanced over his shoulder at the newcomers, then back at Axel and said, calmly, as if he were giving a patient warning to a child, “This will not end well for you, Axel. Hurt him again and you will get to see why nobody has gotten to me all these years, despite their many, many attempts. You only brought six with you, and they all look like they need a hot meal and a week of sleep. That won’t be nearly enough to keep me from killing you.”

Axel hesitated, then clenched his jaw, his face filling with rage. “How dare you,” he growled. “You are a traitor, Aaron Atticus!”

I thought we weren’t supposed to piss off the psychopath, I thought, though I was really thinking about what he’d said about their attempts to “get him.” Ward had mentioned something about it, but Aaron had never spoken of that to me.

Too late for diplomacy, Aaron thought back.

“Accept my offer,” Axel hissed. “You’re lucky to be getting any offer at all. I will give you the dog, and I will take the bitch. She can even keep her shield up. I promise not to kill her.”

Without warning, Axel’s thoughts came to us in a flood through Spirit. I will make her scream though, he thought. First with pain, then with pleasure.

He was imagining all the things he would do to me, where he would take me, how he would subdue and bind me, and which instruments of torture he would use. He was getting hard just thinking about it.

Axel was an actual sadist, and he had done all these things before, usually to young girls from SONA. Occasionally, he was tasked with subduing the girls who were identified as greater protectors so that they could be inducted into the Rhoyal Healers Guild. They always had Protection; he always succeeded in breaking them. He had one that very minute, a girl of about fourteen, tied up in his manor and ready to deliver to the compound.

He marveled at his luck in getting two protectors so close together. He wondered how long he could keep me before he had to turn me over to Seleca. How many times could he rape me before he had to deliver? Enough to impregnate me? Maybe Seleca would let him keep me if that happened since it was so soon after giving the guild another one. Threats to a baby are always a good way to force a protected woman into staying. That’s how the Ministry always did it with the Rhoyal Healers.

He’d always wanted to bond a greater protector who could heal him in his own home every night instead of having to pay for the Ministry-owned healers. He was almost fifty, after all. Time to settle down. I wasn’t as exquisite as Farrah, but I was still a very valuable piece of property. He knew at least three others who might want to rent me. Valuable, indeed.

Aaron’s rage bubbled up underneath the onslaught of horrific thoughts and images. It nauseated me, making me feel unsteady. I had to rest my forehead on Aaron’s back to keep from falling over.

Stop, Spirit! Aaron demanded. That’s enough. We get it. I won’t let her go.

He’s pure evil, I thought. Pure evil. Pure evil. I shook uncontrollably. Aaron reached his arm back to steady me.

“Well, Aaron?” Axel demanded, his smirk firmly planted on his face again. “What will it be? Go on your way and everyone lives? Or put the dog down?”

Get ready to drop the shield, Lee.

What are we doing? I asked, panicking again.

I’m going to disarm Ellis. You grab Ward and pull the shield back up around all of us. Then we’ll leave.

Are you sure?

Yes, he thought, pulling out his own dagger. I will handle Ellis. You grab Ward.

Okay, I thought to him uncertainly. It was a simple enough plan, but it didn’t feel right. I could hear my own heart pounding.

---