Page 17 of Angel Captive

He didn’t wait for my answer but jerked out the feather. The pain wretched through me.

“I can do this all night,” I gritted out.

“Let’s speed this up, then.” He motioned for the other three guards in the room to step forward.

Each of them picked up an instrument.

“On my mark.” Charred nodded to each of them. “Now.”

Four sharp stabs jabbed through me.

“More.” Charred sounded giddy.

Another four thrusts of metal jammed into my torso, ripping through flesh and muscle. Bright blood spewed from one of the cuts and Charred leapt back with a scowl on his face.

The piercing whitenessof the room blinded me, but I could only open one eye.

“Again, again,” Charred said in an excited voice. “Make sure he feels every cut, but not so deep he passes out again.”

Icy pain burned through my body. Over and over, the blades gored into my arms and chest. One stuck into my bone sending shooting pain up my arm.

“I will kill every one of you,” I said and clenched my teeth from another round.

Soon each pain blended with another and I lost count. Lost my mind. Lost everything, but the pain blinding me. My flesh lay torn open from gapping wounds. Shaking, I hung from chains, my blood pooling at my feet. Every inhale was fire.

11

Riley

My stomach cramped as I paced the cell, waiting for them to bring Xaden back. It was more than the fact that he could fly me up to the top of the door and help get us out of here. All we’d been waiting on was his wings to heal a bit more and timing. What if they killed him?

I stumbled over air, catching myself by grasping the metal bars.

He had to come back, he had to. I leaned my forehead against the bars and took deep breaths. Why hadn’t we pretended more of us doing what they wanted. We could’ve bought ourselves more time.

The real reason I hadn’t insisted on kissing and fondling was Xaden had never brought it up again. Like our kiss that felt like I’d been branded wasn’t anything to him. Had it just not affected him like it did me? Maybe he’d kissed a lot of women being their alien stallion and I was just one broodmare of many.

I squeezed my eyes shut at the notion or I’d be sick. No, he wouldn’t have taken so much time in training me on the guards’ routines and the upper levels that he knew about in this place if he didn’t care about me.

I had to keep it together… even if he didn’t come back. I swallowed back the bitter taste of bile burning my throat and opened my eyes. First thing I had to do was continue my pushups and core training in case I had to climb the bars alone. I pushed aside that word that rang in my head like a toll bell.

After I did my exercises, I continued worrying about Xaden. Shouldn’t they have brought him back by now?

I paced in our cell and jumped at every sound, my heart racing, hoping it was him. Each time I was disappointed when a guard would stroll past or another prisoner in another cell would call out in pain.

And with no window in our cell and Xaden had told me we were under the ground on this level, I had no idea how much time had gone by. Only the breakfast and evening meals gave us a count of the day and it felt like this morning with Xaden had been weeks ago already.

When the elevator dinged down the hallway, I shot up to the bars, pressing my face between them to see if it was Xaden. Four Roulex guards dragged a body down the hallway.

Xaden! My heart slammed into my throat.

There wasn’t a spot on him that wasn’t bleeding. And his wings…I cried out, clutching my stomach. His feathers were shorn off and his wings shredded.

“You fucking bastards!” I slapped my hand against the bars.

“Back off, bitch,” Charred said and turned the damn tractor beam on me so I couldn’t move.

They threw Xaden into the cell, locked the door behind them, then whistled and joked as they left.

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