Page 59 of The Salvation

“Where is he?” I demand, curling my claw-tipped fingers into my palm, prepared to draw blood if it helps me through this.

“He will be along very soon.” With one hand firmly stationed around my waist, Reaver reaches his other for the decanter onthe nearby end table. My breath hitches as he offers it to me. “Have some wine, sweet monster.”

I shake my head, but I already know it’s pointless to refuse. He proves it with one simple press of the rim to my lower lip. So, I swallow my indignation and let him tip the wine into my mouth. It’s much sweeter than I anticipated. And warms my veins like a heated lullaby. It dizzies my senses almost immediately, and I grip the arm of the throne for control.

His closed-mouth chuckle grates on my nerves. And his cock twitching against my back. “Like it? Just a bit of vampire venom sweetening the wine. You will appreciate this night more with it, my lady.”

“I can think of a few other activities I’d enjoy more,” I say through clenched teeth.

“Oh, there is more to come. Much more. Why don’t we get this evening started?” One lift of his hand, and the Court stills. Reaver lifts his chin to announce, “Bring out the contestants!”

On opposite ends of the arena, the contestants emerge. My stomach lurches, breath cleaving and heaving at the sight of a vampire built like a barbarian thundering into the center...and one petite human woman, clad in little more than a white dress, approaching from the other. Her footsteps are slow. And while she tries to lift her chin to show some courage, all can see the tremors of fear. The deck is stacked.

Heart shaking, I search for Merikh, wishing he could simply enter the Court and stop all this. All it would take is one sweep of his deathly eyes—but it’s impossible.

The moment the participants meet in the inner circle of the arena, Reaver proclaims, “Begin.”

One word. That’s all it takes.

The wine interferes with my ability to process. Swirls my vision. Dulls all my senses, apart from touch.Histouch.

A white shape dodges, weaves, and sidesteps, trying to escape any blows from the vampire, but he’s toying with her. Predator and prey. Pure sport.

Our game up here is no different, considering Reaver’s hand roaming to forbidden territories.

“Hmm...” he purrs against my ear, his hand taking its fill of my right breast, fondling the flesh. “Your tits may be smaller, Your Highness, but they are pert and well formed with skin as soft as silk. And these...”—he captures one nipple between his thumb and index finger in a vice-like grip, wrenching a gasp from my throat—“are ever so pretty and taut.”

In my wine-induced stupor, I can’t focus. After pinching my bud until it’s erect, Reaver pauses. When chilled air rushes across one side of my chest, I register he’s shifted one swathe of material aside to expose my breast. He pets it, squeezing the mound in open court. After taking a drink, he inches his fingers at my thigh higher, poised right at the base of my cunt.

“Look at that. It seems we have a winner,” he chuckles while circling a thumb around my nipple. It doesn’t matter if it’s the result of the damn venom. Or if I rationalize this is non-consensual, it doesn’t stop me from loathing myself for how my body responds against my will.

Doing whatever I can to distract myself, I force my eyes to the arena, where the vampire has the young woman on all fours. Dress bunched up around her hips. And he wastes no time in slamming his dick into her, relishing her screams as he rapes her. I choke on a cry because the moment the vampire below rammed her was the moment that Reaver stabbed a finger inside me.

“Feel that, Your Highness?” He circles a cruel finger inside me, and I work against the tears burning my throat. “Seems the wine is doing the trick. So wet and warm. Unless it’s my superiorskills of rousing the libido of an already wanton woman. And the show, of course.”

He chuckles wickedly as he gestures to the sight. A whimper escapes my throat by how Reaver slides another finger inside me while the vampire forces the girl into an upright position so he may bite her. The wine rattles my thoughts more, and I’m bending, surrendering to my impulses as I feel my inner muscles squeeze around his fingers.

“That’s a good girl...” he coos and tweaks my nipple. I bite back a moan as the vampire below ruts into the girl, quickening his pace while he drinks from her neck.

Reaver’s dastardly fingers begin to pump, targeting my hypersensitive inner spot while his thumb swipes my slippery hot clit until the pleasure drags my unwilling body to a higher peak.

Pure dominance and bloodlust in the arena. Her screams fill the court, and the vampire finally jerks, spilling himself into her before yanking out. She topples over, curled up, defeated on the ground.

“Now, it’s your turn, Your Highness.” Reaver cups my jaw with his fingers paused inside me. He turns my face to the arena, forcing me to look while I feel the eyes of hundreds in the court upon me, witnessing his violation—knowing I appear like a willing participant.

“I-what?” I breathe out, confused, senses crazed, emotions warring between wrath and hot lust.

“You will decide who you wish to spare. The victor or the victim. The loser or winner.”

“No...” Acid laces my throat at this sick game. But my protest is weak because there’s no world in which I want that sick vampire below to live. “She lives. He dies,” I spit out.

“Here comes my favorite part,” he whispers, nipping at my jaw. “The executioner!” His last word is another announcement to the court.

My heart hammers blood to my ears as the doors of the court thunder open to unveil the executioner I should have known all along. Merikh. He needs no mask. No tunic or robe graces his shoulders. Only his black breeches, and I know they will be bloody by the time this is over.

“If it makes you feel any better, Lady of the Court of Hollows...” Reaver snidely remarks while picking up his goblet of bloody wine, “...it has little to do with you. None of this is personal. Simply business to send a message. Call it revenge, but it’s truly retribution against the sins done to me.

“Hmm...” He sets down his goblet and swirls his fingers inside my wetness, causing me to clench again. “You should truly be thanking me.”

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