Page 24 of Kept to Kill
Short turned on his heel and she was prodded in the back, so she followed him as he opened a door to another room filled with produce and supplies. She walked slowly. Would she know when her moment was? Which one should she kill first? They were both armed, but Tall had his blade out, so maybe him? She wished that she’d been taught some sort of defense, but she’d never needed to know. Vineri would simply have his men take hold of his unlucky enemy and tell her to touch him or her. It had always been as simple as that. He’d rarely drawn it out and certainly never put her in the position to be in any actual danger from her target.
They walked through another door and she knew that her time was running out. They’d take her to a dark recess, run her through, and then cut off her head to prove they’d killed a witch. How they expectedthatto verify to whoever was going to give them their reward that she wasn’t simply some hapless wench they’d slain, she didn’t know. Perhaps there was some sort of test for witchery.
They passed through another room and into a much darker one, and Lily sent a silent prayer to the gods as she pretended to stumble, whirled around and grabbed for Tall’s hand, which held the sword, except she missed entirely and caught his covered arm.
He jumped back and swore as she mumbled an apology and turned back towards Short. She wasn’t cut out for all this, she thought. She was a clumsy idiot and she was going to die. She picked up her pace, getting closer to Short, but Tall was on his guard now and she felt the knife digging into the middle of her back.
Short slowed. ‘Here,’ he said as he turned to face her, keeping well away. ‘On your knees, witch.’
Lily shook as she knelt on the ground in front of the two sailors. One of them made a crack about how he loved to see a woman on her knees and they gave each other a look that made her glance between them in confusion. One shrugged.
‘I’m willing to chance it if you are, but you go first.’ Tall laughed.
Short grinned and, to Lily’s horror, he began to unlace his breeches.
‘Open your mouth, witch. If you pleasure us well, we might even let you live.’ He guffawed.
Lily shook her head. ‘Please,’ she pleaded. ‘I don’t know what you want of me, but if I touch you anywhere at all, you’ll die.’
He ignored her, probably assuming she was telling stories to get out of whatever he wanted her to do as he drew his hardening staff from his trousers, stroking it with a dirty hand and watching her as he did so. His tongue flicked out to moisten his lower lip and he stepped forward, putting his cock in her face.
She shuffled back with a cry, her head hitting the bulkhead with a low thud.
‘Looks like she’d rather die than suck your cock,’ his friend commented behind him with another laugh.
Short didn’t laugh; in fact, he looked very angry as he loomed over her and she shrank back. It was too much, all of this was too much, she thought, knowing she should do something. She should just touch him. Gods, she could touch his cock and he’d go down like a felled tree. Yet she was frozen, her hands gripping her own thighs as he came closer and closer.
She shrank back further, staring at him. Inside, her mind screamed at her to reach out and touch him, but she didn’t, just stared at him.
She saw a movement beside them in the shadows, but they were so intent on her that they didn’t notice the man in black that was moving slowly towards them like some Dark Realm creature from the old stories. Tall let out a small cry, falling to his knees and then onto his side with nothing more than a gurgle. Short spun around to find nothing and no one. He whirled back to her.
‘You killed him, you fucking killed him. I knew you were a—’
She heard a crack and he fell to the ground on top of his friend in a macabre little pile. Behind him stood Mal, an excitement in his eyes that she’d seen once or twice before, like when he’d tormented her at the inn. This man liked to hurt and kill; nay, he loved it.
He gazed down at her and she met his eyes defiantly as she tried to still her quivering lip.
‘Should have killed them,’ he rasped in a voice that sounded gravelly and unused.
‘I know,’ she said softly. ‘I …’ She trailed off, not sure how to explain it to him in a way that didn’t make her sound like a fool. Perhaps she simply was a fool, she thought. ‘I wanted to, but I … I just couldn’t.’
She looked up at him, expecting to see censure in his eyes, judgment. But they showed nothing at all. He dropped something in front of her. Her gloves. Gratefully, she snatched them up and dragged them on quickly.
‘Thank you.’
He motioned for her to get up and she stood slowly, holding onto the wall.
‘Hurt?’ he asked, and she wondered why he cared. It wasn’t as if she was mortally wounded, and they’d made it quite clear that they didn’t care much for her comfort.
‘No, they hadn’t got to the killing part yet. They wanted …’ Her brow furrowed. Until today she hadn’t known people did that. If there was a word for it, she had no idea what it was called. She must have seen that sort of thing before she wound up with Vineri, but so many of the specifics of that time were vague.
Mal’s eyebrow raised and she thought he looked a bit angry for a moment, but then it was gone and she looked back down at the bodies.
‘Are you going to just leave them here?’
He shook his head and waved her back the way the sailors had brought her, his attention now on the dead men. He didn’t look at her again. She might as well not exist, she thought as she made her way back through the cargo holds to the brig. She opened the cell door and went back inside, sinking down onto the bench with a sigh and putting her head in her hands.
A tap on the bars had her head snapping up, fearing more sailors. But it was Mal. He surveyed the cell and then opened the door, gesturing with his head for her to come out. So she did.
