Page 16 of Rising Queen (Blood Empire 1)

Chapter 5

Neo

Holy fucking shit!I think I just died and went to heaven...nah, hell. Definitely hell because what I'm looking at is a work of art created by a mesmerizing creature from the underworld. She must be.

The guys and I are in some kind of viewing area, overlooking a large room with a small stage. It looks like it's some kind of dance studio or something. This room looks a lot like the rest of the club. Black and red all over. Red curtains line the back wall, and in front of it are six men, bound and gagged to chairs. Each man is spaced equally away from each other in a row. A clear plastic tarp lies underneath their chairs with extra space all around the men as if to make sure no mess is made.

You can hear the faint sounds of their struggling and their muffled screams as they try to get free. The look of pure fear in their eyes makes my body tingle in delight. I know for a fact that what's about to happen is gonna be fucked up and bloody. I can practically feel it in my soul. And I can’t fucking wait.

“What the fuck is this?!” Axel demands.

Looking back, I see Lucas, the giddy fucker, light up like a Christmas tree, causing me to smile my own wolfish grin. He looks to be just as excited for whatever show we are about to see.

“Well, you see, today is D-Day,” he says cheerfully. The guys frown at his words, not having a clue what he’s talking about, and me, even though I don’t know shit about what that means either, I can't help but get excited along with the guy. I mean, whatever D-Day is, I love it already.

“Each man down there, tied to those chairs, are all very bad, evil men,” Lucas says, stepping up to the window. “The first guy, he raped five teenage girls after almost beating them to death. He got away with it because, as you know, money can buy a lot of things and make problems disappear.”

I start to grow enraged. I may be a sick fucker myself, but I'm not that kind of sick. I would never hurt a woman or child. Never lay my hand on any of them. As Lucas tells us what the rest of the men's crimes are and why they are strapped to those chairs, I’m shaking with fury. I’m impressed that I actually have any self-control left, stopping me from going down there and slitting each of their throats myself, so I can watch as it runs red and life drifts out of their eyes.

Guy number two touched his young sons, and when they tried to get help, the CPS worker did nothing. The CPS worker just so happens to be guy number three. Number four beat his wife, then forced her to have sex with him, every night. Number five murdered his whole family but got away with it, all because of some tampered evidence. And number six is the cop who helped number five get away with it. Lucas said they didn't find anything on him like with the rest of the men, but he was a very dirty cop that let way too much fucked up shit slide.

Music starts playing in the room below, and I immediately know what song it is. It'sBangby AJR.

All of the vile creatures snap their attention to the front, a moment later, a woman comes into view as she dances and sings along to the music.

The moment my eyes take her in, my cock grows hard. This is Queenie, I just know it is. I can’t see her face, but I've got a perfect view of her long, black hair hanging down her back in curls. She’s dressed in sexy, lacy, black panties that show off her plump and mouthwatering ass, paired with a red and black corset. Mid-thigh high boots hug her legs, and on each thigh there’s a gun holster strapped, just above where the boots end, with a bright teal pistol in each one. The color clashes with the room but draws in everyone’s attention.

As the song continues and hits the main chorus for the first time, she takes both hands, wrapping them around the handle of each gun, whipping them out, and aiming at the men’s thighs, and as the song plays the next bit of lyrics, she shoots them every time the song says “bang”.

Groaning, I rub my hand over the bulge in my pants. This is the most erotic and sexy thing I’ve ever witnessed. For the rest of the song, she keeps singing and moving her body to the beat, but it's almost like she's in the circus or something because the way her body twists and turns as she prances around is almost unnatural. As the bangs go on, she shoots them all in different parts of their bodies. Blood is splattering all over themselves and onto the plastic below, making a perfect work of art.

As the song comes to an end, she uses the last bangs to do a headshot in each person's head. Their bodies slump forward as their life is immediately snuffed out. I can't help but clap enthusiastically at the perfectly executed show that she just put on.

The sexy, little vixen, the star of the show, lets out a whoop of excitement. “Fuck yeah!” she shouts. “That was fucking amazing, the rush I got with every shot. Never gets old.”

She still hasn't faced us long enough for us to get a good look at her. She’s talking to the people that work for her, but her voice... I’ve heard it before, only it’s more mature than the one my brain remembers. Like a freight train, the memory of where I’ve heard that voice comes crashing into me.

My eyes go wide, and I want to refuse to believe it, but I know it’s true. Turning around, I ignore the guys trying to talk to me about what the fuck they just witnessed and look at the three men watching me with small smirks on their faces. Like they were all waiting for one of us to catch on.

“It’s her, isn't it?” I growl, needing them to confirm what I already know. I don't understand how in God's name this is real because all logical sense would have her far from here; she should be married with kids, happy and safe. Not be a well-known, murderous empire queen that makes men piss their pants at just the mention of her name. But deep down inside, I know it’s her, there’s no doubt in my mind.

The three guys just smirk at me, not confirming or denying my question.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Dean snaps, his control slipping slightly. He has no clue what's got me all worked up like this, and being in the dark is killing him.

Ignoring his demand, I turn back to the woman in question below us. She turns around to look right up at the gallery. Every visible piece of skin on her body has specks of blood painted on it. She’s a vision with her black hair still perfectly styled, not a single hair out of place. Her piercing blue eyes are sharp and hardened, with a mix of playfulness and wonder buried deep beneath them. She has grown into a goddess of a woman. Large, lush breasts, the same ones I used to dream about licking and sucking. I’ve imagined gripping her tits as I fucked her like an animal from behind. Her waist is still slim, but her hips have filled out and are now curvy. The one girl we were all madly in love with but couldn't have.

The guys haven’t noticed her yet; they are still looking at me, as I am caught in her powerful, beautiful gaze. “Neo!” Cass yells, shaking me, trying to get me to talk, to look at him. But I won't, I don't want to look away from her, in case she disappears again. “What is going on?”

Without breaking eye contact, I say, “It’s her.”

The guys immediately stop talking. “Who?” Dean asks, looking confused, his gaze quickly sweeping the room, not quite picking up what I’m putting down.

“Harlow,” I say. As the words leave my mouth, the guys slowly turn their heads to look in the same direction as me. Harlow’s hold on me breaks as she spots my cousins standing around me. Her eyes give nothing away, that is until they lock with Cass’s. I see fury in them for half a second before she locks it away again beneath her amused stare, and I hear him suck in a little gasp.

She turns away from us again and heads through a side door on the left, leaving her men to clean up the mess of bodies she left behind.

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