Page 146 of Anathema Codex

"Don't make me come and get you, Ichabod," he calls over his shoulder, adding, "And leave those fucking pants. You won't need them."

Dammit.

I drop the pants and head for his workroom, head hanging low, resigned to whatever he has planned for me, because I know there's no escape. If I had any hope left inside my chest, I'd put on the goddamn pants and head straight out the front door, but Lakyn knows he doesn't have to worry about that.

He's left me here alone so many times and I never run. I've cleaned up so many messes in this workroom of his, dissolved bodies, listened to his victims screaming and begging for help until the soundproof door slams shut to muffle the sound of a hatchet hacking away at what used to be a person to the rhythm of some Blondie song.

"Good boy," Lakyn purrs, smiling at me as I pause in the doorway. He's got Bea's head propped up on the table, facing me, and I drop my gaze to the floor to avoid it, but the sound of his chuckle followed quickly by liquid spilling into the old tub makes me look over at him.

He's adding the chemicals we use to dissolve the bodies of his victims, and although I know he's going to hurt me, I'm hoping he'll at least kill me before putting me in that toxic sludge. Another bottle is opened and added to the mix and the acrid stench of the chemicals burns my nose and my eyes, and I swipe at the fresh tears on my cheeks.

"Time to say bye-bye to Trixie," he says, tossing the empty jug in his hand over his shoulder. "And then you're going to handle this," he adds, pointing down at his dick.

"What do you want me to say, Lakyn?" I ask, and I'm surprised by how empty and flat my voice sounds. I should be screaming at him. I should be angry for what he's done to Bea and me, and for what he's probably about to do... but I just don't have the energy to feel anything other than resigned to my fate.

"Didn't you hear me? Tell the bitch bye-bye!" He waves a hand at her head as he adds more to the mixture in the tub, but I refuse to look at her. "Of course, I'd understand if you don't want to say goodbye. Maybe we should just throw her away like she tried to do with us, eh? Forget her exactly like she forgot you?"

I flinch.

"Oh, what? Does it bother you knowing that blonde cunt forgot all about you and me while she was getting high off cactus juice out in the desert?" Lakyn chuckles, adding the last sprinkle of lye into the mixture.

"You're lying," I whisper, and he crosses the room in a flash, gripping my arm and slamming me into the wall by the door as his other hand finds my throat and squeezes just enough to threaten my airway and make the blood pound behind my eyes.

"How many times do I have to fucking tell you this... I. Don't. Lie." Lakyn sucks his teeth, tongue running across them as his blue eyes blaze with some mix of righteous anger, furious indignation, and the fervor of his self-worship.

"Bea wouldn't forget me." The words are strained, but I have to believe them. Lakyn doesn't like to lie, that's true, but I can't imagine a world where Beatrix St. Germain would ever forget me. She loves me—lovedme. She hunted down the bastard that got me hooked on drugs and killed him for me. She fed me and took care of me when most people wouldn't even look me in the eye unless they wanted to fuck me or hurt me.

"How do you know?" Lakyn asks, voice dangerously quiet as he leans in close. "You didn't even know who Trixie really was before I came along."

"I knew the parts of her that mattered," I answer, voice shaking almost as much as my hands.

He suddenly releases my throat, yanking me off the wall and bending me over the table right next to her head. Twisting her grotesque face toward me, he makes sure she's in my line of sight as he pins me to the table. "You really think this useless bitch gave a shit about you?"

"I know she did," I answer, keeping my eyes open because I don't want to tempt him into more violence than he already has planned, but all I can do is gasp when Lakyn grabs Bea's head by the hair and tosses it into the tub. Dangerous chemicals splash out onto the floor, but none of it makes it over to us.

"Guess we'll never know the truth, will we?" Lakyn kicks my feet apart, one hand in the small of my back to keep me in position as I listen to him spit into his hand. "Now, I think we were in the middle of something before you stormed off like a little bitch."

"Fuck!" I groan as he slams deep in one merciless thrust, and a second later he has a handful of my hair, craning my head back. He's using my hair like reins and he wraps his other hand over my hip to yank me back into him so that every sharp snap of his hips has the maximum impact he can get. Rough and brutal since my ass hurts even more after I came.

"Yessss," he hisses. "That's right. Work that sweet ass and show me why I keep your hole around."

I have to clench my teeth tight, blocking out the pain and the stench of the chemicals going to work on Bea's head so I can plant my hands on the steel table and push back, meeting his next thrust and swiveling my hips, squeezing his cock to make him come faster.

"That's a good whore." Lakyn slaps my ass, keeping his other hand in my hair, but as uncomfortable as the position is, I don't care about that. I can't see Bea's head this time, and even though I hate the smell clogging my nose and my lungs, at least it means her head will be gone soon and he won't be able to torment me with it anymore.

The pain is intense, but I let the burning ache of each vicious thrust fade into the background, separating from myself like I used to when I fucked bastards on the street for a handful of dirty bills. Instead, I focus on the fact that Lakyn hasn't tried to convince me that Bea forgot me.

If it was true he wouldn't have given up so easily.

He's never tolerated being called a liar, and even though he's making sure this hurts, I know he wouldn't be working to come right now if he was angry. If he was really pissed at me, he'd be grabbing one of the tools on that wall of nightmares here in his workroom and making me bleed.

"My turn." Shoving me forward, Lakyn easily buckles my arms, crushing me to the table as he fucks me harder, faster, turning the animal inside him loose just like he did the first night he fucked me. The first time I ever took a life, when I 'proved' myself to him.

Impressedhim.

Tears burn my eyes, but I just clench my hands into fists, white-knuckle tight, and hold out because I know he's close. There's a few more brutal thrusts before he slams deep, bruising my thighs against the edge, and I know the table would have moved if it wasn't bracketed to the goddamn floor, but he finally comes, letting out a long, satisfied groan.

"Fuck!" Lakyn shouts, pulling out too fast a second before he slaps my ass again. I'm limp on the table, muscles trembling in the aftershock of pain and adrenaline. "Damn, Ich, is that blood?" He laughs. "I guess that makes up for you being such a pussy before."

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