Clipped (The Clipped Saga, 1) by Devon McCormack (26 page)

Deter didn’t give him a moment to recover. He smacked the

paddle against his ass again...and again...and again.

Tears showered from Kid’s eyes.

Don’t cry, you fucking pussy
, he scolded himself.
Don’t let them
see you cry!

But the pain was far too intense.

“Ah!”

“Stop it!” Treycore cal ed out.

Vera’s fingernails dug into the desk. Her look wasn't as

sadistic as before. It was aroused.

As Deter intensified his next strike, Kid tighten his wrists

against the barbed-rope, hoping to distract himself from the pain.

Another blow to Kid’s ass sent him into a fit of screams just

as Maggie unleashed another cry from the nearby room.

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Kinzer rol ed onto his back, his chest rising and fal ing, sweat rushing down his forehead. It was like he’d had the most intense fuck of his life. He sat up, looking around anxiously.

Several yards away, near a few packed dumpsters, blood

gushed from Dedrus’s forehead and pooled onto the asphalt. He

shook feverishly.

Kinzer sprang to his feet and ran to him. Kneeling beside

him, he assessed Dedrus’s shredded body.

It reminded him of the last time he’d seen Janka. The last

time he’d ever see Janka.

“Kinzer,” Dedrus whispered. He choked. Blood rushed from

his mouth, dripping into his pool of blood. “You have to get to the child. You have to protect it from The Almighty.”

“I will.”

Dedrus eyed his sword on the other side of the al ey.

249 Devon McCormack

“Take it. Find them. Put a stop to al this.”

“Okay.”

“Promise me,” Dedrus said.

Kinzer wrestled with Dedrus’s request. How could he

promise that he could put a stop to this? For al he knew, Veylo had already killed Maggie and the child. For al he knew, the Christ could come and destroy them al . But, knowing that his friend was dying, more than anything, he wanted to help him have peace

before his last breath.

“I promise,” he said.

“And Kinzer.”

“Yes?”

A tear rushed down Dedrus’s cheek.

“I always loved you.”

Kinzer wrapped his arms around Dedrus.

“I love you, too,” he whispered. He didn’t love Dedrus the

way Dedrus loved him, but he did love him, and he wanted Dedrus

to know that before he was gone forever.

He pressed his lips to Dedrus’s blood-filled mouth. He

could feel Dedrus’s breath as it caressed his face, as it steadied.

Dedrus’s tremors subsided. And then, he was stil .

Kinzer pul ed back from the kiss.

His mind flashed to his Janka.

He had rocked back and forth, massaging his fingers through

his lover’s bloody flesh. From the corner of Janka’s blue eye, staring
vacantly forward, blood slid alongside the tip of his ful eyebrow, across

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his temple.

Kinzer had pressed his lips to Janka’s blood-smeared forehead
and offered a gently kiss.

As Kinzer’s thoughts returned to the present, he could feel

himself losing control. A fire wel ed within him, but he wouldn’t al ow it to consume him. Not just yet.

He turned back to the garage, his eyes filled with rage.

Veylo, here I fucking come.

~

Welts formed on Kid’s ass as Deter continued assaulting him with the paddle.

Mika came up alongside him. Removing a bul whip from

his bag, he twisted it around Kid’s throat. Kid moaned.

Mika tightened the whip, restricting Kid’s breath till he

gagged.Deter pounded Kid from behind.

“Fuck you, you bastards!” Treycore shouted.

Craetis massaged Treycore’s shoulder. His fingers slid down

Treycore’s back, petting him.

“No...more! He...can't...take it,” Treycore strained.

Vera giggled.

“Hasn't he already?” she asked, her eyebrow arching.

“You fuck—”

Craetis tightened his chokehold.

251 Devon McCormack

“I’m so fucking tired of hearing you talk!” he whispered. He

rubbed his free hand along Treycore's tense ass. “Mmmm...yeah, I like that.”

Mika’s eyes lit up as he loosened the whip just enough for

Kid to catch a breath, then tensed it again.

The suffocation was unbearable. It was worse than anything

Kid had experienced with Treycore. The spots were al around, but with Treycore, he trusted that he would protect him, keep him from reaching a point that was too far. With these monsters, they would take him to the depth of pain, and then, he would die. And no

amount of screaming or crying or desperately gasping for air was going to save him from that inevitable end...the end that he had agreed to.

~

“Leave...him...alone..you...bitch!” Treycore cal ed out, through gritted teeth, his voice straining from Craetis's chokehold as he watched his lover being destroyed. It was an agonizing sight,

especial y knowing that there was nothing he could do to bring Kid any relief.

Vera clicked her way to him.

“Your mortal is pathetic,” she said. “I don't imagine he can

stand much more of this, do you? I remember when you would have

suffered to see that happen to
me
. You would have wanted to rescue
me
. Time gives so much, so much that you can't hold on to, and

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promises to rip it al from you. How many times have we been in

love, Treycore? How many times have we longed for companionship

only to be dissatisfied with this one or that one? How many times have we been betrayed? It's a miracle that any of us can keep going on after al the sadness...al the disappointment. You think that we would have al discovered by now the futility of love. And yet, I long for it more. You think I take pleasure in the misery of others, but truly, I am the one who suffers, the one who is constantly being tortured, ravaged by my need for you. I'l admit that it gives me satisfaction to hurt him. I'l admit that it's perverse, but in some way, it lessens the pain.”

Deter reached the paddle as high as he could and dropped it

on Kid’s ass with an intensity that left Kid convulsing.

“Enough,” Vera said.

Deter stopped, a dissatisfied expression strung across his

face. Mika begrudgingly loosened the whip.

Kid’s naked ass and legs trembled.

Vera approached him and rested her hand on his back.

“How do you feel?” Her voice was filled with concern and worry.

He panted as his body forced air back into his lungs.

“Oh, you poor thing,” she said. She lifted him up and

slipped between him and the desk. As she rested his head on her lap, he vomited beside her.

“There, there. Shh...shh.” She skimmed the back of her

finger across his blood-and-vomit-stained cheek. “I know it hurts. I know. Be strong. You have to. You don't have any other choice.”

253 Devon McCormack
Lifting his head off her lap, she slid across his stomach fluids and set his head back down.

She stepped around the desk, opened a side drawer, and

tucked her hand inside. As she retrieved it, coiled around her arm was a snake-like creature. It was thicker than a snake, and it didn't have any eyes. It was nearly twice the size as Vera's forearm, and just below its serpent-shaped head were two limbs that looked like

lizard-legs.

“Do you remember blaggovites, Treycore?”

“Stop!” he whimpered. “Just stop.”

“You must.” She twisted her arm as she stroked the

blaggovite with the back of her free hand. “So much easier to

control than Morarkes.”

Vera lowered her arm and rubbed the blaggovite against

Kid's back.

“As I recal , you were almost killed by one.”

“I'm the one you want! Do it to me, you bitch!”

“I'm sorry, but I've already made a deal with Kid. And you

know how I am about deals.”

“Please,” Treycore whined, his chin quivering, his eyes

watering.

Vera's jaw clenched. She gripped her hand around the

blaggovite's neck and squeezed. Its tail whipped through the air. A slit opened at the tip of its head, and a screech, like a child crying in the night, fil ed the room.

“Don't you see?” she said, raising her voice to combat the

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blaggovite's scream. “This is al I've wanted...to see you experience the pain of losing the one you love. Just like I did.”

Her grip around the blaggovite's neck tightened. It

screeched even louder.

She lowered it to Kid’s head. It slithered off her arm and

coiled around his neck.

“No!” Treycore wailed.

The immortal serpent tightened around Kid’s neck, just as

Mika had done with the whip.

Kid closed his eyes, like he was drifting off to sleep. His face trembled and shook before he unleashed a shaky scream.

“You must know what it’s like,” Vera told Treycore, "the

horror of being tortured by your own vicious memories...the horror of having to relive every dark moment...every fear, till you die. What horrors do you think a boy like Kid has lived that could be so

cruel...so painful?”

255 Devon McCormack
Chapter Sixteen

“Aaaahhh!”

The pain was too intense. Maggie couldn’t bear much more.

Veylo stood at the end of her bed, gazing eagerly down at

her twat, where she imagined that her bloody baby’s head was

ripping through.

“Come on,” Veylo said, “That’s it. You’re almost there.”

Tears rushed off her crimson face.

Another immortal stood by Veylo, but Maggie didn’t

recognize him. He was nearly as tal as Craetis, his white higherling wings stretched out beside him. Whoever he was, he sure wasn’t

helping her any.

“Fuck you al ! Fuck you al to Hel !”

The pain in her increased so sharply that she couldn’t help

but scream again.

“He’s here!” Veylo announced.

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Maggie tossed about, disoriented, her body overwhelmed,

depleted.

Veylo held up what appeared to her to be a bloody bal of

yarn, and in her delirium, she thought that’s what it might have been. “He’s beautiful!” Veylo exclaimed.

A wailing sound fil ed the air.

Is that my baby?
Maggie thought.
Is that him?

“There, there,” Veylo said, rocking the bloody yarn back and

forth.

The door behind he and the higherling flew open.

~

Kinzer stood in the doorway, two swords gripped in his hands, fury in his eyes.

Maggie was lying on the bed, her pelvis dripping with

blood. But Kinzer only noticed her for a moment as his attention drew to a higherling standing beside Veylo.

And in a moment, al his rage, al the hate that he had for

The Raze, vanished.

“Ubba—da—ga—” He stuttered nonsense. He couldn’t

process a thought. “Janka?” he final y managed.

Janka stood there, silent. His wide, blue eyes, set below

those al -too-familiar bushy eyebrows, stared at Kinzer with that deep, powerful, immortal stare.

257 Devon McCormack
Kinzer’s thoughts wheeled back to that horrible day, when

he’d watched Veylo and The Raze beat and torture him...when he

thought they’d killed him.

How was he alive? Unfortunately, despite al his confusion,

he already knew the answer to his question.

“Al this time,” he said, “you’ve been working with The

Raze?”

“Not exactly accurate,” Veylo said. The baby continued

throwing a fit in his arms. “He
was
a spy, like you, but The Almighty discovered that Janka was working against Him, so He

gave him an ultimatum. He could either work with us to maintain

his position in Heaven, or forever be banished to Hel .”

“But, I saw Craetis and Veylo—”

Veylo smirked. “A clever performance, don’t you think? The

Leader’s al ies, you included, needed to believe that Janka was dead so that they wouldn’t know that he was the one delivering names to The Almighty. If anyone knew that he was the one squealing, they would’ve run before we’d had time to catch al the traitors. As long as they’d believed that
we’d
discovered his treachery, they’d believe it was an isolated incident...that they were safe. That’s why we had time to catch Donna and Krimson.”

As Veylo spoke, Kinzer’s eyes remained fixed on Janka. “So

you outed me and the other Leader’s al ies because you were trying to maintain your position in Heaven?”

Janka’s expression didn’t change.

A fire stirred in Kinzer’s chest. “I think you owe me some

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answers!”Janka took a deep breath.

Kinzer knew what he was doing. He’d seen him like that so

many times before. He was massaging a most perfect response into place, unwilling to speak before he’d devised something to articulate his exact intent.