The Beginning of Connie and Isaac: Blue Butterfly Series (The Blue Butterfly Book 3) (6 page)

He remained silent, his footsteps growing louder on the cold concrete floor the closer he got to me. Without saying a word, he sat beside me, picked up a berry from where I’d stashed them in a homemade basket made from the cup of my bra, and popped one into his mouth. The small smile on his lips as he stared quietly at the raging fire kept me going for the next three months of his gruelling regime. Whenever I felt the need to give in, I pictured that precise moment, his joy at my resilience and his admiration of my resolve the very thing that made my blood pump harder and gave me the strength I needed to fight back at him.

Don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t lenient with me. Not – one – bit. His torment and torture threatened to break me, his physical abuse as harsh as his emotional persecution. Before I’d even been initiated into the Phantoms, my body was covered in so many scars that my once thin and weak body was unrecognisable. My abdominal muscles had formed and my tendons were sculpted into weapons and armour. Yet, strangely, I knew he did it to help me, to strengthen my mind and shape my body into a machine for what was to come. I couldn’t pinpoint why, and I never asked him, but as I approached the end of my three months trial, spring in the air and warmer nights easing my sentence, our final training session was upon us.

I spun around and flicked my knife, the blade at long last slamming home and puncturing him solidly between his ribs.

“Fuck me!” He laughed then cried out in pain when his knees crunched on the ground as he dropped before me.

I grinned at him, extremely pleased with myself, before I hurried over to the shelf which housed all the medical items and snatched up the needle, thread and some antiseptic. He winced as he pulled himself to the makeshift chair I’d made of sticks, leaves, and old clothing I’d found scattered around the house, then pulled his t-shirt over his head.

I had seen Isaac’s body many times during the last three months, and his scars no longer held my attention. It had been the sight of them that had made me swallow back my weakness and strive to be a harder person. If his own father could do that to him, then what the hell he had in store for me was unthinkable.

“Good girl.” Isaac grinned with pride as I settled beside him and threaded the needle. He didn’t hiss or flinch as I silently sewed up the hole I’d given him. I was always amazed at his ability to push pain aside. As much as he’d tried to teach me how to control pain, it had been the one thing I’d struggled with. Yet, my determination had given me his respect on more than one occasion.

I froze when he softly placed his hand over mine, halting my tending. After three long months of brutal contact, the gentility of his touch shocked me. Not once had he shown me any pity or compassion, and the slight touch was a shock to my system.

I lifted my eyes to his and the pain behind them caused me to blink. Isaac never presented his discomfort to me, and for some reason, I panicked. “Are you okay?” I blurted as I studied the wound in his side. He gently gripped my chin and lifted my face back up until our eyes met again. The pain still shone brightly and I swallowed as my mouth dried. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you so much.”

He blinked at me and I dropped my eyes to watch his Adam’s apple bob. “The pain inside me will forever be irreparable, Shadow.”

I didn’t know what to say, his openness and soft tone bearing down on me so much that I struggled to breathe. Another emotion flickered across his face and the pain behind his eyes intensified as he leaned to one side and pulled something from his pocket. “I have something for you.”

I frowned, unable to see what he held. “What?”

“Tomorrow your initiation into the family will secure your future,” he whispered, with so much grief that my stomach clenched with worry. “Connie Swift will be indefinitely erased.”

My eyes filled with tears at his declaration. I already knew what he said but his words confirmed it and I couldn’t help but grieve for the girl that was once happy and satisfied with the life before her. But she was no more and I verified his statement with a simple nod.

He gave me a nod in reply as he pushed himself up and slipped his t-shirt back over his head. Looking down at me, he blinked softly. “Get some rest tonight. It will be a while before you’re granted more.”

I nodded again, mutely answering his command. He held out his hand to me and prompted me to take what he offered me. “Guard it with your life, Connie Swift. As of now, you are no longer mine and you’ll find that your new master is far crueller and vicious than I could ever be.”

As he walked away, I dropped my eyes to the small photograph in my hand, my sister’s happy smile beaming back at me. The sob that tore from me caused Isaac to turn back. “Good luck, Shadow. Stay safe and use your head.”

And then the Isaac I had come to know walked away, replaced the very next morning by a cold-hearted bastard that would be the cause of many of my nightmares over the next eighteen months.

May, 2005. Aged 14.

ISAAC HAD BEEN
silent since he’d picked me up. The drive to the Phantom’s headquarters was the longest and shortest journey of my life. I could feel Isaac’s anguish and that told me that what was coming wouldn’t be as easy as the three previous months. I’d thought Isaac was tough, his regime gruelling and brutal, but I wasn’t naïve enough to think there wasn’t worse to come.

After roughly an hour’s drive, we pulled up to some huge black iron gates nestled in the middle of a long, high wall. My heart rate shifted into a higher gear and my brow beaded with sweat. The gate opened. Isaac gave me a sad glance and sighed before he carried on up a mile long driveway, the edges surrounded completely by trees, the woodland seeming to go on for miles.

My eyes widened when a house suddenly came into view, except it wasn’t a house. More like a castle. It was utterly stunning. Four ginormous walls of windows and balconies. Isaac drove straight up to some more massive gates bang in the centre of the facing mile long wall, and just as I thought he was going to drive through them, they opened and he pulled the car slowly into an enormous courtyard.

Various people milled about and every single pair of eyes moved our way. The square was enclosed within more walls and windows. The beauty of it took my breath away but a shiver slithered through me when my mind told me that looks can be very deceiving. What, on the outside contained beauty, on the inside held nothing but evil and pain. Isaac was testament to that.

He pulled the car to a stop then climbed out, still silent and brooding. I stared up at him when he opened my door and encouraged me out with a lift of his hand. As I slipped my hand into his, he gulped and gave it a squeeze before the saddest of smiles changed his stern face into an expression of pure agony.

My heart was beating too fast, making me lightheaded, and my belly twisted so much I thought I was going to vomit on the spotlessly clean slabs gracing my way to wherever Isaac led me.

We dipped through an archway, my eyes frantically trying to take everything in as he led me farther and farther into the fortress, because that’s exactly what it was; a stronghold to not only keep people out, but also to keep people in.

We walked along endless long corridors, my footsteps silent on the deep pile carpet that shepherded my way into hell. I knew that was exactly where I was going. I could hear it in the silence of Isaac and the pitying looks from the others.

We walked into another long hallway, but this time instead of doors lining the stone walls, this one held windows that displayed another small courtyard. My breath stuttered when I caught sight of the large wooden cross in the middle of it. The grass that had covered the previous larger courtyard had now gone and depths of mud and dirt enfolded the sinister crucifix. However, this one didn’t hold Jesus.

“Isaac,” I whispered, my voice small as my throat closed up.

He blinked down at me then followed my gaze out of the window. I felt him tense in my hold and I could feel his pulse pumping beneath my fingers. He gulped then carried on, not giving me the soft words of comfort I needed. I stared at him for a moment. Gone was the Isaac I had come to like. His teachings had been rough but he’d also given me privilege to his gentler side on numerous conversations. We would converse easily as we sat roasting rabbits and squirrels around the small fire I would make. Occasionally, he brought alcohol, and more than occasionally, I climbed onto the sheet in the room of the house drunk and giddy. I had enjoyed those moments because they were the things that kept me going. I knew as soon as we entered the Phantom domain that that Isaac had gone for good.

I noticed the people we passed inclined their heads and nodded respectfully at Isaac. Then I remembered he was the son of the head Phantom. I wondered why he had no say over what happened to me if he held that much value in the family. But I was soon to find out that nobody but Frederik Marinov, dictator of the notorious Phantoms, gave orders. And every soldier carried them through, agreeable or not.

Finally we walked through a door which took us into a large room. The people that were chatting suddenly halted and turned our way, their expressions eager and excited. The five people that stood rigidly at the edge of the room turned their eyes to me, but I didn’t miss their pitying stares. My body ached under their scrutiny, my heart rampant and giving my blood stream an overload of adrenaline.

Silence descended instantly and at the very top of the room, a tall man, his hair as black as ebony and his gaze just as dark, turned to me. I could sense his powerful aura shift over me, his supremacy making my skin chill with goosebumps.

Isaac dropped my hand and dipped his head respectfully. “Father. Shadow.” That was all he said as he backed away and left me standing alone under his father’s study. The man was quiet, his head cocked slightly as his narrow eyes slid slowly up and down me. I gulped when he strode across the gap between us and came to a stop before me. He was tall, very tall, and I had to creak my neck to look up at him.

I flinched when his thumb and forefinger gently grasped my chin and he turned my face left and right, observing his new soldier, before a sickly smile covered his face. “So you’re the one that cost me so much money.”

I frowned, unsure of what he was on about. But I remained silent. My skin was prickling with his authority as his touch turned my blood to ice. But Isaac had taught me well and I allowed him to continue.

“Do you have anything to say about that?”

For a brief moment I was stunned by his question. Then I swallowed against the dryness in my mouth. “I apologise, sir. I’m aware that I am gifted to you in exchange for my sister’s life and for that I show my eternal gratitude.”

He smirked, his head tipping back as he laughed – at me. But he pursed his lips and nodded. “Your eternal gratitude, huh?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well then, Shadow, let’s see how far that appreciation stretches.”

I gasped and squealed when he yanked my hair and pulled me across the room. One of the girls standing at the edge of the room winced and dropped her gaze from mine as I looked at her through the blur of my wet eyes. My hand instinctively lifted to his grasp in my hair but as I touched his skin he tightened his hold on me, the pain making my knees buckle until I dropped to the floor. But he continued moving swiftly, dragging me on my knees to a table in the corner.

Manoeuvring me, he slammed my forehead down on the table so I was bent over, and when he pulled my leggings down, I cried out and shook my head. “Please don’t!” I sobbed. “Please don’t!”

“Father!” I heard Isaac’s stern voice behind us. “She’s fourteen. She’s a child!”

“She is no longer a child, Isaac,” Frederik roared back. “She is mine to do with as I wish, fourteen or forty. And I’ll demand that you keep your petty whining quiet.”

I could hear the hush in the room but I felt Frederik’s hand tremble when my bare backside was presented to him. He paused, dragging air through his teeth until the hiss made me shiver. His hand touched the skin of my buttock and a choked sob tore from me.

I gritted my teeth, waiting for it, but when it didn’t come I turned to look over my shoulder at Frederik. His gaze held so much hatred and disgust that I couldn’t look away. I was caught in the play of his mind, his sick desire racing across his face.