The Salvation of Daniel (The Blue Butterfly Book 2) (29 page)

As I reached out to plant my hand over her mouth, she flung herself round and bashed the phone into my face. I was too shocked that she had realised I was there that it didn’t register she had taken off across the room at speed until she was yanking at some double doors at the rear.

I raced after her, and she pulled them open, looking over her shoulder to see where I was. Her bright blue eyes smashed into mine, the terror in them clashing with the adrenaline coursing through her. Her lips were parted, allowing for her deep panting, her chest stuttering as fright quickened her heart rate.

She turned again and disappeared through the doors, bringing us both into a large dining room, a huge mahogany table sat in the centre. A large black dresser sat on one wall, plates and glasses perched orderly on each shelf.

My eyes widened when a plate suddenly sailed across the room and smashed on the wall beside my head. “Wow.” I laughed. “You are a feisty one.”

“I’ll scream,” she shouted.

“Go for it. Then we can get your sister down here and get this over with.”

Her head shook rapidly. “No. No, you leave Mae alone.”

A glass shattered across my head. Her eyes widened when I growled at her. “Do that again and I will make this really difficult.”

“Like it’s not already?” she cried as she picked up another plate and held it above her head to launch it at me.

She moved around the table when I did, both of us sidestepping around it, our eyes on each other, our bodies ready to launch at the first opportunity.

“What do you want?” I noticed the trail of tears on her face but her courage surprised me.

“I want you. Simple really.”

“W..what do you want to do?” she stuttered as we danced further around.

A small smile crept up my lips. “Well, I’m not going to rape you if that’s what you think. Give me some credit.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Credit?” she scoffed. “I… What?” She stared at me, unable to process anything with the fear racing through her.

“I have standards. You’re just a little girl.” I smiled at her.

Anger contorted her pretty face as she launched the plate at me. “I’m not a little girl!”

Fuck this! I was tired of playing.

I shot over the table after her. She finally screamed and ran to another door, pulling it frantically.

“Oh dear, is it locked?” I laughed when I grabbed her, my arms completely wrapping her up. She kicked at me, struggling in my arms as I dragged her across the room. Her head suddenly flung backwards, the back of her skull connecting with my nose. Pain exploded in every nerve ending on my face, making my eyes water and a choked grunt to force up my throat.

“Fuck!” I snarled when I clamped her down harder. “You bitch!”

“Let me go!” she cried, a deep sob wrenching from her as she writhed against me. My chest tightened. Shit, this was so wrong.

Slinging her face down on the couch, I straddled her back, bracing any moving parts as I fought for breath. “Jesus Christ, love. You’re a lunatic!”

“GET OFF ME!” she screeched.

“Sshhh.” I slapped my hand over her mouth. Her teeth sank into the flesh of my palm. The slap around her head was instinctive as I brought my bitten hand to my mouth, sucking on my own blood. “Fuck sake, you crazy bitch.”

The heel of her foot thudded into my lower back. I turned round, wondering how the hell she had freed the lower half of her legs. This bitch was crazy. However, I was slightly in awe of her spirit and her fight.

I forced her face into the cushion with my hand on the back of her head and leant into her ear. “Will you stop! I’m seriously considering making your death as painful as possible!”

She froze, her body seizing up beneath me. My heart beat stuttered.

“What?” she whispered, her body completely lax underneath me.

“It’s your time to die, love. I’m sorry.”

She was silent, her whole spirit drowning in my declaration. “Why?”

I frowned. I hadn’t expected that question. Sometimes kids were more intelligent than the hardest adult who would right now be begging me to let them live, not asking why I was ending their time on earth.

“I have no idea. You’re just a job to me.”

“How?”

What the fuck was this chick on?

“Uhh, I don’t know, how would you like it?” I shook my head in bewilderment.

A small hiccup echoed from her before she tilted her head to the side and looked up at me. Her blue eyes shimmered under the pool of her tears, her lower lip trembled but she had this resolve about her, a steel spirit that was determined to keep her dignity.

“Please don’t hurt Mae,” she whispered. “You can do what you want to me, but please don’t hurt my sister.”

I stared at her, my heart threatening to break out of my chest. Her eyes locked on mine as she pleaded with me. My throat constricted, the bile in my stomach threatening to spray across her pale cheeks.

I turned her body under me until she was on her back looking up at me. “Do you know what I am?”

She shook her head, a tear that was rolling down the side of her face flinging off her face and landing on the knee of my jeans. I blinked at it, pressing my finger into it, the damp transferring onto my fingertip. “I’m a Phantom,” I told her as I ran the tip of my finger along my bottom lip, tasting the salt in her despair. “I’m trained to kill. I have a contract to end your life.”

Her wide eyes stared up at me, her chest heaving with my words as she tried to stop herself from crying. I had never witnessed anyone with as much resilience as this thirteen-year-old girl trapped under my weight.

“I’m afraid that whatever happens tonight, I
have
to kill you and your sister. It’s my job.”

“No!” She shook her head from side to side, her tears fluent. “No, please. Leave Mae. Tell whoever sent you that she was in France with my parents. Or… or you could just say that you killed her and they’ll never find out. Please! Please! She doesn’t deserve this.” Obviously she thought that
she
did.

I slid my thumb across her cheek, collecting her tears. She reached down and tore at her t-shirt, ripping it over her head, baring her small breasts sheathed by a simple white bra. “You can take what you want, you can…” She nodded to me, not wanting to voice her words. “Just leave Mae alone.”

“Jesus Christ!” I stuttered out, yanking the throw from the back of the couch and covering her with it. “I’m not going to touch you. Not like that.”

“Anything,” she begged. “Anything.”

Fuck!

I looked away, biting down the hatred curling inside me. An idea started to form in my head and I slowly lowered my eyes to her. Cocking my head, I studied her. She was exactly the right material; strong, feisty, brave and fucking crazy.

This would cause a shit storm back home, but something told me it could work.

Pulling in a deep breath, I narrowed my eyes on her. “I’m going to try something.”

She frowned but gave me a slow nod.

I lifted my hand, then paused and lowered it. Shit! Lifting it again, I slapped it across her cheek. Her eyes widened as her skin blushed but she bit into her lip, nodding in understanding. She braced herself and turned her face to the back of the sofa. “Do it.”

I slapped her again, watching how she reacted to it. After twenty she started flinching, her skin now sore and her tears stinging where her skin erupted with tiny blood vessels.

“What’s your name?” I asked as I smacked her again.

“C…Connie.”

“Connie, listen to me.” She nodded, squeezing her eyes closed as I hit her again. “You’re not breathing properly. You’re tensing before I even connect with you. Your tears are making this harder. Your fear is making adrenaline, which in turn is heightening the pain.”

She opened her eyes, looking at me curiously. “Breathe in and out slowly.”

She fought with herself but I waited until she’d taken control, the deep heaves of her chest bating.

“Relax your body.”

She scoffed at me, looking at me like I’d gone mad. I quirked a brow. She shrugged and took a deep breath, forcing her body to loosen. I smiled to myself, satisfied with her ability to take orders.

“Now,” I whispered as I tilted her to face me with a finger on her sore cheek. “Stop crying.”

She gulped but nodded, calming beneath me. Her compliance made me grin. She scowled at me but I shook my head, tutting at her. She relaxed again, taking another breath, her chest still stuttering slightly.

She blinked when I struck her twice, one on each cheek. The lift of her brow confirmed she had followed my instruction perfectly.

“Good.” I slid off her. She blinked at me, confused as to why I suddenly relented. “You show promise.”

“Promise?”

“Uh-huh.” I made my way back to the door and turned. “You will become a Phantom two weeks after your fifteenth birthday, in exchange for your sister’s life.”

Her mouth dropped when realisation hit her, her eyes widening as her breath stuttered. “You’re too young yet. However, don’t think I will forget you, Connie. And don’t think you can hide.” I smirked at her. “And believe me when I say that no one can get you out of this. Tell anyone and our agreement is void. I will return and I will kill both you and your sister, but next time I won’t be lenient.”

I pulled open the door and looked back. “Do you understand me?”

She nodded slowly, shock obstructing her ability to function normally.

I winked, clicking my tongue at her. “See you soon.”

I couldn’t help the large grin from erupting across my face as I left the house. Suddenly, life didn’t seem so bad. There was something about the kid that got to me. I had no idea what, but I was sure I would soon find out.

Out Now

You meet someone. You date. You fall in love. You marry.

The four simple rules of love….

Wrong! I’m married but I’d never met him before now, never dated him, never fell in love. I have no access to the memories of the most magical time of anyone’s life.

My mind won’t allow me to evoke the past, I can’t remember those four simple stages.

I can’t comprehend why I would have ever married someone like Dante. I should never have passed the first stage, although, I may have seen him through the eyes of the woman I once was, this me that lives, breathes here now, can’t understand how we made it to the next stage.

I’m not sure, without memories, how I know that this voice inside me, telling me I would never have chosen him, speaks some truth, I just know. He’s controlling, arrogant, callous and violent, and utterly hell bent on humiliating and degrading me – Like watching me falter, watching me struggle to comply and be the woman he married, powers him- as though he wants to break me piece by piece. Fibre by fibre. Until all that’s here is the shell he created from a soul that I once owned.

Now my memories are slowly returning. And they show me a completely different side to meeting him. Our dates, falling in love. The Dante haunting me in the shadows of my mind is loving, gentle and utterly enamoured with me, nothing like the man with me now.

And this is what taunts me. My tender lover turned into a debauched, cruel sadist who is determined to consume my life, destroy my mind and murder my spirit.

I am, Star, and just like with some stars in the sky, the light you see is an echo, a façade, I am already gone

I am a no one.

Especially to him. To him I am the dark in his desires, the corrupt in his depravity.

The sin in his immorality.

Olivia Thomas is in love, pure, simple soul consuming love. Nathan Carter is her other half, her light, her passion.

After three years of being together at university; three years of being joined, of a love so intense, passionate and spirited they thought their future was safe and endless but life always finds a cruel way to interfere and they soon find their relationship can’t withstand destiny’s intrusions and obstacles.

Two decades later destiny apologises and brings them back together by sheer chance, re-igniting their intense passion, connection and love but they soon find that twenty years of life, secrets and lies creates difficulties and struggles even their bond might struggle to endure.