Twisted (Rogues Shifter Series Book 3) (17 page)

Isaiah had looked so angered by
Kennet’s return and his sudden banishment back to his home. So much for our painfully negotiated agreement. No matter what happened now, I wouldn't waste what he'd taught me.

Suddenly I wa
s released from Kennet’s spell. Unprepared to bear my weight, my legs gave out and I collapsed to the ground at his booted feet. I felt something cold on my ankle so I turned and was horrified to see a metal band around it attached to a long chain that led to the wall where it was bolted next to my bed. “I’m afraid you won’t be going anywhere, Jacqueline. With no access to the lines, you cannot travel them. The chain is steel. Anger me and I'll change it to silver.”

“Let me go, K
ennet. My demon blood disgusts you. You don’t want me now.”

“Perhaps, perhaps not
. I have yet to decide. Stand up.”

I stood slowly and he circled me, taking me in from head to toe with his lecherous version of a seductive smile. He came back around to face me again and ordered, “Kiss me
, Jacqueline.” I fought his pull with everything inside of me, including the two shots of vampire blood and the new skills I’d learned from Isaiah. I was able to block his control of my body, although I was panting from the exertion. I wouldn't be able to hold him off for long.

He
looked amused. “Your powers are magnificent. I could strip you of them, but then you would be a shell of yourself.” Gold sparkled in his eyes as he walked closer, gripping both of my shoulders and leaning in to kiss me.

What did he expect me to do
?. My rage flew at him as I kneed him in the crotch and then punched him in the mouth as hard as I could. I knew it had hurt, but not enough. When he stood slowly and wiped the blood from his lip, I was shocked to hear him laugh.

“I’m going to enjoy breaking you
, Jacqueline. I’m sorry that you will not enjoy it at all.” A whip appeared magically in his hand and he moved it back and forth along the floor in front of him. He took a moment to enjoy my reaction as I stared at the snaking leather strap and began to feel the terror of my hopeless situation. With a rush of energy I was turned around, my hands suddenly attached with rope to the bedposts. He stood first where he could see my face, his sadistic smile and eager eyes making my knees buckle as much as the tight ropes would allow. He laughed again and circled behind me.

The next half hour was probably the worst of
my life. I didn’t know that it was possible to feel such pain and still survive. I worked hard to remember my mantra and to visualize myself and Garrett on my cliff with the line energy ebbing and flowing below us. I managed a few brief moments of mental escape, but the pain of the leather strap always brought me back. I sobbed and cried out and even screamed at one point, but I never told him what he wanted to hear. He whipped me until I was too weak to fight back and then he moved in close and punched me in the ribs and the stomach, always leaving my face alone. I‘d vomited at one point, which caused me more pain, since I had at least one broken rib. I was drenched in blood and too weak to stand up when he magically untied the ropes and watched me collapse painfully to the floor.

With another wave of his hand the bleeding stoppe
d and the blood that had sprayed on the bed and my gown disappeared. However, the excruciating pain remained, as he lifted me to the bed and kissed me roughly before I blacked out. I vaguely remembered him leaving the room having promised to come back the next afternoon when he hoped I would be more cooperative. When he'd left, his eyes had been colored a solid gold and he was grinning.

He sent a
shifter doctor to tend my wounds. She cleaned them, stitched the deeper cuts and then wiped on a salve that would erase any scars, but did nothing to ease the pain. I had to stick my pillow into my mouth to keep from screaming as she worked on me.

She told me that
tomorrow afternoon I would be sore, but there should be no permanent evidence of my torture. I pleaded with the doctor to help me get in touch with Garrett or Lord Caelen, but she only shook her head sadly. She wasn’t allowed to help me, although I sensed that she felt badly for me. Who knows what he was holding over
her
head to get her to work for him. She helped me wash my face and hands and then dress in a simple sleeveless shift which was all that fit over the bandages.

When the doctor left, I lay on my stomach, because the injuries on my back and
legs were the most painful. My beating had made it clear that if I was to survive this ordeal, I needed to make some serious decisions.

Could I live with myself if I gave in to Kennet’s demands to avoid being beaten again? Garrett had asked me to do whatever it took to avo
id pain, even that, because the team was coming for me and would be here soon. He was afraid that I would be killed or suffer needlessly. I thought about how I’d feel looking into his loving eyes, knowing that I had given myself to this snake without fighting against him with every ounce of my strength. Inside, I knew that at some point, Kennet would break me, and then I'd crawl to him and beg him to take me. But until that moment, I'd continue to fight.

Having made that decision, I moved on. If I could access the lines to heal myself more quickly, my mind would clear.  Right now
, all I could think about was how much I hurt. I reached for the lines, but could only feel Kennet's new block. I forced myself to relax and breathe slowly. Okay, let’s see if I had anything still stored from Garrett’s blood or from the small spark that Liam had given me. I searched inside for anything that might give me a dose of energy to help me heal a little faster. There was
something
there, deep in my center. Its comforting warmth, a combination of fae magic and vampire blood, called to me, so I pulled on it, urging it through my veins and arteries, into my muscles and bones, strengthening my healing abilities. The pain weakened with each warm pulse and so I found myself finally able to take my first deep breath and sing my mantra. The work I had to do tonight was mental, so I closed my eyes, pretending to sleep, and began to work on the block the way Isaiah had taught me. I carefully tucked the warm gift from my two dear men safely near my heart where Kennet wouldn’t find it.

Chapter Thirty-three

Bridgett: 12:00 AM Friday

As usual, I couldn’t sleep. I got out of bed and put on a light jacket, then snuck out onto the upstairs balcony. Dark clouds tumbled across the sky, forced along by a strong wind. Garrett seemed to have had brought the storm with him. Even though the rain hadn’t actually started, I curled up on the couch where I’d sat with William, zipped up my jacket and thought about all that had happened.

William and I had been t
otally wiped out after Sasha’s "revenge of the pissed off vamp" training session. I guess we’d deserved every pushup, sit up, lunge, etc..., so after my shower I’d walked downstairs to the basement to commiserate with William. Of course the other two were also there playing pool with Sinc, so I couldn’t really talk to him privately. I was relieved when Will had gotten up, taken my hand and led me into his room.

"No blood." Sasha had called out.

We’d started out sitting up on his bed with his pillows propped up and the headboard behind us while we talked.

Will looked really upset. “
I’m so sorry about what happened. I’m completely responsible for frightening you. I could have hurt you. I’ll never drink from a shifter again, I swear.”

“It wasn’t your fault. Anyway
, you might be drinking from me, if it’s okay with Garrett. Just so you can get used to it.

“I don’t really think you should…”

“I want you to.” I’d grabbed his hand. “You’ll just take a little bit.”

He’d started to lift my hand to his nose, but then brought it back down again. “I think maybe I should just
hold
your hand and not try to inhale it.” He’d laughed and his face had crinkled up the way I liked it, his dimple looking so adorable.

“Can I touch your face?
" I'd asked. "I want to touch your dimple.”

“Uh.
..okay.”

“But you have to keep smiling, otherwise it disappears.”

“Sure..” He was really grinning now.  My finger gently traced around the small, sweet imperfection near his mouth.

“It’s so cool.” Not wanting to break contact, I’d trailed my finger down to his chin and run it along the edge of his jaw then up to his mouth and across his lips. He’d reached up, taken my hand in his and kissed each one of my fingers.

“I really like your face. William.” I was starting to get that tingly feeling again. His lips had felt so soft pressed against my fingers and his skin was warm. When he’d finished, he’d tangled his fingers around mine and held my hand against his chest. So now I wasn’t sitting up anymore. I was kind of lying on my side facing him, our eyes only a few inches apart.  He’d turned toward me and brushed some of my hair behind my ear.

“I can see you better now,“ he said. “You’re so beautiful.”

I mean what girl doesn’t want to hear that? And the best part was that I was starting to believe that to William, I really
was
beautiful. There was only one way I could answer him. I’d pushed myself up and slowly moved forward, positioning myself to kiss him.

He hadn’t moved
away. He’d just watched me, his eyes on my lips as they got closer to his. When I’d brushed them across his mouth, our eyes had met and I’d watched his lovely blue pools pop with tiny silver stars that sparkled just for me.

The rain fell
heavily, a few drops splashing off the railing and hitting my arm. The spell broken, I forced myself to move inside, leaving behind my sweet memory. I thought about going back to bed but I was still wired. Lowering my sore body into the arm chair in the den, I intended to spend a lot more time thinking about William. I curled my legs up underneath me and closed my eyes, remembering that kiss and all the ones that came after. We hadn’t gone any further than deep yummy kisses and lots of sweet embraces. Both of us knew that we weren’t quite ready to rush into anything too intense and, to be honest, I needed this kind of gentle attention more than some hot crazy affair. I think William did too. He hadn’t had much tender care in his twenty nine years.

When Garrett had come to the door, I’d jumped off the bed and sat in the desk chair, knowing full well that he’d know exactly what we’d been doing. When he looked at the bed and laughed, I’d cringed. Now we were going to get some stupid lecture, like we were fourteen. Instead,  he was cool with the relationship. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Garrett was #2 on my best vampire list. I rubbed my shoulder which ached like a bitch after the workout. Sasha was
on the bottom of the same list.

I was standing up to go back to bed, when I felt a horrible jab of pain rip across my back. I cried out and fell to the floor, only to hear myself screaming full out as another slash cu
t across the first one.

Garrett got to me first, picking me up off of the floor and laying me gently on the couch. “What’s wrong, Bridgett?”

“My back, someone’s cutting it.” I cried out again when the burning blade sliced across my shoulder.

Garrett gently lifted my shirt so he could see my back. “Your back is fin
e, Bridgett.” I screamed again.

“My leg this time.” I was sobbing as I lifted my pajama pants to show him the back of my thigh.

“Bridgett, there’s no mark. I believe that you’re in pain, but you’re not being cut.”

At this point, Sasha, Heinrich, Sinc and Will were all in the den and I would have died of embarrassment if I hadn’t been in
such excruciating agony. I screamed again from a fifth slash.

“Bridgett, let me into your mind.” I felt him nudge my wall and I let it drop. I heard him hiss as yet another
laceration burned across my back. I was shocked when Garrett grabbed me and pulled me into a tight hug. “Kennet's whipping Jackie, and Bridgett is somehow connected to her and feeling it.” He gestured for William to sit next to me. “Hold her until it passes. There’s nothing we can do for Bridgett until it’s over. She’s not being hurt physically. She’ll be alright. I’m calling Liam and then I’m going back.” His eyes were lit up with a silver fury as he watched me writhe in pain in Will's arms. I watched his free hand clench as he pulled out his cell phone.

“But the weather is
still bad, Garrett.” Sinc's obvious concern drew our gazes to the woods behind the house. The wind was howling steadily and the tree branches were almost blowing horizontally. William drew me closer as another stabbing pain sliced across my legs, making me scream again.

Liam a
ppeared, stepping out of a shining blur in the corner of the room. He came to me and put his hand on my forehead. “She’s directly connected. She needs to come with us.”

William
tightened his hold. “She can’t go with you now. Look at her. Garrett, she won’t be any good to you like this.”

Liam wrenched me angrily out of William’s arms, glaring at him with golden specks in his violet eyes. “She will do this for her sister. The sister who sacrificed h
erself to save her. The sister who’s bleeding for her at this very moment.” He glowered, expecting me to beg not to go.