Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33520 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33520 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
“Vision isn’t torturing someone like this,” I whisper into the night.
Abaddon’s head snaps up, and even in the darkness, I sense his eyes slicing through me. “Say it with conviction, Eden.”
I stare at him blankly. “Say what?”
“Any fucking thing you’ve got to say. You’re always whispering, like if you make any noise, you’ll cause Armageddon.” He steps toward the man, who screams as Abaddon plunges the hot poker into his wound. “Speak, Jophiel. Claim the flaming sword.”
I straighten my shoulders and stare at the only visible attributes on his face not hidden by the mask—his ice-blue eyes. “Sawing up bodies is fucked up.”
Abaddon’s laugh is sinister and eerily calm. “I never claimed I wasn’t fucked-up, Jophiel. I credit my maker for my madness.”
He pulls one booted foot back and kicks the man, forcing him to plummet forward and shoving his bare ass in the air. My eyes widen, and shock runs rampant through my bloodstream as Abaddon picks up the amputated arm from the ground. He uses the man’s middle finger to poke his asshole before shoving the hand in.
The man screams in agony, worse than the previous heinous acts committed against him. But it’s not enough for Abaddon. He shoves until he’s fucking the man with his severed arm up to the elbow. “I warned you not to touch what’s mine. I told you I’d fuck you with the same arm you touched her with. If I’m nothing else, I’m a man of my word.”
This was a mistake. I step back, ready to fling myself into my car and drive away from here, from them, from the madness. My hand is on the handle of my car when a rough palm covers my mouth and nostrils, restricting my breath.
I drop the envelope, kicking against the warm body pressed against me. I’m so fucking stupid. A fucking idiot. I should have forgotten them. I should have run when I had the chance.
“Take it easy, Lamb,” Iblis says as he turns me. “No one’s gonna hurt you.”
“Tell that to the lunatic chopping off limbs and fucking people with them,” I shout.
Iblis shrugs. “Why don’t you come up to the house and relax? You don’t need to witness the rest.”
“She does if she wants to know what and who we are. We can’t keep her in the dark,” Asmodeus says, appearing behind him.
Iblis carries my kicking body back to the scene. Abaddon’s focused on the task and doesn’t seem to notice our presence or simply doesn’t care that he’s got an audience.
The man from the club screams. His anguish is far worse than a moment ago. I glance down and understand why. Abaddon has his foot on top of the guy’s penis, pushing down, crushing it against the soil while blood seeps from the man’s rectum, dripping onto the forest floor as his arm violently pummels his ass.
I turn away, not needing to see any more brutality. But it’s not the horror I’m witnessing that makes my heart stop. It’s not the screams of agony or the sinister laughter.
What makes my whole world stop is the sound of paper tearing.
Chapter Twenty
ASMODEUS
A twenty-year-old wound is torn open. No warning. It’s fast, it’s brutal, and it’s soul-crushing.
“You had no right!” Eden yells as she rushes for me. She lunges to grab the file I’ve removed from the envelope, but I drop it and grab her throat, driving her to the ground.
“I’m going to kill you,” I spit. She’d be dead already if she were anyone else. That folder she’s been carrying is an automatic death sentence.
Sharp nails dig into my skin as her knees maim any part of my body they come into contact with. Her skin turns a bright shade of red as she struggles to breathe.
“Is that why you were here? Was it all a lie? I’m such an idiot. You should’ve been fucked and hung until you bled dry.”
“Get the fuck off her!” Iblis shouts. His arm wraps around my neck, and he tries to pull me off her. “Mo, you’re gonna kill her. Let go.”
“If you don’t get off me, I’ll gut you like a fish once I’m done with her,” I croak, unconcerned at how hard it’s become to speak, let alone breathe.
“You can’t kill shit if your body’s going cold on the ground. Let her go, Mo!”
Abaddon yells, leaving the man he was playing with screaming on the forest floor and flopping like a fish out of water.
I shove Iblis back and rise from the ground, my eyes never leaving Eden. My fingers are imprinted on her throat as she gasps for breath. The ache of regret grips my heart as I take in the damage to her delicate flesh, but I shove it aside, letting my anger fuel me instead of my affection for her.
Abaddon's bloody hands grab my collar, and he shakes me. “What the fuck is wrong with you? How could you do that to her?”