Blessed (35 page)

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“There you go, baby,” Kyle said as he rubbed her wrists. They were slightly numb from the ropes, and her fingers tingled fiercely. He was still holding the scalpel, and he ran the dull edge of it along her cheekbone. “Your eyes are the color of knives.”

Hoping he thought her shudder of fear was one of desire, she purred at him, “You make me feel so good. Let me make you feel good too.” The unnatural calm the blessing bestowed on her continued to hold, giving her the strength she needed to think.

She ran her hands across her breasts with a moan, cupping their weight and mounding them together. Kyle's eyes got big, and he reached for her breast with a greedy look in his eyes. Taking a deep breath, she ran her hand over her throat and broke the Cupid bead from Billy she wore on the thong around her neck as Kyle harshly twisted her nipple. Her hair slid forward and hid her hand behind its thick length. A gasp of pain escaped her lips, and he laughed and gave her nipple another harsh twist.

She tossed her hair back with a moan and knelt between his legs, forcing him to move his hand with the scalpel. Tapping the bead three times with her fingernail, she murmured, “Cupido, Cupido, Cupido” as she bent over to kiss his hipbone.

“Stop teasing, baby. If you want this big dick inside of you, you need to earn it. Now suck me,” Kyle said as he put his hands in her hair and yanked hard enough to make her eyes water.

Looking at him from between his legs, Eliana whipped the bead against his ass where it broke with a purple puff.

“What the fuck was that?” Kyle yelled at her, grabbing a handful of her hair and jerking her face upward. Kyle's teeth were bared in a furious scowl, his eyebrows drawn down so far his dark eyes blended into them. It was not the face of a man in love.

How long does it take for Cupid's arrow to work?
Frantic, she stared at him.

“I'll teach you to slap my ass, you bitch! I'm the one who does the slapping around here. Did you hear me!” Kyle screamed in her face and slapped her repeatedly, hard enough so she saw stars and tasted blood as he held her head by her hair.

“Think you're so fucking hot. You're a fucking bitch like the rest of them. Let's see how fucking hot you think you are without your hair, bitch!”

Her head jerked as he gathered a thick fistful of her hair and held it painfully above her head. On the edge of blacking out, she tried to focus her vision. Her head jerked around as Kyle sawed at her hair with his scalpel.

She spat out blood on the floor and realized she was spitting on a pile of her hair. The rush of anger cleared her head enough to focus her thoughts. She was too furious to notice he had stopped sawing at her hair as she stared at the pile of long honey-brown strands glistening with her blood.

With a growl, she tried to glare at him through her watering eyes. The hot liquid running down her chin from her savagely split lip dripped onto her chest.

To her surprise, Kyle was staring at her with a dumbfounded look as he said, “I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I would never hurt you. I would never let anyone hurt you.”

An expression of horror crossed Kyle's face. “We have to fuck right now, baby. If David finds out you're still a virgin, he'll kill you.”

She grabbed the scalpel from where he’d dropped it and swiftly sawed at the rope around her feet. “Don't worry, honey. I'm not a virgin.” Her voice sounded all funny as she tried to talk through her swollen lips. Wiping her hand across her mouth, her stomach clenched at how much blood came away on her fingers. He must have cut her lip against her teeth when he was beating her.

He let out a sigh. Gone was the snarling goblin with the knife. In his place was the familiar all-American college boy. “Oh good. You're the most precious thing in the world. I have to keep you safe. You're my everything.”

“Kyle,” she said in a false-sweet voice as she stood and kicked the cut rope away, “if you love me, you will stay kneeling on the floor with your hands in front of you.”

He frowned at his hands then held them together in front of him. “Of course, baby. Anything you want.” Kyle continued to watch her with a soft and happy smile.

It was deeply disturbing.

“I'm going to call some friends to help you keep me safe. They are going to help you take the best care of me ever. And we can go and live a long and happy life together,” she continued as she flipped open her cell phone, saying a silent prayer of thanks as she saw that she had a signal.

“Oh, and, Kyle, put your dick away.”

He seemed ashamed as he tucked himself back into his pants. Then he knelt in the pile of hair at her feet and stared at her with complete adoration. It made her want to throw up.

“Eliana?” Aiden said in a frantic voice.

“Yeah, it's me,” she said in a garbled voice and had to spit out some blood before she could continue again. “Sorry, mouth full of blood. It's me. I need your help.”

From her feet, Kyle said, “What do you need? Anything I can do to make you happy, it's a done deal.”

“Who is that?” Aiden growled.

“It's Kyle. The guy who kidnapped me, drugged me, and tried to rape me. But who now is evidently in love with me,” she said as Kyle looked at his hands, a tear running down his cheek. “I used Cupid's arrow on him.”

“Where are you?” he asked. She heard male voices talking loudly in the background as an engine sped up.

“I have no fucking idea. On an abandoned farm, it looks like. Listen, I'm going to get in Kyle's truck, and we're going to drive out to the main road and wait there with our hazards on.”

From her feet, Kyle said, “They need to hurry. David will be wondering where I am. If I don't come soon, he will come looking for you. We're off Tisbury Road by the 9-mile marker. My grandpa used to have a farm out here,” he finished cheerfully.

Fucking creepy,
she thought as she glanced at Kyle. “Did you get that, Aiden?”

“Yes. We will be there soon.” He drew in a deep breath and his voice came out in a growl as he said, “Eliana, did he...hurt you?”

“Well, he drugged me, slapped me around, and tried to lick my tonsils. Oh and he squeezed my breast like it was stress ball, but other than that, I'm fine.” She looked at Kyle and spit more blood from her leaking lip on the floor.

“He’s dead.”

“I'm hanging up now, Aiden. I need to deal with some shit here. Meet you at the road.”

She snapped the phone shut as Aiden began to protest and ignored the cell phone as it rang a second later. Kyle watched her from her feet and rubbed his face on her leg with a happy sigh.

“Kyle, I'm not the first girl you've used knives on, am I?”

“No, but you're not like those bitches. I would never hurt you. You're my world.”

“How many bitches have you taken care of, Kyle?” she asked gently, trying to keep the anger out of her voice.

“Only four. Well, five if you count that cunt that tried to get me arrested. But I didn't cut her. I burned her.”

Breathing shallowly through her nose, she stood and lost her balance. Kyle reached to steady her, and she screamed, “Don't touch me!”

He started to cry. “I'm sorry, baby. Please don't be mad at me. I'll do whatever you want. You have to know how much I love you.”

Gripping her hands into fists, she said, “Kyle, I'm going to tie your hands together. That will make me happy. Do you have any more rope?”

“No,” he said, looking crestfallen, then brightened. “But I do have duct tape in my pack.”

“Perfect. I'm going to duct tape your hands together. Okay?”

“Sure, whatever makes you feel good,” Kyle said eagerly, holding his hands together for her and giving her a winning smile.

She taped his wrists together with shaking hands, trying to stop the images of five faceless girls who had suffered what had no doubt been a terrible death. Had they felt the same fear she had? Did they have families missing them, praying every night that they came home? How long did he keep them alive before he finally gave them the release of death?

Alternating between feeling sick and wanting to scream with fury, she marched them out to his truck and removed the keys from his pocket. She drove down the long, weedy road and came to pavement. Pulling over to the side, she put the truck's hazards on and waited.

“Kyle,” Eliana said into the darkness of the cab as the hazards flashed, “do you think you'll ever not want to hurt women you think of as bitches?”

His lips turned down in a puzzled frown. “I won't want to rape them anymore. I'll save myself for you. But stop wanting to hurt them? No, I don't think that will ever happen.”

She swallowed hard to keep her nausea under control, totally creeped out by sitting in the car with a serial killer.

He sighed happily and continued in a chipper voice. “You'll like Eris. She'll keep us safe as long as we provide her with sacrifices. I know she's going to love you. You're all she has been talking about.” Kyle studied her face in the light of the dash. “Don't worry. You won't have to kill anyone. I'll do all the killing for both us. Eris always has a list of bitches who need a lesson.”

Eliana rolled down the window and spat onto the road. Kyle's words made her feel ill, and her stomach clenched.

The seat creaked as Kyle sighed and shifted. “Even thinking about it makes me hard. Do you want to suck me?”

“No, I don't. I need you to shut up now, okay?”

“Whatever you want, baby,” Kyle agreed happily as he stared at her with a wonderstruck smile on his face.

They sat in silence, the click of the hazards’ flashing marking the passage of time. She was getting more and more uneasy as she watched the lights flash off the trees. Kyle continued to stare at her with big puppy dog eyes wearing a shiny smile and occasionally sighing with happiness.

The chirping of the crickets outside their windows stopped as a pair of headlights came speeding down the road at them. With a shriek of locking tires, the black Hummer stopped in front of them, and three doors flew open as the men inside ran out. She’d never been so happy to see anyone in her life.

She turned to Kyle. “Stay here. Do not move.” He nodded and watched her with confusion.

Throwing the door open, she jumped out of the cab of the truck and ran to Aiden, sobbing. He scooped her in his arms then held her back to look at her in the headlights. Devon and Jack flanked him, both of them swearing softly as they stared at her face.

She wiped away her tears and spat out the taste of blood again. Aiden reached out and ran his hand along her head. “What did he do to your hair?”

“He cut it. How bad is it?” The men didn't say anything, and she took a ragged breath. “Fuck it. It'll grow back.”

Devon glanced at the truck and said in a deep growl, “Is that him?”

“Yes, but he was acting on orders from another guy, David.”

“David is a dead man,” Aiden said in a strained whisper.

The gun on Devon's hip caught her eye. She squirmed out of Aiden's arms and blotted her chin with the edge of her shirt.

Holding on to Aiden's hand, she went to Devon and looked him in the eyes. “Kyle has killed, raped, and tortured five women. He cannot be allowed to walk free.”

Devon nodded at her as Aiden said, “Eliana, get in the car. We'll take care of this.”

Jack added, “You've seen enough for one day. Let us deal with this piece of crap.”

Eliana didn't respond to their words. “He said he will keep on killing. Nothing is going to stop him. Not even his...not even his love for me.”

Devon didn't say anything, just studied her face in the headlights. Aiden watched her with a pained expression while Jack glared at the truck where Kyle sat.

“Devon, may I have your gun please?” she asked in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

Aiden tried to turn her to look at him, and she pushed him off, not taking her eyes from Devon.

“Eliana,” Aiden pleaded as he gently tried to take her hand, “you don't have to do this. Let us take care of it. You've been through so much. Please get in the car. You don't have to do anything else. We'll clean up the mess.”

She ignored him and so did Devon. He removed a large gun from the holster at his hip and handed it to her. “Have you ever fired a gun before?”

Flipping off the safety, she checked to make sure a bullet was in the chamber by the shine of the headlights. “Yeah. My dad used to take me shooting at the range all the time. He likes going deer hunting, but I never went with him. I don't like killing innocent animals.”

Aiden moved to stop her, but Jack and Devon held him back. Jack began whispering into Aiden's ear as they kept him from going after her.

She turned to look at Aiden and gave him a small smile. “I know you want to protect me, Aiden, but I know now that this is what I was brought here to do.”

Breathing in deeply, she strode over to Kyle's side of the truck and opened the door. “Come on out, Kyle.”

He followed her out of the car with his hands bound, eager to be near her. She led Kyle into the ditch next to the road, and they slid down the dew-damp grass. Small insects flew up into the illumination from the headlights and she felt an odd calmness settling over her, as if she was standing in the eye of a vast hurricane.

“Get on your knees, Kyle.”

He panicked, but it was soon smoothed away by love. “It's wet here, but whatever you want. I live for you.”

She tilted her head back and gazed to the stars. Taking in a deep breath of the clean night air, she pointed the gun at his forehead. Her hand began to tremble, but peace filled her soul. “I'm sorry, but I'm here to answer the prayers of the families of all the women you killed. I am the hand of my god.”

Kyle opened his mouth to say something, and she squeezed the trigger with her eyes closed. The gunshot rang in her ears, and the recoil jerked her arm. She turned around without opening her eyes and stumbled back to the men.

Aiden stared at her in shock, Jack looked sad, and Devon had a look of sympathy and understanding. “What should we do with the body?” she asked in a shaky voice.