The Life of Anna, Part 4: Ensnared (36 page)

Ilsa whimpered behind Wilhelm’s back.

Suddenly Anna let out an ear-piercing scream
and her body stiffened. “No!” she screamed.

The blade was almost all the way in and Devin
gave it a final thrust, making Anna scream again. He thrust in and
out several times and blood began to trickle out of her body. Anna
kept screaming and moving, making the blade cut her even more than
it already was. Devin pulled it out and the trickle became a
stream.

Wilhelm swallowed back vomit as he watched
Devin, once again, push his hand inside Anna’s body and she
screamed even louder. Her screams pushed the limits of the phone’s
speaker and echoed in his dark bedroom. He wanted to turn the
volume down, but couldn’t bring himself to. It would be denying
Anna’s suffering. He couldn’t imagine the pain she was in. Her
screams and struggle became stronger and her body stiffened and
Devin grinned. He pulled his arm out, holding a bloody mass.

“God, no,” Wilhelm pleaded uselessly.

“Here is your son, Wilhelm,” Devin said
holding up his bloody hand to the phone. Anna was sobbing in the
background, blood streaming out of her. She strained against the
cuffs, though with less energy than before.

Wilhelm couldn’t hold himself back. He
dropped the phone onto the bed and fell to the floor on his hands
and knees and vomited multiple times. He could hear Ilsa sniffling
and Devin laughing while Anna sobbed. He had failed Anna. God, the
poor girl.

“Turn off the phone, Ilsa,” he pleaded in a
soft voice. “Please.” He stared at the black floor, surrounded by
the sour smell of the contents of his stomach. There was movement
on the bed and the room became silent. The blue glow of the phone
faded and then the room went dark.

“Wilhelm....” Ilsa said softly. She turned on
the bedside light and knelt beside him. “Oh, Wilhelm.” She stroked
his head for a few moments and then stood and went into the
bathroom.

He heard the water running and she returned a
few minutes later and ran a cool cloth on his forehead and over his
face. He sat up and leaned back against the bed, his heart
shredded. Ilsa spoke softly on the phone, telling Lukas that
Wilhelm had been ill.

Wilhelm couldn’t push the horrible images
from his mind. Anna. His precious baby. He had even been thinking
of names this morning. Tears ran down his cheeks and onto his bare
chest.

Ilsa left again and returned with his robe.
“Come, let’s sleep in another room.” He stood absently and let her
help him into his robe. She took his hand and led him out of the
bedroom into a nearby guest room.

He sat down hard on the bed and stared at the
ground, utterly in shock at what had happened. He rarely used the
word evil, but that was the only word he could come up with to
describe what he had just seen. Devin was evil. To reach into a
woman’s body and abort a baby with his own hands? Only an evil man
could do such a thing.

“Poor Anna,” he whispered. “My poor, poor
Anna.” He looked bleary-eyed at his wife.

Ilsa sat next to him and held him tightly.
“He really...did that to her?”

“Yes. He’s a monster and must be
stopped.”

“But how? Alex is....”

“I know,
Mausi
. But there is always a
way. We just have to find it.” He would avenge his son’s death. It
would be Wilhelm’s pleasure to kill Devin with his bare hands. Once
again, he was thankful that Anna wasn’t bonded to him. Maybe they
needed to call in the assassins.

Anna huddled in her bed at the Manor, eyes
blankly staring out the window as the sun rose.
Her
baby...Wilhelm’s baby...gone.
Her pillow was wet from her
tears. Her hair was a tangled mess around her face. Though the
Immortals had healed physically, her mind and heart were a pulpy
mess.

Her baby...Wilhelm’s baby....

She hugged her knees into her chest, wishing
she could die.

But as she lay there, her anger toward Devin
grew. He had taken away everything good in her life.
Everything
! In a sudden fit of rage, she stood and looked
around for something to throw. She picked up the lamp next to her
bed and threw it across the room. The sound as the ceramic
shattered against the marble fireplace was fiercely satisfying. She
smiled as she pulled trinkets off the shelves and threw them across
the room, filling the air with the sounds of wreckage. She threw a
metal statue and hit the mirror, and it exploded into tiny pieces
that caught the light as they fell to the ground.

Anything she could pick up, she threw. The
wooden clock on the mantle went through one of the windows. The
brass vase on the table made a satisfying
clang
as it hit
the fireplace, but she liked the sound of glass hitting the
masonry, and went into the bathroom to find more items to throw.
She gathered up a bunch of glass bottles, dumped them on her bed
and hurled them one at a time at the fireplace. The room filled
with the scents of roses and musk and vanilla.

Midway through the arc with one of the larger
bottles in her hand, her forearm hit a barrier. She whirled around
to see Ian holding her arm in the air with a tight grip.

“Let me go,” she growled through gritted
teeth, struggling like a wild animal against him.

She gave him a ferocious glare and yanked
with all her might and was shocked when she pulled loose. Stepping
back, she hurled the bottle at Ian’s face, missing him by
millimeters as he ducked out of the way. She gave a vicious roar
and grabbed another bottle to hurl at him when he lunged for her,
pushing her to the ground and holding her hands above her head.

She cursed and yelled and screamed at him,
using all her strength to escape. She had almost slipped away when
two other men ran in and grabbed her. Each held her by an arm and
Ian held her legs, panting. There was a bruise on Ian’s face where
she had gotten in a swing.

She continued to struggle, once again almost
freeing herself when more men came in and put cuffs on her wrists
and ankles and chained her, spread eagle, to her bed. She continued
to curse and scream, yanking at the chains, making them dig into
the wood of the bed.

Ian stood over her with a bewildered look on
his face as she pulled and cursed at him. He looked in alarm as a
crack was developing at the bottom bedpost and shouted something at
one of the men who ran out of the room.

Anna heard the crack and looked down at her
feet. She grinned maniacally and gave a great yank with her leg,
and the bedpost cracked and fell over. Ian leapt forward and kept
it from falling on her. She continued to kick and scream. The other
post was cracking and he lay down on her legs, but her rage
consumed her, making her stronger than she’d ever been before and
she kicked him off.

Her arms weren’t nearly as strong as her legs
and all she could do was pull at them. A searing pain shot through
her arm from her right elbow at one yank and she screamed in pain
and frustration when her right arm wouldn’t work anymore.

The man Ian had yelled at rushed back in with
a syringe. Anna saw it and screamed in primal frustration. Three
men held her down as Ian pushed it into her neck. A moment later
she felt dizzy and her eyelids drooped.

Thirty seconds later, she was still.

Devin looked around the destroyed room. Glass
lay everywhere. One bedpost lay diagonally on the bed, another one
had a thick crack running halfway up the post. The wood was worn
away at the top where her arms had been cuffed.

He turned to Ian and looked at the bruises on
his face and arms. “She did all this?” he asked, bemused.

Ian nodded. “She was like a wild animal. I’d
never seen anything like it.”

It had taken multiple men as strong as Ian to
subdue her. A twinge of fear ran through Devin’s body and he
quickly pushed it aside. He would fear no woman. He needed to
subdue Anna and subdue her quickly, before she realized what she
had done.

“Have the room cleaned up and put back
together as best as can be,” Devin said, looking at the shattered
mirror and window. He shuddered. This hadn’t been expected. He
needed to stop it before it got out of hand. “Where is she?”

“Shackled in the dungeon. She was still
passed out when you arrived, but it won’t last for much
longer.”

Devin nodded. “Make sure the gossip isn’t
spread. I don’t need the other girls getting unhealthy ideas in
their head.”

“Yes, sir.”

“She’s healed?”

“Her arm? No, sir. I didn’t want to do that
without your permission.”

“Her arm? What happened to her arm?”

“I believe she dislocated it when she was
pulling against the chains.”

Devin frowned. “No. Leave it be for now. But
the rest of her? From the abortion?”

“Yes, sir. She’s fine as far as that goes.
Physically.”

Devin nodded. “Good. Give orders for the room
and then meet me in the dungeon with the juice. I will not allow
her to think that what she did is okay.” He turned on his heel and
walked out of the room, heading down to the dungeon.

Devin took a deep breath before opening the
heavy wooden door to the dungeon. It was dimly lit, with stone
walls and sconces that gave a dull yellow light. It was good for
setting the mood for torture.

Anna lay on the floor across the room. She
was naked, lying on her side with one arm stretched upward to
cushion her head. One leg curled up towards her chest and the other
stretched out below. Her wrists and ankles were shackled and
attached to thick chains coming out of the wall. Her arms and upper
body were covered in bruises and cuts.

She was sleeping, or at least he thought she
was. Her chest rose and fell with deep breaths and her eyes were
closed. But as he walked forward, he saw her body tense slightly.
Maybe she wasn’t asleep. He paused and watched, but she didn’t
relax again.

He eyed the chains and shackles again. They
were made from thick metal, not often used anymore, but Devin was
glad to have them. He’d used them on Alex. Devin smiled at the
irony.

“Anna?” he said softly.

Her eyes snapped opened and he could see the
wildness in them. They glowed green in the dim room as she stared
at him with such hate it almost gave him chills. Almost. Devin
lifted his chin in defiance. He would not be intimidated by a
little girl. He moved to the side of the room and pulled a bullwhip
from the wall. She watched his movements and gave a small shudder
when he turned around, whip in hand.

Devin smiled. Her sweet, human nature was
still there; she still feared the bite of the whip. For a moment,
he saw the fear in her eyes and then she shook her head and it
disappeared, replaced with the glowing, green rage. She sat up
slowly, her chest heaving beneath her perfect breasts. Her nipples
were tight and dark and the thought of subduing her made Devin’s
cock twitch. Yes, he would subdue her and then rape her. How
satisfying would that be? Make her cry out in passion as he took
her body back as his own against her will. The corners of his mouth
lifted slightly at the thought.

He took a few steps forward and he heard her
growl. His brow arched. He had never imagined seeing her like this.
Perhaps he should invite Kaveh. He would certainly enjoy watching.
Maybe helping. It would be interesting to see Immortal battle
Immortal.

He loosened the whip in his hand, preparing
to use it, and stepped forward. She bared her teeth at him and
growled again. Suddenly she lunged at him and only the heavy chains
stopped her from grabbing him. He didn’t leap back. He wouldn’t
give her that satisfaction. She looked behind her in bewilderment
and pulled at the chains while glaring at him and growling.

“Down girl,” he said, snapping the whip and
catching her across her stomach.

She didn’t flinch and her eyes flashed with
more anger.

Fuck
.

He snapped the whip several more times,
hitting her breasts and belly and thighs. The only flinch he was
rewarded with was when he hit her across the cheek. He was very
good at using his whip and knew exactly how to hit what he aimed
at. He could snap her head off if he wanted to, but that would be
counterproductive.

Her cheek split open and she fell to her
knees and held it. He looked her over with satisfaction. She looked
up at him, the glow softer and seductive. Such beautiful eyes. So
sad. So alluring....

“No!” he shouted, startled to realize he was
being sucked into her seduction. He stepped back and whipped her
several times, cutting into her skin. She howled and pushed back
against the wall, huddling there like a cornered tigress. She
didn’t seem to notice her dislocated shoulder.

He leaned against a heavy wooden table, arms
crossed, and watched her. She was fascinating like this. Wild
beauty. Wild rage. God, he wanted to fuck her right now. But he had
to subdue her first, or he might lose his cock when he tried. He
wasn’t stupid.

She growled, eyes glowing with rage again. He
lifted the whip but before he could strike, the door opened and Ian
walked in. He stopped short when he saw Anna, and stared with his
mouth open.

“Holy shit,” Ian mumbled, and looked at Devin
with wide eyes. “Did you know this could happen?”

Devin smiled, amused. “No, but it’s quite
intriguing, isn't it? Go find Kaveh and invite him to watch. He
might like it.”

Ian handed him a leather case and bowed his
head slightly. He glanced once more at Anna’s wild form and then
backed out of the room.

Devin opened the case to find four syringes.
Three were his ‘nerve juice’ and one was something to knock her out
in case things got out of hand.

He held the case up so Anna could see. “Do
you see these, Anna? You recognize these syringes, don’t you?”