Page 29 of The Devil of London

“What the fuck is this?” I whispered thickly at what I’d almost allowed to happen to me. I was an idiot for thinking Cameron was anything other than a psychopath. I trembled with the reality of it all, forced to see his depravity on a full scale.

“I think he may have wanted companionship, after all. But on a more unwilling basis than you had likely expected,” Khaos said without humor in his words.

“Oh, my God,” I said as an image of Arabella on a bed, spread wide-open with a crude gag over her mouth, caught my eye. Her body was brutalized by tiny cuts. There was something protruding from her vagina, which looked as if it had tiny spikes on the outside. Her thighs were coated in blood and bruises. Wide, oak-colored eyes stared at the photographer, haunted with terror.

“This is what we found on his computer,” Khaos stated as he handed me a printed piece of paper he’d pulled from his jacket.

Silently, I read what looked like a detailed report of my likes and dislikes. Things people outside my inner circle wouldn’t have known unless they’d infiltrated it through treachery.

He’d targeted Arabella because of me. I wanted to throw up at the thought of him using her to get to me. Above each itemized report, he had included what he’d done to her.

Torture method: Fucked with a studded phallus.

Aderyn loves chicory coffee and talking about the French Quarter. She is an avid tea drinker, and excels at alchemy, witchcraft, and apothecary. She spends her weekends at home watching reruns of old shows or at working in her shop. Aderyn arrives at the shop every weekday at five in the morning, and leaves at six in the evening.

Torture method: Fisted.

She has a familiar named Satan. He’ll need to be put down to weaken her. Her house is spelled with runes, which this poor girl has agreed to undo long enough for me to place cameras within it. The floor plan of the house is basic enough that it won’t take more than a few minutes to infiltrate and place them.

Torture method: Beaten to death.

Unfortunately, the stupid slut tried to escape after I’d released her. Her usefulness expired. However, she gave enough for me to get close to Aderyn Caine without needing her any longer. The cameras inside her home and shop haven’t been detected and are deliciously poised for what I desired.

Aderyn used a spell this morning, which caused her to gyrate until she ripped her clothing off and spread her lovely body out on her bed. It’s such a soft bed, too. I enjoyed watching her finger her slit, even though she didn’t appear to want to do so—

Handing the papers back to Khaos, I rushed toward a corner as my stomach tried to expel the little bit of food I’d consumed before crashing last night. My stomach heaved until I noted the rotting corpse covered in garbage I was trying to throw up on. A scream ripped from my lungs as I backed up, shoving my fingers through my hair as I stared into Arabella’s lifeless, white eyes.

Arabella had stopped returning my calls two weeks ago. Had she been dead this entire time? I’d made a note to go to her house and check in on her, but I’d never gotten around to doing so. Was she being tortured as I’d jotted down the note? From the look of her pale coloring, and the stench drifting from the corpse, she’d been dead a while, at least.

Strong arms wrapped around me, turning me from the wreckage of her disfigured corpse as I threw up my guts. Khaos collected my hair, keeping it out of my face to prevent my vomit from getting into the strands. His other hand slid around my stomach, keeping me upright as my knees tried to give out.

“Get a bottle of water from the Land Rover for her, Merikh,” Khaos ordered as he held me until nothing was left in my stomach to throw up. “If I’d told you what he’d done, you wouldn’t have believed me. You needed to see it for yourself, Aderyn.”

“How did I miss it? I’m not a fucking child who runs blindly into the arms of my enemies?” I demanded to the room, not expecting an answer.

“Aren’t you?”

“I’ve never run into the arms of a psychopath before!”

“You’ve been in my arms plenty,” he returned, which caused a humorless laugh to leave my lungs.

“Point taken,” I whispered through the sourness in my mouth.

“Here, drink this,” Merikh said as he returned, offering me the cold bottle of water. Twisting the top off, he held it in his hand until I’d accepted it, taking just enough to wash my mouth out before spitting it out. Then, I drank it down until nothing was left. “I erased his computer, but the sick bastard filmed everything he did to her. He wasn’t kind to her. I’d have removed her corpse, but you needed to know who he was, little bird.”

“I should have looked for her. When she stopped responding to my calls, I made a note to check in on her, but I didn’t follow through on it. I should have been there for her more, or at least gone and made sure she was okay. It never even crossed my mind that she might still be in danger from the bastard who had raped her.” Wiping the tears away from my cheeks, I sniffled to prevent snot from running down my lips. “I’m such an idiot, Shadow. I met Cameron online while looking for her rapist and he was the one who’d attacked her. But I missed the signs if there were any.” Admitting it out loud, I sounded like a blooming idiot. “I intended to find the bastard who had assaulted her and bring her his heart. She was just a baby. Her twenty-first birthday was three months ago. How the hell could anyone do that to her? How could anyone be so fucking cruel to someone as sweet and timid as she’d been?” It was a hypothetical question, which they’d understood. The world was filled with predators, most of them human.

“Do you really want to know how he got to you?” Khaos asked once I’d regained some semblance of composure.

“Yes.” I wanted to know if only so I would never let it happen again. Knowledge was power when employed to keep those you cared about safe. “I need to know how he got to her to prevent it from happening again,” I whispered through trembling lips.

“He targeted her because she was young enough to use. Her age made her weaker than the other employees you trusted with access to your home and business. Cameron met her at a bar, where he drugged her drink and then pretended to help her to her car. Then he brought her here and tied her up.” Khaos stated as he nodded toward the stairs. “We’re leaving. I’ll tell you about the rest on the way back to your house.”

I followed him toward the stairs, turning to watch as Merikh began removing the images of my naked body from the walls.

“He will bring them to the club, Aderyn. Until we know if there’s more of them around these woods, it isn’t safe for you to be out in the open right now.” Not bothering to argue with him, I followed him outside and allowed him to help me into the passenger seat of his vehicle.

“I’m so stupid,” I whispered, pressing my forehead against the cold window to ease the warmth spreading through me.

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