Page 98 of Raine
Iwake up feeling groggy and sore, my body aching and my head banging. Rolling to my side, I rub my temples and attempt to open my eyes. Squinting through the pounding in my skull, I recognize my surroundings, and everything floods back like a gate opening after being closed too long.
I move to sit up quickly, panic and a sliver of fear setting in, but as I do, everything spins and I groan at the discomfort.
“You’re awake.”
My head snaps toward the sound of his voice, and I grimace against the nausea swimming in my stomach at the sudden movement. Heaving in a deep breath, I try to center myself before speaking.
“What the fuck you do you want?”
“Is that anyway to talk to your father?”
“Fuck you! You aren’t my father!”
Avernus tuts, sounding disappointed and I swallow the bile burning up my throat. I hear his feet move across the floor, and I shrink back into the sofa, my body breaking out in goosebumps at his nearness.
The room feels like it’s dropped into the low thirties, and the air is tainted by the evil that surrounds him — the poison that he is. Avernus crouches in front of me, and I curl into myself, still feeling woozy after he hit me over the head, but there is something else…
My eyes go wide, and I’m finally able to focus them on Avernus. His eyes crinkle at the sides and his lips tip up into a grin. “Ding, ding, ding.”
“No…”
“Yes, my darling daughter. I may have shot some opioids into your pretty little veins. You do look beautiful when you sleep. It really is a pity that we’re related. Then again, when has that ever stopped you?” he says smugly.
Shame and humiliation drown me in their ickiness, but it’s quickly washed out when I peer into the blue eyes of my biological father. If sadism and the devil had a name, it would be Avernus.
He twirls a piece of my hair around his fingers, and I rear back from his touch, but his hold on my hair halts me. “Don’t worry, Raine, I’m not going to hurt you — yet. What kind of father would I be?” he asks, before releasing my hair and slapping me across the face.
My ears ring and my head thumps some more, and I’m in utter disbelief at what the hell is happening right now. Did he really just fucking hit me?
“What the fuck?!”
“It’s best you learn your place and quickly. Your brother wasn’t so smart. Maybe you can ask him about it next time you see him. That is, if you ever see him again.”
He stands to his full height and straightens his suit before buttoning his jacket. “I have a message for you and yourbrothers.I’m always two steps in front of you all, and when I find out what you’re hiding and I have proof to show Tony, you will all meet your maker.”
Avernus’s face contorts into a sneer before he stalks toward me again, and I hate that my body isn’t computing what I’m screaming inside.
He reaches down and gropes my breasts hard, his lips tilting up to the ceiling as I try to bat his hand away but my arms are like wet noodles flopping around. Anger and humiliation unfurl inside of me, and my eyes track to my gun on the table, but I know I’ll never make it in time. The prick must have taken all my weapons when I passed out.
“Hmm, I can see why your brother wanted a little taste.”
“Fuck you,” I grind out, my arms finding some function as my fist connects with his cheek. It’s not as hard as I normally hit, but it makes me feel good none the less.
Avernus releases my tits in an instant, his hand wrapping around and squeezing my throat. I bring my hands up and claw at his hand but he doesn’t budge.
“If you ever touch me again, I will kill you. Blood or not, Raine, the only reason I’m leaving you alive is because you’re useful to me at the moment. Don’t let this act of kindness deter you from the monster I am.”
As his lingering words waft through my foggy, oxygen deprived brain, my thoughts move to Jelitza, Clara, Shannon and Lady, and I find some strength, rearing my head back then forward to headbutt him.
He staggers back and I reach for my gun clumsily. He curses, then chuckles when he sees me with the purple gun shaking in my hands.
“Go on, little girl, shoot me; I dare you.”
I squint my eye and try to focus, but the fucking H in my body doesn’t grant me any reprieve. He chuckles darkly again, walks forward and places his palm over my hand to lower the gun to the floor.
“The next time you raise a gun to my face, you better shoot before I do. I won’t hesitate to kill you. If it comes down to me or you, I’ll always choose me. Now, don’t forget to tell Justyce my message, I know he’s up to something; I know you’re all up to something. I will find out, Raine, and I swear I’ll make you all fucking pay.”
He smiles at me creepily, turns around and starts whistling as he walks to the front door. I beg my legs to move, to run after him, and put a bullet in his head for what he did to my family, for what he did to Acheron. But my legs don’t move, instead fresh tears fall when I hear him call out one last time.
