Page 1 of Vipers and Vendettas
ChapterOne
Jules
The clang of my chains wakes me in the dark. I sit up slowly against the wall. I can’t feel my fingers, but that’s not unusual. I’m so used to the cold down here that I don’t even shiver anymore.
There is a dim blue light flickering faintly on the stone where the passage in front of my cell curves, and I struggle to stand. If I’m not ready to meet him, he’ll make it worse for me later.
Using the wall, I inch myself to my feet and lean heavily against it as I beat back the dizziness that threatens to send me back to the hard floor. I inadvertently graze one of the fresh, puckered burns, and I clench my teeth as I let out a muffled and inhuman sound of pain.
The flicker gets brighter, and I hear his footsteps, Toramun, the jailor who comes for me each time, who always stands in the corner relishing my pain while Grinel and Volrien carve me up and burn their symbols into my flesh. His job comes later. He’ll administer the beating that always follows while the other two look on. Sometimes, Tamadrielle comes to watch as well, but he always leaves angry.
I’m not as stupid as they think. I know they’re doing this for more than brutality’s sake. They’re trying to make something happen, but whatever they’re waiting for never does, and I’m glad. I’m not sure how my life here could be worse, but I know the fae well enough now that I’m sure their cruelties have no limits.
Toramun comes into view; his face lit up in blue from beneath his chin, where his conjured ball of light hovers at his chest. It makes him look more grotesque than usual. All of the High Fae I’ve ever seen come to Tamadrielle’s house have been beautiful. But this one’s face is scarred. When he takes off his uniform to bare his torso when he gets too hot beating me, I see marks all over him. His body is twisted and broken.
I gaze down at myself. I suppose I have as many scars as he does now, though.
He opens my cell door with a word of power that doesn’t work for me. I know the drill, so I don’t tarry. I shuffle forward and hold out my manacled hand. He unlocks it without a word, and I stand in front of him, looking past him at the wall as he looks his fill of my body that’s clad only in an old, grubby bra and a pair of ratty underwear.
He lets out a groan as his calloused hands gently move the cups of my bra down so he can see my tits. Whenever he handles me down here in the dark, it’s always carefully, almost reverently.
I hate it.
I hate that he’s the only one in my life that touches me softly. I hate that after a particularly painful session, I sometimes almost look forward to this little ritual of his.
‘Very nice,’ he coos, rubbing his fingers over my cold, hard nipples.
He angles my face so that I can’t help but look at him.
‘Once he’s done with you, he’s promised I can have you,’ he says, drawing a hand down my cheek and throat to my beating heart.
I keep still, and my face stays completely blank. I don’t speak to him. I never do, not to any of them. The only sounds they ever hear from me are the screams they elicit, and that’s all they’ll ever have. It was a vow I made to myself, and I won’t break it.
‘Don’t worry. I’m not going to leave you down here once you’re mine. You’re going to be upstairs in the barracks with me. Won’t that be nice?’ He groans again. ‘You’ll be in my bed with me every night. Won’t that be better than the floor?’
His hands move down my body, and I try not to show any revulsion as he cups me over my underwear. He leaves his hand there as he watches me. I stand impassively, keeping my breathing even and slow even when he nudges my foot with his boot to open me to him further.
A chime sounds through the hall, and he lets out a sound of disappointment as he stops groping me. He grabs my arm in the first punishing grip of the day and walks me back through the tunnel.
It’s a thousand paces to get to the winding stone stairs. I think I’ve counted them about as many times.
There are twenty-two steps up to the main dungeon where the rest of the prisoners are. Almost all are supes, and they’re all waiting at the fronts of their cells to ogle the human girl as she’s brought through.
I ignore the lecherous stares and the muttered threats about which of my holes they’re going to destroy first. I already know Tamadrielle has ordered that I remain a virgin for now because two of the kitchen slaves attacked me one evening, and the fae lord gave them to the supes in the dungeon for the night. Afterward, he had them dragged still half-alive back to the kitchens, and their throats were slit in front of everyone. Then, their bodies were hung up on the wall over the fires to slowly burn to nothing as a reminder to the rest. I guess he put a conjure on them so they didn’t smell, but you couldn’t miss them. None of the human slaves have touched me in desire since then, only anger or apathy. That’s allowed.
Some might view Tamadrielle’s edict as a mercy of some kind, and I suppose it is, but no doubt Grinel and Volrien have advised him that keeping my hymen intact is necessary for their ‘science’. It’s not meant to be kindness. If they thought my being raped every night by a minotaur would help them achieve their ends, no doubt I’d be nursing a sore cunt every morning.
I’m pushed up more stairs, Toramun’s hand lingering on my ass and squeezing. He’s getting bolder. He’d never have risked that even a few weeks ago. Something is changing, and that never bodes well for me.
It’s clear that whatever their reasons for torturing me, it’s not going the way they wanted. Maybe Tamadrielle is finally losing patience with the pair of fae he pays to hurt me.
We arrive in the main house and go up the back stairs the human slaves use to get around without bothering the fae. The ‘lab’ door is right in front of us.
As usual, my body locks up, and my steps falter at the sight of it. I try to be brave. I don’t want them to see how scared I am, but I can’t seem to help it. This is where all the worst things happen.
My breathing stutters.
Toramun doesn’t miss a beat; he just picks me up and throws me over his shoulder. He’s used to this, after all.
