Page 85 of Villains and Vengeance
‘Stand in the middle of the dais,’ he orders me. ‘Leave it or let them pull you off it and they’ll swarm you. I won’t be able to save you in time then.’
My eyes widen as supes begin to enter the cavern through all doors.
Dante looks pleased. ‘Word has already spread,’ he says with a glance at me.
I stand frozen. Eyes stare, undressing me. Though I’ve technically lived amongst them for months, being in front of them like this is petrifying and I know they can see me shaking.
‘As you can see, the rumors are true,’ Dante booms. ‘I have the female!’
‘How do we know that’s not a pretty looking lad you’ve dressed up? Take off yer clothes so we can see ye!’ Someone shouts and the crowd laughs.
I swallow hard, looking to Dante. He needs me. He won’t let me die.
But he stands up and walks over to me, grabbing me by the hair and pulling me to the front where the ones closest can reach me.
He chooses two of them, pointing with one finger. ‘You and you. I give you leave to touch her and let the others know whether or not this is the female who’s been driving our senses wild these past months.
Hands paw at me and I squirm and scream in Dante’s grip as the makeshift belt I made is snapped and my pants are pulled off. I kick out and catch one of them in the face, but the other guffaws and grabs my leg. His hand delves between them roughly, making me squeal as his fingers grab me.
‘Aye, that’s a human female, all right,’ he bellows as he licks his fingers. ‘And she’s got a sweet cunt!’
Dante shoos them away and sits in his chair, bringing me with him and drawing me down to his lap again.
‘I love your fear,’ he whispers in my ear. ‘When I fuck you, I’m going to do it in demon form in front of all of them.’
I don’t trust myself to open my mouth. Instead, I just sit, trying to block out the jeers and the laughter, the suggestions of what Dante should do to me.
Dante raises a hand to quiet them after he’s let them blow off some steam. ‘The female is mine,’ he says loudly, ‘but the fighter who wins the next match will have her for an hour!’
The deafening roars at his proclamation make me recoil into Dante because he’s the only thing between me and a very gruesome death even though he’s planning to whore me out as a reward to his men.
‘But for now,’ he yells, pulling my bare legs wide for all to see, ‘this is all you get!’
Out of the corner of my eye, I see two burly guys who I think are demons clamber up onto the stage.
Dante laughs and gets up, holding me by the hair again. ‘You want her?’ he taunts. ‘You think you can best me for her?’
They run at him, and, to my horror, he pushes me towards them. They grab me and I struggle as my remaining clothes are pulled off me and thrown into the crowd. I’m trying to cover myself, not let them touch me when Dante finally stops them. By demoning up and ripping out both their throats in unison while their attentions are on me. Blood sprays all over the platform and the crowd and covers me.
The room is in a frenzy as the demon king roars. ‘Anyone who wants the female is invited to try and take her,’ he hisses low and yet somehow every single supe in the room hears him. This was a demonstration. He did this because he knew there would be challengers and he wanted to make sure everyone saw what happened to them, how easy it was for him to take them down.
No one else approaches.
I’m shivering, naked and covered in blood, in shock or something close to it, and not sure how I’m still on my feet as I’m pulled back into his private room.
Dante, still in demon form, is laughing until he takes in my lack of clothes. His laughter dissipates and the demon recedes.
He tells his guards to get out.
Then he approaches me, and I stagger back, fearing the worst. But all he does is grab a long shirt from a drawer and throw it at me.
‘Cover yourself.’
* * *
Axel
I can see Jayce.He’s just in my line of vision, propped up as I am against the wall where Iron left me with a muttered, ‘I’m sorry’.
