“Let me see you.” He took hold of my hips, his hands sliding up my back in search of my zipper.
I didn’t want him getting a look at my body, so I grabbed hold of him and yanked him onto the bed with me instead. He grunted as he fell on me, weighing me down on the mattress, his lips pursed in search of mine. But I gave him my cheek, not wanting to upset poor Glenda who quacked frantically in my chest.
His clean-shaven chin dragged over my skin as he moved his way down to my throat and started sucking on it, one of his hands working to open his shirt and the other bunching in the material of my dress. I’d discussed this with Mel, how to switch my emotions off when I was being pawed at, how to turn my mind away and focus on my goal, but it was harder than I’d imagined now that it was really happening, and I remembered something else she’d said about it being okay if I couldn’t. That I shouldn’t if I didn’t want to. But now I was here and I had to, had to, so want didn’t come into it anymore. This was for the me of the past, the one who’d been cast aside from society and forgotten. She had the right to be remembered, she had the right to be avenged.
I reached for my hair, taking hold of the knife and tugging on it to try and get it free, but it was all jammed up and twisted in there, not doing what I needed at all and making my heart patter with panic as I wondered what would happen if I couldn’t get it free. Dammit on a doughnut, Niall.
Cedric made it to my cleavage and my body stiffened as he kissed my tits and a grimace pulled at my face. He wasn’t exactly bad looking, but my vagina was half way to the north pole by now, its bags packed and my clit riding its back. The urge to start screaming clogged up my throat as I thought of him touching me more than he had already.
No – wait. I didn’t want it to go like this.
This wasn’t vengeance, this was me on my back in the woods again, my limbs freezing up as unwanted fingers groped me.
“Stop playing hard to get,” Cedric said excitedly as I didn’t respond to his touch. “Roll over so I can get this dress off.” He rutted against me, his cock making itself known and bile rose in my throat. Why wouldn’t my body respond? Brain was getting all caught up in the past and I was fighting to resurface from the quicksand those memories were dragging me into.
Slowly, I came out of it, thinking of Niall’s training, of Mel’s words in my ears and I began to breathe again. I could see this through. It was going to lead to a merciless death, and that was definitely worthwhile. I gritted my teeth as the movement came back to my limbs and I tugged at the knife in my hair again. But it wouldn’t come out dammit.
“Come on, sugar tits,” he encouraged in what I was pretty sure was supposed to be a sexy voice.
A droning noise filled my ears and my head whipped around in search of a low flying aircraft, but then I realised it was Cedric groaning into my neck. Ew with fries on the side.
“Can you feel how hard you’ve got me?” he asked gruffly.
“No,” I said immediately because my radar wasn’t focused on his lone soldier. I just hoped it didn’t sneak around back and spring up my butt while I was trying to concentrate. Dicks didn’t do that, did they? No, they were there in the front to stay.
“What do you mean, no?” He lifted his head, his hips bucking hard against me and a grimace filled my face as I realised his cock swelled even more. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
I tried to fix my expression, but I couldn’t do it fast enough and suddenly I feared the wind had changed and it was now stuck that way forever.
“Get your dress off,” he commanded, his cheeks turning red. “Get it off right now.” He started pulling at it and I reached for the knife in my hair, yanking hard and finally getting it into my grip. But just as I did, Cedric reared up and flipped me over with a burst of strength, grabbing my zipper and yanking it down the length of my back. I froze, my face pressed to the pillow as I was dragged back into the woods that night where the moon had watched the monsters touch me, and I lost all sense of where I was, who I was.
Back then, I’d been weak and stupid with a head full of fluff, but I’d changed. My insides had been painted black and I’d morphed into someone strong and capable. I was a furious creature in my own right now. I wasn’t that girl anymore. I was powerful. All fucking powerful in fact, and I was here for blood.
I threw my elbow back with a shriek, hearing his nose shatter under the impact with a surge of victory burning through my limbs.
I rolled over on the bed, swinging the knife, ready to slash his throat open, but a shadow was behind him and a huge, tattooed arm locked around Cedric’s throat, hauling him away from me before my strike could land.
My lips popped open in awe as I watched the Devil at work right before me, Cedric’s eyes full of fear as I swear he saw his death coming just as certainly as I did.
Niall threw him onto the floor, stamping on his head before Cedric could let out a single scream and in the next heartbeat, my Hellfire went fully feral. He grabbed hold of Cedric by the throat, yanking him to his feet and throwing him into a large armchair before his massive fist cracked across his skull again then punched him in the throat hard enough to stop his screams from getting out. Cedric jerked in agony, trying to cry out for help, but Niall hit him again and again and again. He was half unconscious as Niall beat him bloody, his face and forearms flecked in red as he pounded mercilessly into Cedric’s body.
I stared on in shock as Niall bared his teeth and nothing but a cold-hearted killer peered from his eyes. This was the best hitman in the state, if not the whole country and I was seeing him let loose, every strike of his fist a hammer blow dealing death, but each time, Cedric continued to twitch and stay alive. Knowing Niall, that was his intention, delivering as much pain as possible as he snapped bones and had Cedric spasming in agony beneath him.
When he was nearly gone, Niall gripped his hair, yanking his head around to make him look me in the eye.
“You see her?” Niall snarled in his ear, making sure he did.
Cedric gargled something inaudible as he looked at me through swollen, bloodshot eyes.
“She’s the Bully Butcher. Brooklyn Meadow. The girl you sent to damnation when what she needed was protection. Your death is for her.” Niall moved behind Cedric in the chair, looking at me as his chest heaved and I held the knife higher, clambering off the bed to finish him, but Niall twisted his neck sharply and a loud crack sounded his demise.
My jaw dropped and my heart fell into the pit of my stomach, rattling around in there like a coin tossed down a drain.
“Niall!” I shrieked as he dropped the corpse to the floor with a sneer of hatred. “He was my kill.”
“He was on top of ya,” Niall snarled in a deathly quiet voice.
“I was about to strike,” I hissed, raising the knife in my hand.
I threw it at Niall in a fit of rage but he didn’t even flinch as it whistled past his ear, the blade just clipping it and making him bleed.
“He was on top of ya,” he repeated, his whole body still tensed as he panted from the exertion of the kill.
“What do you care?” I spat. “You’ve probably been off somewhere with Anastasia on top of you while you sucked on her giant Milk Duds.”