Prologue
Chains rattled harshly in the predawn hours, breaking the silence of the quiet basement. A low growl followed and then the sound of a body hitting the cement floor. A gasp and the sound of water hitting the floor was almost anticlimactic as the single light in the center of the room was turned on, it's bright cone of light spotlighting the bloodied body of the naked girl and the insidious smile of her captor.
"You've been told, Jasmine. Tell us what we want to know and we'll end this suffering."
The girl flung her hair back, long tendril of black that stuck in the wounds on her shoulders and back. "Take this collar off of me and I'll end this now." Her words were spoken barely above a whisper but he heard her.
"Do I look that stupid?" He didn't wait for her to speak; instead his hand drew back, the long serpentine coil of the whip following obediently. It cracked, its braided ends cutting into the raw wounds of her back. Blood spattered against the cement, tiny pieces of her skin and little snippets of flesh were sheared off to add to the patterns of gore around her.
Her scream was raw and anguished, her body tensing in the overwhelming agony he was dealing. "I can't!" she screamed. "They'll kill me."
"I'll kill you, Jasmine." He stepped closer, lifting the leash that was clipped to her collar and holding her up on her tiptoes with it. "And if not me, then I could always let Lucian come down to play some more. He flicked his fingers over the bite marks that had been left on her heaving breasts. "I heard him tell the Master how much he enjoyed his time with you."
"No!" she moaned, her head shaking weakly. "No, don't let him hurt me anymore."
"Oh and here I thought you were enjoying his fat cock. I'd never heard a woman cry and moan like they do when Lucian is in the room with them." He dipped his head, dropping a kiss on her forehead before letting go of her collar and stepping back. He drew his arm back again, knowing that she would either give in now, tell them where the newborn had been taken or she too will have been a waste of time.
With a small curse, he sent the whip whistling her way, pulling back so the ends cracked above her skin, not touching her. "Tell me, now Jasmine or I'm calling Lucian." He waited for a few moments longer and then he shook his head sadly. "Lucian it is."
She screamed as he went to the phone in the corner of the room, watching as he picked it up and could hear it ringing above them somewhere in the deep bowels of the house. "No!" she screamed. "Stop! I'll tell you. I will."
Antoine smiled at the woman, dropping the phone back into its cradle. "Tell me, Jasmine. Tell me where they took the baby."
Harsh sobs shook her shoulders and for a moment, she couldn't speak. Her throat felt clogged and the pain seemed too much to handle. Jasmine held herself up from the floor, her arms shaking with the strain. She opened her mouth to speak again and a fresh wail shook her.
But her captor wasn't waiting. "Where's the baby!" he shouted, grabbing her leash and dragging her up.
With an inhuman growl, Jasmine pushed herself even further, her mouth opening and her teeth clamping down on Antoine's neck. She bit down hard, pulling her head back and spitting out the mouthful of flesh she'd ripped from him.
Blood spurted, mixing with girl's blood that already coated the floor. Antoine dropped her leash, his hand scrabbling at his throat as the strength of his heart pumped his life's blood through the wound.
"Fuck you!" Jasmine screamed, her hands scrabbling at the pistol the man wore at his waist, yanking it out easily enough. She turned, glaring defiantly at the camera, knowing that Antoine's master had been watching every strike of the whip, ever thrust of Lucian's deformed body into hers. "And fuck you too," she snarled, a bubble of hysterical laughter following. She heard the door to the basement opened and raised the pistol, pulling the trigger without hesitation.
It dropped from her dead hands, a gaping hole left in Jasmine's skull. The men who'd flinched back at the report of the gun gasped as they saw the body of the dead Seer as well as the still bleeding corpse of the man left with the duty to get the information the Master needed.
"He will not be pleased."
The deep voice that rang out from the intercom speakers built into the walls of the basement was loud and unexpected. "Her body is to be sent to them, mail it to them in pieces. I want each piece branded with their holy sign. Burn it in deep. Drop Antoine in the ditch. Find me another. I want that baby and I want it now!"
There was a scrabble of bodies moving and the scene was cleaned up quickly. Jasmine's body was taken into another room, a saw used to perform the necessary cuts to have her fitting into boxes all addressed to the same place. More men were sent out under the cover of night to search for the next that would feel the master's whip. The baby, his fate prophesized from before even his conception, was safe still.
Chapter One
The end of day bell couldn't come quickly enough, not today anyway. Sabra Kozilinski stared at the clock, watching the second hand with impatient eyes. It wasn't often that her brother was allowed to come home to visit and she didn't want to miss a single second of what time they would be allowed together.
"Settle down," Tasha hissed from next to her. Natasha Biddleson, her best friend since elementary school, knew what was happening tonight. "Squirming isn't going to make time go by faster. You don't want Leather Head up there to give you detention tonight."
Tasha nodded toward their last period teacher. Leather Head had been given the name for his weird shaped head and the leathery looking skin that covered it. He was also one of the meanest teachers the school had and enjoyed doling out detentions with an unselfish hand.
"Is there a problem, Miss Biddleson?"
Natasha shot Sabra a dirty look. "No sir. Everything is fine."
"Did I not give you enough work to keep you busy? Should I give you another page or two?"
