Chapter 155
HANNAH
The black book in front of Dawson was spattered with something that suspiciously looked like blood. It's pages were brittle and yellowed with age. His eyes roamed greedily over the letters.
Fear, more intense than anything I had ever felt before, set my heart pounding so hard I could barely breathe. This time even though I knew it made them happy to see it, I couldn't control the tears chasing each other down my face.
The hood of Dawson's robe fell back a little as he raised his eyes to the ceiling and chanted a string of words in a high fluting voice. The others, wearing robes so dark they seemed to blend into the shadows of the room, took up the chant.
I could feel a sense of building power as the men continued. Their chants seemed to stir something within my chest. It called up all the bad memories. Somehow it told me that all the stories of monsters I had heard of as a child were real and true.
The shadows in the room seemed to lengthen and take hideous shapes. Only the rhythmic rattling of the chains that held me in place interrupted their chants. The chains rattled because I was shaking, shaking like a leaf.
Every second brought me closer to the end of the ritual. After which they would kill me in the most barbaric way possible.
My blood would live on in the bodies of these evil men. It would make them stronger, strong enough to take on the world. Strong enough to attack and kill the people I loved.
Was this really how I was going to die? Would Asher and Dawson win in the end?
Abruptly the chanting stopped. A thick, oppressive silence followed.
Dawson lowered his hood, revealing the healed but still very noticeable scar on his forehead. He stepped forward as Asher took the book, shutting it with a snap that made me jump.
For the first time ever, Dawson was smiling. If you could call it a smile. All the muscles in his face twitched and writhed like there were things crawling underneath his skin. His eyes shone with excitement.
"I told you you would die, didn't I?" he said. He waved to the men all standing still in a semi circle with their heads bowed. "Thanks to you, everyone in this room will be powerful, unstoppable. Tell me, girl, how does that make you feel knowing that you will be strengthening the people you hate? No answer? No last words? Shame."
Out of the pockets of his robe, he pulled out a knife with a pearl handle. Inch by inch he brought it closer to my throat. Suddenly the will to live overrode my fear.
I twisted my head this way and that, grabbed hold of the chains and tried to free myself even if it was just a little bit.
I managed to stomp on Dawson's toes. His nostrils flared. He wrapped my hair around his hand, forced my head up to meet his blazing eyes.
"Such fight. Such spirit," he said. "Shame that it can't get you anywhere."
"Loose these chains and we'll see," I hissed.
"Not happening," he said.
I tried to pull my hair out of his grip as I looked around frantically. There was a dagger tucked into Dawson's belt. If only I could reach it. But the chains were firmly wrapped around my wrists. I could barely move them.
A cry of pain slipped past my lips as my head was yanked upward again. With his other hand, he ripped the material of my dress and exposed the skin over my heart. His long fingers caressed the spot.
"Look at me, girl," Dawson crooned. "I want you to watch as I cut you and bleed you to death. I want my face to be the last thing you see."
He raised the knife. The other men murmured eagerly. They leaned forward, almost crowding Dawson. Horrified, I saw one of them lick his lips.
So this was how I was going to die, with the image of someone greedily smacking his lips, eager to feast on my blood like it was some kind of tasty snack.
Dawson's knife started it's swift deadly descent to my heart.
Glass shattered.
I thought for a moment that it was a sound from the afterlife, maybe the sound a soul made when it left the body but the look of utter shock on Dawson's face assured me that I was still very much alive.
More sounds of glass shattering and falling to the floor. I turned in time to see a familiar hand reaching in and knocking aside the remaining glass in the windows.
The next instant Cade, Chase and Jace jumped in with several other men. And Edward.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
