Page 62 of Horror and Chill

“Untape her,” he says.

I pause. “Why?”

“She’ll choke if she keeps thrashing. Besides, I want to hear what she says.”

I peel the tape off slowly just to hear her hiss. She spits the panties onto the floor, her voice ragged when it finally breaks free.

“You think this is going to make me beg?” she growls.

“No,” I murmur, leaning close enough to smell her sweat. “It’s going to make you ours.”

Her laugh is sharp, bitter. “Keep dreaming.”

I smirk. “Oh, I do. Every night.”

She yanks against the restraints, leather creaking. “You don’t own me. You never will.”

Garron pulls the strap tighter, his voice a low growl. “That’s what they all say until they realize they already gave themselves up.”

“Not me,” she spits, chest heaving. “You think tying me down changes anything? I’ve lived through worse. You don’t scare me.”

Evander shifts at the foot of the bed, eyes calm, too calm, and it needles under my skin. “You’re scared,” he mumbles. “But you’re curious too. That’s why you don’t close your eyes.”

Her gaze snaps to him, blazing. “Curious isn’t consent.”

I laugh then, low and mean, dragging my thumb along the edge of her thigh just to watch her muscles jump. “Funny thingabout curiosity. It’s what keeps you from screaming when you should. It’s why you keep letting us in.”

She jerks hard against me; the cuffs rattling. “Letting? You don’t even know the meaning of that word.”

“Oh, we know,” I say, dipping closer, lips at her ear. “We know because you still fight with your mouth even when you could’ve stayed silent. You keep feeding us fire. And I want to see how hot you’ll burn before you beg.”

Her eyes cut to mine, furious, defiant. “You’ll be waiting forever.”

Garron chuckles from her other side. “Forever’s nothing, Little Horror. We’ve got all the time in the world.”

I sit at the edge of the bed, watching her writhe, watching her bare her teeth instead of tears. And it makes something dark curl through me, hot and heavy. She’s everything I wanted her to be.

And I can’t wait to see how much further she’ll burn.

24

Agatha

The door shuts hard;the sound echoes in my skull. Their footsteps fade down the hall until I can’t hear anything but my own pulse. They left me here. Strapped down. Like some kind of prize animal waiting for the slaughter.

Leather cuffs hold my wrists above my head, fixed to the headboard by a short length of chain. There’s slack enough that I can lower my arms, but not nearly enough to slip free. Every pull makes the metal clink, the leather scraping against my skin, a constant reminder I’m caught. I can move. I just can’t escape.

“Fuckkk!” I scream, loud enough to rattle the headboard.

A low chuckle answers me from the corner.

My head snaps to the sound. Evander. He’s leaning there, half in the shadow, like he owns it.

“What do you want?” My voice shakes, but it’s not fear. It’s fury.

He tilts his head, eyes catching the thin strip of light from the lamp. “I think we’ve answered that a lot tonight,” he says, calm as ever. “You.”

I roll my eyes so hard it hurts. “Why not just ask me on a damn date then? Instead of stalking me and fucking me like animals?”