Page 68 of Tethered Souls

1. Jason screams.

2. Blood splatters all over my face.

I jerk back in shock as I turn my head. My eyes close automatically so nothing gets in them. Stumbling onto my ass, I wipe an arm across my face. My eyes open just in time to see Varius kick Jason in the stomach. The shorter man doesn’t even flail his arms to stop himself from falling back, his hands too preoccupied with cupping his junk.

Hismissingjunk I realize as Varius bends down and picks up a severed penis. He wipes both sides of his knife on the sleeve of his jacket as he walks towards a whimpering Jason. The man is balled up at this point, his hands still cupped low. Screaming and crying, he begs for mercy.

“Please!” he wails. “Don’t kill me. Please, please!”

“You want to live?” Varius asks as he stops in front of him.

“Yes!”

“You want my forgiveness for trying to steal from me?”

At the mention of ‘steal,’ my eyebrows come together. Then they shoot straight up as I realize he must have heard Jason asking me to dance. Trying to steal that first moment from him.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Then get on your knees and beg me.”

He sobs on the floor for a few more seconds, no doubt building up the courage to move. I hope he stays there. I hope he insults Varius so much, he kills him where he is. But then Jason begins to move, his cries increasing as he works himself onto his knees. Blood pisses out of his hands. His face is pale and clammy; he’s going into shock.

“Please,” he starts to beg, but Varius cuts him off as he offers him the severed dick.

“Beg me like your wife does.”

Jason’s eyes widen in horror, a mirrored image of mine. But just like I realized there was no other choice when I was down on my knees, so does he. Whimpering, Jason Terry lifts a trembling hand to take his cock from Varius’ fingers. Then he opens his mouth, closes his eyes, and –

“Open your eyes like a proper whore,” Varius snaps.

Another whimper escapes poor Jason’s lips, but he does as he’s ordered. Tears and snot and blood run down his face. He cries pathetically as he reaches forward with his lips. But no one intervenes. Not even Vinny, the man who made him his second.

He gags as soon as the head of his cock meets his mouth, and I wonder if it’s from the smell, the taste of the crust left there, or from the act itself. Are the tears from the pain or the utter humiliation?

My stomach twists as I watch him jerk his cock in and out of his mouth even though I have no love for him. The sound of his choked sobs makes goosebumps flare across my skin. I’ve seen a lot of dark shit over the years, have taken part in my fair share of it, and yet, I still want to turn away.

But I don’t.

I can’t, my eyes frozen on Jason as he bobs up and down his own severed cock.

After what feels like an eternity, Varius finally breaks the silence. “What do you think, Micha?” he says. “Did he do a well enough job to live?”

My mouth drops open as he says my name. I stare at his back, then at the poor excuse for a man on his knees with his own dick in his mouth, sucking it like a champ even as tears run down his face.

Anice personwould give him mercy, see his punishment as having been carried out. Perhaps if all he’d done was hit on me and been too bold with his request of an apology, I would benice.

But he called my fiance an abomination.

So holding his tear-stained, hopeful eyes, I say, “No.”

Without any hesitation, Varius’ knife slashes forward in a quick cut. Jason’s throat opens all the way. Falling onto his face, he chokes around his cock and bleeds out.

The party is silent as Varius wipes his blade once more on his jacket sleeve.

Then he looks up at those surrounding us. He seemingly holds each and every one of their gazes. “Does anyone else wish to steal from me?” he asks, his voice cold enough to give me shivers. When no one answers, his gaze lands on me. And I hear what he doesn’t say. What he can’t in this crowded room full of masked enemies.

You’re mine, little monster. And if anyone ever tries to take you from me, I’ll kill them.