Page 36 of The Black Lotus (Fatal Florals Duet #2)

TWENTY-NINE

ASTER

I t’s been days since I was taken, but I can’t tell how many. The room stays dark, and Kara has kept me starved, dehydrated, and in pain. My lips are chapped. My body is weak. Dry blood coats my skin, and I’m finding it hard to stay awake.

This kind of torture weakens not only the body, but the mind as well.

This must be how she gets into her victim’s heads , getting them to lower their guard and kill themselves.

The only change is the physical torture, she likes to come in once a day and cover me in more scars.

Her strikes are ones of someone who has been scorned and hurts me like I’ve wronged her somehow, but I’ve never met her.

Her blade slices like each one is filled with her revenge.

If I die not knowing why she’s torturing me, I’ll haunt her for the answers I desperately need to know.

The amount of blood my body has lost isn’t enough to kill me, but it is enough to weaken me.

The only thing she has done which I find odd, was clean the cut on my eye and bandaged it for a day, then came and took it away the next.

The only explanation I can think of is that she doesn’t want me to die from an infection. At least, that would be my reasoning.

My lambs should be grateful I never gave them this kind of torture.

Their suffering, their fear is over quickly and it’s more psychological torture than anything.

I’m generous that way. Laughter bubbles within me, but I swallow it down.

I can’t reveal my hand yet. When I get out of this, I’m going to treat Kara like one of my lambs.

I miss the kill, the paint, the displaying. I miss being the Morbid Monet.

I shake the thought away when Serena’s smiling face comes into my mind.

Monet is dead. Fatal Floral Killers live.

Maybe Serena could watch me like I watch her.

She was a fan before she was mine. Maybe we could turn it into our special brand of foreplay.

My cock twitches thinking of the last time our bodies blended in a puddle of blood.

The door creaks open, my eyes squinting against the only light this dreadful room receives as Kara makes her way in.

She’s wearing a new kimono and has her katana in her hand.

Another day of pain with no answers seems to await me.

I don’t even look at her as she comes in, I just slump over with my head down to await today’s torture.

My body has gotten used to the feel of the steel slicing against my skin.

I feel numb to it, the pain doesn’t even register anymore.

Day in and day out, she slices my skin with her blade, dragging it through my flesh with surgeon-like precision. She pulls up a chair and places it in front of me, sitting down with her legs spread around the back of the chair.

“I’ve decided to tell you my story today.”

My head lifts, a sense of anticipation rushing through me as I strain to sit up straighter, my muscles screaming at me from the small movement. Once I find out why she wants me, I can use her truth against her, find her weakness and exploit it.

“Last time we talked, I told you that you were always my target.” She places her hands over the back of the chair, leaning her chin on them. “You can blame your parents for your current situation.”

I scoff, rolling my eyes. “I’ll add it to the list of reasons why they’re dead to me.”

“You and I both know they aren’t dead to you or else you would have found a way to truly end them.”

Her words make me laugh. Is this her way of getting in my head? I roll my eyes, move my neck side to side to show how unbothered I am by her. If she thinks my parents are my weakness, then she clearly didn’t do her research.

“You laugh, but you know it’s true.”

I stretch my neck towards her. “They’re locked behind bars. I couldn’t get in to visit them when I was eighteen, no way I’m breaking in to kill them now.” I lick my chapped lips.

“After I kill you, I’ll get them. Your entire bloodline will be wiped out in an instant.”

She thinks she’s going to break into two high security prisons, kill my parents, and get away with it? I don’t bother hiding my disbelief. She has a death wish. Even my blood lust for my parents isn’t that strong.

She pulls her sword from her back where she keeps it and points the tip of her blade at my chest. “You have always been my one true target. Everyone who came before was simply practice for you .”

“You like to repeat yourself, don’t you?” I groan, flexing against my bonds once more. “Are you going to tell me why my parents are the reason I’m your one true target , or are you going to keep talking in circles?”

She places the sword on her shoulder, staring into my eyes, trying to assert her dominance. If she thinks I’m going to look away from this stupid staring contest, she’s wrong. I’m not one to lose. She looks away, gritting her teeth and I smirk. I won.

She gets up, sheathing her blade and starts walking around the room in front of me.

“I may not look it, but I am twenty years older than you. Before you were born, or before you were even thought of, I was going to be your parents' successor.” She looks up at the ceiling, her eyes glowing at the memory. “I wanted to be a serial killer, to be feared like them. But I didn’t know the first thing about death. I had the urge to kill, but I never followed through.”

My gaze follows her strides, risking glances around my cage, looking for any means of escape. She’s been so careful until now. Every time she’s come in before, was to inflict pain, the lights only on long enough for me to bleed.

“I didn’t know the true identity of the Patchwork Killers, but I knew how they worked and how they scouted their victims. So I did what not even the police or FBI could.

I stalked prime locations, ones where I knew they would strike, and waited.

Several couples were at every venue, but only one stood out to me.

” She places her arms behind her back reliving the memory.

How could she find out who my parents were when not even the best profilers in the country could? If she can get helpless victims to kill themselves, finding my parents shouldn’t surprise me.

“I stalked them. For months and, well, they caught on.” She turns towards me, her eyes shining from talking about her role models. “Turns out they knew I was watching the very first day.”

Listening to her story drag on, having to listen to her voice longer than I’ve already had to is making my hands twitch with the need to be wrapped around her throat.

I’m not surprised my parents knew she was watching.

They outsmarted the Feds for years, how they got caught still is a mystery to me.

“When they approached me, I was a ball of nerves and excitement. I couldn’t believe my idols were talking to me. Was I going to be their next victim? I didn't know, but I wanted to find out, so when they asked me to come home with them, I did.”

Is she fucking stupid? Why would she want to be their victim?

Her becoming one was a huge possibility, especially since they had absolutely no preference in their kills.

There was no true profile for anyone to track to find out who was next.

That’s why they were so successful. That’s why they should’ve never been caught.

“They took me back to the house, the one you currently live at with your girlfriend.” My jaw tenses when she talks about Serena, but she’s been watching and waiting for so long I’m not surprised she knows we live together.

“You really should upgrade, you know.” She scoffs, watching my muscles flex beneath my skin.

“We sat in the living room and the first thing your mother said to me was,” she changes her voice to sound more like my mom, although Kara isn’t very good at it, “We know you know who we are. So either you’re with the police, or you’re stupid. ”

She sits back down in front of me, a dreamy, faraway look on her face. “I wanted to be like them, and they told me they would think about it and be in touch.” Her eyes darken, her lips pursing as her hands shake.

The chair falls in front of me as she abruptly stands causing me to flinch from her sudden outburst. “After months of not hearing anything, I went back to their house only to be turned away because of you .” She points at me accusingly and spits.

“Your mother was pregnant with you! They said you were going to be their prodigy and shut the door in my face!”

Her chest rises and falls as she gasps for breath.

She unsheaths her sword so fast, I blinked and missed the movement.

She swipes the air closer and closer to my face.

She’s already cut my eye; I can’t let her cut any other part.

It’s Serena’s favorite thing about me, minus my dick. I can’t show fear. I can’t look away.

She slices the blade swiftly and quickly, stepping back just as suddenly as she attacked.

I feel my shirt fall away in pieces, leaving me bare, but no blood flows down.

My eyes widen at the sight, my mouth parted slightly at her skill.

How did she shred my shirt without cutting me?

She is scarily precise. I swallow down the panic threatening to claw its way up.

Her voice shatters my rising panic. “I bided my time. I watched. Waited. I learned when you would have your first kill. I couldn't let that happen, so I was the one to turn your parents into the Feds, ensuring you never got your first kill.”

I clench my bound hands into fists, my teeth grinding as the truth sinks in.

She is the reason I lost my parents. She is the reason my first kill was taken from me.

She is the reason I lost everything. All because my parents wouldn't train her to become like them.

I glare at her, my teeth grinding so hard I feel as though they will crack from the pressure as anger crashes through me like a wave, building the longer I stare at her.

She will die. I will show her fear like no other, I will drag her own blade through her flesh, but first I need to get out of here.

She turns around, a satisfied smile playing on her lips, the lights fading as she walks away without marking my skin, until I’m left in the dark. Left to plan my escape. Left to plan my revenge.