was rendered completely speechless. This was actually part of my punishment? Nix had arranged this?
Cold, frantic dread settled in the pit of my stomach and a hopelessness so strong, so consuming I almost decided to just take this willingly and get it over with. What else was there? I had no reason to fight, to try to get out of this. If I didn’t take this punishment now, Nix would just find another way.
A huge part of me had been so distressed over protecting my virginity, especially when I thought the man was going to rape me that I hadn’t really given much thought to the other physical consequences that would come out of this. But now that my virtue was safe from this raving lunatic, the rest of the real fears that he brought with him descended on me and the tears started to fall in huge, sobbing drops down my face.
“Don’t cry,” he growled. “Don’t be so weak.” His palm smacked across my face again and my neck snapped back from the force of it. He caught me with his other hand before I could fall, and his fingers dug into my neck until I felt the hot blood streaming down my neck.
“Stop hitting me,” I screamed, suddenly so furious, so angry that this man kept assaulting me. Surprisingly I had pictured myself being attacked lots of times before. Usually it was in the context of working for Nix one day far in the future and stopping some sick pervert from making me do something I didn’t want to. In those scenarios I was always this super-powered badass that kicked the ever loving crap out of my assailants.
In reality I wasn’t turning out to be the Kung-Fu master I imagined.
I took a step back, giving myself some space from him. He matched me, step for step until my back was to the wall, half on solid plaster, half pressed against the edge of the window frame. I tilted my chin in an act of defiance and made myself look for an opportunity to go for his junk.
In hindsight and in the profession I was supposed to be planning to go into, a few self-defense classes might have been a good idea. Still, there was promise in good nut-shot.
“There really is something special about you,” Taylor’s voice dropped to a husky murmur.
“I’ve been around sirens before, but it’s like, it’s like you really set something off.” His hands clenched my biceps, almost so that the entire circumference of his thumb to middle finger touched. It was agonizing and chilling but then he let go and started to rub my biceps, up and down with ice cold palms. I just stood their frozen, waiting for my opportunity to strike. His hands moved from rubbing my arms, to my shoulders and then across my collarbone to my neck. “Say please.”
“What?” I croaked.
“Say, please don’t hit me anymore,” he ordered, his voice still deceptively calm.
“Please don’t hit me anymore,” I echoed and then braced myself for the hit.
He smiled at me, his lips twisting to an unsettling imitation of happiness. His hands wrested at the base of my throat, his fingers wrapping around my neck until they touched in the back. His eyes intensified right before he struck, they went from dull to blazing just a fraction of a second before his hands clamped down and together, choking the life out of me.
My instant reaction was pure surprise. I tensed immediately and began to scratch and claw at his hands as they shook me by the neck, blocking my air supply. Then there was panic, pure panic. Not the kind that causes panic attacks, which are a slow buildup to the real deal, not even the small kind that shoots razors down your arms and makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. No real, unadulterated panic that blinds you, that cuts off all rational, clear-thinking thought and thrusts you into the heart of fear.
My throat was making these gasping sounds, hoarse and deep bellied but I couldn’t get any air, I couldn’t suck in enough oxygen to get myself under control. And then my vision began to black out completely, first at the edges and then big black spots everywhere I tried to look. I kicked out with my right leg, hoping to land a good solid foot on his manhood, but I was too weak to get control of my appendages and too disoriented to cause any