Riding the Storm (19 page)

An even crueler clamp went onto his nipple, and the strap
struck his ass three times, instead of once, each pulling a tortured scream
from him.

“Bark like a dog.”

A count of ten, in his head, and the skin of his right
kneecap was pulled out, and a needle rammed into it and out the other side, through
both layers of flesh.

This time, the loopy johnny hit his right calf, then his
left calf, and Eric screamed when he moved his feet the two inches his bondage
allowed, only to jerk his big toes. He moved his feet back into position to
relieve the pressure on his toes, suddenly so overwhelmed with the pain going
from his face to his feet, in so many places and ways.

You can do this
, he told himself.
It’s a simple,
biological fear and pain response — adrenaline and endorphins. Ride it
out. You’ve been in worse pain after a snowboarding tumble off the mountain,
and then in the bumpy helicopter ride to the hospital. Hold it together. Help
will come.

He reinforced his shields and thought of Kendra. He didn’t
know why he couldn’t contact Kendra or Abbott — whether it was distance,
or perhaps if the supernaturals had done something to keep him from reaching
out for help.

He was certain, however, that Kendra would come for him.

The torture went on for hours, basic conditioning behavior
— obey and you’re treated with kindness, disobey and you’re hurt. He
wished he had the willpower to disobey every command, but he couldn’t bring
himself to hurt for the commands he didn’t mind answering… the ones they
already knew the answer to.

Eventually, they took the tubular cage off his cock and
replaced it with one shaped like a spiral cage. This one wouldn’t allow him an
erection, either, but let them poke needles into his cock, put clamps on it,
and torture him even worse with a vibrator.

“Drop your shields and the chastity cage goes away, Eric.”

He never dropped them, no matter the threat, no matter the
promise of whatever reward they offered if he let them into his mind.

He was aware when a good portion of the people left,
including the trainer working on him, and figured this meant it was dawn. New
people came in, bent him over a little more, and then his mouth was once again
raped, over and over, and many of the men came around a second time.

No one told him to release the shield on his mind, and he
wondered if any of the shapeshifters had the ability to control him, should he
drop the shield. He held it strong, though, just in case.

One of the shapeshifters rammed his cock down Eric’s throat
and held inside. At first, Eric thought he was imagining the already huge cock
lengthening, but then he realized he wasn’t, and his stomach tried to make him
puke, but the cock was lodged firmly in his throat and what felt like halfway
down his esophagus, so nothing could come up.

As the shapeshifter withdrew his cock, sure enough, it was
nearly a foot long as it came out — skinnier than when it went in, but
still thick enough to stretch Eric’s throat and make him gag.

When the man finally came, he did so buried deep, his cock
jerking as it spurted inside Eric, dumping the load straight into his gut. He
fought to move his arms, still at the back of his head, but couldn’t move them,
couldn’t do anything to escape or even change positions to relieve his aching
muscles… he had to take what man after man after man gave him.

When the main trainer returned, Eric was full of hope. If
this was dusk, Kendra could be here in the next hour. He might not have to hold
on much longer.

He’d been given two ounces of water in increments, and Eric
suspected it was once an hour. It wasn’t enough to soothe his thirst, but would
keep him alive. He’d also ingested no telling how much ejaculate, but he didn’t
want to think of
that
.

When he’d told them he needed a bathroom, they’d told him to
pee where he was. Eventually, he’d been forced to do just that, and they’d once
again sprayed him down with cold water.

His muscles were so fucking tired, and he now let the
exoskeleton hold him in place and support his weight. Within the next couple of
hours, if they’d leave him alone, he’d probably be tired enough to sleep in
this position. His captors had let his arms down a few times, locked in place
so he couldn’t move or use them, but at least it let the blood flow back into
them.

They’d just moved his arms back up, his hands once again at
the back of his head, and speared a needle through his tongue. Someone was
using the strap on the back of his thighs — they were up to six strokes
every time he refused an order, now — when he heard Kendra in his head as
the doors to the torture chamber flew open.

It’s us, Eric. Hold on just a few more minutes. We need
to neutralize the room before I can release you.

The man who’d been strapping Eric was thrown to the ground,
his legs and arms ripped off, and then Kendra grabbed the next person, did the
same.

Kendra ripped the arms and legs off the people Eric had
assumed were vampires. Some of those he’d suspected as being shapeshifters, she
slammed into the ground until their skull caved in, but most were restrained
with what he assumed was silver rope and wire. When the only people standing in
the room were Kendra and the three men she’d come in with, she very efficiently
released Eric from the contraption, as if she were familiar with it, with zero
fumbling.

“Don’t stand just yet, some of the needles and clamps will
pull if you do. Let me get them all out.”

Within moments, he was free of every clamp and needle, and
she sat him on the floor and kneeled in front of him, his face cradled in her
palms. “I need to go into your memories, see what they did to you. I won’t do
it without your permission, though. You’ve been violated enough and I won’t add
to it.”

Eric shook his head, unwilling to let her see his
humiliation.

“Okay, but so you don’t get mad at me later for not telling
you my plans… if I know who hurt you, I can deal with them appropriately. If I
don’t, then I’ll kill everyone in the building, whether they’ve come into
contact with you or not, just on the off chance they hurt you.”

“You can’t do that.” After all the screaming, his voice
barely worked, and she looked to her side and asked someone, “Orange juice?”

Someone handed her a bottle, then a straw, and she held it
below his mouth, offering the straw.

The citric acid burned his throat, but also felt as if it
healed him, and washed away the taste of so many men’s cum. He might have
thrown eight ounces of water up, but the orange juice was perfect. How had she
known?

He didn’t get a chance to ask, though, because she said,
“Okay, Eric. I won’t go in your mind without permission. Aaron Drake and his
wife are going to get you out of here. I can’t travel the route they’ll take
you, but it’s the fastest and safest way to get you home.”

Eric shook his head. “No, don’t leave me.”

She motioned towards someone else, and he brought her a bag
as she said, “You don’t want to watch me kill nearly two hundred people, Eric.
I’ll be with you before sunup, and I promise you’ll be safe with Aaron and his
wife.”

“No. Don’t… I don’t think more than seventy or so people
hurt me, used me. You can’t kill that many!”

She pulled a pair of men’s sweatpants from the bag, helped
him into them as she answered, “Then let me see who hurt you, and how, so I can
give them an appropriate retribution.”

Eric looked sideways as he heard a noise, and was horrified
to realize the people lying on the ground with their legs and arms ripped off,
were still conscious and awake, blood pouring from the gaping holes where their
limbs had been.

“They aren’t dead?”

Someone levitated him a few inches off the ground, pulled
the pants up, and gently put him back down.

“No,” Kendra answered, “They’ll grow their limbs back in a
few months’ time, if someone feeds them. Without a regular blood source,
regular feedings, the strongest will grow them back over the next couple of
years or decades, if someone buries them in the earth. I haven’t killed anyone
yet.”

Eric looked towards the main trainer and demanded, “Call me
Master.”

The trainer smiled —
smiled
— and said,
“Go fuck yourself.”

Eric looked at Kendra and said, “You have my permission.”

He felt her in his head, but thankfully didn’t relive the
experience as she watched.

She must’ve fast forwarded through it, because it didn’t
take her longer than maybe ten minutes to go through most of his night and all
of his day, into the night again.

When she opened her eyes and met his gaze, he saw an icy
chill in her eyes, and suddenly understood everyone who’d hurt him was about to
die a very painful death. He’d saved the innocents, but had just given the
people who’d hurt him a terrible death sentence.

“Is there anyone you want to watch die? Or would you rather
leave now?” The ice of her voice made him shiver. He’d been told she was a
force to be reckoned with, and was one of the most powerful vampires in the
country, but tonight, he could see her power in her eyes. No, it was more than
that. He could
feel
her power.

He was about to ask if she had to kill them, when she said,
“The best way for me to be sure no one ever hurts you again, is to make an
example of those who hurt you this time. Every man who put his cock in your
mouth is going to have his ripped from his body and stuffed down his throat
before I remove his head from his torso and then do what is necessary so he can
never regenerate, never come back.”

She glanced at the head trainer, back to Eric. “The ones who
caused you the most pain will feel unimaginable agony before I remove them from
the earth, never to return.”

Abbott stepped into the room, nodded to her, and she
dispassionately acknowledged the unspoken message with a small tilt of her head
before telling Eric, “You can stay and watch me take care of the ones
responsible for most of your torture, or Aaron and Sophia can take you
somewhere safe. I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

“I’d like to go, please.”

“Abbott will levitate you to the gateway, and then there’ll
be less than ten steps you’ll need to take before arriving at a safe place. Can
you manage ten steps, or should I make other arrangements?”

He gave a weak smile. “I’ll manage.”

Kendra watched them go, and then turned to the head trainer,
the one who’d hurt Eric the most.

She started by cutting his eyelids off, and stuffed them up
his ass. She wanted to be sure he watched what she did to him.

She slammed his arm against his shoulder, gave it a few
minutes to begin attaching, and then cut every one of his fingers off, making
sure he felt every slice. She crammed them up his ass, ripped the arm off
again, and then did the same with his other arm.

His right leg was next, and she shattered his kneecap first,
before cutting his toes off and poking them into his rectum. She followed with
his left leg, repeating her actions, and then stood to retrieve pliers from her
pocket.

She used her talons to remove his tongue — the knife
wouldn’t hurt anywhere near enough. His tongue went up his ass, and then she
tuned his screams out as she pulled every one of his teeth, before poking them
in after his tongue.

His wordless screams filled the room as Kendra cut the head
of his cock off with a saw-toothed knife, crammed it up his ass, and then ripped
the rest of his cock from his body before sending it to join the head. She
carefully cut a hole in his scrotum and pulled each testicle out, tearing the
connective tissues until she held them in her hands. She then ripped his
scrotum off, and crammed the whole mess up his ass.

Vampires lose all muscle tone in their bowels soon after
their rebirth, so this asshole wasn’t going to expel anything she put up it.

Someone in their rescue party had propped the other
de-limbed vampires up, so they could see what she did to the head trainer. The
shapeshifters still conscious had been immobilized with silver and were also
situated so they could watch. She could smell the terror in the room, as well
as the distinct smell of urine, where some of the shapeshifters had pissed
themselves. Whether from the pain of the silver, or the fear of what she’d do
to them, or a combination, she didn’t know — or care.

Her focus was on the head trainer at the moment, and she
opened his gut, pulled his intestines out, and wrapped them around his throat.
“Just to remind you that shortly, I’ll be removing your head from your body.
Permanently.”

She massaged his lower intestine, pointing out how she could
see the shape of his fingers, his cock, and making sure he saw.

“What’s the matter, cat got your tongue? Oh, no, it’s right
here... up your ass.”

She once again opened her knife, and made a slice along his
jawline. “You shaved Eric? I’ll scalp you.” She worked the skin of his face
off, pulled it over his skull, and then tossed the morbid helmet up to the
observation area, followed by his limbs so she could be sure he didn’t get
close enough to them to connect. Next, she skinned a portion of his torso,
taking time to cause extra pain around his nipples, and then closed her knife,
put it back in her bloody pants pocket, and reached into his sternum, dug her
fingers in, and pulled it apart.

The man was still conscious, horrified, in agony, and he
knew death was coming soon. Kendra would’ve like to drag it out more, but she
only had another seven hours until dawn, which meant she had to kill everyone
in six hours.

Still, she could make him wait a few hours for death. She
stood and looked around. When her eyes met the man she would deal with next,
she could see the terror in his gaze, and smelled his panic and fear from
twenty yards away.

Six more vampires received the same treatment, and then she
moved to the shapeshifters. She offered a few shapeshifters and vampires the
option of answering her questions in exchange for a painless death — the
ones who hadn’t been terrible to him, who’d used him without being sadistic
about it. She learned Natalia had been due back last night, and was on her way
now. Of course, Natalia would sense the pain and death coming from the mountain
miles before she arrived, and would likely turn back. If she happened to have
several strong vampires with her, they might show up and fight, but Kendra
didn’t think it likely.

Abbott’s decision to send Natalia home in his plane, and
ordering the pilot to not arrive at her nearest airport until nearly dawn, had
likely saved Eric’s life as a free human. Natalia wouldn’t have hesitated to
bite and enslave him, no matter that he was under The Abbott’s protection.

Kendra quickly and efficiently snapped the necks, broke the
brainstems, and took the hearts of a few more vampires and shapeshifters when
they answered her questions, and then started in on the ones who’d raped his
mouth.

When she made it back to the fourteen who’d been responsible
for the worst of his treatment, she finished pulling their sternum apart,
reached into their chest, and held their lidless gaze as she squeezed their
hearts, watching the life leave their body. Finally, she took the heads off the
vampires’ bodies and made sure the brainstem was totally destroyed. The
shapeshifters would all stay dead, with their hearts squeezed to a pulp, though
since a few of the strongest could sometimes recover, she crushed their heads,
scooped their brains out, and painted the walls with them.

Vampires don’t turn to dust, or automatically turn to what
they’d been had they died as a human however many years ago. Their bodies decay
and rot just as anyone else’s, once they are dead with no chance of coming
back. Vampire blood is thicker and more concentrated than human blood, but
shapeshifter blood is pretty much the same, and Kendra was soaked in both.

She found a shower just off the torture room, and cleaned up
before walking with Abbott to the section housing the human slaves who worked
for the Media Council. Knowing how things would likely go, she’d brought a
change of clothes.

A few conversations told her these people were more than
happy to do nothing but watch movies and television shows all day, and report
on all vampire or supernatural activity. The other section had people who did
nothing but read books, also happy to not have to stop reading to go to a real
job.

As Kendra left the locked down wing of the underground
fortress, she told Abbott, “We’ll need to make sure someone responsible and
kindhearted is put in charge.”

“Let’s go talk to the supernatural employees who had no part
in Eric’s capture, torture, or humiliation, see if we think one of them might
be capable of taking over… if not permanently, then temporarily, at least.”

Aaron’s helicopter had flown them to the area, and they’d
jumped from it a few miles away, those who could fly carrying those who
couldn’t.

When they finished interviewing everyone and had put a few
in charge until the Interspecies Council could step in and make decisions,
Abbott contacted the helicopter and had it land this time. They no longer
needed the element of surprise.

They were in the mountains of South Carolina, and it’d taken
forty minutes to get there, but took only thirty to get home, now that they
weren’t having to worry about stealth.