7. Harper Leigh

The temperature in the room dropped as three men walked inside. Each was dressed in black from head to toe. They were tall with broad shoulders, and wore Venetian masks that hid the features of their face, a mockery of the Mardi Gras tradition. Until right then, I hadn't realized that there were more than two of them. Jim and Jack had been more than enough to contend with. Now I would have to devise a name for the third man. Without hearing their voices, I couldn't tell who was who. All I knew was that their appearance meant trouble for me. I needed to learn to keep my mouth shut.

The first one leaned against the wall, completely at ease with the situation. A hammer decorated the mask, and a chill ran along my skin, causing goosebumps to form. He hooked his fingers and beckoned for Addie to come with him. "You." His deep voice was unfamiliar. Johnny. That was what I would call him until I could escape. Addie clutched at Landry, probably hoping to save herself. My boyfriend, well ex, if we made it out of the house alive, tucked an arm around her to shield her from the man's sight.

I rolled my eyes at the gesture. Of course, now he wants to play the hero. I approached Addie and shoved her toward the man who requested her presence. Her eyes widened as she stumbled into Johnny, and Landry stared at me. "What the fuck, Harper?"

I took a deep breath and clenched my jaw. "We might as well get this over with. It's not like either of us can save her."

Addie screamed and thrashed as Johnny picked her up. Dark laughter echoed off the walls as her legs flailed mid-air. They disappeared through the door, leaving us with who I assumed were Jim and Jack.

Landry was next. The man with a bleeding butterfly decorating his mask stalked forward, and my heart caught in my throat. He was intimidating, and I waited for him to speak, curious which one of our captors he was. His footsteps reverberated in the room, and he grabbed Landry's hair, jerking him. My boyfriend was an idiot and fell to his knees, fear consuming him. If he thought dead weight would stop them, he was wrong.

Masked man number two simply turned on his heel and dragged Landry across the floor. I heard a sob escape from his mouth, and I pursed my lips. Adrenaline and fear had consumed me since entering Toussaint Manor, but I wouldn't cower in front of the men who thought they had trapped me. Even if fight or flight told me to fight, there was no way I could overpower the wraith in the corner.

I lifted my chin toward the shadow, waiting to see what he would do. Slowly, he sauntered forward, like he didn't have a care in the world. Like molasses in winter, my mama would have said. A crow decorated his mask, its wings spread over his cheeks. Another shudder ran across my body.

His demeanor differed from the other two men, and the air rushed from my lungs when he spoke. "Cher, I see you aren't afraid like your friends. Why is that?"

The timbre of his voice was like silk, and I reminded myself to square my shoulders while I thought about his question. Not that I was fearless, but I was resigned. Some things didn't make sense to me anymore. "If you're going to kill me, there is nothing I can do to stop you." I hesitated momentarily, unsure of how much honesty I should convey. "Plus, I don't know who to trust anymore."

He held out his hand, and I grabbed it, holding on to it like a lifeline. "I've got an envie to have some fun. Care to join me?"

My brain screamed at me to say no or run, but I stepped forward with him instead. "Allons." We left behind the room with knives on the walls and entered a dark corridor.

Outside, the weather was getting worse. I hadn't been paying attention as we dodged fireballs or when the people I had once called my friends had been dying. Despite being led down a dim hallway, I could hear the rain battering the roof, and the wind howled like a rougarou. Limbs thrashed, beating against the side of the house while thunder shook its foundation.

A door creaked open at the end of the long hallway, and Jim tugged me inside. Along the walls, candles flickered, their wax dripping down the sides. A hook dangled from the ceiling, and I wondered why here. What was so special about this room? What would he do to me?

Slowly, Jim turned, and he brushed his fingers across the palm of my hand in an odd show of reassurance. I noticed the top of them was covered in tattoos that disappeared beneath the sleeves of his shirt. Braided bracelets made of hair decorated his wrists, and I swallowed, unsure of what to think. "Do you trust me, Harper Leigh?"

The sound of my name on his lips made my blood warm rather than cool. My body was simply confused by the excessive adrenaline and horror of the evening. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. "Not even a little, Jim."

He chuckled at me before encasing my wrists in his hand. "Good," he murmured, securing them with a thick zip tie. "It's more fun that way."

Screams filled the empty space of the house, the sound louder than the storm raging outside. My captor abruptly jerked my arms over my head and lifted me, securing me to the hook I had observed earlier. The position stretched my body and forced me onto my toes.

"Erebus," he murmured as his thumb traced my bottom lip. Without another word, he moved behind me, his fingertips gliding down my spine.

"What?" I managed to choke out. Until I felt his hands on my skin, I had accomplished staying calm. Once he touched me, panic welled back up in the pit of my stomach, swirling there. It threatened to suffocate me as my heart pounded in my ears, muffling out the screams that could only belong to Landry.

He clicked his tongue as if he knew what I was thinking. "You can call me Erebus, little nightmare. I love that you already came up with a nickname for me. Perhaps one day I'll tell you my real name, but first, you have to earn it."

His hand traveled further south, cupping my ass and squeezing tightly. "No," I whined, kicking backward and hoping to make impact. His touches confused me, causing fire to erupt beneath my flesh.

He grunted when I landed a kick and wrapped his arms around my waist as he rested his head on my shoulder. "That's it. I like it when you hurt me."

Leisurely, he trailed a hand down my torso as I struggled against him, my thoughts warring with one another. The logical part of my brain begged him to stop, but my body had other plans. Erebus yanked the front of my jeans up, forcing the seam of them to rub against my clit. Sparks flew through my veins at the sensation. Landry had never touched me like that. The most we'd ever done was kiss.

I whimpered and jerked against my restraints. "Let me go. You don't have to do this," I told him as he caressed along the seam of my jeans. Shame heated my cheeks because I was enjoying the sensations he caused. At any moment, dampness would seep through the denim, and he would know my secret.

What made everything worse was that I hadn't even allowed my boyfriend to touch me like that. Now, a stranger was. One that I couldn't see their face and didn't know their name.

"Why would I stop, Harper? I know that you're enjoying our little game. If I were to slide my fingers inside of you right now, how wet would you be? How tightly would your pussy grip my hand?" he crooned. He rubbed faster, and I almost wanted to beg him to continue. Something was happening between my legs and inside my body that I had never experienced before. I pressed my thighs together, hoping to ease the ache forming.

Without warning, he stopped, and I cried out from . . . frustration? Relief? After tonight, if I lived, me and my body were going to have a long talk. Erebus shifted behind me, and something smooth, cold, and metallic stroked along my exposed skin at the small of my back. I attempted to figure out what it was.

Addie's screams joined Landry's in a symphony of horror, and I shivered. "Don't worry," Erebus whispered in my ear. "What I have planned for you is substantially better than what your friends are experiencing."

His free hand snaked along my torso as the metal continued to kiss my skin. It wasn't sharp like a knife, instead rounded. He ripped the cup of my bra down, and my nipples hardened in the air. Suddenly, he was in front of me, and I could see what he was doing. In his hand sat a gun. I fought to push down the scream that bubbled up in my throat at the sight as I watched in fascination.

Erebus's motions were unrushed and gentle as he swirled the tip of the weapon around my nipple until it was a tight peak that throbbed. "Please let me go," I tried to plead one last time before the tidal wave inside of me pulled me under, taking with it any bit of sanity that was remaining.

He tilted his head at my words, the crow painted on the mask mocking me. "Mmm." The gun moved to my other breast, and he continued the motion while the opposite hand pinched at my already sensitive nipple, causing me to hiss. "I. Don't. Think. So. Do you know why I call you little nightmare?"

I didn't respond, sure that he would tell me. "I call you that because I can see this glimmer of darkness beneath your skin, begging to be set free. My brother doesn't agree with me, but I want to keep you. It's okay, though. I'm very convincing when I need to be."

Erebus released my nipple, and I tried to ignore how they throbbed, pleading to be touched. The cold steel traveled down along my ribs, and I was aware that, at that moment, I was in more danger than I had been all evening, which was saying something. The masked man held my life in his hands. Despite that, I watched him touch me, stopping only long enough to unbutton my pants and jerk them with my panties down my thighs.

If I could use my hands, I would have attempted to cover myself from the gaze of Erebus. It completely exposed me to him and the cold air. I was at his mercy, and unable to do anything to stop him. My muscles shook from not only fatigue and the chill, but also the adrenaline that had made a reappearance. My stomach flipped as the gun continued its descent.

A strangled sound fell from my mouth as the pistol glided along my mons and slipped between my folds. If I didn't die from being shot or tortured, I would from embarrassment at the noises I was trying to suppress. Erebus took his time rubbing the metal over a sensitive spot no one had ever touched but me. "I would have cut off your clothes if it were up to me. Made you parade around the house in nothing so my brothers could see your pretty pussy and tits. I couldn't do that, though. Not unless I carved out your boyfriend's eyes. I don't want him ever looking at you again."

Sometimes late at night, when no one was around, I would let my fingers brush against my clit, but I had only ever ended up more frustrated than before. Every pass of the steel and filthy word the masked man spoke caused the wildfire inside me to burn hotter and brighter.

"Do you like that, little nightmare?" Erebus murmured, his voice almost mocking me. "Do you let Landry touch you like this? Maybe I should cut off his fingers in front of you. Let him watch me as I fuck you."

Without warning, the cold steel pushed inside of me in one brutal shove. Pain shot through me as it moved in and out, and a garbled noise caught in my throat. It was brutal. Savage. And it caused the most exquisite feeling I had ever known to race through my body. With every thrust, the pain morphed into something else entirely, leaving nothing but a sensation of fullness and pleasure.

The gun grazed against a spot deep inside of me I hadn't known existed, and I squeezed my eyes shut, focusing on that. "Look at me, little nightmare. I want you to see me while you come," Erebus commanded.

My eyes flickered open as fireworks exploded within me. The edges of my vision darkened as I shuddered against my restraints, and liquid warmth ran down my thighs. To my further embarrassment, Erebus kneeled down and ran his fingers through the arousal pooled on my skin. "You didn't tell me you were a virgin, Harper," he growled, sniffing at my flesh.

He tugged my ballet flats off and pulled my pants the rest of the way off. I was too caught up in the aftereffects of the orgasm to argue with him. The bliss was almost enough to sedate me. "Well, you didn't ask. Would you have given me a choice?"

The sound of his pants unzipping caught my attention, and I glanced at his hand. Unceremoniously, the gun clattered to the floor as he pulled his cock out. It was angry and hard. A metal piercing glinted in the candlelight. And it was large. There was no way it would fit inside of me. "No," I told him, trying to keep my voice steady.

His palm traveled along his length, stroking it, and he reached for one of my thighs. "Yes," he told me as he positioned the head at my already sore entrance. "I would have never let a gun take your virginity, little nightmare. I want your blood coating my cock while your pussy drenches me."

He gave me no warning as he impaled me on his shaft, his hips snapping against mine. His fingers dug into the flesh of my leg as he hooked it around his waist. "I could have made it good for you, cher, but this is all we have," he murmured as he pistoned in and out of me. Every stroke pressed my nipples against his shirt and provided friction to my clit.

My body was no longer my own, and I let go. I allowed my hips to move with his, too caught up in the intensity of every thrust. The words from my mouth were nothing more than a chant drowning out the screams and the thunder. Bruises would form on my skin, but that was the least of my problems.

I itched to touch him. Let my nails dig into the skin of his back. Take off his mask and see who exactly was beneath it.

My pussy clenched around him, and he groaned, ramming into me harder. "You like this, little nightmare? You want me to treat you like my good little slut? Fill you with my cum and mark you as my own?"

I closed my eyes and let my head fall back when everything became too much. Erebus began to pant and pump faster, his body slapping against mine as a second climax approached. "You have to pull out," I begged, my voice lost in the chaos.

"Never. I promise that if you live through tonight, I intend to fill you up every day." My eyes stung at his words. The last thing that should have been on my mind was birth control, but I wasn't on any. If he came inside of me, I could get pregnant–if I lived.

"But–"

He cut me off by placing the palm of his hand over my mouth. "The only place I am going to come from now on is inside this tight little pussy."

A tear trickled down my face even as my body shook against him and my walls wrapped around him like a vise. More warmth ran down my thighs as his cock twitched inside of me. He buried his face into my neck, and his fingers brushed through my hair. "Shh. Don't cry, Harper. It could be worse. You weren't crushed by a wall or burned alive."

His words rang true, but they didn't stop the pain radiating between my legs. Or the shame running through my head. I'd lost my virginity to someone I didn't know. Was it considered cheating if I had no choice? Did any of that matter?

Like nothing had happened, he pulled away from me and took out his phone. The flash went off as he took a picture of me trussed up. And then one of his cock. True to his word, it was coated in my blood. He tucked his dick back in his pants. Then he untethered my arms, snapping the tie holding my wrists. "Get dressed. We have another game to play."

My cheeks flamed further from his words as I readjusted my bra. Despite the ache in my legs and the tremble of my muscles, I shrugged on my pants as fast as possible.

The entire time, he stood near the door, his arms crossed over his chest like he hadn't completely turned my world upside down.