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  The burning amber fire of cruel intention, and the grey, icy depths of promised retribution.

  He mashed our lips together in another cruel kiss as he entered me, and I kissed him back with equal hatred. We both grunted at the sudden invasion, and he broke our kiss and just mashed his forehead against mine as he invaded my body with vicious thrusts of his powerful hips. Our grunts filled the room, along with the sound of flesh slapping together over and over. Our eyes clashed the entire time, each one of us refusing to look away. He held me tightly, with bruising force, and I clutched him back as hatred, pain, and madness circled around my consciousness. I was losing myself in this, in all this pain and sadistic pleasure, and I couldn’t suppress the feeling of drowning as my inner delusions circled me, demanding release.

  Demanding blood.

  A sudden image rose in my mind's eye, a singular light illuminating the eye of the storm inside me. A pair of knowing obsidian eyes attached to a hulking body chained to a cold wall. The unspoken resolve and promise of that beautiful gaze made me look away from Korol's horrible stare and cling to the image with all my strength. Breath filled my lungs, and I felt the relief as the sensation of drowning fled, even as the monster in front of me continued his assault. Korol laughed cruelly into my face, and I felt him lower his head to my breast as he pounded into me, clearly thinking that he had won our silent battle.

  I clung to the image of those black eyes until the very end. All of that resolve, that silent strength flooded through me, building my defenses, solidifying the walls inside my mind that banked the madness. Triumph rumbled through me even as Korol gave a roar, withdrew from me, tore the condom off in one smooth movement, and jerked his hot release onto my stomach. I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling as Korol rubbed his semen into my skin, clearly marking me and trying to humiliate me, even as his soft laughter echoed around me.

  My skin crawled, and I clenched my jaw to keep from vomiting. I knew this wasn’t the end. I had to hold back my disgust as long as I could until the fucker was satisfied. Korol's grip was in my hair suddenly, and with a twist of his wrist my head was jerked back, and I was forced to meet his gaze once again. His face was twisted with a hatred that ran so deep, it was imprinted on every part of him. He fairly vibrated with its intensity, clearly at a loss of what to do with it, and I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy for this broken, pitiful excuse for a human. I began to laugh, the tone hollow and unpleasant as he tugged my hair so hard I felt ripping at the scalp.

  Korol abruptly threw me onto the floor in the middle of the room. He stood over me in all his naked glory, chest heaving with exertion and anticipation. He was hard once again, and from his pupils and heightened aggression towards me, I knew he had taken some sort of stimulant before arriving. I inwardly cringed but showed no signs of weakness as Korol stepped right up to me once again.

  Fuck, this is going to hurt.

  His foot was planted into my stomach before I even finished the thought, and I gasped for breath as my body was launched even further across the room. After a moment, I dared to look back up, spitting out blood from having bitten my tongue in the process of his swift attack. Korol laughed maniacally, his arms spreading wide, and his smile stretching the entirety of his face.

  "Oh, we are far from done, myshka."

  Bring it on, asshole.

  As Korol strode to me, I closed my eyes for a moment, and imprinted the feel of those beautiful black eyes back in the basement prison onto my heart. I embedded them into my deepest thoughts, forging them into the resolve that flowed through my body. I wasn’t going to lose. No matter the pain, no matter the humiliation, I was going to make it through and see those beautiful black eyes again.

  My eyes snapped open as Korol used my hair to pull me roughly to my feet. He swept a firm hand across the vanity we were close to and shoved me down over the side. I clutched the edges in a desperate grip as Korol stepped between my legs, entering me from behind. He held onto my hair the entire time with that same bruising force that had my teeth jarring. I felt a warm trail of blood drip down from my scalp and the still healing skin at my throat screamed in agony. I clenched my jaw again as his thrusts caused my body to slam into the wooden surface of the vanity over and over and over again.

  A familiar voice whispered through my mind. As the words echoed in my mind on a loop, I felt all of my hatred, all of my pain, all of my devastation drain away.

  Be the gambler. Know what to throw away. Know what to keep. Keep the cold. Throw away everything else.

  As Zakhar continued his assault over the next few hours, a tingling began at the core of my being. The image of those obsidian eyes branded itself into my icy determination and the tingling morphed into hot, blatant need.

  The need for retribution.

  At the end of it all, my body was leaden- my limbs, head, and spirit having long lost the will to fight. Cold. I felt so cold. My body hurt everywhere. But it was a disconnected agony, as if I was watching myself feel it from somewhere far away. My throat had given out from all the screaming and yes, broken pleas and begging for mercy at the end.

  But I had never cried.

  Not. Fucking. Once.

  I felt Korol gently push my sweat, blood, and semen-soaked hair out of my face and I forced my eyes to open slightly to look at him.

  The image of Zakhar, the gentle friend who had protected me, cherished me, treasured me was the one sitting before me now.

  And he was sobbing.

  His shoulders shook as he clutched me in the aftermath of his brutality, my body limp in his grasp. As I listened to his forlorn apologies and pleas for understanding, I let my consciousness go and embraced the black void of sleep. Even as I drifted off, those black eyes followed me to my dreams and continued to strengthen my resolve. One last thought drifted across the remains of my consciousness, so honest and pleading, I could hear the echoes of it follow me into oblivion.

  My Viktor…

  • • •

  Viktor

  "Merde!"

  "Quite moving, idiot, and it wouldn't hurt as much."

  I looked up from doing my discreet leg exercises, to look across the walkway at Silas, who had returned two days ago. Cin yelled the words at his cellmate but was pressing a wet towel to the whip marks that now marked the pale boy's back as gently as he could manage.

  Silas had come back bruised and bloody, but had held it together better than I had expected. He hadn’t said a word- he merely curled up in a ball on his cot and slept for thirteen hours straight after his return to the basement prison. Cin did not sleep or talk during that time, he had merely sat and waited, so still and silent that it had honestly given me chills.

  When everyone had been sleeping, however, I had happened to look up and had witnessed the black man slide his hand into the Frenchman’s and press his lips against the pale fingers. I had quietly shut my eyes, merely making a mental note of the well-kept secret relationship, and had gone back to contemplating escape plans.

  "Pussy." Meiling taunted him, sitting directly in front of me and using the back of her dress to cover the parts of my legs I was working out.

  She had been surprisingly helpful and discreet as she used the scalpel the good doctor had left us to unlock the shackles that held my wrists and ankles together. She had been perfect, using the time she would normally wipe me down with a washcloth to do this, all the while pretending to just be interested in using my body as a tool for her sexual release.

  The other inmates were starting to catch on. When Meiling had pretended to flirt with me and grind herself against my body twice in one day, Roy had looked at me, squinted his eyes, and after a few moments had nodded. He had said a few quick, quiet words to Kamili and they had both been doing stretches periodically ever since. The other inmates had quickly followed suit as they all kept their bodies ready with stretching, never at the same time, and never intense enough to attract the cameras' movements.

  The door suddenly opened and M
eiling leaned back seemingly casually against my chest and pressed her bottom half against me. She looked up at me coyly, though I knew she was milking her performance for the guards. Sergei walked in with four other guards and my eyes narrowed suspiciously at the sickly-sweet look on his face. He strode right to my cell, and turned to look me directly in the eyes. He smiled slowly, his eyes taking in Meiling curled into me, and gave a cruel laugh.

  "Well," He spoke in Russian, so that only his guards, myself and a select few of the inmates could understand him. "I come here to see how you were doing after Korol’s whore was taken from you, and here I find you have moved on completely. You went from prime meat like the Pakhan's woman to leftover trash like this, how tragic for you."

  Meiling tensed so slightly that nobody but me was aware, and I knew she understood exactly what he had said. She just tilted her head and frowned at Sergei, looking back and forth between he and I as if confused. I merely lifted a brow at the captain's idiotic taunting, and Sergei's smile widened even more.

  "Does it feel good to have lost everything for a pussy you have never fucked, D'yavol? I imagine it must be absolute torture to have had her so close and to lose her all over again. And such a tragedy to watch as she suffered the way she did before she left and not being able to do a damn thing about it. How… frustrating for you."

  I just stared at him, unblinking, not moving a muscle. The guards he had with him shifted a bit at my look, but it only made Sergei smile wider as he leaned against the bars of my cell and continued his taunting.

  "Ah, well, at least you have this slut to comfort you. I wondered how long it would take for this to happen. This one looks to be like a dog in heat, surprised it took her this long before she jumped on your cock."

  All but one of the guards snickered at that, while Meiling tensed even more against me. My stare was still unblinking on Sergei, and it seemed to put a damper on the revelry of the guards rather quickly. I took a mental note of the one not laughing and the grim look on his face. An uneasy feeling came over me, but I still just kept my cold stare focused.

  Sergei just smiled, and while still leaning against the bars of the cell, ran a finger slowly along one of the bars. His next words, though spoken softly, seemed to resonate throughout the entire prison.

  "I suppose it is a good thing, though, since the perfect princess you betrayed your brothers for was just fucked into oblivion by the Pakhan."

  A deadly quiet came over the entire dungeon, and my vision narrowed. A ringing began in my ears as he spoke again, and rage slowly spread through my veins like acid.

  "I just got back from speaking with one of Korol's personal bodyguards. He was standing right outside the door and said her screams could be heard down the entire corridor. It took the Pakhan three hours until he was satisfied, and she was screaming for help by the end of it. Apparently, they had to call for that idiot doctor again to patch her back up. One of the guards caught a glimpse of her after the Pakhan was done and said it even made him sick. And he’s one of the sickest fucks I know."

  Sergei laughed maniacally when my jaw gave an audible pop as I clenched my teeth. Rage ran through me like a river of needles, slicing everything on its way through my body. My expression remained the same, though I could feel every muscle in my body screaming to give the bastard a reaction.

  "Do you think she was screaming because of how hard she was getting fucked… or because Korol finally revealed his true identity before he raped her?"

  My unblinking stare broke and I couldn't suppress the look of shock. Sergei laughed maniacally, his face contorting with his sick glee as he leaned forward, pressing his face against the cell as he fairly screamed his taunts at me. The security head intentionally switched to English for his final revelation.

  "Imagine it! Finding out the man who kidnapped, raped and beat you for over a year is your trusted personal bodyguard! The only person she thought she could trust and it was Korol just playing with her. What a STUPID BITCH!"

  Sergei's maniacal laughter echoed around the dungeon as his words rang in the air. His laugh continued to echo against the stone walls as he and the guards exited the dungeon. The guard who had been stoic the entire time looked back at me once, slightly inclined his head, and vanished through the door.

  A deadly calm settled once the door slid shut. Not one inmate moved or breathed for a full minute as they absorbed Sergei's cruel words. Every head in the prison suddenly turned to me.

  A cold rage had hold of my entire being, and I closed my eyes for a moment to feel the murderous cold wash over me. I opened my eyes slowly, looked down at Meiling and said one word, loud enough for everyone to hear.

  "Five."

  The inmates all turned back to their previous activities, though I heard Ludo launch a fist at the stone wall at the back of his cell. He walked over to stand in my line of vision and leaned his slight frame against the bars. Blood running from his hand down the bar, he stared right at me as he breathed two words loud enough for only myself and Meiling to hear.

  "No mercy."

  Chapter Six

  Burn

  Four days later

  Emilia

  "Ouch. Shit. Why does that still fucking hurt?!"

  "Lady Emilia, you have multiple bruised ribs, of course it will still hurt. Just look at your back!"

  I clicked my tongue at the doctor and tilted my head at my image in the mirror. My torso and back were riddled with bruises and scrapes and I rolled my eyes at how horrible it looked.

  "Lady Emilia-"

  "Pavel, I've told you a million times. Just call me Emilia. Besides, would a real lady look like this?" I turned my back to the mirror, still holding my shirt up, and looked at the huge bruise that nearly covered the entirety of my left side.

  Doctor Pavel looked at me with concerned eyes. He was the only one besides Zakhar who knew the extent of my injuries. I hadn't left my room since the incident with the Pakhan and he hadn't come back to see me, sending the doctor every day instead to keep me company and help me heal.

  I almost chuckled at that horrible miscalculation. Dropping my shirt and turning back to the doctor, I stepped right up to where he sat and knelt at his feet. Surprise crossed his face, but he didn't flinch when I grasped both of his hands in my own. I looked up into his eyes and squeezed his hands as I spoke.

  "Pavel, the Pakhan leaves today for a meeting and will be gone for a few days. Will you watch the sunrise with me tomorrow morning?"

  The doctor's eyes widened, and he stopped breathing for a moment. My eyes were hard stones of resolve instead of the pleading I knew he expected to see. He looked upon my face for a moment, then gave a slow nod. His hands squeezed mine tightly, and he spoke low.

  "Lady Emilia, I would be honored. My assistant will make the preparations."

  We both stood, and I wrapped my arms around the portly little man who had been my greatest asset and informant. He hugged me back, and I kissed his cheek, which caused a blush to stain his cheeks.

  Doctor Pavel walked to the door and opened it, nodding at the two guards standing outside. They looked in at me and I beckoned the one on the left forward. The guard was a young man named Iosif and he had been stationed outside my door since my arrival. He was one of the only kind guards I had met, and I saw in his eyes what working for Korol was doing to him. I glared at the other guard who had also been stationed outside my door since my arrival but had been the one to happily tie me up for the Pakhan whenever he visited. He gave a bark of laughter as I flipped him off and just shook his head at me.

  "Iosif, I'm sorry, can you help me? That idiot Korol ran into my end table and now it keeps tipping over. I don't want the lamp to break if it falls over again." I smiled at the young guard, and he blushed. I spoke slowly so that he could understand my English, and he seemed to get the gist. Smiling at him, I pointed at the wooden table and showed him the uneven stature. The other guard at the door watched us, but just rolled his eyes and started talking to the other guards in th
e hallway after a few moments.

  I touched Iosif's shoulder as he clicked the leg of the table back into place and our eyes connected. Speaking in a faint voice, I touched the holster at his waist.

  "Tomorrow I'm going to watch the sunrise. Will you join me?"

  The young guard glanced at his comrades outside the door, who were laughing and not paying attention to our whispered exchange. He looked back to me, and while we were both crouched down, he lifted his pantleg up, unstrapped the tactical combat survival knife at his ankle and shoved it under the bed.

  "Beautiful sunrise." Iosif said to me, nodded once, and got back up. His face showed no sign of the exchange and I chatted happily with him as we walked back to the door. I flipped off the three other dickhead guards, who all just laughed as I shut the door firmly in their faces.

  Gritting my teeth, I let my face muscles relax and had to give a wince as I finally acknowledged the pain shooting through my body. I leaned against the door, and looked up at the ceiling, holding my stomach.

  I had to keep it together. The plan I had been painstakingly piecing together one pawn at a time was finally coming to fruition after six long months. I had the maids in the kitchen, all who had been kidnapped and were raped periodically by Korol's male guards, on my side. The doctor and his female assistant, the young guard Iosif, and all the criminals in the basement were also in play. Though the criminals didn't know exactly what was going to happen, they knew that tomorrow was the big day, and to be ready.

  Viktor won’t disappoint me.

  I walked around my room, trying to release my tense muscles as I replayed the plan repeatedly in my mind. The Pakhan, along with a third of his guards, were going to attend a mafia gathering in Moscow. He was leaving the house and its inhabitants in the care of Sergei and his highly trained staff. This same event had happened before, five other times, and each and every time I had attempted to escape by myself.