Filed to story: The LORDS Series Free PDF by Shantel Tessier
Tyson looks down at me and commands, “Stay out here.”
“What?” I shriek. “No-“
“Leave her with me,” one of the brothers says from behind me, and I notice it’s the voice of the one that was fucking with me in the entrance upstairs. “I’ll take good care of her.”
Tyson’s eyes narrow on his before they drop to mine and soften. “Keep it together,” he mumbles, and I frown. Confused about what he means by that.
I nod quickly, swallowing the knot in my throat and trying to calm my breathing. Tyson turns to the room, pulling me inside.
I gasp, my heart stopping at what I see once we enter. Sin is in the center of the room, strung up. His arms cuffed above his head, his ankles spread wide and shackled to the floor. A gag in his mouth, drool running from his lips. His eyes are closed, a belt around his neck and hips tying him to a post. Bile rises when I see a piece of skin on the floor in front of him. It’s the Lords’ crest, they cut it off of him. 666 has been branded into him where the Lords’ crest once was. Blood, there’s so much of it. Now I understand where all the blood came from that was on the brothers-it’s Sin’s.
I don’t realize I’m sobbing until Tyson grabs my hand, yanking me into his side. “Get him down,” he barks, making me jump.
One of the guys reaches up, grabs a chain and pulls on it, releasing Sin’s cuffed wrists from above his head.
Tyson lets go of me and walks over to remove the gag and belts holding him up while another one of the brothers releases his ankles. The cuffs around his wrists are undone and Tyson throws one of Sin’s arms over his shoulder while my father helps him out by grabbing the other.
My heart races at the silence in the room. He hasn’t made a single noise. Why isn’t he in pain? Is he even breathing?
“Out,” Tyson snaps at me as they start to drag Sin across the room toward the door.
I spin around to exit, my hair slapping my tear-streaked face, only to find that one guy standing in the doorway, blocking it. His eyes run along my body, making me shiver in fear. “It’s amazing what a man will do for a cunt.” He tilts his head to side in thought. “Makes me want to see what’s so special about it.” He steps toward me.
“Get the fuck out of the goddamn way,” Tyson shouts, still behind me.
The guy licks his lips “Maybe another time.” He steps back and I run out of the room into the hallway and then lead the guys out the way we came in.
Making it outside, Tyson hollers at me. “Open the hatch. Then lay the back seats down. We’re going to have to lay him flat.” I do as I’m told and he and my father load Sin inside the SUV.
My father jumps into the back, making it to Sin’s head, and grabs him underneath his arms, pulling him up while Tyson pushes his legs. I jump in and kneel next to Sin. Tyson shuts the hatch. “I’m going to make this quick. So hold on back there,” he tells us once he jumps into the driver’s seat.
My father nods, removing his shirt. He rips it down the middle, and then into a few more pieces. “Wrap this around his wrist. Make it tight. We have to stop the bleeding.” He hands it to me.
I sniff, snot and tears running down my face, and do as I’m told, seeing the indentions that the cuffs left. They cut deep. Too deep. It looks like he took a knife to the inside of his wrists and cut them himself horizontally.
Then my father is undoing Sin’s belt. He wraps it around Sin’s forearm. “This should provide a little extra help. At this point, it can’t hurt.” He then removes his own and does the same thing to Sin’s other arm.
“Why isn’t he awake?” I cry, my now bloody hands shaking while I place my hand on his chest, trying to feel his heartbeat. He can’t be dead. I don’t believe it.
“You don’t want him to be awake. Trust me, it’s better he’s out.” Tyson is the one who answers me.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
ELLINGTON
WE PULL UP to what I heard my father call a cathedral. I’ve never been here before so I’m not sure why we are here now, but it’s exactly what I expected to be. Old and haunting with its rosette window in the center, two towers on either side. There’s an out-of-place cross that hangs upside down.
The hatch opens and I jump out, stepping to the side so they can get Sin out of the back. I follow them inside because I don’t know where they’re going.
I follow them down a set of stairs to what looks to be a basement where the doctor from our house waits for us. He helps them get Sin onto a hospital bed. It’s like a surgical center down here. Like one of those triage centers you see in a war zone movie.
“What did they do to him?” I finally manage to ask. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, but now I need to know. I don’t understand. His letter made it sound like he wanted to leave me. Why would he willingly let them do this to him?
“Adrenaline.” Tyson is the one who answers.
“Wh-at?” my voice wavers.
“They gave him a shot of adrenaline. Straight to the heart. They do that so he wouldn’t pass out. It lasts about twenty minutes. They remove the Lords’ crest by cutting it off. And to keep him from bleeding out, they cauterize it with their own. Three sixes. One for each brother.”
My hands come up to cover my face. Fresh tears spill down my cheeks. “Why would they do this to him?”
Tyson’s eyes soften on mine. “They do it to everyone, Elli. It’s their initiation. It may vary from person to person, because not everyone who enters Carnage wears the Lords’ crest, but everyone gets branded.”
My eyes shoot to my dad who stands next to them, and I look at his chest. He had removed his shirt to use it for Sin. Sure enough, I see the three sixes on his chest. They’re healed but you can’t miss the hack job they did.
“Once the adrenaline wears off, they come down and crash pretty hard,” Gavin adds,
My eyes go to him, and I see he’s already started an IV and is administering something into it.
“What is that?”
“I’ve sedated him. I’ve got to clean the wound and do an autograft,” Gavin responds. Tyson hands him a pair of scissors and Gavin starts to cut down Sin’s thigh, shredding his bloody jeans to expose his leg to the room.
My eyes go to Tyson, needing more of an explanation.
“It’s a type of skin graft. He’s going to take a piece of skin from Sin’s thigh, brand it with the Lords’ crest and then reattach it over the brand the brothers gave him.”
“Use mine,” I all but shout, stepping forward, knowing that I can be of help.
They both frown at me. “Elli,” my father starts, but stops when my shaking hands go to my jeans. I undo them and shove the material down my legs. Gripping my inner thigh, I turn my leg the best I can to show them my brand. “Take it.”
All three look at one another and then back at me. “This is what you need, right? Use it.”
Gavin frowns. “Where did you get that?”
Before I can answer, Tyson speaks, “He branded her with his ring.”
“Goddammit.” My father sighs.
“But you can use it, right? Don’t cut him.” I’m trembling. I don’t want to see him suffer anymore. What skin will replace the piece that Gavin removes? It sounds like a vicious cycle that doesn’t have a good ending. They can take it from me, and he’ll be whole. A quicker recovery.
Tyson walks over to me, yanks up my jeans, and catches my shaking hands in his.
“This is important, Elli.” He speaks slowly, calmly. How can he be this calm right now? “The Lords can’t find out that Sin was ever at Carnage.”
“What if they do?” I ask wide-eyed. My eyes go to Sin, and it breaks my heart to see him lying there. I’ve never seen him look so vulnerable. I want to protect him. Any way that I can. He’s covered in blood. Some is dried to his skin; other parts are still fresh. There aren’t any visible bruises or cuts other than the three sixes and the cuts around his wrists that are still wrapped in pieces of my father’s shirt.
“They won’t,” Tyson assures me, getting my attention, but I don’t believe him. How will they not know? They know everything.
“Although you have the Lords’ crest, it’s too small. The one we wear is much larger in size. I’m sorry but we can’t use it. We’re going to have to make a new one.”
Gavin gets my attention again as he tilts Sin’s head back and begins to feed a tube down his throat. “Why are you doing that?” I go to walk over to the side of the bed, but Tyson grabs my shoulders, stopping me, and pushes me into my dad. He wraps his hands around my upper arms, keeping me in place as Tyson walks back over to stand next to Sin and Gavin.
“I’m intubating him, so his body doesn’t have to work so hard to breathe while he’s sedated.” His eyes meet mine for a quick second. “He deserves the break.”
SIN