Filed to story: The LORDS Series Free PDF by Shantel Tessier
Making my way down in the elevator, I reach the basement level. It’s quiet down here and always cold. It smells of rotten eggs-demons. The stories of Carnage that I heard when I was little were that they torture until they finally get tired of playing with you and let you rot. The souls stay trapped to haunt the new ones brought in while they await their same fate. Torture at its finest.
“Ashtyn. Hello, dear.” My mother’s therapist walks toward me. The way she’s smiling makes me think that maybe she doesn’t know my mom was killed.
“What are we doing down here?” I ask. Carnage is a massive place with multiple buildings scattered over the land. It’s a maze that one could get lost and never be found in. So why here?
I’ve been told that it was once a college that was started in the late 1800’s that was eventually abandoned. Now that’s just hearsay, considering if you google it, there is absolutely nothing to find on said college. But I’m not surprised. To the world, Carnage doesn’t exist. Therefore, neither would the college that the Lords acquired.
“How are you feeling, Ashtyn?” She ignores my question and asks her own. Her eyes scan over me once as if assessing me and her lips frown.
Did she expect me to be runway ready for her? “I’d rather be in bed.” I cross my arms over my chest.
“We’ll make this quick.” She assures me and turns her back walking back down the hall where she came from.
I follow her slowly, not liking the way she said we as in I won’t be alone with her. Maybe Saint is with her? He has to be here somewhere, right? The sound of her heels clapping on the concrete floor echoes off the walls as she sways her hips back and forth in her tight pencil skirt. She’s got a silk blouse on that’s tucked into it. Her hair is up and in a tight, perfected bun. I wonder if she comes here often? I know she’s friends with my mother, but I don’t remember her ever being close to my father. So why would she be here at Carnage?
She comes to a stop in front of a room, and I stumble over my feet when I see it’s the observation room. The same one I stood in when I watched the Lord drop off his wife to be sentenced to a long life of torture. Also, the room that their fathers watched me get branded from.
“Come on in, hun. It’s okay.” She smiles at me.
“Why are we here?” I take a step back. “Why are you here?”
She frowns, tilting her head to the side. “I’m here for you, Ashtyn. I know the past few days have been…difficult, and I want to make sure you’re okay.”
“I’m fine.” I go to turn around and head back to Saint’s room, but I stop when I see his dad standing at the opposite end. Swallowing, I try to slow my racing heart and not panic. I don’t know what they’ll do to me without Saint. I should have never left his room. But I didn’t really have a choice either.
“If you’re going to stay here, you’ll have one session a week,” he informs me. “It’s part of Saint’s and my…understanding.”
I don’t know what he means or why my mental health would matter to him. They don’t want you levelheaded here. Maybe that’s the plan, to make me think I’m going insane. The Lords are masters at manipulation. But I don’t want to make Saint mad. He’s the only one really on my side. The one who has taken care of me even if it’s in his own twisted way. It could be much worse. “Yes, sir,” I say, and he nods, turning his back and walking off.
Doing so myself, I turn back and enter the room. The first thing I notice is the two-way mirror. I’m unable to see through it because it looks to be blacked out somehow. Like they’re hiding what’s on the other side of it. The second thing is there is a metal table in the center. A chair on either side facing one another.
“Have a seat, Ashtyn.” She offers me a chair with my back to the glass and sits across from me.
I fold my hands on the cold table and shiver, wishing I had grabbed one of Saint’s hoodies out of his closet before coming down here. “Do you know?” I ask her vaguely, seeing if she needs an explanation.
“I do.” She nods.
A silence lingers in the room at her acknowledging my mother has been killed. She doesn’t even bother with giving me her condolences. Instead, she asks her own question. “Which Spade brother are you the closest with?”
I frown. What kind of question is that? “Why?”
“I’m just curious.”
“I’m Saint’s chosen.” She knows this. She and my mother were so worried about me not bleeding at the vow ceremony.
“Yes but they all three fuck you, no?”
I stiffen in my chair. My pulse thrums in my neck. “A Lord is allowed to share his chosen with whoever he wants,” I add softly. Everyone knows this. It’s not a secret. It’s another way for the Lords to throw their power around. But I actually love Haidyn and Kashton. They’ll always hold a special place in my heart.
“Are you being cautious?”
My frown deepens. Why the fuck does she care about this shit? But her question has me thinking…I haven’t been on birth control since I’ve been here.
“I doubt Saint would be happy if one of the others knocks you up.” She goes on.
“Oh, no that wouldn’t happen.” I shake my head.
She tilts her to the side. “And why is that?”
“They…” I trail off not wanting to finish that sentence.
“I see.” She writes something down in her notebook. “They don’t fuck you vaginally.”
Why does that sound more vulgar than anything Saint has ever said to me? I bow my head, refusing to say anything to that and avoid eye contact. If my mother knew what I allowed the Spade brothers to do to me she’d be so ashamed.
“Would you say that you care about Kashton and Haidyn the same as you do for Saint?”
“What kind of session is this?” I ask defensively.
“It just seems that they are willing to risk their lives for you, and I’m trying to figure out why.” She places her manicured nail on her chin. “It can’t be sex. Kashton and Haidyn have their own chosens. I’m wondering what you offer them that they can’t get elsewhere.”
I glare at her, trying to decide her angle. Is she questioning me or them? She knows that they won’t tell her shit. So I’m guessing she thinks I’m the weakest link. Family recently dead, me freshly branded. The newest victim to Carnage. She thinks I’ll spill information on them. It’s probably their fathers wanting to know, and I refuse to give it to them. I’m not a snitch. And no matter what they’ve done to me, they’re all I have left. I know if something were to happen to Saint today, Haidyn and Kashton would never abandon me.
I cross my arms over my chest and sit back in my seat. The cold metal is making me shiver even through my shirt.
“Show her.” She calls out.
I frown, looking around. “Show me what?” Who is she talking to? Getting to my feet, I turn and stare at the two-way mirror.
Just then I realize it looks black because the light is off in the other room. It comes on, lighting up the space, and I see a man hanging from the ceiling. His arms are cuffed above his head, secured to a chain. He’s shirtless, but his jeans sit low on his hips, showcasing his abs and deep V. His body stretched while he gently sways back and forth, shoes dragging across the concrete floor.
His muscular body is taut. Blood runs down his arms from his cuffed wrists, his bare chest is covered in sweat, and white sticky pads on his abdomen have wires running to a machine that sits on a roller cart next to him. He’s got a black hood over his head, hiding his face, but the Lords crest branded on his right pec is clearly visible.
The door opens to the opposite room, and someone new enters with a black cloak and Lords mask on. I place my hands on the glass. “Who is that?” I ask, licking my lips nervously.
She doesn’t answer.
My breathing picks up when the man in the mask comes to a stop by the machine and flips on a switch. “Ready for your session?” I hear him speak to the man in the hood.
He doesn’t move or answer. He’s either passed out or gagged.
“Let’s turn it up this time. I think your last session was too easy.” He turns a knob, and the lights dim as the man hanging starts to shake, his legs kicking, muscles straining, and I realize that the patches on his body are electrocuting him.
“Stop!” I say, slamming my hands on the glass. “What the fuck is he doing?” I turn to look at the woman. “Why is he doing that?”
“Actions have consequences, Ashtyn.”
What the fuck is she talking about? I turn back to look through the two-way mirror, and he turns the knob off. The man sags in the cuffs. His chest is now rising and falling quickly as he breathes heavily into the hood. His abs contract as he continues to sway back and forth.
The man in the Lord’s mask turns it on again-higher this time-and the man’s body spasms. I bang my fists on the glass. “Stop. Stop. You’re going to kill him.”
The man in the Lord’s mask laughs, and I know he can hear me. Haidyn said that they could hear me just not see me when he found me in here.
“How do you not know that man doesn’t deserve his punishment?” she asks me, reminding me I’m not alone.
I didn’t answer her. The Lords never ask questions. They decide you don’t deserve what they give you and they take it away. You’re never innocent until proven guilty.