“Enjoy that taste in your mouth,” Nico sneers.
Dmitri tries to shout insults back at him, but his words get cut off every few seconds as he gags some more.
Saxon and I are next. I grab the sharpest pair of tree trimmers while she takes the heated iron. She steps up in front of him and he glares at her.
“It’s a shame you’re such a whore,” he croaks. “I would’ve had fun knocking you around.”
She doesn’t answer. Instead, she smirks as she grabs his hand and holds up his pinky. Dmitri roars as one by one, we cut each of his fingers off, using the iron to cauterize the wound. About halfway through, Saxon winces and turns her head away.
“Going soft on me, Gabbana?” I ask as I cut off his index finger and she presses the iron to the opening left behind.
She keeps her head as far away from Dmitri as possible. “No. His breath just fucking reeks. Nico, you couldn’t have saved that shit for last?”
“Right before he dies and doesn’t have to taste it?” he argues. “What fun would that be?”
“Fair point,” Saxon agrees.
Once all his fingers are gone, we step back and admire the stubs he now has for hands. The places where his fingers once were are black, burnt from the iron, and the smell of burning skin adds to the stench of shit and vomit.
Viola stands with her finger to her lips, observing him. “Get him up. I need him hanging.”
With a glance at Nico, the two of us work together. We unchain him just long enough to tie his arms behind his back. Standing him up, we lead him over to the hook that hangs down from the ceiling. Saxon presses the button that lifts him into the air, dislocating his arms from the angle.
Having him where she wants him, Viola wheels over a meat grinder on a small table. The top of it is sawed off, making it so you can see the feed screw rotate as she turns it on. Saxon grabs a cattle prod off the table and follows her. Dmitri’s eyes widen as he looks down at the meat grinder.
“The fuck are you going to do with that?”
“I’m making your dinner, silly,” she tells him with sweetness in her tone. “You have to eat.”
Viola undoes his belt and slides his pants and boxers to his ankles. His dick hangs in the open, and Viola shares a look with Saxon. Dmitri smirks proudly.
“That could’ve been yours,” he tells Sax.
She rolls her eyes and looks away with a sound of disgust, letting her wrist fall limp as she shocks him with the cattle prod to the balls. The electric shock causes a rush of blood flow to the area and his dick hardens involuntarily. He watches in horror as Viola raises the table up and even Nico and I have to turn around as his most valued appendage gets caught in the feed screw.
The scream Dmitri lets out rivals all others before them as his dick is ground up, with pieces coming through the cutting plate and landing on the table. Once he’s completely castrated, Viola turns back to Nico.
“Brother,” she calls. “I need you.”
He throws his head back as he groans. “Why me?”
Saxon and Nico switch places, and as she passes by him, she presses the button and pretends like she’s going to shock him with it. Nico jumps out of the way, and she giggles.
Dmitri’s head hangs low, his eyes closed and mouth open as he tries to recover from the immense pain. Viola takes advantage of the moment, using tongs to pick up some of his ground dick and filling his mouth with it. He immediately tries to spit it out, but she holds his jaw shut.
“Hold him like this,” she tells Nico.
He gags but does what she says as she takes a strand of leather and a 12 gauge needle, sewing his lips shut all the way across. Tears flow down Dmitri’s face as he strains against them, but there’s no use.
He’s powerless.
Saxon takes my hand and pulls me toward Dmitri as Viola finishes. She grabs two knives off the table and hands me one. Then, she cuts two lines vertical and two horizontal into his abdomen, making a tic-tac-toe board. I roll my eyes playfully.
“You and your games.”
The two of us play for the right to cut out his eyeballs. She wins the first one, cheering as I lift her up so she can claim her prize. The second, however, goes to me, but I choose to let him keep it. I want him to see my next move.
Staring Dmitri in the face, I flick my lighter open and shut repeatedly. He looks defeated, but it’s not over yet. Nico grabs the can of gasoline and douses his legs with it. With a single bounce of my brows, I toss the lighter and watch as he goes up in flames.
His screams are muffled due to his lips being sewn shut, but his pain is evident as he thrashes around. After a few seconds, when the fire starts to spread to areas that could be fatal, I nod toward Nico and he puts him out with an extinguisher.
Dmitri breathes heavily through his nose as I step closer and grab his face, forcing him to look at me through the only eye he has left.
“I’m glad he fucked your wife,” I sneer. “I bet she sucked his dick like a goddamn champion.”
That angers him, making his whole body shake with rage. But it’s quickly wiped from his mind as Saxon hands me the bottle of ammonia and I pour it over his blistering, third-degree burns. The pain is unbearable as he comes close to the edge, but the epinephrine keeps him from going all the way out.
Nico and I repeat the process over and over, until finally, I pour the gasoline over his head and watch as his whole body goes up in flames. He screams so hard that he rips his lips open. Blood flows down his mouth as he feels every moment of the most excruciating pain I can deliver.
And when he finally stops moving, there isn’t a single person in this room who feels bad for him.
THE CEMETERY IS QUIET, void of any curious onlookers. I walk across the grass with a bottle of Cognac in my hand and three shot glasses. The air is cold against my heated skin, but that could be due to the overdose of adrenaline I got from earlier.
Standing between the two graves, I look down at the names of men who made me who I am today. A sense of pride settles over me, and I can’t help but feel like they’re here with me.
I did it.
I avenged their deaths and made their enemies pay.
Pouring out three shots, I leave one on each of their graves and hold my own in the air.
“This is to you.”
Sometimes, it isn’t about the kill. Sure, taking someone unworthy of life out of this world is great, but playing with your victims is where the thrill is. Ending their life is the easy part. It’s making them regret they were ever born that I’m interested in.
Kage sits beside me in the limo, handing me the mask he had made. “Are you sure about this? It’s risky.”
“Are you?” I ask.
He chuckles and shakes his head. “Not even a little, but you’ve more than proven to me that you can handle your own. It’s time I stop treating you like you’re anything less than my equal.”
Hearing that come from his mouth is everything. I came into this world a prisoner and a pawn, someone who was taken for someone else’s gain. A girl stumbling through her own life, not knowing what her purpose was until she was forced to face it head on.
And I came out a warrior.
I wrap my hand around the back of Kage’s neck and pull him in for a kiss. “I love you.”