In The Darkness (Project Artemis #1)(22)

A noise at the door startled them, and Nick looked up to see Drist and the rest of the group coming into the room. Their restlessness had finally exploded into something more dangerous.

All at once, Nick knew their time was up. Whatever happened now, he had to make sure they didn’t hurt her.

Persephone’s body tensed up in terror, and she looked like she was about to cry. Nick brushed his hand against her leg as he stood to deal with them in an effort to signal that he wouldn’t let anyone hurt her now that the time had come.

“What’s this? A fucking convention?” he asked angrily, pissed he now had to deal with the whole group of these guys in with him.

“Drist said you had her under control, so we wanted to see,” Ponytail said as he leered at Persephone like a hungry man seeing his first meal in days.

Fear coiled in Nick that what he and the rest of them were hungry for wasn’t food but her. “So you all thought you should come in so we can all stand around like fucking idiots while I feed this bitch? Zombies get too boring for you guys?”

Most of them laughed at his joke, but Ponytail couldn’t take his eyes off her and reached out to grab her between the legs. Persephone snapped her head around and clicked her teeth together to bite him on the arm but missed, angering him. He jammed his hand into her crotch again, harder this time, and she reacted by kicking her leg out at him.

That’s all it took to make the rest of them lose it, and they began screaming for him to fuck her and show her who was boss. Nick quickly saw his control of the situation begin to unravel, and fearing they might gang rape her if he didn’t do something, he threw the bowl of soup toward the nightstand and pushed hard against Ponytail’s chest to get him away from her.

“After all I’ve had to take from this bitch, I should be the one who gets the right to have her. You haven’t been stuck in here every goddamned day fucking feeding her like some kind of motherfucking servant she’s probably used to.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the look of pure terror wash over her face as the reality of what they planned to do settled in among the room.

What he would do.

“Well, let’s go!” one of them near the door barked.

They all began to yell their lust for him to fuck her. She looked at Nick and began begging him not to do it, but her pleas were drowned out by their voices.

“Like I want to fuck her in front of you all,” he said with all the bravado he could find inside.

All five of them seemed confused by his reluctance to have sex with Persephone with them watching. For a moment, he thought he’d gotten out of it, but Ponytail wasn’t having any of that.

Stepping toward her, he grinned. “Well, if you won’t fuck her, I’m going to.”

Nick’s heartbeat pounded in his ears as he realized he couldn’t back out. No amount of bravado or shit talk would distract them from what they wanted. They’d consumed too many energy drinks and played too much of that zombie video game and now they needed something to sate their need for excitement.

And if he didn’t do it, one of them would and he couldn’t risk her getting hurt by one of these guys so filled with rage and dying to direct it at her in any way possible.

“She’s mine,” he said in a voice full of possession. “If you want to watch like a bunch of fucking ladies in waiting, whatever. But she’s mine for all I’ve had to take from this bitch.”

Before Ponytail or any of them decided to challenge him on that claim, Nick walked over to where Persephone sat and began untying the ropes holding her firm to the chair. She looked at him in stunned silence, her eyes pleading with him not to go through with this.

He roughly lifted her from the chair and turned to toss her on the bed to the cheers of the men around him. She landed hard, and before she could move to fight him, he leaned down next to her face as he pinned her hands above her head.

In a voice he hoped they couldn’t hear, he whispered in her ear, “Don’t look anywhere but in my eyes. I promise I won’t let them hurt you.”

As he leaned back to unzip his jeans, he saw the look of betrayal in her eyes. It nearly broke him, but if he didn’t do this, one of them would. There was no other choice.

“Do her!” one of them screamed, and the others repeated his command over and over.

Nick roughly stuck his hand into her green scrubs and yanked them off her legs. She cried out, begging him to stop, but he couldn’t. Tearing her panties off, he laid on top of her and thrust into her body, never taking his eyes off her face.

Her sobs filled his ears, drowning out the cheers from the men around them. Lifting his body off hers so he didn’t crush her, he continued to thrust into her. She stared up at him, just as he’d told her, and he slid his hand around her neck to feel something in the act other than the sickening feeling of betrayal.

Never before in his life had he seen such pain in someone’s eyes and all because of him. With every thrust into her body, he knew that would never leave him for the rest of his life. That it shouldn’t leave him.

Finally, she closed her eyes, and he sensed every word he’d said to her fading away, replaced by hatred and distrust.





Chapter Eight





In the darkness, Persephone sat tied to that kitchen chair wishing she could curl up in a ball and die. She’d dared to let herself believe that Nick would protect her, but he’d shown her no one could protect her anymore.