My dearest readers,
It's been a long time. Too long. Thank you all for your patience as I have been working through some very difficult times. I can't say life as a whole has improved, although in some areas it has... significantly... but I think I have a better handle on things at last, and I'm finally carving out time to write again. Love and gratitude go out to my soul sisters, Ankita (Ninkita) and Chrissie (PurpleC305), without whom this last couple of years would have been very dark indeed.
Yours,
Maggie
In the last chapter, we were watching Agent Masen (known to the Volturi as Edward Cullen) showing off his poker skills when an unexpected commotion interrupted the game:
Edward's expression never changed as he flipped over his cards, and Bella finally realized that he had been betting, not on the short odds of a flush, but on the longer odds of a straight. Ace, two, three, four, five. The room hung on an inhalation of air, then burst into applause as the dealer pushed more than $10,000 of chips in front of the winner.
Then he grinned, teeth straight, white and feral.
In the commotion, Bella almost missed the way Aro's face turned white as he held one hand flat against his earpiece. He hastily pushed Jane aside and ran for the door, opening it just as William Gibbs staggered against the door frame, his white shirt soaked in blood.
"Help! She cut me bad! And she stabbed Malcolm, stabbed him right through the throat. The psycho bitch killed Malcolm!" William gasped, then collapsed.
Bella flailed her arms as, like Jane, she was thrust to one side. She landed on the floor, but she clambered quickly to her feet to see what was happening. Masen was already beside the injured man, guiding him to lie flat on the floor.
"Call a doctor if you want this man to survive," he barked at Aro, tearing open the blood-soaked shirt to reveal a single deep gash across William Gibbs' stomach.
Bella swayed and stumbled, crumpling to the floor in shock. She had toured crime scenes, seen hundreds of graphic photos, but nothing could have prepared her for the immediacy of the current crisis. The sounds and smells of violence were impossible to replicate. She was gripped by a surge of horrified panic. All around her, men were blurting out questions, demanding to see what was happening, shoving each other aside with elbows and shoulders. She lost sight of her partner, but she could hear his voice, giving out crisp orders for towels while tearing strips of table clothes to bandage the gruesome wound. The smell of blood, sweat and animal terror quickly filled the room, a coppery tang that burned her nose and turned her stomach.
She made herself small, sinking against the side of a sofa to watch the melee. Aro was speaking swiftly to three guards. Moments later they disappeared through a door in the rear of the room. Bella wondered where it led, but directed her attention back to the poker table where Marcus Volturi still sat, carefully sorting and stacking his chips. Was he furious? Worried? From where she crouched, he looked completely unaffected. What was wrong with him?
Jessica was clinging to the arm of her white-faced master. He was on his phone, speaking urgently, but his eyes kept returning to the chaotic scene in the doorway. Shouts of anger broke out as two black-suited guards dragged a defiant Zafrina into the room. Bella sat up straighter, watching in fear as the men brought her to stand before Aro. Her face was bruised, her dress was torn, and her right hand and arm were splattered with blood.
"My princess," Aro said mournfully. "Why?"
Zafrina drew air in through flared nostrils, turned her head and spat in the direction of the injured man. James appeared beside her and struck her full in the jaw with his fist. The force sent her head whipping to the side, but she didn't cry out. She turned her gold-lined eyes on him, looking down the length of her nose, and smiled. Blood stained her lips and teeth. James tripped back a step, and she laughed, a hollow, derisive sound. The gathered men fell silent, shocked, but their verbal abuse resumed as the guards removed her on Aro's command.
Michael stepped up then. "Doc said he'll come, we just need to send a car."
Aro sank back onto the couch weakly, saying, "Felix will go. Of course, he will go. Tell the dear doctor that a car is on its way. Oh, I can't believe this. It's too awful!" His voice rose into a helpless wail and he clutched one of Jane's delicate white hands in his.
Two of Royce King's lackeys hung close to Masen, following his terse commands. Bella caught occasional glimpses of William Gibbs as the other men moved about him. His face was ghastly white and still, and she began to think he might die. She was surprised at her own ambivalence. It would be unfortunate if they lost a contact who liked and trusted Edward Cullen, but her thoughts kept returning to the Amazonian captive.
What would become of her? It would be naive to hope for compassion or mercy. Could she really sit passively on the sidelines while her punishment was doled out by these monsters? An icy fist tightened around her heart. She already knew the answer. Masen had told her to be prepared. They could do nothing. They couldn't risk blowing their cover. Not yet.
When the doctor arrived, Masen relinquished control and disappeared to wash away the gore that coated his hands and clothes. He returned minutes later and beckoned stiffly for Bella to follow him from the room. None of the other men seemed to notice, but Bella looked up to see Jane's flat gray eyes following them. Goosebumps raced across her arms and down her back. The younger girl's eyes we completely devoid of personality or emotion. Stumbling slightly, Bella hurried to catch up with her partner.
Masen sent her to bed immediately, then disappeared into the bathroom. She was still awake when he exited the shower and wordlessly got ready for bed. Within moments of laying down beside her, he was asleep.
Minutes passed. Then hours. Bella couldn't sleep. Masen's breathing was low and even, but her anxiety seemed to ratchet higher and higher with each passing minute. Her mind chased the same question around and around. What was going to happen to Zafrina?
Bella was relieved when Masen finally sat up, pulled the curtains open and swung his legs over the side of the bed at quarter to six. The waiting and doing nothing was driving her insane. Whatever was going to happen, she knew they couldn't say or do anything to stop it. She was sick with worry, nauseated with fear, and certain that Zafrina was going to be sentenced to death, if her body wasn't already resting as the bottom of the ocean.
Masen's face was unreadable as he dressed for the day and sat down in front of his computer. Bella switched to autopilot, letting ingrained habits control her hands and body. When she was dressed and made up, Masen finally came to stand near her.
"We've been invited to witness the punishment of the rebellious whore. It should be educational. If you become a permanent resident here, it would be beneficial for you to understand your place."
His voice was Edward Cullen's, cold and brimming with irritation. But his eyes were his own. Bella focused on them, reading the real message he was trying to convey.
His eyes told her to be ready, to be strong, because their job wasn't to save a single woman. It was to save them all. They both needed to play their parts, to glean every possible detail about the Volturi, their operations and the dynamics between all the players. With so much attention being focused on Zafrina, there was a lot they could learn. Bella just wished their intelligence didn't have to come at such a high price.
When they reach the dining hall, the other captives were already assembled. Even Victoria was present, kneeling in the center of the front row. The women formed a semicircle six paces away from where Zafrina sat, crumpled on the floor. She had been beaten and chained to the wall, possibly since the night before, and her body seemed depleted.
There was a brief murmur of surprise from the other men as they watched Edward Cullen lead his own slave girl to kneel with the others. Bella sank to her knees and folded her arms across her stomach, her hands clenching the opposite elbows. Within minutes, the stone floor had sucked the warmth from her legs, and her knees began to throb. Bella peered between the shoulders of the women in front of her, but she couldn't tell if Zafrina was even breathing.
The men's excitement seemed to hum around the perimeter of the room. Their conversation dimmed somewhat when Aro appeared, then rose even higher when a large man joined him. Bella recognized the massive guardsman from her first day at the mansion. His forehead and jaw were square, and his features were strangely flat, making him look like a robotic version of Frankenstein's monster. He nodded twice in response to something Aro said, then walked across to the entryway where two large terra cotta jars flanked the great doors. Each held dozens of black-painted bamboo canes. He grasped several in one fist and drew them out, the canes making a sinister rasping and rattling sound as he hefted them and took an experimental swing.
Bella swallowed and closed her eyes. She had read stories of people being caned to death in other countries. She had always wondered how any human could stand by while another person was punished in so barbaric a fashion. Saliva pooled in her mouth, tasting of iron, and her eyes watered. She could feel her stomach heaving, and her throat worked furiously to keep the bile down. Bella breathed slowly in through her nose, then out between clenched teeth. In the background, Edward Cullen's chilling laughter rose up, and a dozen other voices joined in. He was telling jokes? How could he do that, knowing what they were about to witness?
"My darlings… My precious doves," Aro began, addressing the assembled young women. "We are all taught from a young age that actions lead to consequences, and disobedient, wicked actions lead to terrible consequences. Please, my sweet ladies, please don't put me in this position ever again. You know I would never willingly hurt a single hair on your lovely heads, but we must all play our part. We must all follow the rules. Alas, there is one among you who refuses to comply, absolutely rebels against the simplest request. All we ask is that you keep our guests happy. Be hospitable. Our treasured guests should want for nothing while visiting our home. And now we have lost one of our oldest, dearest friends, and another holds onto his life by a mere thread." He paused and bowed his head for a moment before concluding. "We have all heard 'a life for a life', but thankfully our esteemed host is eminently merciful."
Cries of disappointment and a loud 'boo' rang out from the men gathered at the rear of the room.
"Oh, gentlemen," Aro sighed, shaking his head, "Don't be like that. Come on in, come in closer. No crime goes unpunished. And you will each have a chance to help our headstrong Zafrina learn and grow from this unfortunate mistake."
Zafrina's body stiffened, and Bella realized she had been awake and listening all along. Did this mean that she would be allowed to live? Bella felt a surge of hope, but every muscle in the battered girl's body seemed to quiver in terror. What could be worse than being executed before these monsters?
"Master Felix, the floor is yours," Aro said with a flourish, then he skirted around the crowd to stand off to one side of the room.
Felix approached the prone captive, the bamboo canes dragging across the stone floor behind him with a screeching, hissing sound that raised all the hairs on Bella's neck.
"Kneel," he commanded in a bass voice that echoed off the walls.
Zafrina did not move.
The canes whistled through the air and landed across her legs with an angry snap.
Bella heard Zafrina's gasp of pain, but the prisoner didn't cry out. Instead, she unfolded from the floor and slowly drew herself up to her full height. She was only a couple inches shorter than her tormenter, and she looked directly into his eyes. Speaking slowly in a language Bella did not recognize, Zafrina delivered what sounded like a chilling curse, then turned to face the assembly. She knelt woodenly, her back straight and her shoulders drawn back. When the next blow landed, she raised her eyes to the men who had gathered to see a show, and she grinned.
Bella was overcome by a swarm of emotions. Confusion, pride, awe and fear. Zafrina was challenging her captors. Why? To enrage them further? To force their hand? Did she want to die today?
As blow after blow rained down, Bella listened to and watched the reactions of the other girls. Victoria was as still as a manikin, her expression blank and detached. Jane was staring into space, distant and unmoved. She could have been anywhere, just daydreaming. Jessica was picking at her nails, disinterested on the surface, but her shoulders twitched with every strike of the canes. Several had broken and splintered, and the canes now emitted a spray of red every time they struck Zafrina's back. Many of the girls were sobbing, hiding their faces and covering their ears. Bella had lost count after 20 blows, so she was startled when Felix stopped and turned to Aro for further instructions.
The jeering from the back of the room began anew. Aro took three steps forward, then stopped, his right hand jerking up to press against his earpiece. He half turned, and looked back toward the darkened passage beside which he had just been standing. He shook his head slowly, paused, then nodded reluctantly. A hush settled over the room, broken only by the sniffles of the crying girls and Zafrina's own harsh breathing. Her teeth were clenched, and all the muscles in her jaw stood out.
Aro carried out a whispered exchange with the Volturi executioner, then turned away, wringing his hands as he larger man left the room. Two uniformed guardsmen came forward and lifted Zafrina to her feet, but her knees buckled, and she sagged between them. Felix reappeared moments later, carrying a yellow-handled pair of pruners. When he came into view, Zafrina's composure broke, and she began to struggle futilely against the guards' grip.
The caning had been horrible enough. Bella could only imagine what other revenge they intended to inflict on their prisoner. She felt a scream rising up from her chest. She was on her feet before she knew what she was doing. One step, and her throat erupted into flames. An agonized gurgle escaped her mouth as her hands clawed at the collar around her neck.
Zafrina's shrieks of torment cut through the roaring in her ears. She tried to take one more step, but she stumbled over somebody's feet.
Through her tears, Bella saw a man looming up before her. "Imbecile," he said, his voice filled with outrage. His hand shot out as quick as a snake, and fire bloomed across her left cheek. But what stunned her into silence was not the sharp pain of Masen's slap. It was the knowledge that he had lied... The collar was still set to full strength.
Thank you all for sticking with me!
Now, for lighter fair, Ninkita has just started posting a fun and flirty drabble: "Summer Rain". And you probably know that I beta for the incredibly talented PurpleC305. We can all use a little more Bikerward in our lives, right!? I have it on good authority that Chapter 17 of "More Than Skin Deep" is coming very, very soon.