ADELINE

 

HIS DIRTY FINGERS tear at my clothes, and I scream around the musty rag that Rafael had stuffed into my mouth just moments earlier.  No one is going to hear my pleas.  No one is coming to save me.

He loosely tied my hands with another scrap of cloth, and I wriggle my wrists back and forth, slowly loosening the material and trying to get enough slack so that I can break free.  Tears stream down my cheeks as I realize how foolish I was to believe that I could escape…or trust anyone on this island.

Rafael forces me onto my stomach, and I feel the bile rising up to my throat.  I can't vomit without the risk of choking to death, and so I try my hardest to swallow it back down.  But the nausea and undiluted fear grow even greater as he jerks my denim capris down my legs in one sweep.

I try to kick out at him, but the denim bunched around my knees restricts my movement, making it almost impossible to defend myself.  I push up with my bound hands that are pinned under me, trying to rise, but his strong hand firmly presses me back down, locking me in place against the mattress.

Chewing on the disgusting, filthy rag in my mouth, I finally get it gathered up enough into a ball that I can push my tongue against the material.  It flies out of my mouth along with a scream so high pitch and full of fear that it doesn't even sound like a noise that could come from me, let alone a human.

Suddenly, I'm flipped onto my back, and the quick movement makes me dizzy.  The scream dies in my throat as Rafael curses at me in Spanish and strikes me across the face.  The moment the metallic taste of my blood from the cut on my lip touches my tongue, it spurs me on and only makes me fight harder, scream louder.

"Shut up, bitch!" he yells.

He grasps onto my panties, and his nails rake down my thighs, digging into my skin as he pulls the lacey material down my legs.  Then his grubby hands move to his own clothes as he tries to undress himself.

The sound of the zipper going down causes a sob to rip from my throat as the panic sets in as to what's going to happen to me. Struggling hastily with the ratty cloth binding me, I'm finally able to break the stitching, releasing my wrists.

His dick is in one hand as he moves closer to me, trying to pry my legs apart with his other hand.  I slam my palms against his chest, straightening my arms and holding him back as best I can, struggling under the overbearing weight of his stocky frame.

"No!" I sob.  "Please!"

In a last-ditched effort, I move one of my hands upwards, digging my fingernails into his cheek and dragging down until he's howling in pain and blood covers the side of his face.

He spits something out of his mouth that I don't understand before one of his hands comes down on my throat, squeezing harder and harder until my arms fall limp to my sides and I'm on the edge of consciousness.  My body bucks underneath him, but I'm not strong enough to throw him off, and I feel like I'm fading fast.

My mouth opens, gaping like a fish out of water as I try to inhale just one tiny breath of oxygen.  Dark spots cloud my vision.  And just as my eyes begin to flutter closed…I can hear Lucien's voice calling for me.  He sounds so far away...

Suddenly, the grip on my neck and the weight on top of me is gone.

And I can breathe again.

I gasp and wheeze, sucking oxygen into my depleted lungs as my eyes snap open.

Lucien has Rafael pinned on the floor as his fists rain blows down upon his face.  Each loud smack of his fists makes me shudder, and Rafael's face slowly morphs into something unrecognizable — muscle, tissue and blood.

So much blood.

Rafael tries to talk, but his jaw looks like it's dislocated and his teeth are gone, scattered across the concrete floor.

"Don't you fucking dare speak!" Lucien roars like a wild animal as he wraps his hands around Rafael's throat.  He chokes him brutally until the snap of his neck echoes through the small cottage.

All I can do is stare in shock and awe as Lucien stands up, pulls a gun out of his waistband and fires round after round into Rafael.

My entire body jolts with each shot as bullet after bullet rips through my attacker.

Only once the clip is spent does Lucien finally stop shooting.  He stands there, panting with harsh, unsteady breaths, watching the blood pooling around Rafael's dead body.

Lucien doesn't even look human anymore.  He looks feral, like some kind of wild beast, his chest heaving and his back bowed.  He's disheveled with a desolate look in his eye that I've never seen before.

A thrill of terror runs through me…but it doesn't last long.  I'm not afraid of him even though I should be.

Lucien saved me from a brutal, unforgiving fate. He protected me.  He killed for me.