Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“Get her out of here!” Declan shouts as the two of them struggle. The man in the mask, too short to be Sebastian, slices at the air in front of Declan with a machete as he moves toward the back of the room. Declan grabs the lamp beside the television, pulls its cord from the wall, and hurls it at him.
When the man ducks, he lunges for him, knocking him off of his feet, and they struggle for control over the blade between them.
“Let’s go, Teag,” Luca says, ushering me toward the door with a tight grip around my wrist.
But before we leave the room, the masked man regains control and ends up on top of Declan with the knife raised over his head. I break free of Luca’s grip and lunge at the man, knocking him off of Declan and burying my blade into his right shoulder.
I didn’t think about it; I didn’t aim, and that was a mistake. It’s enough for him to release the knife, but not much more effective than that. He easily shakes me off of him, and when Declan comes up with the masked man’s knife, he already has me in a headlock. The man pulls me to my feet, takes my own knife from his shoulder, and holds it to my throat.
“Luca, stop!” Declan yells before he can lunge, unarmed, at the man. He holds Luca back with a hand on his chest. “Easy…” he cautions the man who has me in a chokehold. “Don’t do anything rash. Let’s figure something out ”
“It’s okay,” I tell them both, choking on a sob. “It’s okay. I love you.”
“Shut up,” the man says, digging the knife into my flesh. “This isn’t a prisoner exchange. You’re all going to die. She’s just going to go first.”
I squeeze my eyes closed. I hear nothing but muffled voices over the sound of my own blood pumping in my ears.
It’s painlessthat’s what I’m thinking when warm blood sprays over my neck and the side of my face.
It’s painless. What a relief.
The arm around my neck falls away, and I no longer feel the weight of the body against my back. I fall to my knees, and when I open my eyes, I’m still in the hotel room. I grab at my throat, and my hands come away bloody, but I’m still breathing; I still hear voices in the room around me. I try to wade through the sound of my pounding heart and zero in on them, and it just barely works.
“Get out of here, Teagan.”
I turn and look behind metoward the source of the voice. The man who had ahold of me before lies lifeless on the floor, blood pooling near his body from stab wounds in the side of his throat. Another masked man looks down at me, a bloody knife in his hand.
It wasn’t my blood. And this one is Sebastian.
He grabs me under my arm, pulls me to my feet, and shoves me toward the door. “Go, Teagan. You’re not going to want to see this.”
“Teagan, run,” Declan says. “It’s okay.”
They can’t take him. Maybe when Luca was in better shape they would have had a chancemaybe. But not now.
“Please don’t!” I cry, stepping in front of Sebastian. “Please just leave them alone. You don’t have to do this.”
“Teagan, GO!” Declan shouts. “Now.”
“That’s him, isn’t it?” Luca asks. “I’m going to fucking kill you.”
“Luca, stop! You can’t.” I turn back to Sebastian, tears streaming down my face, and place a hand on his chest. “Please. You’re not a monster; you don’t have to.”
“You’re wrong,” he says. “Last chance to leave.”
I bend down and pick up my knife from the floor. “I can’t,” I say.
“Give Luca the knife and go, Teagan,” Declan says, still holding the machete. “Whatever happens it’s not your fault. I love you.”
“You know how quickly I can take that away from you,” Sebastian says. “Get out of my way, Teagan. I’ll make it quick.”
I hold the knife to my own throat.
“Teagan, what are you doing?” Sebastian growls.
“I don’t want to,” I say. “But if you’re going to do this, then I’ll have to. It’ll kill me. Please. I’ll do anythingjust don’t do this.”
Sebastian lifts the knife at his side as footsteps approach me from behind. “Give me the knife, angel,” Luca says. He places a hand on my shoulder and goes for my wrist with the other.
“Don’t!” I shout, shaking him off. I point the knife at him before bringing it back to my throat. “Get back!”
“Teagan ” Luca says, the hurt evident in his eyes and his voice.
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
Sebastian laughs, and I watch the hurt shift to pure rage.
“I thought you said he wasn’t stupid,” Sebastian says.
“Put the knife down!” I scream. “This is your last chance.”
“Sebastian, let’s talk,” Declan says.
“Don’t call me that,” Sebastian says.
“We have a problem.” Declan sets his own knife down, and I flinch as he walks around the two of us. He steps over Travis’s head and sits down on the sofa. All swagger, zero fucks given.
He’s the guy on stage again.
“What do you want?” Declan asks. “It’s Teagan, right? You’re obviously not going to kill her. You don’t want her to kill herself, so you can’t kill us.”
“He can’t fucking have Teagan, Declan. What the fuck!?” Luca shouts.
“I’ve had Teagan in every way possible,” Sebastian tells Luca. “She begged for it, too, like a little whore. She asked me to run away with her, did she tell you that?”
Luca scoffs. “Yeah, right.”
“Didn’t you, Teagan?”
“Sebastian, stop.”
“Teagan, what the fuck? You were going to leave me? For him?”
“You weren’t there! You left me!”
“Not by choice! After I kill him, I’m going to knock some fucking sense into you, too, Teagan.”
“Luca, enough,” Declan says.
“You’re going to be sleeping in handcuffs every night, and I’ll spank your little ass so raw you won’t be able to sit down for a month.”
“Lofty goals. You won’t live that long,” Sebastian scoffs.
“You want Teagan, right?” Declan asks again.
Sebastian neither confirms nor denies it.
“What the fuck are you going to do with her if you get her?” he asks. “Hmm? Let’s say you kill us, stop her from killing herself, and get her out of here alive; then what? You’re supposed to kill her, aren’t you? That’s what your dead friend said.”
“I don’t have friends”
“Are you going to leave The Order?” Declan asks.
“No one leaves The Order.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.