Maximus came closer and the wall cut into my back from how I pressed against it in a futile attempt to move away. I hadn’t felt naked before in my new skin, but I did now. Oh, I did now.

“Better me than him, Leila,” he said, throwing a “sorry, bro” type of glance at Szilagyi, who grunted. “I’ll be gentle, whereas he would take out all of his anger against Vlad on you.”

“True,” Szilagyi in a casual tone.

Hatred swelled until I was shaking from it. “You’re right, Vlad will invent new ways to torture you, and that’s only after I’m done making both of you the sorriest people on earth!”

Szilagyi laughed. “Oh, she does have spirit. I’ll enjoy watching this.”

“You’re leaving,” Maximus said, not taking his eyes off me. “I’ve waited a long time to be with her. I don’t mind the camera, but I’m not going to have an audience.”

Szilagyi sighed. “Very well. As I said, I always reward loyalty among my people, but don’t take too long. I want the video on its way to Vlad by dawn.”

Maximus let out a low laugh that had me yanking on my restraints until I felt my bones snap. “Don’t worry, you’ll have it well before then.”

“You disgust me,” I spat, my fangs splitting my lip from how hard I was clenching my jaw.

“Oh, before you go, have someone bring me some duct tape, too,” Maximus added, glancing at the blood that leaked out from my lip. “Something tells me she’s a biter.”

With another laugh, Szilagyi left. Maximus went over to the camera and flicked a button. The light still glowed green, indicating that it was filming.

I looked directly into it and said, “Don’t give them what they want, Vlad. You have to be colder than you’ve ever been. Knowing they won’t break you is how I’ll get through this.”

“We’ll need to edit that out, won’t we?” Szilagyi said, returning with the duct tape.

I looked away from the camera, blinking hard as fury mingled with bitter despair inside me. Of course they’d take that out. There was nothing I could do except endure whatever they chose to do to me. With blistering clarity, I understood how his former helplessness had caused Vlad to wake up in a fiery rage for decades. I wanted to kill everyone here, yet I couldn’t even stop them from laughing at me.

Szilagyi gave Maximus a final wink as he handed him the duct tape and then closed the stone door. Maximus began to take off his clothes. I closed my eyes, promising myself that, like before when they’d skinned me, I wouldn’t cry in front of them. I couldn’t stop what was about to happen, but I could keep myself from breaking down . . . at least, until I was alone again. For days, I’d felt like this wasn’t my body. Now, I realized that essence-filled or blank, weaponized or weak, it was.

And every bit of my new skin crawled when I felt Maximus walk toward me.

Chapter 12

The sound of tape being torn into several strips made me flinch. I didn’t want to look at Maximus, but not seeing what was going on made me feel even more helpless. If someone had told me a week ago that Maximus would be responsible for my being skinned alive and raped, I would’ve called that person a liar. How had I not sensed how cruel he was during the time we spent on the run together? How had I ever trusted him?

You knew what he was, my hated inner voice whispered with its usual venom. You relived his worst sin, so you of all people should have known!

Maybe I should have, I acknowledged bleakly. Instead, I’d chosen to believe him when said that his worst sin had also been his epiphany that made him change his life. More the fool, me.

From the sounds, Maximus kept ripping off new pieces of tape, but he hadn’t put any over my mouth yet. He was near enough to; I could feel his aura bridging the scant distance between us, making my skin crawl even more. With how much he was tearing off, he must be making a ball gag with the tape, or was it something worse? Unable to help it, I opened my eyes—

His hand clapped over my mouth before it could fall open in disbelief. As dreaded, Maximus was stark naked. What I didn’t expect was the duct tape that plastered his cock against his lower abdomen.

“Don’t fight me, Leila, it’ll only make it worse,” he said in a stern tone, then mouthed the words Bite me.

I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I didn’t hesitate. The vicious chomp released only the tiniest part of my rage, but it left him snatching back his hand while a big piece of it was still in my mouth. I spat it at him, watching with satisfaction as the glop hit him in the chest.

He seized my newly smooth scalp and wrapped a long strip of tape across my mouth.

“I was going to unchain you so you’d be more comfortable, but now I’m only freeing one leg,” he all but snarled into my face. “This is your fault, Leila. I didn’t want it this way.”

So sorry raping me isn’t romantic for you! I would’ve snarled back, except I could only grunt. Besides, a fearful hope was starting to grow. Why would Maximus tape his genitals down? Talk about defeating the purpose of his intentions.

With his back still to the camera, Maximus released the clamps on my right leg. Then, holding the lube bottle like it was a trophy, he slathered some onto his palm before reaching between my legs. What the camera would’ve seen was me kicking in a futile attempt to deny him access and him using his knees to force my legs open. What I felt rather than saw was him securing a piece of tape across the most intimate part of me, then dropping the bottle and gripping my thigh to his waist.