Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 40901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40901 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 205(@200wpm)___ 164(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
I cannot believe what I am hearing.
“Well, that’s a kind of crazy that makes an interesting change from the normal kind of crazy, which is trying to use me and my kind to end the world as quickly as possible. If you’re so worried about angel blood in the wild, why did you leave the Direview brides alone?”
“Three low content girls in a remote corner of England are contained in their own way. They will never leave those sacred sites. They are bound to them, whether they know it or not, kept by their male guardians. You were a tougher proposition, Katie. You don’t let anybody control you. You were pushing ahead with idea after idea that would have brought the blessings of angelic blood to the mainstream. It would have been an unmitigated disaster.”
“Or it would have greatly improved people’s lives. Are you seriously telling me you’ve hunted me down like a dog, stripped me, fucked with me, and thrown me in a cage because you think me being out in the world will end it?”
“Something like that.”
“You’re fucking crazy. And worse, you’re scared of me.”
“I’m not scared of you, Katie. I’m one of the few people on this planet who knows what you’re capable of. Even you don’t know what you’re capable of. You are the angelic equivalent of a nuclear device, and I intend to keep you under control.”
“So this facility is designed to hoard angels, because you’ve taken it upon yourself to rip us out of the world.”
“Yes. I am going to have many more lesser angels here soon enough. I have trained other handlers to detect and arrest those with angel blood. I will remove your kind from society and let it finally find peace.”
“You are a fucking nightmare,” I say. “You think having the divine on Earth causes conflict?”
“Beasts and birds do not have to contend with divinity, and they…”
“Live short, dangerous brutal lives where something usually eats them,” I finish his sentence. “You are trying to undo the will of forces far greater than you.”
“Perhaps,” he smirks, more amused than offended. “And yet I am doing it.”
“I thought you had designs on controlling divinity. I assumed you were attempting to gather divine power and relics and control the end of the world, turning history to your will, bending the very course of humanity and shaping the future in your image and conception.”
He chuckles. “Well,” he says. “One thing at a time.”
Sheriff Starlight may very well be the most dangerous man on the planet. I thought I knew who he was, a fanatic out of the American South, nobody to particularly worry about. It turns out he was plenty to worry about. I should have had my security forces monitoring him. Now that he has me, rescue will be difficult. I am not without resources, but this is the United States of America, and launching an offensive against a prison will not be easy. Starlight showed remarkable ingenuity in transporting me. He kept me hidden. I may still be hidden now. But there are those who will free me. I am not a single individual fighting this battle alone. I am a woman with a veritable army behind her, and Starlight will regret treating me like this.
In the meantime, I can afford to play this little game. I might even enjoy toying with being a captive. This may be the first and last chance I have to play at weakness. I step back and grip the bars behind me with my cuffed hands. I am sure a more innocent woman would be horrified and appalled by this kind of captivity. But so far, caged travel aside, what has happened here is nothing more than the accidents of clumsy staff, and near vanilla bedroom play.
“I hope you haven’t taken me just to bore me,” I say. “I do bore easily.”
Starlight
She may claim to be bored, but I certainly am not. She is delightfully unpredictable. I can’t keep her cuffed forever, but while she is still cuffed, I have an idea.
“Are you hungry, angel? What would you like to eat?”
“No,” she lies. Of course she is hungry. I know precisely when she was last fed, and what she was last fed. While she was in her transport cage, I kept my distance. I wanted her to know that my presence was a privilege. Like so many lessons in the past, Katie failed to learn. She is treating me with her customary rudeness, trying to prove to herself that she is not afraid. But I see the fear dancing in the depths of her eyes. It holds hands with the mischief, swirling about in an eternal dance.
I leave the room without another word. I need to clear my head. I want to fuck her, badly. I very much intend to claim her. Or is it reclaim her? The night in Vegas left a mark on me in more ways than one. She was mine that night, and she has been mine ever since. She would deny that too, but she is comfortable with me. She hates me, she fears me, but there is a comfort there, a playfulness. Most people, having been caged for a long time, then shot while making an escape attempt would be in a state of complete and total shut down, or perhaps rage. Katie gives way to neither of these things, because Katie is more like me than she likes to admit. There is a touch of what people call the psychopath in us both.