The Ultimate Sacrifice - Talia Jager (best ebook reader for laptop .txt) 📗

class="char-style-override-1">When I regained consciousness, I was lying on my side. There was something over my eyes and in my mouth. I also seemed to be tied up. I couldn’t move, scream, or see. Fear gripped my body. They had me now, and if I didn’t stick to the plan, they would try to use me.

Worried about my friends, I thought back to the last thing I remembered. When the bigger demons had shown up, I had let myself be captured. I remembered seeing everyone else before they dragged me away. None of them looked badly hurt. They should be okay, physically anyway. That was a relief. And now that I was here, they’d be safe.

Although I wasn’t sure where here was. I was lying on what felt like a hard, cold floor. Being blindfolded, I couldn’t tell for sure. It felt like both my hands and feet were tied up. The rag in my mouth tasted of rotten food, which matched the smell creeping into my nose. I had to focus on my stomach every once in a while to keep from vomiting. I could hear noises far away, but I couldn’t tell what they were.

I tried struggling to see if I could get free, but I was unsuccessful. I couldn’t get the gag out of my mouth either. I finally gave up and lay quietly, thinking of Daxton and our time on the beach. Thinking of him kissing me passed the time. I wished I was a dreamer like him, so when I was in this kind of situation I could escape it in my mind.

I began wondering if I’d know I was being brainwashed. I had to die before that happened, but what if I couldn’t tell? What if they turned me into a demon weapon and I didn’t know it? What if I already was? I prayed that wouldn’t happen, but if it did, I knew Zane would follow through.

Voices came closer. I stiffened, but tried to control my body from shaking. “Kern wants to see her now.” I felt something yank me up and I flinched. “She’s awake,” the same voice said.

“Such a pretty girl,” another voice chimed in. I could feel the bile rise in my throat. “Maybe we’ll all get a piece of her when she’s on our side.” They cackled. I couldn’t stop from vomiting that time. As soon as I did, I started choking on it because the gag was still shoved in my mouth. It burned as it came out my nose.

“Oh, that’s nasty!” The gag was yanked out of my mouth. I coughed and spewed all over for a few minutes. With my hands tied, I couldn’t even wipe my mouth. I felt gross.

After grabbing me and carrying me up some stairs, they dropped me on the floor. “Here she is, Master.” The horrible, rotten stench intensified. I imagined this was what hell smelled like. I could feel the evil around me and had to bite my lip to keep from screaming.

A darker, deeper voice responded, “Thank you.” I felt someone staring at me. Don’t show your fear, Kassia, I told myself. “Hard to believe a sweet-looking thing like her kills in seconds. I think I should like a demonstration,” he said. “Yes, yes, I would. Boys, when I am safely behind that door, take her blindfold off and untie her.”

“Yes, Master.”

A minute or two passed before I felt someone or something untie me, pull me up, and take off the blindfold. Although it was a fairly dark room, it took my eyes a while to adjust. The room was cold, damp, and empty except for a few chairs. There were some dark red stains on the wood floor. Blood maybe?

I realized the two idiots that had brought me up here were gone, but the hair on my arms was still standing up. There was something here—something evil. I looked around for the threat, finally finding it up against the back wall. At first, I could only see its narrow, red eyes. As it moved forward, it made animal noises, and I could see it looked kind of like a bull. A demon bull. Goose bumps exploded all over my body.

I could tell it wanted to charge, but it was waiting for the right moment to attack. Should I take this bull down? Or let it eat me? Something in me told me to take it down so Kern knew for sure he had the right girl.

I faced the bull head on and stared at him, wishing that he would be in pain, wishing that he would die. At first, nothing happened to the bull—he was strong. I kept my focus and brought my powers up. Again, I stared at the bull. He staggered a little this time, but he recovered and charged at me. C’mon! I focused harder. Before he got more than five steps, he collapsed on the ground. And then his black, shadow-like body melted into the floor and disappeared.

I heard a door open in back of me, and I spun around, ready to kill something else. “I would love to meet you face to face, but you mustn’t try to hurt me or I’ll be forced to punish you,” Kern’s voice said. I wondered what kind of punishment he’d be dishing out for that. “Can you restrain yourself?”

I rocked back on my heels and let the power dissipate.

“Good. I had heard you couldn’t control your power well. However, it seems you’ve come a long way in a few weeks.”

I stood there silently, waiting.

“Kassia, my name is Kern, and I’m going to be your master.”

Like hell you will, I thought.

He stepped out of the shadows now, and I could see him. He towered over me…hair white like snow, cold eyes pitch-black like the darkness that surrounded me.

Two things took me by surprise—his age and his beauty. For master of the demons, he wasn’t ugly or deformed at all. He was actually quite handsome. His skin was flawless and almost glowed. His smile was perfect and his teeth were straight and white. And he was young! He had to be close to my age. He was nothing like I had imagined and yet he was everything I had imagined.

He was full of evil; you could feel it pouring off of him. I bit down harder to keep myself in check. Breathe. Just breathe. He wore a cloak like something I would picture a bad guy in a movie wearing. He held something resembling a remote control in his hands.

“Think of yourself as a wild beast, and I’m the one who’s going to tame you.” The corners of his mouth curled up into a wicked smile. That terrified feeling built up again, and I felt like I was either going to faint or puke. Breathe. He walked around me in a circle, checking me out. “You have no idea the strength of your power. Together, we can control the world. Now, of course, we can go about this two ways.”

Great. I get a choice.

“The harder of the two is, of course, if you resist. I will be forced to break you and reprogram your brain to accept me as your master and then you will do whatever I say. The easier choice is for you just to give in to me and become my bride.”

That made me choke. “Your what?” I finally managed to say.

“My bride. Like I said, we can rule the world, you and I.”

I was speechless for a minute. “I will never willingly be your bride.”

“That’s a disappointment. I was so hoping you’d understand this was best for you.” He frowned. “You may want to rethink it. If you’re willing to do this, you won’t lose your mind, your memories.”

I didn’t even ponder that for half a second. No way! I kept quiet, trying to read him better. He wanted me to control the world with him. If I wasn’t going to do this, he was going to force me to by erasing my mind. “You want to control the world?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

He let out a wicked laugh. “Why not? I want to rule, I want to choose who lives or dies. I want to be a god,” he confessed.

“Why bother? Most of the humans don’t even know everything that exists around them.”

“I want to rule them as well.”

“Still not getting it.”

He frowned again. “Power, sweetheart.” I shuddered when he called me that. “Think about when your power fills you and you must kill. Don’t you love that feeling? Your body’s full of power! That’s what I want all the time.”

Hmmm. Interesting.

“And with me, you think we can control the world?”

“Yes. First, I will tear down the glamour shield from this world. That way the humans will be able to see everything that’s coming. Next, I will unleash the small demons, then bigger ones, and whoever is left will have to face the biggest ones of all. The survivors of all that, if any, will have to bow to me. They will work for me.” His face lit up as he talked about his plans.

“What happens when we get killed?”

He laughed. “We won’t be able to be killed.”

“Really?”

“First off, I won’t be going out there to do the fighting. That will be up to you and the demons. After some training, you will be able to kill thousands within seconds. Anyone who doesn’t bow, dead just like that.” He snapped his fingers. I gulped. “Second, I’m not easily killed.”

“Why do you need me for this?”

“I don’t necessarily need you…I want you. Ever since I was a child, I have heard about you. I have wanted you. I even dreamt about you. As I grew up, the only thing I ever wanted was to have you by my side, but my teachers told me I couldn’t have you because you were special. They used to say you’d save the world. At least until you killed humans.” He laughed.

“Somehow I knew you weren’t so pure,” he continued. “I could do this all on my own, but I don’t want to. It will be easier with you. People will trust you because you are so beautiful and then you’ll kill them without a second thought. Not just one or two, but thousands at a time! Besides, I want you. And now I have you. So, one way or the other, you will do what I say.”

“What if I kill you right now?” I asked, wondering if I could kill him and escape this awful place without having to kill myself.

He laughed again. “The second you tried, demons would be all over you, and you would be tortured and brainwashed immediately. It wouldn’t be pleasant. Besides, I’m protected.”

The only way this would end was if I was dead, and the only way to convince him I was dead was to die in front of him. It was time. It had to happen now. I wasn’t going to be a part of this. I wasn’t going to willingly go along with it. No way was I going to let myself be brainwashed either.

I tried to calm myself down. This was the plan. Freaking out now might give away what I was going to do, and I couldn’t have that. He might try to stop me. I could still feel the dagger around my upper leg. Vala had been right. The demons were too stupid to check me for weapons.

Swiftly, I grabbed my dagger out and pointed it at him. He was taken aback, surprised, but then he started laughing. “You’re going to kill me with that?”

“If you say