Free Crimson Debt: Book 1 in the Born to Darkness series by Evangeline Anderson Page B

He was standing at the foot of
the bed, watching us with a bemused expression on his face as
though he wasn’t sure what to think of what he was seeing. “The
keys!” I said again, which seemed to startle him into action.
    He turned to Danica. “Does your mistress have
the keys to these cuffs binding the fledgling to the bed?”
    “Here they are.” Roderick was suddenly there,
holding out a small iron key on a wire ring. Corbin took it and
strode around the bed. While he was busy unlocking Taylor’s hand, I
smoothed her hair back from her face. Her cheeks were streaked with
blood and it had dripped down onto her chest. Obviously she’d been
crying for hours.
    “Hurts,” she whispered in a soft, broken
voice.
    I felt my heart squeeze in my chest. “I know,
hon. We’re getting you out of the cuffs right now.”
    “Not just that.” She nodded her head at the
black satin sheet pooled in her lap. “There too.”
    “What else did he do to you?” I cast a
furious glance over my shoulder at Roderick who looked back at me
blandly, as though he hadn’t just been torturing my best
friend.
    “Hurts,” Taylor moaned again, drawing my
attention back to her problem.
    Carefully I lifted the sheet and saw…
“Crap—is that a chastity belt?”
    “A silver one,” Taylor gasped as I touched
the contraption that appeared to have hinges in the crotch and
locks on either side of the waist. There were multiple plumes of
smoke rising from her bare pelvis, everywhere the silver was
touching her.
    “We need the key for this too,” I said to
Corbin who was staring at the silver chastity belt with an
unreadable expression on his face.
    “I recommend you leave that on her.” Celeste
was suddenly there again, by the side of the bed. Taylor shrank
away from her mistress, her eyes wide with fright. “It’s a valuable
part of my collection and I’d be sorry to lose it,” the blonde
vampire continued. “But it keeps little Taylor in line beautifully.
She’s been wearing it every minute she’s in the house—except when
Inquisitor Roderick takes it off to fuck her, of course.”
    “The key , Celeste,” Corbin grated.
“This is sadistic, even for you.”
    She handed over the key, which was much more
elaborate than the one for the cuffs, and shrugged. “I was just
having a little fun.”
    “Fun?” I looked at her in disbelief. “Handing
Taylor over to be raped and tortured was what you consider fun? You sick bitch!”
    Celeste hissed but Corbin was suddenly
between us.
    “Step back, Celeste. Let my consort tend to
the fledgling.” He gave me the key, which felt oddly heavy in my
hand, and shook his head slightly. I wasn’t sure if he was warning
me not to fight with Celeste anymore or what but I was too upset to
care. With trembling fingers, I unlocked the two sides of the belt
and pulled it away from my best friend’s smoking flesh. There were
burns on her lily-white skin that made me think of the marks from a
barbeque grill. I had to fight my gag reflex as I helped her out of
it and threw the hateful thing over the side of the bed with a
clatter.
    “You shouldn’t have come,” she whispered,
casting a fearful glance over my shoulder to where Roderick watched
us expressionlessly. “It’s not safe.”
    “Corbin is helping,” I told her. “He’s got my
back so don’t worry about it.”
    She got a worried expression on her face.
“What did you have to promise him?”
    “Later for that. Do you have some clothes
around here?”
    “By the side of the bed. He…he made me strip
them off before he…” She shook her head, unable to continue.
    “You don’t have to say it.” I reached for the
clothes but Corbin was already handing them to me. He stood with
his back to us, considerately shielding Taylor from both Celeste
and Roderick while I got her dressed. Thankfully her flesh was
already healing so by the time I got her into her pale pink top she
was able to slide on the tan linen skirt that went with it