Demons & Pearls (The Razor's Adventures Book 1) (14 page)

He dropped the axe and fell to his knees, coughing and spitting out the smoke. I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I started to run for him. I had taken but two steps when I felt myself hung up by the arms.  The last thing I saw before everything went black were the eyes of Rip Townsend with his voice saying, “Well, look at what we ‘ave ‘ere, mates.”

Chapter Thirteen

~The Spider’s Web~

There was an ache in my head the likes that I had never felt, and as my eyes fluttered open, I wanted to touch it. I flexed my arm to bring my hand to that aching spot, but I couldn’t. I tried again and again, and as my eyes strained to open, the room was blurry and mostly dark. It took several moments before I could see well enough to realize I was tied by my wrists to a bed in a room I’d never seen before. It was then I saw the light rising in the lanterns.

There were long, red velvet drapes that ran from the ceiling to the floor and fancy table lamps with fringed shades painted with flowers. The room came and went in my pounding head until I heard a familiar voice when the door slammed shut.

“Well ‘ello there, lass.”

It was Rip’s voice. I tried to speak, but I couldn’t. They’d taken my scarf and tied it tightly around my face and through my mouth. I was able to raise my head enough to see that, by the grace of God, I was still dressed, but my legs were spread wide and tied by the ankles to the bed posts as well. I spoke through the gag in my mouth, asking him what he was doing and why was I there.

“What’s that? Oh…I’m sorry, lass. I can’t understand a word yer sayin’,” Rip said in a condescending tone.

I followed him with my eyes as he circled the bed and stopped on my right side, sitting next to me. My eyes shot up at him, and I pleaded with him to let me go.

“Still can’t hear ye. Seems ye been sneakin’ ‘round a bit, aye? Ye got some ideas about runnin’, but that’s not gonna work fer us.”

“Us?” I said through my gag.

“Us fellas figured ye was a risk, and ye need ta’ be taught a lesson. We’re here ta’ help ye, Ivory, seein’ as how yer a bit mixed up and think yer a man now. Humph,” he said, rubbing my head as I jerked away. “Too bad about that hair a’ yours. Ole Big Red cut it off fer ye? Did he do it before or after he loosened ye up fer us?” he asked with that gritty, dirty laugh of his. “Aye, we know all about Big Red Rasmus Bergman,” he said.  He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and shook his head. “Looks like he won’t be takin’ anyone anywhere without a ship now, will he, lass?”

I thrashed and cursed him as if he could understand every word. I pushed against the scarf with my tongue, but he’d tied it well. I imagined he had quite a bit of experience doing it, which only enraged me more.

“Ye just rest yer pretty bald head. Captain Calvert and
Thunder Cay’s
a’ comin’ fer ye and them girls a’ yers too. We’ll be gatherin’ them up soon enough, and you’ll all be nice and ripe when them boys come and pay the tab.”

“Hey Rip, how’s about just this one? I mean, ain’t none a’ them gents gonna want a baldy are they?” asked one of the men who’d entered the room as my attention was focused on Rip.  He rounded the bed on my left, and all of them broke into laughter.

“Now wait just a second, mates. I’ve had me eye on this one since we left Charles Towne. She’s a’ lot a fight in ‘er. I like ‘em feisty,” Townsend said.  He leaned closely over my face. He was so close I could smell the rum he was filled with and the devil inside his soul. He poked his thumb at his chest and said, “I do believe she was givin’ ole Rip the eye since the first time I seen ‘er come aboard the
Demon
. Besides, I believe this bitch and I ‘ave some unfinished business. Ye ain’t pushin’ me ‘round no more, are ye now?” He scowled.

He winked his bloodshot eye at me, and I tossed my head away from him. He clamped his hand down hard on my face and dug his fingers into my cheeks to pull me back. I felt my stomach retch while they laughed and watched him.  He stuck out his tongue and drug it over my cheekbone and up the side of my bald head. “Why’d ye have ta go and cut off that hair? Ye taste like shavin’ soap,” he said with a sneer and tossed my head back away from him. “We could a’ got two times as much fer ye, with all that pretty white hair.”

“We ain’t got all night, ye know,” one of the other men shouted at him. The big one standing on my left sat down and placed his hand on my thigh. I jerked my legs and screamed through the gag, but they’d tied me so tightly that all I did was shake the bed, giving them more fodder for their laughter.

“Back off, I said,” Townsend shouted and swatted the big man away from me. “Ye ain’t getting’ none a’ this a’fore me, so get yer hands off.” Townsend pulled a dagger and pointed it at the man.

I tried to get a good look at all of them, so if I survived this night, I’d be able to hunt them down and gut them all. I lay there trying to think of any way at all that I could escape. I imagined suddenly growing the strength of Rasmus and…Rasmus! Where was he? I had to push his face from my mind and stay here in this room and continue to look for anything that might save me from this living nightmare. I pulled and wiggled and jerked that bed until I thought it would bust through the wall behind me, but they just laughed and drank.

Rip leaned over me while a couple of the others lingered about. Two of them sat down in the winged-backed chairs that were set in opposite corners of the room. I glanced around and stretched my neck to see as much of the room as I could. It didn’t take long for me to realize I was being held at an inn or a brothel, or maybe both. I imagined those chairs were not just for sitting but for watching. I wondered how many young girls and women they’d had in this room—in this very bed.  I pulled hard against my binds again, but it was no use. It was in that moment the terror set in. I realized I was completely alone with a group of men whom I’d started a war with and every hair that remained on my body stood on end when the truth finally sank in. I had lost.

“Ivory, yer only gonna make it worse if ye fight, ye know,” Rip said, again picking at his fingernails with that damn dagger as he sat there next to me. “How’s about ye all give me and the Razor here a little privacy, aye?”

“Ain’t no way in hell we’s leavin’ this room, Townsend. Ye take er, we take her. That’s how it’s done,” said the tall, slim one with the long, black waves of hair hanging over one eye, standing with his back against the door. I recognized him as a sailor from the
Demon
, one they called Felix.  His voice was deep and smooth and filled with intent. He rested his right hand on his pistol as it sat at the ready in his baldric. “Now, if ye be set on takin’ this boney-arse witch, get on with it!” he shouted with a wave of his long arm. If I wasn’t stretched like a cowhide, my boney arse would have shoved that pistol so far up his arse that he’d be pissing shot.

Although I knew I’d lost this battle, I wanted to turn off my brain but I couldn’t. Now that it seemed they’d all settled in for the show, I counted them. There were five total: two seated, one against the door, one standing to my left, and Rip, who was seated with his hip pressed against mine as I squirmed to move away from him. I twisted and bounced, but he pursued and leaned over me with his right arm and clutched my left hip with his black tar hand, holding me still.

I glared up at him, and I knew he read straight through to my thoughts and saw his brains splattered against those pretty red curtains behind him. Unfortunately, I read his thoughts as well, and he answered mine with the point of his dagger as he slid the tip of it up and under the billowy fabric of my shirt and then sliced through it all the way to my neck. I’d dressed so hastily on the boat that I hadn’t put my binding back on. There was nothing between Rip’s grubby hands and my body now but shredded cotton.

I froze. This was really happening. With that first act of true violation, he unleashed something inside of himself and pounced on top of me. He tossed the dagger away and straddled my hips as I bucked and twisted myself beneath him. His hands clawed at either side of my shirt and ripped it open. I pushed back my head and pressed my eyes as tightly closed as I could.

“I guess we ain’t gotta worry about that bet no more, aye, lass?” he growled.  He ripped away my shirt from my shoulders and pushed his hands roughly up and over my breasts as I cried out from behind the gag.  I screamed, even though I knew no one could hear me, and those that could just wanted me to scream more.

I couldn’t open my eyes. I wouldn’t. I tried to go back to the beach with Rasmus. I cried out his name again and again beneath my gag. Rip unbuckled my belt and pulled it away from around and beneath me with a hard jerk, and I heard it land on the rug with a soft thud. I wanted him to kill me. I wanted that dagger in his hand again, and in my mind I was pleading with him to cut me into a thousand pieces, because once he was finished with me, I was going to do it myself.

His hands were at my waist, and I could feel his lust grinding against me through our clothes. He was laughing and panting his foul breath against my chest as he lay down on me and rubbed his ratty beard against my neck.  Then, his hand slid down over me and pulled at the buttons on my breeches.

I turned my face toward the window. The curtains were waving, and a breeze arrived with what sounded like lightly falling rain. I heard noises coming from outside. It sounded as if the mob were returning from the fire. I focused on their meaningless voices and laughter and their cackling howls as they made their way back to the taverns through the alleys and streets. I could smell the rain now, and closed my eyes and just breathed it in.

I’d finally drifted in my thoughts, away from beneath Rip and outside to the dock in the rain, waiting for Rasmus. Then, I heard what sounded like a great gun firing from the deck of a ship. Had I not held my eyes closed to shield them from the flying shards of splintering wood, I would have sworn to God that I actually had heard a cannon shot.

I no longer felt that dirty bastard pressed against me, and I peeked out for a second. I saw the back end of him as he dove out the window. The room shook, as did everything in it, and I heard the men shouting and shrieking like the roof was caving in on them. It was as if everything around me was being battered to shreds. I tensed tightly when I heard the unmistakable ringing sound of swords striking, and then the dull thump and crunch as blade passed through flesh and bone, followed by the sound of something, or someone, hitting the floor next to the bed.

I shook my head to toss off the debris, but I couldn’t open my eyes until I again heard that shearing ring of steel as it struck like a hammer. Something hit me hard in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me, and then it bounced off. I blinked several times and raised enough to see Felix’s severed head looking back at me from beneath my right arm. I screamed like a mad woman and writhed to get that thing away from me, but it was useless. His mouth was still agape, though his scream was silenced, and his dead eyes stared at me as his blood drained out into the sheets.

It was then I saw him. His wide, white back spun around holding Felix’s blood-soaked and headless body.  The two men who’d sat in the chairs fired their pistols at him, but the bullets struck a dead man. Once they’d spent their shots, the men went for their blades, and Rasmus tossed the bloody corpse to the floor. I watched in awe as he hurled his sword away and crossed his arms over his body, shoving each big hand into his baldric, and pulling two pistols. The men turned toward the window and tried to run. I smiled with pride, because I knew there was no way they were leaving this room alive.

My eyes locked onto my beautiful and deadly savior.  Those thick, mighty arms raised, and he pulled each trigger simultaneously, unloading a shot into each of their heads. I watched with bitter satisfaction, even though it was their brains and not Rip’s that splattered in bloodied chunks all over those red velvet drapes. The force from the impact propelled their dead bodies forward, slamming them into the wall before they flopped to the rug with a thud.

Rasmus’s chest heaved from the fight, and I could see the burned red spots on his right arm up to his shoulder that he must have incurred from the
Oyster
fire. All I wanted now was for him to be alright. I didn’t even consider my own ragged state. I just needed to know he wasn’t seriously injured. I laid still and tried to catch my breath, while at the same time, my heart pounded, and I thought it would explode. He just stood there, staring at those dead men, until it seemed like an eternity before he finally turned and looked at me. My eyes smiled at him, but his eyes blew wide open, and he screamed, “No!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the big one on my left who’d fallen from what I now knew was a hard blow from Rasmus’s sword, but he was still alive and climbing to his feet with a cutlass in his hand. Rasmus launched himself onto the bed, diving over me and onto the man just as he was about to send my head to join Felix’s. The cutlass flew from his hand, nearly slicing my arm as Rasmus pounded the man repeatedly in the face with his big right fist.