Valkyrie Reborn by Allyson Lindt

Author:Allyson Lindt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Acelette Press
Published: 2019-06-18T16:00:00+00:00

5 Years Ago - Kirby

Kirby felt like she was running through molasses. No matter how hard she pushed; her legs wouldn’t go any faster. Invisible hands snatched at her naked body—grabbing, scratching, leaving heavy bruises and deep cuts.

Mark grabbed her arm, and a jolt of pain raced over her body. She tried to scream, but her voice was gone. Why couldn’t she make a sound? Every inch of her hurt, as though she’d been stabbed in the gut. Burned until she couldn’t breathe. Shot through the heart.

“My favorite toy.” Mark flung her on her back and climbed on top of her.

She hit the ground hard, but the impact was just another tick on the Everything Aches list. Being flayed alive would bring her less pain.

Laughter rang in the air. Mark’s. Brit’s.

Knives that weren’t there sliced her skin and peeled back the layers.

Kirby pleaded with herself to wake up. She didn’t want to be here. She wanted this to stop.

Her eyes flew open, and she sat up with a start. Her heart hammered behind her ribs and her pulse throbbed in her skull. As the nightmare faded, her room swam into view. But it wasn’t really her room. She was Starkad’s guest. Had she screamed? If so, he’d be here soon, to check on her.

Part of her hoped he’d heard. He kept her sane after the dreams that haunted her every night. If he hadn’t heard... she had alternatives. Pain. External distraction. That was tempting too. There was a high that came with the slice of razors on her skin. A rush that nothing else could compete with.

“Kirby.” Starkad’s voice drew her out of her thoughts. He stood in the doorway, watching her with concern. “Tell me what you need.”

It was their shorthand. She could choose to talk about it or be distracted. She could choose to go back to sleep, but that was the last thing she wanted. Closing her eyes invited terror she couldn’t fight. The one thing she couldn’t pick was him. He hadn’t held her since that first day, after he rescued her. Not that she expected him to, regardless of how much she wanted it.

“A distraction.” Kirby forced the words out. Diving back into that fucked-up sludge of Freudian ubiquity was less appealing than... Actually, it sat so high on the shitty scale, she didn’t have anything to compare it to.

He gestured toward the living room, and she followed.

They’d been here for almost a year, tucked away in a medium-sized suburb, hiding from TOM. For the first few months after Starkad saved her life, she tried to get him to explain why he’d done it. After enough vague answers and obvious changes of subject, she gave up.

She grabbed a controller off the shelf by the TV, flopped into the overstuffed chair she’d claimed as hers, and powered up the game system.

Starkad raised an eyebrow, but he mimicked her movements, settling into his own recliner. It didn’t matter what game she loaded; he refused to play one on one against her.

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