Blood Kings by Shade Owens

Author:Shade Owens [Owens, Shade]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Dal led us into the strange village with smugness in his walk.

It was like he’d found two stray dogs and demanded praise for it.

But I didn’t care about Dal. What had my stomach in knots was the mob of men staring at us. Most stopped what they were doing to watch—to gaze, like a pack of hungry wolves.

Some glared; others smiled—but they weren’t nice to meet you kinds of smiles. There was something sadistic about them, like these men couldn’t wait to get their hands on us.

Throughout this little village were tree stumps—obviously the result of forest clearing—and large log cabins similar to Taz’s home. Only they were quite a bit bigger and seemed to house several men at once.

“Fresh meat!” someone shouted in an overly deep voice.

Others laughed and elbowed each other.

One group appeared to be playing a game with stones and wood chips around a campfire. They’d all stopped to look at us with bowed heads and shadows under their eyes.

Another man sat on a stump, sucking on a cigarette. Smoke blew around an eye patch over his left eye, while his right eye followed our every step. It was dull green, and completely sunken—likely the result of old age and malnutrition.

“I’d avoid eye contact if I were you,” Dal said, tugging on my rope. “Sign of disrespect. And you got a long way to go before you earn any respect around here.”

Earn respect?

My racing heart slowed a bit.

If I was going to be allowed to earn something, it meant they didn’t intend to kill us.

But if they didn’t intend to kill us, it meant they wanted to use us.

For what?

Dal gave the rope another tug and led us past a wooden canopy with a sloped roof. Beneath it stood a man with a bloody apron. He moved back and forth between a wooden bar counter and a pile of crates.

Without looking away from us, he raised a slab of meat, placed it on the counter, and came slicing down through it with a big stone ax.

I blinked and immediately looked away.

Dal gave my rope another tug—a warning to stop looking around.

Slowly, interest grew, and men began closing in. Some whistled, and others simply licked their lips, inspecting Niles and me from head to toe.

“Whatcha gonna do with these ones?” someone asked.

“I want that one, right there.”

“Fuck off, Jybes. He’s mine.”

Anxiety burst through me again.

Was this the prison culture my brother had warned me about? He’d told me that in prison, if you weren’t strong enough to stand up for yourself, you’d end up someone’s bitch.

Was that why he’d preached so hard? Made me promise him I’d never end up like him? He knew I wasn’t cut out for this. He’d said time and time again, You’re too soft, Leo. Too sensitive. You’ll make a woman real happy one day, but in a place like this, you’d be eaten alive.

I swallowed hard at the thought as more and more men circled us.

Jerome had been right. I’d never survive this place.

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