Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
Warning: This chapter contains a scene with violence against women.
The door clanged shut behind them as the guards carried Sapphire Angel into a dark corridor, with a row of bars on either side. The slamming of the door echoed among the shadows, as if mocking her predicament. With Gregor bringing up the rear, the four guards held her in a horizontal, face-down position, with their hands wrapped around her arms and legs. They carried her feetfirst, but her head drooped below her torso, so she had an upside-down view ahead as they moved down the hall. Her pain-addled brain registered three doors made of metal bars on the right side of the hall, and two on the left.
Cells. Her dread and panic receded, replaced by hope. Was this where they held Eric? Her hope evaporated in an instant. Even if he were here, what could she do? She was the one who needed help. She had difficulty even raising her head, and she was at the mercy of a monster who wanted to hurt her.
And the monster had somehow depowered her, using the black rock and Valik’s contraption. Sapphire Angel wasn’t sure if the black rock had stolen her powers, or was merely suppressing them. She could sense her necklace reaching out, as if it were trying to reclaim its power, to connect with an unseen source. Her necklace was trying to either rekindle a force already inside it, or to take back a power the black rock had stolen. But the necklace was failing. The black rock was stopping it. Or smothering it. She couldn’t be sure which. If only she understood her own powers more.
The guards moved into the first cell on the right, dropping her onto the floor near a metal table. They stepped back. As Sapphire Angel tried to push herself to her hands and knees, Gregor stalked forward, seized her by her hair with a beefy hand, and pulled her to a standing position.
"Ahhhh!" she cried out, pain searing her scalp as he tugged her hair, forcing her to face him. His other fist crashed into the side of her face. A gargled grunt escaped her lips and her head teetered as much as his grip allowed, bobbing back and forth as if riding the slow undulations of gentle waves. Her eyes flickered, trying to focus on the man in front of her. She was barely hanging on.
Gregor released her hair, grabbing a fistful of the fabric of her costume at her chest before she fell. He hoisted her into the air, the fabric stretching and tightening over her breasts as her feet left the floor. The weakened heroine dangled in his grasp, supported only by his hold on her costume. Her head titled back, her hair dangling behind her and her arms hanging limp at her side. Her long legs hung lifelessly below her, swaying like broken pendulums of a clock. Gregor gave a shake, causing her head to dip forward. She looked at him through bleary eyes as a gleeful grin filled his face.
"You ran liked a scared little girl last time, in your birthday suit," his voice boomed. "This time I'm gonna bend you like a pretzel until you break. I kinda like that you're dolled up in your famous costume this time. Makes it more special."
His free hand lashed out, slapping the side of her face and whipping her head to the side. He released his hold on her costume and she dropped to her feet. She would have collapsed to the floor, but he was too quick, taking her shoulders and spinning her body to face away from him.
"No..." she murmured in weak protest. She tried to sense her necklace, to feel the familiar power, but only felt it reaching out, as if it were trying to find itself.
From behind, Gregor steadied her with one arm, while he hooked the other under her right shoulder. He continued, sliding his arm across the back of her neck and under her left bicep, where he seized her upper arm with his meaty paw. The move left his arm locked in a vice-like grip across the back of her torso, like a metal bar slid under her shoulders and across her back. He stood to his full height, lifting her from her feet and pulling her against him. The position shot pain through her shoulders and jutted out her chest.
"Gotta say, I like the feel of you, superheroine," he rumbled in her ear. "You've got a hot body, and it feels just right. And that costume feels good touching me, too."
As she hung helpless in his grasp, her breasts displayed prominently through the smooth fabric of her costume, he reached around her and placed his free hand on her stomach. His hand slid up over her costume, as if he were enjoying the feel of the smooth fabric, and approached her left breast. She squirmed and whimpered in his grasp.
Memories of being groped while cuffed to the bar at Lanigan’s flashed in her mind. Before his hand reached its destination, a spark of anger and defiance ignited in her, and she lashed back with her foot, driving the solid heel of her boot into his shin.
"Fuck!" he yelled, but didn't release her. Instead, he jerked up and back, torquing her shoulders.
"Ahhhh!" she cried, closing her eyes in pain.
He held her taut for a moment, sending pain searing through her shoulders, before he whipped her down onto the table, slamming her chest and head into the metal surface. Her head hit with a thud, bouncing off the tabletop, and sending the room spinning around her. She was bent over the table at the waist, with her hair spread out across its surface and her feet dangling toward the floor. One of his hands pinioned her wrists together behind her back, while the other pressed her head onto the table. Her cheek was pressed against the metal surface as she stared at the wall, wincing. She struggled with her wrists, and her feet kicked meekly in the air above the floor, but his grip was too tight.
"Hand me that, there on the top" his voice boomed an instruction to the guards, who stood near the door in their black uniforms and helmets. The guard closest to the table stepped to a rack of implements, and as the helpless heroine's eyes focused on them, she swallowed and let out an involuntary whimper. The rack was filled with whips, paddles, pliers, knives, and other devices, all of a singular purpose. To inflict pain.
No, not this. Her mind raced back to the torture, two months earlier, at the hands of Raven Tristan. The costumed heroine still had nightmares about the ordeal, even though Tristan had drugged her and the heroine didn't remember all the details. This would be worse. Although her thoughts were cloudy, she was cognizant of what was about to happen. And unlike Raven Tristan, who had tortured her with a calm purpose, this beast would take glee in causing her pain.
The guard grabbed a baseball bat and a paddle off the top shelf, turning to Gregor and extending them to him. The guard glanced down at the heroine, and, even though his helmet hid his face, she could sense his revelry in her comeuppance. He very well could be a guard she had defeated earlier.
"The paddle," Gregor said. "I think this so-called heroine needs a little humiliation to teach her a lesson and put her in her place. We'll start easy on her and then ramp it up."
The guard handed the paddle to Gregor, who released his grip on the back of Sapphire Angel's head to take it from him. She raised her head and torso from the table, but Gregor pulled her wrists up and toward her shoulders, twisting her arms at an unnatural angle and forcing her back down onto the metal surface.
"Ahhhhh!" she cried out.
"Where do you think you're going, little girl?" Gregor said with a chuckle. “I’ve been waiting a long time to hurt a high-class bitch like you.”
He used the end of the paddle to lift her skirt to her waist, revealing the bikini-bottom portion of the one-piece costume where it covered her tight backside. And then it came.
Gregor hoisted the paddle back and swung forward. Whistling through the air for only a moment, the flat side of the paddle smacked into the superheroine's backside, forcing a feminine yelp from her lips and a twitch of her body.
"Like that?" he asked with a laugh and came with another swing. Again she yelped, and again her body jerked.
He continued to laugh, hitting her again, and again getting the same reaction from her. Three more times the smacks came, until tears welled up at the edges of her eyes, and her cheeks burned red with shame. She was a famous superheroine in full costume, being spanked by this man as if she were a disobedient child.
"Time to ratchet this up," he said to a guard. "You, take her legs. Let's stretch this bitch out."
Gregor took her hair, pulling her back from the table. As he seized Sapphire Angel by her gloved wrists, another guard came forward, grabbing her ankles. The two men moved apart, stepping away from the table and stretching her between them, leaving her staring up at the ceiling. Gregor looked down at her from above her head, the metal on his teeth glinting in the light as he grinned.
"I wanna see that pretty face as we soften you up," he said, before looking at the guard with the bat. "Pound her in the gut."
The guard nodded and stepped forward. He raised the bat above his head, and Sapphire Angel winced in anticipation. Without the protection of her necklace, this would hurt. It could do permanent damage, too, or even kill her, depending on where it hit.
At the first sign of movement, Sapphire Angel clenched her stomach muscles and closed her eyes, waiting for the pain to come. But it didn't. A horrific thud filled the room, and she felt Gregor release her wrists and fall away from her. She opened her eyes as her head and shoulders smacked into the ground, in time to see the guard with the bat pivoting away from Gregor, and swinging the bat at the guard holding her ankles. The bat slammed into his throat, just below his helmet, and as the man dropped, he released his grip on her ankles, and her legs joined the rest of her body on the floor.
Her brain tried to comprehend what was happening. The guard with the bat turned to the other two guards, who were slow to react, trying to process the turn of events. One guard took a bat to the midsection, and the other received a blow to his knee. He screamed in pain. Sapphire Angel turned to her hands and knees as the bat-wielding guard waded between his two comrades, pummeling them.
Out of the corner of her eyes, Sapphire Angel saw Gregor climb to his feet, blood streaming from his mouth. He lurched toward the guard with the bat, murder in his eyes. The guard's back was to him, so he'd never see Gregor coming.
Sapphire Angel reached deep within herself for the fire that made her a superheroine, more than any necklace, and sprang from her crouching position. As she reached Gregor, she lowered her shoulder, driving through his legs and upending him. He flipped over her, landing with a smack on the hard floor, as she rolled onto her side.
Gregor pushed his elbows underneath him, looking from his back down the length of his body at Sapphire Angel as she rose to her feet.
"I'm gonna—" he began as he started to rise, but never finished, as Sapphire Angel lashed forward with the hard toe of her boot, driving it between his legs.
Gregor's eyes bugged out, as he jerked erect into a seated position, and his hands went to his groin. Sapphire Angel, still unsteady, lunged, and spun, lowering herself to his level. She came out of her spin with her elbow, driving it into his face. The blow smashed into his eye socket, flipping him back and eliciting a howl from the man.
And yet still he climbed to his feet. He wobbled, and blood poured down his face, but rage filled his visage. The heroine, still without her powers, stared at him, determination on her features.
"I'm gonna fuck you up!" he snarled.
Gregor roared, charging the costumed woman, his arms spread, ready to envelop her in a tackle. Just before he reached her, Sapphire Angel sidestepped, grabbed his outstretched arm and pivoted, flipping him over her back.
She felt like she was supporting an elephant as he tumbled over her back, but she refused to go down. He smacked the ground, head first, and rolled from her.
"You're dead, girl," he gurgled, face down on the ground. As he forced his head up, the first thing he saw was her boot, which drove into his face with a sickly thwack.
Gregor moaned, sinking to the ground, but his arms and legs still twitched as he tried to rise.
"You talk too much," Sapphire Angel said in a calm voice, before driving another kick toward the side of his head. This was no time to hold back, and she drove through with her leg like a placekicker attempting a long field goal. His head snapped to the side, before he slumped and didn't move.
Sapphire Angel groaned and sagged with relief, before turning to see the room. She saw two guards down, unconscious on the floor, and a third collapsing as the bat-wielding guard finished him. The man with the bat turned toward the dazed heroine, holding the bat in front of him. Instinctively, Sapphire Angel took a step back, away from this man. What were his intentions? Had he been so overcome by his carnal instincts he had beaten the other men, just for a chance with her?
But then he stopped, tossing the bat to the floor. A moment later his hands went to his head, fiddled with the helmet, and pulled it free. Dark hair spilled free, and Sapphire Angel found herself looking into the wide eyes not of a man, but of Officer Lindsay Jennings.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
WOOHOO! She really took Gregor out without powers.......that was nuts! I gotta say, Gregor BY FAR deserved death way more than Valik did. Well......as much as he could have, anyway. Both of them did pretty horrendous things, but at the very, very least, Valik had someone close to him that he still had to look after. Someone who now has to go through life by himself (I’m assuming, anyway). Whereas Gregor was nothing but a sick, dirty man who takes absolute pleasure in assaulting people. But hey.....they both violated Sapphire Angel in some way (either scientifically or physically), so I guess they had it coming! 😄
That whole sequence with the torture, though......despite the overall scene being drastically shorter than Raven Tristan’s drug sequence in the previous novel, it was arguably worse and more graphic because Gregor was actively making physical contact with Sapphire’s, uhhh......”danger zones”......VERY often, whereas Raven was simply injecting substances into her to get her to talk. Like I said back then, anyone can be a creep. And it’s downright heartbreaking.
Gregor probably still has the makeshift “necklace” from Valik’s test, though. The one that he used to “capture” Sapphire’s powers by way of Valik’s test? It doesn’t seem like he outright gained her powers from the transfer (I could be wrong, though) and that he only contained them at best; if he HAD gotten them, something tells me that the fight between him and Sapphire would’ve been a lot more intense. Could you imagine being Devlin in that situation? Having a big, beefy bodyguard/enforcer (Gregor) who is literally immune to bullets, is already jacked as is, AND has the fighting skills of Sapphire Angel herself?
Devlin, Chappelle, Amal Nassar, and Mantis are all still breathing. Wonder if we’re going to fix that soon! Thank goodness for Jennings coming to the rescue......though I wonder how she managed to infiltrate WarTech’s ranks---much less get so close to Gregor in the first place---without getting caught or arousing suspicion. I’ll be honest.....when I read the portion about a disguised guard suddenly turning on the other guards and selling them firm bats to their bodies, I thought it might’ve been Connor again, performing the same stunt he did during the first WarTech rescue a few chapters back.
I’ve basically come to terms with the fact that Jack and Ross likely aren’t going to be doing anything major in these last few chapters; I get that now, you know? They’re not exactly “action”-type people. But Connor and Stanley are also involved, as well as Eric Stump and any police officers who follow Jennings. If Sapphire Angel goes and deals with the last of the bad guys WHILE Jennings’ collective police unit launches an attack on the WarTech campus at the same time, that’d be sick. Maybe Connor and Stanley can hack and breach some stuff too, while everyone’s at it.
Or maybe Sapphire could back Devlin up against a wall, and then he gets instantly taken out by Jack and Ross slamming their car through it out of nowhere. Then they wave at her and say “We’re here! Are we late?”
Random thought; can I expect any female villains going forward? Besides Raven Tristan (who’s now more of an anti-hero, really), the antagonists have all either been powerful men or others associated WITH said powerful men. I get the message that’s trying to be sent---that those in power are almost always the most likely to fall to corruption---it’s just something I was interested in inquiring about. Like, for instance, Viper’s Bite had three male villains (Dr. Duncan Drevis, The Crawler, and Mitchell), but then Shocker Rising, the novel after it, had three female villains (Monica Drevis/Shocker, Nic’qura of the Opulent, and Agent Vivian O’Leary) to match. Then again.....my ratio isn’t exactly balanced, either, as you’ll see whenever you get further into the series, so I don’t exactly have much room to talk. 🤣