ROSES HAVE THORNS-Chapter 104 - Bad Boy

"I’m sorry, Sister uhm...."

"Violet. Sister Violet." The woman folded her leg over the other as she rested her forearm under her breasts, effectively pushing them up in order to show more of her cleavage.

"... Yes, Sister Violet. I’m sorry, but I thought you were going to show me around the fortress, were you not?"

"And I have. Have I not?" Violet whipped her deep purple hair back and licked her succulent, black-lipstick, lips.

’You call walking me through a long, ominous hallway a tour?’

"What are you waiting for?" Violet asked, flipping the opposite leg over the other. "Don’t keep me waiting. Hurry up and take off those clothes. Mommy has some pent-up frustrations she would like to vent. But don’t worry. I promise you’ll enjoy it."

But instead of doing what she asked, Kurt stood his ground, his hand moving toward the hidden switchblade in his belt. "I’m afraid I have to decline. I’m already devoted to another... and while I appreciate the gesture, I have other things to do."

He turned toward the door, intending to kick it down if necessary. However, right as he was about to reach for the lock–

WHIP! SNAP!

A purple, shimmering whip snaked through the air. It wrapped around Kurt’s waist with supernatural speed and with a violent jerk, he was pulled off his feet. He landed on the silky bed back-first, the air puffing out of his lungs.

Before he could roll away, Violet was already looming over him. She stepped onto the mattress, the sharp heel of her boot pressing firmly, yet with a controlled, agonizing gentleness, directly onto his crotch. Kurt groaned as his body tensed, the pressure increased just enough to signal her total control.

She leaned down, her dark hair falling around his face and her eyes glowing red with a manic light.

"You’ve been a bad boy, Kurt Rosanna" she hissed, a cruel smirk playing on her lips. "And bad boys need to be punished."

"Bad boy?" Kurt tried wiggling himself free, but the bounds were too tight. "I think you’re mistaking me for someone else. I’ve been nothing but a good boy all year round. Just ask Santa."

"Oh? Are you not Kurt Rosanna? The man who killed our dear brother, Arlo?"

’What? So they do know? How? The guards at the gate had seen my face and name. If I was a marked man, why didn’t they stop us from entering?’

"I can see the gears turning," Violet purred, reading the flickering confusion in his one eye. "You’re wondering why the boys at the gate let you through. It’s simple, really. And mostly our fault. You see, we honestly weren’t expecting you to be so bold as to sail right into our harbor. Gary informed us that he killed you, but surprise-surprise, here you are."

"Gary? Who the hell is Gary? Wasn’t it Tobias who told you about me?"

"Hahaha. He’s the one who supposedly ’killed’ you at Evergreen Park. Clearly that hasn’t happened. And no. Like I said, Tobias is incompetent. He was too busy playing cat and mouse with the king to let us know about who’s been causing so much trouble for us."

"The park..." Kurt hissed. The memory of the shadowed figure and the sudden, heart-throbbing pain of that poison flashed through his mind.

"But enough talk," Violet said, her voice dropping to a predatory croak. "I was a bit sad to learn that Gary killed you, but now that you’re in front of me, I finally get to see what the big deal is."

She leaned down and straddled him across his waist. With a slow, hypnotising movement, she reached into the bodice of her leather gear, her fingers disappearing between her soft breasts. When they emerged, she was holding a small, shimmering glass syringe filled with a viscous, neon-green fluid.

Before Kurt could jerk his head away, she slammed the needle into the side of his neck.

"G-Gah!" He let out a strangled cry as the fluid burned like liquid fire through his veins. "What... What did you do..."

"A little something to keep you still," she whispered while stroking his cheek. "A paralyzer. It’ll hold you for half a day. More than enough time for me to enjoy every inch of you before I finally let you bleed out. Consider it a mercy; you won’t be able to feel the knife later."

"You motherfuuuuuuu...." The effect was instantaneous. A heavy numbness crawled from Kurt’s toes to his jaw. His arms went limp, his fingers sliding off the whip. He became a passenger in his own body, unable to do anything but blink.

Violet smiled, satisfied. She unwound her whip and tossed it onto a nearby chair. With clinical precision, she began to strip him. She pulled the cloak from his shoulders and unbuttoned his shirt, tossing the garments and weapons carelessly onto the floor. When his upper half was bare, she leaned down and traced her tongue a slow, wet line from his stomach up toward his collarbone.

Kurt’s chest began to thump a heavy, rhythmic vibration that shook his ribs.

Violet paused, looking up at him with a sly grin. "Oh? I’m glad you’re enjoying the show, ’Brother’. I knew you had a heart under all that armor."

But Kurt wasn’t enjoying it. If he could have made a sound at that moment, it would have been a laugh. The "thumping" wasn’t desire; it was the familiar feeling of his body going through a process of change. A process of change that became much quicker thanks to his last encounter with poison.

As she reached his face, her lips parted to kiss him; Kurt’s eyes suddenly flared with a terrifying clarity. The paralysis shattered for one explosive second. He lunged his head forward, putting every ounce of his weight into a brutal headbutt.

BAM! CRACK!

"AARGH!" Violet screamed, her nose shattering as she was thrown backward off the bed, clutching her face as blood sprayed through her fingers.

Kurt didn’t wait. The numbness was still clawing at his limbs, but he rolled off the bed with jerky and desperate movements. He snatched the purple whip from the chair. Violet tried to scramble up, her eyes wide with shock and agony, but Kurt was faster. He lunged forward, driving his knee into her chin with a sickening crunch. As she stumbled, he swept her legs, sending her crashing to the floor.

He didn’t give her a chance to recover. He looped the magical whip around her throat, planting his foot in the center of her back. And pulled.

"H-Hak! A-Ach! G-Gack!" Violet gagged, a wet, guttural sound as her hands clawed at the cord.

Kurt’s face was a mask of cold fury. He slammed her head into the stone floor–

THUD!

Once.

THUD!

Twice.

THUD!

Thrice.

With every strike, he tightened the whip, blood pooling on the floor as she slowly started losing resistance. With her last bit of struggle, her heels drummed in a frantic, dying beat against the rug until, finally, she went limp.

"..."

Kurt stood over her, breathing hard. To be sure, he dropped the whip, grabbed her head, and–

SNAP!

Twisted her neck until the bone gave way. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

He stood up, swaying slightly as the last of the poison left his system. He slowly pulled his shirt back on and fastened his cloak. He looked down at the crumpled, leather-clad body of the woman who had tried to claim him.

"Sorry, lady," he muttered, wiping a smear of her blood from his forehead. "I’m just not a ’mommy’s boy’ type of guy.... God, that was cringe."

Just as he turned toward the door, an icy chill swept through the room. An ominous, low-frequency hum vibrated in his teeth, and when he turned back, his blood ran cold.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me..."

Violet-purple swirls of chaotic magic were erupting from Violet’s corpse. Her body began to lift off the ground, floating in a cloud of purple mist. The magic spiraled around her chest, tightening until, with a wet, horrific splat, a literal beating heart burst out of the magical vortex and landed on the floor, twitching in the shadows.

"What the hell are you?" Kurt muttered in pure disgust.

Finally, the swirls vanished. Violet landed on her feet as her neck snapped back into place with a series of wet clicks. Her hair hung over her face, and a low, bubbling laughter began to spill from her lips.

"Ha–! Hahahaha! AHAHAHAHA!" While she laughed, the purple whip flew across the room as if alive, landing perfectly in her hand.

"DIE!"

"NO–!" Kurt tried to block, but it was too late.

SNAP!

With a flick of her wrist, she lashed out. The whip caught Kurt across the chest, but this time it carried the force of a battering ram. He was sent flying across the room, crashing through a heavy wooden cupboard. Wood splintered and glass shattered as Kurt groaned, buried under the wreckage of the furniture.

"Hahaha... Come on Kurt~ Mommy wants to play some more~ I know that’s not enough to kill you."

"Argh..." Kurt threw off the piles of junk that landed on him. "Alright bitch. If that’s how it’s gonna be, then fine. Let’s go for round two."

"Naughty, naughty boy." Violet flipped her hair back. "Normally I’m the top, but at this rate, I might become a bottom. Just. For. You."