The Sunstone Brooch : Time Travel Romance Katherine Logan (no david read aloud TXT) đź“–
- Author: Katherine Logan
Book online «The Sunstone Brooch : Time Travel Romance Katherine Logan (no david read aloud TXT) 📖». Author Katherine Logan
He reached for a pair of gloves and pulled them on, snapping the latex at his wrists. “I’m going to ask you once more for the location of the brooches, and if you do not tell me, I will begin to skin you with astounding skill.”
JC didn’t doubt Sten would do what he threatened. At that moment, JC sent a spiritual embrace to his parents. He was prepared to die so they would live.
Sten ran the blade through a white cloth, and his lips peeled back in a toothy sneer. “Have you ever watched anyone skin sheep?”
The question was rhetorical, so JC said nothing. He slowed his breathing. It wasn’t easy, but in his mind, he escaped to MacKlenna Farm, back to when he was a child and galloped across the rolling hills of the bluegrass.
“You will experience unimaginable pain. You can’t escape it in your mind. It takes a long time to die this way, Mr. Fraser. Massive hemorrhaging will eventually kill you, but until then, your screams will wake the dead.” Sten held the knife aloft again. In the morning sun, the blade shone with a dull white gleam.
“This blade is sharp as a razor and requires great technical skill. I’ve learned to take a man’s skin off as easily as I peel an apple. I’ll do a small area at a time, working slowly. If you ever want to tell me anything, please let me know, and I will stop to hear what you want to say.”
Don’t be scared, wee laddie. Ye come from a long line of Highland warriors. Don’t ye give up. Not today. Not ever. Before ye were born, wee James Cullen, ye were given the gift of sight. Ye’re blessed. The ability to see what others cannot. It’s time for ye to use yer gift.
A faint breeze washed over him, and his hair fluttered.
Sten began by slitting the skin on JC’s chest from his clavicle to his navel, then peeled back the skin—slowly and methodically—first the right side and then the left.
Sten’s ecstatic pleasure in torturing JC pulsed like an exposed wire ready to explode.
JC screamed until he passed out, and when he came to again, Sten moved to his shoulder and sliced away the skin on his right arm and then his left. JC’s voice became weaker and weaker until he had no voice at all.
Then he slipped into total darkness and floated above his bloodied body, Sten and his flaying knife, and the other two men.
There was no longer excruciating pain.
Halò, James Cullen.
He glanced around to see who was talking to him and saw a beautiful young girl with black hair and blue eyes. Who are you?
I’m Kristen. Don’t ye remember me?
You’re my guardian, Lady Yoda, a see-through person, or a ghost. Which one?
Whichever makes my presence easier to understand.
He reached for her hand. It was so small in his, but he knew if he laced his fingers with hers, the bond would never break.
You’re younger than I thought you would be. I thought you would grow up.
Ye don’t age here.
Where is here?
I am where ye are when ye travel through time.
I don’t understand.
That’s okay. One day ye will.
He smiled and looked around, but it was too dark to see anything other than Kristen. She was a bright golden light in the darkness.
So, I’ll never grow old here? Never have gray hair like Dad’s?
I don’t know, she said. But I am yer guardian for as long as ye need me.
I haven’t needed you since I was a kid lost in the cave.
She returned his smile. Most of the time, you haven’t been aware of me.
Why am I aware of you now?
Because ye reached the limit of yer endurance, and I intervened.
Why didn’t you intervene sooner?
There are laws from another age that govern my intervention.
But you’ve always watched over me.
Aye, I have.
Did you help me out in Asia?
I did what I could.
Years ago you told me that I have the gift of sight, but I still don’t know what that means.
What did I tell you then?
That I could see what others could not, but the gift would not come all at once.
Aye. That’s what I said.
I thought I was hallucinating then.
It’s time for ye to develop yer gift, she said.
I’m dead.
Are ye? she asked.
Sten killed me.
Watch. What do ye see?
James Cullen looked below. Sten was standing over him with a bone-chilling expression. “Fuck. The bastard’s dead,” Sten said.
“He never told you anything,” one of his men said, sneering.
Sten’s eyes widened, he whirled around, and before anyone could take a breath or put up a defense, Sten whirled with his flaying knife and cut the throats of both men in one move. “Useless bastards.” The men dropped to the floor and died in puddles of their own blood.
Sten calmly took a cloth off the table and wiped away the blood on the knife. He glanced down at James Cullen. “Why did you die so quickly? Most men survive a while longer after I finish with the chest and arms. I can usually skin a leg, too. You are such a disappointment.”
If others lasted longer, why couldn’t I?
It would have been too late.
James Cullen watched Sten while he knelt beside his body and tenderly replaced the skin, smoothing it down, but he felt nothing. No, that wasn’t true. He felt his blood pulsing through his veins.
“If not for all the blood, you would never see the damage to your body.” Sten stood and gathered his equipment. “If my men don’t find the girl, this will have been a wasted trip.”
The girl? He’s looking for Ensley, isn’t he?
When Kristen didn’t answer, JC looked around and discovered that, sadly, he was alone in the darkness.
What will happen now? Will someone else come for me?
The steel door to the meatpacking warehouse burst open and slammed against the wall. The clang reverberated through the room and bounced off the plank walls, causing dozens of
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