Wicked Seduction

36 The eagle's scars

Trigger warning: child sex abuse; it is a crime. Skip to the end for a quick summary if needed.

Song for the mood: I'll Be Good by Jaymes Young. This one is for Alistair. A snippet of the lyrics:

My past has tasted bitter for years now so I wield an iron fist
Grace is just weakness, or so I've been told
I've been cold, I've been merciless

Vera

"Here. Sit down and have a drink." Alistair handed me a shot glass as I rested on our leather sofa.

"What's this?" I examined the liquid in the glass.

"It's called Jägermeister, a digestif to help ease digestion. You'll need it."

I sniffed the glass, downed the shot, and let the fire burn down my throat. Alistair followed suit.

"Woo! It's strong stuff," I remarked, feeling the heat travel to my gut.

"Jägermeister is a German name for the term 'master hunter' or 'master of the hunt.' It's an appropriate drink for us both, don't you think?" Alistair smiled grimly. Yet, there was a trace of hope in his sad eyes.

"My parents sent me to a church-based summer camp a few months after I turned twelve," he began. "It was a private camp to help kids with issues, including ADHD."

I touched Alistair's left shoulder while inhaling his addictively musky scent. He looked like an angel with his light-brown curls, emphasized by his widened green eyes. At that second, I saw the soul of an innocent boy-something I had never seen in this man.

If you look deep enough, you'll find him, my heart whispered.

Alistair moved his shoulder and cleared his throat. "One of the camp staff, let's call her Rachel, found me alone, trying to get some peace from all the noise. She asked if I could help her prepare for a musical matinee."

"Oh, Scotty! You went with her?"

"I was a prepubescent kid with a crush on the woman. She had this smile, you know?"

"If it makes you uncomfortable to talk about-"

"Vera, I'm telling this story, and I'll only tell it to you once. Never again!"

I nodded my head and bit my lip, allowing my lover to continue.

"So, I walked with Rachel toward the back of the building. It was deserted as everyone was at the beach. I started having a strange feeling in my gut when we went inside, so I froze in fear."

Alistair sighed, then poured another drink into our shot glasses. "Cheers!" he said, clinking his glass with mine. My shoulders relaxed as the slow-burning liquid heated my body.

Placing his now empty glass on the table, Alistair continued his story. "Rachel led me to a small, windowless room and fawned over my hair. As you know, I was a blond kid. She began to undress me, saying that everything was going to be fine and how much she loved my blond ringlets."

"Shit!" I gasped, covering my mouth with one hand. My heart ached, and my stomach tightened into an anxious knot. Alistair was right-I needed the digestif.

"Oh, she was fast! I began to cry, but the situation was hopeless. You can imagine the relief I felt when another staff member came inside. Can you guess what happened next?"

I shook my head, speechless and in shock.

"The man was in his sixties. We called him the 'Colonel' because he was an ex-military man, a pleasant and playful fellow. Little did I know that his playfulness concealed a much darker persona."