Naked, on the Edge Read Free Page A

out and carried it with him, dragging it along the wall's surface so he could hear something besides his own voice and his own breathing.
    There was rattling at the food slot, and he ran to the corner and crouched, covering his head with his hands and the spoon and screaming "I'm sorry!" The phantom fingers flamed into agony, recalling their disciplinary amputation, wondering if the fingers beside the scarred spaces might be next.
     
    "H e's screaming!" said Tonya.
    "Shut the fuck up and get in there," said Jimbo. He pulled the door open, and the dim light spilled onto the bare-floored cell.
     
    H e saw the silhouette in the middle of the blinding light, a tall, thin human form with long hair. It wasn't a guard. It was a devil.
    Death was here, and it was time to step into the lake of eternal fire and damnation for his unending punishment.
    "I'm sorry!" His knees pulled up to his chin and his eyes blurred. "Not now, please!"
    The devil stopped in the doorway, said something he couldn't hear, then took a few more steps. The minister had said to Marcus, "When you die, you'll wish you could kill your spirit, too, because it's going to suffer for ever and ever and ever, you murdering bastard!"
    Marcus' throat twisted, and he sputtered in a strangled hiss, "No, please."
    The devil, in a surprisingly high-pitched voice, said, "Be quiet."
    And so he was.
     
    "B e quiet," Tonya said to the man in the corner. He was hard to see, hard to imagine. Jimbo had said the man was weak and couldn't hurt her.
    He better not, she thought. Or I'll kick him in the nuts.
    "Don't just stand there, seduce him," whispered Jimbo. "Bring him out where I can see and take off your clothes. Spread your things and get him going. Damn, this is going to be something!"
    Tonya said, "Come out here, let me see you." She clenched her fists at the ready. "Slide over here into the light."
     
    "S lide over here into the light," the devil said. On his butt, dragging against the rough of the floor, Marcus went. He kept his head down, his knees up. He didn't want to see the face of death.
    "Lay down."
    Marcus lay on his back. He wondered if, in the moment of death, there would be at least a second of peace. He closed his eyes. The devil said, "Open your eyes." He did.
    The devil knelt beside him. It was a she-devil. Her face wasn't clear, but her hair was golden, catching the light from behind her. She had on guard's clothes. Like the wolf in sheep's clothing, the devil came in disguise. A thief in the night. She would strike him now, and claw out his open eyes before she sucked his life away and then spit his worthless spirit into damnation.
    A hand reached out and touched him on the face. It was warm, not icy cold or firebrand hot. Marcus waited. She took her hand away, stood, and stepped out of the clothes. There was no tail, no scales. Only smooth skin.
    Marcus' heart picked up a new rhythm, one he'd not felt before. "What…?" he asked.
    "They did cut off your fingers, didn't they?"
    " Yeah. Captain took them. And now you're gonna take the rest of me?" Marcus heard the doom in his own words. The devil would chop him up and then put him back together so he could burn alive forever.
"That's pretty shitty," said the devil. “Doin’ that to some person.”
    Marcus blinked. What had she said?
     
    H ow can I do this? Tonya thought. He's fucked up big time. He's ugly and he ain't got all his fingers. Shit.
    She could feel Jimbo's steady, horny gaze on her back. She could feel her own insides recoiling at the idea of this con's naked, stinking flesh against her own. Slowly, she knelt again and put his hand on her breast. He was so cold and thin it was as if she was trying to fuck a dead man. Touching him was the worst thing so far Jimbo had made her do.
    "Seduce him," growled Jimbo.
    Her voice was pine cone dry as she said, "Hey, honey, I'm going to take you to heaven."
     
    S he'd said heaven.
    Before he could think more she was touching him, pulling his hand up