“FeverLash” - The Whipping of Dani O’Malley
The ‘Silvers’ is a place where one can choose to enter one of the myriad mirrors in order to travel to other worlds and realms. The endless corridor is lined with billions of mirrors that are portals to alternate universes and times. A visitor can get permanently lost and when the mirrors were corrupted by a curse, the image they present is no longer a guarantee of what’s on the other side. The view of a lush rain forest may lead to a parched, cracked desert, a tropical oasis to a world of ice …
The Silvers was where Dani O’Malley ran to in order to avoid the wrath of Mackayla Lane, once she had admitted to being involved in the murder of Mac’s sister.
It was years later when Dani emerged from the Silvers, and she had grown from a wild, reckless teenager into a beautiful young woman. Creamy Irish skin, faint dusting of freckles, her gamine features are stunning, her hair is long and red. She also has scars from her time in the Silvers. In the book Feverborn, when Ryodan (one of the Nine), tattoos her back, he notices "long thin scars close to spine," which Dani says came from a whip with steel points …
The book explains no more, but now, in a three part report to be published exclusively here over the next three days, we can reveal how young Dani acquired those scars.
“FeverLash” - The Whipping of Dani O’Malley Part 1
It had been … how long? Years, maybe? How could you tell in the Silvers?
Dani knew that Mac had lost months in real time when she spent just a few days in the world of Fae, and Dani had been stuck moving from World to World and Silver to Silver for what seemed like eons!
Rule number 1 in her ‘Entering a Silver Handbook’ from now on: Remember the feckin’ way back. You never knew when retreat might be preferable to the world you were in.
From the shadows of the holding cell, she padded barefoot into the oppressive warmth of the enclosed amphitheatre.
The crowds already cheering and jeering as she walked into the meagrely lit proximity of the ‘entertainment’.
Planet X …
Feckin' Planet X!
Her years in the Silvers had made her childhood seem like…well, child’s play, as she battled male and female, monsters and Fae … both Seelie and Unseelie. If it hadn’t been for finding Shazam, and creating the ‘Daredevil Delights of Dani and her Shaz-tastic sidekick’ she’d have succumbed to the mental anguish Silverside travelling caused to a girl’s mind a long time ago.
Touring round, jumping via the mirrors from world to world, pretending to be a quirky magic act – young, teen, superheroine and her furry side-kick, had worked really well, until the feckin’ bastards on Planet X realised that she was using the whole cute-twosome act as a cover for assassinating as many other-worldly Fae as she could find.
Accompanied by four guards, condemned … Dani, chained hand and foot, entered the auditorium and advanced onto the centre of the raised stage. Looking round at the crowd it became clear that she was to have an enthusiastic audience to witness her humiliation and pain.
Dani whimpered, and then hoped she had done so quietly. She had given up on her Mother, and needing her, long ago, but right now she had never wanted to see Mac so much. But it was Mac that had chased her away after finding out that she was responsible for the death of her sister Alina, so Mac wouldn’t want to see her …
That didn’t stop young, frightened Dani from crying inside for them to be ‘two peas in a Mega-Pod’ just one more time …
“Mac, where are you?” She whispered to herself, although not quite quietly enough because her words were rewarded with a hard slap to the face rocking Dani to a point that made her stumble down to her left knee.
Shaking her head, her long, curly unfettered hair hanging loosed about her slender shoulders, her face sporting an expression of disquiet and sheer terror, Dani was pushed, stumbling, forward.
She wore a threadbare prison shirt, plain, numbered, and damp from the fresh perspiration brought forth from the overbearing atmosphere.
Aside from the tunic, Dani had already lost her black leather jeans, and under the short covering wore only a skimpy black lace thong.
As they neared the frame that was to be the platform to which Dani would be secured, she felt her legs trembling. How would she withstand it, the punishment … whatever they decided? She was pretty sure that she could steel herself against the pain that was forthcoming but what if they toyed with her body? The thought made her nauseous … she needed to find a way to control her natural desires and physical response to any unwanted stimulation.
“Stop!” The command was brief but very clear. The small procession ceased moving and the guards stepped away allowing a large bare-chested man to step forward. He was to be the one in charge of her punishment.
Dani’s wrists and ankles were unchained, and she immediately attempted to look this brute of a man in the eyes, but was forced to lower her gaze when she saw the blatant lust and cruelty lurking in his.
He was Fae, of that there was no doubt. His physique was more than powerful, a fact borne out by the energy that was filling his veins along with whatever blood he was infused with. The veins moved under his thick, leathery skin as the power flowed through them. Despite her own unruliness, and feral lifestyle, not to mention the Fae deaths she had chalked up, the sight of this hulking Planet X native scared her, and unwittingly Dani sank to her knees before him.
He ordered her to rise, turn around and lift her shirt. He grunted with pleasure as his gaze plundered her firm barely covered ass, his groin stiffening at the thought of the gratification he was about to experience with the mighty whip in his hand.
“Turn back girl and kneel once more.”
Dani hated herself for acceding to his command, but she was compelled and fell to the floor once more, spreading her knees wide apart for him.
The brute of a whipmaster stepped to the side as a hush descended on the auditorium.
It was the turn of the presiding Officer of the Court to speak.
“Danielle O’Malley of the planet Earth, you have been found guilty of plotting an act of terrorism against the native Fae of this planet.”
‘Plotting …’ Dani thought, allowing herself a hardly discernible smirk, ‘… if only they knew the death and havoc I had truly wreaked on their miserable kind …’
He continued, his voice harsh and filled with menace. “The beating you are about to receive will be a full punishment, the maximum allowed short of execution, and the Officers here present along with the invited audience will bear testament to every second of it being administered.”
He nodded to the two relatively puny humans standing close by. A man, wearing a hooded mask, and a rather unremarkable woman. They were standing just behind the kneeling girl. Steeping forward they grabbed Dani by the arms and pulled her to her feet.
“Remove her tunic.” The Officer spoke once more.
It was about to begin.
Quickly the prison-issue shirt was pulled up and over her head, leaving Dani wearing nothing but the lace thong. She felt more exposed than she ever had before in her short life, as the Officer, the whipmaster, the guards and everyone else watching, ravaged her nubile body in their perverted minds.
Still she managed to raise her eyes to look defiantly at the presiding Officer.
“You are to feel the kiss of the whip, before witness of the public gathering hereabouts,” he announced to a great cheer from the onlookers. “The lashing will continue until we feel you are broken.”
More cheers!
A spasm of terror shot through Dani as she listened to him speaking. Lashed until she broke. Her poor young body, could she withstand this?
Being a Sidhe-Seer meant that she had many capabilities with which to augment the danger she presented to the Fae, but she had no powers of self-healing, nothing that would help her here.
“Strip her.”
With closed eyes she felt rough male fingers delve inside her thong, brush against her bare mound, grip the flimsy fabric and rip it away leaving her naked.
She was on the verge of yelling obscenities and curses at him, but stopped short when she realised that the punishment would be carried out anyway and any profane outburst would likely only make her suffering worse … if that was indeed possible. So, Dani bit back the words and let them race around in her mind instead. Terror consumed her and she moved her hands to cover her breasts, but the human ‘assistants’ moved swiftly and pulled her arms away from her body, rendering her efforts useless.
“Prepare her” the Officer of the Court spoke once more, in response to which the guards pulled her Dani to the wooden ‘T’ shaped frame and stretched her arms across the top beam, locking each wrist inside the tight leather straps that resided there.
The woman stepped before her and began to gather Dani’s hair to pull it away from her back, exposing more of her body, but the Officer interceded.
“Leave it. Let it hang, I prefer to see wild hair like this hanging loose. The lash will cut through it anyway, she will not be afforded extra protection from her mane.”
Nodding the woman stepped away, then knelt to secure Dani’s ankles to the lower straps, her slender thighs slightly parted for the watching crowd’s enhanced enjoyment.
Dani had never felt so scared and bit her tongue to prevent degrading herself further and begging for mercy, which she knew would not be given whatever she did. And then she stood, secured to the frame, trembling with fearful anticipation … gloriously naked.
The whipmaster stepped into position.
Turning her head Dani whispered, “Do it!” It was false bravado.
She turned her head to face forward, shut her eyes again, and awaited the first stroke.
