The Flesh Cartel
(Season 2 : Fragmentation)
By: Rachel Haimowitz & Heidi Belleau
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Published: Jan. 7, 2013
Genre: Horror Erotica
Rating:
Nikolai Petrovic is a man of refinement. He collects fine art, enjoys gourmet cuisine, and trains boutique sex slaves for some of the wealthiest—and most morally dubious—men and women in the world.
Charged by a wealthy client to buy a man to train but not break—to shape into a skilled, obedient slave who will yield with hatred rather than love in his eyes—Nikolai finds the perfect raw material in Mathias Carmichael. But there’s a problem: he was auctioned off in a lot with his beautiful younger brother.Douglas Carmichael is a lovely, trainable thing, but Nikolai never takes on more than one slave at a time. As a master trainer who’s never once failed in his task, he knows he’s up to the challenge, but it will take formidable skill and planning to mold these drastically different brothers into their best selves. And in order to make them obedient to Nikolai and their future masters above all others, he’ll first have to break their greatest loyalty of all: their dedication to each other.
Episode #3: Choices
This is such a heart wrenching story. Luckily the brothers get somewhat of a break in this one (if you can even call it that). Their new Master is Nikolai, and he kind of refurbishes the slaves he buys and molds them into what a potential buyer would like. So unlike the brutal men who raped Mat and Dougie, this man is all about training. His goal is to beat them down and then reshape them into the perfect slaves for their owners.
Poor poor Mat. Due to his fighters pride, he always seems to get the most brutal attention. Nikolai is no exception. He plans to condition Mat to keep his fighting spirit but to still be subservient to his Master, which is proving to be a difficult task. Mat is shot up with drugs that make his nervous system go haywire anytime he does something that dissatisfies Nikolai. Meanwhile Dougie is isolated at treated like a baby bird. He’s cherished by Nikolai and is given a tender hand by him. But of course, one wrong misstep on Dougie’s part will come with ramifications and he soon learns to make sure Nikolai is happy with him.
Episode #4: Consequences
The brother’s are learning their roles and realizing what Nikolai wants from them. Dougie is turning out to be quite the little slave while Mat still fights against Nikolai every chance he gets. However, Mat knows that escaping is a lost cause and by not pissing Nikolai off too much, he doesn’t have to get injected with that horrible drug again. He’d do anything to keep that from happening to both himself and his brother.
I thought it was interesting the way Nikolai treated each of the brothers. He’s gentle with Dougie but the second Dougie does something that displeases him, he is quick with a punishment but then turns around and comforts him. However, with Mat, he’s amused by the fight in him. He doesn’t coddle him or even try to show compassion towards him like he does with Dougie. He seems almost, more real with Mat. He buys Mat all this workout equipment to give him something to do and focus on. Nikolai is a very complex character. He adapts himself based off of the brother that he’s dealing with. However, regardless of how he treats the brothers, it’s clear that he favors Dougie and is showing interest in keeping him for himself.
Gosh, this was another great episode to the story. It wasn’t as horrific as the first season was but that could also be because I knew what to expect this time around. I’ve never read a story before that had me so shocked and disgusted the entire time but still managed to keep me from putting the book down. It’s like driving by an accident on the road. We’ve all done it, rubbernecked to see all the horrible details, this story is no exception.
“That’s what he was, wasn’t he- what he’s always been. The big brother. The protector. That’s what he would live for. Because obviously this whole mess was bigger than him and Dougie. Was huge. Frighteningly organized- he ran gentle fingers over his forearm, where the microchip sat just beneath his skin- and nationwide at least. Maybe worldwide at least. So he’d live, Dougie or no Dougie, to get out of here. To help everyone else stuck in hellholes like this one and like Madame’s to get out too. He’d be the fighter Nikolai wanted him to be. Except secretly, he’d be fighting for his own cause.”
Previous reviews from Flesh Cartel
Damnation
