Kinzer raised his sword and adjusted it in his hands so that he could drive it down into his back, but before he had a chance to move in for his assault, one of the guards grabbed his wrist and twisted his arm forcefully. He released the sword, crying out.
It was over for him. Despite how much he struggled, it was only a matter of time before they had him restrained.
They took him back to the room he’d woken up in. One of the guards brought a chair into the room, which they held Kinzer down in, binding his ankles in chains to the legs of the chair while cuffing his hands behind the back.
While three guards managed him, Quintz inspected their work. He ran his fingers through the hairs across his cheeks and chin.
The guards discussed the security of his new restraints, and Kinzer enjoyed their worry and concern about him. He liked knowing he, such a weak immortal, had rattled, shaken them. Quintz had walked into the room before, acting all confident and unfazed by Kinzer, but now he must have known, at least to some degree, Kinzer still wasn’t an immortal he could easily fuck with.
Brock wasn’t in the room. After the scuffle, he’d been escorted away with some of his pals who must’ve been helping him tend to the eye injury Kinzer had given him.
The guards chattered some more among one another until Quintz finally convinced them to leave him and Kinzer alone. They closed the door behind them, assuring Quintz they’d seal it from the outside until he was finished with Kinzer.
Kinzer’s lips curled at the edges. He couldn’t help himself. “Not as easy to manipulate as you thought I’d be.”
“You’re one crazy motherfucker, Kinzer. Any one of these immortals could have killed you. Did that mean nothing to you?”
“I have very little to lose these days. Besides, I know you don’t want me dead. That would be too easy. You need me for something, and I’m not giving you anything you might need from me to help the Almighty, so you can go fuck yourself.”
“As I said, I’m very well-versed in the art of torture, and I’ll torture you as much as I must to get what the fuck I need. Do you understand that? You can sit here and talk a big game, use all the energy you have left in your frail body, but at the end of the day when you are hurting most, when you are closest to death, you know as well as I do, in this line of work, that’s when everything comes out. Very few are strong enough to truly resist unbearable physical and emotional anguish.”
“Well, go ahead and tell me what the fuck you need, so I can tell you to blow yourself.”
Quintz smirked, like he found Kinzer’s resistance charming. “While you were working in league with the Leader on infiltrating the Raze, you were made privy to some intel we need. We want the names of all the operatives you’re aware of within the Leader’s team. The names of those who employed you. The names of those you worked with at any point during your time with the Leader’s Allies.”
“Most of them are dead now, so what’s the point?”
“That’s a load of bullshit, and you know it.”
“So what?” Kinzer said. “I tell you who they are so you can either kill these guys or work to sabotage their plans to stop the Almighty? You’re all wasting your fucking time. There’s a much bigger war at play right now.”
“Janka’s betrayal is not what we’re here to discuss. Yes, our intel has informed us about what happened at Veylo’s mansion. That is of great interest to us, of course, but this doesn’t mean the Leader is suddenly not a threat to the Almighty’s plans anymore. That said, I still require the names of the operatives you worked with.”
“Do you honestly think I was ever told any of these names? That I was working with these immortals one-on-one? Janka is the only one I knew of,” Kinzer lied. “Janka was how I got all my information. So there, you can kill me now because I don’t have anything to help you.”
Kinzer thought of all the names, all the contacts he had encountered—the ones he had to keep from divulging because, if there was a chance any of them could help the Leader put a stop to Janka’s and the Almighty’s plans, it was up to him to protect them.
Quintz nodded, his eyes sparkling beneath the fluorescent panels in the ceiling. “Then I guess we’ll be doing this the hard way. Because I’m going to get this information out of you, Kinzer, and it’s gonna hurt an awful fucking lot. The question is, how much pain do you think you can endure?”
“Try me,” Kinzer said.
A whimsical smile twisted across Quintz’s face, like he was excited about testing Kinzer’s limits. Like he got some sort of joy out of it. It disgusted Kinzer, and he knew it wasn’t going to be easy. He knew that bastard was going to put him through hell to get what he wanted. But fuck him!
Kinzer worked up some saliva in his mouth and spit into Quintz’s face. “You want that information? Take it from me.”
Quintz snarled before lunging forward and punching Kinzer across the face. Once, twice. He kept going, first one side, then the other, until Kinzer became delirious, the taste of iron filling his mouth.
Quintz pressed his heel against the side of Kinzer’s chair and knocked it down before kicking Kinzer in the stomach and in the face, again and again. Kinzer coughed up blood that had filled his mouth after Quintz had kicked him in the face.
“You’re very bold, Kinzer. You have a lot of faith in yourself. But I think it’s only because you underestimate what I can do. And I am very eager to find out exactly where your limits are.”
“I’m just as eager,” Kinzer forced past his lips.
