Trying not to think about her.
But she’sallI think about.
My jaw tenses as I remember to breathe how Julien taught me. In. Out. Chill the fuck out. But my mind’s fogged to shit.
“If I could just talk to her, I’d explain everything,” I mutter, starting to pace. “I’d kneel, beg, play the fool… then offer to erase anyone who’d touched her before us.”
There’s a gargled sound, and my gaze flicks to it, only now remembering the guard pinned to the wall.
“What do you think?” My power oozes out in crackling vines that hiss around me, bright blue and pissed off. At his silence, my voice drops lower. “Say something.”
He tries to yank himself free from the rock he’s pinned to, my coils spitting and sparking as he struggles, but the spike lodged in his one good hand keeps him secure. He whimpers.
How pathetic.
I kill the glow and the air stills, the crackling of distant flames the only sound, until the body starts to mumble.
I tilt my head. “What was that, dead man? Didn’t quite catch it.”
“K—Kill me.”
I let out the longest, most theatrical sigh of my life, eyes raised to the flaming abyss above like the answer to everythingmight be written in the smoke. “Say something new, or nothing at all.”
“P—please… en—d this. I—”
My power slithers out like it’s bored. Same, buddy. Same. It crawls up his body, licks open skin, digs into old wounds and jolts him every time he tries to scream.
I stroll over, crouching down low so I know he hears me. “We’ve been through this. It’s getting boring.” I pat his shoulder—well, where his shoulder used to be, now it’s just a bloody stump. He shrieks, and I shock him for it. “I can’t just kill you. Remember why?”
Nothing. Fucker’s barely conscious, eyes are rolling back… Not on my watch.
I grab a fistful of greasy hair, yanking him up so his one swollen eye meets mine. If he had his lower half, I’m certain he’d have pissed himself.
“You touched our girl, remember?” I say it so calmly, but the anger inside me is scorching.
I’ll never forget finding Red like that, hanging from the ceiling, drenched in her own blood, red everywhere.
“Remember? In that cell with all your little buddies. Strung her up to bleed. Collared her.Mygirl?Mybond?” My voice shakes with the effort it takes not to tear him apart mid-sentence. “Yet you’re still breathing.”
He stares at me, trembling, as I tighten my grip, making his hair taut between my fingers.
When his silence continues, my vision dips into the dark, and his blood turns grey.
“Answer me.” It comes out warped, demonic, Dark Sai begging to be let loose.
“I remember—I’m… so s—sorry. S—”
I release his hair slightly, patting the half of his face that isn’t falling off as his blood becomes red again. Dark Sai’scontained, for now. He’s not happy about it, but if I let him out, this fucker will be smoke.
“There we go. Now, what did I say? Why can’t I kill you?”
He shudders, but doesn’t speak, so I start to pull his hair again and his mouth opens on a silent scream. That’s when I notice almost all his teeth are missing.
Huh. Julien must’ve paid a visit.
“I—I don’t… deserve... d—death,” he finally admits.
“There you go.” I grin wide, yanking his head side to side with each word while he groans like a dying animal.
