“When will they be here?” I asked. Damien walked over to his computer and moved the mouse.
“They’re about two hours out. We plan to let them walk right in.”
My thoughts swam.
“It’s okay, Baz, “ he assured. Like telling a child there was no reason to be scared of monsters under the bed. “I’m doing the hard part. You won’t even know when it’s happened,” Damien said.
“You’ll capture them?”
“Too risky, unfortunately. I’m going to kill them.” Damien grabbed his phone, slid it in his pocket, and went to the door. He was leaving.
“Wait!”
“Bise,” he said before leaving. I watched him circle the hallway and go to the elevator. Then he was gone. Two hours. Two fucking hours.
“Baz, how does it make you feel when Damien says your partners are on the way?” Doreen asked. My mouth droppedopen. Only I would be forced to endure hallucinated therapy in the middle of a fucking crisis.
“Go away,” I hissed at her. I shook the chains, but there was no way I could break them. What did I do?
“Baz,” the Doreen hallucination snapped. “How do you feel knowing Bree will be here soon?”
No reason to be dishonest. “I’d give almost anything to see her again.” When Damien said they were coming, at first all I felt was excitement.
“Very interesting,” Doreen said. I closed my eyes and tried to think.
“Now, tell everyone how you felt when Damien said he was going to kill your partners.”
“Furious,” I hissed, popping my eyes open to glare at her.
“Because?”
“Because if anyone has the right to kill them, it’s me,” I seethed. Doreen’s smug smile dropped.
She blinked a few times. “What?”
“Their the whole reason why I’m here. It was either I kill them, or they live a wonderful, long, everlasting life. That wasmychoice. Damien doesn’t get to pick what happens to them. I’m in control, and I’m going to fucking show him that. That his fucking chains and his fucking glass box are nothing to me. I’ve been playing this game for them, but now he wants to take them from me?”
I looked at the chains. They disappeared into holes. Having peered into them before, I knew that inside the holes were the cranks Damien controlled to tighten or loosen them. But right now, I couldn’t get to those holes.
But that’s okay, because I knew how I was getting out. I could still smell the sharp scent from where my blood had hit my metal collar.
“Well, okay, you wanna kill ‘em. Good for you.”Doreen rolled her eyes.
“I won’t … but I could,” I said, smirking. All I needed was a few seconds. Then finally, all the anxiety and dread would vanish. Orson, Nemo, and Bree would be dead, with me, forever. Ah shit, I was hard.
“You’re smiling.”
“I’m not going to kill them,” I sighed.
“Why not?”
“Because I’ll never feel their warmth again,” I mumbled as my fangs slid out.
“Orson ain’t very warm, honey.”
“He’s warm in other ways,” I said distractingly as I leaned towards my arm.
“Go on,” Doreen drawled.
