All I knew was that Phil had come in six times since I broke it. To feed me, to clean my wounds.
My wrists were still festering, but they had stopped bleeding.
The chill was a permanent part of me now. I didn’t think Iwould ever stop shaking.
But I still felt that anger. Burning deep within me. I felt it numbing the inside of me, wrapping tightly around my heart. I didn’t care anymore.
I didn’t care about self-preservation. I didn’t care about what their agenda was, about what they would do to me if I didn’t follow orders. I was Alaric. I was more than them. Better, and I had been taking every chance I had to try and get some stamina back, some strength. My legs and feet were back to normal as much as they could be in this freezing box. My core burned every time I tried to do sit-ups. My thighs were sore from stretching and squatting. My arms hurt from doing push-ups, but I wouldn’t stop. If I was going to survive, I had to be strong.
“I am Olivia Rose,”I thought to myself, my heart beating far too hard as I did my sit-ups.“I am a writer, I am unbreakable, I am Claimed.”
The door opened a few minutes later and I immediately pushed myself up and sat on the edge of the bed, the shackle around my ankle weighing me down.
It wasn’t Phil who walked in though, it was Todd.
Todd loved to cop a feel whenever he had the chance.
Todd carried things for Isaak whenever he came in to get more information.
Todd held no light in his eyes.
I glanced behind him just before the door shut, seeing the stairs that led to nowhere. Where was Phil?
Todd wasn’t a large man. Not as large as Phil or Isaak. He was a few inches taller than me, narrow build, sunken eyes, shaved head. Sometimes I wondered why Isaak hired him. If I was writing about him, I would have labeled him as a drug-addict. Unreliable. Undependable.
Certainly not smart enough to come in here by himself and interrogate me.
He gave me a creepy smile. Not creepy like Azrael though, creepy like the man on the street with yellowing teeth, a rat for a friend, and 18 layers of clothes in the middle of July. “Hello,margaritka.”
I studied him carefully. What did he expect? For me to spill everything? I had nothing to give him. Just like I had nothing to give his boss.
“My boss doesn’t like it when you refuse to talk,” he said, his accent so thick, I almost couldn’t understand his words. “So, I am here to…persuade you,” he shrugged, walking towards me slowly.
Something in my gut blared a warning and I immediately pushed back onto the bed, pulling my knees to my chest, my eyes flicking to the door and back. Where thefuckwas Phil?
“He’s not coming back for a while,” Todd went on, reaching for his belt, his motions quickening.
My heart slammed, my panic rising as I scrambled towards the wall, my bed shifting in the bed. “Hey!” I screamed and he ran. “HEY!” I belted.
He flew across the small bed, wrapped his hand around my mouth and slamming my head back into the wall, sparks dancing across my vision, my panic slamming through me.
I shoved against him weakly, blinking hard, trying to shake the haze away as he shoved me onto my back, the shackle pulling at my ankle.
“Zatknis', suka,” he snarled, shoving me into the bed and forcing my legs apart. “You must behave. You must do as we say.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to breathe through the panic, to focus. I couldn’t let this happen. I wouldn’t, I refused.
He removed his hand to hold himself up, the bed shifting under me, his body far too hot, too close, too much.
The haze had overtaken my mind, my limbs. Everything wastoo heavy, warmth sliding down my neck, seeping into my pillow. I think he might have split my head open.
I had to focus.
“Come on, pup, don’t let it control you.”
“You have the power to sharpen those thorns.”
Focus.
