I circle around Ted.His mouth is slack, his pulse steady.I flick his ear to check if he’s faking unconsciousness.He’s still under, but the gas will wear off soon.His eyelids flutter like he’s having bad dreams.
“I appreciate an invitation to the party,” an accented voice announces as I sense Victor’s arrival.The tall assassin slips in the door.
“Nice, very nice,” he says, looking around the sinister room with satisfaction.“They have a good setup here.Everything we need.”He sidles to the open drawer to examine the metal implements.“Good selection.And slick floors make it easy to mop up blood.”
There’s an incinerator down here, too, for easy disposal of remains, but we’re not going to need it tonight.
“We’re just going to ask him questions,” I remind the white-blond assassin.
Victor pauses the dancing of his hands over the torturer’s tools.“Just talk?”
“I promised my wife I wouldn’t kill him.”
“Pain doesn’t have to equal death.”Victor raises a bone saw.
“She won’t like it.”
“She’ll never know.”But he replaces the saw.“The things we do for love.”
“Happy wife, happy life.”
“So I have found,” he agrees.
I didn’t realize Victor was married, but now that he’s let the information slip, I wonder if the dark-haired woman I saw him dancing with at our engagement ball was his wife.Hamish will know.
Ted groans and stirs.
“Shall we?”Victor holds up a black skull mask.
“I have my own.”I turn the faceplate of my helmet opaque as Ted rouses.He winces and mumbles something.
He opens his eyes, squinting in the gloom.“What...where am I?”
I step into his line of vision, and he comes awake quickly, recoiling and thrashing in his restraints.“Who are you?What’s going on?”
“Your worst nightmare,” I snarl, the helmet speaker distorting my voice.“You’re going to tell me everything you know about the Bondage Killer.”
“Oh gods,” Ted whimpers.“What is this place?”
Victor moves to stand beside me.The skull mask covers his face, but I can hear the glee in his voice as he says, “Welcome to the Abyss.”
16
Inara
Something soft strokes my face.I sit up, and feathers fall from my body.I move and wince when something crunches underfoot.Feathers and fragile wings.Don’t think about it.I stagger forward into a small, dark room.The walls bow inward, covered with pictures of victims.One photo floats down and lands in front of me.It’s the picture of my family, with every face crossed out.Including mine.
Somewhere, I hear Burgess muttering, “Another body...”
“No,” I gasp, shuddering awake.
“I’ve got you.”It’s Rex.I’m in his arms, still wearing my dress.I must have fallen asleep in the chair.I’m still half in the dream, feeling the broken feathers over my skin.
I rub my eyes, but it feels like there are grains of sand digging into my eyeballs.I blink, but it doesn’t help.
Air wafts over my face.We’re still in the cave, and he’s carrying me to the elevator.
“What happened?What did you find?”
