The weight of the Faraday cage made it difficult to hold his head up, or maybe that was the blood loss. Alexei cracked open his right eye, vision blurry from one too many hits to the head. But he could still see, which told him his retina wasn’tdetached—yet.
Blood stained the cold cement floor beneath his bare feet and around the chair he was tied to. His jeans had that odd stiffness to them that came from being saturated with something sticky before it dried, especially on his right side. Cillian hadn’t spared a single inch of flesh from his elbow to his wrist on the inside of hisforearm.
Alexei’s gaze skittered away from the raw, red muscle that glistened beneath the lights hanging from the ceiling. Cillian had carved him up like a piece of meat, skin lifting away in translucent pieces as the Irishman skinned him alive. Every puff of breath, every tiny movement of air over the exposed muscle felt like getting cut by the knife all over again, overloading his nerves with teeth-clenching agony. Telling himself to breathe through it only made hischesthurt.
A door slamming shut and footsteps coming down the stairs forced Alexei to lift his head all the way, hazy attention latching onto Sean’s pale, swollen face across the way from him. Sean hadn’t made a single sound through the beating and skin-carving Alexei had endured. In fact, Alexei couldn’t remember him responding in any way to Cillian’s questions or goading. He’d taken the order for silence to heart, but Alexei ached to hear his voice, to hear something familiar in his ears other than his ownscreams.
Alexei knew there was no shame in screaming in a situation like this. His SERE training had emphasized that fact years ago when he’d gone through it the first time and again after joining the MDF. Rescue was always hoped for, but Alexei didn’t know where they were, or even what day it was. The hit from the neuro-jammer gun had fucked with his head and body far more deeply than the drug cocktail Sean had beensubjectedto.
“Still awake?” Cillian asked, not expecting ananswer.
Alexei gave him one because he didn’t like the way Cillian was looking at Sean. “No bed. Shitservice.”
Talking was difficult, but Alexei did it anyway, forcing the words out around a desert-dry tongue and swollen lips. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had anywater.
“Yer still a fuckin' riot. About time wechangedthat.”
Cillian headed for the old work table shoved up against the wall of the basement, one of their ever-present armed guards stepping out of his way. Alexei turned his head as much as he could to keep Cillian in his sights. The Irishman picked up a set of metal pliers and made a show of clicking the sides of the metal headtogether.
Alexei did his best to glare at Cillian with one eye, jerking his left arm against the ropes binding him to the chair. He tried not to move his right arm all that much, the rawness of his forearm capable of derailing his entire focus. But the ropes didn’t give, and Alexei could only watch helplessly as Cillian circled around Sean’s chair to stand behind him. Sean tensed, hands curling into fists as he stared at Alexei with wide eyes, his entire body flinching every few seconds, pain lining his mouthandeyes.
It had taken a few hours for Alexei to finally figure out Sean was most likely trying to access his phase power by breaking through the Faraday cage. Nothing had come of his attempts, and Alexei wished more than anything that Sean would find a way to overcome the Faraday cage effects and get them out ofthere.
Until then, they could only watch each other endure Cillian’scruelgame.
Cillian gripped Sean’s shoulder, digging his fingers hard into the muscle there. Sean clenched his jaw against the pain, but otherwise, didn’t make asound.
“Ye enjoyin’ th’ show?” Cillianasked.
When Sean obviously didn’t answer, Cillian grabbed him by the chin and yanked his head up, the wires lining his skull making a strange rustling sound. Sean tried to jerk his head away, lips peeling back from his teeth, breath coming faster, but there was nowhere to go. The pliers dug against the side of Sean’s face, bruised skin whitening out from thepressure.
“Been a bit too good fer me likin’. How ‘bout we have some fun? Mayhap let me boys have a go at yer traitorous arse an’ yer boy can watch fer a change. Put ye on yer knees an’ see how long it takes fer ye tascream.”
The intent was made clear by the way Cillian dragged the pliers down Sean’s neck and chest, stroking them in a lewd manner over his groin. The thought of someone else touching Sean in such an intimate way sent rage burning through Alexei’s body, the electrifying pain of the Faraday cage bringing him back down toearth.
“Nyet,” Alexei snarled. He strained against the ropes tied around his torso even as the unrelenting agony threatened to shatter hisskull.
Cillian smirked at him, face blurring through a haze of pain. Alexei forced himself to let go of his desire and need to use his pyrokinesis in order to remainconscious.
“Think he’s a bit fond o’ ye, Sean. Let’s find out how much ye care about him, aye?” Cillian raised the pliers to Sean’s face again and tapped them over his closed mouth hard enough to tear the scabthere. “Open.”
Sean’s gaze flicked in Alexei’s direction, wide and worried and fearful. His few seconds of hesitation didn’t sit well with Cillian, who immediately smacked him in the face with the pliers hard enough to draw blood. Sean flinched, rocking back in the chair he was cuffed to. Cillian gripped him by the chin again, wrenching his headaround.
“I saidopen,” Cillian growled. “Or I’ll start on yer boy. Ye make a sound, an’ I’ll make itworse.”
Sean opened his mouth on a heavy exhale, tensing when Cillian curled two fingers over his bottom teeth and pried his mouth further apart. The sharp angle that Sean’s head was pulled back at meant Alexei couldn’t see his face clearly, but he could see the pliers dip into Sean’s mouth, as if he wereswallowingthem.
Sean sat completely tense in the chair, breathing heavily as Cillian worked the pliers around in his mouth to find a decent angle. Sean jerked, leaning backward in an effort to escape the tool in his mouth, to no avail. Cillian worked the metal handles a few more times before prying a molar out of Sean’s mouth. Alexei knew how bad it got based on Sean’s response to the pain; the way he heaved rapidly for air, trying so hard not to make asound.
The first tooth came out a cracked, bloody mess that Cillian flicked on the floor between them. The second tooth came out just as shattered. Bright red blood trickled out of both corners of Sean’s mouth, sliding down his tautly held throat to stain his shirtcollar.
Cillian shoved Sean’s head back down so Alexei could get a good look at his bloody face. Sean’s eyes were closed, mouth smeared with blood that dripped offhischin.
“You want hurt someone, hurt me,” Alexei snarled, fighting through the hazy cloudofpain.
“Don't ye be worryin’. I’ll get ta ye soonenough.”
Alexei snarled wordlessly as Cillian yanked Sean’s head back again and shoved the pliers into Sean’s mouth, searching for anothertooth.
