At this second, the burning man was the epicenter of the rage exploding out of him. He wanted to see the man bleed, wanted to feast on his screams, all thoughts of healing or saving gone. This man didn't deserve to be healed, didn't deserve to be saved. From the moment he had decided to burn Indigo’s delicate flesh, he had sealed his fate.
Slamming a fist into the man’s jaw, he grinned when he felt the bone shatter, teeth go flying everywhere. It wasn't enough, but it was a start.
“I don’t think I need to ask if you know who I am,” Voodoo drawled as he pressed a knee into the man’s throat to pin him in place, taking care to ensure he didn't press too hard and cut off his air supply. Not only did he want to prolong this, but he wanted every drop of intelthis man had. No forcing his hand and making him kill too quickly this time around.
Wide, terrified eyes stared up at him. Guess the burning man wasn't such a tough guy when he didn't have a tiny woman to play with. Now he was the helpless little plaything, and Voodoo was going to make sure his last minutes on earth were as horrible as he could make them.
“How many men are back there with Dr. Gardner?” he asked.
Despite his fear, the man remained silent. Broken jaw or not, burning man was capable of talking, and silence wasn't going to cut it.
Not wanting to waste time Indigo didn't have, Voodoo pulled out his knife and held it above the man’s eye. “How many men are back there?” he repeated his question.
Burning man whimpered but didn't offer an answer, so Voodoo dug his fingers into the man’s eye socket, causing him to howl in pain and thrash about. That didn't stop him from slicing the blade of his knife through the muscles and nerves attaching his eye to his body.
Once he had it free, he held it up before the sobbing, screaming man, allowing him to see it with his remaining eye, then squashed the eyeball in his fist, tossing away the ruined tissue.
“Hard way or easy way. I have questions, and I want answers. I want to make you suffer, but I want Indigo back more. So you answer my questions, tell us what we want to know, and you get to save yourself a bit of suffering before I slit your neck.” Normally, talk like this would make him a little queasy. His healing instincts so innate to who he was as a person that even his years in the military, his training and experience, and the drugs that had been given to him couldn’t eradicate it.
Now those words flowed easily, he was ready and willing, more than that, he was excited about inflicting pain on this despicable excuse for a man.
“S-seven,” the man stammered through his broken jaw. “Seven men back there with him.”
“And how many more are coming in the next wave?” he asked. When the burning man hesitated briefly, Voodoo swiped the sharp blade of his knife through the man’s nose, severing it and throwing it aside. Burning man choked on the blood now flowing down his throat, but Voodoo merely pressed a little firmer against his neck. “I see why you’re so addicted to your knife,” he said over his shoulder to Blade, who was grinning in amusement at the ruined face of the man they were interrogating.
“Right? Nothing beats a knife. A gun is so impersonal, but a knife lets you get a whole lot more creative,” Blade agreed cheerfully.
“How many more are coming in?” Voodoo asked again. As much as he was enjoying giving his anger an outlet before it could consume him from the inside out, he wanted to find Indigo before she disappeared for good. It wasn't just the river he was afraid of. An undetermined number of people were out there now or would be sometime over the next day, and each and every one of them was a threat to his girl.
“A dozen,” burning man wheezed. “You’ve killed so many of his men, Dr. Gardner is having trouble finding more. Word is getting out that anyone who takes a job for him winds up dead, so most of the mercs will no longer take the jobs he offers.”
Perfect.
Bit by bit, they were putting more and more dents in the doctor’s operation. Without Whitney to work on the drug anymore, with all of his labs located and destroyed and no longer operational, with his only other living experiment now free, and with no one left willing to take on a death sentence no matter how much money he threw at them, there wasn't much more Dr. Gardner could do to remain out of their clutches.
“When are they arriving?” he asked. Just because the word had been another twenty-four hours didn't mean things couldn’t change. He wanted to know how much time he had to find his girl and get her someplace safe before they went for Dr. Gardner.
Burning man’s one remaining eye met his, and despite the pain and terror still present in it, there was something else there too.
Something that set his teeth on edge and had the hairs on the back of his neck standing up.
“You're already too late,” burning man said, then spat blood at him. “They’re already here, and they already have her.”
January 25th
2:02 A.M.
It seemed never-ending.
There was no way to properly position herself in the back of the truck and not get tossed all about as it sped along roads that took her further away from Voodoo, from safety, from a life she shouldn’t be brave enough to want but craved with every fiber of her soul.
In reality, they probably hadn't been driving all that long, but to Indigo, alone in the back of a truck, bouncing about, naked and cold, her wet hair still sticking to her back as the long strands couldn’t find enough warmth to dry, it felt like an eternity.
After playing with the stun gun for a while, the guys whooping and hollering in amusement as her body reacted to the electrical current without causing her any pain, they’d slammed the door closed behind her and taken off. She’d wanted to try to make a run for it before the door closed, but she hadn't had the energy to move, let alone stand up and run.
At first, when the truck started moving, she’d been bounced all over the place, her muscles too weak to do anything to protect herself. Just because she didn't feel them didn't mean there weren't more bruises layered over older ones in a seemingly endless patchwork map that told the story of what her body had endured.
As they drove along, knowing what waited for her on the other side, another cage, more tests, more experiments, a life of captivity for however long it lasted, it was hard not to wish she hadn't been different. That she was the same as all the other people she’d seen come and go in the months she’d been in Dr. Gardner’s care. That she hadn't been able to handle the anger and the suicidal thoughts, given in to them, and ended her suffering long ago.
