“Where do you think you’re going?” I ask, looming over him. “We’re not done catching up.”
I kneel, my knee pressing into his back, pinning him to the filthy floor. I pull out my own knife, the blade cold and sharp.
“Brylee has a small, crescent-shaped scar on her hand,” I say, my voice dangerously quiet. “Do you know that? She got it when she was first taken by the Noths. When she was tortured. When you turned her over for money. Remember?”
He whimpers, shaking his head against the linoleum.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” I murmur.
I press the tip of my knife to the back of his hand, right in the same spot.
“I think it’s only fair that you have a matching one. A little something to remember her by.” I slowly, deliberately, carve a shallow, perfect crescent into his flesh.
He screams, thrashing beneath me, but I hold him fast, my weight an unmovable force.
“Shhh,” I soothe, my voice dripping with false sympathy. “It’ll only hurt until you die. Or until we let you go. Whichever comes first.”
Across the room, Kylian has finished with the fingers and is moving on to bigger things. He’s got the second alpha’s arm twisted at an unnatural angle, his foot braced against the man’s shoulder.
“You know,” Kylian says, his voice light and airy, “I’ve always wondered what it sounds like when a shoulder pops out of its socket. It’s not as satisfying as a finger, but it has a certain…crunch to it. Don’t you think?”
He leans his weight in, and a sickening, wet tear echoes through the room, followed by a guttural shriek of agony.
Kylian giggles. “Oh, yes. Definitely a crunch.”
I stand, leaving the third one to sob quietly on the floor, his hand a bloody mess. I turn to the first one, still pinned against the wall. His eyes are wide with terror, the bravado completely gone, replaced by a primal, animal fear.
“Please,” he whimpers. “Please, I’m sorry. We’ll leave her alone, I swear.”
“Sorry?” Kylian appears beside me, his face inches from the alpha’s. “Sorry is for when you step on someone’s foot. You didn’t step on her foot. You shattered her. You took her trust and her love, and you used it to hurt her. There’s no ‘sorry’ for that.”
He taps the flat of his blade against the alpha’s cheek.
“But don’t worry. We’re not going to kill you. Death is a release. A mercy. And you”—his voice drops to a venomous whisper—“don’t deserve mercy.”
A pair of pliers emerges from Kylian’s pocket along with something else…something that glimmers silver in the moonlight.
“Is that a speculum?” I ask.
Kylian’s brow furrows as he studies it.
“It’s that thing dentist’s use,” he replies, turning to shove it into one alpha’s mouth. “But…I suppose I could use it for other things too.” He winks at the second brother…who’s sprawled on the floor, crying silently. “Maybe on you.”
Once Kylian’s pockets bulge with missing body parts, I lean in, my gaze locking with the nearest alpha’s, though the bruises on his face have reduced his eyes to slits.
“We’re going to leave you now. You’re going to live with this. You’re going to wake up every morning and remember the feel of your bones breaking. You’re going to look at your hands and be reminded of her. Every time you try to hold a cup, every time you try to open a door, every time you smile, you’ll think of Brylee.”
Kylian grins, a flash of white teeth in the dim light. “And if we ever,everhear that you’ve been near her, or talked about her, or even so much as thought her name with anything other than regret…we’ll come back. And next time,” he says, tracing the line of the alpha’s jaw with his knife, “I’ll peel the skin from your face while you’re still conscious enough to appreciate it.”
We leave them there, a broken, bleeding mess of their former selves. The silence of the hallway is a welcome reprieve, but the image of Brylee’s face is burned into my mind.
The world is a little safer for her tonight.
And as we disappear into the night, I know this is only the beginning. We will burn down anything and anyone who dares to threaten her.
Without mercy.
Without hesitation.
