Page 153 of Huntress

“I shouldn’t have to! My presence here is supposed to be mutually beneficial, and you went straight to torture? If this continues, you are to apprise me of the steps you plan to take before you take them, and I get to say no. No more electrical jump scares. No more forcing me to endure pain without a damned good reason. This is not what I agreed to. I am not some subject you caught out in the wilds, I’m a fucking field captain of the highest standing. You want me to treat you with respect? Then you will do the same,” Elsie seethed.

She started ripping off the electrodes on her head, tossing them onto the floor. Cornick’s face darkened to an unhealthy shade of purple, but Fletcher kept her cool.

“It appears our excitement at finally having access to such an excellent opportunity for study got to our heads a bit,” she said meekly. “I apologize for our exuberance.”

“Do you often have to apologize for your boss's behavior?” Elsie questioned, and Fletcher’s expression froze before melting into a simper she aimed toward Cornick.

“It appears we must reopen our negotiations.” Cornick’s body was stiff.

“Tomorrow. After we have the chance to eat, clean up, and rest. You’ll take out any and all language you intentionally left open to interpretation to take advantage of my presence. I am not a toy for you to play with, and I am not a torture doll to electrocute, poke, and prod. Bringing up Mordane was not a threat; it was a reminder that there are others more powerful than you, and that you will be forced to defend your behavior before them if this continues.”

Fletcher backed away slowly, but the fear in her eyes wasn’t caused by Elsie.

“I knew you would be difficult,” Cornick growled.

“And I knew you’d be slimy. Apparently, I wasn’t careful enough going into this, believing you would hold to our agreement, like the gentleman you pretend to be.” She finished removing the last of the wires suctioned to her skull, then took off the four on her chest. Saint tossed over her shirt, and Elsie pulled it on.

“Take Ms. Chantraine and her demon to their rooms,” he barked at the soldiers before giving Elsie a withering glare. “We will be discussing the demon's role and behavior here tomorrow. One more thing before you go.”

Elsie paused, glaring back at him.

“You are among this center’s employees on this floor, and you are known to those who matter. They have been informed that you are potentially a valuable asset, but further testing is needed before any decisions are made. Act with propriety. Any suspicious or malicious behavior will be reported, and there will be consequences, understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

Saint’s hands were on her the moment the door to their suite shut behind them. He held her face while he looked her over, searching for even the slightest scratch or bruise.

“I’m fine–”

“Don’t you dare minimize this. I was there, Mistress. I felt your pain and heard your cries. Let me kill him,” he growled.

“Shhhh,” she soothed, pulling him into a hug and stroking the back of his neck. “I’ve been through worse to gain less. The only difference between then and now is that now I have someone who cares enough about me to rage on my behalf. The situation sucks, but it’s no worse than we discussed before we got here.”

“It is worse, because now it’s real. The bond is stronger, I can feel your pain as if it were my own, and knowing how much that hurt you drove me insane! If you hadn’t stopped me, I’d have torn that witch apart.”

“I know. Think of today as posturing, or a psychological test. Men like Cornick will draw a line in the sand just to challenge and overstep the boundaries set in place. He wanted to gauge how much bullshit we’d put up with before pushing back, and how we’d react. He crossed that line so he could redraw it where he wanted it in the first place.”

Elsie took his hand and pulled him to the bed, pushing him down and sitting in his lap. She leaned down and kissed him, licking away his fears and placating his anxiety.

“Tomorrow we’ll go in to renegotiate,” she told him. “That bastard will claim our behavior endangers the safety of his staff. He’ll probably claim the witch was injured, though we both know she wasn’t. He’s going to negotiate keeping you restrained in some way, to ensure you won’t harm anyone else. We’ll have plenty of demands of our own to counter with.”

“I messed up.”

“If you hadn't gone after her, I would have. He purposely took things too far. I’ve dealt with men like him before. He’ll expect us to enter that meeting tomorrow with apologies and humbled attitudes, but his actions leveled the playing field. We both know exactly where the line is, and I will not allow it to be crossed again. Tomorrow we’ll be ready, no matter what that asshole has to say.”

Chapter thirty

Chapter 30

Elsie lay awake, clinging to Saint while his muscles twitched in a fitful sleep. The nightmares were back. Not every night, but often enough. She stroked his back rhythmically, trying to soothe away the monsters that haunted his dreams.

Weeks had passed since their meeting with Cornick to set their boundaries straight. They hadn’t reached a perfect arrangement, and she hated the sick ideas Cornick and his assistants came up with, but most of what they did was with her consent. The man was relentless, keeping her in his grasp from morning to night, giving her not a day of rest.

Each day he presented a new hell to endure. Some new test or serum, skin samples, or another witch to poke around inside her head. Each morning she invented a new mantra, some made-up reason to deal with the pain, but it was getting harder to justify, and the fire that brought her there in the first place was cooling.

Elsie had been there for over a month without a single breakthrough in removing her seal. Cornick kept her so busy they’d made no progress in learning anything more about his involvement with the chimera, and she had little energy to care.

She watched Saint’s eyelids tremble, a tear quivering on the edge of his lashes. His brows knitted together with worry, tension radiating from his entire being. Elsie buried her face in his chest. Those shadows under his eyes were her fault. She continued insisting on going through with this, knowing he would stay and watch them torture her in the name of science.