Quintessentially Q (Monsters in the Dark #2)(67)

“L—listen to her! S—stop!”

A punch to the breast.

Fuck, that hurt the most. The sensitive tissues yelped and burned.

“Learn, girl. Retaliation equals pain. Next time, I won’t be so kind.”

Next time? Next time what?

Coherency left me and I swam deeper into fog.

I’m cold. So cold. Insects have taken over my body. I feel them creeping through my blood. They’re chewing on my brain.

Blonde Angel suddenly bellowed and screeched. I watched in horrified terror as Leather Jackal plunged his putrid cock inside her. He groaned deep and licked his lips, looking deep into my eyes. “You’re next, f*cking bitch. See how I’m f*cking her. That’s gonna be you.” He thrust again and again. “Oh, yeah. You’re gonna take me. I’m gonna pay you back for fighting.”

The fear swelled over me, bringing with it more spiders and locusts.

Blonde Angel fell deathly silent. Her body rocked with Jackel’s pummels and her eyes never stopped leaking, but her face went slack as shock stole her mind. I literally heard the snap as her mind broke.

No!

I went crazy.

I bucked and cried, uncaring that my body couldn’t withstand movement with its injuries. Nothing else mattered but getting free. I wanted to kill Leather Jackal. I wanted to rescue poor Blonde Angel.

Get off her! It wasn’t fair. The poor girl. The poor innocent girl. Ferocity blew the drugs clear for one precious moment and I screamed, “Get the f*ck off her! Get off her, you bastard.”

Pain.

Intense, radiating pain.

I retched, activating aches in my chest. The agony swirled in my head, threatening to knock me out.

White Rodent stood above me with a pair of pliers. His eyes were grim, jaw set. “See what you made me do. Learn!”

I looked down, already back in the pit of hallucinations.

My middle finger was snapped in two. Bone protruded from skin and blood ran freely. Worms appeared from the wound, wiggling in the air.

The throb grew worse and worse. I wanted to tear my hand off just to be free of it.

“Nooooooooo!”

“Yes. Fuck yes.” Leather Jackal panted, rutting harder into his victim. She squeezed her eyes and endured.

I cried. It was sick, so sick. I opened my mouth to tell Leather Jackal to stop. To leave her be, but a lasso of panic noosed me.

Retaliation means pain.

My tongue lodged in my mouth and my eyes flew to White Rodent. He waved the pliers in my face. “Are you learning yet?”

Against everything, yes, I was learning. My body had been reconditioned. My mind enslaved to chemicals.

Everything I thought I knew had been reprogramed. Pain was hideous. Pain was atrocious. I wanted to run away from pain and avoid it forever. Never again would I crave the fine line of passion and sweet, sweet agony.

Never again would I want Q to touch me.

Never again would I find myself in the mess I’d become. I was utterly, truly lost.

Leather Jackal groaned, pumping harder, shaking the bed as he came. Blonde Angel half-sighed, half-sobbed as he pulled out of her.

The small relief that he’d finished with her was ruined when his gaze fell on me. “Give me five minutes, puta. Then I’m all yours.”

My lips pulled back to snarl, but the cold bite of metal encircled my pinky. White Rodent murmured, “You sure you want to say whatever you’re about to say?”

I squeezed my eyes. If I said yes, I might force them into killing me. I could make them give me my freedom.

Say it, Tess. Be done with this.

“She probably doesn’t, but I’ll say it for her.”

That voice.

The echoing softness, the fine edge of violence.

I knew that voice. From another life. A happier life.

My heart picked up its sluggish beat, so downtrodden by weariness it barely functioned. It took all my remaining energy to twist my head to the doorway.

The magnificent black raven angel from my hallucinations was back. His three-metre wingspan filled the room, sparking with ebony fire and murderous rage. A flock of crows fluttered around him, turning the melting room into a whirlpool of feathers.

White Rodent spun and faced this new vision. I sighed and wished with all my heart he was real. I wanted him to be real so I could finally relax and be safe again.

“How the f*ck did you get in here?” White Rodent growled, pacing toward the figment of my imagination, wielding the pliers. Crows squawked and attacked from above, raining little black bombs with beady eyes and yellow beaks, but it didn’t stop him.

Ryan the Ogre appeared from behind my apparition, launching himself at the angel. But Q spun too fast and a loud bang filled the room.

Ryan’s skull exploded in a fine mist as his body crumbled to the floor. White Rodent backed up, throwing the pliers down as more angels spilled into the room.

Black-winged Q soared toward me, feathers rustling as his eyes drifted over me in horror. I wanted to tell my dream to take me away. To save me. I didn’t care if leaving meant death. Not if I could go with him.

Take me. I’m ready to leave. I’m ready to go with you.

“Franco. Attrape ce fils de pute.” Grab that son of bitch.

I blinked as a man appeared around Q’s black wings. His muscular chest glittered with gold fur and emerald eyes blazed like twin moons.

“It would be my f*cking pleasure,” Gold Man muttered.