Slow Agony (Assassins, #2)(35)

I sucked in breath.

The girl shrieked. She reached for him.

“Stay down,” he gasped.

I managed to get upright.

Wolfman was going for the gun now. I had to stop him.

I started for him. If I could knock him over again...

But he slashed out at me with the knife, almost casually.

The blade bit into the flesh of my face, slashing diagonally across my forehead, nose, and cheek. The pain was fresh and bright.

I yelled.

Blood was getting in my eyes.

In the corner of my vision, I could see Silas. He was straightening, getting himself together. Healing.

But Wolfman had the gun now.





Chapter Eight


Wolfman checked to see if it was loaded. It was. He leveled it at Silas. “Little pig, little pig. Let the bullets in.”

Silas hit the floor.

He wasn’t fast enough. The first shot had already caught his shoulder. He rolled into a ball, grabbing at it, swearing.

Wolfman walked over to him, where he was curled up on the floor. He aimed the gun. He pulled the trigger.

Silas jerked. He’d been hit in the back. A red spot of blood was already blossoming.

Wolfman knelt down next to him. “Sit up.”

“Fuck you,” said Silas. I could hear the strain in his voice.

I started to try to get up.

“Don’t even think about it, piglet,” said Wolfman. “Stay put.”

Wolfman put the gun against Silas’ eyeball. “It’s amazing how the serum will fix your whole face, isn’t it?

The serum? He knew about the serum?

Silas looked startled too.

Wolfman laughed. “Little pig, little pig, let it in.”

I grimaced.

And then Wolfman blew out the back of Silas’ skull.

I screamed.

So did the girl. She had backed away into the corner of the room. She was holding a sheet up to cover her nakedness. Tears were flowing over her cheeks.

“It’s okay,” I told her. “He’s going to heal. He’s a supersoldier. He’s got healing abilities.” I said it as much to reassure myself as it to reassure her. I knew that the only way to kill Silas was to sever his spinal cord, but that didn’t mean he didn’t look extremely dead right at that minute, because he did.

I looked away. He looked too awful to see, the back of his head a mess of blood and shattered bone.

“Will he, now?” Wolfman brandished his knife. “Maybe his neck needs a little snip-snip. What do you think, piglet?”

“No,” I said. “Don’t you dare.”

Wolfman pointed the gun at me. “Guess you won’t know one way or another, now will you?”

He pulled the trigger.

The sound of the gunshot shattered the air.

I felt a sharp burst of pain in my forehead.

Everything went dark.

*

I woke up to find myself tied to Silas. We were still in the hotel room, sitting back to back. Our hands were tied together behind our backs. My legs were also tied. I assumed his were too. He wasn’t awake yet. His head hung listlessly from his shoulders.

He was healing. I could see that. But he wasn’t all the way healed yet. He had to regrow half his skull after all. I guess that took time.

The room smelled of blood—tangy and metallic. Taking a look around, I could see that Wolfman was still here. He hadn’t simply left us tied up like he’d done to me last time.

He was on the other side of the room, humming to himself.

The girl from the bar was lashed to the headboard of the bed.

She was dead.

The Wolfman was cutting her. He was carving something on her forehead.

I made a disgusted noise in the back of my throat. I didn’t mean to. It just happened.

Wolfman turned away from the girl. “Piglet. You’re awake.”

I swallowed. Now I could see what Wolfman had done to the girl’s face. He’d carved Xs over her eyes and a heart onto her forehead. Her throat had been slashed. She was covered with blood and so was the bed.

“What do you think?” he asked. He looked like a child who’d drawn a picture in kindergarten class.

My skin crawled. “You’re sick.”

Wolfman shrugged.

“This is why you were in jail? This is what you do? How’d you get out?”

Wolfman smiled. “No, no. I wasn’t in jail for this. No one knows about this. This is my special secret. I can show you because Marcel says we won’t leave you alive in the end.”

Oh God. He was going to kill me. At some point, he was going to kill me.

The sound of a phone ringing split the air.

Silas stirred next to me. “What?”

At first I didn’t recognize it as mine, because we’d just gotten new phones, and I hadn’t set a specific ringtone. But then I felt in vibrate in my pocket.

“Yours, piglet?” Wolfman crossed the room and knelt next to me. He reached into my pocket.

I stiffened. I didn’t like it when he touched me.

Silas was struggling behind me. “What the hell?”

Wolfman dug out my phone. He peered at it. “Griffin?” He smiled.

The ringing stopped. Wolfman threw the phone down on the bed. “You’re awake too, little pig.”