18. It’s Personal
18
It’s Personal
Theron
Her clover eyes met mine, tears coursing down her cheeks and over the tape roughly fixed there by the animal currently splayed out on the floor behind me. She moaned, trying to communicate something, but I placed my hands on her face.
“Shhh, rabbit, I’m here. I’m here. I need to cut through the tape, Ever, or it’ll hurt worse. Is it okay if I get out my knife?” She was so scared, and I was conscious that one wrong move could send her into a spiral. Thankfully, she gave me a small nod. “Such a brave girl,” I praised before taking my pocket knife and gently slicing through the tape behind her ear with surgical precision.
With great care, I pulled the tape off her mouth and was immediately confronted by a wave of red as blood poured from between her lips and down her chin. She coughed between sobs and wild breaths as her cheek was pressed to the floor. “My hands,” she wept. “Please, my shoulder, I can’t take it.”
“Okay, love, okay, just breathe,” I instructed quietly before moving to cut the tape. When her hands were free, she tried pushing herself up on one arm, but I stopped her. “I need you to be still, rabbit, so I can check you for injuries.”
She was holding her shoulder at a weird angle, and I prayed it wasn’t dislocated. “I’m going to cut the tape on your ankles, but I have to lift the back of your dress —”
“No!” She cried and struggled to raise herself off the floor. “Don’t touch me, please!”
I blinked wildly, quickly cutting the tape but was careful not to touch her. I remained crouched next to her, trying to make myself look as non-threatening as possible whilst internally, I burned with rage. I took a breath, trying desperately to control myself. “Ever, I’m not going to hurt you, I promise, but I have to check your ribs and shoulder. Can you be brave a little longer for me, rabbit? Can you be my brave girl?”
She was hiccuping through her sobs. The cut inside her mouth probably looked worse than it was because of the blood thinners she was on, but God, was it a terrifying sight. Blood draining from the sides of her mouth and dripping down the front of her dress. My heart was breaking for her; all I wanted was to pull her to my chest and make the pain go away, but I knew she needed space. She would need time to come back to herself, to feel safe in her body, before my touch would bring her comfort, and that was okay.
“Trust me, rabbit. I won’t hurt you.”
She closed her eyes, tears carving trails through the blood as her lips quivered. “Okay,” she whimpered.
I sighed, my hands hovering above her shoulders as I yearned to embrace her but restrained myself. She had just been physically attacked, and I couldn’t imagine how she felt.
“I’m going to pull your dress up and then touch your back. I need you to tell me when and where it hurts, and then I’ll pull your dress back down. Okay?”
She gave me another weak nod, and I sat back on my heels so I could help her. I slowly pulled up the hem of her dress, and her whole body shook with fear. I glanced quickly over my shoulder at the man who was still unconscious. I wanted to feel his guts in my hands and cut his skin from his body inch by inch. The hands that he used to hurt her… I would feed them to him before I finally ended him. I didn’t even want to harvest his organs — I wanted to bathe in his agony .
Bunching up her dress, I gently touched her back, and she hissed in pain. I knew that she must have been struggling to breathe. When my fingers gently pressed around the edges, she cried out, and I ripped my hand back.
“There might be a hairline fracture on your seventh or eighth rib, but I’d need images in order to be certain.” I pulled her dress back down and gently felt around the top and back of her left shoulder. “Your shoulder will definitely be sore, but all the bones are in the proper place — strained, most likely.”
I helped her stand. She was cradling her left arm close to her body, her fingers clasping her right hand onto me as she wobbled to her feet.
When she looked over and saw her attacker on the floor, she froze.
“Is he — Is he —”
“No,” I said quickly. “Not before I have a chance to play with him first. To give him a taste of the fear and pain he’s caused you, rabbit.”
Ever blinked but stayed quiet as I led her toward the futon in her living area. She was trembling all over and pale as a ghost aside from the crimson stains on her chin and bruises forming on her cheek where he must have hit her. She sat down gingerly, reaching almost mechanically for her medication with eyes cast sightlessly on the far wall. My darling rabbit could be so strong at times, but her body was weak. Being physically assaulted would be traumatic for anyone, but to be attacked with a heart condition, and with her history… oh, I imagine it must have felt like death.
I swallowed hard. When Ever hadn’t answered my texts and I saw her location moving, I signed over my list to another surgeon and scrubbed out. I’d been assuming what I thought was the ‘worst’ : that she regretted what we did and was trying to run from me. I’d needed to hold her, to convince her how right we were. I wouldn’t let her go that easily. When I got to her door and heard the man’s voice, I knew the ‘ worst’ was something else entirely — something terribly wrong.
Keeping one eye on Ever to make sure she took the appropriate dosage and pulling the pills from her hand with a sigh, I took out my phone and dialed for help. Ever lived in a crowded area of southwest Boston — though a fat lot of good that did her today - with too many other occupants of her apartment building around for me to carry a grown man down the stairs — even if I waited until nightfall.
“Yes,” Tabitha answered on the first ring.
“Bring the SUV around to 2654 Somerton Avenue, Apartment 3B.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Theron, you didn’t —”
I rolled my eyes and growled under my breath. “Miss Knight has not been hunted,” I snapped. Tabitha knew Ever’s address from keeping watch on my tracker, a failsafe put in place due to the hazards of our hobby, and she thought I’d finally taken my obsession too far.
“Do you need the medkit?”
The medical kit was filled with heavy tranquilizers. I looked down at the animal, my toe digging into the side of his cheek before I reeled back and kicked him. I felt his cheekbone crack violently below my foot. Blood spilled from his nose onto the scuffed hardwood, his body still limp.
“No,” I sighed. I’d been overly violent with him, and it was likely that through a combination of the blow to his head and his trachea, much of his brain function was impaired. He wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon. “But have the facility ready for delivery.”
“Should I bump anyone up the list?”
“This one isn’t for harvesting. It’s a personal venture,” I said before hanging up the phone and curling my lip in disgust at the figure slumped on the floor.
He was reasonably young, maybe in his late thirties, and wearing a black puffer jacket that he had been carrying his supplies in. I didn’t have gloves, or I’d search him properly. The heroin epidemic in Massachusetts was at an all-time high, and I wasn’t keen on coming into any contact with any needles or other drugs. Instead, I took the same duct tape he had used on Ever and wrapped it around his hands and legs, fashioning a hogtie so that his face was pressed into the floor where he could drool.
I knelt beside him, wrapping one last piece of the tape around his mouth before I whispered in his ear. “I hope you wake up because we’re going to have so much fun together, you and I. You want to play games? Welcome to the big leagues,” I snarled the last words before spitting on his face and turning back to Ever.
She was right where I’d left her, knees pressed together on the couch as she stared into the distance. I noticed that there was still tape in her hair, but she hadn’t moved to try and get it out. I knew that there was some emulsifying moisturizer at my facility that we could use to remove it, but fuck did it hurt to see her so lifeless.
“Rabbit,” I said gently before kneeling beside her. I carefully let my hand hover over her knee, keeping my movements slow, before setting it on her leg. Her eyes darted to mine, rimmed with the tears she was trying so desperately to control. “I’m going to pack you a bag, but is there anything you need me to get for you? I have medications at home.”
She swallowed hard. “I’m fine,” she lied, as her hands clenched into fists. “You got here before he could —”
The words died on her tongue, and I nodded. “Yes, but that doesn’t make the fear go away.”
“No,” she agreed quietly. “It means another nightmare I’ll have to learn to live with, and there are so many now that it’s hard to remember which ones are real and which ones I’ve created myself.”
My darling angel — my partner in the darkness — was falling apart before my very eyes, and all I could do was kneel here and feel the red-hot agony wash over me. Never before had I cared for something so much, nor concerned myself with others enough to feel the way I did in this moment. After holding her close to me last night and having myself buried in her body, I knew she was mine. I would see her on the other side of this.
“I’ll help you,” I promised her. “Together, we’ll conquer the nightmares, and I’ll stand guard while you dream of a world pure enough to never hurt you. I promise you, little rabbit, that no more pain will be burdened on your shoulders alone. Never again.”
* * *
I packed a small bag of Ever’s necessities — mostly clothes, as I’d have anything else she needed. I thought she would have roused herself to protest me going through her belongings, showing me some of her usual spit and spite, but instead, she’d lain down on the futon a few minutes ago and never said a word. I wanted her to scream, to tear her panties from my fingers, an angry blush coloring her cheeks, but all I got was silence. Defeat.
My phone pinged to tell me Tabitha was here, and I let her know to come up to the apartment. It was going to take two of us to get both the animal and Ever out and into the SUV without bringing too much attention. I had found a large suitcase in Ever’s closet that could be used to move the vile cargo. At least into the car. I didn’t want him to suffocate before I got my pound of flesh.
Tabitha walked into the apartment silently, her eyes dancing from the hogtied assailant on the floor to a catatonic Ever on the couch. Tabitha was wearing an expensive set of Lululemon training clothes in all black, her hair braided back like she would on any hunt. She sighed softly, taking stock of the situation before meeting my gaze.
She pointed at the open suitcase with a blank expression. “Need a hand?”
I should really give her a raise.
After the two of us had unceremoniously stuffed him into the case, I walked Tabitha over to Ever and sat beside where she lay curled on her side. “Rabbit?” I urged gently. “This is a friend of mine. She’s here to help,” I kept my voice soft, and motioned towards the very rigid Tabitha. She was just as I usually was in emotionally charged situations. Ice cold. “I need you to let her help you to the car while I carry the case. Okay?”
Ever looked at Tabitha out of the corner of her eye before quickly turning her attention back to the coffee table. “I’m fine,” she said again, zero inflection in her voice. “I don’t need to be coddled.”
Tabitha made a noise in the back of her throat that sounded like an objection to that particular statement, but thankfully kept it to herself. I tried to pull Ever from her position on the couch. “Then can you stand for me? We need to —”
“I said I’m fine ,” her voice nearly broke at the end as she forced herself into a sitting position, her fingers digging into the futon. “Just leave.”
I pressed my fingers into my eyes, trying to swallow my frustration, and tried to think of another approach. I couldn’t blame her for her reaction, of course, but fuck I didn’t know how to handle this.
Tabitha, seemingly fed up, rolled her eyes and lurched towards Ever, taking her firmly by the wrist. Ever startled in shock but didn’t flinch away from her, eyes wide as if she’d just noticed the other woman in the room.
“Tabi —” I started in warning, but was cut off by a glare.
She looked back to Ever. “Look, we haven’t the time to sit around while you try and convince yourself that you’re not in shock, and I for one would like to be at the facility before our little package wakes up and starts pissing himself in my car. You’re alive, Miss Knight. You’re going to be fine, but we have to leave. Now.”
Ever’s mouth opened and closed like a fish, looking from Tabitha to the bulky suitcase near her front door. “Oh fuck,” she finally breathed. “Is he really in there?”
Tabitha nodded, then pulled Ever none too gently to her feet, before dragging her towards the door. I would have jumped in at any moment if I thought Ever needed me, but she wasn’t having any obvious negative reaction to my assistant — another woman.
I trailed behind, handing Ever’s bag to Tabitha before picking up the case, bashing it into the doorframe as I exited the apartment. The women walked ahead of me, my little rabbit being pulled along by the vicious creature that was my medical assistant, like a toddler in the grocery store. Once Ever was buckled into the passenger seat, I slid into the back next to the the suitcase, hoping I hadn’t yet done any irreparable damage to the foul beast. It wouldn’t do for him to be comatose — I needed him awake for what I had planned. I allowed a hint of a smile to curl my lip, as Tabitha pulled out into the traffic.