Chapter Fourteen
Pain pulsed through Katya’s skull as consciousness returned in uneven waves.
Her eyes fluttered open, seeing nothing but shadows.
She shut them again and groaned. Her mouth was dry, her throat tight.
She reached out a hand and felt nothing but cold concrete beneath her fingertips.
Muffled sounds reached her from outside.
Her stomach lurched abruptly and she heaved.
Curling herself into a ball, she whimpered helplessly.
She came to again with the sound of a heavy metallic door scraping open. She opened her eyes a sliver. Light filtered through from outside, hurting her.
“Good morning, sunshine.” The man’s coarse voice rang in her ears like a gong. She let out a yelp as he picked her up from the collar of her shirt and lifted her to her feet. “Time for a bath,” he said.
“What?” she asked, confusion swirling in her mind. Her knees threatened to buckle, but he kept a firm hold on her.
“Bath,” he said again, pushing and half dragging her outside.
“No,” she cried, scrambling to fight.
The man chuckled, effortlessly pulling her into an adjacent room. It was small, tiled from top to bottom.
“Stay,” he said, pushing her onto a chair placed in the middle of the white space.
“What?”
A door clanged shut, and suddenly a strong jet of water came from nowhere.
Katya yelped and tried to stand, but the force of the hose was too strong.
She slipped and fell to the floor, banging her knee with a sickening crack.
For some reason, that seemed to wake up her sentient tiger.
It roared to life, angrily. She was an apex predator.
She would destroy all those who dared hurt her.
The transformation came almost immediately.
Her bones shifted and transformed. Fur sprouted on her flesh, her teeth elongated.
Her pupils dilated, sharpening the world around.
She would kill all of them. The jet of water intensified.
She roared in anger and lurched against the walls, aiming to find the culprits.
The sound of cackling laughter reached her, enticing her into a rage She would get them and tear them limb from limb.
As sudden as it began, it stopped. Water dripped from the walls in slow steady ticks like a clock.
She paced back and forth, scanning the cage she was in.
Katya tilted her head and spotted an opening at the top.
There. She sprung and fell back as an electric current hit her so hard, she shifted into her human form and began to convulse.
Foam formed at her mouth, dripping at the edges.
Her body twitched, helplessly, and weakness she’d pushed aside when she shifted returned full force.
****
She woke up on a bare cot, still dressed in her wet clothes.
She pulled her knees to her chest and examined the area.
The room was so tiny it resembled more of a closet.
In the corner, there was a bucket and little more.
She shivered, her teeth chattering against her skull.
She reached inside of her, beckoning the tiger to come out, but it was frozen in fear after the electric shock.
Tears unbidden steamed down her face. She was going to die here.
She’d lose her sister, her mate, and herself.
This would be the end. She should have known from the start this would be the result of her actions.
She’d endured it before on a lesser scale when she’d first arrived and they’d taken her passport and belongings, isolating her from the world.
Back then, she had survived by hanging on to the knowledge that her sister was alive, and she’d be able to help her, but now, there was nothing.
She couldn’t fight them. They were much more powerful than her.
A noise alerted her to a visitor. The door, however, didn’t open, but the slot in the middle groaned heavily as it slid. A tray appeared and on it a single object which began to ring impatiently.
Fearfully, she stood and made her way to the phone. She picked it up.
“Hello?”
The video call turned on and the image of her sister came onto the screen. Dressed in a camisole, with her hair hanging loose, Irina sat on a chair tied down and blindfolded.
“Irina,” Katya sobbed.
“Katya?”
“Please, don’t hurt her,” Katya wept. “I’ll do anything. Please.”
“Katya?” The fear in her sister’s voice gripped at her heart, squeezing it painfully.
“Please,” she begged amid tears. “Please.”
Suddenly, Dante came onto the screen. He held something. Her eyes widened as realization hit her. Bile filled her mouth and her already cold skin froze to the paint of pain.
“Please don’t. I’ll do anything. I’ll work for you forever. I—”
“Do you know what this is, Katya?” Dante asked, waving the object in front of the screen.
She nodded.
“What is it?”
“A quill,” she whispered.
“A porcupine quill. My quill. Why do you think they call me Dante Porcupine?” He grinned like a madman, his face stretching into a grotesque mask of pure hatred.
“These babies are lethal,” he explained.
“They’re barbed, you see, so once they penetrate the flesh, removing them is difficult because they just make their way deeper inside.
Not to mention they can hurt your organs pretty badly. ”
“Please,” she whimpered and fell to her knees. “Kill me instead.”
Dante chuckled. “What would be the point of that?” he asked. “No, first you have to learn a lesson, girl, and then I’ll decide what to do with you.”
“I beg you.”
“Katya?” The panic in her sister’s voice tore at her heartstrings. “No.”
“I’ll do anything.”
“Anything?” Dante’s mouth pursed as if he were thinking hard about an alternative, but she could tell he had already schemed what he wanted or needed from her.
“Very well,” he said. “Will you kill the cop?”
Her mind blanked and her stomach twisted so badly she thought she would vomit. Her chest ached as if someone were pushing a knife into it.
“Kill the cop?” she repeated.
“Yes, the one that’s after us. The one that you led to our trail by leaving your purse at his place. That one. You know him. Adam, I believe is his name.”
“I—”
Mate. The tiger whined from its recess meekly.
Her mate or her sister. How could they make her choose? Hot tears streamed silently down her cheeks. She couldn’t choose, but she had to. And there was only one logical choice.
“I’ll do it,” she said at last.
Dante chuckled with glee. He handed his porcupine quill to one of the guards.
“That’s a good girl. We’ll set it up, you stay put.” He laughed hysterically. “As if you had a choice.”
“My sister...”
“Don’t worry. She’s in good hands.”
The call died. The phone shut down. Horror snaked its way around her neck until she could not breathe.
Katya crawled until her back hit the wall and curled into a ball.
She had to keep her sister alive. She was family.
Her only family. She had been doing all this, all these years, for her.
She couldn’t lose Irina for a man she’d met not even a week ago. He was a stranger.
Mate.
A stranger, nonetheless.
She wiped her eyes, aiming to control the sobs shaking her body. Her tiger mewled sadly.
Mate.