Chapter 3 #2
“Bitzy thinks you’re an idiot.” Opie skipped over my question.
I pinched my nose, still trying to accept they were here. They were real. “Shocker.”
“Do you enjoy being in a cell so much you had to find another?” Opie sighed. “I mean, I’ve heard a lot of women are into being chained up, especially by Lord Killian, but this seems a bit excessive.”
“Gross.” I gritted my teeth, a flush of chagrin heating my neck. “That man is arrogant, heartless, and—” My mind rolled back to the night before, the feel of his body pressed into me, his power vibrating down my bones. The intensity of his gaze as his finger grazed my neck.
“Hot?” Opie pipped in.
Lowering my lids, I glared at him.
Chirp.
“What?” Opie peered between Bitzy and me. “Like you two weren’t thinking it.”
“No.”
Chirp.
“You are both full of shit.” He rolled his eyes.
Chirp.
“Please, how many times have you wanted to put your finger up his nose or other places?”
Bitzy blinked, her head tipping in thought.
“Double gross.” I rubbed my head, sitting back more firmly against the wall, dragging my knees up, yawning. After the traumatic, emotional day before, I pretty much had passed out, my night haunted with cries, blood, and skeletons attacking me. “Any way you can sneak me coffee down here?”
This place could be considered more ruthless than Halálház; at least there, I could get coffee before lashings.
“I’m sorry, do I look like a barista to you?” He motioned down to himself.
“In your outfit, you’d be a good one at Madam Kitty’s.”
“Kitty?” His eyes bulged, peering around him. “Where? Where?” He crouched down, his arms poised to fight.
Chirp.
“I can so fight.”
Chirp.
“I did not scream like a peacock and hide under a pillow.”
Chirp.
“Well, the cat was huge! And I swear it was out to get me.” Opie circled his arms in some generic karate move. “And don’t get all cocky. You hid under the pillow with me. I didn’t see you running out and challenging it.”
Chirp.
“Okay.” I broke off their repartee, holding up my hands at them. “What is going on?”
“You said there was a kitty.” He kicked out his leg. “Come on, fuzz bucket. Come face me now!”
A laugh burst from my chest. It was like clearing out the cobwebs in an abandoned house, letting light into my soul. The giggles bubbled from my mouth, making me feel lighter. I couldn’t even remember the last time I laughed.
“What?” Opie peered back at me.
“There’s no cat.” I held a hand to my mouth, the giggles bursting through my fingers.
“No cat?” Opie lowered his arms slowly, still gazing around.
“No.” I shook my head, wiping away a drop of moisture that escaped from the corner of my eye. A tear shed in amusement, not pain.
“Then why did you say there was?” Opie huffed.
Chirp.
Finger.
“Madam Kitty. She’s a person. She runs a brothel in the Savage Lands.”
“Savage Lands?” Opie went still, his mouth dropping. “You were there?”
“I was.” I tipped my head back to the wall, every detail of my time there still vibrant and loud in my mind. “Only for a few days, but it definitely made an impression. I think you’d fit in well where I stayed.”
“What’s it like?” Opie stepped closer to me, his eyes glistening with wonder.
“I’ve always wanted to go, but Master Finn says only the depraved and disreputable brownies go there.
We should appreciate what we have and not venture out of our world.
We already have the best. No point to see anything else. ”
“The best for who?” I flicked the tassel out of his eyes, hitting Bitzy in the face.
She glared and flipped me off. How sad that her gesture felt so comforting to me.
“Best is relative, isn’t it? What’s best for asshole Finn might not be best for you.
” Damn, if I didn’t sound similar to my old Druid friends.
I thought about Tad and Kek a lot, hoping they were okay.
That they escaped and were safe somewhere.
“I was raised with the same ideals . . . why leave if what I had was what everyone wanted? But the more I’ve seen, the more I’ve learned . . .” I sighed, staring off.
When I was in the Savage Lands, all I kept thinking about was going home, not realizing the little taste of the outside world had seeped into my bones. Changed me.
Could I go back to my walled world and be okay with it?
Keys rattled in the lock, spiking alarm down my spine like a javelin. My gaze darted to the door. Even though it was probably just my breakfast of hot gruel, as it had been every day, my nerves felt thin and raw, as if they had been pulled and worked like taffy.
My eyes flashed back to where Opie and Bitzy had been. Gone. In a second, they’d vanished. I searched the basically empty room to see if I’d see them scurrying away.
Nothing.
The door swung open, drawing me back to the figure strolling in, a sharp inhale pushing me against the wall.
My breakfast was being hand delivered.
“Did you sleep well, Ms. Kovacs?” Killian, looking unfairly beautiful, was dressed in a fitted navy suit, a light blue tie and handkerchief, holding a tray with eggs instead of my usual hot cereal.
His impact was like a punch to the lungs, and I looked away.
Staring off to the side, I tried to ignore his energy bursting around me.
“Not speaking to me?” He walked up to the edge of the cot, waiting for me to respond.
He wasn’t quite what I thought he’d be. I expected the same cruelty as I’d received in the House of Death from this man who designed it.
Not for him to display a strange politeness to his captives like he did with me or Adel in the cell below.
It made me feel unstable and skeptical, waiting for the whip or his fist to bring me down. “I see.”
He set the tray down on the end of my cot. The aroma of cheesy eggs, crispy bacon, fruit, buttery toast, and . . . coffee . . . curled in my nose, making my stomach growl and my mouth water, beckoning me to fall face-first into the plate, moaning in ecstasy.
A breakfast fit for a lord.
My jaw cracked as I turned away again, the smell bringing me to my knees. The last time I had real eggs, bacon, fruit, and imported coffee was back in HDF. Months ago, which felt like years.
“I assure you, there is no poison in it. No crushed pills.” He stood over me, folding his arms.
I stared at a tiny hole in the wall.
“I wouldn’t bother lying to you now, Ms. Kovacs. You have already proven yourself immune.”
I turned to look up at him, my lips pinching.
He smirked as if he could read me.
“Not only were you on them for two solid weeks, but they were in every meal after the first few days passed. Those you saw below took only one pill a day. It didn’t seem to matter: weight, sex, or health.
They were all affected within the first twenty-four hours.
” He settled back on his heels. “I wish to test you another way, if I may?”
“If you may?” I sputtered, anger lashing out like venom. “Please, you are not asking my permission, Killian, so drop the act.”
In a flash, his face was in mine, his hands flattening me back against the wall.
“I told you. Do not call me by my name,” he seethed, his irises bursting with color, his nose flaring.
We stared at each other before he cleared his throat.
“Don’t push me. Unlike your last companion, I do not feel the need to use violence for everything.
” His mouth brushed my ear, which made my lungs constrict.
“But if it is the only way you to obey me, I will.” He pushed back, tugging at his cuffs.
“Eat your breakfast. A guard will be coming for you in ten minutes.” He swiveled around, exiting.
“Oh my . . .” A voice jerked my head back to the tray of food, half a sausage sticking out of his mouth. Opie stood there, fanning himself. “He’s so yummy.”
Chirp.
“No, I don’t think he’d be into that.”
Chirp.
“Bitzy!” Opie’s mouth fell open. “He’s our master. Don’t put those images in my head.”
Chirp.
“You’re right. I totally already thought about it. He’s probably into that stuff behind closed doors.”
“Please stop.” I rubbed my face. “You’re making me queasy.”
“Oh, then you won’t be eating this then?” he mumbled, his mouth sounding full.
My head snapped to my breakfast, seeing a slice of bacon sticking out of Opie’s mouth, while Bitzy’s finger stirred the coffee, licking it off and sticking it back in the cup.
Folding myself over my legs with a sigh, I said, “No. All yours.”
“Oh, good! I know we had a stack of pancakes twenty minutes ago, but I’m starving.” Opie crammed in a piece of toast, butter trailing down his chin.
The lock on my cell clinked, the door swinging open. Peering back at my friends, once again, they vanished as if they’d never been there.
“Let’s go,” a woman’s deep voice barked, jolting me back to the door.
I was shocked not seeing the young cute guard, Iain, standing there.
The woman wore a signature guard outfit with Killian’s symbol on her chest, a sword dangling from her waist. She was over six feet, with a sharp nose and wide shoulders.
Her feather-like short hair was various shades of brown and gold.
Acute gold-brown eyes narrowed on me with utter disgust. “Move it!”
Fuck. I got to my feet, stepping cautiously toward the door.
“Where’s Iain?”
“Did I say you could speak, prisoner?” She shoved me forward, my shoulder ramming into the stone wall across the hallway. “You shut the hell up and do what you’re told before I stop being nice.”
“Someone spit in your coffee too?” I muttered.
Her large hands grabbed my hair, yanking me back, her expression twisted. “Whatever spell you put on the men won’t work with me. That’s why they have me watching you. Iain was growing too fond of you.”
Dammit. Killian saw the weakness before I could exploit it. “I want nothing more than you dead. So, remember your place, human. Or my knife might accidentally slip across your neck, as you deserve.” She thrust me forward, my feet scrambling to keep up.
Shit, what had I done to her?
I stayed quiet the rest of the trip to the lab, but she took every opportunity to shove and push me into walls and doorjambs. My arms were bruised by the time we entered the lab.
“Nyx.” Killian’s voice cut through the air as he stepped into the room with the window, meeting us. “That’s enough.”
“I disagree, my lord. I think the prisoner has grown too comfortable and has forgotten her place. What she really is.”
“And what is she, Nyx?”
“Lucky! I haven’t stabbed a hole through her chest yet,” she replied.
A hint of humor flashed over Killian’s face, his eyes meeting mine. “I see you made a friend, Ms. Kovacs.”
I glared back.
“You are excused, Nyx. I will let you know when she needs to be returned to her cell.”
Nyx dipped her head at his order, snarling at me before marching back down the hallway.
“Better be careful. Hawk-shifters become intent on their prey and are hard to sway off their target. And she really wants any reason to kill you.”
Hawk-shifter. That didn’t sound good for me. “What the hell did I do to her?” I rubbed at my sore arms. “Or is it just because I’m human?”
“The human part is what I want to figure out.” He moved right up to me, his solid body evident under his nice suit. “But that’s not why she wants to kill you.”
“Then why?”
“Because you murdered her partner, Yulia.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Put a bullet through her lover’s heart and watched her fall into the Danube the night you escaped Halálház.”
I blinked and glanced back at the doorway. Holy shit . . . Yulia. Her girlfriend was the owl-shifter I shot while Warwick and I were fleeing Halálház?
Fuck.
“She watched it happening live, so I think that gives her an exceptionally good reason to want you dead.” He twisted around, going for the door. “You will do as I say, or I will let her seek the revenge she craves.”