Chapter 28
Pagosa Springs, Colorado
Early August
Artemis
I shivered against the floor. The shackles on my arms and legs were clipped as tight as they would go after I had started attacking the soldiers. The shackles on my hands were no longer attached to the floor but to a crank they used to keep my arms away from my body. I was stretched out on the floor, unable to curl up and protect my body.
The stone floor beneath me was icy, gnawing at the bare skin of my back while I lay prone, shackles biting into my flesh.
I was in a different room than before. The room was bare, save for a single flickering light bulb hanging precariously from the ceiling. I looked around at the old machinery. It cast long, daunting shadows that seemed to dance and writhe, mirroring my struggles. I was thankful to be in some light, though it primarily made the lingering darkness around me more startling.
It hasn't taken me any time to figure out how to get my hands out of the cuffs they had put on me. I only had to play into Orion’s games. I had acted passively, refusing to eat. I lay looking at the photograph he had placed in front of me and made sure they thought I was broken.
But I was broken. Brir was gone. I didn’t have anything left to live for. His absence left a gaping void in me that seemed to grow with each passing moment. The more I looked at the photo, the more I could swear I could feel his touch on my face. The way his lips had branded me with his kisses.
My eyes clung to the photograph like a lifeline, tracing over the contours of Brir’s face. The familiar arch of his brow and the crooked tilt of his smile were all etched into my memory, but it seemed so distant now.
But anger also grew the more I looked at the photo of us. How happy we were, the smile still frozen in time on our faces. I wanted them to pay for every tear that had streaked down my cheeks, every pang of pain that had throbbed in my heart, and for every ounce of happiness they had taken from me.
Every time the soldiers came in to check on me, I played dead. I let them think they had won. Played the part of the defeated, broken creature they had intended to craft. My arms lay splayed out, my body lifeless, my eyes empty.
Orion came back several times a day, asking questions. Each time, I gave him nothing but hollow stares and silence. His voice was full of pity, his eyes gleaming with a false warmth. I could see the mask he wore after my mind had cleared and evaded his attempts to gain my trust. He wanted my help with whatever Mother had planned.
Each day seemed to bleed into the next in an endless stream of emptiness and despair, punctuated by Orion's interrogations. He brought the tray of food he’d been trying to coax me to eat for days now, setting it down roughly on the table.
I could smell the irresistible scent of my favorite dishes. It felt like a sick joke—like they were trying to appeal to some remnant of me that hadn’t been sealed off.
This last time, he had gotten particularly angry with me when I had refused to eat. His face, usually drawn with concern, hardened as he looked at the untouched food. "You need to eat," he demanded, but his voice was a thin veneer of anger concealing an undercurrent of uneasiness. “Mother will not be happy if you die. She wants you with the others.”
His words pierced through the fog of my apathy, sparking a flame of defiance. "Let her be unhappy," I murmured, the first words I had spoken in days. Orion stared at me in shock, but I didn't care. His false concern and false warmth were worse than the cold truth.
Orion's face turned ashen, his eyes flickering with fear. He had said too much.
He quickly composed himself, his mouth tightening into a firm line, but the damage had been done. He’d made the mistake of leaving the chains off and the food next to me to tempt me to eat.
I had just waited for them to open the door again. When it did, I’d gone for the throat of the first one I had seen. My clawed hands sliced through the human skin. The end of my tail hadn't grown back yet, but I still had used it to rip the gun out of another soldier's hands. I had plunged my claws into the soft skin of his belly.
The screams echoed off the walls, a symphony of chaos and fear that brought savage satisfaction to my starving senses. The iron tang of blood filled the air, sending a surge of energy through me. They had underestimated me, deeming me weak from the days of captivity. But every second had only stoked the fire within, letting me stew in my anger.
What I hadn't expected was the amount of soldiers in the warehouse. There hadn’t been more than a dozen men with the captain when they had taken me. Now, there were several dozen.
The room erupted into madness. As they rushed in, I moved with a fluidity that belied my weakened state. Blood ran slick on the cold concrete as I danced through them, my claws singing through the air. The more they came, the more they fed my rage.
“Don’t kill him! Tranquilizers only!” Orion screamed as bullets hit the wall next to me. I saw him running towards the man and pushing his gun arm down. “We need him alive.”
My vision blurred red as a fiery rage consumed me. I swiveled and lunged at the next soldier, my claws seeking purchase in his torso. His screams echoed around the room, blending with the frantic shouts of others. I was beyond caring.
Orion stood at the edge of the chaos, his eyes wide with shock.
I had grabbed the gun off the ground when the first dart hit my shoulder. The second hit just as I raised the gun and started shooting back. The gun in my hand kicked back so hard I almost dropped the damn thing.
I didn’t have very many clean shots. The soldiers had taken cover after I had killed the first few.
When I ran out of bullets, I had thrown the damn thing at one of the soldiers who had gotten too close. Then, I launched myself at them, tearing into as many humans as I could. Brir had taught me how to use my new body.
Another dart found its way into my flesh, the sedative coursing through my veins like feathery tendrils seeking to quell my fury. But it only served to fan the flames within me. I had been brought too far and fought too hard to succumb now.
The soldier I tossed the gun at fell, his skull making a reverberating crack upon the concrete floor. His eyes were wide open, filled with a terror that made my lips pull back into a feral smile. Before he could scream, my claws dug into the side of his neck.
I became the predator of my environment. I let my instincts take over, becoming the monster they wanted me to be. I used the claws that this sickness had given me to slice into their soft human flesh. I took down as many of them as I could. I was surprised they hadn’t tried to kill me. That's what I had wanted. I wasn’t strong enough to end my own life without taking as many of them with me as possible. They had killed the one person who I had loved.
My strength started to dwindle, and the chain of soldiers seemed endless. My body was laden with tranquilizer darts, their venomous whispers making my world sway.
I wanted them to end my life so I could be with Brir.
Orion, however, was having none of it. His shock had turned into stubborn determination as he shoved a fallen soldier aside and marched towards me. His hands were balled into fists at his sides, and his jaw was set in a hard line.
"No!" Orion's voice ricocheted off the walls, shouting at the others. Instead of putting me down, they darted me with something else. I felt my senses dulling, the claws retracting, and the spines on my back softening. They wanted me alive but under control.
I snarled, defiant, my teeth bared, but the fight was draining out of me. I could feel it seeping from my pores with each second that passed. Orion reached me just as I collapsed, catching me before I hit the cold, unforgiving floor.
My vision blurred, but a stubborn refusal was ingrained in my being, a rebellion that refused to succumb just yet. I bared my teeth, hissing menacingly at the soldiers now circling me like vultures. A few took a frightened step back.
But Orion didn't flinch.
“Get him back in those fucking chains!” Orion screamed at his men.
My body became weak as I slumped against the wall. I felt their hands on my body. I grabbed the hand that touched me, sinking my claws into their weak body. I heard the human scream. Felt the blood pour down my wrist. I snarled my teeth at the others, who grabbed my hand and pulled me away.
"No..." I gasped, struggling against the restraints the others were snapping around me. My mind was foggy, and my body refused to obey me anymore. Darkness seeped in from the edges of my vision.
"How the fuck did this happen!" Orion shouted in my direction, his voice fading as if he were at the end of a long tunnel. His words rumbled around in my brain, their meaning lost in the fog of my consciousness. I attempted to growl, but the sound came out as a faint whimper.
I woke up to the cold touch of steel against my skin; they had chained me again. The cuffs on my wrists were so tight they hurt. I tried to move, only to find they had added more chains to my legs, ensuring I wasn’t getting out again.
“So that’s how you repay me, Artemis.” Orion sat in a chair next to me in the new room. I couldn’t turn my head to look at him. The collar that he had removed at my request was back on. “I killed the man who killed your lover. Gave you photos of the two of you together so you could have the memories. Removed the restraints so you could eat, drink and shit on your own, and you pay me back by killing my men.” Orion brought the drink in his hand up to his lips and took a deep pull.
I glared at him wordlessly, my focus shifting from the throbbing pain in my hands to the cold fury burning in my gut. My body felt like someone had beaten me after I had passed out.
"Does it hurt?" Orion asked, his voice deceptively soft. His eyes danced with an unreadable gleam as they bored into mine.
"Should it?" I bit back, ignoring the pain that shot up my arms when I shifted against the chains. I could smell the metallic tang of my blood in the air.
I watched as he got up out of the chair. He moved closer and stood over me, where I was pressed into the concrete floor.
"Yes, it should," he replied, his voice echoing ominously around the room, filling every corner with his cold authority. The solitary light bulb swinging from the ceiling outlined his silhouette. It cast terrifying shadows on his visage, making his cruel smirk seem even more demonic. "We're not so different, you and me," his voice hovering like a specter in the small cell. His shadow fell across me, an unwelcome blanket of darkness in the dim light.
“Oh, we are very different!” I spat. “I would never do this to someone.”
His laugh was a harsh, bitter sound that filled the room, echoing off the bare walls. "You'd be surprised what you can do when you're pushed far enough," he retorted. I felt the chill of his contempt seep into me. "You killed my men," he continued, “that makes you worse than me. That makes you a murderer.”
"No," I countered, my voice a husky rasp against the silence that had descended after his damning words. The relentless ache in my wrists flared as I shifted again, my gaze never wavering from his. "What I did was self-defense. You have no right to lock me up in here. No right to have taken Brir from me. I would kill you all if I could.”
“Well, I guess I will have to treat you like every other experiment. Is that good for you, 1134?” he asked.
“My name is Artemis!” I spat back at him, baring my fangs.
He cocked his head to the side, regarding me with a chilling amusement that made my blood boil. "You don’t have a name anymore. Your name is whatever I say it is," he retorted, stepping into my limited field of vision. His eyes held a cruel glint as his gaze met mine. "You're nothing more than a lab rat. And rats don’t have names. They have numbers. I was wrong trying to treat you like you could act like a fucking person."
The silence in the room was as loud as a roaring storm. Then his booted foot came down onto my side, knocking the air out of my lungs. He leaned down to my level, his icy blue eyes piercing mine. His lips were pulled back into a snarl.
“You ungrateful bitch! Who the fuck do you think you are talking to me like that?” He spat at me, his hand violently gripping the chain, keeping me tethered to the ground. “And here I thought we could reach an understanding. You are nothing.”
I gasped as his foot connected with my ribs again, pain rocketing up my side. My vision swam as I fought to suck in a breath against the crushing weight on my chest.
He loomed over me, disgust and fury etched into his features. The glint in his icy eyes seemed to harden.
"Understand this, 1134," he growled, the room echoing with his venom. "You are nothing more than a pawn in my game. Just like Brir was, accept it, embrace it, or I can ensure your short-lived existence is a living hell."
His grip on my chain tightened further as if eager to wring the life right out of me.
Every breath hurt, each gasp drawing in less air than the last. Even so, I forced myself to meet his gaze squarely, shaking and bruised but unbowed.
"Maybe I am a pawn," I wheezed from the pressure of his boot on my chest, "but even a pawn can cross the board to become a queen."
His eyes narrowed, and a hint of uncertainty flashed across his cruel features. But he quickly masked it with a sneer, his grip releasing my chain suddenly as he straightened, towering above me again.
His hand flew out, making contact with my cheek. The sound reverberated through the room like a gunshot. I tasted the metallic tang of blood as my head spun from the force.
I snarled right back, snapping my teeth. He recoiled slightly, and I saw it —that momentary flicker of fear. He was scared of me, but the look was gone as quickly as it came.
His expression hardened once more, a grim mask of cruel determination. "You are worthless," he said again, his voice a low, dangerous growl. His hands tightened around the chain that bound me, squeezing until the metal bit into my skin. "Nothing but a number," his words punctuated by another brutal hit.
Then, a cruel laugh escaped his lips, like the sinister hissing of a snake ready to strike. "Let's see that queen then, pawn," he barked, jerking the chain to yank me towards him. Pain lanced through my body.
His grip on the chain slackened, and I fell to the ground with a thud. The cold cement was harsh against my already bruised skin, but I managed a grin through the pain, blood slick on my lips. "You're mistaking me for one of your pets," I spat, the words choked with raw defiance and a smile pulling at the corners of my mouth. "I'm not like them. I'm not afraid of you." His eyes flared with rage, and he loomed over me once more. “Maybe we can fix that. I think you need some sort of punishment for what you did to my men.” He put his hand in his pocket. “You wanted to use your claws on them. Let's see how you do without them.” He pulled a pair of pliers out of his pocket, walked to the crank the chains there threaded through, and twisted it, lengthening my arms over my head. He pulled the chains tight. I was forced flat on my back on the floor. My body pulled tight. My shoulders felt like they were going to pop out of the sockets.
The cruel glint in his eyes promised unspeakable pain. He approached me, the cold steel of the pliers shining ominously under the harsh overhead light. Each step he took echoed in the otherwise silent room, growing steadily louder in my ears.
I forced myself to keep my eyes trained on him.
With a grunt, he bent over me. His breath reeked of bourbon.
His calloused and unyielding fingers took hold of my left hand, forcing it open. His thumb pressed against the base of my claw. A twisted grin spread over his face as he peered into my eyes, and then he pushed hard into the pad of my hand, forcing the claw from my fingertip.
Sweat dripped down his veiny forehead, landing hot on my cheek. His dark eyes were dilated, consumed by a dance of madness and malice. The pliers were icy against my skin, contrasting with the warm, fetid breath washing over me.
“I tried to treat you with respect, 1134,” he said as he crouched far enough away that I couldn't bite him. “I tried to make this less painful for you here.” The pliers wrapped around the claw of my thumb.
He paused, his grip on the pliers tightening. "Maybe when this is done, you'll learn to appreciate that," he growled, his voice a venomous whisper that carried across the silent room. "But you just had to push it, didn't you?" His voice was low, menacing. The world seemed to slow down as he began to apply pressure on the pliers' handle. I felt the sharp pinch at my thumb, but I refused to let a single sound escape me.
“You should have just killed me,” I hissed.
“Oh, but 1134, you're worth so much more to us alive than dead.” He smiled down at me. “I will just have to find new means to make you behave because I can’t take you to Mother like this.”
The pliers' icy metal closed around the base of my claw, and I found myself panting with the impending pain. His gloved hand was steady and unyielding beneath the mirthful glint in his eyes.
"But you know what they say about cats with claws; they can't hurt you if they don't have any." His voice was a ghastly lullaby, easing me into a nightmare I had no hope of waking up from.
He pulled, and a searing pain zipped through my hand, detonating like a bombshell in my body. I felt every muscle tense, every nerve scream in agony; my body instinctively jerked in response, but he had me pinned by the chains. I couldn’t move an inch. The pain escalated to near-unbearable levels as he twisted, each tug threatening to rip the claw from its root.
Orion’s sadistic laughter echoed in my ears, a chilling soundtrack to the horror unfurling around me. The room began to swim as a wave of dizziness swept over me. I fought off the darkness creeping from the edges of my vision, gasping for breath, forcing myself to stay conscious.
A strangled noise escaped my throat, but I bit down hard on my lip to stop the scream from pouring out. His laughter echoed around the room, a grotesque mockery of human joy. "That's it," he sneered, "now we're getting somewhere."
The smell of blood was heavy in the air as he worked the claw out of my finger.
Tears welled in my eyes, unshed but not unnoticed. He laughed at my pain, the sound harsh in the small, stark room. "And here I thought you were tough," he mocked, his voice dripping with contempt.
His laughter echoed in the wake of my pain, taking perverse pleasure from my anguish. "There's the spirit, 1134," smiling down at me with unnerving satisfaction. The cruel glint in his eyes was my only indication that he felt anything at all. “Cry for me.”
He ground his boot into my hand as he pulled again, and this time, a scream ripped from my throat. It was guttural and raw, filled with every bit of agony that coursed through me.
And then silence. A horrifying, profound silence that swallowed the room whole. Orion stood over me, a sick, satisfied grin spread across his face as he took in my broken form.
The world spun dizzily around me. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth as I bit down on my lip to hold back further screams. His laughter grew louder, the chilling sound twisting through my mind until that was all I could hear.
“Keep it up, 1134,” he said, a sinister glint in his eye. “I do enjoy our little games.”
Unable to find my voice, I merely gritted my teeth, throat raw from screaming. I spat the blood from my mouth right in Orion’s face. His head jerked back, his gloved hand reaching up to wipe it off. His laughter vanished, replaced by a momentary shock.
For a moment, there was silence, broken only by the sound of my labored breaths. Orion stared at me, his icy eyes wide in surprise. Then, a slow, malicious smile spread across his face. He laughed again, the sound echoing off the walls like shards of broken glass.
The cold, harsh reality of my situation bore down on me. Blood oozed from the wound where my claw had been, blood pooling beneath my hand.
"Look at the fire in your eyes," Orion praised, his voice oozing with perverse pleasure, "not completely broken yet." He kicked my hand away, widening the gash. The fresh surge of pain made my head spin, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of a reaction.
Yet even through the haze of pain, I saw it —the glint of sadistic pleasure in his eyes. He looked at my claw in fascination, still between the teeth of the pliers.
I wasn't a person to him; I was an object, a tool for his entertainment, and nothing more. This realization fueled my anger alongside my pain. I wouldn't be broken so easily.
"1134," Orion said, his voice a chilling rumble as he wiped the blood from his cheek. "You do amuse me." He circled me like a vulture, his eyes hungrily scanning my figure.
"Is… is this all you got?" I gritted out through clenched teeth.
He paused mid-motion, surprise flickering across his face before his expression twisted into a sneer. "You want more?" he asked, dropping my claw to the ground and the tinkering sound of it bouncing away.
His face twisted into a vicious grin. "Oh, 1134," his voice dripping with contempt. "You're so much more entertaining alive. Mother is going to be very happy with you."
Orion tightened his grip on the pliers, again preparing to extract my claws. I writhed under him, every instinct screaming to fight, break free, and retaliate. But the chains held me down. They kept me still, no matter how my body bent through the pain.
Feeling the cold metal of the pliers closing around another claw, I inhaled sharply, tensing every muscle in my body for the inevitable onslaught of pain. Orion reveled in the anticipation. A sinister smile stretched across his face as he savored my struggle.
There was another painful jerk, a fresh wave of torment that ripped through my hand. I bit back a scream, my body trembling with the effort. My sight wavered, the room spinning as the pain consumed me, but I held onto consciousness.
Through blurred vision, I watched as Orion displayed another one of my claws like a prized possession. A whimper escaped my lips. He scoffed, clearly thrilled by my suffering.
"That's right," he drawled, his words echoing ominously in the hollow room. "You feel it now, don't you? The reality of your situation is sinking into your bones just as I pull these claws from your fingers. It’s a delightful picture, 1134.”
I choked back another scream as he yanked out another claw, the sharp pain so intense that it almost eclipsed everything else. He let out another cruel, satisfied chuckle as I withered in my bonds.
"Do you know what's funny, 1134?" he queried, the twisted smile on his face never faltering as he dropped my claw to the ground. It hit the floor with a tink-tink and rolled away. "You used your claws on my men. And here I am, taking your only weapon away from you. They already cut off your tail. Someone removed your spines. What do you even have left to fight with?"
His words reverberated in my skull, swirling amidst the haze of torment. With each passing moment, my fears were coming closer to reality. I was becoming weaker, my defenses gradually fading, and Orion was relishing every bit of this one-sided battle.
My vision blurred further as more pain surged through me. He was right. I was becoming defenseless. But his taunts, his malicious satisfaction in my agony, only fueled my determination. My will to survive grew stronger with each piercing pain.
"Your claws, your tail. You have nothing left," he mused with amusement. “I could start ripping out your scales. Would you like that next?”
It was hard to tell if my body was numbing from pain or growing accustomed to it. I was still conscious, still capable of hearing his words. But his voice started to sound distant, like an echo through a hollow tunnel.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" I spat, my voice barely audible. "Patch me back up so you can tear me apart again."
“I would, yes.” Orion smiled. “I would like that very much.”
I might have laughed at his audacity if it wasn't for the agony coursing through my veins. But all I could do was glare back at him, my eyes burning with hatred as deep and fierce as the fires of hell.
Despite the torment, I forced my lips into a defiant smirk. "You can tear me apart all you want," I said, my voice trembling but firm, "but you'll never break me."
Orion's smile faltered momentarily at my defiance, a flicker of uncertainty crossing his face. It was a small victory, but even a small victory in this circumstance felt like a triumph.
"I see that fire in your eyes, 1134," Orion whispered, his devious grin even more pronounced. He held the pliers aloft, the tool gleaming in the harsh light of the room. "I wonder how much longer it will burn."
I clenched my jaw, steeling myself against whatever new torment he had planned. My chains rattled as I shifted, my blood smearing across the cold stone floor beneath me.
As Orion raised his hand to my face, I flinched instinctively. But instead of flesh meeting metal, his fingers gently brushed against my cheek. The unexpected gentleness was a punch to my gut, every bit of the confusing torture he had been playing since I had first met him.
For the first time since this horrific ordeal began, he truly looked at me, not as an object or a plaything— but as a formidable adversary. The surprise in his eyes quickly morphed into something darker, more dangerous.
"Your courage is admirable," he conceded. His tone was almost respectful now, albeit laced with mockery. "We'll see how long that lasts," he added ominously, tightening his grip on the pliers again.
Another pull brought forth a new wave of pain, and I couldn’t stop the scream that tore from my lips.
Orion reveled in my torment, his cruel laughter echoing off the stone walls. "That's it, 1134!" he taunted. "Let it out. Show me your suffering."
I clenched my teeth, cursing him in my head as another scream was torn from me. Hot tears poured from my eyes. I was thankful when the last claw was pulled from my hands. My vision was black around the edges. Hot blood smeared over my arms.
"You're pathetic," Orion sneered, pushing my limp body back against the icy stone wall behind me. His cold eyes gleamed triumphantly. "Who's defenseless now?"
I remained silent, my body sagging in its chains as blood pooled beneath me. My skin was slick with sweat, and tears streamed from my eyes, burning trails down my cheeks. Each breath was painful.
Orion chuckled darkly at my silence, pacing the room in mock satisfaction. He admired his work like an artist admiring their masterpiece —with a twisted and morbid pride.
I was thankful when the world finally went black.