Chapter 38
Chapter thirty-eight
Mandie
The world came back in fragments. I felt cold metal biting into my wrists and a dull ache in my skull.
My eyelids felt like they’d been glued shut.
When I forced them open, the first thing I saw was stone walls like a cave.
It was large, with industrial panels and flickering fluorescent lights that looked out of place.
There was a single reinforced door against the opposite wall.
It was big enough to fit a truck through.
I wasn’t in the Keystone anymore. That much was obvious.
I tried to move, but the handcuffs dug deeper, the chain rattling against the bench I was shackled to. My arms were stretched behind me, shoulders screaming in protest.
I tried to look farther away. A sleek desk sat in the other corner, looking out of place, like someone had dropped a piece of corporate furniture into a prison.
Behind it, arms crossed, stood Tabitha.
What the fuck is she doing here?
She looked exactly as she always did: sharp black suit, hair pulled back tight enough to cut glass, green eyes locked onto me like I was a bug under a microscope.
No surprise. No pity. Just that same expression she wore when she fired people like she was already three steps ahead and you were just now realizing you’d lost.
"Took you long enough to wake up," she said, voice smooth as a blade.
I swallowed, throat raw. "Tabitha." My voice was rough. "Help... I know some heroes. They can save us. But you have to help us get out of here."
She didn’t blink. "Do I?"
"Come on." I yanked against the cuffs. "You know what they’ll do to me. To all of us. You’re not one of them."
A slow, humorless smile touched her lips. "Aren’t I?"
Before I could answer, the door groaned open. Heavy boots thudded against the floor. The stench of exhaust and sulfur rolled in before they did.
Brickslayer strolled in first, all red skin and black horns, blocking the light. He cracked his knuckles, which sounded like gunshots in the small room.
"Well, well. Look who’s finally awake," he growled, voice like gravel. "Thought we lost you for a second there, sweetheart."
Conductor slinked in behind him, yellow suit gleaming under the sickly light. He snapped his fingers, a spark jumping between them. "Yeah, she’s tougher than she looks. Had to hit her pretty hard to keep her down."
Soulflame brought up the rear, silent as always. His fireman’s coat was unbuttoned, the glow of embers flickering in his palms. He didn’t speak. He just looked at me like I was already ash.
My stomach twisted. "Where’s Johnny?"
Brickslayer barked a laugh. He dragged a chair from the corner, legs screeching against concrete, and straddled it backwards in front of me. "Oh, don’t worry about him. He’s in good hands." He wiggled his rocky fingers. "Well. Mostly."
Conductor snickered. "You should’ve seen your face when the smoke hit. Priceless."
I lunged forward. The cuffs jerked me back hard. "If you touched him—"
"Relax," Brickslayer said, holding up his hands. "We didn’t lay a finger on any of your little boyfriends. We just wanted you." His grin widened, all teeth.
Tabitha finally unfolded her arms, stepping around the desk. "Enough." Her voice cut through the room like a scalpel.
Brickslayer shot her a look but stayed quiet. Conductor couldn’t resist. "Oh, come on, Boss." He drew the word out, dripping with sarcasm. "We’re just having a little fun."
Tabitha ignored him.
Above us, a roar shook the dust from the ceiling beams. Tabitha’s gaze lifted toward the sky forcing me to do the same.
Not again.
The roof groaned, then vanished as a massive shape tore through it. A dragon, sleek, black, terrifying, swooped down into the open space of the floor. It landed with a heavy thud that rattled my teeth.
Then, the scales rippled. The beast shifted, shrinking and twisting until a young man stood in its place. He was about my age, looking deceptively harmless in casual clothes, dusting off his shoulder like he hadn’t just been a mythological monster.
“That’s a cute parlor trick. You do kids' parties too?” I spit in the man’s direction.
He walked over to me and shifted into the form of a young woman.
“Wow, I never get to meet another Jawbreaker fan. What’s your favorite song?” he said, now in the form of Cassie’s waitress.
“You were at the sushi restaurant,” I realized.
He shrugged. “Yeah, I lost one of my trackers. Must have gotten stuck on your shirt.” He shifted back into his six-foot lean male form and walked away.
Before I could process that, thick black smoke poured into the room, pooling on the floor before contracting violently. It solidified into the form of an older, well-dressed man, his edges still wavering like ink in water.
What the hell is going on?
Then the temperature plummeted. A man covered in thick frost walked in from the shadows. He shook himself like a dog, sheets of ice cracking and falling from his tactical gear.
"What the fuck is all this?" I yelled.
Tabitha shot me a grin. "I see you met our new members. That young man who was the dragon? That is Ghostshift. Our frosty friend here is Frostcore. And last but not least, our magical friend with the smoke is Mournok."
I stared at them. Monsters, all of them.
"You should all change your names to asshole," I shot back.
"I don't think you, of all people, should be making demands."
The voice came from the darkest corner of the room.
Victor Scarpetta stepped out of the shadows, his eyes cold and devoid of anything human.
He entered like a man who owned the air he breathed, like the room itself bent to his will. His suit was so perfectly tailored it looked painted on. His hair didn’t have a single strand out of place. That scar on his neck peeked above his collar like a dirty secret.
"Thanks for joining us," he said, smooth as a knife sliding between ribs.
I let my lips peel back from my teeth. "Fuck off."
His hand moved faster than I could track. One second, he was standing there like a bored aristocrat; the next, my face exploded in pain.
The crack of his palm against my cheekbone echoed off the walls. My head snapped to the side so hard my vision blurred. Blood dripped from where my teeth had cut my inner cheek. I swallowed it down, forced my head back up, and met his gaze without blinking.
Victor exhaled through his nose, almost amused. "I see my son likes the bad girl type." His fingers twitched, like he was considering hitting me again just for the sport of it. "Just like me."
My jaw pulsed. "Teddy’s nothing like you."
That laugh of his was worse than the slap. It slithered out of him, dark and knowing. "Partially true." He adjusted his cufflinks. "My son is weak. Sentimental. He is too weak to do what is required." His lips twisted. "But now that I have you…"
He reached out. I jerked back, but the cuffs held me fast. His fingers brushed my temple, then slid down to my jaw, tracing the line of it. His touch was dry, clinical. The kind of thing a butcher might do to a cut of meat before deciding how to carve it.
I bared my teeth. "Get your hands off me."
He ignored that. "Let’s talk about choices.”
“Let’s not.”
“Choices, Amanda. Life is full of them. Teddy will have to make one soon. Save you… or stop me from becoming something far more powerful than he could ever dream of."
My stomach twisted. "He’ll choose to stop you."
Victor’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. "Will he?
" He stopped pacing. "You see, I know my son. Better than he knows himself. Deep down, he’s still that little boy who couldn’t save his mother.
" His voice dropped, venomous. "He’ll try to save you.
And while he is wasting time with that, I will be collecting the sixth milestone I need to become untouchable. "
A shiver ran down my spine, but I locked my face into neutral. "You’re disgusting. Every woman I talk to thinks so."
"Really? I think your friend Cassie would disagree with you."
“You stay the hell away from her.”
“And she isn’t the only one,” he said in a sly tone.
Tabitha stood up from her desk in the corner. She walked over to Victor, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him. It wasn't a quick peck; it was toxic, possessive, and performative.
"God," I gagged. "I am going to throw up."
Victor released her, smirking. "I guess we should be thanking you. You are part of the reason why we were able to collect our other milestones."
"What the hell are you talking about? I never helped you with shit."
"Project Titan," Victor said softly. "It was never about a futuristic security system to predict crime. That is impossible. It was a lie. What all of you analysts were really doing was analyzing data to figure out what the tableau was telling us."
Victor wrapped an arm around Tabitha’s waist. "This artifact we possess... it speaks. But being from an older culture, it can be hard to know what it is saying. Especially since it references minerals science hasn't discovered yet. You helped decode the map."
"Well, I didn't help you that much," I growled. "Instead of fifteen-minute breaks, I took forty. And I did that five times a day."
Victor's face feigned disappointment. "Don't worry about that. Your friend Cassie is quite the superstar. She has been working an extra twenty hours a week to help finish Project Titan, hoping it could bring you home. She is quite pretty, isn't she?"
My blood ran cold. "Don't you talk about her like that."
"When I reach my full power, and after I kill my son and his friends, I might collect her," he mused. "Bring her here with you. Then I will use you both any way I wish. And you will both wish you were dead."
I turned to Tabitha, bile rising in my throat. "You okay with your boyfriend wanting to play around with us?"
Tabitha smiled. It was a real smile for the first time since I’d known her. "Oh, I would be joining him. And trust me, I can't wait for the pain and pleasure of playing with you specifically. You will be in all the pain. I will have all the pleasure."
Victor straightened his jacket, smoothing away my existence. "We need to prepare. The tableau will be talking soon, and we will need time to decipher the next location."
I yanked against the cuffs again. "You’re all going to die. You better hope those heroes get to you first, because they will take it easy on you. I won’t."
They all laughed, turning to walk away. Victor stopped at the door and looked back over his shoulder.
"Oh, and Amanda?"
I glared at him.
"When Teddy comes… make sure he sees you." His smile was a razor blade. "I want him to feel what he’s losing."
He pointed to Soulflame, who was standing silently by the wall.
"Watch her. Make sure she doesn't try anything funny."
They left, the heavy door hissing shut, leaving me alone with the silent fireman.
I decided to try. I had to try.
"Richard," I said, keeping my voice steady. "Please. You have to help."
He ignored me, staring straight ahead.
"I have been talking with your son," I pressed. "Johnny. He still believes in you. He says deep down, you are a good man who just got pulled into a bad situation. You can make this right."
Slowly, Soulflame turned his head. His eyes were hollow, glowing with dying embers.
"I have no son."
He turned his back to me, refusing to say anything else.
I tested the cuffs again. Useless. "You’re really going to let him do this?"
He didn’t answer.
Darkness swallowed the room as the lights flickered.
Teddy was coming. And these bastards were going to pay.