Chapter 6 #3
Grunting, I turned my head back, my heavy lids prying open.
Opie was standing on my shoulder, wearing a skirt of leaves, his chest wrapped with deerskin.
He’d designed a harness attached to his shoulders, carrying the tips of antlers behind him like wings.
They had been left behind in the agriculture part of the museum next door.
His beard tinted a bright green, his mohawk hair pink.
“Lófasz,” I grumbled, shutting my eyes again.
Chirp!
Exhaling, I twisted to see the imp sitting on my ass, wearing a leaf choker and animal skin shorts, her fingers up and flying around, flipping me off.
“Yeah, fuck you too,” I replied. “And get your fingers away from my ass.”
Chirp!
“I know they always say that when they’re awake.” Opie huffed.
Chirp!
“No, that was a misunderstanding.”
Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!
“It was too!” Opie stomped his hairy feet into my arm.
Chirp!
“Shut. The. Fuck. Up. Both of you.” I sighed again, rolling over, Bitsy flying to the side.
“Ahhhhh! Bitzy, hide! The armed missile is launching! Run!” Opie waved her up to the pillow as she bitched me out, her face scrunched up, her fingers circling the air like windmills.
“Fuck my life,” I muttered. Before, I was a feared mythical legend. Still was to most, but these two little cockroaches did not get the memo. Since Brexley’s disappearance, they had decided to attach themselves to me.
At first, I had hopes they would be able to find her like they did in Prague, but as if she was bubbled in some druid spell again, they couldn’t pinpoint anything.
Pushing off the bed, I grunted, the bruises along my ribs still sore, my hand aching, and fuck, my dick was raw. Disappointingly obvious, it was not because I had been inside her.
The half-drunken memory of the night before, getting off to my friends fucking each other, had me sighing into my hands. I rubbed my face, trying to wake up.
“Seriously, even off duty that thing looks like it’s going to clobber small villages.”
I turned to see Opie and Bitzy sitting on my pillow, staring at me with wide eyes and rosy cheeks.
“Does it have an off switch?”
“Is there a reason you’re here?” I grabbed briefs from a pile on the chair, yanking them on. “You know I’ve eaten imps for breakfast before.”
Chiiiiirp!
“No. Not in that way.” I paused. “Shit.” I tipped my head back with the realization I understood her, my head shaking as I lowered it, grabbing a pair of pants off the pile. “Fuck you, Brex,” I muttered under my breath, zipping them up. “Leave me with your pets.”
“Pets?” Opie stood up. “How dare you!”
“What do you call annoying things that follow you around, nip at your ankles, and beg for treats?”
“I don’t beg for treats.” Opie folded his arms.
“Mushrooms?”
“Oh . . . yeah . . . those I’d beg for.”
Chirp!
“Go annoy Ash then. I’m sure he’d love you to wake him up.”
“We came from there. He was already ‘up’.” Opie air quoted his fingers.
Chirp! Bitzy curled her fingers, matching Opie.
I scoffed, tugging on a shirt. I shoved my feet in my boots.
“Plus, we thought you’d want to know some information we found.”
I looked up, waiting for him to continue. “Well?”
“I don’t think you deserve it now.” He huffed and turned away from me.
I stood up, breathing in, trying to control my rage. I headed for the door.
“Wait? Don’t you want to know?” Opie whirled back to me.
“Tell me or don’t. I’m not wasting my time waiting for you to get over some tantrum.”
“You really need sex, big man. Your blocked-up pistol is making you grouchy.” Opie sighed and let his arms drop. “Fine. Only because you asked so sweetly.”
My hands rolled into fists, but I tried to stay calm.
“We were able to sneak back into the palace.” Opie put his palm up. “Oh, my gods, what’s she done with the decor? Can I say I really love it—is that bad to say? I mean, Killian’s designs were nice, but Sonya has a flair—”
“I swear to the gods, brownie, if you don’t spit it out, I will use you as a flare.”
Opie glowered at me but continued. “So you know the labs Killian had underneath to test the pills?”
“Yes?” I swallowed.
“She’s doing the same.”
We had already come across them last night, but from what Killian said, his labs could only test a handful at a time.
“But it’s worse . . . like sooooo much worse. Like—”
I growled.
“Okay, so you also know the passages underground I had to open for you?”
Chirp!
“We had to open for you?”
“Y-es.” I gritted, my patience almost gone.
“And you know the old prison, the stinky one—though I kinda miss the shower days. Those loofas felt so good when you scrubbed just right . . . .”
“Brownie,” I barked.
“Right, well, that was also left abandoned?”
Acid started to fizz in my chest, sensing where this was headed.
“Get to it.”
“Sonya has cleaned out the wreckage and built a bigger lab and testing area in there, using the cages as pens to hold them.”
“Fuck.” I felt blindsided, but at the same time, it made sense. She had no one to fight for her if she declared war on HDF. She needed soldiers.
Victims.
The place was massive, built to hold thousands of prisoners.
“How many cages are filled?” I stood frozen, dread already pumping through my veins.
“From the lower ones that weren’t destroyed in the bombing?”
“Yes.”
Opie swallowed, his hands twisting.
“All of them.”