V for Vindictive Bitch
When the empty, endless sleep I’d been drowning in finally slipped away, my body was paralyzed and I couldn’t open my eyes. Whatever drug they’d given me, it rendered my body immobile.
Fucking figures.
But I could hear the familiar click-clacking of a keyboard and metallic clang of something nearby.
Then footsteps approaching, which were heavy and male by the sounds of it.
Someone else walked over, but their steps were much lighter and far too hesitant to be a Hunter or someone in a position of power.
Using my sense of hearing and touch was all I had. I couldn’t breathe or take in the air around me, so smelling was off the table. I relied solely on what I could hear, and I took special care listening to every sound that might serve me now or later.
By the resonating echo of every noise, the room was very likely small and enclosed.
And by the needles penetrating my skin and straps binding my arms and legs to some sort of bed, it was probably some kind of medical lab.
Had to really love the irony of ending right back where I started—as a lab experiment.
But first and foremost, I was a Hunter. I wouldn’t bemoan my capture; I’d figure this shit out and escape. Grams prepared me for this, and I wouldn’t let her down. I wouldn’t let Phillip and Sloan down.
If they’re still alive…
The acid in my throat was excruciating, but the burn was worse because I couldn’t move or react to it. It just overtook the senses—until I centered myself on the task at hand and not the fate of my two Hunters.
“I want every test run on her again, dammit. Find out what she can do. Now,” a voice I vaguely recalled said, laced with frustration.
“But, sir,” a woman’s voice murmured, the sound of rustling following her soft-spoken response, “her body is showing signs of distress. She needs to recover before we do anything more.”
“Donna—”
“We have her blood, and that should help with determining some other things in the meantime. But if we do too much too soon, there could be lasting effects and—” the woman argued, a little louder than before.
“I don’t care what effects there might be on her!” the angry man cut in sharply, sounding a little too huffy-puffy for my tastes.
And they call us women emotional. Ha!
“We only need to know how to replicate it, and then we’ll get rid of her. She’s a liability as it is. Too many people are already asking questions.”
Oh, great. They planned to make more of me. Now I really had to get off this damn table and get my hands on the blood they took. My to-do list before managing a brilliant escape was growing by the second.
My fucking life, right?
But it was a relief to know that at least Donna didn’t sound like a mindless drone. Something nagged at me about her name and voice, though. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it sounded familiar. Like a forgotten memory.
“But the leaders—”
The man, who I now recognized as my silver-eyed captor, Lux, chuckled without humor. “The leaders are so afraid of some foretold Fae prophecy that they don’t want to mess with her, but she was created for the sole purpose of getting across the planes without diminishing Hunter powers.”
Fae prophecy? That’s not ominous.
“You were on the same goddamn assignment, Donna. You know all of this. She’s ours to do what we will with.
Once we know how to replicate it, we won’t need her anymore.
That’s why I was against a natural home upbringing for her in the first place, but you and those bastards insisted it would facilitate better results. ”
My hatred for this asshole grew with every word out of his terrible mouth. I never thought anyone would come close to how evil Eros was, but here this dude was, the very definition of villainy.
Upside to all of this was evil guys tended to monologue. All that these villain types ever babbled on about was kill this, stab that, “Oh no! She outwitted me again!” like this was some sort of Scooby-Doo special.
Lux huffed contemptuously, continuing his self-righteous monologue, “Lot of fucking good that did. Now we have a real problem on our hands. Rose has gone missing after burning down one of our archives.” Go Grams!
“Two of the best Hunters in the Organization have gone rogue. If you don’t salvage this, it’s your head I’m serving to the leaders. ”
Got to love how surprised these villains acted when people betrayed them.
Like it was such a surprise that people who they meddled with, blackmailed, threw to the wolves and left for dead would somehow figure out it was probably not in their best interest to keep—I don’t know—involving themselves with the assholes responsible for it.
But even better out of this entire fucked experience was that the dude must really think I was going to die here today to be giving away all their best-kept secrets.
Though, most were likely to be in those files we sniped off them.
Still, I couldn’t wait to prove this smug asshole wrong. I’d be the chick that got away.
Give it time, Lux. I’ll show you just how difficult it is to kill me.
But I clung onto something he said. Grams, she’d escaped somehow.
She was still alive, as far as they knew, had even burned down one of their stupid archives like the fucking badass lady she was, and it was like breathing fresh air after suffocating for so long.
Grams wasn’t dead. She was out there being the same badass bitch who raised me.
Something in my core throbbed, but before I could figure out what it might be, it died away to nothing.
The woman beside me made a small sound in her throat, but a door nearby creaked and footsteps resounded on the floor, coming closer.
“We haven’t been able to locate them, sir,” a man’s voice said, a baritone that vibrated in the ears and cut through the clacks of a keyboard and the mechanical sounds of equipment. “But we’ll double-down efforts with our best.”
I didn’t breathe, and from the sounds of the woman near me, no one registered my awakened state. But whatever drugs they had me on made it impossible to do much else but listen.
Figures he’d have me drugged up and powerless, but it was an unbelievable relief to hear my two had gotten away, even if I hadn’t.
“You and your team had better, Grey, or it’s your head I’m serving to the leaders for this ridiculous ineptitude. How hard is it to find and neutralize two Hunters?”
Lux must have a real thing for serving the heads of others to these so-called leaders.
The other man grunted, and then I heard shuffling, likely shifting from one foot to the other—an agitated movement that suggested whoever Grey was, he didn’t care for the way Lux talked to him. “We think they may know where the girl is, so relocating might be necessary.”
That’s promising…
Scoffing, Lux seemed to take a moment to ponder what was said. “We won’t be long. Right, Donna?”
Spoke too soon.
Donna’s small breath was full of resignation, and something about her hesitation suggested she wasn’t there because she wanted to be. “V’s body—”
“I see what this is,” Lux commented, his tone sinister. “You think you can somehow make amends to the friend you got killed? Like that’s going to make her daughter forgive you for what you did.”
Wait…what?
Donna made another sound in her throat, clearly reacting.
“I didn’t know they’d be killed,” she argued helplessly.
“And you said they wouldn’t be hurt, just given a warning.
They didn’t even know anything, Lux. She…
Mariam didn’t know anything.” Her voice cut off into a small sob.
“She would’ve told me, and I would’ve seen it in her thoughts.
” Without seeing her, I knew she was crying.
“She was a capable Hunter, and she would’ve listened—”
“Bullshit. They were clearly sticking their noses where they shouldn’t, and it was only a matter of time.
How else did you expect it to end, Donna?
Her daughter was a genetic monster created to help us cross over to the other realms, and she would’ve done everything to get her away from us.
Three hundred years’ worth of research done by trial and error would’ve been gone, vanished, ended.
” Lux laughed again, his mocking tone carrying through the air.
I was still digesting the bastard’s previous accusation, but the way Donna responded was telling all on its own. Her voice quivered. Their deaths weighed heavily on her. Either she was coaxed into giving the information, or she genuinely hadn’t expected it to lead to their deaths.
Grams taught me how to detect deception and outright lies in what others said, and while I couldn’t use my sight to confirm, I was confident that Donna hadn’t wanted them hurt.
She cared about my mother. It was clear in the way she said her name and how her voice softened.
My mother, even now, was someone she viewed fondly.
“Make no mistake,” Lux went on officiously, “it was your information that got her parents killed. Only a handful of us knew its location. And for the same reason you ratted those two out, you’ll put an end to this girl when the time comes.
Don’t lose sight of all you’ve done here to advance the Organization’s goals.
The girl is a liability. Prophecy or no, she has the power to destroy our entire operation, and that means you and the ones you care about. ”
“Brother—”
Brother?
Hissing, Lux cut her off. “I told you never to call me that in public, you stupid cow. Run another magic panel,” Lux commanded, his voice razor-sharp.
“I said she needs to rest,” Donna stated in a powerful voice, finding her courage despite her earlier hesitation.
The tremor was still there, still in the undercurrent of her tone, but I could almost see the faceless woman lifting her head, eyes trained to the bastard near her, ready to fight should she need to.