Page 160 of Taken By the Fae

He turns away from me without a word.Coward.

I’m forced to watch while the two of them set up a tray with a colorful lineup of glass vials and needles. My stomach churns at the sight of the purple and blue liquid. I can’t even imagine what that shit is. There’s a good chance I don’twantto know, considering they’re about to force it into my body. My vision blurs as my chest tightens. I swallow hard and look away, trying to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth. It doesn’t work. The anxiety has its claws in me so deep, I can’t escape it.

When Dr. Collins and the man approach the table on either side of me, I use my last bit of strength to attempt escape. I get one arm free, but the bindings on my legs go from my thigh to my ankle. I struggle until I’m dry heaving and sweat is covering my forehead, damp blond strands of hair sticking to my face and neck.

Dr. Collins shakes her head and pushes my arm back into the restraint, tightening it to the point it bites into my wrist, making me yelp at the burn of iron against my skin.

“You can’t do this,” I say through my teeth, my jaw locked tight. “Please.”

She ignores me and reaches across the table for the syringe the man is holding out to her. “Take a deep breath,” she tells me in a robotically calm voice. When her eyes meet mine and I see nothing but cold, calculated focus, I know it’s over.

The tears fall from the sides of my eyes as I blink. I try to swallow the lump in my throat, but it doesn’t do any good. I clamp my mouth shut, keeping my sobs inside, and when she lowers the needle to my skin, I close my eyes and pray it’s over quickly.

Inhaling a sharp breath through my nose when the sting comes, I try to shift away from it, but can’t move. My body knows the second she pushes on the end of the needle. I can’t keep my lips together as my skin ignites painfully, and I scream, hurting my own ears as my eyes fill with tears.

The chemicals racing through my veins are burning the skin off my bones, licking each part of me as the elixir makes its way through my system. Black dots cloud my vision as I slip out of consciousness, but then there’s another needle and more elixir that releases a freezing into my veins. It’s the complete opposite sensation to the previous cycle, but it’s just as painful, if not more.

The room spins, and my throat is raw, but I’m still screaming as everything slips away into darkness. Peaceful, comfortable darkness.

ChapterForty-Five

When I pry open my eyes, there's nothing but silence. Blinking a few times, I try to clear the fog in my head.What the hell is going on?I scan the room, but there’s nothing to see. No windows, no furniture, just plain white walls and the bed I’m on.

I sit up in a flash, sucking in a sharp breath as memories flood through me. I’m not restrained anymore, but my whole body throbs, every muscle tight and sore, and I fall back against the pillows with a strangled whimper. The room I’ve been kept in fades in and out for a few minutes as I force myself to focus on my breathing, willing the pain to subside.

The Experiment.

My eyes bounce around the room in a panic as my pulse thrums faster. Dropping my gaze to the blankets I’m tangled in, I kick them away. I’m wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and gray sweatpants I don’t remember putting on. I lick the dryness from my lips and frown at my bare feet.

My head shoots up at a loud succession of crashing noises and then shouting somewhere on the other side of the door. I bite my lip, debating if I should investigate.Yeah, that’s a good idea. Gotowardthe loud noises when you have absolutely nothing to defend yourself with.

I slide off the bed and creep toward the door. Holding my breath, I reach for the handle and pray it's not locked. Wrapping my fingers around the cool metal, I grit my teeth and turn it. My stomach flips when the handle gives, and I open the door. The Experiment no longer sees me as a threat, it seems.Does that mean the procedure worked?I don’tfeeldifferent, at least not yet. Everything just feels fuzzy.

My feet slap against the white tile floor as I bolt down the hallway, following the pain-filled screams. My heart pounds in my ears and my lungs are strained with each step I take.

I reach the end of the hall and slam my palms against the door, ignoring the flare of pain in my hands as I push it open.

My hand flies to my mouth as I cry out at the sight of Max. His face is bloody and bruised, and the rest of him—held up by cables hanging from the ceiling—doesn’t look any better. My nose wrinkles at the coppery scent of blood mixed with antiseptic.

Flicking my gaze around the bright room only makes things worse. Several people in white coats stare at me with wide eyes; they weren’t expecting to see me. There’s a cart of metal instruments sitting next to Max and my pulse spikes at the sight of blood coating several of them.That’s where the smell came from.It’s also seeping through the material of his gray shirt and pooled on the floor at his feet, staining his shoes red.

Anger boils through me faster than I could’ve imagined possible. I’m out of breath and still I find the energy to scream at the top of my lungs as I charge toward the white lab coats. I launch myself at the lanky one and shove him backward, making him collide with the glass cabinet against the wall, shattering it and the vials of liquid inside. He grunts in pain but stays upright, his eyes narrowing at me as his upper lip curls into a snarl.

Two more lab coats turn to face me, while one of them hurries out of the room, most likely to call for help.You’ll be too late, I want to shout, but I don’t waste any time. I advance on the next one, a petite blond girl whose eyes widen when she sees the fury in mine.

She raises her hands in front of her. “Wait—”

I shove her hard, and she collides with the tray of instruments, collapsing as they clatter to the floor around her. My breath catches as I stare at the scalpel sticking through her stomach and the spreading red stain on her lab coat. I frown, pausing as I realize that I don’t care if she dies.

They think I’m a monster, so maybe I should be.

I want them to suffer.

That might make me worse than these people, but I can’t find the will to care after what they’ve done.

Only one person stands between me and Max, and I’ll take great pleasure going through him.

“Aurora,” Carter says in a low voice. “You shouldn’t be out of bed.”

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