Page 141 of Stutter

“All of it will,” I say clearly, finally tearing my eyes away to look at my deranged doctor expertly shaking and then tipping the vial to fill the barrel, a mad scientist. A doctor. Mine. All mine.

It takes two full rounds until Stephen is limp, his eyes moving back and forth and I crawl to my mask, retrieving it from my puke pile and tug it on.

I stand over Stephen and squat on his stomach like a paralysis demon and watch as his eyes fill with absolute terror. His breathing quickens, his chest going up and down quickly and then quicker, slight, muffled screams fill the chamber we’re inside.

“He’s pissing himself,” Maverick warns but I don’t move.

Good.

I stand over his body, cerulean eyes darting everywhere but my face and I slap him so he can focus on me. I can feel his stomach doing something and suddenly, vomit fills his mouth. I stay. Watching as he chokes on his own sick until his chest stops moving. The deafening music in my mind decrescendos to a stop.

When I rise over his corpse, I stumble backward, throwing my mask off. It clatters to the ground behind me andfinally; after looking at my wrist, I leap into their arms and allow myself to scream in pure, uncensored agony.

And they let me.

They don’t ask me to stop.

They don’t shush me.

What I am, is wrapped in a soft blanket and carried up those seventeen stairs.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Damon.

She finally stopped shivering and is asleep in my arms, but I don’t dare let go of her. Not when Maverick put her feet in his lap, not when Jonas asked me to “give her” and then sat between my legs so he could rest his head on her thigh, his hand on her tummy by mine.

She’s mine.

One hundred and fourteen hours and forty-three minutes.

That’s how long she was gone from my sight.

Never a-fucking-gain.

The first twenty-four hours we roamed around the fence, trying to find a break in the barrier. Thank God we’re used to an even more bitter cold climate than here and that Sebastian had included military-grade tactical pants, jackets, gloves, and rations. I’d never seen Maverick so in his element.

By the thirtieth hour, we were able to calculate the time of rotations, determine the distance between the first break of trees to the gardens in the back and side yards, watching the exit and entry points.

By the seventieth hour, we were getting sick of the cold, but we finally found a portion of weak bricks and mortar where we could push the bricks one by one or wiggle them loose.

It was the fourth day when we saw someone approaching us in the far distance, but Jonas recognized him immediately as Ivan, Elena’s favored bodyguard and he almost wept at his feet.

The man was a sleuth, speaking to us with a rich Russian accent as we watched and waited. “The blueprints to this mansion,” he rasped, “show there’s a wine cellar that was renovated and revised.”

“Who owns this property?”

Ivan’s face grew grave as his eyes narrowed. “Ainsworth. This is where the Bones chapter conducts their… initiations.”

Jonas paled and swallowed.

“What does the Bones chapter do for their initiation?” Maverick wonders aloud.

“Did you ever read The Most Dangerous Game?”

My stomach dropped to the cold ground beneath our feet.

Maverick grimaces, understanding what Jonas meant. “They hunt humans.”

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