Page 56 of His Curse

I pry my eyeballs off my mate and clear my throat, then start talking over the fae I appreciate just as much as her sister-in-law. "The guards are all maximum security cons from most of the mental hospitals or prisons between Wyoming, Iowa, Montana, and Colorado. The head of security, Dick, was doing life without parole for the serial rape and murder of about twenty confirmed women, ten of which were his family members, and he claims his body count was higher, but there's no proof."

Well, that shut everybody up.

And got all eyes on me again, which I'm not a huge fan of, but I know Cora was going to say something related to Colton and I being mates, and now is not the time for that.

There may never be a time for that.

"The rest of the guards are the same, have a similar history, and despite the combined abilities of everyone held at the facility, it's been enough to keep us all in line."

"Why hasn't anyone gotten out before you?" Frankie asks while shooting Colton the stink eye. "And why hasn't anyone goneHulk Smashand just killed the humans?"

"Kentworth uses tranquilizers to immobilize us, tranqs made of wolves-bane and morphine, not lethal doses but enough to knock most anyone out.” I'm so fucking fidgety now and I have nothing to occupy my hands except food I no longer want to eat. "And he has restraints, restrictive devices that he makes us wear to prevent us from shifting or using our abilities.”

"Like what?" Havok asks while not looking at me. Nope, he's staring daggers at Colton.

Gods, I feel sick.

Sick and heartbroken and sad.

But I have to put it all out there so they know what we're dealing with.

I'll lick my wounds and cry myself to sleep later.

"Vampires and shifters have to wear collars. There's an iron disk that closes around the neck, one that is triggered the second one tries to shift or go full vamp, and will decapitate them instantly. Since that doesn't always work on vampires, their collars also have a chest plate that contains an iron spike that will pierce the heart while simultaneously trying to..."Yep, feeling super sick.“Everyone else gets something tailor-made to debilitate their gifts."

"Everyone else?" Colton asks from worlds away. "There are others?"

I nod and stare at the counter but Ronny surprisingly answers. "You missed quite a bit already, Colt. Probably shoulda prioritized better."

With a wince, I ignore his obvious jab at his uncle. "The banshee, Wes, has a mask he has to wear, one made of iron and lead that covers his nose and mouth in order to prevent him from screaming. The sorceress, Bella, her gifts manifest through the use of her hands so she has to wear lead lined gloves that are shackled at the wrist with a mechanism that could potentially slit her wrists if she were to tamper with them. Kentworth modifies based on his subject, but he always finds a way to prevent anyone from fighting back."

"Except you,” my mate almost whispers and I swear I hear a touch of pride in his tone.

Something else I have to ignore or else it'll make me think things I shouldn’t. "In a weird way, Kentworth trusted me. I'm the only one who’s been there since the beginning and over the years he almost developed a soft spot for me.” That thought makes me snort at a wildly inappropriate time, so I explain. "I mean, his version of one anyway. It didn't save me from any punishments, probably made them worse to be honest, but because I'd been with him so long, he started to tell me things he shouldn’t, and we fell into a routine. The tests he ran on me required my collar to be removed, required that I was never injected with anything that could taint my blood, and in turn, ruin his research. There were even times he'd only strap my legs to the table and early on, really early on, he stopped anyone else from being in the room with us while he ran his tests."

"Forgive me for asking, Luna.” Ronny turns to face me but bows his head a bit. "If that was the case, then why did it take you so long to get out?"

"It wasn't for lack of trying, I promise you that."

Cora wipes her nose on Havok's shirt then tilts her head. "I've been trying really hard to not go digging through your memories out of respect for your privacy that's been nonexistent for almost fifty years, so this is a shot in the dark, but I’m curious… about how many times have you tried to escape?"

Another out of place snort from me as I ask, "You want every time or just the ones where I got outside?"

"Every time."

"Ninety-three."

"Jesus,” Frankie gasps. "That's more than twice a year."

I nod. "Yep. I only got outside maybe less than half, though. Those tranq guns are no joke."

"What happens after an attempt to break free?" Zan scoots around, glances at Colton then back to me. "I'm assuming this is when the punishments you spoke of took place, yes?"

"Amongst other times, yeah."

I glance at him as Zan asks, "So your punishments varied based on offense?"

"I basically set the standard for the way Kentworth does things. Loss of what little privilege we had, isolation, withholding food or water, beatings. Those were all for relatively minor disturbances, but when I'd try to escape, I'd go into something called theBlack Box. It's basically a five-by-five sensory deprivation chamber that's pitch black. I just did a month in there before I got all the way out."

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