Page 18 of Merciless
“Don’t listen to him,” I said. “He’s messing with you. Reaper, please don’t drink it.”
But Reaper’s instinct to survive was stronger than anything else. He leaned his head forward, dried tongue out to taste. When his mouth touched the liquid inside, he jerked back with a hiss at the pain. The guard’s raucous laughter echoed off the brick walls as he threw the bowl’s contents onto Reaper’s face.
I had to look away as Reaper shook and screamed, his throat already so raw that it was a whispery, aching sound. He reached up instinctively to wipe his face, but the stuff only transferred to the open wounds on his fingers.
The recognition of that smell hit me too late—distilled vinegar. It looked exactly like water if you couldn’t smell it, and it burned every open wound that it touched.
The guard walked out, chuckling amusedly to himself at his little prank. He didn’t have his mask or hood on for this visit, so I focused my gaze on memorizing his features as he locked the door. If we escaped, he was mine.
I also noticed that this particular guard didn’t appear to be under the Sha’s mind control. His eyes were bright with plenty of life there. He wore his expressions clearly, from the conniving smirk when he first walked in, to the peals of laughter from throwing vinegar on Reaper’s face. So the Sha didn’t place everyone under its control, but why?
Maybe they joined its cause willingly,I thought with disgust.
I took a mental tally of the guards the Sha always surrounded itself with. One was the vinegar-thrower, and I recalled a few more that didn’t have that blank, zombie look in their eyes. It was hard to be sure with their faces almost completely covered, but it made sense for something like the Sha to have a few dedicated followers with no need to break into their minds. Not to a normal person maybe, but the leaders of my cult did it without mind control at all.
The Sha was infinitely more powerful. People would align themselves with that thing out of self-preservation, to end up on what clearly looked like the winning side. The Sha probably didn’t even need to offer salvation, riches, or whatever cult leaders promised. All he had to do was not turn them into zombies.
Reaper quieted after several minutes, and I pulled as far away from the wall as I could to get closer to him. “Hey, Reap. Are you okay?”
His head was bent low, chin nearly touching his chest. Blood dripped from his lips, which meant he must have bit the inside of his cheek again.
“Reaper, please say something.”
He didn’t answer with words, but with a slow, barely noticeable shake of his head from side to side.
“Okay, I know. I shouldn’t have asked if you were okay. I know you’re not.” My teeth ground in my jaw at the sheer unfairness of it. Saying sorry or wishing I could help him did nothing of use. Neither did the pep talks, but at least maybe those turned his mind to something besides the pain.
“We’re going to wipe this plague off the earth,” I said. “We’re going to get out. Mari’s going to fix you up and when you’re good as new, there’ll be hell to pay.”
Reaper rolled his head up slowly, like it took every ounce of his strength to do so. He turned his head toward me, both eyes bruised, swollen, and unseeing.
“It’s going to feel so good,” I went on. “We’ll kill the Sha. Kill everyone who followed him willingly and allowed him to get this powerful. Then we can just live. Go on rides every day, spend time with our wife, our family. We just have to get through this.”
Reaper’s lips moved in a shaky whisper and I leaned into the chain around my neck to get closer.
“What did you say?”
He repeated it and I had to hold my breath to hear his weak, whispery voice.
“…I’m…not gonna…make it…”
“Yes, you are.” Desperation bled into my voice. “You have to, and you will.”
“…Sorry…Shadow…” His head lolled to the side before he brought it upright again, an enormous task for a man so beaten down. “…Love…Mari…”
“Stop. You’re the fucking Steel Demons MC president. You’re the instrument of the God of Death. Your work is not done, Reaper. Youneedto live.” He stopped talking and moving, which made my panic spike. “Reaper?Reaper.”
I held my breath again and listened hard for his. Finally, there it was. The weak, sick sound told me he was still clinging to life. Exhausted, and not nearly relieved enough, I leaned against my wall and allowed my eyes to shut. I needed sleep, but my desperation to make sure that Reaper was alive kept jolting me awake whenever I drifted off.
I didn’t tell him the real reason I couldn’t lose him in this place, but it rattled through my mind right then.
If you don’t make it, then I won’t either. Because I can’t live as a man who sat here and allowed you to die.
I joltedawake to the sound of Reaper’s pained groans, my eyes snapping open to see one of the guards kneeling in front of him.
“Get away from him!” I jumped up, pulling on my chains as far as they would allow me in hopes of scaring this person off.
The black-clad figure gave me an impassive look over their shoulder that stopped me in my tracks.That’s a woman,I realized at the sight of blue eyes and long, dark eyelashes. The mask on her lower face covered a delicate nose bridge. Her stature and overall features were smaller than the other guards, and yet I remembered her from the Sha’s personal guard detail. She’d stood in the back, shorter than everyone else. But I was too distracted by the otherworldly creature talking to Reaper and I to pay her much attention.
