Page 40 of Deathless
“Some of them. They’d drag me out to watch sometimes. I heard pretty much all of them.” The look in her eyes wasn’t pity but commiseration. “Did you see one?”
She nodded. “Got a bird’s eye view.” Only then did she step back, bringing her hands to her hips as she looked thoughtfullyat the woods. “I want justice for them too. And the gladiators that died. Everyone who’s been hurt by the cult since the beginning.”
“There’s too many to count,” I told her with a shake of my head. “Not just men, either. Women who have tried to run away. The blood bags, the—”
“What?” She cut me off. “What are blood bags?”
“Men that they keep alive just to cut them so they bleed. It’s how they indoctrinate the young girls. Once they start their period, they cut the blood bag and make him bleed every day they themselves are bleeding.”
Rori’s mouth fell open, her face going pale. “You mean, like...” She trailed off, swallowed, and tried again. “It’s a bunch of shallow cuts all over their body?”
“Yeah, usually avoiding areas with big blood vessels to prevent permanent damage. Nothing on the neck, wrists, the chest near the heart, but everywhere else is fair game. They want him to stay alive. That’s his whole purpose, to bleed.”
I hadn’t told anyone about the blood bags yet, and it felt good to get it off my chest. When I occasionally saw those men covered in thousands of tiny slashes, both old and fresh, I sometimes wondered if my position was better or worse than theirs.
“God fucking damnit.” Rori raked her hands through her hair before balling them into fists.
“Sorry,” I said. “I probably shouldn’t be so graphic.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m glad you told me.” She gave me a weak smile, but her eyes still looked haunted. “I’m...pretty sure I know someone who was a blood bag.”
“You do? Here?”
“No, someone from back home. A family member. He’s, well, older than us.”
“How much older?”
She shrugged and wobbled her head. “Fifties.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Damn. He must have been one of the first, then. How’d he escape?”
“I don’t know. He never talks about it. Not to me.” She crossed her arms, frowning. “I suspected he’d been a victim of theirs after I started to learn more, but I had no idea it was...like that.”
“It’s a fucking nightmare,” I agreed.
She glanced at me. “You’ve been having nightmares?”
“Oh yeah. They’re routine at this point.” I shrugged. “Talking to Malik is helping. So is waking up next to Devin.”
A slow, knowing smile spread across her face. “So that’s happening, huh? You and Devin.”
I hesitated before answering. He and I never talked about keeping our ‘thing’ a secret or being open with it. I suspected he had a crush on Rori, so maybe he didn’t want her to know? He wasn’t the type to sneak around, though, unless he was being the Ghost and putting knives in people’s throats.
“I had my suspicions,” Rori said in my silence. “He did mention feeling something for you, from before.”
I gaped at her. “He did?”
Rori’s eyes went wide, and she placed her fingers over her mouth. “Oh. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to say anything.”
“Whatever.” I waved it off. “It’s out there now.”
She cleared her throat. “Well, I’m glad you two are making each other happy.” She sounded a bit stiff but otherwise genuine.
“Thanks.” I glanced down at my hands, unsure where else to look. “Maybe one day, I’ll be able to be with a woman again, but not for a while.”
“Oh yeah?” Her eyebrows went up in surprise. “So this thing with Devin is temporary?”
“No. I mean, I don’t know. I don’t want it to be, but I don’t know whathewants. I’m a mess mentally, and with everything going on…we haven’t really talked about it.”
