Page 30 of Lourdes & the Mafia
“Now,” I say, “we can begin.”
Her eyes flash with fear.
“Kane,” Lorenzo admonishes. “We promised we would take her back.”
“We will, but I have a few questions first.”
“Kane…”
Ignoring my brother, I step closer to the woman, tilting my head up to watch her.
“You harmed something of ours, and we want to know why.”
Her eyes flare and she mumbles something around the gag. I let a sliver loose and she spits at my feet the moment I do.
“Are you here on behalf of the seer?” she sneers. I don’t answer and she cackles. “That dumb bitch slipped from my grasp.”
Behind me, Lorenzo growls a feral sound deep from within his throat.
I fight back the urge to echo it.
“Why did you try to kill her?” I demand.
She stares at me, confused for a split second, then laughs. “I wasn’t trying to kill her. I was trying to simply immobilize her so I couldtakeher.”
“Why?” I bark.
She smirks knowingly but doesn’t reply.
A fighter, then.
Soon, I’ll pull the answers from her in screams.
Sensing the rising danger, Lorenzo grabs my arm. “Kane,” he warns.
I ignore him, falling into the mask of the jailor. The torturer. It slips over me like a second skin, settling exactly where it belongs until it’s as much a part of me as the darkness. There’s a distant part that’s telling me to stop, to wait. It’s Lorenzo’s voice and partly my own, too. The part of myself that isn’t consumed by the madness of The Pit.
But I’ve lived within the chaos for so long that I’m drowning in it. Like the flames and the screams and the torture.
It is me, and I am it.
And it is a consuming force.
I smile as it begins. Magic pierces her flesh, hitting major arteries with every question that I snap out. And each time, she refuses to answer, no matter how hard or how agonizing I make it.
Behind me, Lorenzo is calling my name, but it’s nothing but a distant cry. I can barely hear it through the pounding in my own ears through the consuming need to make her hurt.
“Who?” I demand to know. “Who wants her?”
I slash and slash until I taste blood against my lips. Every strike of my magic feels personal now. Like I’m standing there in the middle of The Pit and I can’t stop inflicting pain until she’s screaming. I drown out the sound of her screams with my darkness so that no one else can hear but me. And Lorenzo.
He tries to stop me. I can feel his hands on my body trying to yank me back.
But I’ve been consumed completely.
“Who?!” I demand again.
Only this time there’s no response. No screaming. No guttural sound of pain.
