Page 162 of Bones
“All of it,” I choked out.
It scared me so much more that he wasn’t yelling. I’d seen him angry. He had a temper to rival mine, and I knew how to handle that. I didn’t know what to do with this terrifying blank version of Vulture.
He stood. “So are you gonna come nicely or is this gonna be a fight?”
“Come where?” My voice shook.
He grinned, showing all his teeth. “Back to the Vault.”
I gasped in fast and panicked breaths, trying to think straight. This couldn’t be happening. Gods, I almost wished the wolves had killed us.
“Let’s cooperate for now,” Trey breathed into my ear, his lips concealed by my hair. “Try to relax their guard.”
“I’ll come nicely if you promise you and your men won’t hurt him,” I said, ignoring the frustrated noise Trey made.
Vulture’s grin widened. “Deal.”
"Bones," Trey growled, “the fuck are you doin’?”
I turned to look at him. “I love you,” I whispered.
That muscle in his jaw ticked and desperate fury shone in his eyes. "I love you too.”
I forced myself to pull away, to leave the safety and comfort of his arms, to stand and walk over to where Vulture waited. His men moved in, grabbing Trey, hauling him to his feet, and binding his hands behind his back. I stopped an arm's length away from Vulture, eying him. I'd not included my own safety in that deal on purpose, hoping he would seize on that technicality. Iexpectedhim to hurt me. I’d left him to bleed to death in the hot desert, but this was between me and Vulture, and I wanted to keep Trey out of it.
Vulture studied me with an unexpected intensity like he was looking for something. When he stepped forward, I tried hard not to flinch but didn't quite succeed, and he raised an eyebrow with a smirk. He slowly stroked a knuckle down my face.
“I missed you,” he murmured.
My skin crawled, but then a sharp pain stung in my arm and I jumped. I looked down to see that with his free hand, he'd stabbed a syringe into my arm. The icy drug rushed through my blood, and I stumbled back a step, swinging my panicked gaze to Trey. It looked like he was fighting the men holding him and yelling, his furious and worried eyes on me. A deafening buzzing drowned out everything. I tried to get my lips to move, but the ground rushed up to meet me.
* * *
The ominous silence loomed over me.
My body floated in darkness, suspended in something not quite like water and not quite like air.
I waited, terrified, for that cold voice to speak. I didn’t dare open my eyes.
The silence stretched on as I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
* * *
I sat straight up with a gasp of panic.
“There she is.” Vulture crouched in front of me in the snow, that empty smirk still on his face.
I stared at him blankly, still gasping in panicked breaths. He held another syringe, so he must have injected me with something to wake me up. I could feel it, the adrenaline surging through me, but my mind and body felt sluggish, still caught in the narc’s web.
“Get her up,” said a cold voice that I recognized with a rush of terror.
Vulture hauled me to my feet and shoved me forward. I stumbled a few steps, my legs and feet still numb, and glanced around disoriented. A huge crowd of people surrounded us, full of familiar faces. We were back at the Vault. How the fuck were we back at the Vault? My thoughts felt like they moved through thick, sticky honey.
