Page 146 of Bonds of Pain
The pressure around my throat suddenly vanishes.
Air rushes back into my lungs in a painful gasp, and I blink rapidly, trying to clear my fading vision. Thane is still above me, but something has changed. His eyes are wide with shock, his mouth opening and closing soundlessly.
That’s when I see it—the scalpel protruding from his neck, buried to the hilt just below his jaw. Blood spurts around the blade in rhythmic pulses, matching the frantic beat of his heart as it realizes death is imminent.
My gaze snaps to Maya’s cage, where she stands pressed against the bars, her arm extended through the gap between them. She must have grabbed the scalpel when Thane got close enough, stabbing through the bars with deadly precision.
“Help me find the keys,” she says urgently, her voice cutting through my shocked stupor. “Before someone comes looking for him.”
I try to respond, to move, to do anything useful, but the world tilts sideways as consciousness finally abandons me completely.
The last thing I see is Maya’s desperate face pressed against the bars, still trying to save us both even as darkness claims me.
The world comes back in fragments…
Cold concrete against my cheek.
The acrid smell of antiseptic mixed with blood.
A rhythmic scraping sound that sets my teeth on edge.
I force my eyes open, blinking against the harsh fluorescent lights. My vision swims for a moment before focusing on Maya’s purple hair as she drags me down a sterile white hallway. She’s pulling me on what looks like a surgical sheet, my dead weight making her progress slow and laborious.
An alarm blares overhead, the sound echoing off the walls in sharp, repetitive bursts that drill into my skull. Red emergency lights flash at regular intervals, casting everything in an ominous crimson glow.
I try to speak, but only a rasp emerges from my throat. The effort sends fresh pain racing through my chest where bandages cover what I can only assume are surgical incisions. When did she have time to…
“Maya,” I manage, the word barely audible over the blaring alarm.
She stops immediately, dropping the edge of the sheet to spin around. Relief floods her face when she sees my open eyes.
“Thank fuck,” she breathes, falling to her knees beside me. “I thought you were never going to wake up. I thought I was going to die down here by myself.”
Her arms wrap around my shoulders in a fierce embrace that makes me gasp with pain. But I don’t pull away. The solidwarmth of her body, the familiar scent of strawberries and champagne now mixed with fear-sweat and something metallic, grounds me in a way the bond no longer can.
“How long was I out?” I ask, my voice still rough.
“Hours, I think. Maybe longer.” She pulls back to study my face, her hands gentle as they check for injuries. “I bandaged up the worst of what he did to you, but I’m no medic.”
Looking down at myself, I can see the evidence of her makeshift field surgery. Torn strips of fabric are wrapped around my chest and arms. The bleeding has stopped, but everything aches with a deep, persistent throb.
Maya helps me sit up, supporting my weight as the hallway spins around me. The sheet beneath us is stained with blood and other fluids I don’t want to identify.
“Can you walk?” she asks, her voice tight with urgency.
I test my legs, surprised when they hold my weight despite their trembling. “I think so.”
Maya presses something into my hand—the scalpel, still stained with Thane’s blood. “This is the only weapon I could find.”
I close my fingers around the familiar weight of a blade, the metal cold against my palm. It’s not much of a weapon, but it’s better than being defenseless.
“How did you get past the guards?” I ask, struggling to my feet with her help.
Maya shakes her head, purple strands escaping from her disheveled hair. “There weren’t any.”
That stops me cold. “What do you mean there weren’t any?”
“I mean the lab was empty except for us. No guards, no assistants, just Thane.” She glances back the way we came, her face pale. “When I finally found the keys and got out of that cage, I expected to fight my way through a dozen men. But there was no one.”
