Page 48 of Rose and Shadows
I listened, finding I had to strain, because the holy water was compromising not just my strength, but my senses too. I hadn’t felt it at first… maybe the longer it was in my system, the worse it got in that respect and impacted me all over, not just strength-wise.
I heard the rapid-fire opening and closing of a door.
Then… whimpers. Definitely not his.
In the next moment, two blurs caught my eye, before a body was thrown across the floor, rolling to a stop just a couple of feet from me.
I choked as I took in that once familiar blond curly hair, the compact muscular form, and even that leather choker he was still wearing all these years later—a mark of his cruel gang that he’d run even as a teen in our pack.
Jesse Harmon in the flesh.
Or what was left of him.
He was battered and bloodied. It looked like his shoulder was dislocated. There were deep carvings across his bare torso, wounds bleeding all over the place. The denim shorts he was wearing were covered in dirt and I could even smell a whole lot of piss.
He groaned as Victor yanked him up by his hair into a kneeling position. He twisted his fingers in the strands and used it like a handle to keep his captive there—looking right at me.
Jesse’s glassy, pained eyes hardened when he saw me. “Thaine,” he croaked. It took him a moment and then a sadistic smirk curved his lips as he registered my chained situation. “Victor, this was all just a test? To make sure I was worthy to put this hybrid freak down?”
Victor tugged at his hair painfully, making Jesse cry out. “How clueless you are. Utterly uneducated trash until the end, aren’t you?Puritasdoesn’t want your cell as part of its network. Your shortsightedness and ill-equipped members are an embarrassment to their cause, to their organization. Fortunately, all those members were ripped apart by me. It’s just you who remains.”
“What? What the fuck is this?” Jesse cried, coughing from the strain. “I thought you were… readying me? Part ofPuritaspolicy to toughen up new recruits.”
“Well, your ego and repression rule all that you do, so it’s no surprise you didn’t take a single moment to question my claim.” He dragged Jesse closer to me by his hair. “I brought you here for Lazriel.”
“He’s chained up. Your prisoner. I don’t… what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that he and I are playing a delightful game. He’s not my enemy. He’s not enduring punishment. He’s not awaiting transportation toGenexis. He’s to be mine. And as mine, I’m healing him. And hurting those who hurt him.”
“Don’t,” I rumbled.
Victor’s gaze flicked to me. “Hmm. You wish him to be spared. This despicable excuse for a wolf? Even now as he insults you with degrading language?”
“You mean, like you did?”
“That was calculated, not my real sentiment toward you. I thought you’d realized that—or that Remnant had conveyed as much to you with how well he knows me.”
“I don’t want this. Leave it be.”
His lips twitched.
And then he wrenched on Jesse’s hair, making him scream as he ripped several clumps out in the process.
“Apologize!” Victor roared in his face.
“Sorry… sorry!” Jesse cried desperately as Victor pulled harder, drawing blood from his scalp.Jeez.
“There. It’s done. Let it go now,” I told him.
And I wanted that fucker out of my sight. I’d barely even looked at him properly since Victor had dragged him in here. All that shit with him was in the past. I’d made my peace with it. I didn’t need or want a fucking reckoning. Besides, my power here was my peace—in myself and with my loves. Nothing else mattered. Certainly not some pathetic vengeance or getting-even mentality. There was just emptiness in that. Fuck all of that.
“It’s done, hmm?” Victor spoke. “As you wish.” He released Jesse suddenly, rose to his feet and stepped back with his hands held up.
What was he playing at? He didn’t back off. Well, not without some manipulative or fucked-up reason.
Jesse staggered to his feet, glaring at me. “Apologize? To you? That was for his benefit. You’re nothing to me! A fucked-up creation that should’ve never been! How fucking dare a thing like you want me? How dare you fucking put that on me?”
In the next second, he lunged at me, shrieking, “I’ll kill you! After all these years, I’ll end that shit you stirred in me—shit I never fucking wanted! I’ll rip your fucking heart out, then it’ll be over!”
