Torture (Terraway Book 3) Page 4

  I crawled away from Mason, tears pricking my eyes. I knew he was distraught and not himself, but I couldn’t look the other way on this. It was violation on top of pain, and now all I could see when I looked at him was the fear he’d just instilled in me. Von was a monster, and Mason was a selfish prick. I wasn’t sure which one was more dangerous.

  Danny called for Ezra, who padded down the steps, still in his day clothes. I wondered, at this rate, when any of us would find rest again. Danny released Mason, who turned away to hide the tears that stained his shaven face.

  Ezra demanded.

  Danny explained.

  Mason confessed.

  I kept my mouth shut as I cried into my hands in the dark corner. I jumped when Ezra put his hand on my shoulder, breaking me out of my bubble of pain. Very slowly, Ezra pulled me up, and without a word walked me up the stairs so I didn’t have to see Danny sort Mason out.

  7

  Icy Inside

  I slept with Danny and Mariang that night. Mariang was the best kind of mom-sister and simply held me while I cried into her nightgown. Occasionally Danny would reach over Mariang to pat my back in a “hang in there, kid” kind of way. I cried until I exhausted myself, falling asleep in Mariang’s thin arms that somehow felt like the safest place in the world.

  I didn’t leave her bed that day, or that night. The next morning I stayed in her bed, not willing to get out and face the world. It wasn’t until Mariang came back up with a bowl of oatmeal that I even registered it was nearly ten o’clock in the morning, and I was sleeping in like a lazy waste of space.

  “I think you should eat something,” she said in her caring way. She waited for me to sit up in her bed, and then handed me the warm bowl that smelled like brown sugar and freshly cut apples. When I didn’t speak, she started in on the events of the morning I’d missed. “Von’s doing better. Dad’s going to let him out of his cell soon. He’s completely himself now, but he’s staying inside on his own will. Von’s pretty good about that. He knows when he’s too dangerous to be around, and he won’t allow Dad to get him out until he’s certain he’s safe to us.”

  I nodded, taking a bite of food. It was the right kind of too hot. It warmed me in my cold spots that I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to shake at this point.

  “Danny and Dad sorted Mason out. I… I’ve known Mason for years, and I still can’t believe something like that happened. But Danny told me Mason confessed to how he’s been using you.” She shook her head, her black hair swishing from side to side. “You don’t deserve that.”

  “If it’s all the same to everyone, I’d rather not talk about it. I got out of prison and walked smack into that. I’m on the edge of bowing out, so you might want to spread it around not to push me today.”

  “That’s understandable. Danny and I are leaving soon to start the workday. I would invite you to join us, but I can’t imagine you or Mason are ready to jump back into reaping.”

  “You imagine right. I’m going back to my house as soon as I finish breakfast.”

  “I don’t think that’s wise,” came Ezra’s steady voice from the doorway. He was freshly showered and wearing khaki pants with a blue button-down that had lavender pinstripes. He was fastening his cufflinks, frowning at me with an air of paternal scolding. “Your house isn’t nearly as safe as mine.”

  “I’ve given up on being safe. You know as well as I do that it’s a pipe dream. It doesn’t seem to be an option no matter where I land. I don’t live here, Ezra.”

  Ezra’s eyes were earnest, and his voice was firm, but gentle. “But if you did, I could protect you better.”

  “But I don’t.” I wasn’t trying to be bull-headed; I just wanted my own bed. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. Really, Ezra. You’re like, the nicest man I’ve ever met. And Mariang?” I turned my attention to the girl who sat on the edge of the bed in her khaki skirt and pink sweater. She looked as if I’d just run over her puppy. “Mariang’s top notch. But seeing as I’m not up to working today, I think I’ve earned a day off to blow in bed. My own bed.”

  Ezra was hesitant, but eventually he nodded. “Okay. I’ll send people to your house to reinforce the protective charms.”

  “So long as they’re gone by the time I get home, that’s fine.”

  Ezra stood straighter, gearing himself up to make a speech. “I apologize for Mason’s behavior. I had no idea he was still using you to see his wife again. It’s unacceptable, and I’ve sent him to a friend’s for the day so he could get some space and clarity. He’ll be ready for reaping in a day or two, but you won’t have to see him until then, and definitely not without Von there to monitor his behavior.”

  “Thanks.” My voice came out in a croak I wished I could make sound more refined, but after another night of crying and weeks of dehydration, a froggy throat was the best I got.

  Mariang and Ezra left me to my breakfast. After I choked down my food and dressed in new clothes that had been laid out for me with the tags still on, I was ready to go home.

  Terence the Taurus had missed me just as much as I’d missed him. Danny had brought my car to the mansion for me, which made it on the expanding list of reasons why I was grateful for him. With the windows cracked a little, the fresh air revived me, giving me new life to sit up straighter and snap out of my funk. I had the heat on full blast, but I was still shivering. I hadn’t managed to shake the cold that felt settled in my bones.

  Mason was a tool, I’d been naïve, and that was the extent of it. Nothing more complicated or magical than that. I tried not to foster the fear of him that was steadily growing, but chalked it up to a bad choice after the worst couple weeks of his life. Losing his Superman strength was pretty traumatic. I decided to walk away from the hurt instead of examine it too closely. I also decided I would never kiss him again.

  My house wasn’t exactly as I had left it, but I expected as much. The closets and doors had all been thrown open, and the rooms had been rifled through. Don’t get me started on the fingerprints on my windows. We’d slipped out under cover of night and subterfuge, and I guessed the guards had done a thorough search for us. My shower felt the same, though, and so did the thick pajamas I covered myself in.

  I collapsed onto my bed and burrowed under my covers. I never thought I would miss sleeping with two delicious smelling men hogging my pillows, but I did. Not so much Mason, since the sting of his desperation was still too fresh, but Von for sure.

  I closed my eyes and willed myself to feel safe and content in my bed, grateful I wasn’t sleeping in the mud in Sakuna or in the cell. The cell had been so cold that I still felt the sting of the chill that seemed deep-set somewhere inside me. I got out of bed to slide on another pair of socks and tug an oversized gray sweater from Ollie’s castoff pile over my head. I didn’t care what I looked like, only that I was warm.

  Only I wasn’t warm. I was icy inside, and part of me wondered if that would ever go away.

  8

  Outsourcing Bathing

  I didn’t expect Team Terraway to leave me alone for the whole day and night, but when I awoke to it being late morning without interruption or threat of death, I was pleasantly shocked. I checked through the house, and there was nothing. No Von eating all my food or Danny drinking juice from the container, or Lang sending his trail of bugs to spy on me. I actually had my house to myself.

  And I knew just what to do with it.

  After a decent meal, I got out my cleaning supplies and went to town scrubbing, washing, folding, polishing and disinfecting until I exhausted myself. It was a good kind of tired, not the kind you got from being starved and locked up with a dead body.

  As I showered the stink of the morning off me, I winced at the thought of Andy, probably still rotting in the cell. I worried about Kabayo’s men, and the loss they might’ve suffered trying to vindicate me. It was a heavy weight I felt, having seen so many thinned Sakuna civilians die in the revolt.

  No matter how much hot water I use
d, I still felt icy. When I got out, I adjusted the thermostat, raising it to seventy-three degrees, which was about four degrees hotter than I could usually stand to keep my house at. I had my fleece pajamas on, fuzzy thick purple socks, a heavy baseball jersey and a black hoodie I prayed would warm me up. But still I shivered, wrapped in a cream wool blanket on the couch as I flipped around for something interesting to distract me from the cold that only seemed to be growing.

  There was nothing with Bruce Campbell on, which meant that all the TV stations sucked, and there was nothing good to watch.

  I shivered as I tried to summon up the muscular control to go make myself some hot tea. When even that debate grew too tenuous, I realized something was very wrong. I was so cold, and the constant shivering was exhausting me. I laid down on the couch and closed my eyes, huddling under the wool blanket that had always made me sweat. I couldn’t figure out why I had no body heat, and was too scared to call Ezra and get to the bottom of whatever weird leprechaun flu I’d contracted.

  I drifted off some time in the evening on the couch, and was awakened only by the sound of the doorbell. My feet were too cold and inflexible to be put to use, so when the person on the other side of the door grew impatient and started banging, I called for them to calm down. I was still trying to stand up without falling immediately back onto the couch when I heard keys jangling in the front door. My shallow breath quickened, and I wasn’t sure if I should be excited that Ollie was home early, or afraid because Ollie certainly was not home, and someone was trying to break into my house.

  I shrieked when Danny came barreling through the door, eyes almost as wide as mine. His muscles were tensed, as if expecting a fight. His chest moved in and out with too much force. “What’s the problem? Couldn’t be bothered to answer your own door? Didn’t you hear us knocking? I’ve been calling you all day!”

  I wanted to spout back at him what a jerk he was being, but the effort was too great. “Keys,” I observed, pointing to his hand. “You used a k-key.”

  “Of course I did, no thanks to you!”

  “Where did you g-get a key to my house?”

  “I had one made when you were abducted. Have you noticed you haven’t been attacked here? It’s because I increased a few protection charms around your property while you were gone.”

  “You have a copy of the k-key to my house?” I was shocked, not even greeting Von, who strolled in with a backpack, a six-pack and four pizzas. My favorite vampire made himself at home, setting his food in my kitchen.

  Danny glared at me in lieu of an apology. “Why didn’t you answer the door? Or the phone?”

  “Give me the k-key,” I demanded, extending my hand the few inches it would go before my joints stiffened in protest.

  Danny was distracted from our fight by my immobile body that usually would’ve been raring to go if an intruder came in the door. “What’s wrong?”

  “Are you k-kidding? You stole my k-keys! You broke into my h-house!”

  Danny closed the distance between us and tore the sleeve up my arm, exposing the skin beneath that was paler than my usual glow. “Von!” he shouted. “Von, get in here!” I tried to rip my arm away from him, but I was ashamed at how weak and ineffectual my effort was. When Von trotted into the living room, Danny’s voice was tinged with a note of growing fear as he got in my face. “You can’t reap without one of them here! You’re like ice! Von, hurry, get the corroded soul out of her.”

  Since Danny was still gripping my arm, Von smoothed his thumbs starting at my forehead, and then slid them down around my cheeks. He pulled a layer of stress and something icy from my bones I hadn’t been able to get rid of even with a hot shower and too many layers.

  Without willing my body to do so, I slumped forward, nearly passing out at the relief from the warmth that started to trickle into me. I whimpered pathetically as Von and Danny caught me and lowered me down on the couch. Danny was barking orders at Von, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of anything. All I felt was chocolate slowly melting into my veins, taking its gooey time warming up my insides.

  Von disappeared, and then came back to take off my hoodie and socks. My baseball jersey slipped up and over my head, leaving me in my white camisole. Another shiver ripped through me, choking a cry out of my shaking body as Von wrapped me in a hug. The hug was the only thing I could feel in my maze of ice that wasn’t completely gone, so I clung to it. I clung to him.

  I was floating in the air somehow, and then a minute later I was being submerged in my large oval bathtub, the heat finally giving me its full attention. The tub was big enough for my legs to stretch out, which was the main reason Allie had voted for this house.

  The relief that flooded through me was incredible. I’d never been high, but I imagined this was what it must feel like. I was boneless and couldn’t think clearly enough to form sentences. All I wanted was more of the warmth, so I sunk down into the water, content as the heat closed over my head.

  Von ripped me out of the tub by my shoulders, shouting in my face with uncharacteristic alarm I didn’t like seeing on him. He was too good a kidder to be painted with such distress marring his handsome features. He wasn’t nearly as wild as he’d been when I’d seen him last. It looked like he’d shaved, showered and had enough blood to put some color in his cheeks. Or maybe that was from the steam in the bathroom from my bath. His arms wrapped around me and squeezed, not caring about keeping his green garage rock band t-shirt dry.

  Danny came in behind him, a pile of my clean clothes in his arm that he laid down on the toilet lid. I could hear them murmuring to each other, but I was too out of it with the bliss of heat to care to decode the words. I wish I’d been paying a little more attention, though, because Von surrendered me to Danny, who crushed me to his chest so my limp body didn’t go back under. Von tore off his shirt and unbuckled his pants, letting his jeans drop to the tiled floor. I wanted to protest, but the sight was so strange, I didn’t care to make a fuss about it. My mouth popped open when I saw dozens of slices all over Von’s torso and legs. The torture he’d endured was too much to quantify into a single emotion.

  Danny leaned me forward, and Von climbed into the water behind me, pulling me onto his lap. I’d never taken a bath with a guy – least of all with my clothes still on. I knew I should want to squirm away and tell him to get his own flippin’ tub, but he was so warm. The water was soothing, and I’d been so cold for so long. I cuddled up in Von’s lap, my cheek on his bare shoulder and my hand resting in the smattering of hair on his chest that reminded me he was very much a man – despite his boyish ways. He waved Danny away, and I closed my eyes as he stroked my cheek and rubbed my back under my camisole. Von pulled away layers of ice and stress I’d not been able to slaughter on my own.

  “Hey, Peach. Did you hear me?” He lightly pinched my arm, and I only just realized he’d been talking to me. I’d heard a murmuring, but nothing more audible than that.

  “Huh?”

  “I asked if you were sweating yet. Hot bath, hot guy?”

  I snuggled further into his chest, not wanting to soak in his silly jokes just yet. “I’m too cozy to smile through what passes for your humor. Now hush up and be pretty and warm.”

  “Yes on the pretty and warm, no on the shutting up. You haven’t told me about your time at Hotel Prison Sakuna. Did they have the tiny bottles of shampoo and soaps? Did they fluff your pillow?”

  “Something like that. I ate slightly more than a pillow mint, if that counts.”

  “Lang mentioned you were being starved. He said he did what he could to sneak you food. Geon isn’t exactly an expert at looking after humans, the git. I hope Kabayo kills him after a good long stretch of sport.”

  “I’m not a fan of torture, but Geon needs to be put down for what he did to you and Mason.” I noticed Von had a little smudge of something on his collarbone. I reached up, noting the flexibility that was coming back into my joints, and swiped my wet hand over top of the bar of soap on the ledge of
the blue tiled wall. I rubbed my sudsy hand on Von’s collar, a smile touching my lips when he tilted his chin back so I could give his neck a thorough scrub.

  “Mm. That feels nice. Will you do my arms?” When I hesitated, considering our already too casual friendship, Von batted his lashes at me. “Please? I’ve been tortured.”

  I smiled at him, reaching up to bring down the bar of soap to get a good lather. “You’re going to milk that one for a while, huh.”

  “You know it. I might need a foot rub and a pint later. You know, because of all the torture.” He said it in jest, but I saw the haunting truth he tried to cover up. He wasn’t over any of it; Von was scared.

  “Worst weeks of your life takes a toll on a person. It’s okay to call a spade a spade.”

  Von swallowed. “Those weren’t my worst weeks, but definitely top five.”

  “What was your worst? Bad hair day?” Maybe I shouldn’t have asked.

  Von was quiet a few moments before answering. “A long stretch of weeks spent in Dagat – that’s the country with the Merpeople. The one Captain Finn oversees. Those were the worst of my life. Getting kicked out of the Academy was probably up there, too.”

  “What happened in Dagat?”

  He kissed my cheek. “That’s a conversation for an empty house. I think Danny might still be out there.”

  “Okay.” I was gentle as I soaped up his left arm, getting in between his fingers and even going up under his arm, smirking when he squirmed at the unintentional tickle. “Hold still,” I chided, turning in his lap to wash his right arm. I gave his forearm a light massage he groaned at.