Torture (Terraway Book 3) Read online

  “Here.” Mason handed me a bottle of water when I finally lifted my head from the garbage can. The thing was crawling with germs, and I’d gripped it to brace myself. I shuddered, unable to touch the bottle of water until my hands were clean. I reached into my messenger bag and pulled out a container of wipes, sanitizing my face, hands, arms and the front of my shirt. Then I ran the wipe over the nape of my neck just to cool myself down.

  Mason looked worried, his hand on my elbow. “Oh, you’re so pale. Here, sit down.”

  He helped me to sit on the picnic table bench, but I couldn’t look at him. The kiss and the crash of emotions were too ripe when coupled with heaving my guts out. I wished I could sleep away the rest of the day, which was exactly why I knew we had to keep moving. “Let’s go. I’m fine.” I held up two fingers to excuse myself to Finn. “Sorry about that. We should get going. It’s only going to get worse from here. The sooner I can reap a whole mess of people, the better.”

  Mason shook his head, sitting next to me at the picnic table. “No. Take a real break. We’ve barely finished eating, and you haven’t had anything.”

  “Well, I can’t get anything down, so I’d rather plow through and get it done.” When Mason opened his mouth in protest, my tone grew short. “Look, I don’t have the energy to argue with you. I’m going. Come if you want.” I stood and motioned for Von to join us, packing up the food that made my stomach roil.

  Von trotted over to us, ending the call and looking me over with a wary eye. “You sure about this, November? You’re looking piqued.”

  “I’m fine.” I pulled out my keys and started walking to my car.

  Von snatched them out of my hand. “Alright, but you owe the jar, like, twenty bucks, and I’m driving, you drunken Omen. You can barely walk in a straight line!”

  “Yeah, alright. But be careful, understand? I mean it. Actual speed limit, Von. And if you really scratch my car, it’ll be the worst butt-kicking of your lifetime.”

  “You’re so adorable when you lecture me, even sweeter when you get the taste of that vomit out of your lovely little mouth.” He pulled out a stick of gum from his pocket and handed it to me.

  “Thanks. You’re a lifesaver.” He proffered his arm to me and I took it with gratitude, leaning on him and moving with all the enthusiasm of a snail when he opened the passenger side door for me. Though I wasn’t sure how long I would last if I kept up at this pace, I knew I was lucky to have two Reapers who didn’t mind helping a girl out, even when she’d just had her head in the garbage can.

  14

  Reading Preemies

  As it turns out, puking makes your gut fickle. Following the twisty feeling in my stomach led to a few missteps as we wandered through the hospital, but eventually I found my groove. After five more reapings, I began to trip over my feet, growing quiet so the guys wouldn’t catch on to how much this job was crushing me from the outside as much as the inside. I knew I didn’t have much time, so I opted for the place I knew I’d find a few hearts in one room – the NICU. I hated reaping babies. It felt wrong and in poor taste, but business was business, and I had a job to do. Also, the thought of granting the babies a peaceful death soothed my conscience a little. I had to remind myself that I wasn’t actually a bringer of death. I wasn’t the one killing them. I was merely giving their death a purpose and taking their pain away.

  That’s what I told myself, anyway. I wasn’t so sure how well I believed the line I’d been sold.

  Mason waited outside of the ward, since his Matruculan genetics made him crave the taste of freshly born babies. He made himself useful brushing his hand against any doctors, nurses or parents who came in and out of the ward. The gentle pulling allowed us to get close to babies who weren’t ours, since security was way tighter in this ward than the others.

  Finn remained on his guard when we entered in with our visitor’s passes. I could see that being in the baby ward filled with preemies scared him, too. “Are you certain this is the best place?” he asked, treating each of the incubators as if they contained an alien – which, I guess to his species, they kind of did.

  “Yeah. These guys don’t have a high survival rate. We don’t have much time. You never know how effective the pulling’s going to be on civilians. Any of these nurses could call security on us for being in here, and then we’re out for good.” I looked up into his eyes, bucking up so he wouldn’t be so scared. “Terraway needs help now. They need the sagrado stone now. They can’t wait a few more weeks for me to take the souls out of adults.” When Finn looked like he wanted to turn around and leave for this part, I caught him by the wrist. “Hey, this is the job. You wanted in on it, so here you are. Don’t wuss out on me now.”

  He swallowed, standing straighter and puffing out his chest as if readying to belt out an opera to the back of the auditorium. “Alright. Let’s go quick. I don’t like babies, and I like them even less when they might up and die near me.”

  I blinked up at him, fearing my knee was starting to buckle. “With talk like that, you’ll have to keep the ladies away with a stick.”

  Finn took my hand and wrapped it in the crook of his elbow to make sure I didn’t fall down. “Steady, now.”

  Von was chatting up a nurse so I could reap a few babies without drawing suspicion that I was lurking near children that certainly weren’t mine. He darted between pulling for me, and then back to the nurse’s station to pull for them so they weren’t so fussed I was near the newborns.

  Finn ran his hand over his shirt several times, wetting his lips as he mulled over how best to get out of the situation he’d put himself in. “I didn’t realize Omens had to do this.” He seemed to come to himself a little when I squeezed his arm. “Are we almost done for the day?”

  “Almost.” I softened when I saw the nerves that were not easily soothed. The ghosts haunting his eyes bespoke of too many adult problems for me to guess at. “Hey, I’m sorry. I’m being an irritable jerk. This part of it is hard. You can wait out in the hallway with Mason. You don’t need to be here for this. It’s okay if it’s too much.”

  This seemed to shake Finn’s fears to the bottom, permitting his courage to rise to the top. “It wouldn’t be right to expect you to deal with this if I can’t. I’m a captain, and you’re a young woman. Very young. If you can do it, so can I.”

  I’d been without Mason or Von for too long. Each minute one of them was not touching me made me feel cold on the inside, and I feared that chill spreading. I caught Von’s eye and waved him over. “I’m sorry. I’m totally raining on your parade with Hot Nurse in Pink over there.” I took my hand from Finn and slid it into Von’s. “Did you at least get her number?”

  “I did. But she’s in the middle of a divorce that’s not quite finalized. I don’t like to get messy.”

  “You found all that out in the two minutes you were over there?”

  “I’m just that charming.”

  I could feel Hot Nurse in Pink staring at Von’s hand in mine. I wished I could tell her we were just friends.

  We were just friends who lived together, slept together, had bathed together, worked together and pretty much were never separated. I mean, who wouldn’t want to get in on that action? I felt terrible for Von, and vowed to push him on Katrina at the next available opportunity.

  Three of the babies were sealed off, but there were a fair few I could brush on the toe as I walked by. There were twenty babies in the ward, and eight of them called out to me to be reaped. Eight. Eight out of twenty. The odds choked me around the throat as I stared down the barrel of mortality that was inescapable.

  My hands were shaking from how sick I’d gotten at the picnic. That, coupled with coming off the coattails of the malnourishment I’d suffered while in Geon’s cell made for a rough afternoon. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get through my quota and out of the hospital without passing clean out in the middle of the ward.

  Von caught my anxiety and gripped my hand, brushing my fingers to the toe of a
preemie with too many tubes attached to him. The delicate soul went straight into my fingertips and leapt into Von, barely staying in me a whole two seconds. He decided that’s how the rest of the babies should be reaped, and I couldn’t object. The tiny booty-covered feet, the toothpick-like fingers that would never learn to play the piano or use chopsticks properly after using them five hundred times incorrectly – all of it was about nine kinds of too much.

  There was a mother near one of the preemies who was calling out to my gut from across the room, and I wished she hadn’t looked up at my face. She had chocolate brown eyes, unwashed tangled chestnut hair in a messy bun and dark circles under her eyes. Her baggy sweats had stains under the armpits, and I could tell she’d been crying and not showering. I wondered how long she’d been in limbo, waiting for her baby girl to get well enough to take home. Wanting a family, but it being just out of reach.

  “I think it’s time for a little charm,” Von suggested, his voice low.

  “Charm?” Finn inquired in a whisper. “What kind of charms do you need?”

  Von pointed to his smile that flashed from zero to a million kilowatts on command. “Just me. Mason’s the intimidator, and I’m the charm. You’re the giant fish out of water. Watch and learn. And don’t let November fall. She can barely stand as it is.” He gripped my shoulder, pulling the radiating stress from me. “Let me know when you’re ready, Peach.”

  I hated myself when I gave Von a nod toward the woman, and he took over with his distracting grin. He was captivating, and lost as she was, his mild flirts gave her a moment of something beautiful to hold onto as she stumbled through her walking nightmare.

  Finn’s hand in mine brushed the baby’s toe when Von had the mother’s full attention. The ice of the reap shot through me, taking my breath away and cutting like a million tiny blades through my veins. The dainty soul shot through my body and stayed too long. My legs started to falter, and I knew that last reap was one too many. I clawed at the air, grasping onto Finn’s shirt just before I went down. The mama whose daughter I’d just reaped let out a noise of distress for my sake, and in that moment, I truly hated myself.

  15

  Truth Time in the Tub

  I awoke to Von and Mason yelling at each other, which if I had to pick, would not make it on my top ten ways to be roused. Mason was irate, and his voice was loudest since it was nearest my head. He shouted with a mouthful of food tucked in his cheek. “I haven’t done a thing but my job all day, Von. You don’t need to harp on me about stuff that’s in the past.”

  “The past? The past? Are you joking? I’ve met a lot of delusional blokes in my day, but you’re at the top of it. You wrecked her barely a week ago! I swear, I never thought I’d see the day where you were more of an arse than Danny, but then you went and did that.”

  The warm, burly body beneath me was Mason’s. As much as I wanted to get away from him, the lure of his strength that was this time on my side kept me feigning sleep so I could remain in my guilty pleasure a few minutes longer. Finn spoke up from his spot next to me, and I placed the three of us in the backseat of Terence, with Von at the wheel. “What are the hallucinations like?”

  Mason sounded frustrated. “Like no drug in Terraway or Topside. It’s the best feeling in the world, and far too addictive. Some days I wish I’d never done it, so I wouldn’t know what bliss felt like.”

  I could hear Von speaking through his teeth from the driver’s seat. “That’s a helluva thing to say about the woman in your arms. You used her, Mason. You used her to see Kara. Never thought I’d see the day where Danny cared about a person more than you did, but you proved me wrong.”

  “I do care. I wouldn’t have seen Kara at all if I hadn’t loved her. That’s why the hallucinations started going away, because when I started to see Kara through October, I remembered my love for my wife, and it overshadowed what I felt for October. The last time I kissed her, I felt the euphoria of the high, but the visions left me. I lost Kara and October in the same kiss. You want to tell me how seamlessly you’d handle that?”

  “Incredible,” Finn breathed, and I could tell he was studying my face. “I had no idea Omens were like that.”

  Von was livid. “I don’t give a shite about your loss, Mason! I held her while she cried herself to sleep after what you’d done to her. She was devastated! Two blokes, Mason. Two men her whole life she’s kissed. He’s pure, and you’re wrecking her. One tosser cheated on her with friend, and the other grown-arse man used her to makeout with his wife!” Von’s pitch rose, and with it, my heart climbed to new heights of appreciation for him. While I didn’t like my business being spilled out for them to dissect, I heard Von. I really heard him. It was that same protective go for the gut that Ollie used when he stuck up for me. “If I catch you kissing her again, I swear to you. People think my unbalanced days are behind me? It’s nothing to how I’ll unleash on you if you mess with her ever again.”

  “Von, I heard you the first time you went off on me. And the second. I get it. She’s important to you. She’s important to me, too. I won’t kiss her again. It messed us both up, so you don’t have to worry. I love her enough to know I’m not right for her, or anyone, for that matter.” His arms tightened, and I felt his affection for me, the regret at something that could’ve been beautiful turning dark before it had the chance to bloom. “You have to drive faster, Von. She’s still icy.”

  I heard the accelerator whine as Von coaxed Terence to climb past the speed limit. Mason stroked my cheek, pulling until I was deliriously out of it. I opened my eyes and shook my head. “I’m going to pass out again if you keep pulling so hard. Where are we?” I kept my temple pressed to his shoulder, not wanting to leave the only source of warmth I had.

  “Hey, love. You alright? You gave us a fright back there. Passed clean out in the middle of the ward.”

  “I’m fine.”

  Von groaned dramatically. “I hate when you say that. I swear, I’ve never despised two words more. It’s almost always a lie, or wishful thinking.”

  “Well, this time it’s true. I’m just tired.”

  “We’re about fifteen minutes from the mansion. Hold on, Peach.”

  “How many souls did we get?” I asked, not remembering the math of it all.

  “Twenty-six,” Finn answered. “It was really something to watch an Omen in action. I’ve never seen that many reapings in a single day. Wait until the council hears about this.”

  “No,” Mason and Von both answered with a definitive gavel. Mason explained, “It was foolish of her to promise that many in the first place. Terraway’s in desperate need of the sagrado stone, otherwise she wouldn’t have worked herself to the brink like this. It’s not safe, what she did today, and the whole council should burn for letting her try it. If they know she’s capable of this? They’ll push her till her heart gives out, and she’s capable of doing that on her own with no additional prodding.”

  I tried to lift my hand to give Mason a comforting pat, but it flopped lifelessly into my lap, heavy with ice. “It’s got to happen this way,” I mumbled. “When it’s all over, I’ll take a break. Mariang can’t keep up at the rate she was going. Girlfriend needed to rest up.”

  “Would it help if I spoke to the council on her behalf?” Finn suggested, his eyebrows furrowed. “Asked them for a few more days? I didn’t realize… I didn’t know she’d be like this at the end of day one.”

  “I can do it. I picked the number. I know my limits.”

  “You have no limits!” Von shouted from the front seat, livid. “Do you understand how long you’ve been out, you daft girl? Half an hour, October!”

  I didn’t like it when Von used my actual name. I didn’t like it when he yelled, or was serious beyond repair. I cuddled into Mason’s warmth, wishing it was ten degrees hotter.

  Mason and Von had a few more spirited back and forths while Finn watched me shiver in Mason’s arms. Mason lifted his shirt and stretched it over my head for lack of a blanket.
His bare skin was hairy and warm, causing my eyes to roll back gratuitously. I indulged myself in pressing as much of my body to his toned torso as possible.

  Mason threw his head back and let out a bitten off noise of distress. “So cold! Ah! Von, something’s wrong. She should be fine by now. Should’ve been warmed up a few seconds after the last soul left her.” He gripped me hard. “I can’t pull this much for this long! I’m starving, and if I don’t get more food, I’ll shift back into a wolf and bite her!”

  Finn opened the cooler and ripped a sandwich out of a bag, shoving it in Mason’s hand. He ate loudly and with gusto, breathing hard like he was fighting off wolfing out with every breath.

  “Almost home,” Von responded through gritted teeth, taking a turn too sharp. We rocked in the backseat, me clinging to Mason, and the two men gripping the doors as Von gave Terence the workout of his life. Von whipped out his phone. “Danny, start running a hot bath in the big tub upstairs. Hot as you can stand it.” He glanced in the rearview mirror. “It’s bad, Danny. Not sure how bad yet.” He ended the call just as Danny was getting revved up on the other end.

  Von and Mason went back and forth, throwing out different conjectures I couldn’t focus on enough to follow. Instead my eyes fell on Finn, locking in on his hardened gaze that seemed to be saying something to me, though I couldn’t tell what. He didn’t break eye contact as he untied his scarf, leaned forward and looped it around my neck. He took his time tying the knot, pausing his world to brush his knuckle to my cheek. “Hold on, kendi.”

  Von hissed under his breath. “Don’t you dare call her that.”

  Finn straightened. “I think you’ve forgotten your place.”