Page 10 of The Rise

“Killers,” he retorts. Hoax and I laugh this time.

“You may be out there in the world, but inside these walls? This is our domain. We’re the Gods! We’re the ones who choose when life ends and how!” I watch him glance around as if trying to memorize the place. He isn’t getting out of here alive, but if he wants the memory for when he rots in hell, then he’s welcome to it.

“They’ll find you. They’re already hunting you,” the asshole says as I nod my head.

“Are they? Let me tell you why I don’t care, okay? This building, this place has been here for over a hundred years. A hundred! And this operation has been going at least that long. Maybe this place was used for other purposes back then but now? It’s our domain. It’s where Gods rise and others fall. Do you know why it’s called a secret society? Because no one knows,” I explain with a laugh. He tries to spit at me, but Hoax tugs on the chains, pulling it tighter around his neck. That shuts him up.

“Who are these people you’re talking about?” Hoax asks him. He doesn’t respond. “Who’s the woman?” Now the asshole laughs. He knows who she is. Hoax and I share a look before he moves to the table and tosses me a knife. I don’t waste time. I stab his shoulder and listen as he howls in pain. I do this a few times when Hoax nods to something behind me.

I look over my shoulder and see the woman standing in the doorway, a blank look on her face. Is she watching me torture him?

“You can come out,” I tell her. Her eyes move to mine and then back to the man before she steps out and comes toward us. She doesn’t say shit, just watches him, and it makes me wonder if they know each other.

“I’m going to assume you know each other,” Hoax says as he presses his fingers into the stab wound on the man’s shoulder. He screams again, and she doesn’t even flinch. Interesting.

I step back a little and watch her watch this guy. He’s in too much pain to keep his eyes on her and keeps clenching them shut. I step back up and ask once more.

“Who are they?” The man laughs, and this time, I bring the knife down into his other shoulder. He screams, and I see her huff out a breath. She holds her hand out to me and I’m not entirely sure I should let her have the knife. Then again, Hoax and I could handle her if we had to. I move my eyes to meet his, and he nods before I drag them back to her.

I lean down so we’re at eye level before I speak to her.

“I’m not sure what you’re doing, but if you try to fuck with us, we will kill you.” She nods her head as I place the handle of the knife in her palm. I step back and watch her as she adjusts her grip. The man pries his eyes open to see her standing in front of him now with the knife.

“Wha-what the fuck are you doing?” he asks, looking her in the eye now. She tilts her head to the side and studies him for a long minute. She seems to be debating it. She raises the knife, and the man yells again. “What the fuck? You can’t do this! They’ll find out!” She brings the knife down into his chest, seemingly knowing exactly where to hit to kill the bastard quickly. That wasn’t very nice of her to do when I don’t know the answers to the questions I’ve asked. She pulls the knife from his chest as he looks at her.

“You’re go-” He doesn’t get to finish his sentence because she stabs him again and again and again. I glance at Hoax, and he just stands there wide-eyed, not believing what’s happening here. When she doesn’t stop and starts manically screaming, I step in behind her and wrap my arms around her, grabbing the knife in one hand and holding onto her with the other. She releases the knife but still fights, trying to get back to him. I toss the knife and drag her backward, making sure to keep a hold of her.

“This the girl?” I hear Rylan asks as he walks toward us. She finally calms but I don’t let her go.

“Yeah, this is her.”

“And she stabbed the fucker to death,” he muses.

“You saw that?” He nods. “Don’t know where that came from, but it was hot as fuck.”

“So she came out of the cage,” Ry adds when Silas walks up next to him. He looks at the girl and then the dead guy before looking back at her.

“Well, whatever he did, he isn’t doing again.”

“No shit. I didn’t get answers either,” I add.

“You still have one more?” Silas asks as I nod. “Ask him then, and keep the little killer away from him,” he chuckles.

“Why don’t we just hang here tonight? I’ll have the girls go pick up food,” Ry suggests, looking between all of us.

“Fine by me. Doesn’t look like I’m going out tonight anyway,” I reply, nodding toward the girl in my arms.

“Let me go tell them,” Ry says before turning and walking away. Silas comes to stand in front of us, reaching out to brush her hair away from her face and she doesn’t move.

“No one here is going to hurt you. That’s not what we do,” he tells her, and I laugh.

“What?”

“You’re not going to hurt her, but you sure as hell will hurt, Angel, right?”

“In all the good ways,” he responds as I laugh. I slowly begin to ease my grip on this girl until I completely let her go. She doesn’t move, just stands here.

“How’s shit been beside this?” Silas asks, nodding toward the girl.

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