Page 69 of Body Tox

A chill ran down my spine. The paper in my hands felt wrong. It was a darkness I couldn’t explain.

I kept reading.

“Sired. Yes. Father Jacob.”

“Sired, yes. Father Matthew.”

The word ‘Sired’ was written over and over on each page and receipt. One after another after another…I felt sick, and it only increased as I went further back. There were pictures of…babies.

“What the fuck?” I said, standing up and dropping the files out of shock.

I stepped back, unsure what the fuck I had just found. I shook my head, trying to process what the fuck was going on.

Were those girls…sold?

Lightning struck, the thunder making the room buzz with the brutality outside. I looked over to the scrambled papers strewn across the wooden ground, and one name caught my attention.

I picked up the paper and once more waited for the light to bring the picture into focus.

This girl was older, my age at least. This was a recent date, but receipts or experiment notes were not written at the bottom.

The whole photo was crossed out with a huge red ‘X’ over the watermark of the word ‘Terminated.’ It was barely visible under the harsh ‘X.’

Initials were posted at the bottom of the page: ‘AB.’

I furrowed my brow and looked over to the door, a shadow blocking my light of the outer hall. I expected to see Asher tipsy and dancing around like before. I could question him what the fuck all this shit was.

But what I saw was a black, hooded, cloaked figure. The grim reaper himself came to drag me to hell. I inhaled a breath to scream, but his hands, which were not corporal, wrapped around my mouth and stuck a dagger to my ribcage…my dagger.

I swallowed my scream, and my anger at being manhandled tamped down the fear.

“Mmmphhhh,” I mumbled through his hands.

Where was Asher?

I spied the desk with those dirty old candle holders lying on the top and leaned toward them, using my body as a deadweight. It worked. My captor didn’t see my action, and the sudden weight took him off guard. My body and his propelled forward, smashing into the table and scattering the metal candle holders on the ground with a crash.

The assailant cursed, getting to his feet and pulling me up. He swung his hand back to hit me and knocked me off my feet.I hit the ground hard enough to make me dizzy and shook my head, trying to grab a candle holder closer to me.

The asshole grabbed my feet and yanked me forward. I got the world’s most giant splinters shoved into my back and ass as I was dragged across the old fucking wooden flooring, but I snagged the candle holder and smashed it into the ground, the edge of the wood anchoring me.

Robed fuckhead grunted. He dropped my feet and walked to me, anger lit up on the bottom of his face from the lighting.

“Who are you?” I yelled at him, kicking at his hand when he tried to grab me again.

He leaned forward, the spark of light showing his menacing smile. This little shit wanted to play?

Fine.

I didn’t wait for his egotistical man speech. Instead, I reared the candle stick back and smashed him upside the head. I caught his eyebrow, not enough to kill him, but his fall told me he wasn’t getting up.

I smiled a cocky grin of my own and pushed myself up enough to crawl over to the bastard. His robed hood flew off his head, and I could see his face clearly when the lightning struck, lighting up the room again.

My world flipped upside down. The curled black hair, the dark lashes, and the dark black eyes staring at me were the source of my nightmares. This was my ex…the man I killed all those years ago. Fuck, he was the one who raped and tortured me for years…the man who started my addiction for spilling blood.

My shock made me drop my weapon, the fear freezing my feet in place.

Alex coughed and spit blood on the wood at my feet.

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