Page 102 of The Syndicater (Dark Verse 6)

Chapter 34

Morana, Near Tenebrae City

Something was awfully, terriblywrong.

Morana was driving back to the compound when suddenly, the numbness that had been perpetual in her left arm began to spread to her right. She tried to move her limbs and steer the wheel to the side of the road but her muscles were slowly going lax, the numbness spreading from her fingers to her wrists to her elbows to her shoulders and up her neck to her face. Her feet didn't move to push the brakes she already had them on, her mouth didn't move to even breathe.

The sensation reminded her of the time she'd been drugged in the club back when she'd first met Tristan.

Somehow, someway, she'd been drugged again.

The Shadow Man couldn't have done it. He'd been at a distance, his hands in his pockets, giving her the file. She had touched the file but he'd been wearing gloves. Could it have been laced with some neurotoxin that was absorbed through the skin?But she didn't believe he'd done that. Unless, he'd just wanted the codes and wanted to eliminate her.

The car sped down the road, heading to a curve as the hill began, and Morana braced herself. Thankfully, her speed wasn't too fast and she was still in the plain valley so she might get injured, again, but the possibility of a fatal crash was minimal. And thankfully, she was wearing a seatbelt.

As the car went off road and straight into a tree, Morana closed her eyes and tried to lessen the impact. The seatbelt jerked against her already injured shoulder, making her scream with the pain that broke through the numbness, the force of the impact snapping her neck forward harshly. Her bag and gadgets fell on the floor. Steam blew out of the crushed front. She sent up a silent prayer that she hadn't been driving faster, thanks to her injury, or she would have been dead around the car.

Processing the last few seconds, glad that her mind was still a bit alert somehow, she tried to move, just as her door was pulled out, her seatbelt cut off, and her body yanked out so brutally she screamed again. Masked men put her in the back of another car, her vision blurring because of the smudge on her glasses.

Whoever they were, they drove off quickly and sped away from the hill, back toward the city. Morana lay immobile, conscious until they crossed the city and sped to the other side, heading west out of the borders. By the time they hit the long stretch on a flyover, the drug took her under completely.

***

It was the pain in her left shoulder that brought her out of unconsciousness.

Morana looked around, trying to gather her wits about her, slowly coming out of the fog in her mind.

Her arms hurt. She realized she was hanging from the ceiling, chained around her wrists, her feet barely touching the ground. In that one second of self-analysis, she knew whatever hope she'd had for the left side of her arm was gone. The pain she felt was coming from the right side. The left was completely desensitized, the nerve damage too intense possibly to withstand any more trauma. Unless a miracle happened and she managed to escape, she'd never use her left hand again.

The thought made her want to cry but she shook it off, focusing on trying to get out, though she had no idea how.

She looked around the place, a basement, maybe dungeon of some kind, with gray concrete walls and barren interior. There was nothing except one chair, and another set of chains hanging ominously from the ceiling to her right.

"Ah, you're awake."

A woman's voice came from the darkness before the sound of heels clacking on tiled stairs. Yes, a basement.

The woman slowly stepped into the light, an older woman with grays in her styled darker red, and wrinkles around her face, dressed in polished red suitpants.

Morana stayed silent, observing her. She didn't have her glasses on her face anymore but thankfully, her vision was perfect for far objects and the woman stayed in the line.

"Don't you want to know why you're here?" the woman asked, a smile on her face that looked almost maternal except she was oozing manipulative.

"I don't think it's for a kitty party," Morana quipped, keeping her cool as she watched the older lady's smile fall off her face.

"I told you she was vile," another female voice spoke and Morana shuddered as Chiara came to stand next to the older woman, the resembelance between them uncanny. They were mother and daughter. What the fuck? Was it because Chiara wasactually a crazy bitch and after her life for being with Tristan? Could she really be that insane?

The older woman looked at her phone, as if waiting for something, while Chiara sneered at her. A text came through.

"Now the kitty party starts," the woman gave a smile, and Morana watched in horror as Luna walked into the room, held at gunpoint by a fat man in a mask, similar to the one who had kidnapped her.

Luna looked at her with tears in her eyes.

Morana watched in horror as the fat man tied her to the chains hanging next to her, her cry of pain loud as her feet didn't even touch the ground properly. A surge of fury filled her veins. This was Tristan'ssister.

"Who are you?" Morana turned to the woman, finally breaking her silence on questions.

"I'm glad you asked." The old lady walked around in those power heels. "I'm the one who's been assigned to eliminate you."

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