Page 113 of Servitude to Serpents

Thank God.

If she made another sound like that, I’m worried there would be nothing left for my master to look fondly on.

“Don’t say things like that. They’ll arrest you!” Dad whispers, swallowing hard, perhaps vomit, judging by the sickly tone of his skin. “You’re confused. You need help, professional help, and we’re here now.”

“Chloe, there will be a trial. You could go toprison.”

They’re so wrapped up in themselves, they don’t notice the flurry of activity at the door. Agent Benigno was listening, just as I knew he would be. I straighten my head, glancing over just as the door slams open. “It would appear so.”

“Chloe Tyson, you are under arrest for suspected….”

My parents erupt, my mom’s voice resuming the shrill that makes my teeth ache. “She’s a victim. She’s not well. You can’t arrest her!”

“My daughter is a good girl. She’s not a criminal!”

I wait to see if that praise will turn me on; it doesn’t. Seems a good place for the line to be drawn.

Agent Benigno's hands are rough as he cuffs me, Ms. Durian nowhere to be seen—licking her wounds in the hall, I’m sure. Part of me feels bad for wasting her time, the part of me that misses Mahari, I’m sure. I’m blissfully numb, aside from the ache in my chest, as I’m helped from my hospital bed. My parents are palmed by cops, forced into the hall. My hospital gown flows open, baring my backside to the room. I want to ask them to close it, knowing Sir wouldn’t like it, but I can’t find the words.

My mom’s voice carries down the hall, promising things far too late for them to change a single thing.

I turn over my shoulder to look at them. They’re holding each other, always each other instead of me. “Go back home and grieve your children.”

Again, the screeching stops as I’m jerked roughly by the man holding my elbow at a painful angle, my hands cuffed behind my back. I barely react as I’m led through the halls I now realize have been emptied. No other nurses or patients, no janitors or staff. When armed men meet us at the entrance, their guns at the ready, the back of the van's double doors flung wide in the cover of night, my eyes widen. Something equal parts warm and needling swells in the battered, broken organ in my chest—they’re worried. That much is obvious, but not about him getting away.

A smile dusts my cheeks.

They’re worried about him findingthem.

Chapter forty-six

To own is to… Avenge

Howling For you by the Black Keys

Warrick

Anticipation unsettles my gut, my heart hammering wildly in my chest despite the brief high after I gutted Leo. A slash, twist, and pull for my sweet Chloe, for every week she was suffering under his domain, then, when it went on long enough, a bullet for my father. I strung the man’s entrails around him like a demented Shabari display. I run through the actions on my rifle again and again because it’s almost time. She’s so close that again, I can feel her, her pulse thrumming through my veins where she took over from that very first day.

When the transport reforms, closing in as we exit onto the freeway, my driver pulls the car into place, opening up the sunroof. I take a deep breath, laying my gun on the floorboard of the blacked-out SUV, eyeing the six tail cars around the van housing my girl. The compact rocket launcher presses into my shoulder as we lurch forward. It feels like a comforting weight as I position it at the modified sunroof, waiting on Stuart’s word from the car ahead.

“Hold.”

I exhale. Everything goes deathly still.

“Go.”

A sick smile surges over my face as I lift the launcher, notching it in the small, steadying brace on the top of the SUV, one my company manufactures. I designed and built the initial prototype from scratch, back when I had the time for such things, before wide-doe eyes and long, pale strands of hair.This, this is where I thrive. My domain was never a home, but violence. Rage and destruction.

I fire at the trailing car, my driver slamming the brakes to fall back. There’s always a moment of silence, a pin striking into place before it erupts. The convoy jerks in tune, swerving and breaking apart just how we needed them to. The tail cars, what little there were, careen off the road, but I’m reloading, spinning around to take out another car and the feds inside. The explosion rocks everything nearby, sending the car rolling. That’s when hell erupts, but this time, the devil isn’t caught off guard.

Something that will never happen again.

I wonder if my sweet little pet has figured it out yet, if she knows her master has come to reclaim her.

Chloe

I scream as the van jolts, the deafening sound of an explosion rocking my eardrums. We jerk so violently, bile surges up my throat, nearly spewing as shouting carries over from the cab. Agent Benigno’s eyes widen, snapping to mine. Despite the chaos erupting around us, a moment of silence passes, perhaps the loudest moment of my life. His hate-filled glare meets my smile, and we both know what this means.

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