Page 32 of Held By a Monster

“Me and Sam—.” Bill swallowed hard.

I surmised Sam was one of the bodies we left in the woods.

“We’d been casing them for months. They had to be rich, right? Never showing up in the same car, with expensive gear and fancy guns. We thought if we could get a bead on even one of them, we’d be set for life. Nobody that fancy would want their side hobby going public.”

“You mentioned code names?” Cavi tapped away on the laptop, taking notes. He was the fastest of us at typing, but he was still slow.

Kendal slipped under my arm and pushed him aside to take his place. Her fingers flew over the keys and in seconds she narrowed her eyes at Bill. “Code names, Bill.”

He jumped and tried to turn to see her, but she was too far behind him. “Colors and numbers. I think the colors were the founding members, and the numbers came in later. They were talking about another round of guys, referring to them as letters.”

“List the colors first.” Kragen crouched in front of the man, his voice calm.

Bill nodded. “Yeah, yeah. There was Mr. Red, Mr. Blue, and Mr. Yellow.”

Kendal paused her typing and I looked to make sure she was okay. Her head was tilted and her eyes wide.

“Primary colors.”

Bill was nodding. “Yeah! That’s why Sam and me figured they were the first.”

“And the numbers?” Kragen asked.

“Misters one through five.” He didn’t wait to be prompted for the next list. “I only heard them talking about the letters once, but they were arguing about letting Mr. E join. Sounded like most of them didn’t like him.”

“Thank you, Bill.” Kragen stood and flicked a knife from the man’s boot. He spun it in his palm before offering it, hilt first, to Kendal.

twenty-one

I stared at theblade, my brain taking way too long to figure out why Kragen was offering me a knife. The wyrfangs didn’t need knives.

When it hit me, I didn’t hesitate. I watched Bill as he tracked me grab the knife and move to stand in front of him. “This is for Sarah.” I plunged the knife into his side. “This is for Grace.” I stuck the knife into the top of his thigh.

His violent jerks against the ropes holding him caused the chair to rock back and forth. Drym stepped forward and put a massive hand on his shoulder, ceasing all movement. His eyes rolled and he wailed until his head slumped forward.

Roul flicked a claw through Bill’s ear. “No passing out.”

Bill whimpered.

“This is for Catherine.” I shoved the blade into his belly. “And this is for me.” The knife handle was slick with blood so I wiped my palm on Bill’s pants before thrusting it into his chest. I pulled it back out and watched blood run from the wounds I’d inflicted. A sizable puddle formed on the floor.

Every time Bill passed out, one of the wyrfangs would slice a claw into his body until even that no longer roused him.

Drym’s hand ran down my forearm and gently pried the knife from my fingers. “I’ll get rid of these.” He waved the knife to include Bill.

“Actually, I’d like to keep it.” The six beasts went still. “The knife, I mean. Definitely get rid of the body.”

I chuckled at the chorus of sighs. They would have let Bill rot in that cave if I wanted it, but I wasn’t a masochist and the smell of blood was already overwhelming. I didn’t need decomposition added on top.

Roul grabbed the back of Bill’s chair and dragged it, and him, from the room.

I stood in the middle of the cavern, watching Bill’s body until it disappeared into darkness. I could feel Drym standing behind me. I spun and stared up at him as tears gathered in my eyes. What had I done?

“I just killed a man in cold blood.”

Drym nodded and took my hands in his. “You did.”

I blinked and tears tracked down my cheeks. “Am I a monster? Am I like those men who hunted me for sport?”

---