Page 16 of Connected

Kat tips her head back and screams. It hardly registers. Her throat is so dry and her voice croaks. Picking up the metal bowl of water, and with no other choice, she sips from the side and guzzles the much-needed liquid. Taking a minute to think, she then turns to Zak, “Do you want some?”

“Okay, yeah sure,” Zak frowns, as Kat passes him the bowl. Then, they’re distracted by the snuffling sounds in one of the other cages. It sounds like a grunt and they stare out of the bars.

“Oh my God, it’s another wolf; she’s giving birth. You think they’re all having pups? Zak, we can’t let them take another one—we have to do something.” Kat takes a deep breath as her words fail. She feels hot and her mind starts to swirl. She can’t think properly. “Sorry… what did I say?” Her head blurs and a feeling—she’s felt before—comes over her. Her mouth moves silently, but her words won’t come out, as her brain clouds with a dark fog.

“What…” she turns to look at Zak. “Did you say—say something?” she frowns and looking at him, she watches as he drinks from the water bowl. He blurs into a haze in front of her, but her body won’t move and she has to concentrate to co-ordinate her arms enough to knock the bowl from his hands.

“Hey… Wow! Kat, thanks for that. I hardly got any. What the…” he frowns, watching as her head slumps forward. “Kat, Kat, are you okay?”

“D-Don’t… don’t—d-drink it…”

It’s all she can manage before she crashes into a heap slumped against Zak. He rubs his head; he has the feeling of a dull blur and rubbing his eyes, he tries to focus. “What the f—” He checks the empty bowl, the spilled water wet on his legs and he sighs heavily, he can’t keep his eyes open and he tries to shake the feeling off. Taking slow deep breaths, he suddenly realizes what’s happened. “Oh fuck…” he curses, as he crashes against the side of the bars.

The outer door opens again, and Luiz and Raul come back into the room.

“They drink it?”

“Mm-hm… look like it. She, definitely out.”

“And him, what about him? He a mean-fucker, I don’t wanna risk, if he not out?”

Raul crouches to take a closer look at Zak—he’s leaned against the bars with his eyes shut tight. Zak’s muscles are relaxed, and though he can hardly move, he’s still aware of the sounds and noises around him.

Raul grabs one of the silver-tipped poles and stabs Zak hard in the leg. Semi-conscious, he grits his teeth, suppressing his reaction—making only a muffled groan.

Raul does it again and again. “No, he went—he wentdormirtoo.”

“All right, let’s get them out. We get it done. I don’t wan’ them to wake before we get what we wan’. I gonna have her, before Fabien come back.”

“But Alvarez, he says no—he says we not to touch her.”

“Yeah, but we alone here now. Who gonna know? Unless you a rat—you rat on me?”

“No, no… I not tell but—”

“C’mon, we had nomujerin long time, sí? I no fuckin’ the pregnantperra lobas—that not my thing. I wanna take some extra—his blood. We take more. Make more peso for us. We do the work, so time for us—make more peso, si?”

“I don’ know. Luiz, I no wanna mess with Vampira—Vampira are not good. Vampira iz bad, very bad. We no mess with them. Luiz, you see what they do, the bad things. Even Alvarez, he scared, sí?”

“You worry, too much. Bring her, I gonna take her for myself—you deal with him.”

Chapter 6

Both Raul and Luiz stare into Zak’s semi-open eyes and again Luiz prods him with the stick—Zak doesn’t move as the silver-dipped cane makes a large painful circular mark on his chest. “Hey Luiz, he awake?”

“estábien…No, no malditamanera. No… that stuff, it knocks out a rinoceronte”

“He creeps me out. Look—his ojo—he looks awake.”

“Tie him down, if you worry.”

“Why I get him an’ you get her?”

“Because I say. Me and her… we gonna have fun—nosotrasvamosajoder.Get him… hook him up and take his blood. I wanna get them back in cage. Us… we have some rest time before Alvarez come back.”

“Sí, the el doctor, he freaks me out—give me jeepers. I think he a Vampira, Sí?”

“No-no, he not. He just hangs with them too much. Mmm…” Luiz smiles, running his hand up Kat’s leg. “Buenastetas,” he grins as his fingers draw circles around her breasts.

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