Page 23 of Beg the Night

“You guys are disgusting,” a third man—Leon, I was pretty sure—argued. He was the quiet type. Reserved. From what I’d witnessed during my time here, he was a decent man, but then again, he hung around these guys, so maybe I was wrong. “She’s been through hell. Clearly, she’s special, or Director wouldn’t have bothered with that torture stuff.”

He wasn’t wrong.

“He’s a tier three,” Carter gritted out, “and he’s wasting his claim on a powerless slut who will probably make things worse for all of us.”

“She wouldn’t be here if she was powerless,” Leon replied.

Carter and his friend laughed. “Are you seriously defending her? You’ve gone soft for the new girl? Is that it? You’re as desperate as he is, aren’t you?”

I chose then to slap open the shower curtain and step out.

All three guys were now pissing at the makeshift urinal on the far side of the bathroom. The three of them snappedtheir heads in my direction, eyes widening when my identity registered.

Like I said. Imbeciles.

I kept my expression bored. “Something you’d like to discuss with me, gentlemen?”

They stuttered and looked at each other, as if wishing they could go back in time a good thirty seconds.

I cocked an eyebrow, silently waiting, secretly enjoying the way they squirmed.

“We didn’t know you were in here, man.” Carter quickly zipped up his pants.

I took a slow step in their direction. “I would seriously hope not. Though you do seem to be dumb enough to talk shit within earshot of the subject of your gossip.”

“We only want the best for you, man,” Carter pleaded. “You’ve been down here a long time. You never know when a tier three woman is going to walk through those?—”

The room darkened, and instantly, his eyes widened in horror and his words dried up. The phantoms—the dark tendrils of my magic that would destroy at my will—were only the beginning of my power. The way they surrounded us only skimmed the surface of what they could do. WhatIcould do with them.

Especially when angry. And these men did not want to see me lose my temper.

All three went white and curled in on themselves. “Whoa, man,” Carter said. “Relax! We were just messing around!”

“You think I’m messing around? You think I’m wasting my claim?” The ghosts of my emotions crept closer, almost grazing their faces.

Perhaps I’d allow them to kill the way the darkness urged me to. Perhaps the phantoms would remove the skin in a single breath.

Down here, with such little exposure, I could pretend it was difficult to control my power.

In reality, I could kill every person in this dungeon in one fell swoop. Most of the men imprisoned with me were tier ones, some twos. These idiots? They weren’t worth my damn time.

The endless void inside me was irritated. Frustrated and full of pent-up energy. So I let my phantoms tease and taste, let them wallow in the fear of the jackasses cowering before me.

“No! Seriously. We didn’t mean it, Sinner. We were fucking around.” If Carter hadn’t already relieved himself, he’d be pissing his pants right there.

“You’d do well to keep your opinions about me to yourself. New Girl, too. She’s none of your goddamn business anymore. Understood?”

“Understood,” they barked in unison.

Cowards. All of them.

“And you.” I turned my attention to Leon. “If you have an ounce of survival instinct left, you’ll stop hanging around these morons. I won’t think twice next time.”

His nostrils flared, but he dipped his head in understanding.

Life down here had gotten so goddamn boring, though. It was nice to feel something again. My phantoms appreciated it, too. I let them take one last taste before I called them back and the black shadows recoiled into my body.

The void within me deepened as the monsters came back home. Most people would be disturbed by the endless emptiness my chest possessed. But not me. I preferred it that way, it was safest when I was devoid of all care, all hope, all love.

---