Page 12 of Court of Evil

“You can burn me, break me, or torture me, but my answer won’t change.” I spit a mouthful of blood onto the floor.

“Burn you . . . We haven’t tried that yet.” Black nods at Goose, who stoically turns to the table of goodies they set out.

I hear him move things around, and I take that time to roll out my aching muscles, ignoring the bruises and cuts. At least four of my bones are broken, but so far most have been survivable wounds. I just need to stay alive.

I run my eyes over the others, meeting every single one of their gazes. I let them see my anger and hurt. Only Eric looks away. The others aren’t even ashamed. Black has their loyalty, and they believe so deeply in what they do, they don’t even see how wrong this is.

A noise has me glancing back at Goose.

I hear the hum of electricity as he turns with two clamps in his hands, the wires connected to a battery.

“Tell us what we want to know, Tate, and I won’t have to do this,” he says reluctantly, but I know better. It’s another trick.

I won’t be leaving this room alive. Either I’ll suffer a lot and keep my dignity until the end or I’ll beg and cry and still die.

I’ll take the pain, thanks.

“We aren’t friends. Only my friends call me Tate,” I say coolly.

He shakes his head as he stops before me, and despite my determination, I jerk back as the buzzing clamps move closer. “This is going to hurt a lot.”

He clamps one onto each thigh, and the voltage slams through me. My body locks up tight and my brain fries until I can’t even think. I am one giant flow of energy.

Suddenly, it stops, and I slump. My lungs scream for air as I pant and gasp. “Cut her legs open and put them inside,” Black orders.

Before I can say a word, Mav steps forward with the same dagger he held when I first met him, and despite the fact that I want to beg, I do nothing, even as he buries the sharp end into my thigh. The agony is like nothing I’ve ever felt before, and then he slices down, cutting through muscle and skin before pulling it free and doing the same to the other one.

It takes a moment for the pain to catch up, and when it does, I have to swallow my vomit. The sight of my pulverised, skinned thighs causes me to gag, so I look away.

I have no time for a reprieve, however, as Goose steps back to my side. I don’t look, but I feel everything as he pushes the ends of the clamps into my thighs, and then the battery is cranked higher.

The voltage courses through me so hard, I convulse in the chair, my bladder emptying involuntarily.

I grit my teeth, holding back my screams even as I taste blood and smell the scent of burning flesh in the air. The odour makes me want to puke, and then Eric does. He turns away, throwing up all over the corner of the room. It makes me laugh loudly, and when the current dies down, I slump.

My head hangs forward, saliva running from my mouth. My whole body aches, and a new pain crops up every second.Suddenly, a fist grabs my short hair, tugging it back, and I laugh in Black’s face.

“You think I’m weak enough to break under you? Your newbie can’t even handle my torture.” I chuckle. “Such big, scary killers, hunting down weak and young monsters and murdering them, and now killing women?”

“You’re not a woman, Tate. You’re a hunter. There is a difference,” Black says as he jerks my neck back harder. “Last chance. Why were you placed in my unit?”

“I told you.” I pant, swallowing around the agony. “I was recruited?—”

This time, my scream slips free, and I watch through narrowed eyes as Eric runs from the room, and my screams turn into laughter, even as I’m fried over and over again.

CHAPTER 6

Idon’t know how much time has passed. All I know is pain, the taste of my own blood, and the smell of my burning flesh as they repeat the same question each time.

“Why are you here?”

It stopped having meaning when they pulled my fingernails and toenails.

It started being hysterically funny when they shoved hot pokers into my ruined thighs to cauterise the wounds so I wouldn’t die too quickly.

It started becoming a blur when they made me choke on water and I almost drowned.

“I will ask again, why are you here?”

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