Page 76 of Whispers of the Dead

White-hot agony explodes through my body, locking my limbs in place and burning through my veins.

I don’t scream. Not that I have control over that.

Benji’s arms wrap around me, and he rolls me beneath him.

Then only darkness remains.

31

COLE

The cold iron bites into my wrists. Chains rattle with every move I make. The cuffs cut deep, but the sting is lost to the fury coursing through me.

Zoey isn’t moving. She lies motionless in the center of the room. Her body is too still, too lifeless.

Dregs surround her, like vultures circling the dying. One presses a damp cloth to her forehead, and another holds a syringe between his fingers. I don’t know what’s in it, but I know it’s nothing good.

Damon shifts against his own restraints from outside the platform. His muscles coil tight, his breathing harsh. Benji sits hunched against the ropes with his head bowed, but I can see the tension in his shoulders. If she doesn’t wake up soon, none of us are making it out of here alive.

Benji struggles against the dregs who hauled him off of her and are holding him back, but it’s no use. The dreg slams cuffs on his wrists and then steps back and right into the rotter’s teeth. Benji uses the chain that hooks him into the ceiling to pull himself into the air and smash in the rotter’s skull with his bare feet, but the dreg drops to the ground, motionless.

I yank against my chains, bracing my feet against the floor, but there’s no give. Then a slow chuckle breaks the silence. Eugene steps forward with a smirk carved into his face. His steak knife twirls between his fingers like this is all some grand joke. Like he hasn’t already lost. Smug bastard.

He steps closer, the whole time watching Zoey like she’s his. Like she hasn’t belonged to us since the first night he threw her into that cell. “Good. You’re awake.”

My pulse slams against my ribs when Zoey stirs. Her lashes flutter, her breath uneven. Her gaze flickers to the dim lights overhead. Confusion knits her brows before hardening into fear. I want to rip Eugene apart for putting that look in her eyes.

She shifts, but her movements are sluggish. Still, she turns her head in search of something, someone. Then her gaze locks onto mine, and her body stiffens. I can practically see the memories slamming back into her at full force. I jerk against my chains. Pain tears through my shoulders, but I don’t care.

Eugene crouches beside her and watches her with that same sick amusement while dragging the tip of his knife across his palm, testing its sharpness. “You just can’t stop making me kill for you, can you, little lamb?”

Zoey stills, and the color drains from her face.

Lola barks like crazy, and the long table she’s attached to scrapes a few inches across the floor.

Eugene grins at her reaction. “I killed your brother for keeping you from me, and now…” he lifts the knife, and runs the plat edge along the edge of the growing purple bruise on her cheek, “You’re going to watch these three men die for doing the same.”

Silence blankets the room. Damon mutters something dark under his breath. Benji goes rigid. I don’t hear either of them. All I see is her, and how her breathing turns shallow, and her hands press into the floor like she needs somethingsolid to hold on to. I see the way Eugene looks at her with possessiveness in his eyes. If he winds up killing me, then I’m going to take him down with me, because there’s no way in this post-apocalyptic hell that I’ll leave her behind to exist in the same world with someone like him.

I pull against the chains again. Harder. All I need is one hand free. One hand around Eugene’s throat. I can’t, and Zoey knows it.

She scrambles onto unsteady legs. Her voice breaks when she speaks. “No. Please.”

Eugene tilts his head, feigning innocence. “Please what?”

Her shoulders tremble. “Don’t do this. I’ll do whatever you want. I won’t fight you if you let them go.”

The room goes still, and it pisses me off that she’s giving up her freedom yet again for us. We don’t deserve her.

Eugene scoffs. “You already made that choice once, little lamb. You chose to spare Damon, and then you went back on it. Meanwhile, I kept my end of the bargain and let them out of their cells. So tell me, why should I believe you now?”

Zoey trembles and tears well up in her eyes. I yank at my restraints, ignoring the sharp bite of metal slicing into my wrists. She takes a step toward him, and then another.

My breath locks in my throat. I tug harder, even when blood drips down my hands. “Zoey, don’t. We’re not worth this.”

She spares me a glance, and I see the entire world swirling around in her electric blue eyes. Then the look she gives me destroys me. It’s not anger or determination. It’s defeat. Then she lunges.

“No!” all three of us shout at her at once.

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