Page 5 of Lower World
“Your actions fuck with my animal, and it fights me every step of the way when I even think of ending your life.” Judging by the expression on his face, he wasn’t really happy about it. “I don’t know what game you are playing, but one wrong move would be reason enough to act on what I know is the right thing to do. Give me a reason. I dare you.”
“Kill me or get out of my face.” My body was reacting to him, and I needed him as far away as I possibly could in this damn concrete tomb. “I’m beginning to think I’m allergic to cats, and I wouldn’t want to sneeze in your face.” I went as far as wrinkling my nose at him.
Clenching his jaw, it took him great effort to remove his fingers from my neck. Eyes still locked on me, he took one step back, then another, until he almost bumped into the shelving behind him. Tucking his hands under his armpits, he cocked an eyebrow at me as if asking what am I waiting for. After a moment, I turned to Johnathan, wondering why I was a glutton for punishment. If life had taught me anything, it was that every time I allowed emotions or hormones to cloud my judgment, I only opened myself to suffering. You’d think I’d eventually learn.
Disgusted at myself, I didn’t reach for Johnathan slowly like the first time. My fingers pressed on his neck, searching for a pulse, but I had no time to find any. An electric current zapped from my hand, making him jerk in the chair, and the pendant around his neck flashed brightly, blinding me for a second. Dominic shouted something, but I was too busy blinking away the dark spots dancing in front of my eyes to pay attention to his words. I did find myself plastered to his chest, and a thick arm was wrapped around my waist, holding me upright. For a second, I thought whatever happened was one of the reasons Dominic needed to kill me, but since I kept breathing, I looked around in confusion. The shifter wasn’t trying to end my life, much to my surprise.
Dominic was protecting me.
“What in the actual fuck is going on?” I was finally able to understand his words.
Johnathan was snarling at us, saliva dripping from his fangs and dribbling down his chin. His eyes were shining like liquid silver on his twisted face, and the rope that was wrapped around his torso was unraveling while he thrashed wildly in the restraints. The fog in my head cleared in an instant, and yanking Dominic’s arm away from me, I lunged for the end of the rope that was snaking in the air. As soon as my hands took hold of it, I planted both feet on the concrete and tugged with everything in me. The strength of my pull almost toppled the chair over. It rattled on two legs before thumping harshly on the floor. Johnathan’s displeasure was a tangible thing in the stale air of the basement. Dominic was already behind the male, his hand half shifted and his claws sunk an inch into Johnathan’s throat.
“What have you done?” The jerk had the audacity to snarl at me.
“Took you out on a date,” I chirped while struggling to calm my heartrate down. “What? You don’t like it? I thought it was quite romantic.”
“You stupid bitch,” he screamed and jerked my way, only to gasp when Dominic’s claws embedded themselves deeper in his flesh.
“Thank you?” Both males startled at my words gaping at me like I was crazy. “What? What is it with you and calling females a bitch like it’s supposed to be an insult?”
“Move again, scum. I’m looking forward to bathing in your blood.” Dominic recovered first, tightening his hold around the Atua’s neck.
The deep snarl from the shifter gave even me a pause. He was looming over the chair with his jaw shifting and teeth as long as my forefinger lengthening from under his lips. Johnathan paled more than I’d ever seen him, but I needed answers from him, so I tightened my hold on the rope in case he did move. He was an asshole like that, and I swore he did it just to piss me off.
“Why did it take so long for you to heal?” I had to force myself to speak because Dominic was holding his control by a thread.
“Fuck you, Brooklyn,” he spat the words, fury dripping from them.
I grinned at him.
“You missed your chance for fucking, Johnathan, because you were too busy kissing ass with the Council and trying to get me killed. Now it’s either talking or dying. You choose.” A strangled yelp came from him when the shifter shook him by the neck. Dominic’s glower sharpened from my comment, if that was possible, and something stupidly fluttered in my chest from his reaction.
“They’ll find you, you dumb bitch. And I’ll die happy knowing what they’ll do to you when it happens.” A crazed laugh gurgled from his lips.
“Why did it take you that long to heal?” I yanked hard on the rope, digging it into his chest.
“I have nothing to say to you.” Blood dribbled down his chin. “I told the Council they should’ve killed you all those years ago, but the old fools care more about power than they do their own lives.” The idiot twisted in the chair so he could look up at Dominic, almost ripping his own throat out with the movement. “And if you think we didn’t know that it’s you who made all those attacks on the Syndicate, you are as big of an idiot as she is. The Council has great plans for you, Dominic. You’ll regret the day you came out of that bitch of a mother of yours. Do you know how she screamed before she died?”
“Dominic, don’t!” My shout stopped the shifter from killing the jerk, but his entire body was trembling from the restraint. “He is saying anything to make sure we kill him so he doesn’t talk. Please.”
“There is nothing he can say that we won’t find out from another.” Goosebumps popped out on my skin from his voice. It wasn’t Dominic talking to me anymore. It was a creature from my worst nightmares speaking through his deformed mouth.
“He is close to the Council, Dominic.” Maybe if I kept repeating his name some humanity would return. It was worth a try. “If we want to find out what they were planning, apart from killing us, Johnathan is our best bet.”
“I’m not telling you anything, you stupid bitch,” Johnathan sneered at the same time as Dominic spoke.
“He won’t share any information willingly.” The deep growl came from the center of his chest. “I’m game to torture him until he breaks.” The smile he offered was chilling to the bone.
I pushed down my dread, squaring my shoulders.
“He doesn’t need to be willing.” Dominic jerked his gaze from Johnathan to me. The green orbs were so intense my knees buckled. “I can make him talk.”
The cat was out of the bag anyway—pun intended—since that morning, and I had nothing to lose. Might as well take advantage of it. Hopefully I wouldn’t perish with Johnathan in the claustrophobic basement after he tells us everything he knows.
And if I do, I’ll pray that after he kills me, Dominic will be kind to Alice and protect her for as long as she needs it. I was gambling based on the shifter’s honor and his word, but it was all I had.
Either way, I had no intention on fighting him if he decided to take my life.
