Page 8 of A Heart Of Bitter Poison
The last shackle releases from my wrist and clanks on the steel table. For a heartbeat, the scientist and I look at one another.
If he thought I would thank him, he got the wrong girl.
I erupt from the table and crash into him, knocking us both to the floor. The air rushes from his lungs as his back hits the stone.
“Please,pleaseno,” he whispers as I lean toward his face and smile. “Isavedyou.”
Maybe so. But I’m not in a merciful mood.
I tear into his neck. He squirms and thrashes against me. Blood rushes down my throat and eases some of the desperate burn that has been my most constant companion all these days caged in the Shadow Realm.
There’s a loud crash of metal against the door and the sound of fighting stops. The voices go silent in the hall. I’m probably still going to die, right here in this room, alongside this human who is quickly growing weak in my grasp. But at least I’ll die with a meal in my belly.
The door flings open.
“Shit,” Cole says, blood sizzling in the flame of his sword. He surveys the scene in front of him and I glance beyond his legs to the hall. There are bodies on the floor. “You weren’t supposed toeathim.”
I shrug, my mouth still clamped around the man’s throat. He lets out a weak cry that vibrates on my lips.Too late now.
Cole’s eyes flicker across my face and around the room then back again. A crease deepens between his brows. He walks toward me and grasps my arm, his touch both firm yet gentle, as though he’s trying to avoid causing more pain. I twist in his grip, my fangs still deep in the little man’s flesh. I’m so desperately hungry. I’m not ready to let go. “Gotta leave, Lu. There’s not much time. Ediye’s waiting.”
Ediye.
I drop the unconscious man. His breath is shallow and his heartbeat slow. Blood trickles down my chin and neck. Cole pulls me to my feet and I grimace in pain. I guess it’s not enough of a meal to fix so many injuries. Things don’t work the way they used to, it seems.
Darkness creeps into Cole’s expression as his gaze bounces between my eyes. I’m getting the sense he’s realizing this rescue mission might be harder than he thought. “Come on,” he says, turning away and pulling me with him toward the door.
The first body in the hall is that of Gallus.
Cole steps over the hulking frame of my torturer, his carcass crumpled against the wall and split wide open, his sword resting in his open palm. Before I can cross over his thick legs, I grab the dagger sheathed at Cole’s side and whip free of his grasp.
I drop to my knees and raise the blade, slamming it down into my dead enemy’s chest. No sooner does the knife crunch through his bones then I’m drawing it away to strike again. My vision vibrates with red rage. I drive it into his lower abdomen. I use both hands to drag the blade up toward his chest in a vertical line, then I plunge one fist into his warm viscera and tear his intestines from his flesh. I shove them into his face and heave a silent scream across his skin.You should know how this feels, I bellow, the sound living only in my head. I punch my bloody fist into his cheek.You should know-
“Lu… Come on Lu. It’s already done,” Cole says, catching my wrist. He squeezes when I try to pull away, but not enough to force the blade from my fingers. I turn to him with a fierce glare, my whole body shaking with fury, but he leans in closer. “Get your revenge by living.”
His words slap me out of my rage.
I bank the embers of wrath and give a shaky nod. Cole hauls me to my feet, my slew of injuries screaming their furious pain at me with every move we make. We hop over slain guards and slip through blood, passing by my empty cell where the door stands ajar, held open by a dead Reaper’s legs. I start to panic thinking about Ediye, but when I cast my frantic gaze ahead she steps from the corner of the corridor and into view.
“Thank the goddess,” she whispers when we stop in front of her. I glance down at her neck. The obsidian chain is gone, only blisters left in its wake. She gives me a lopsided smile and turns to Cole. “It’s all clear so far.”
“It won’t be for long,” Cole says, leaning around the corner to double check our pathway of escape. “Follow me.”
We take a turn to the right and jog down the hallway, twisting through the bowels of the building. There are several dead guards along the way and a few barred gates for which Cole has heavy keys. We arrive at a set of black stairs and run up them by twos. My toes ache, still so open and raw. I don’t have time to dwell on why the fresh blood I drank hasn’t healed them enough to at least keep them scabbed over.
We stop at the last step and Cole checks the adjacent corridor. His arm darts behind him and presses Ediye and I into the wall. I’m wedged between them both. I hear voices in the hall to our left.
My heart is thudding in my chest, ringing its drum into my ears. My fingertips are numb, the tingle flowing up to my wrists. I can’t feel the pain of the empty nail beds anymore. Needles drill hot cores from my eye sockets. My arms and knees start to jerk.
“Cole,” Ediye whispers, her voice urgent. I see her grab his arm and I feel them both cage me into their grip. Cole looks over his shoulder and concern flashes through his eyes. “Seizure.”
“Fuck,” is the last thing I hear before black stars collapse my vision into a pinprick of light that flares and burns out.
When I wake, I’m jostled by a powerful set of arms. Heat cascades through my body. My teeth clatter and my flesh feels numb, like a surge of electricity has seared my muscles until they melted onto my bones. I open my eyes and Cole glances down, that concerned expression firing through his eyes once more. He doesn’t break the cadence of his stride until I tap his arm and he sets me on my feet.
“Okay, Lu?” he asks, his hand wrapped around one arm, Ediye’s around another.
I nod and swallow, my tongue scraping the roof of my mouth. It feels like I’ve been chewing on cotton. Cole’s brow twitches with suspicion and I nod once more before finally turning my gaze to the space around us.
