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Chapter 16

V for Vindictive Bitch

When the empty, endless sleep I’d been drowning in finally slipped away, my body was paralyzed and I couldn’t open my eyes. Whatever drug they’d given me, it rendered my body immobile.

Fucking figures.

But I could hear the familiar click-clacking of a keyboard and metallic clang of something nearby. Then footsteps approaching, which were heavy and male by the sounds of it. Someone else walked over, but their steps were much lighter and far too hesitant to be a Hunter or someone in a position of power.

Using my sense of hearing and touch was all I had. I couldn’t breathe or take in the air around me, so smelling was off the table. I relied solely on what I could hear, and I took special care listening to every sound that might serve me now or later.

By the resonating echo of every noise, the room was very likely small and enclosed. And by the needles penetrating my skin and straps binding my arms and legs to some sort of bed, it was probably some kind of medical lab. Had to really love the irony of ending right back where I started—as a lab experiment.

But first and foremost, I was a Hunter. I wouldn’t bemoan my capture; I’d figure this shit out and escape. Grams prepared me for this, and I wouldn’t let her down. I wouldn’t let Phillip and Sloan down.

If they’re still alive…

The acid in my throat was excruciating, but the burn was worse because I couldn’t move or react to it. It just overtook the senses—until I centered myself on the task at hand and not the fate of my two Hunters.

“I want every test run on her again, dammit. Find out what she can do.Now,” a voice I vaguely recalled said, laced with frustration.

“But, sir,” a woman’s voice murmured, the sound of rustling following her soft-spoken response, “her body is showing signs of distress. She needs to recover before we do anything more.”

“Donna—”

“We have her blood, and that should help with determining some other things in the meantime. But if we do too much too soon, there could be lasting effects and—” the woman argued, a little louder than before.

“I don’t care what effects there might be on her!” the angry man cut in sharply, sounding a little too huffy-puffy for my tastes.

And they call us women emotional. Ha!

“We only need to know how to replicate it, and then we’ll get rid of her. She’s a liability as it is. Too many people are already asking questions.”

Oh, great. They planned to make more of me. Now I really had to get off this damn table and get my hands on the blood they took. My to-do list before managing a brilliant escape was growing by the second.

My fucking life, right?

But it was a relief to know that at least Donna didn’t sound like a mindless drone. Something nagged at me about her name and voice, though. Icouldn’t put my finger on it, but it sounded familiar. Like a forgotten memory.

“But the leaders—”

The man, who I now recognized as my silver-eyed captor, Lux, chuckled without humor. “The leaders are so afraid of some foretold Fae prophecy that they don’t want to mess with her, but she was created for the sole purpose of getting across the planes without diminishing Hunter powers.”

Fae prophecy? That’s not ominous.

“You were on the same goddamn assignment, Donna. You know all of this. She’s ours to do what we will with. Once we know how to replicate it, we won’t need her anymore. That’s why I was against a natural home upbringing for her in the first place, but you and those bastards insisted it would facilitate better results.”

My hatred for this asshole grew with every word out of his terrible mouth. I never thought anyone would come close to how evil Eros was, but here this dude was, the very definition of villainy.

Upside to all of this was evil guys tended to monologue. All that these villain types ever babbled on about was kill this, stab that, “Oh no! She outwitted me again!” like this was some sort of Scooby-Doo special.

Lux huffed contemptuously, continuing his self-righteous monologue, “Lot of fucking good that did. Now we have a real problem on our hands. Rose has gone missing after burning down one of our archives.”Go Grams!“Two of the best Hunters in the Organization have gone rogue. If you don’t salvage this, it’s your head I’m serving to the leaders.”

Got to love how surprised these villains acted when people betrayed them. Like it was such a surprise that people who they meddled with, blackmailed, threw to the wolves and left for dead would somehow figureout it was probably not in their best interest to keep—I don’t know—involving themselves with the assholes responsible for it.

But even better out of this entire fucked experience was that the dude must really think I was going to die here today to be giving away all their best-kept secrets. Though, most were likely to be in those files we sniped off them. Still, I couldn’t wait to prove this smug asshole wrong. I’d be the chick that got away.

Give it time, Lux. I’ll show you just how difficult it is to kill me.