Page 1 of Cold-Blooded Creatures

1

ZION

His screams were sodelicious. A hypnotic melody reverberating off the damp concrete walls of our underground. Each echo caressing my ears melted into a new rush of electricity running down to my lower back.

The steel restraints pinning the man’s wrists and ankles spread eagle on the large worktable in the center of my workspace had been worth every penny. Lucia’s handiwork was impeccable.

“You know, I could do this all night.” I traced the inside of his trembling thigh, his brown hair crusted with blood. “Over and over again, until you can’t keep your shudders at bay and the shivers up your spine reach the highest point, sending you into madness.”

Was it wrong to enjoy breaking someone until they’d do anything you asked?

It couldn’t be that bad if it made your pelvis spasm.

“Please,” the Assistant to Ilasall’s Head of Military pleaded. “I ca— I can’t take it anymore.”

“Your lips are so pretty when you beg. I can’t wait to cut them open.” I stroked his quivering bottom lip with my thumb. “Open up.”

He gulped, but obeyed, sucking my finger into his mouth. His slick and wet heat enveloping me tightened my core. Surprisingly, he didn’t try to bite it off, not like the female soldier before him.

He was petrified of me. Good. Maybe he’d finally break and give me what I wanted. We had to know the security changes to continue smuggling residents out of Ilasall. Their update postponed the day we’d storm the city, one of the three remaining that we were aware of.

I plucked my thumb out and wiped his sticky saliva on my mottled jeans. “Why did you increase the number of guards along the wall?” I asked. Sauntering around him, I admired his tanned and sweaty skin, so bright compared to the shadows lurking in the corners of the humid basement, and came to a stop behind him.

“I don’t know!” His head swiveled frantically in search of me as he thrashed in the restraints, the rattle of chains such an exquisite melody.

Oh, how I loved this part. Such a straightforward tactic, looming over a person where they couldn’t see or smell you, only hear you take breath after a breath in their blind spot. The muscles low in my stomach knotted as all I could think about was the combat knife I’d left on the silver table on the other side of the naked and chained man. I’d sharpened it yesterday, specifically for him—my new doll to carve up and bleed.

No one knew what that knife meant to me. Including Gedeon. Black rubber handle and a seven-inch, stainless steel, double-edged blade curving to a point. Inconspicuous enough to avoid any questions.

He begged, “Please, let me?—”

“Let you what? Finish?” His wince gave life to my wicked smile. “I’ll recite the deal once more. Tell me about the changesin Ilasall’s security, and I’ll see to it that you reach your finish myself.”

Insanity had claimed me twelve years ago, consuming me from the inside out until all that remained was a need to hurt. A craving for torture. A thirst for blood.

That was what war did to you. It erased your morals, smothered the good, and taught you how to find beauty in cruelty.

“I told you before, I don’t know anything,” he puffed out with such a lovely bit of firmness, then fixated on the ceiling, as if the grayness of concrete could restore his strength. “It’s above my pay grade.”

But a tear betrayed him, leaving the protection of his eyelashes and rolling down his cheek. Mesmerized by the shining path, I leaned in. Muscles pulsed beneath his clenched jaw as he turned his head away, full of so much ire for me.

He’d been here for five hours and still had fire left inside. Usually, they’d give up an hour in. Two hours, tops. This one was different, better than the others. The most entertaining plaything I’d had in a while.

Sure, someone doing your bidding in the bedroom did bring you pleasure, but not like this, twisting your guts, your knees barely holding you up and your eyelids twitching from the depravity rumbling deep in your bones.

“Liar.” I lunged and licked the tear away. A tangy flavor exploded on my tongue.

Was this how dread and panic tasted?

So addictive.

“You were the one leading the security change program. You also designed the new system yourself, which means you know how it works.”

His neck muscles strained to get him as far from my tongue as possible. “No, the ones who told you…they lied.”

“I don’t think so.” I took in each aspect of his face, amazed by the sensation blooming in me at the speck of dried blood in the corner of his bruised lips.

Not nearly enough.