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THERON

Awareness swept through me slowly. I thought the pain would come with it, but there was only a deep numbness as though the pain was so deep and vast I simply couldn’t wrap my consciousness around it. I was naked, restrained with my arms above my head, only able to support myself on the balls of my feet. My hands were already numb, but I felt something trickle down my arms and looked up to see blood running from my wrists rubbed raw by the metal.

The room I was in was large, empty and dark except for a skylight high above me casting me in a bright spotlight. I was incredibly thirsty, my throat so dry I couldn't swallow around my swollen tongue. Whatever they’d drugged me with had left me with a hangover but that was nothing compared to the agony that assaulted me as soon as the memories crashed through me.

Nothing could numb me from that grief.

I choked on my breath as it was ripped from my lungs, the pain so visceral and raw, it had me sobbing again.

My family—gone. Not just gone. Dead.

All because of me.

I wanted to die—but I didn’t have the means to do it. I looked up again, wondering if I could make the chains cut deep enough into my wrists to allow me to bleed out. I sagged harder against them, if nothing else to welcome the pain because it was no less than I deserved.

What kind of man was I? I couldn’t save my family.

The twins. Whitney.

Everything I loved—gone.

I hoped whoever came through that door would kill me. I wondered if I begged, if they’d do it for me. But I already knew if these people wanted me dead, I’d already be dead. My breath was a ragged sound in my chest as I hung there reliving the nightmare on replay. My silent sobs made the chains rattle and echo through the black abyss surrounding me.

I don’t know how long I hung there, floating in and out of consciousness, before I rose to the surface of awareness and realized someone stood before me.

“Ah, you’re awake.”

Vetticus stepped fully into the light and fury unlike anything I’d ever felt before overwhelmed me. I strained against the chains, using the pain to fuel me. A rough growl escaped, the only sound my parched throat would allow. My feet slipped in blood and I went still, my energy quickly spent. He approached and ran his hand along my jaw, a light in his eyes.

“Your anger is like a drug to me,”

he said. He gripped my chin tightly and yanked my head closer. “The hate bleeding off you is intoxicating.”

My entire body was vibrating with the need to get my hands on him and the inability to do so was enough to push my mind to the edge of insanity. Vetticus chuckled darkly as he watched my struggles.

“You’re nothing but a wild animal,”

he said. “It is so easy to reduce men like you down to your base instincts.”

He released me and patted my cheek harshly.

“What do you want?” I rasped.

“To mold you into the perfect player one.”

He signaled to someone, and the chains loosened enough that I fell to my knees, barely having the strength to catch myself before I face planted into the concrete. The chains hissed along the ground as I dragged myself through the blood, trying to get to Vetticus. He watched my progress with amusement, which only drove my fury higher.

I gathered all my anger, pulled as much strength as I had left, and whipped the chain out at Vetticus. It curled around his ankles and I yanked, falling backwards as I brought him with me to the ground. He recovered quickly and landed on top of me with the chain pressed hard against my neck. He put his weight into it as he leaned over me and my struggles weakened. He brought his face close to mine and sneered, a wild light in his eyes as he drank in all of my pain.

“I’ll enjoy finding your breaking point,”

he purred.

Blackness crowded my vision and the pressure on my neck receded as his hand caressed my face in a strangely intimate gesture. There was a prick in my neck and the weight of him retreated off my chest. Warmth spread through my blood as two men lifted me under my arms and dragged me across the room. The drug made the room grow fuzzy, and the voices sounded hollow.

Pain erupted across my skin and their grip on my arms felt like a million knives. I struggled and gasped as every sensation was heightened and expressed in pain.

“Like it?”

I heard Vetticus somewhere behind me. “It makes your touch receptors translate every sensation into pain.”

The men dropped me to my knees and handcuffed my wrists in front of me to a length of chain attached to a ring in the ground. Vetticus appeared and his finger trailed a line of fire from my temple down my neck. I barely bit back the moan that threatened to escape as excruciating pain followed wherever his touch went. I tried to move out of the way but I swayed on my knees and my wrists hit the end of the short chain. His fingers closed around my throat and I hissed, trying to breathe through the assault on my senses. My eyes watered and sweat broke out over my body. Somewhere through the haze of fire I heard Vetticus laugh.

Releasing my neck, he patted my cheek. The resulting explosion in my head made the room spin, and I collapsed onto my side. The impact to the concrete, while not hard, felt like a car hit me. Vetticus grabbed my hair and hauled me to my knees. Even the sweat on my body hurt as it slid down my chest. My entire world was pain unlike anything I’d experienced before and soon, despite everything, I was cowering away from Vetticus’ touch.

I curled into a ball and shook as his hands ran over my body, driving me further into the corners of my mind to escape.

The drug eventually wore off, and I slowly noticed the room come back into focus. I was on my side, my cheek plastered to the concrete and I shivered violently as the sweat on my body grew cold. I was thankfully alone and the only thing my mind could grasp onto was the act of breathing.

In and out. One breath after the other.

Survive.

Why I suddenly wanted to survive and not die, I wasn’t sure. Revenge? Human nature? Maybe it was simply the fact breathing was something tangible to focus on because anytime I tried to grab onto a thought it left as quickly as it came. So I simply took one breath after another and let my eyes fall shut as the darkness dragged me under.