Page 63 of Jagged Souls

Besides, I want to make him suffer in his final moments. I really want to take hours with him and make him scream, make himhurt.

But only an idiot drags out a death when they’re low on time. It’s right up there with monologuing as a villain or not killing the hostage after you get busted.

I have forty-ish seconds left.

Crouching over his body, I grab hold of his testicles and twist them over and over again to remove the elasticity from the area. Planting a foot on his pubes, I jerk to my feet with a hard yank. His ballsack rips free with a satisfying noise that I will remember every night in my dreams.

He stares up at me, pain and terror in his eyes. They’re glassy; he doesn’t have long.

But I will be the last thing he sees.

Shoving my fingers into his eye sockets, I scoop both of them out. There’s a split second of resistance as the bundle of nerves at the back of them pull tight.

Then they’re snapping free, and I’m crouching back over his groin, tying his eyes together, and looping them around his pathetic cock.

His testicles, I pop into his eye sockets so he can know just what an utter fuckingballsackhe is.

I do not wait with him as he dies. He doesn’t deserve my company.

Instead, having realized it’d be suspicious if I didn’t run, that it might warn them Varius is about to attack, I head for the door.

Slipping out into the hall, I come face to face with Zita as she was about to enter.

“I told you they have a soul doll of her,” she says, talking over her shoulder to Antonio, “and they’re coordinating her escape.”

You backstabbing bitch.

Sixteen

HER

I’m shoved back into the room. As soon as Antonio steps inside, noise radiates from every pod. They can smell their alpha and are hurrying to see what he wants.

Eleven doors open around me.

Chucky shouts, “The bitch killed Michael.”

The hairs on my neck rise. My adrenaline spikes, and I’m twitching at every noise, every movement. The violence in the air is damn near suffocating.

I take a step back as Zita and Antonio advance, but all the other men push in from every angle.

“I’m going to take you with me when I escape,” I say as I glare at the woman in front of me. “Then I’m going to cut you up better than Maddox did.”

“Maddox never laid a hand on me, so that’s a pathetic threat. But here’s one: I’m going to pretend you’re Maddox when I torture you. That fucking asshole has so much shit coming, and I’m going to practice everything I want to do to him on you.” She pulls out a knife. “Starting now.”

“Khalid is going to kill you.” Maddox has definitely kept her DNA, but our supply of alexandrite is limited and super precious. I don’t know if my threat is fact, but I face her like it is.

“No, he won’t.” She smiles with utter certainty. “Because I’ve already been killed and brought back with necromancy. He doesn’t have my complete DNA anymore, which means no soul doll.”

When a person is resurrected, they’re given a bit of the soul of the necromancer, changing their genetic makeup just enough for Khalid’s magic not to work.

“And the thing about soul dolls is that once their victim dies, the alexandrite becomes useless. Talon stole their main stash, which means they don’t have much alexandrite left, and they’re going to use every last stone on you.” She cocks her head to the side. “You hearing this, Khalid? We know how to bypass your creepy magic.”

Her eyes focus back on me. “Now, since you’re bonded with Varius, necromancy is out. It makes it too complicated to bring you back, and Antonio here doesn’t want to risk you dying for good.” She starts to undo her belt. “So we’re going to strangle you, then bring you back with CPR. Over and over and over again until we use up all their precious backup.”

My heart rate jumps as someone grabs me from behind. A wet tongue slides across the side of my face, and I know it’s Sadist before he even speaks. “I’m going to fuck you while you’re dead,” he whispers in my ear.

I throw an elbow into his side, but he takes a page out of my fucking playbook and latches his teeth around my ear. I scream as he rips it off my head, the tearing of flesh felt all the way down my jawline.