Page 64 of Jagged Souls

Instantly, the building rocks with an explosion. The boys are here, and Khalid is watching through my eyes, but I feel no sense of relief.

If they kill me before my bond with Varius is complete, will that destroy it? The idea of losing it when I’ve already lost so much is damn near crippling.

I fall to my knees as the ground shakes beneath me, and the loss of my ear fucks with my balance.

“That’s Varius,” Zita says as she stands over me with a cruel smile. “We’re going to go kill him real quick, then be right back for you.” She turns to Antonio. “You’ll need all these men. He’s finally hit his ascension.”

I gasp at the idea of his curse having broken. There is a part of me that’s so happy he’s come to kick their asses, but there’s another part of me, a colder part that hates him out of envy. He took my magic. How dare he get his own. And what the fuck? He told me he’d have to be okay with giving me up for the curse to break. If he’s thinking of saving me only to try to leave me so I’m “safe,” I’m going to kick his ass.

“Strap her back to the table,” Antonio says.

Sadist hauls me to my feet, then backhands me across my missing ear when I try to fight him off. My vision blurs, the edges going black as my head rings with pain. I’m forced onto the table.

“Cut off her circulation,” Antonio says.

I scream as I get my second wind, fighting tooth and nail, but there’s too many of them, and they are well rested and healed, whereas I am not. As the straps tighten painfully on my elbows and ankles, I scream for all I am worth. The building doesn’t rock this time though. Khalid is no longer watching me, no doubt preoccupied with whoever it is they’re fighting.

“Let’s go,” he says, satisfied that I’m not going anywhere. Zita starts to leave with the men, but he stops her. “Stay here.”

“They tortured me,” she seethes. “I want to help kill –”

She cuts herself off and bows her head. He’s her alpha, and he’s just given her an order. Her jaw tics as he leaves. As soon as the door shuts, she turns to me.

“Knife or belt,” she says as she gestures with one, then the other. “I’m hurting someone today, and oh, look, you’re the only one here.”

“Touch me, and –”

My words die as her eyes widen in horror, right before she stabs herself in the stomach. She twists the blade around as she falls to her knees. The belt slips from her fingers. As panic carves itself into her face, I wonder if she’s being touched by Rudy’s madness. Pulling out the knife, she drops it onto the floor, then shoves her hand inside the hole.

“You fucker…” Zita bites out as she falls onto her ass, her face pale, her body shaking. The pain she’s going through must be intense. If I didn’t hate the bitch, I might have been impressed. But she isn’t looking good, her body already too frail from Maddox’s torture.

“Getoutof me,” she seethes as she yanks her arm free, and in her hand...

Is a fucking tapeworm.

Her horror infects me. My stomach twists with the idea of having one of those things inside of me. It wriggles in her grip, but I don’t think it’s trying to get free. Magic electrifies the air, and my horror intensifies as I realize that fucker is Maddox.

Using her other hand, Zita drags more and more of the worm out of her digestive tract.

The fucker is long.

Three or four feet at least.

Swaying on her knees, she tries to grab the knife she dropped as Maddox wriggles on the floor, his shapeshifting magic starting to amp up. His eyes and ears pop out along the top of his length. His shadows swirl beneath him as he draws on the extra meat he keeps in his locker to increase his size.

Zita manages to touch her knife, but she’s too weak to actually grab it. Her eyes roll back in her head as she falls to the ground, blood pouring out of her stomach.

Maddox finishes shifting into his full naked form. Then he turns towards me with a crooked smile. “You so owe me,” he says as he walks towards me.

“I’ve never been more happy to see you.”

“It’s because I’m naked, isn’t it?” His smile falls as his eyes rove over my naked form. He takes in the breeding table I’m strapped to, the bruises and cuts on my face, my missing ear. A darkness cloaks him, wrapping him in its arms like an old friend, and I shiver despite myself.

I’ve never seen him so serious before.

“I need to do something before I get you out of there,” he says softly, “but you’re going home tonight Micha.”

I take a deep breath, my chest quivering as I bite back my pleas to please get me out of this damn thing first. They have a plan. If Maddox says he needs to do something, it’s to help get me out of here and all the boys back home alive.