Page 29 of The Last True Hero

Ten

"I'M NOT SAYIN' nuthin'." The reiver spat on Adam's boot, his eyes wild and crazy—but holding hints of fear. "And you won't torture it out of me." He tilted the side of his jaw to the light, showing all the burn scars there. "Ain't nuthin' you could do to me that ain't been done before."

It was enough to make the monster within Adam shiver with delight. It could smell the fear.

And it sickened the part of him that was still a man.

Adam swallowed the lump in his throat, forcing the warg back down. It had spent years hiding quietly within him, watching through his eyes for a chance to escape, and for nearly ten years he’d thought he'd won the battle—that he'd beaten the warg within him.

He'd been wrong.

The second Eden pulled the medallion off him last year in order to save his life, the monster tore its way from his body, leaving him howling in pain on the floor. He might have been able to push it back down the next day, when Eden gave him back the medallion, but this time the warg remained, shaking the bars of its cage as if testing them. This time he could never quite escape the feeling that it was just watching for another chance.

The lie had been revealed. He didn't control it; the warg would always be waiting for another chance to break free.

And as much as he pretended that he wasn't a monster, sometimes it felt like every day was a step down a dark path. Mia needed answers—she needed to know where her sister was—and he was going to get those answers for her.

No matter what it took.

No matter how hard it was to hold on to his humanity.

"I don't have to torture you," Adam said, tugging off his leather gloves slowly. "You'll tell me what I want to know."

Maybe it was the tone of his voice. Maybe it was the look on his face. The reiver swallowed, and tried to press his back through the wall. "What are you going to do?"

Adam began unbuttoning his shirt. A part of him hated that he knew the suspense would do more than showing rage or fury ever would, but he forced that part of him back down deep. Where the warg lurked. It was interested now. He could practically feel it prick its ears. "There are worse things than torture."

He lifted the medallion off his chest and instantly felt the warg hold its breath.Yes.It whispered.Feed me.

The reiver's lips trembled. "What are you doing?" He scrambled back as heat lit through Adam's veins. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"Showing you what happens if you don't tell me what you know," Adam replied, through lips that were no longer quite human.

The reiver screamed as he saw Adam's face.

* * *

Mia paced impatiently.

She'd heard the screams. She knew what was happening. Maybe she should have felt sick about it, but the only thing she could think wasSage, Sage, Sage, like a drumbeat in her ear. And the second she thought of her sister, the reiver became the monster. Who knew what her sister had gone through? He deserved to suffer.

Jake lit a cigarette, rubbing at his temples, his eyes a million miles away. For whatever reason, McClain had insisted that he question the reiver alone and Jake had been quiet ever since.

"Are you okay?" she asked, watching the tremble in his fingers.

Jake flicked ash from the glowing tip of the cigarette, his gaze skating around. "No. No, I'm not."

She swallowed.

"I thought she was going to be here," he said, finally meeting her eyes. "I really thought I'd be holding her in my arms right now—" His voice broke and he tossed the cigarette, grinding it out with his heel and watching the movement as if to hide his glittering eyes from her. "It's the only thing that's kept me going these last couple of days. That I would get her back. Before...." He couldn't say it.

Mia wrapped her arms around her waist. All along she'd been lost in her own agony, not even thinking of how Jake would feel. Despite their arguments, she couldn't deny that he loved her sister. Maybe not in the way that Sage loved him, but if Mia were honest with herself, he did care for her.

"We'll get her back," she told him, taking those few steps between them and grabbing hold of his hand. "Hey, look at me." He did, his face a mask of anguish that tore through her own heart. Mia's voice hardened. "I don't care what I have to do. I will get my sister back and so will you."

He nodded. "When we do, I'm going to tell her the truth, Mia."

The ground dropped out from beneath her.