Death eBook 9.8.16 (16 page)

“Tough talk from the guy pinned to the wall,” Warren commented as he walked over to the right side of the room where his tools hung on the wall. A large fire pit burned brightly to the left of the room. The Order member watched our brother as he walked up and down the wall, gliding his hand over different items.

Looking at the idiot on the wall, I watched as his chest rose and fell at a fast pace. “Just pick something,” he yelled.

Well, damn. He just told us what he hated the most, which was the wait. The prolonging of the hell that was about to be delivered.

Connor laughed. “Dude,” he started, shaking his head. We all looked to him. “I guess I’m up first then.” He shrugged.

“W-what do you mean?”

Connor rolled his eyes. “You want this to end quickly?” The minion said nothing. “Doesn’t matter, we know you do, but we can’t let that happen until we have all the information we need. We’re going to start out slow and from what we’ve learned from all who follow Decay, we know your recent, say in the last decade or so, vow of celibacy.” He snorted. “Thinking our brother gives a fuck if you’re all pure or not. Dude, you could have been screwing anything that moved and still he wouldn’t give a shit.” He rolled his shoulders and shook out his arms. “Let’s begin with a little pleasure before the pain.”

“No!” Minion screamed.

Thank fuck Connor’s powers never worked on his siblings, because when he turned it on, he really turned things on. My brother closed his eyes and when they opened, heat filled them. A small smirk played on his lips and his scent overpowered the room, causing our prisoner to groan.

“Please, stop,” he begged.

Connor shook his head and said, “But I haven’t even started yet.”

A scream ripped through the room when suddenly a dagger was embedded into the minion’s left eye. We turned to Warren. He shrugged and offered, “I thought Connor always said a little pain went well with pleasure?”

“The eye?” I queried.

“He doesn’t need to see to be able to feel.”

Okay, he had a point.

“Can we move this along and get him singing sooner rather than later?” I asked.

“Never.” Minion panted. “I will never talk.”

Connor’s hand reached out and slid down the minion’s cheeks. He convulsed against the wall, and suddenly his tiny dick hardened before shooting his load on the concrete ground. Connor’s gift could branch out in different directions, love, devotion, charisma, desire, need, pleasure, just to name a few. Women’s panties were easily charmed off; though he never used his power unless he knew the woman wanted a part of him first. For men in the boardroom, he used his gift in a different way, usually to get what he wanted, to influence a business deal. However, sometimes, like now, his gift worked on people differently. It was obvious the minion fancied guys more than women, for a reaction like that to happen.

“What the hell?” Connor complained. “I didn’t even have my gift turned all the way up,
and
I was going in a different route. I wanted love and devotion, not fucking desire, damn it.”

Chuckling, I said, “He was obviously taken by you. Besides, give him a break. It was his first time under your spell.” Then added, “Can I bring my friends now?”

“You had your fun upstairs.” Connor glared. He stood in front of the minion and tilted his chin up to meet his eyes. “Hi,” he purred.

He whimpered. “Please don’t.”

“Come now, you enjoyed it, didn’t you?” Connor smiled. I hid my chuckle when I saw the minion smile and nod at our brother; maybe the devotion side was finally working. Connor then driveled on about how he was upset because no one appreciated him. How his business was suffering for what Decay was doing. “You don’t want me to suffer, right?”

“I-I don’t think so.” He looked confused.

“Connor,” Warren bit out low. “Get what we want, now.” He was running out of patience. Whereas I had already run out.

Connor sighed. “Can you tell me what Lord Decay is planning?”

Suddenly, the minion dipped his head, his chin touched his chest as he shook his head violently. He stopped and looked up to us all. Goddamn it. The fog lifted from the man’s eye; it darkened and narrowed. “Lord Decay will make you pay for what you have done, you filthy animals.”

Annoyed, Connor groaned and palmed the minion’s face, shoving back so it hit the wall. He turned and glared at Warren. “You made me push too fast. I would have fucking had him.” He crossed to stand in front of Warren; I thought he was going to hit him for a moment then he grabbed something off the wall and stalked back to the prisoner.

“Tell us what we need to know. Who unlocked our brother? What is he doing? Why—?”

“You idiots. You know nothing, but I will be avenged. He will come and make you all pay. He will—” He stopped abruptly and gasped, glancing down. I shifted closer so I could see what Connor had done. Jesus, if I weren’t a badass, I would have actually gagged.

Connor lifted the man’s testicles and asked, “You don’t need these, right?”

The man paled even more and panted. “I. Will. Never. Speak.”

Fucking hell. It was all starting to piss me the fuck off. Stamping to the left, I slid out the hot poker from the burning fire and walked back, handing it to Connor. “Can’t have him bleed out.” My brother nodded, took the poker from me and pressed it against the minion’s junk.

The man’s roar of pain filled the room. He threw his head back and kept screaming as Connor pressed it harder against him. The smell of burning flesh surrounded us, causing my stomach to roll, and smoke billowed up from his crotch area.

Finally, Connor stood back, the poker in his hand pointed to the ground. “Talk,” Connor ordered.

The fool slumped forward, his breathing labored, and shook his head.

“Right,” Warren clipped.

Connor whistled. “Dude, you’re fucked now.” I nodded, agreeing. When Warren was done, he was goddamn done.

From the wall, Warren took a deep pan with a lid. I blanched; he hadn’t used this method for a fucking long time. He went to the corner of the room and placed something in the dish.

“Seriously?” Connor asked. He also looked a little green around the gills.

Warren’s jaw clenched. “Always works.”

Scurrying sounded in the pan, and I shuddered.

“W-what is that?” Minion asked.

Warren didn’t answer. He took a belt off the wall next and walked to the prisoner. With swift movements, the lid was gone, the opening was placed against the minion’s stomach and the belt was tied tight around his waist.

Warren stood back.

We waited.

And waited.

Until…

“No!” he screamed. His eye flitted down to his stomach, then to all of us. Pleading held within it before his eye went back down to his stomach. He moved, shifted, yelled, but nothing would stop it.

The rat was hungry and he smelled food. The minion’s flesh. Right then, it would be biting and clawing its way into his gut to get to the juicy meat on the inside.

“Tell us what we want to know,” Warren barked out the order. “Tell us and we’ll stop this pain.”

“N-no.”

“Dean, rile the critter up,” Connor called; he’d gone back to sitting in the chair.

Grabbing a knife from the wall, I stalked to our prisoner, who still fought the rat digging into his gut, eating his skin and intestines bit by bit, by writhing against the wall. Little did he know, nothing would stop the animal from feasting.

Stopping in front of him, I touched the blade tip above the man’s stomach, where the pan sat, and then slowly, as he whimpered and cried, I slid the blade up, causing his blood to flow.

“No, no, no!” he screamed. The rat was on the move. For some reason, a fresh flow of blood always caught the animal’s attention and now it would be clawing its way upwards.

“Stop, stop.”

“Talk,” I snarled.

His eyes flashed wide with realization no one was coming to rescue him, and he was dead either way. By us, or if Kayne got his hands on him, he wouldn’t trust he hadn’t talked and kill him anyway. It was time to choose to go quickly, or slowly and painfully.

Thank fuck, he chose quickly.

“You are all dead anyway.” He cringed and flinched as the pain still sliced through him from the animal. “My Lord will kill you all.”

“He can’t,” Warren roughly said.

Even though he was in agony, he smiled. “He can. He is looking for the athame now, a dagger that holds the magic to end all your lives. We brought him back to k-kill you all. Only a brother can wield it.” He cringed. “Then the w-world will be ours.”

Connor laughed. “There’s no such thing.” Smiling, I shook my head and patted Warren’s back.

“They brought him back for a fool’s journey. At least looking for it will keep him busy, while we find him and lock him up again,” I said.

Warren smiled and nodded. He looked to me and Connor, saying, “Get some rest, brothers. I’ll wrap up here.”

Eager to get out of there, I started for the door and reached out to Julie. I’d kept our connection to a minimum while we did what we had to, just enough to know she was okay. Excitement pulsed through my blood, which pumped through my veins, until Falcone chose that moment to crush it all.

Julie is asleep. She is exhausted. Recon in the morning, Julie wants to know everything. Talking with women has tired me also.

Goddamn it.
I hadn’t meant to send my complaint through our connection, because then Falcone’s laughter at how eager I had been to see my mate rang through my mind.

Still, even if it pissed me off, I didn’t let it get to me too much. They would soon feel the way I had and I would enjoy the crap out of my revenge.

Chapter Fourteen

JULIE

The previous night, after Fallon went home, I’d waited another two hours to see if Dean would return. Falcone had come back eventually. While sitting with me, he’d noticed I kept glancing at the door and finally said it could take all night, so I decided to go to bed, alone, in the guest room.

My alarm jolted me from sleep, with my heart in my throat I quickly glanced at the clock. Double dang it. It was 8:00 a.m., which meant I’d only had three hours of sleep because I’d spent most of the night tossing and turning. My brain refused to shut up worrying about my doctor’s appointment. I’d also been wondering what the guys had learned in their questioning, and worst of all I’d realized how much I’d missed Dean. Though, what didn’t help was that my sheets still smelled of him. Eventually, in the early hours, my body finally took matters into its own hand, too exhausted to function another minute.

Groaning, I rolled out of bed after hitting the alarm for the fourth time and stumbled to the door. I didn’t care if I was only in my white Victoria’s Secret bra top cami and gray banded boyfriend pants scrunched up to my calves; I needed answers to what had happened last night and coffee ASAP, or someone could get hurt. I padded out of my bedroom and the apartment barefoot, down the hall, following the heavenly scent of life that some absolutely amazing person had brewed.

As I walked in, all conversation ceased, not that I cared. I was on a mission. It was an older twelve-cup glass pot. I grabbed a clean Horsemen Hedge Funds mug and started making magic. The first sip was bliss. I closed my eyes and moaned in pleasure as I swallowed down the second sip. I opened my eyes to find all four boys staring.

“Talk dirty to it,” Connor ordered in a breathy whisper, earning him a growl from Dean and a slap in the back of the head from Warren.

“Shhh. I’m having a moment with my coffee,” I answered and took a seat next to Dean. He pulled my chair close and my free hand into his and squeezed. It was exactly what I needed. As soon as he made contact, my stress, tension, and worry from the last however many hours we were apart melted from my body. I was under no illusion that my body recognized Dean as my mate and automatically felt safe and secure in his presence.

Warren cleared his throat to regain the room’s attention. “Now that we are all here, let’s debrief so we may all get back to work. The idiot last night gave us nothing on where Kayne is, but we do know why they brought him back. The wankers have this ridiculous notion that there’s an athame out there that is blessed with the ability to kill us.”

Connor and Dean were laughing, even Warren’s mouth held an amused smirk at the absurdity. Only my eyes went to Falcone, and stayed there as I watched the color drain from his face.

“Falcone? What is it?” I asked. The other boys sobered up and started to pay attention.

Falcone directed his answer to me. “I have never read or heard of such an item…” I started to relax until he continued, “But it is probable. One would assume when the Navah were creating superior beings to prevent destruction, they would have also created a means to destroy them. An athame forged by one of the master ironsmiths of the Navah would be able to do massive damage.” He glanced quickly at Warren and then back to me. “You need to remember that alchemy was widespread and powerful once. It was aimed to purify, mature, and perfect certain objects and the transmutation of base metals, like lead, into noble ones. Also to create things to diffrent disease cures, or an elixir of immortality, and probably ways to reverse it too.” I could hear the worry in his voice.

“If alchemy was so powerful, why aren’t there more people doing it?” I asked, squeezing Dean’s hand and taking strength from our connection to soothe some of my worries.

“Just like any trend, something else came along. Modern became preferred by the public. Alchemy is partly magic. It’s an unseen factor, whereas modern medicine is backed by scientific data, and the process can be followed from ingredients to results.” The silence, as we all digested everything Falcone had told us, was eerie.

“So you think the wanker was telling the truth, that there may be a way to kill us out there in the world?” A somber Warren finally asked the question probably running through all our minds.

Falcone shook his head. “Not for sure, but it’s something we need to consider as probable. I’m going to put my whole research team on combing the archives. Sorry, Dean, I will need to put those who were searching for the mating rites on this also.” Dean nodded but didn’t seem happy about it.