Inferno-Kat 2

by Vivi Anna

  Kat. He needed to get to her. He could hear her calling to him. She was screaming for him to help her.

  “I’m coming, baby! Hang on!” he yelled, trying to scramble out of the chair and onto his feet.

  “He’s delirious. Hold him down,” Onyx grunted as he pushed Hades’ powerful frame back into the seat.

  Leucothea climbed into his lap and pushed back his shoulders. He was so weak he couldn’t fight back. They were going to win. The dark man leaned forward and grabbed his chin. Hades tried to yank his away head, but he found that the signals he sent to his brain weren’t registering. He was as vulnerable and weak as a newborn baby.

  As Onyx lifted his chin, Leucothea slid her fingers into his mouth and pried apart his lips. The dark man poured the poison down his throat. He tried to spit it out, but Leucothea quickly clamped his lips shut and held his mouth closed. He swallowed the foul liquid. It was like acid going down his throat.

  This was not how he wanted to go. Betrayed and poisoned by those he trusted.

  His eyes became heavy, and his body felt like it was floating in saline water. Light and buoyant.

  Was this what dying felt like? He’d always thought it would be like rushing through a dark tunnel. Much like riding a bike at night with the wind whipping against his face. He wondered whom he would meet on the other side. Probably all the people he’d killed in the past, lined up and waiting for another chance to fight him.

  Everything became slow and heavy, like moving through molasses. Even Leucothea seemed to be stuck in slow motion as she leaned over and pressed her lips to his forehead. He wanted to tell her to keep her farewells. But his lips felt like they had been glued together.

  I failed you, Kat. Hades shut his eyes and let the sluggish moving waves of death pull him under.

  “I love you….” he murmured and then fell into a deep sleep.

  18

  When Kat tried to alter the position of her arm, pain poured through her like bubbling acid.

  Shifting again, she desperately tried to get comfortable. As the pull on her arms and the throb on her shoulders could attest to, it would be damn near impossible to do so in her situation.

  She had pissed off Baruch something fierce. And she didn’t think he’d ever let her forget it. As long as she was alive and in his possession, she was going to be paying for it. She’d survived many tortures, even once by Baruch, but she didn’t know if she possessed the strength to keep fighting. She was getting tired of being so strong, being so invulnerable.

  Surrender was looking sweeter by the minute.

  When he had stormed back into the room from the meeting with Satarah, it was quite clear that none of his fury had quieted. In fact, it seemed more extreme than it had been before. If that was possible.

  Kat had expected him to pick up where he had left off. She had even been ready for him and launched an attack before he could even touch her. She’d gotten in a few good blows to his legs and groin prior to him rendering her unconscious with a solid punch to her temple.

  When she awoke, she was still in Satarah’s bedchamber, but now she was mounted on the woman’s trophy wall, still naked, still bleeding from the numerous cuts and abrasions she had sustained. Arms stretched up and out, legs spread wide, Kat felt like a sacrificial lamb at the slaughter. Thankfully she didn’t have the black leather hood over her head. She didn’t think she could handle that. Thank God for small favors.

  She didn’t know how long she’d been hanging unconscious, but it was long enough for her limbs, especially her arms, to start aching. She twisted once more to the left, thinking to relieve the excessive throb in her left arm. It didn’t help. Nothing helped. Soon her back would start to twinge and her hips to ache as her bones stretched and accommodated for the distressing position her body was forced into.

  The only thing she was thankful for was that she was alone. No other body hung on the wall beside her, and no one was watching from the shadowed corners. No guards to keep an eye on her actions. Too bad for them.

  Tilting her head back, she looked up at her bindings. There had to be a way to break them. They were leather with metal buckles. She’d broken out of worse. Twisting her wrists, she tested their hold. They were bound tight. She could barely move her hands.

  Doing the same with her legs, she tested the restraints on her ankles. Strong and constricted.

  Well, she knew it wasn’t going to be easy to escape. She’d been in worse situations. Hadn’t she?

  Glancing around at her predicament, she thought that maybe this was the worse thing she’d ever gotten herself into. For a moment she wished she was back out on the deadly Wastelands, dehydrating, with nowhere to go but across the barren desert.

  Even then, she still had hope. She still had fought with every bit of spirit she could muster. But, then she had had Hades by her side. Everything had seemed possible when he was near. Even the impossible.

  Folding her thumbs into her palms and squishing her fingers together, Kat pulled on her hands.

  Maybe she could slide them out. Even if most of her skin came off, she didn’t care. She’d be free.

  But pulling didn’t help. It didn’t do anything but shoot burning pain down her arms. A thin trickle of blood ran down her right arm where she’d scraped her hand on the leather binding.

  With an angry grunt, she tried the same with her legs. She didn’t know how getting a foot loose would help, but she’d do anything to fuck up Baruch’s plans of an easy torture. But yanking on her legs just caused her more agony.

  With so many aches, bruises, cuts, and abrasions, Kat had no idea where one pain started and the other ended. Her whole body was alight with scorching anguish. How could she go on?

  Hot, angry tears of frustration ran down her cheeks.

  “Fuck you!” she screamed as she yanked on her hands and ankles at the same time until blood ran like crimson rivers down her arms and her feet to pool on the pristine marble floor.

  Collapsing against the wall, her body shrieking at the torture she had just inflicted on it, Kat squeezed her eyes shut and sobbed in fury.

  “It breaks my heart to see you like this, darling.”

  Kat slowly opened her eyes and glared down at Satarah, who was looking up at her on the wall, a half smile on her pale oval face.

  “You have got to be the strongest human being I have ever seen.” Satarah eyed her up and down and then glanced down at the blood congealing on the floor beneath Kat’s feet. She shook her head and almost looked concerned. “I have seen grown men, big brawny he-men, fall to their knees and cry like babies for less. Much, much less.”

  Swallowing to clear her dry throat, Kat spoke. “If I wasn’t up here on this wall, I’d rip out your fucking throat with my bare hands.”

  Satarah chuckled. “Yes, I know you would.” She cocked her head and smiled. “That’s why I’m going to say what I have to say now, while you’re still restrained.”

  After their little tryst earlier, Kat had assumed the woman would’ve done something earlier to keep her from Baruch’s twisted hands. She hadn’t. Kat wanted nothing more than to fling out her leg and kick the lying, manipulative woman in the head. But she couldn’t move. Just the thought of moving sent jolts of pain radiating over her body, like a million pins sticking into a pincushion.

  “It seems I have misjudged Baruch’s lust for power.” She paced in front of Kat. “He wants to take Inferno from me, and I won’t let that happen. I thought if he finally got what he wanted,”

  she waved her hand toward Kat, “namely you, that he would be satisfied and leave my city.” She stopped and glanced up at Kat. “It seems that’s not going to happen. So I have to do what I have to to make him leave.”

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because I’m going to release you, and you’re going to leave the city, and Baruch’s going to follow. Like a dog chasing a rabbit.” She reached up and unbuckled Kat’s right foot. “And you’re the rabbit, my dear.”

&nbs
p; Kat remained motionless as Satarah released the binding on her left ankle. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Could she trust this woman? Would she really let her go without repercussions? She didn’t think so. Satarah was a ruthless, calculating bitch. There had to be a catch somewhere. Kat was just too relieved and exhausted to see it.

  Once her legs were free, Satarah pushed a button on the wall and a small platform popped out.

  She stepped onto it, enabling her to reach Kat’s wrists. While she unbuckled them, she scrutinized Kat’s face. Likely watching for signs that Kat was going to attack.

  If Kat had had the energy, she would have.

  When the last restraint was undone on her left arm, Kat fell to the ground in a heap, her legs unable to keep her upright. If she had been previously uninjured, the fall may have hurt, but at the moment she couldn’t feel anything but one giant pulsating throb over her entire body.

  “I’ve brought your clothes and your weapons.” Satarah gestured to the bed.

  Raising her head, Kat glanced toward the king-size mattress. Indeed, her things were piled on top. It felt like an eternity since she’d seen them last. The days had blurred into one massive beating. She couldn’t pinpoint the last day she’d felt the familiar weight of her blade strapped to her leg.

  She turned her gaze to Satarah. “Why?”

  “I told you already. So Baruch will follow you out. I was a fool to allow him entry in the first place.” She strode toward the bed and fingered one of Kat’s knives. “I realize now that he isn’t a man to make deals with. He has no sense of honor. He thinks only of himself.” Meeting Kat’s gaze, she smiled. “I may be no better, but at least I will keep my word.” She strode back to Kat and offered her hand. “And I give you mine that I will let you go without consequence. I will even direct you to what you desire most. A cure for the disease that spreads through you.”

  Kat didn’t trust her. The woman could call her guards or, worse, Baruch, as soon as she let her go. But any chance of escape, she’d take. No matter who was offering it to her.

  She reached up and took Satarah’s hand. Satarah clasped her other hand over Kat’s. A rush of something electric surged through her arm at the contact.

  “You must promise me that you will take your cure and get out of my city. I can’t risk you coming back to seek revenge on Baruch.”

  Kat nodded. Too tired to do anything else.

  Satarah pulled her up and helped her over to the bed. She sat on the edge of the mattress and watched in silence as Kat got dressed.

  The feel of her weapons back in her hands brought a fleeting smile to Kat’s lips. Maybe she’d survive after all. In that moment, she thought of Hades. If only he were still alive and eagerly waiting for her escape. Their reunion would’ve been explosive, to say the least. Even exhausted and in pain as she was, nothing would’ve stopped her from fucking him silly.

  “How do I get past the guards?” Kat asked as she strapped the final blade sheath to her right thigh.

  Satarah motioned toward the ceiling just above the bed. “There are a series of ventilation shafts all through the city. Follow this one until you come to a T, and then go to the left. That will take you to Onyx.” She stood and smoothed down the line of her teal gown. “Tell him he is to give you the cure and to show you how to get out of the city. He will listen to reason, I am sure.” She chuckled. “And I know you are a woman who can use reason like a finely honed blade.”

  Legs still quivering and barely able to support her, Kat stood and looked up at the grate in the ceiling. She glanced back at Satarah, who still sat primly on the bed watching her. “Baruch will kill you for letting me go.”

  She stood and crossed the short distance between them. “But I’m not letting you go. You’re escaping.”

  Kat nodded, understanding the fire in Satarah’s eyes. She imagined she had similar flames in her own.

  Unsheathing her longest blade, Kat swiped it across Satarah’s face. Blood instantly sluiced down her cheek like rivulets of rain and spotted her pale cleavage.

  Kat winced at the twinge of pain in her arm with the motion. She hoped she didn’t run into any trouble along the way to the dark man and her freedom. Even with her weapons, she’d have a hell of a time defending herself.

  “Good, but not enough, I’m afraid.” Satarah grabbed the knife from Kat and brought it down hard into her thigh. Crying out, she pulled the knife out of her leg and handed it back to Kat, pain swimming in her eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ll heal.”

  After wiping the blood off on her pants, Kat sheathed the knife. “I’m not worried.”

  In fact, although the woman was releasing her, she didn’t care what happened to her after she was gone. Satarah was nothing but a means to an end. The woman had made her bed. She could damn well sleep in it.

  Kat looked up at the vent again. “How do I get up there?”

  Satarah, now wincing with pain, lowered herself back onto the mattress. She motioned toward the bedpost closest to the grate. “I suggest you climb.”

  Although the climb was not hard, just thinking about it caused swells of pain to surge over her again. In her condition, it would be difficult. She could barely move her arm. But the thought of staying trapped in this room, with Baruch only minutes away, caused her more agony. She’d chew off her own hand to escape any more of his torture.

  The virus inside her was too close to the surface to resist much longer. She’d been close, too close, to letting it drag her under. Even if she had let it out only to attack Baruch, to defend herself, it would have possessed her.

  Taking in a deep breath, Kat stepped on the edge of the bed and grabbed the wooden post. Her legs and arms trembled from the exertion. Damn, she hoped she’d make it. She’d come too far in realizing that she was human, that she had real emotions, like love, to allow anything to snatch it from her.

  19

  Crawling through the vents was like creeping on shards of glass. Every movement Kat made, her body screamed in protest. But she drove on. She could rest and heal later when she was safe and outside the city walls with her cure in hand. Until then, she would push her body harder.

  Surviving was her number-one objective.

  After the second turn in the shaft system, Kat realized she was lost or Satarah had given her the wrong directions. Either way, she had to find a way out. She would regroup and reevaluate after she determined where exactly she was.

  While moving through the system, she had yet to come across another grate. She prayed she could find another way out. It would be a shame to have to go back to Satarah’s room. She’d rather die of starvation in the vent than go back.

  When a painful cramp seized her arm again, Kat stopped and rubbed her flesh. As she did, she noticed a change in the vent up ahead. A change in surface. Maybe it was a grate.

  Once the twinge subsided, Kat moved on but slower. She didn’t want to press her knee into a grill and fall into a room full of Satarah’s men.

  About six feet in, Kat saw a buttonholed grate. Leaning down, she peered into the room below her. From what she could see, it looked to be a small apartment, sparsely furnished, but livable.

  Then movement in the corner caused her heart to skip a beat or two.

  The dark man. He was standing at a counter and looked to be mixing something in a bowl. His back was to her. Pressing her ear to the metal, she listened for other sounds. Indications that he wasn’t alone. She heard nothing but the clinking of his stirring instrument.

  Moving to the other side of the grate, Kat put her boots on it. She’d kick it out and slide down, jumping into the room. She hoped the fall didn’t immobilize her.

  Taking in a deep breath, she counted to three and then booted out the grill. Pushing with her hands, she went through the grate and fell to the floor. Thankfully she only collapsed on one knee and not on her face.

  She was able to push herself up by the time the dark man had turned.

  He smiled when he saw her. “Now this
is interesting.”

  Unsheathing a knife, she rushed toward him. Reasoning without a weapon just wasn’t one of her strong points. “You and I need to have a chat.”

  He put up his hands in defense. “I’d wait a minute, if I were you.”

  Kat hesitated. Why wasn’t he afraid? Her sudden drop through the ceiling hadn’t seemed so strange to him. Had Satarah already sent a message to him? Was he expecting her? Or was it a trap?

  Sensing movement behind her, Kat gripped her knife tightly. When the hand came down on her shoulder, she swiveled on her heel, brought up her free hand to push on the assailant, and lifted the blade up to his throat. It wasn’t until she had him pressed against the wall, her knee between his legs, that she looked into his face.

  Her heart nearly burst out of her chest.

  He grinned, the dimple at the side of his mouth winking at her. “Hey, babe.”

  Taking a shaky step back, Kat could hardly breathe. Was this real? Or another heart-twisting dream? Would she suddenly wake up and be in Baruch’s vile embrace once again?

  He reached out to her, intent on touching her face.

  She swiped her blade across his palm.

  “Fuck, woman!” He pulled his hand back and stared at the blood dribbling from the cut. “Are you trying to kill me?”

  It wasn’t a dream. He was real.

  Dropping her knife, Kat launched herself into Hades’ arms, covering his mouth with hers.

  Everything about him swept over her, nearly crushing her heart with its intensity. His smell, his flavor, the texture of his lips, the sweet moisture on his tongue, the way his hands felt on her back holding her close. Everything came crashing down around her and ripped at her heart, tore at her soul. She didn’t realize how utterly helpless she had felt until this very moment.

  Tears, hot and hard, burst out of her, and she sobbed into his mouth. Hades moved up his hands and cradled her head as she cried into his chest. Fisting her hands in his shirt, she allowed her raging emotions to, finally, come out.