He had the lid popped off and needle pushing into her flesh before she could move more than two or three steps.
“Z, ready?” Kyle asked. He now had Amber’s body in his arms. She blinked rapidly; a low keening sound came from her mouth with a string of drool.
This particular paralyzing agent was one of the fastest we’d tested over the years. Its effects were almost instantaneous and not only blocked all functions of the limbs but the vocal cords.
“Should be. Let’s get them downstairs.”
“You’re the boss,” Niklaus joked, hoisting Patricia over his shoulder.
We found our way down to the basement and passed through my office to join Zoe in the in-home operating room. She’d done most of the prep work already. The operating tables were clear, tools were lined up, and she was dressed accordingly.
Kyle and Niklaus placed both girls down and began the tedious task of removing their clothes while I secured the straps that would keep Patricia in place should the paralytic somehow wear off. One across her throat, another across her hips, and the final restraint just above her ankles.
“Records?”
“Come on, you know those have been handled,” Kyle replied.
“He asks every time,” Zoe lilted, doing Amber’s straps on the opposite table.
I rolled back the sleeves of my button-down and grabbed one of the extra smocks. “It never hurts to--.”
“To be sure,” Niklaus finished. “My anally clinical, sweet baby brother, we have no plans in fucking ourselves over. As far as Dream Garden goes, these two have never been seen there a day in their sad little lives.”
“They don’t have any familial ties to worry about,” Kyle added.
“Good.” I washed my hands and put on my surgical gloves. Next, I pulled out the preservation solutions we would need to flush our donors and the organs. The transport container was already on the counter ready to receive its precious cargo.
Each looked like a larger, much more complex air-pod case. I turned away from them and approached Patricia first. She was the one who mattered most. Her right kidney was a perfect match for the client.
Amber was only here to witness the spectacle before she died. If she were lucky, she’d suffer from aspiration before I was finished with the nephrectomy. Since I skipped on having my extra exclusive patients fast before surgery, the risk of them succumbing to any food-related complications was higher.
If either of them was to cough, gag, or vomit right now they wouldn’t be able to clear their airway. The paralyzing agent had stolen their ability to do so.
“Let’s get this done.”
“I’ll be over here,” Niklaus implored, getting comfortable beside Amber’s table.
He was always so fascinated with all of this.
He’d been fully capable of studying in the medical field, but the law had called to him more, ironically. It was for the best. My brother was a damn good lawyer.
I could have gone for the psychology or psychiatric route, but I didn’t need any education in that department. I could handle people remarkably well. All of my exes could attest for that, apart from a select few who were no longer with us. Eventually, Catalina would agree with this too.
I rounded the table and stood on Patricia’s right.
Zoe came to stand on the left while Kyle began to fumble with the data station that would track our cargo. He was our people person, the one who had strived to learn more about the human mind.
I grabbed the scalpel from the OR table and traced an invisible path down Patricia’s side with my index finger to note where I would make the first cut.
Her hazel eyes rolled to follow my movements, her pupils slightly expanding. Shame she couldn’t speak. Sometimes I allowed them to scream, usually when I was alone and taking someone apart to brush up on my skills. However, she could see, hear, and feel everything going on. It would be rude for me to take away all of their senses, wouldn’t it?
“Ready?” I asked Zoe.
“Go for it.”
I pressed my blade to Patricia’s body and began to make my first incision on the side of her chest, going about eight inches horizontally. The scalpel had no issues slicing into her creamy flesh. I ignored the blood running down onto the table and made the next cut, this one on her upper abdomen.
“Catalina hasn’t tried to call the cops yet?” Niklaus asked.
“You would have been the first to know if she had.”
“That’s true. You don’t seem worried about the possibility.”
“Because she won’t. She’s got more common sense than that. If I’m somehow miraculously wrong, it would give me something to look forward to in the event she tries to use them for her benefit.”
“She doesn’t know about the conservatorship then,” Kyle stated.
I sat the scalpel down and peeled back the first flap of skin, fully opening Patricia up where I had cut her at.
It lifted like a sticker coming away from its adhesive, nice and easy with a satisfying sound. “No, but that’s irrelevant. I don’t plan on doing anything with that unless she begins to misbehave.”
Zoe scoffed. “She’s not a dog, Alaric. Jesus.”
“She may not be a dog, but she is my special pet. I have to take good of her and make sure she’s trained well enough to thrive without needing to be baby-sat.”
“What exactly does that mean?”
“Retractor,” I ordered, ignoring her question.
She huffed and passed me the metal instrument that strongly resembled a pair of Frankenstein-like scissors with jagged hooks on the end. I inserted it into Patricia and used it to spread apart her ribs. Tears streamed in a continuous river from her eyes. She only needed to hang in for a bit longer. I’d have her kidney out in no time.
We were on a timetable. This little bean would only be good for about twenty-four to forty-eight hours. It would still need flushed, packaged, and then taken to Demitri who would handle the next step of its transportation with the client.
I probed the area, working swiftly to remove muscle, fat, and tissue, dropping everything I took out onto a separate tray. I carefully cut the ureter and some lymph nodes away before working on the glands.
It took approximately two and a half hours to complete this portion of the process. Next came flushing out the organ with perfusion solution. This was a critical step in ensuring it remained viable and healthy once it was placed in its new home.
“Get the Lifeport ready, I’ll finish this.”
Zoe nodded and took a step away, removing her gloves to deal with the shipping transporter.
The machine did everything in one, eliminating the need for separate cold storage and other means of solutions.
It had been designed with a pressure-controlled pump that enabled me to choose the pressure based on the particular organs' needs, in this case, the vasculature. It would also perfusate under aseptic conditions.
All in all, it gave a good peace of mind. Better that the transport could be tracked, and the goods monitored with an app.
Thank fuck I didn’t need to remove any ribs this time around. I was careful when finally removing the fist-sized organ. Kyle helped his fiancé with the transporter, prepping it with more solution and adjusting the gages. The moment the kidney was secure and ready to go they made a hasty exit promising to keep me updated with Demitri.
“You want help?” Niklaus asked, continuing to laze beside Amber.
“Your idea of helping me usually makes more work.”
“Not everyone can be as efficient as you when it comes to handling corpses.”
“Corpses?” I grinned at him. “They aren’t dead yet.”
“Huh.” He glanced down at Amber and smoothed a hand over her brow. Her eyes widening, a fresh wave of tears making them glisten. “You’re right.”
“You can’t keep it,” I warned.
He looked back up at me with a cool smirk. “I don’t want it, sir. I have something better. Thanks to you and s
is.”
“Right,” I drawled, grabbing my scalpel once I located where I’d left it. “How is that going?”
“Pretty good. She’s crazy in a good way, you know what I mean?”
I laughed under my breath, slipping the scalpel into Patricia’s jugular, giving it a small twist to make sure I fully severed the vein. Her mouth parted but no sound came out, eyes rolling to the back of her head.
“In other words, I should wish you luck?”
“Exactly.”
I angled my body away from the blood spraying out the side of Patricia’s neck and removed the retractor from between her ribs.
“What’s our timeline looking like for Johnathon?”
“After tonight, things should be done within two weeks.”
“That fast?”
Using both hands, I scooped up all the things I’d taken out to get to Patricia’s kidney and kindly put them back through the opening I’d created.
“I don’t see any reason to prolong this. Catalina isn’t like the others. She’ll be with me indefinitely.”
“You like this girl.”
He sounded amazed and a hint relieved. I wasn’t sure why. I always followed through with what I said I would do. Did I like her? Yes, I did, but that didn’t have anything to do with the deal I’d made with her mother. It just so happened she was what I needed in my life. She was everything I wanted without knowing it until she stepped out of Demitri’s car.
Catalina was one of the most fascinating women I had ever met. Watching her work so hard to keep hold of reality was as enchanting as witnessing the madness inside her be set free.
She was perfect for me.
We had so much fun to have together.
“Okay, I need you to explain this again.”
“Explain what?” I undid the straps meant to keep Patricia in place, and then gathered her lifeless body into my arms. Her nakedness didn’t faze me in the slightest. Wasn’t much to look at even if I wanted to. My ass was bigger than hers.
“Cat is ‘special’, right? Right. But aren’t you in the process of breaking her down like you’ve done the others?”
“Get the door for me,” I commanded, carrying Patricia towards the back room.
He hurried to help, pushing the metal door open so that I could carry her through. The linoleum changed to dirt and the scent went from blood-tinged and clinical to acidic. I laid her body in the metal trough off to the right and then readied the first container of sulfuric to be added to the trough.
Stepping away, I exited the room to retrieve Amber.
“My kink is breaking them into nothing. I like them on their knees begging to be mine and promising that they’ll do anything I ask. They’d happily die for me. I own them—mind, body, and soul.”
“I’m aware…” Niklaus followed behind me like a curious puppy. He was older, but he’d always had a restless, energetic spirit that made it seem like the opposite.
“Catalina was well on her way to insanity before she met me. I’m just giving her mind that last push over the edge.”
“So, you’re not doing anything diff--.”
“She’ll only need to beg a little. When she promises to die for me, she’ll do it happily.” I contemplated Amber for a minute, debating if I should kill her now or let the acid eat away over the next few days while she was still alive. The latter seemed like the best idea.
“It’s different because I’m nurturing her madness, not creating it. In the end, she’ll need me, but I’ll need her too.”
“Wow. what an extremely fucked up way of getting to I love you.”
I hoisted Amber over my shoulder with a laugh, letting her blonde hair dangle aimlessly. “But worth it.”
I balanced the glass of Macallan on the piano’s hood and sat down. I’d saved someone’s life in exchange for taking two others. I didn’t feel guilt or sorrow for those women. I never did. Not for the men either. They were all worth more dead than they’d ever be alive.
But this wasn’t about the money.
I had plenty of cash through the legitimate operations at Dream Garden as well as investing. Organ harvesting was a pandora’s box. My grandfather had handed it down to my father and he was passing it to me.
We were saviors in a sense, angels of death that gave back with every life we took. The ones receiving these parts would live on in place of their donors, getting a real chance to thrive. We were doing a good thing. I felt compelled to ensure the cycle continued for a bit longer. At least until I reclaimed what my father should have never given away.
In other respects, the trail of broken women was nothing more than a hobby turned addiction—a need to see how far I could warp a mind before it caved in on itself. Perhaps, searching for someone a little like me too. No one wants to be all alone.
Catalina was similar in that regard. She was lonely too. She didn’t fit in with the rest of the world. Now she wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore.
I took a sip of my drink, the way it burned going down was a welcome sensation. Placing it back on the hood, I relaxed into my seat, lightly brushing my fingers over the keys before me. It was nearing one in the morning. I could’ve gone straight to bed. I’d found my way in here instead. How long had it been since I sat in the dark and unwound like this?
After discarding bodies and cleaning up blood, a little Midnight Sonata did the mind wonders.
It was a classic.
A piece even those unknowledgeable of piano music should know. Not as grand or moving as Sociopath or Duet, but still beautiful.
My love for the piano began when I was just a boy. I think it was around eleven my parents knew I was gifted, albeit different from other kids my age. It was a blessing and a curse. The inside of my mind could get to be too overwhelming sometimes.
My mother suggested an outlet.
I wasn’t one for sports or clubs, so my grandfather sat me down and taught me to use one of these beautiful creations to express myself. Each time I sat down I was accepting an invitation for my soul to tell its tale with something that predated any other language and words. An invitation that never expired and lacked the necessity to give something in return.
I began to play almost hesitantly, the music becoming more vivid and fluid as the melody cleared everything away from my mind, but the story it wanted to tell of tonight.
CHAPTER FIVE
The heat pressing my back woke me up.
My brain told my eyes to open, the action delayed by the heaviness of my lids. Thick darkness greeted me. I blinked to try and get a better idea of where I was. I pushed myself into a sitting position as the memory of my sister’s death rose to the forefront of my mind.
Belatedly realizing I was nearly naked and in Alaric’s bed, I looked over and saw he was the culprit of the heat.
My eyes further adjusted, revealing he was sleeping soundlessly. He was shirtless, hands braced behind his head. How could he climb into this bed after drugging me? How bold was he to lay right here?
Then again, I suspected he knew I would never hurt him. It was hard for me to understand myself, adding him to the equation made everything that much more complicated. Not only did I not want to harm him. I couldn’t. Hurting him physically was the furthest thing from my mind or list of agendas.
I only wanted to be free of him before I became forever trapped in his world of madness or completely lost myself to my dark dreams. Even that, the thought of leaving him behind caused an ache in my chest.
What other choice did I have?
This wasn’t a normal situation.
He may have been the only person to see through the veil I was cloaked in, who made my heart pound erratically, but I couldn’t live this way.
I was scared.
He was taking it too far. I didn’t want to live in a prison, let alone one where the warden played games with my mind.
Easing the duvet off me, I watched for any sign that he was waking. When he didn’t stir, I slowly slipped out of bed, l
owering my feet to the floor. I wrapped my arms around myself. Where was the robe?
Hoping it had been placed back on the lounge, I took careful steps towards where I thought it would. Reaching one hand out in front of me, I felt along the soft suede until my fingers skimmed over silk.
I grabbed it and made a quick, silent dash for the door. Out in the darkened hall, I waited to see if he would wake now.
The pounding of my heart made it hard to hear much of anything. When he didn’t make an appearance after I silently counted to sixty twice, I let myself relax a bit.
I pulled the robe on, tying the sash as I walked down the hallway. The house had returned to its ominously silent state. I could hear the waves crashing in from outside. I wondered what time it was. I didn’t have my phone with me. It may have been back on the nightstand, but I didn’t want to risk going back inside the room. That was the very reason why I remained only in this robe.
I wasn’t entirely sure what I should do now. The room that had all of Meg’s things inside was closed up tight at the other end of the hall. I realized now that this was done intentionally. Alaric had wanted significant space between the two of them.
I wanted to know what happened to her and why she chose to take her life.
I didn’t trust Alaric to tell me the truth. I knew he had the answer, but I also knew in my heart of hearts that he had something to do with it. If I thought the answers were locked away inside her bedroom, I would be in there right now searching it like Nancy Drew.
I’d gone through the majority of her things, though, and there wasn’t anything in there that alluded to her being suicidal. Not unless her spending ridiculous amounts of money was a cry for help. Besides, after everything had transpired so far, it felt intrusive to go back into her room.
I had come to this estate to help square away my sister’s belongings and wound up in this confusing situation with her husband. I wonder if she’d hate me for it. I paused at the top of the steps and listened for any sound coming from below.
The silence continued to linger.
I began to descend, wondering what on earth had happened to Demitri. I hadn’t seen him all day or night.
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