Death Be Blue (The Terra Vane Series Book 1)

by Katie Epstein

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  It felt like hours had gone by as the tension in my shoulders submitted to the pain. But it was my wrists that hurt the most. I was grateful that the one on my right was starting to go numb after enduring the ache for so long, and I hoped the other would follow suit soon enough.

  Exhaustion from the emotions that had been raging through me, finally helped silence the inner torment. Thinking of my family and friends hurt too much, so I pushed them to one side and focused on Cole instead.

  I wasn’t sure why I’d done that. But my fantasies of being with him in a world that didn’t want us together kept me sane. All when the thought of Chris, Rosie, Mayra or Kaleb threatened to break me. Instead, I allowed my mind to drift to my personal feelings for Cole, to a safer torment than the one I was facing now. It became my balm in the dark.

  The sound of a door closing, then a whine piercing the silence, caused me to jump into full alert. My breathing quickened as the footsteps and sounds of something being dragged along the floor reached me. I had to force myself to slow down my intake of oxygen before I passed out, sensing the danger. They were bringing someone, or something, down here with them, and it seemed there were more than one.

  “Turn on the lights,” I heard a voice snap. And I knew who that voice belonged to. Rudolf freaking River.

  My eyes squinted as the blue crystal light suddenly illuminated the room. The light gave me temporary solace now I could see what I was facing. But the solace didn’t last long. My eyes fully adjusted, and I saw Rudolf coming toward me with Raken, who was grinning wickedly behind his boss’s back. Two other men I didn’t recognize stayed in position, and I could see they were holding a long piece of heavy chain. Snarls and growls came from behind them, telling me those chains were being used to keep something on a very tight rein.

  “Ah, Terra Vane,” Rudolf smiled, opening his arms wide as if he was greeting a long, lost friend. He stepped closer; his dark leather pants and shirt so tight I wondered how he could breathe. He didn’t touch me like Raken had, but he had that same smug look plastered across his features. “I hope you’re settling in here. It’s one of our better accommodations.”

  “In a warehouse, I presume?” Now I could see the layout of the place, I recognized it to be the same one in my vision where they’d been holding the rogues. Rudolf didn’t look impressed at the shitty comment I’d made, but he still forced a smile regardless.

  “It matters not,” he replied. “I wanted to clarify a few things before I leave a couple of friends with you. I suggest you cooperate.”

  “Cooperate?” I laughed. “Sure, I’ll cooperate. I’ve got nothing better to do.”

  He grabbed my face and dug his bony fingers into my cheek before I could blink. “I’ve checked through your belongings and found your citizen badge, darling. I know you’re a Sapphire Citizen.”

  “Good for you, darling,” I retorted as I yanked my head away. “Want to cuddle now?”

  His punch came fast and sharp. I saw stars, but nervous laughter left my lips. My mind had obviously walked out of the building two minutes ago and left me here to suffer the consequences.

  “You will tell me what kind of Sapphire you are,” he growled out between gritted teeth. “And you will tell me what you saw when you touched me at my club.”

  He punched me in the stomach and I gasped for air from the impact. Wheezing wasn’t exactly giving me the upper hand right now, so I took a moment to catch my breath. “Saw? I didn’t see anything aside from a club owner who had bad taste in decor. Animal skin? Really? You don’t take offense at having the dead flesh of your kin everywhere?”

  Another punch to my face. Harder this time. “I am not a lenient man. You will tell me what you know!”

  “Why? So you can kill me like you tried to with Emera?”

  He looked puzzled for a moment as he regarded me. Then recognition hit. “Ah, I see. You mean Divinia. So you know about her?” He took a step back.

  “Didn’t take much to work it out. You own the SQR, told them to make themselves scarce, then set a rogue to attack her. Why was that exactly? She find out how small your dick was?”

  He laughed humorlessly. “Oh, you’re making this too easy.” He hit me again and I felt my lip burst open. Blood dropped upon the floor beneath my feet. “Divinia knew too much. And she needed to learn to obey me, if you must know. Only it worked a lot more effectively with her. She knew when to shut up. Unlike you.” He head-butted me. It felt like I’d ran straight into a brick wall. Stars hovered in front of my vision and the pain in my head pulsed in time with my heartbeat. “She ran away from me,” he continued, “and she knew things about my set up that could have been used against me. She needed to be taken out. So taken out she was. Pretty ingenious, if you think about it.”

  “What?” I demanded groggily. It took me a moment to stop seeing double as the pain from his hits pulsed around my head. “You broke rogues out of a prison so that you could use them as a weapon, and you didn’t expect anyone to find out?” I chuckled before spitting out the blood gathering in my throat. “Let’s piss off the prison that reports to the Consilium. Yeah, that won’t leave a trail. Brilliant plan.”

  His eyes flared at my blatant disobedience. I didn’t know why, but I found it hilarious. Trying to laugh with a split lip, however, was not such a good idea.

  “You don’t know who I have in my back pocket!” he roared at me. “You have no idea how powerful I am! I have my hand weaved through so much in this city, from the top to the bottom, that one day I’ll own it all. It’s a pity you won’t be around to see it!”

  “I know you’ve got contacts,” I told him, trying to appear nonchalant as pain found new parts of me to torture. “I mean, come on. AK47s? Why not print a message on the shirt of your minions saying ‘Consilium Corruption - Come find me.’” I shook my head in mock disbelief before staring him down. “But you didn’t count on your SQR boys selling you out, did you?” I chuckled again. “You provided them with the pills to tame the rogues, but then they went behind your back and tried to sell them. Naughty, naughty Ground Patrol. But you know what they say … Pay peanuts, and you get the monkeys.”

  He pounced, wrapping his hand around my neck, squeezing hard. “You know nothing about me you stupid, little bitch. You’re nothing. A nobody. Whereas I am somebody. Nobody steals from me. Nobody! And the SQR heathens found that out the hard way.”

  He squeezed harder. I couldn’t breathe. I had to fight for every bit of air. My heart raced as I fought hard against my shackles and the metal cut deep into my wrists, blood mingling with the sweat. Finally, he released me, and I breathed in fast, sucking in every bit of air he’d starved me of. I was not having a good day.

  With his eyes fixed to mine, he pushed back the fallen tendrils of hair from his face while he attempted to rein in his temper. “Your colleagues will find Dathan Raynes hanging in his home with a written confession stating that he was behind everything: the rogues, the drugs, the death of your fellow agents. Everything. And any remaining SQR officers on the payroll will suddenly disappear. It will seem as though they’ve fled to avoid arrest. It’s all pretty cut and dried. And when they come for me, they’ll find no link back to the drugs. No link to the weapons. And the SQR will take the fall.”

  “And Emera?” I managed to whisper in a voice that was unfamiliar. It sounded raw and hoarse. “You don’t think she’ll testify?”

  “Divinia, Emera, Divinia. I’ll call her whatever you want now the bitch is gone,” he sneered at me. “I don’t need to worry about her anymore. She died earlier this morning, you stupid fool. She won’t be testifying against anyone.”

  Grief struck me as I heard the truth and relief in his words. I’d been too late to save the young woman who the rogue had been trying to make a meal out of. Killed. Just like Agent Gaines and the others. All because of Rudolf and his sadistic game.

  “So you’re going to get away with all this then, eh?” I pushed. “You really thi
nk the agency is going to believe that my death was an accident?”

  “No need to make it look like an accident.” A long, drawn out smile crossed his face. “They’ll know exactly how you died. They’ll just think the remaining SQR officers were involved, because, of course, we’ll leave evidence to that affect. But there’s no need for this to turn any bloodier, Terra. Tell me everything you know and I will make sure leniency is applied.”

  “Yeah, sure. And if I believe that, I’ll also believe that you’re not a pathetic, insecure, narcissistic maniac with an ego that you will eventually drown in one day. Do what you have to do.”

  Rage filled his face and he leaned over, taking hold of my hair and yanking my head back. “I don’t think you know anything,” he spat. “I think you’re a pathetic human female who has got in over her head.” His eyes were rabid, as he held onto me, breathless from his anger. But then his face suddenly softened. He seemed to debate with something inside himself, then he studied me like a lover would. “Such a pity,” he whispered as he assessed my bloody face. He gently stroked my cheek before letting me go. “Release one of them,” he barked to the men behind him before stepping away.

  “Sure thing,” Agent Raken smirked, taking the chain from one of the men. He tugged at the chain and began to drag forward whatever was attached to it. Another man emerged from the shadows to help him. Growls and snarls reached my ears as they slapped at whatever they were letting loose. My heart started to race, pummeling hard against my chest.

  They threw a rogue shifter to the ground before me and I felt sick. My own chains rattled as I yanked my feet up as best as I could. The rogue looked like a bear shifter gone wrong with large, flat paws attached to fur-covered, humanoid arms. His face was a cross between man and bear with a pointed snout and plumped up lips. But there was fear glittering in his eyes. He cowered beneath me, even as he growled, and I couldn’t help it as my heart went out to him. This shifter had been abused, tortured and was now being used as a weapon against his will. The rogue’s irises were highlighted by a blue ring around them, so they must have fed him the blue pill to keep him from tearing out their own throats. But he looked sad. Beaten.

  “Do it,” Rudolf snapped, and Raken’s creepy laugh stoked my anger to the depths of my soul. I could do nothing but watch as Raken pulled something out of his back pocket, and shoved it under the bear shifter’s nose.

  “There she is,” Raken said to the rogue. “The one you want. The one who did this to you.”

  I continued to watch, dumbfounded, as Raken dangled what appeared to be a scrap of purple material in front of the rogue’s face.

  The tension mounted in the room, the fear and apprehension thick. But I was pretty sure I was the only one adding to it. Everyone else looked okay with what was about to happen; the sick and twisted bastards.

  I turned away from their acceptance of what was happening, and looked at the rogue. I couldn’t help but hope he’d eaten before they dragged him in here to join me. There was a difference between being killed quickly and eaten alive, and I know which one I’d preferred.

  “Sniff her!” Raken shouted, and the rogue shifter jolted to attention. He rose on his haunches, wobbling slightly. “Go on, boy. Smell her. You’ll see she is the one who tortured you. Hurt you. She’s the one. Smell her!”

  “What the …” I dared to breathe, and Rudolf chuckled.

  “Raken took a shirt out of your locker,” he explained. “Let’s say that every time our rogue, Semelias here, was tortured or starved, your scent was close by. He won’t be very happy with you when he sniffs it. Conditioning through the sense of smell is a wonderful thing.”

  “What?” I demanded, knowing that they’d basically taught the rogue shifter—now crouched in front of me—that I was the one who had resulted in his pain. It believed I was the reason for its suffering. And it would have only one purpose. To take me out.

  I fought against the bonds once more, in a wild attempt to free myself. My heart was in overdrive as the rogue’s nose touched my skin. And then he roared so loudly that it almost burst my eardrums.

  “I’m done here,” Rudolf shrugged, as if he’d done all that he needed to do. He turned to Agent Raken and the others. “Make sure you tidy up afterward.”

  And then, with that, he was gone.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  The rogue they’d called Semelias bit into my leg.

  Tears formed in my eyes and I cried out in agony. The pain was nothing like I’d ever felt before as his fangs tore through muscle and tissue. It was like reaching a peak of something that was never-ending, all while the pain probed at a part of my brain that craved for me to shut down. My adrenaline wouldn’t allow it though. Not when every instinct within me was screaming out to survive.

  “Release the others,” Raken said before I roared from the pain of Semelias taking another bite.

  The pain coincided with my poor sense of humor, threatening to turn into a panic attack. Then I saw them. Two more rogues, ready to be let loose, having the same purple material stuffed up their noses.

  The fevered breaths and howls as they caught my scent were deafening. They became a chorus of sound that would be my death song, and I could do nothing but hang there as they bit into me.

  The blood poured out of my body as another bite claimed my leg. I didn’t know what to do. I mean, what could I do? I didn’t have super strength or any magical powers I was aware of. I only had a gift that was utterly useless to me right now.

  The thought of my gift probed at something, and I struggled as it pushed through the pain-riddled fog of my mind. I remembered the words that the vision had shown me in my dream. ‘Drop the shields. Be gone for a time. Drop the shields. Be gone for a time …’ Should I drop my shields? Could I even risk it? Mayra’s words of warning about dropping them made me hesitate for a second. But seeing as I didn’t have much of a choice and I had nothing left to lose, I figured it couldn’t hurt.

  Squeezing my eyes tight, I drowned out the sounds of the rogues biting into my flesh. Fear, and the need to survive, all pulsed through me as I tried to focus; the emotion of losing my life almost pulling me under.

  Feeling my shields peel away, I sobbed with relief. Gone were the fears I had when I came close to losing them completely, and a sense of freedom came as the last shield fell.

  A fog seemed to clear my thoughts. Many strands of color began to form as I opened my eyes to perceive the world around me in an entirely new way. I could see the auras of the rogue shifters as they moved, and I could see shining bands of light encompassing them—their energy.

  Not quite knowing what was happening, my gift seemed to act on its own accord. It reached out to the white light of the rogue closest to me, as if it was a hand reaching out to comfort. The connection was instantaneous, and I felt every last drop of oxygen as it was yanked out of my body. I felt like I was falling through the sky at a super fast pace as panic struck me. I couldn’t breathe. But then, before the dread truly set in, the feeling stopped.

  No longer could I feel pain as a bright light assailed my eyes. And then, slowly, it cleared. The mist retreated, and I could see my bleeding body hanging from the manacles. Confusion hit me as I watched the rogues biting into my flesh. But then they stopped.

  Two of them looked at me in confusion, but I couldn’t see the bear shifter; the one they’d called Semelias. Where the hell was he?

  Looking down, I happened to catch sight of my hands stretched out in front of me. But when I looked closer, I realized they weren’t my hands. They were paws.

  “What?” I heard myself say in my head, but it came out as a growl. The other rogues fell back from my body at the sound of it. I opened my mouth again. I heard Semelias whimper, but it wasn’t coming from around me. It was coming from inside my own head. Then it hit me. Holy cow! Was I controlling Semelias?

  Not overthinking anything as I tried to step forward in the rogue’s body, I surprised myself when I moved with it. The other rogues y
elped as if they could sense a change in their shifter pal, and I roared. They scrambled, terrified, then Raken and the other men who’d stayed back to watch my demise reached for their weapons. But I wasn’t about to miss out on this opportunity. I forced Semelias forward and attacked.

  The other rogue shifters seemed to find this as the perfect chance to get back at their captors now that they had the upper hand. And they turned from their fleeing to join in on the fight.

  Feeling Raken’s skin tear beneath the paws I controlled, delighted me on a level that wasn’t human. He roared with pain like the coward he was and it did nothing but bring satisfaction to my ears.

  I attacked and raked as I rode the energy of Semelias, growls and weapon fire thundering through the warehouse. Blood splattered everywhere.

  Only when Raken’s body was unmoving beneath me did I force myself to pull back. I wasn’t Semelias. I wasn’t a rogue shifter. He was down. That was enough.

  A whine resounded in my head as Semelias fought for control of his own body, but I forced him back. A yelp from one of the other rogue’s hit my ears, so I raced over to intervene. The blue stream of a Pulsar weapon fired by one of Rudolf’s men missed me by only a few inches before hitting the shifter beside me.

  The smell of burning flesh reached the sensitive nose of Semelias, and I pounced at the man who was now aiming the weapon at me.

  “Put your weapons down!” I heard someone shout, but no one was paying them any heed. Claws clashed with fists, and then claws clashed with claws as one of Rudolph’s men shifted into his animal. But through the havoc, I saw them.