by Katie May
“It’s nothing personal,” she says immediately, jubilantly almost. “I’m just tying up some loose ends.”
“You work for the Compound,” I whisper. It’s not a question. There’s no doubt in my mind that this Councilwoman has played a part in my lifelong torture.
“No, silly girl.” She laughs, the sound deceptively light-hearted, before petting my sweat-soaked, greasy hair. “I run the Compound.”
Ice cold terror skids down my spine as I process her words. She isn’t just a pawn to the Compound; she is the Compound. There are thousands of questions clamoring for my attention, but I settle on the easiest one.
“Back at the prison, how did you know I was in your head?” For all I’m aware of, no one has ever sensed me lurking in their mind. The fact that Alyssa had...
She chuckles again, and I hear the springs on my bed creak as she sits. “I’m an angel. We’re gifted in evading mind control. It’s like an alarm system in our brain. Of course, not all angels are as old or as skilled as me. I’m sure that anyone else wouldn’t have noticed your annoying presence where it doesn’t belong.” Her conversational tone transitions into rage. Even with no sight, I can feel her eyes spewing fire on my back. “Or, it could be because you’re my daughter.” This last statement is said nonchalantly, as if she is merely discussing the weather, but it causes all of my organs to stutter and stop. I’m not even sure I’m breathing.
“What?” I gasp. Surely, I heard her wrong. Surely, she didn’t just confess to being my biological parent.
For years I have lived with no identity. No true name. I thought that was all I would ever be: a nameless, faceless female. Surprisingly, that thought provided me with a great deal of comfort. I didn’t want to know if I had family out there crying for me. Missing me.
Laughing at me.
“I fucked a human male,” Alyssa says dismissively, as if she didn’t just drop a life-changing bomb on my lap and hit the detonate button.
“I’m part angel and part human?” My voice cracks. “I’m a hybrid?”
Alyssa releases another undignified snort. “No, silly girl. You’re a tribrid.” She moves to her feet once more before dropping another water bottle on my head. I wince at the initial stab of pain before eagerly devouring the water. I try to sip this one slower, my stomach already protesting how quickly I drank the first. “Raphael and I had a plan,” she says, stroking my hair back. I wonder if she means for the touch to be motherly. Instead, it causes disgust to run rampant through my veins. “We wanted to create a world where supernatural creatures could love freely. Could procreate freely. We realized quickly that the best supernaturals embodied the characteristics of more than one species.”
My plan to drink the water slowly backfires. In only a second, the bottle is empty. My stomach howls and gurgles in protest.
“We had the Compound open for years, since the twenties,” Alyssa continues, and I realize blankly that she’s telling me all this now because she has no intention of letting me go… or keeping me alive. “At first, we would just find compatible supernatural creatures and force them to mate.”
Force them to mate. That sounds an awful lot like rape.
Disgust churns like acid in my lower stomach. I feel queasy, but I can’t be certain if it’s because of Alyssa’s words or my gnawing hunger.
“As technology advanced, so did our techniques. We learned how to inject supernatural blood into our subjects. How to alter their DNA.” She sighs dreamily.
“You experimented on them? On me?” I croak out, stumbling to my hands and knees. Even that movement pulls at muscles I didn’t know existed.
“Of course.” She doesn’t sound at all apologetic. “There was an issue when we tried adding the demon DNA to you. I’ll give you one hint. Well, two.” She pokes at both of my eyes, and I let out a scream at the immediate, burning pain.
Alyssa isn’t just evil. She’s positively deranged. That makes her dangerous and unpredictable.
I fall onto my back, sobbing.
“Why now?” I cry. “Why are you doing this now?”
She sighs heavily, as if I’m an imbecile for asking such a ridiculous question. “I didn’t want to kill you, Nina. It’s why I put you in Nightmare Penitentiary. However, one of your boy toys received classified information the other day. Information that he shouldn’t have had.” Her words send my mind in a tailspin, but before I can ask, she continues on. “Enough about that.” She blows out a breath. “I really don’t want to kill you, Nina, just like I didn’t want to kill Rafe. But sometimes, you have to do things for the greater good.”
“You killed Raphael Turner?” I squeak as horror washes over me like a tsunami. “I thought you loved him!”
“I did. I mean, I do.” The ire in Alyssa’s voice makes goosebumps dust across my skin. “But he was getting too power-hungry. He wanted to tell the Council about our experiments. You see, over time, we have made over one thousand hybrids and tribrids. Hell, during the time you were in the Compound, we made at least fifty, if not more. An army’s worth. Raphael wanted the world to know.”
“So you killed him?” I conclude, heart hammering in my chest. If she can do that to the person she loves, what will she do to me? Daughter or not, I’m under no illusion I’m getting out of this mess alive.
“It had to be done. Besides, he let you escape.” Her tone darkens considerably. “I needed to contain you somehow, but I knew returning you to the Compound would draw too much attention. You already had his blood under your nails, so it was the perfect idea. You go to prison—I get to keep an eye on you.”
“What about Kai? Is he like me? A hybrid or whatever?”
Alyssa scoffs. “The dragon? No. He was meant for you, actually. What would be better than a quarter angel, quarter demon, quarter human, and quarter dragon baby? We intended for you to mate when the time was right.” She cuts off abruptly when I begin laughing. Not just tiny peels of laughter, but full-on, grab-your-belly-and-rock-back-and-forth laughter. “What the hell is so funny?” she hisses.
“The flaw in your plan.” I wipe at the tears that have escaped my eyes, attempting to regain some semblance of control. “I haven’t had my period yet. You guys did something to me. I don’t think I can get pregnant.”
I expect her to get angry, get annoyed, heck, maybe even get somber. Instead, she begins to laugh. The jovial noise knots my insides.
“Stupid, stupid girl. You don’t think that was intentional? I had a mage put a spell on your dumb ass so you couldn’t conceive until I was ready for you to.”
The laughter dies in my throat as horror swamps me.
“Of course, my plan changed when Kai showed signs of being your fated mate,” she huffs. “Dragons are normally dangerous, but when their mates are threatened, they become volatile. I knew I couldn’t keep him around, so I ordered his imprisonment at Nightmare Penitentiary.”
Poor Kai. Ripped away from his family to satisfy the twisted obsession of this power-hungry bitch.
“Are you going to kill me now?” I question tersely. I always suspected my death was inevitable. You don’t live the life I did and expect to come out unscathed. I suppose I have accepted this chapter of my story—my death. I can only pray that my males will survive it too.
Alyssa releases a twinkling laugh. It reminds me eerily of the wind chimes I’ve always heard in the Compound.
“Who said anything about killing you?” she asks, cupping my cheek. I try to twist away, but her hand only tightens, nails digging into my flesh. “You’re my daughter, Nina, but you’re also a powerful weapon. I have plans for you and plans for my future grandchildren.”
Grandchildren?
The bread I just ate threatens to come back out.
With one more condescending pat to my cheek, Alyssa exits my cell.
Chapter 55
Nina
I don’t see Alyssa for the next few days.
Fortunately, she deems that I’m worthy enough to have food and water. A g
uard delivers a single bottle of water and a block of bread through a slit in the door every day. It doesn’t completely alleviate the hunger, but it helps pacify it.
Loneliness consumes me. At the Compound, I had yearned for solitude. Now that I have it, I want nothing more than to rip all of my hair out and scream at the top of my lungs.
I miss the guys fiercely. Bronson’s overprotectiveness. Kai’s leadership. Abel’s jokes. Cain’s snotty quips. Damien’s cold stare. Rion’s rambles. It’s like I had been given something infinitesimally precious and had to watch it shatter into thousands of pieces. Try as I might, I can’t fix what I inadvertently broke.
I’m cold, dirty, and hungry. I want to cry, but I fight against it. Still, I can’t stop the few tears that slip out. I’m surprised I even have water left in my body.
I attempt to clamp down on my emotions and think of a way out of this mess. If Alyssa has it her way, I’ll be nothing more than a breeding mare, but I can’t allow that to happen. I can’t allow her to take that piece of me—it’ll be the final nail in my coffin.
I feel like an animal. Actually, I feel like less than one. Animals at least are washed and fed. How long can I last like this? With the bare minimum of food and water?
Once again, tears threaten to choke me, but I stubbornly hold them in. Barbed wire coils around my heart, and venom pours into my blood.
You can survive this, Nina. You have survived worse.
With that pep talk, I allow my lashes to flutter shut.
This time, I’m not shocked when I enter one of my guys’ minds. He’s taller than the others, his head nearly brushing the tunnel’s ceiling.
Bronson.
His eyes are intent on Rion as the shifter crawls forward. It appears as if he’s on a black and gray checkerboard. He places his hands on the square directly to his right, and the tile breaks with a resounding crack. It caves in on itself, collapsing into a black abyss.
With a curse, Rion moves to the square on the left of him and repeats the process. Like before, the square cracks and breaks.
Bronson, I say. He jumps, startled, and whips his head around. Behind him, my other men are leaning against the wall, sweating and panting. Scratches and bruises mar their skin. Damien’s white dress shirt is completely coated in blood, and he has a wicked scar on his cheek. Kai has nasty bruises on his neck, and he’s favoring his right arm. Both the twins look as if they’ve been through the meat grinder—tiny cuts freckle their handsome faces.
“Nina?” Bronson asks, and all heads snap to attention.
I’m here, I soothe. Where are you? What is Rion doing?
“We’re still in the fucking Labyrinth,” Bron snarls. “It never fucking ends. And Rion is attempting to survive another puzzle.”
Puzzle?
Bronson turns back to Rion just as the shifter crawls from one square to another. He breathes a sigh of relief when it doesn’t immediately crumble.
“Tell my Buttercup that we’re almost to her. And that she’s the speckle to my shine. Actually, don’t say that. It doesn’t make sense. It’s one of those things that sounded much cooler in my head.” Rion cuts off abruptly as the square in front of him falls away and a spear pops up where it once was. “Fucking hell! That nearly took out my face. My sexy, beautiful face.”
“Hurry the fuck up,” Kai rumbles, stepping in front of Bronson and crossing his arms over his chest.
Tell him to be careful, I cry, fear skirting through me.
“He’ll be fine,” Bronson assures me. “Now, tell me what’s happening.”
Quickly, I tell him about Alyssa’s visit and her claim about my tribrid status. Bronson doesn’t sound surprised when I tell him I have angel, demon, and human blood in me.
“I had my sister do some digging,” he explains somewhat guiltily. “Before I could tell you...” He trails off as a growl resonates through his chest. He stalks away from Rion and the others, pressing his forehead against the grimy stone. With a deep, fortifying breath, he whispers, “Please tell me you’re okay, my love. I don’t think I’ll survive if anything happens to you. I can feel you, feel your pain, and it’s killing me.”
My heart swells with love and longing for this brave, beautiful man. His rough features belie a gentle soul and a kind heart. He sheathes me in a cocoon of light making me forget all about my monsters and demons. The darkness can’t reach me when he’s there to fight it off.
Bronson, I love you, I whisper reverently. I love you so much that sometimes I can’t breathe.
He lets out a choked sob. “Hang in there, Babygirl. Hang in there for me. We’re coming for you, okay? Just hang in there. I’m in love with you. I’ve been in love with you. But I feel like...” He gulps audibly, hands tightening on two rocks that protrude from the wall. “I feel like I’m failing. Failing at being your mate, your friend, and your protector. Failing at loving you the way you should be loved.”
You have been anything but a failure, I protest adamantly. You were the first person in the prison who showed me what it meant to be loved. You cared for me when I didn’t know how to care for myself.
My resolve hardens, strengthens—a wall of steel and cement around my heart.
I’ll come back to you, Bron. To all of you. I promise.
It’s a promise I intend to keep, come hell or high water. Not even death will separate us.
Before Bronson can respond, I’m wrenched out of his head. It’s like traveling through a whirlpool. My mind spins wildly until everything settles.
“Good. You’re awake,” Alyssa chirps, patting my cheek harder than necessary.
“Let me go,” I groan. Almost instinctively, I slip inside her mind.
She’s hovering over me with her hands on her hips. Pressing the toe of her heeled shoe to my stomach, she laughs.
“See? This is why you’re an asset to me. Your powers are unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Unlike anything we’ve ever created.” I know her ruby red lips will be pulled into a smile. She oozes satisfaction. “You’ll be a perfect little spy for me. You’ve heard of that awful man Lionel Green? Of course you have. I’m sure your twins told you all about him.”
“Go to hell,” I mumble weakly. The slap comes out of nowhere, stinging my cheek. A red splotch in the shape of a handprint darkens my skin.
“You’re going to spy for me, Nina,” she says in a dark voice. “You won’t like the consequences if you refuse.”
“What are you going to do? Kill me?” I laugh humorlessly. “Go ahead. I dare you, you spineless bitch.”
Her hand snaps once more across my face, sending my head flying to the side. I lay on the ground trembling, unsure of how to fight back. I know I need to—I promised Bronson—but I’m so painfully weak. My eyelids are as heavy as lead. I can feel blood trickling from my busted lip, but I don’t lift a hand to brush it away.
She crouches down beside me until her face is only slightly higher than my own.
“Don’t talk back to your mother,” she hisses.
“You’re not my mother.”
She sighs as if my answer pained her. The next moment, she grabs my collar and hoists me to my feet, her other hand encircling my throat. Her strength surpasses that of even Bronson. I dangle in the air, panic thrumming through my veins, as her hand tightens around my throat, cutting off my air supply.
“I can make those guys’ lives a living hell. The shifter. The dragon. The mage. The twin demons. The wolf.” My panic turns into rage. No one—absolutely no one—threatens my men.
Before, I had been scared and slightly irritated. Now, I’m furious. The anger coils around my heart like a piece of rope, tightening incrementally with each word she says.
“I’ll have fun ripping the scales off of your dragon. One piece at a time. I wonder if he’ll cry? Hmmm. We never were able to break him in the Compound, you know. We tortured him like we did you, but he never cried. Not once. The only time he cried was when we made him watch you get your skin peeled off.” She laughs at
the stricken look on my face. “You didn’t know that, did you? Ha! We realized pretty quickly that the way to destroy the dragon was to destroy you.”
I begin to struggle in earnest, clawing at her fingers. Only one thought echoes through my mind: vengeance. For me, for Kai, for all the other experiments throughout time. How many people has she killed? And how many people are like me, confused and alone with powers they can’t even begin to understand?
My rage continues to manifest deep in my stomach. It’s unlike anything I have ever felt before. It burns me. Each word she says is tinder to the roaring flame.
“I think I’ll keep the twins,” she continues with a lilting laugh. “I’m not sure if you know this, but I used to visit them at the club. They’re good fucks, am I right?” She nudges me conspiratorially, and I see red. It coats my vision like shutters being drawn closed. “Of course, they don’t remember that. I had a mage wipe their memory each time. Lionel recommended them to me.” She loosens her hands, and I desperately take in air. My lungs are aching, my breaths raspy.
She drops me back to the floor, stepping away as if I have a particularly pungent smell. At this point, I’m not sure that I don’t. Through her eyes, I watch myself stumble to my feet, eyes livid and lips pulled back from my teeth.
“Don’t get me started on that handsome wolf. Did you know it was his sister that found the information concerning your blood?” She tsks her tongue disapprovingly. “I suppose I’ll have to kill her now. And her mom and sister. Poor Bronson will lose his entire family because of you.”
It’s that, more than anything, that sends me spiraling over the edge. Something inside of me clicks into place, something I can’t define or name. My rage continues to grow and grow until it threatens to explode. I’m an active volcano, and this murderous woman happens to be in my vicinity. Anger is a living entity inside of me. Fire spews through my veins, setting me aflame.
“You won’t touch them,” I say through clenched teeth. Through Alyssa’s eyes, I see myself change. Dark horns, similar to the ones I saw on Cain’s and Abel’s heads, poke through my black hair. My eyes take on a crimson quality, the pupils rimmed in coal black. Sprouting from my back are two luminescent white wings. Each expands the length of the cell, the feathers white with a pearlescent shine.