Chapter 4

The man’s a screamer.

You can tell a lot about a person from how they scream. From their final words when faced with impending, inevitable death. Do they beg for mercy? Remain firm and stoic? Sob for their mothers?

I’ve been tortured once before, many years ago. I didn’t scream, and I didn’t cry. The pain was unbearable, my veins imploding with pure agony. Yet, you wouldn’t have been able to tell from the expression on my face. I retreated to a part of my mind I reserved for moments like that—a tiny recess where the dark and scary monsters hide until they’re needed once more. They say that monsters hide underneath beds, but that’s not true. No, there’s a particular spot in hell reserved for men like me, men who feast on pain and blood like it’s an oasis in a desert.

As this man thrashes, incoherent words falling from his lips, I feel…nothing. No sympathy, no guilt, not even anger. I know the latter emotion will consume me at a later time, when I unlock my beast from the relegated section of my mind where I house it.

This…this spineless creature tried to kill Nina. He tried to take away my very reason for breathing. That isn’t just something I can forget, let alone forgive. He’ll pay for what he intended to do to her, what he tried to do to her. His spilt blood will be the offering on a sacrificial altar and gifted to my goddess, my angel, my Nina.

I know that if she saw me now, she would be disgusted, maybe even afraid. She sure as fuck wouldn’t smile at me as if I handcrafted the ring on her finger from sunlight. However, she needs my darkness, my demons, my beasts. She needs me to fight in the shadows so she can thrive in the light.

Keeping my face impassive, I plunge my fifth knife into the trembling, sniffling man’s stomach, twisting as I watch blood pour from the open wound. Rion, behind me, begins to cackle. I don’t have to look to know that the crazy psychopath is perched on the table in the corner of my chamber, his legs swinging back and forth as he hums beneath his breath.

This is the one room in the prison I’m allowed to embrace my inner desires, allowed to unleash the monster prowling just beneath the surface. It’s located down one of the many twisting hallways of the prison, on the opposite side of the throne room, cells, and cafeteria. Less chance of someone stumbling upon it.

The walls are gray like the rest of the prison, constructed of roughly hewn stone, and a single chair rests in the center of the room. A table sits behind it, currently dripping with contraband. Knives, axes, daggers…anything sharp, you’ll find it here. It’s amazing what power and money can do for you, even twenty feet below ground and in a maximum security supernatural prison.

Of course, I can use my powers to torture as well, but where’s the fun in that? I like to get my hands dirty, to watch the blood drip from my porcelain fingers like fresh paint. One would think that my skin would be rough and calloused, but it’s smooth. Gentle to the touch. A pretty mask that hides the monster, the savage.

“You should let me take a round with him,” Rion says, a malevolent excitement to his voice that makes the disgusting man cry harder. Snot drips down Ben’s face, intermingling with the blood already present there. But it’s not enough. It’ll never be enough.

Instead of answering Rion, I merely grunt, turning back towards the table to grab a bear trap.

“We could play a game,” he rambles. “Twister with his body parts. Okay, you ready for this? We each cut off a body part—say, a hand or a foot or even a finger—and then we draw shapes on the floor with his blood. Actually, let’s draw the shapes first. We can easily cut a vein in his wrist to get the blood, or we can just use the blood already dripping from him. I’m cool with either. Anyway, we draw a row of triangles, a row of circles, a row of squares, and a row of hexagons. Now, since he pretty much has two or more of every important body part, such as hands and eyeballs and feet and lungs, we place one of each off to the side. And then we grab a body part at random, and the first one to grab the correlating body part from Ben’s actual body has to put it on the designated blood shape. Sort of like, eyeball to hexagon. You get me?”

I have no idea what the fuck he just said.

“You see, Ben,” I purr, stepping closer to the crying, naked man currently hanging from my ceiling. I sit on the plastic chair and cross my legs, steepling my hands together. “You better tell me what you know, or else I’m going to have to get Rion involved. And he’s a little crazy.”

“I take offence to that.” Rion jumps to his feet and moves to stand beside me, peering up at Ben with narrowed, slitted eyes. “I’m a whole shitload of crazy. It’s rude to assume otherwise. On a scale of one to one hundred, I’m a solid one thousand, and not just in the good looks department.” He nudges me with his elbow, and I just barely resist the urge to stab him.

Abruptly, Rion leans forward until his face is level with Ben’s, any and all mirth diminishing from his dark eyes. He looks positively savage, the embodiment of darkness and sin. Pure madness reflects on his face as he presses his thumb into a wound on the man’s chest.

“You tried to kill my buttercup,” he hisses, his voice nearly guttural. The man begins to scream as Rion plunges his finger deeper and deeper into the hole. “Tell me why, and I’ll kill you semi-quickly. Of course, I’ll still make you suffer, but I can promise you that I’ll leave your penis alone. But if you don’t…” He drops his gaze to the man’s flaccid dick, his grin growing. “Have you ever seen a skinned penis before?”

“Fuck, I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you anything you want to know,” he sobs out, snot dripping from his nose.

Rion straightens abruptly and turns towards me with his signature jovial smile.

“See? All you have to do is threaten a man’s rocket launcher, and you’ll get the goods. Wait. That sounds like I’m talking about getting a man’s rocket launcher…but I don’t want his dick. Unless it’s served on a silver platter. Oh! Can we do that? Can we feast on his dick tonight? I haven’t had a good dick in a while. I’ll even let you have the balls.”

Ignoring him, I face Ben expectantly.

“Well?” I cock one eyebrow as his body shakes.

“The dead pool,” he whimpers. “The fucking dead pool.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I ask curtly. If there’s one thing I hate more than disgusting, pathetic men like him, it’s being left in the dark.

“A couple days ago, we got word about a dead pool in the prison.” He begins to pant erratically, pure terror emanating from his sunken eyes.

“Like the movie with that sexy Ryan?” Rion waggles his eyebrows suggestively. “I might even allow Nina to ride his dick and let him live. Honestly, I wouldn’t blame her. He’s a sexy hunk of meat.” His eyes turn ten shades darker. “Actually, I’d still gut him.”

“It’s a…” Ben swallows. “It’s a list. With names of people to be killed and their price.”

My body freezes as I exchange a terse look with Rion. What the fuck? Why haven’t we heard about this? We know everything that goes on in this prison—or so we believe.

“And Nina’s on the list,” I surmise as that familiar tendril of rage slithers through me like a snake. I immediately try to suppress it. The last thing I need is my emotions getting the better of me. Until I get the answers I need, I can’t afford to lose my head.

But the thought of how close this man came to snuffing out Nina’s life…

Of never hearing her twinkling laugh…

Seeing her eyes sparkle…

Holding her in my arms…

My hand tightens around the bear trap as I set it by my feet. I’ll play with that toy later.

“N-Nina’s on the fucking top of the list,” Ben stutters, releasing a humorless laugh. “There’s over twenty million dollars tied to her death. Do you know what that money can do for my family? For me? I only have a few more years left in this prison.”

“Let me see the list,” I say darkly, and when Ben’s eyes flicker towards his pants discarded in the corner of the room, I stride in that direction, removing a folded piece of paper from his pocket.

My eye begins to twitch as I scan the words typed out.

Nina - 20 million

Blade - 1 million

Rion - 1 million

Damien - 700k

Cain - 500k

Abel - 500k

Bronson - 500k

Braelyn - 50k

“That is awful,” Rion breathes from over my shoulder. When I glance at him, he appears genuinely affronted. “I’m worth at least two million, give or take.”

“Who the fuck made this?” I hiss, staring intently at the tattered paper. Nina’s name glares back at me defiantly. Twenty million dollars. That’s a lot of fucking money.

And there’s a lot of sick, soulless fucks in this prison who won’t hesitate to take her out in order to get said money.

“I don’t know.” Ben’s voice is heavy with defeat. No doubt, he already knows that his story will end with death by my hand. He has no reason to fight anymore.

“Where did you get it?” I ask instead as I shove the paper into my jacket pocket. Ben bites down on his lower lip.

Immediately, I grab the bear trap in one hand and his cock in the other. Without preamble, I drop his cock into the metal jaws, relishing his scream of agony as they snap shut.

“Where did you get it?” I repeat darkly as blood pours down his thighs from his mangled cock.

“Joseph Turner,” he cries out at last. “I swear, that’s all I know. That’s all. Please. Oh, please?—”

Rolling my eyes at his dramatics, I remove my dagger from my jacket sleeve and slice it from one ear to the next.

“Awww. No fun. I wanted to torture him a little more.” Rion, honest to god, begins to pout.

“We got what we needed,” I murmur, straightening out the few creases in my pristine black suit. “We need to talk to the others. Is Bronson still on patrol?” The shadow wolf left shortly after the torture session began to search our cells and the cafeteria for any other nasty surprises. I wouldn’t want to be in his way at this moment. Bronson’s on a fucking warpath.

“Yes, sir.” Rion salutes me before turning to stare at Ben’s now dead body distastefully. “But I have an idea that I think you might like.”

“I’m listening,” I say evasively.

“How about we make Benny Boo here a reminder of what happens when you fuck with our girl?” He smiles, showcasing abnormally sharp teeth. “Let’s show the inmates what their punishment is for getting on our bad side?”

He’s right.

I really, really like that idea.