Pernicious | Kai Parker

Chapter 36

Amelia hated Damon and Bonnie.

"Now, now, Miss Amy," said Damon when she made a move like a feral animal and tried to bite him. "Be good."

"Be good?" she snarled. "You have me tied up in your basement!"

"Uh, yeah, this is the room where the killer detox stuff usually happens. Bonnie will be here soon enough."

Amelia glared at him. "What are you gonna do, hmm? Are you gonna torture me until I no longer want to see Kai? Are you gonna fry my brain until the sociopathic parts of me are gone? Are you gonna wipe my memories and start me off fresh?"

"We considered that last one," said Damon thoughtfully. "But then, we decided the cons would bring us more trouble than the pros. See, if we wipe your memories, we still have the problem of Kai being out and about. If we kill him, Liv and Jo will die. Tyler and Ric would never forgive us, especially not now that Ric is a husband and father-to-be. Instead, our pal Bonnie came up with a spell similar to whatever Joshua Parker did on you when you were two. We're gonna shove your sociopathic side back into a box."

She rolled her eyes. "And you seriously think that will work? I cared about Kai before I became a sociopath. I'll skip back along to him, and now that he has emotions, too, you'll only make it worse. Neither of us will stop being killers just because we have feelings."

"See, that's the thing," said Damon. "We wouldn't just let you skip along to him. We'd be hiding your sociopathic side and running through all the terrible things the two of you did. You'd realize Kai corrupted you, feel guilt, and never want to speak to him again."

She just stared at him blankly. "And the rest of the group really thought that you and Bonnie were the best people for this?"

"Uh, yeah, she's your best friend, and I'm your brother. That means something."

She leaned forward, as much as her binds would let her. "I just killed my birth parents and half-brother in Portland, and I didn't feel a thing. You were best of buds with Enzo, who killed Matt, the brother I actually gave a shit about, even as a sociopath. You and Bonnie betrayed me. If this is your best effort... I'm really not impressed. Your plan isn't going to work. Pretty soon, Kai will figure out something happened to me. And well, you know how cranky he gets when he doesn't get his way. He's gonna come and rescue me, and after we kill you, we're gonna have sex on your bed. How does that feel?"

Damon made a face. "Jeez, it's weird to hear you talk about sex so much. The Amy I knew wasn't so overt even when she slept around."

"If you want to slut shame me, let me turn it back around and list all the people you've been with. Not to mention the fact you literally assaulted Caroline and then became her mother's bff. I had every right to do whatever the hell I wanted to with my body. I can and will sleep with whoever I want to sleep with, wherever, and whenever I want. You don't get to make me feel like some peasant whore just because I'm in touch with my sexuality. If you get to fuck anything that walks, so do I. Don't ever imply that I'm a slut. That's just another reason why this idiotic plan won't work. You're going along with social constructs to degrade me. Hear me when I say this, Damon— I don't give a fuck. Kai will rescue me, and you'll be dead by the end of the day."

Damon gritted his teeth, as if uncomfortable with her response. "I see we're gonna have to do this the hard way," he said, pulling out a box. From it, he extracted some knives. "Bonnie did warn me that you'd need to be weakened for the spell to work. And the only way to do that is to torture you until you pass out, so you lose all that magic you sucked up when you killed your parents."

Amelia tried to stare at him as if she didn't care, but in reality, her heart was pounding, and she knew he could hear it. He brought up a lethal-looking knife and stabbed her hand, making her scream out in pain.