***Many thanks to KatyDid for the cover she made for me! I love it! :) Also, I need to do a shout out to Ancestralgirl for finding this song-Monsters by Ruelle. Pretty fitting, don't you think? We have a rather bloody chapter coming up that gets a bit...messy. Just a warning. Happy New Year!***
The screams echoed through the hallway, reverberating off the cement walls as Nathan led me through the labyrinth with my hand in his much larger, calloused one. As we neared that familiar door to Kota's lab, the agonized cries rang louder and I knew we'd arrived at our desired destination. Nathan paused with his hand on the keypad and glanced at me from the corner of his eyes, making me sigh impatiently and stare down at my feet. Nine beeps sounded before the door clicked open and we entered the room.
The room felt full as I took in everyone that was present. Owen stood near the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, dressed in a dark grey suit with a dark tie that had maroon violins decorating the front, and the look on his face was stern, serious. It was the terrifyingly controlled mask that I had come to associate with him, though his steel eyes were sharp as metal with barely veiled anger. Silas and Sean stood near the counter, Sean leaning back against said counter with his legs crossed at the ankles. He was alternating picking at his cuticles and taking nervous glances in Silas's direction, every once in a while, giving the tall Greek a reassure pat on the shoulder. Silas looked simply murderous with his hulking form strung taught and his jaw clenching and releasing. The fists at this sides were squeezed so tightly, his normally darker skin was white at the knuckles as his dark eyes glared hotly at the shrieking figure in the center of the room.
Baldy sat in a sturdy looking chair, his feet and wrists secured to the arms and legs with leather straps, and I could tell from the sweat shining off his bald head and the suffering written all over his face that he was in pain. He was in the same slacks as last night but they'd removed his shirt, leaving him in a dirty white wife beater that was stained with sweat and speckles of blood. His lips was split but that looked like his only injury, though Kota was currently kneeling before him doing something to his hand that was currently causing him pain.
Owen spared me a quick glance but otherwise ignored me and Silas didn't even look my way, keeping his furious gaze locked on Baldy's face. Sean gave me a nod, his cheery face for once looking quite somber, before he checked over Silas and then turned his attention back to Kota and his victim. No one spoke to me and I didn't say a word, moving with Nathan towards Silas and Sean.
"I'll ask you again, Mr. Hendricks." Owen spoke evenly, his voice cold and dead. "Where are the bodies?"
Baldy, or Hendricks, raised his eyes and glared at Owen, curling his lip in a painful sneer. "Fuck you, boy." He snarled, throwing his head back with a tormented groan as Kota's body jerked harshly.
As I settled into a standing position next to Silas, I got a better look at Kota and saw him holding a pair of pliers in his hand. He dropped something into a tin tray the sat on the floor beside his thigh but I couldn't tell what it was since it was small and slicked with blood. Three of Hendricks's fingers were dripping blood onto the floor and as Kota returned the pliers to his hand, I watched in fascinated horror as he positioned them near the pointer finger. Lying next to the metal tin were several pieces of thin needle like metal, also tinged red, and I realized exactly what Kota was doing to him.
"Where are the bodies?" Owen asked again and when he was met with seething silence he nodded at Kota who gripped Hendricks's pointer fingernail and pulled hard, tearing the nail from its bed. Hendricks cried out again as Kota dropped the nail into the tin with the others and picked up the small metal shiv from the floor. "Believe me when I say that you will tell us what we want to know."
"Fuck you!" Hendricks growled again and Kota smashed the metal part of the pliers into Hendricks's kneecap as punishment for his curse.
Owen straightened his tie before he widened his stance, looking firm and immovable as he stared down the bald, sweating man with icy eyes. "The question is not 'if' you'll tell us but 'when', and how much pain you suffer before you tell us is entirely up to you." The chill of his clipped tone had me shivering slightly as I leaned into Silas and I was surprised when his large strong arm circled my waist and gripped my hip almost painfully.
Nathan moved to one of the cabinets and started removing vials, syringes, and other numerous torture devices, and I glanced up at Silas to find him watching me with his raging dark eyes. It was a strange expression to see on his face since he had been so calm and flirty before, but the dark creature inside me raised her head and sniffed at the air in interest at the feral look. She'd glimpsed Silas's evil before and she was ready to meet it again.
"What bodies?" I asked quietly, not wanting to interrupt the torture currently taking place in front of me.
The Greek Adonis clenched his jaw and his fingers at my hip tightened and I had a feeling I might have a bruise after. "He took guys home from the club, raped and tortured them before discarding their dead bodies. We want to know his dumping site."
Hendricks screamed again as Kota ripped out his thumb nail and I felt a surge of pleasure at the horrible sight. "Why do you want to find the bodies?"
If I hadn't been watching Silas so closely I might have missed the look of pure agony that flickered over his face before his cold anger was back. "He took my brother."
I wasn't sure what I was surprised by, the fact that he knew that his brother had been a victim or that he wanted to recover his brother's dead body. "You have a brother?"
"Had." He mumbled. "I had a brother. His name was Theo."
My first reaction was to say 'I'm sorry' but I pursed my lips and turned back to the macabre sight of Kota working the thin metal shiv underneath the thumb of Hendricks's second hand. Much to the shock of everyone in the room, Hendricks started to chuckle. It wasn't exactly humored and it was clearly laced with pain, and yet his deep chuckle rose in volume until he was laughing in earnest. Kota paused in his movements, cocking his head to the side in curiosity as Owen scowled in displeasure, but it was look on Hendricks's face that took the cake.
He grinned manically, turning his head to level his psychotic stare on Silas and something akin to recognition flashed in his depths. "That Italian boy?" He panted between chuckles. "Thought you looked familiar."
Silas's chest rumbled with a rather inhuman growl and I unconsciously reached out and trailed my fingers lightly over his spine in comfort. Hendricks continued to cringe in pain while simultaneously snickering and the combination was rather disturbing, and I could tell the others didn't know quite what to do about it. How could you torture someone who laughed half way through? Unless Kota's methods weren't as painful as I first suspected, though I doubted that was true.
"Where is he?" Silas spat the words, his deep voice filled with so much spite that I flinched.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Hendricks smile widened into a creepy clown like smirk and I knew he was doing it purposefully to get under Silas's skin. "He screamed like a bitch when I fucked him."
The moment the words were passed his lips, Silas surged forward with a roar and it was only with the combined weight of Nathan, Owen, and Sean that they were able to stop him from laying into Hendricks with his clenched fists. He screamed furious Greek words that I took to be curses as he struggled against his chosen brothers as he attempted to get to the man who had apparently murdered his blood. Of course, Hendricks just laughed harder, the sound coming out high pitched and laced with hysteria.
"Silas, if you kill him now we will never get the information we need." Owen was whispering urgently to the irate man, doing his best to calm him down. "You will get your revenge but we need him alive for now."
His words cut through Silas's rage and his huge body sagged, Nathan and Sean doing their best to shoulder his massive weight as he almost collapsed like a rag doll. "We'll take care of this, Silas, you have my word." Kota vowed, his emerald flashing in serious determination.
"Screamed, he did! Squealed like a fucking pig!" Hendricks cried, his eyes shining with insanity as he lost whatever semblance of control that he had, and Owen's face darkened into the barely concealed monster that I'd glimpsed only once before, when he'd determined to throw me in the closet.
"Sean, take Silas to North." His simple order was followed immediately as Sean nodded and slipped his smaller frame under Silas's shoulder.
Silas turned to Kota, his expression one of broken rage as he spoke in a shattered voice. "Kill him, Kota, and make it hurt."
"Alright, big guy, let's go." Sean cooed, almost falling from the weight of Silas's body but he managed it.
The door shut behind them and I turned back to see the others had already gotten busy to continue with their interrogation as Hendricks struggled against the bonds that held his wrists. It seemed Kota had lost his patience and had removed the remaining nails in his second hand just for kicks but Hendricks seemed immune to the pain. Spittle dribbled from his mouth, coating his chin as he shrieked and screamed incoherently, thrashing around in the chair as Nathan retrieved several sharp, nasty looking metal objects. Kota retrieved a few rubber aprons like those a medical examiner would wear during an autopsy and I had a feeling things were going to get a bit messy.
Owen removed his suit jacket, rolling the sleeves of dress shirt to his elbow methodically, first the right arm then the left. He removed his glasses, folding them meticulously and slipping them into the breast pocket of his dress shirt before moving his slender fingers to the knot of his tie. He slowly loosened the knot, pulling the fabric until it slid from his collar where he coiled it around his fist and set the cloth on the counter. The slow transformation was terrifying to say the least, like with every piece of clothing he removed, he was shedding his humanity, and I was simultaneously excited and petrified as I witnessed it.
Kota handed Owen one of the aprons while dawning the second one himself as Nathan took several syringes, filling them with a couple different liquid concoctions, and all the while, Hendricks jerked in his chair. The veins in his neck bulged with exertion as he strained against the straps holding him to the seat, and though he was still mumbling insanely, the sweat rolling down his face was enough to clue me in that, though he was unhinged, he was still afraid.
"Mr. Hendricks," Owen spoke in a cool, clipped tone and I knew that Baldy was in for a night of pain, "I advise you to answer my questions. If you do not, Mr. Griffin will take great lengths in breaking every bone in your right hand followed by your left." Nathan smiled at Owen's threats, sending me a frightening wink as Owen continued speaking. "If you still refuse to cooperate, Mr. Lee will begin removing your fingers one by one." Kota fastened his rubber apron before picking up a pair of what looked like mini pruning shears and I shivered at the collected calm that reflected on his placid face.
Hendricks had stopped his struggling as his frantic gaze darted between the three males surrounding him before settling his eyes on me. "And the bitch?"
My eyebrows shot up at the insult but I kept my face otherwise free of emotion as I meandered my way over, Nathan and Kota parting to allow me to stand before Hendricks. I knew that he was a murderer, a rapist, but the reason my creature shrieked in my chest for his blood was the look of hurt in Silas's eyes and the image of Luke struggling against him with a cloth to his mouth. This man had hurt them and for some reason that bothered me immensely.
I leaned down and got almost nose to nose with the sweating, bleeding man and crinkled my nose in disgust at the smell of copper blood, body odor, and fear. "If you think these boys are bad than you don't want to see what I'll do to you." I finished my statement with a honey sweet smile.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Pet." Owen's slender fingers wrapped around my bicep and tugged me backwards and I didn't put up a fight against him.
Hendricks watched me for a moment, revulsion dripping from his eyes, before Nathan backhanded him harshly. "Don't look at her." He hissed as his blue eyes flashed angrily and, a small part of me felt warm at his strange yet protective actions.
"Where are the bodies, Mr. Hendricks?" Owen asked, pulling me to stand slightly behind him as clasped his hands calmly behind his back.
"You'll never find them." Hendricks spat hatefully.
Nathan wasted no time in grasping Hendricks's pinkie and snapping it to the side with an audible crack, making it lie at an unnatural angle as Hendricks howled in pain from the broken digit. "Keep it up, scumbag, I can do this all night." He snarled at the older man who was now sweating so profusely that he looked to be made of the stuff. As if he wanted to curse at us again, Hendricks opened his mouth but was stopped by Nathan grabbing a small looking hammer and smashing it down onto the back of his hand making Hendricks scream in agony as most of the bones in his hand were crushed.
"Nathan." Owen admonished lightly but the reprimand sounded hollow and Nathan didn't look at all chastised. "I will ask you once more before Kota removes your pointer finger. Where are the bodies."
Hendricks looked unable to form words due to the torment he was currently undergoing but his lips twitched and trembled as he attempted to speak. A mixture of saliva and blood trickled from between his lips as he whimpered, but eventually I was able to make out his words. "They're mine. You can't have them."
Cocking his head to the side, Kota quickly positioned his pruning shears to capture Hendricks's pointer finger as he scowled deeply. "Wrong answer." The shears sliced through flesh and bone, permanently detaching Hendricks's right pointer finger from his hand, and the blood curdling shriek that scraped up the man's throat was almost enough to make me cringe. A river of red poured from the mutilated stump and splattered across the floor but no one in the room batted an eyelash at the sight.
"Does Victor want that?" Nathan asked, pointing to the dismembered digit that Kota plucked from the tile.
Owen was the one to answer as he shook his head. "No, he has no interest in this man's bones."
Hendricks's was crying now, fat ugly tears rolling down his cheeks as he moaned and whined, staring down at his right hand that now only had three fingers as opposed to four, but I felt no sorrow or pity. He had hurt Silas and he had tried to hurt Luke, and for that he would pay dearly. There would be no mercy shown to him and I was completely accepting of this fact, my monster purring and mewling in delight at the thought. Within the last few days, these men had become more than just my captors. I wasn't ready to jump into their ranks and trust them not to slit my throat, and I'd be lying if I said that my beastie didn't want to watch them bleed from my blade, but, at the same time, I didn't particularly want them dead anymore. If they were to die, I would be the one to do it, of course, but I found myself feeling...protective of them. Odd.
"Where are the bodies?" Owen said, crouching before the sniveling man as he reached out and squeezed Hendricks's broken pinkie. "Or Kota will take another finger."
"Ocean." Hendricks sobbed, sweat, tears, and mucus mixing together and dripping from his face and onto his shirt in a way that made me nauseous. "Took them off the coast...weighed them down...sunk."
Kota's shoulders sagged at the news and I could tell from the tapping of Owen's thumb against his thigh that he was upset by this new information. "What are the coordinates of your drop point?"
"We can't search the water, Owen." Kota spoke causing Owen's flint eyes to flash in anger. "Even if we find the exact location, the tides could have taken them or the various marine life. We're too late."
"He could be lying." Nathan suggested from beside me but he didn't sound hopeful. We were all sure that Hendricks wasn't lying and the hope of recovering Silas's brother were slim to none. Kota was right, they were too late. They'd failed.
Owen straightened to standing, bringing his hand up and patting Hendricks's bald, wet head. "Good boy." He said, though his pinched expression betrayed his carefully controlled tone as he turned to Kota who had placed Hendricks's finger in a glass jar and was now standing with his pruning shears at the ready, still dripping thick red blood from the wickedly sharp blades. "I trust you'll finish up in here?"
Kota nodded, turning his detached curiosity back to Hendricks as Owen removed the rubber apron and collected his suit jacket, tie, and glasses. Nathan retrieved one of the syringes filled with a clear liquid and quickly injected it into Hendricks's neck as Kota lined up several scalpels and other instruments. Hendricks started to struggle against his bonds again as he hit a second wind fueled by survival instinct and sheer power of will, and I leaned back against the counter to watch. I didn't think I had to get involved but it didn't mean I couldn't indulge from a distance.
"Stupid, self righteous pricks." Hendricks hissed as he did his best to ignore the pain he was in. "Think you're so much better than me. Trying to take my boys from me. I'll kill all of you and take the blonde angel with me."
Everyone froze in their movements at his words and Owen whirled around to face Hendricks, fire blazing in his eyes at the clear threat. Nathan clenched his fists and Kota's face turned, if possible, even colder and more distant than before. If I'd learned one thing about this group, it was that they were unerringly loyal and if you threatened one of them, you threatened all of them. Hendricks had just made a very grave mistake.
His manic laughter started up again as he understood the effect his words had and his eyes flashed in delight as the three males glared at him. "He was perfect, too perfect. I should've known it was too good to be true but I just had to have him." His body shuddered in a way that caused my stomach to roll in disgust. "I was going to keep him a couple days. I had the perfect place for him, you see."
"Shut up." Kota instructed coldly as Nathan clenched his fists so tight it looked like his knuckles would crack from the force.
Hendricks smiled heinously, something feral and depraved filling his face as his eyes met mine. "That beautiful long hair...the things I would do to that boy..."
"Shut up." Kota commanded again, a wave of authority ringing in his voice as his normally aloof expression darkened to something ruthless and barbaric, but Hendricks paid him no heed.
"He would have screamed so exquisitely as I bent him over my-" He was never able to finish his sentence as Kota and Nathan charged him, Kota obstructing my view of their actual actions, but from Hendricks's guttural shrieks, I knew they were hurting him quite severely.
Owen gripped my bicep and tugged, signalling that it was time to take our leave but I fought against him so I could get a better glimpse of the sweet torture they were inflicting. He wouldn't allow it though and hauled me towards the door, ignoring my struggles as I watched Nathan's savage expression as Kota moved roughly, the sound of tearing flesh filling the room to combine with the thick, chocked screams.
"If you don't know how to use your tongue properly," Kota snarled, his voice deep and bestial, "Then you lose the privilege of having one."
"It's time to go, Pet." Owen hissed in my ear as he opened the door and pulled me over the threshold.
"No," I whined, craning my neck to see, "I want to watch."
Owen ignored me and I was dragged from the room as Kota jerked his arm, effectively ripping Hendricks's tongue from his mouth. I was only able to catch a glimpse of the blood soaked piece of flesh before the door shut tightly, sealing Hendricks and his fate behind the smooth metal. Hendricks's squeals continued to echo around us, sounding less and less human the longer they endured, and I was both elated and disappointed that I couldn't stick around to watch the show. He was a horrible human being, if he could even be called human, and the thought of him ever getting his hands on Luke was slightly terrifying. He deserved whatever the boys did to him and judging from the horrifying noises that rang behind us, they weren't holding back.
Owen turned my way as we reached the stairs and he held his hand out like a gentleman, allowing me to go first. I placed my foot on the step but paused in my ascend as I held his steel gaze, searching his face for any indication on what he might be thinking, but as usual, I was left wanting. "Will they kill him?" I asked, watching his cool composure slip slightly as the edge of his lips twitched with his millimeter smile.
"Yes."
His eyes swirled, melting to liquid silver and I smiled, my creature purring with acceptance at his words. "Good."