Outsider (Outsider Series) (23 page)

I put my head in my hands and cried. I knew I wasn’t coming out of here alive. I would die here by this man’s hands. I knew it in my soul. My time was ticking away. My death was looming not far off. At that moment I would’ve almost welcomed it. Except for the one thing that was holding me back. I hadn’t told Caeden that I was in love with him yet. I knew he loved me despite him not speaking the words either and I also was certain he knew how I felt. But I still hadn’t said the words and I feared I’d never get the chance.

Hours later the door opened again. It looked like it must be sunset. I didn’t recognize the shape of this person. It looked like a woman. Which meant weaker, but I knew she too must be a shifter so she wouldn’t be much weaker.

I launched myself at her with a battle cry.
We landed on the steps, her head whacking against the concrete. I jumped up quickly trying to make a break for the door but her hand wrapped around my ankle and suddenly I was slammed back against the floor with the wind knocked out of me.

“Don’t do that again,” she said sternly. “I may not have killed you but the others would not hesitate to do so. Your life means nothing to them.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Good,” she said and then I felt the prick of a needle being stabbed into my arm.

My muscles instantly froze and my eyelids became heavy. With a smile she climbed off of me. And then everything went blissfully black.

* * *

I couldn’t move my arms.
Or my legs.
I was paralyzed!

I jolted awake trying to get my limbs to move. Noticing the straps that held me in place I let out a breath of release, I wasn’t paralyzed, and then I panicked for a completely different reason. They had me trapped! I was tied to some kind of metal table, almost like a coroner’s table and I wasn’t going anywhere. I pulled against the restraints but they only
dug
painfully into my flesh. Liquid began to trickle down my fingers and I realized it was my blood.

A laugh sounded from the corner and I stiffly turned my head to see Travis standing in the corner. It dimly occurred to me that they had brought a lantern for some light. No one else, thankfully, appeared to be in the room. One person was better than several.

“Did you think that after that stunt you pulled we’d keep you loose?
Silly, silly, Sophie.
You could have hurt my mom. My dad and I didn’t like that. He was very angry with you. Lucky for you I’m a nice guy and I talked him down from killing you.”

He moved closer to me and his hand tenderly stroked my face. He leaned down over me, his breath tickling my face. “I want you,” he breath
ed. “It’s not fair that Caeden
gets to be an Alpha and gets to have you.
He always gets everythi
ng,” Travis ground out.

I didn’t say anything. Fear held me frozen more than the restraints strapped to my limbs.

“You’re one of us aren’t you? I can smell it on you. It gets stronger every day. Which
means
…” he said thoughtfully, turning to pace the room, I let out a breath
I hadn’t known I was holding, “Y
ou haven’t shifted yet. But you’re a stranger… Adopted they said… but what if it was a lie…” he suddenly whirled around to stand beside me once again. His face radiated pure anger. “Who. Are.
Your.
Parents?” When I didn’t answer he screamed, “Tell me!”

I flinched. Lie to him! Commanded my inner voice. “I don’t know!” I cried. “I don’t know! It’s true, I’m adopted! I don’t even know what you’re talking about!”

“Liar!” he screamed, his voice echoing. A
purple
vein looked ready to burst in his forehead.

Tears leaked out of my eyes. “No,” I said shaking my head back and forth. “I’m not!”

He paced the room again and ran his hands angrily through his hair. “You’re lying! I’m going to ask you again, who are your parents?”

“I’m adopted!” I cried. “I don’t know!”

I saw the flash of silver metallic before it sliced my skin. It burned and I screamed. The knife kept stabbing into my skin. He grinned maliciously at me. “Now everyone will know what you are!”

The restraint was suddenly gone from my right arm and Travis squeezed it tightly. He shoved my arm in my face. Blood ran down my arms in endless red rivers, stained my arm, and my clothes. But when I looked past the red I saw what he had carved viciously into my flesh like I was some kind of animal for slaughter.
Liar.
He slammed my arm back down on the table so hard I let out a scream of pain. He tightened the restraint around my arm so that it was even tighter than it had been before. He grinned down at me and then before I knew what he was doing he crushed his lips to mine.
A different kind of pain radiated through my body. My body was rejecting his touch. An electric current ran through my body. He jumped away like he had been electrocuted. His black eyes leered down at me with puzzlement. Then with a smile befitting the joker he was gone.

And I was awake with the pain.

Hours later they gave me food, if you could even call it that, and water. But I couldn’t eat.

* * *

Days later, maybe it was a week, I lost track, my body began to shut down. I hadn’t eaten anything since I had been taken. I couldn’t stomach much more than the water.

And every day, several times a day, they tortured me.
My body was now more purple and green than natural skin color. I knew my lip was swollen and my nose felt misshapen. I knew I was missing a finger nail which Peter had forcibly ripped from my body. And every day Travis pulled out his knife and retraced the word,
Liar
, so that it never began to heal.

P
eter and Travis took turns torturing me. Thank God they never came in at the same time or I’d probably be dead.
Travis always ended his torture with his lips pressed
painfully against mine and every time my body rejected his kiss with a shock. He’d smirk and walk away. Maybe he mistook the shock as ‘sparks flying’, instead of, ‘get your creepy lips off mine’?

Travis’ mom stood in the room with me. “Sweetie,” she said which made me flinch
. Why did she even bother trying to be nice to me? “Eat something. You’re killing yourself.” I wanted to mutter to her that I knew that, that I was doing it on purpose. I would much rather die and it be my fault than to murdered. “Please, just a cracker,” she goaded. “I need to take some blood and it’s going to hurt if your veins are all dried up.”

I didn’t move. No morsel of food was going to pass between my lips.

“Fine, have it your way,” she said
, in her oddly pleasant voice. She snapped on gloves, grabbed a needle, and a vial.
Her pale blond hair shown like a beacon in the darkened room.
As she neared me I closed my eyes and swallowed. The needle pierced my skin. Apparently she couldn’t get any blood from the vein because a moment later it was pulled from my skin and stuck yet again. I didn’t move. I didn’t flinch. I was beyond pain. I was beyond suffering. I was floating. I was nothing.
Nothing but a shell.
My soul wandered nearby, not quite ready to depart.

She must of hit the right vein because I could hear the sound of my blood slowly trickling into the vial.

“All done,” she said a moment later. “You really should eat something. You don’t look good.” I felt her hand stroke my forehead tenderly like I was a small fragile child and she was checking for a fever. I still did not open my eyes. Her hand disappeared and with a sigh I heard her gather everything up and start for the stairs that led above.
To sanctuary.

“Why are you nice to me?” I croaked before she was gone.

I heard her stutter to a stop. “Because,” she said slowly, “you’re my best friend’s daughter. You have her eyes,” she whispered and then she was gone.

I let her words sink in. I was her best friend’s daughter. Gram said that my mom was the daughter of the previous Grimm Alpha. This meant that Peter was my uncle. Why had that never occurred to me before? If I could’ve laughed I would have. My mother’s brother was trying to kill me.
And my cousin, yuck, had kissed me. Gross.

But I couldn’t dwell on that. That time had come and passed.

I was dying. Now was not the time to think of the negative. I only wanted to fill my thoughts with Caeden. It was a comfort to know that my death would spare his. That made it seem so much more worthwhile. I knew he would be sad, that he would miss me, but his death would be spared. That had to count for something.

I closed my eyes and filled the blackness with his image. His dark hair, tan skin, and impossibly blue eyes. The scruff that always covered his face. His grin and the way his dimple would sometimes peak out.

Sleep began to overcome me and I realized that she must have given me something.

Oblivion was my new reality.

“Wake up,” a voice hissed
in the darkness shattering my nirvana.

I cracked open and eyelid. Travis’ mom, I still didn’t know her name, was kneeling beside me.

She smiled tentatively at me. “Sophie, I’m so sorry about all of this.”

I turned my head away from her. I didn’t want to hear this.

“My husband…” she gulped, “Peter doesn’t listen well.
Neither does Travis,” she ran her fingers roughly through her hair, “I fear he’s just as evil as his father. I don’t know what to do with him.” She sighed, “
I’m trying to convince
Peter to let you go
. Now that I know who you are, it’s even worse, the betrayal I feel. It was bad enough when I thought you were a stranger’s child. But you’re eyes, they’re the same shade of brown. That’s why I took your blood,” she said, “to compare it to my husband
’s. That and he wanted to see if you were a shifter.” Her eyes bore into mine and I saw that they were a pale green. “I lied to him,” she s
aid. “I told him you were human.
”

“Thank you,” I whispered my voice no more than a hoarse croak.

“You’re welcome,” she said. “I fear that it would only make things worse if he found out about you, that you’re his biological niece. I always suspected that Christine faked her death. But her parents and Peter believed it. Her body was never found. I knew she had been seeing Garrett and it was forbidden.” She sighed. “She also told me she was pregnant. That was the last night I saw her. Those were dark times for our pack. I fear they’re only growing darker. Peter tried to kill the Williams’ boy and now he’s kidnapped you, a teenage girl. What am I to do?”

“Why don’t you leave?” I whispered.

“It’s blasphemy to leave one’s pack.
To go out on your own?
It’s suicide. Lone
wolves
don’t live long.”

“Can’t you join another pack?” My voice became a tad stronger.

She leaned against the wall and drew her knees up to her chest. “You mean the Williams’? I suppose but do you really think they’re going to want a Grimm
to
be a part of their pack.
” She laughed harshly, “Not likely.”

“I’m sure Caeden would welcome you,” I said even though I didn’t believe it. “He’s a good leader,” I said. “But would you do it? Would you really leave your pack? Leave your husband? Leave your son? Could you swear yourself to Caeden and his pack?”

“Yes,” she said. “I would do anything to be rid of this evil. Of this blackness that’s leeching into my heart. Anything,” she breathed.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Leslee,” she whispered.

“Thank you, Leslee,” I whispered, staring up at the ceiling.

“For what?” she laughed harshly. “For keeping you here? For letting my husband and son torture you? I’ve done nothing worth thanking.”

“You’ve given me hope,” I said, “and hope is worth being thankful for.”

She was quiet for a couple of minutes and then she said, “Please, eat something.”

“I
can’t
,” I said my voice cracking and a tear escaping the corner of my eye. She didn’t argue me. She could tell it was pointless. “Can I ask you a favor?”

“Anything,” she breathed her eyes lighting. She truly was seeking redemption.

“I don’t care if they kill me,” I said and she flinched, “but please don’t let them hurt Caeden. I love him. He’s
everything
,” I said.

“I’ll protect him with my own life,” she said.

“Thank you,” I said, another tear escaping my eye.
A happy tear.
I had my guarantee. Caeden would be safe.

And then I heard it. A dog barking, the call of, “Sophie!”

Rescue had come.

thirteen
.

Leslee stood. She glanced over at me with pleading in her eyes. “I’m sorry, I must leave you. I have to find Peter. He’ll be furious. I don’t know what he may do.”

“I understand,” I whispered. She was almost out the hatch when I called a reminder, “Don’t let them hurt Caeden. Please,” I begged.