Slow Agony (13 page)

And punched into Silas.

Silas’ eyes bulged.

The knife came back out.

Silas stumbled backwards, hands at his stomach. Blood was gushing out onto his fingers, crimson and thick.

I sucked in breath.

The girl shrieked. She reached for him.

“Stay down,” he gasped.

I managed to get upright.

Wolfman was going for the gun now. I had to stop him.

I started for him. If I could knock him over again...

But he slashed out at me with the knife, almost casually.

The blade bit into the flesh of my face, slashing diagonally across my forehead, nose, and cheek. The pain was fresh and bright.

I yelled.

Blood was getting in my eyes.

In the corner of my vision, I could see Silas. He was straightening, getting himself together. Healing.

But Wolfman had the gun now.

Chapter Eight

Wolfman checked to see if it was loaded. It was. He leveled it at Silas. “Little pig, little pig. Let the bullets in.”

Silas hit the floor.

He wasn’t fast enough. The first shot had already caught his shoulder. He rolled into a ball, grabbing at it, swearing.

Wolfman walked over to him, where he was curled up on the floor. He aimed the gun. He pulled the trigger.

Silas jerked. He’d been hit in the back. A red spot of blood was already blossoming.

Wolfman knelt down next to him. “Sit up.”

“Fuck you,” said Silas. I could hear the strain in his voice.

I started to try to get up.

“Don’t even think about it, piglet,” said Wolfman. “Stay put.”

Wolfman put the gun against Silas’ eyeball. “It’s amazing how the serum will fix your whole face, isn’t it?

The serum? He knew about the serum?

Silas looked startled too.

Wolfman laughed. “Little pig, little pig, let it in.”

I grimaced.

And then Wolfman blew out the back of Silas’ skull.

I screamed.

So did the girl. She had backed away into the corner of the room. She was holding a sheet up to cover her nakedness. Tears were flowing over her cheeks.

“It’s okay,” I told her. “He’s going to heal. He’s a supersoldier. He’s got healing abilities.” I said it as much to reassure myself as it to reassure her. I knew that the only way to kill Silas was to sever his spinal cord, but that didn’t mean he didn’t look extremely dead right at that minute, because he did.

I looked away. He looked too awful to see, the back of his head a mess of blood and shattered bone.

“Will he, now?” Wolfman brandished his knife. “Maybe his neck needs a little snip-snip. What do you think, piglet?”

“No,” I said. “Don’t you dare.”

Wolfman pointed the gun at me. “Guess you won’t know one way or another, now will you?”

He pulled the trigger.

The sound of the gunshot shattered the air.

I felt a sharp burst of pain in my forehead.

Everything went dark.

I woke up to find myself tied to Silas. We were still in the hotel room, sitting back to back. Our hands were tied together behind our backs. My legs were also tied. I assumed his were too. He wasn’t awake yet. His head hung listlessly from his shoulders.

He was healing. I could see that. But he wasn’t all the way healed yet. He had to regrow half his skull after all. I guess that took time.

The room smelled of blood—tangy and metallic. Taking a look around, I could see that Wolfman was still here. He hadn’t simply left us tied up like he’d done to me last time.

He was on the other side of the room, humming to himself.

The girl from the bar was lashed to the headboard of the bed.

She was dead.

The Wolfman was cutting her. He was carving something on her forehead.

I made a disgusted noise in the back of my throat. I didn’t mean to. It just happened.

Wolfman turned away from the girl. “Piglet. You’re awake.”

I swallowed. Now I could see what Wolfman had done to the girl’s face. He’d carved Xs over her eyes and a heart onto her forehead. Her throat had been slashed. She was covered with blood and so was the bed.

“What do you think?” he asked. He looked like a child who’d drawn a picture in kindergarten class.

My skin crawled. “You’re sick.”

Wolfman shrugged.

“This is why you were in jail? This is what you do? How’d you get out?”

Wolfman smiled. “No, no. I wasn’t in jail for
this
. No one knows about
this
. This is my special secret. I can show you because Marcel says we won’t leave you alive in the end.”

Oh God. He was going to kill me. At some point, he was going to kill me.

The sound of a phone ringing split the air.

Silas stirred next to me. “What?”

At first I didn’t recognize it as mine, because we’d just gotten new phones, and I hadn’t set a specific ringtone. But then I felt in vibrate in my pocket.

“Yours, piglet?” Wolfman crossed the room and knelt next to me. He reached into my pocket.

I stiffened. I didn’t like it when he touched me.

Silas was struggling behind me. “What the hell?”

Wolfman dug out my phone. He peered at it. “Griffin?” He smiled.

The ringing stopped. Wolfman threw the phone down on the bed. “You’re awake too, little pig.”

“Fuck you,” Silas snarled. He was straining at the ropes that tied us together.

Wolfman giggled. “Oh, stay still. It’s not going to do you any good to try to get free.” He patted the gun, which he had tucked into the waist of his pants. “I’ll only shoot you again. Don’t you see?”

“You okay, Leigh?” said Silas.

“Yeah,” I said.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should never have left you alone.”

Come to think of it, he probably shouldn’t have.

“Griffin’s going to kill me when he finds out.”

Wolfman laughed. He shoved aside the feet of the girl and settled down on the bed. “Why did Griffin call you, piglet?”

Silas hadn’t seen the girl yet. “Holy fuck.”

“Piglet?” said Wolfman.

“You killed her,” said Silas.

“Yes,” said Wolfman. “Pretty, isn’t she?”

“Not anymore,” said Silas. “Aw, man, why would you do that?”

“Griffin,” said Wolfman. “You think he was calling to check up on you?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“It’s my fault,” Silas was muttering.

He was probably right about that too. He’d brought this girl here and ultimately gotten her killed. But he could feel guilty later. I needed him to focus.

“You can’t do that,” I said. “It’s done. You can’t change it.”

He took a long, ragged breath. “Fuck.”

“Why don’t you know?” said Wolfman.

“I can’t read Griffin’s mind,” I said. “Why don’t you call him back and ask?”

Wolfman picked the phone back up. “I could do that, I suppose. But then he’d know you were in danger, wouldn’t he?”

“He’ll know anyway,” I said in a burst of insight. “I didn’t answer the phone. He’ll know that means something’s wrong. If I don’t call him back in five minutes, he’ll think something’s happened to me.”

Wolfman’s eyes lit up. “Really? Oh, that’s good.” He got up from the bed, holding up the phone.

There was the brightness of a flash. He’d taken a picture. What was he doing?

I watched as he began taking pictures of the girl on the bed. He hummed to himself some more. “I’ll send these to Griffin so he knows what I’m going to do to you. Did you say he’d start worrying in five minutes?”

My lie hadn’t helped then. Or had it? If Griffin knew something was up, would he come back for us?

Well, he didn’t know where we were.

He wouldn’t be able to do anything.

Silas had talked to me about the route we were taking, going as far off the beaten path as possible. Griffin and Sloane were taking a more straightforward path. We’d assumed that if anyone was following us, they’d stick with Griffin. This was all about Griffin, right? They would want to follow him.

But Wolfman hadn’t. He’d followed us. And our route was so twisted and convoluted that Griffin wouldn’t have any way to find us. It was up to Silas and me to stop this guy, and we were both tied up and useless.

“You know about the serum,” Silas said suddenly. “How do you know about that shit?”

Wolfman looked up from taking his pictures. “Well, I wouldn’t have shot you both if I hadn’t known that you’d heal, would I?”

“How’d you find out about it?”

Wolfman giggled. “This little piggy went to the hospital. This little piggy stayed home. This little piggy got injected with a serum. This little piggy got none.”

“You found out that Griffin got it when he was in jail?” I asked. “You were jealous?”

Wolfman chortled. “Piglet, stop trying to make sense of it.” He hurried over to me, kneeling down. He scrolled through the pictures he’d taken. “Which one do you think Griffin will like the best?”

I turned away. They were so gory and bloody. I felt sick to my stomach.

“Op Wraith is gone,” said Silas. “So is the serum.”

“What makes you think Operation Wraith is gone?” said Wolfman.

“I’ve been there,” said Silas.

“I helped destroy it,” I said.

Wolfman grinned. “It
moved
.” He went back to the phone. “I think this one. I’ll text, ‘How do you think Leigh will like this?’ Okay?”

Moved? What? I gulped. “Do you have the serum?”

“Wolfman is indestructible.” His eyes gleamed. He pressed buttons on the phone and then tossed it on the bed. “There. That’s done. Griffin will like the picture. Now, what game do the little pigs want to play?”

There he was saying
play
again. I didn’t think I wanted to find out what he meant by that.

The phone rang again.

Wolfman leapt up and answered it. “Hello, Griffin.”

Silas elbowed me.

What did he want?

“Oh, she’s right here,” said Wolfman, “all in one piece. At least currently.”

At the same time, Silas whispered, “I’ve got something that can saw through the rope. Keep him distracted.”

Oh God. I had to distract Wolfman?

Wolfman knelt down in front of me. He stroked my cheek. “Pretty piglet.”

I could hear Griffin’s voice through the phone—angry. His words were too distorted to make out what he was saying, though.

Wolfman chuckled into the phone. “Don’t worry, Griffin. No matter how much I cut her, she’ll heal right up.” He hung up.

My insides clenched. Jesus Christ. I didn’t know if I could handle that. He was going to torture me. For fun.

I could feel Silas’ hands moving next to mine, feel the cold of something metal brush my skin occasionally.

Wolfman leaned around me. “You’re awfully quiet, little pig.”

Oh! I had to keep him from seeing what Silas was doing. “He’s upset after what you did to the girl,” I blurted.

Wolfman looked past us at the girl.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

“She’s so pretty, though,” said Wolfman.

“What did Griffin say?” I said. Maybe if I kept him talking, he’d only pay attention to me, not Silas.

Wolfman looked back at me. “He’s mad.”

“I bet he is. He doesn’t like it when people hurt me.”

“That’s what we’re counting on, piglet. He’ll want to protect you.” He giggled. “He’s going out of his mind right now.”

As if to prove his point, the phone rang again.

Wolfman turned it off. He popped the back off and took out the battery and the SIM card. “We’ll let him suffer a little bit, okay?”

“He’ll kill you,” I said.

Wolfman laughed. “I highly doubt that, piglet. He’s Griffin. I know him too well. I know his insides. His weak, squiggly, frightened insides.”

There was a soft, snapping noise. One of my hands was suddenly free. Silas was making progress!

I wiggled it. It tingled as blood rushed back in.

“What was that?” Wolfman got up and walked around me to look down at Silas.

Shit. We weren’t out of the woods yet. “Why’d you put a heart on her forehead?”

“Heart?” Wolfman was still looking down at Silas.

“Yes,” I said. “Come tell me all about it. You said it was a special secret and that it was okay for me to know. You want to tell someone, don’t you?”

Wolfman eased down next to me. “The heart stands for inner beauty.”

“Oh,” I said. He was close to me. I could feel his hot breath on my neck.

He leaned close, his lips brushing my ear. “I brought out the beauty. Like an artist. She was my canvas.”

I fought down a grimace. I could barely breathe. “You do that a lot?”

“Not a lot,” said Wolfman. “It wouldn’t be special if it happened all the time.”

“Is that what you’re going to do to me?” My voice was threadbare.

I felt the hot slickness of his tongue against my temple. “Is that what you want, piglet?”

I shivered in disgust and fear.

He let out a low chuckle.

And Silas snapped the other piece of rope, and both my hands were free.

Silas jumped to his feet. He drove a fist into Wolfman’s face, then aimed a kick into his midsection. Silas had bare feet, but he still managed to connect and cause damage.

Wolfman oomped. He was on the ground next to me.

I crab walked away from him as far as I could get.

Silas pulled his foot back for another kick.

Wolfman caught his foot, yanking it out from under him.

Silas fell on his back.

Wolfman got to his feet, yanking the gun out of the waist of his pants.

“No,” I shrieked.

But I was too late. Wolfman had already pulled the trigger.

It caught Silas in the chest, and he went dark again.

Silas would be okay, but he wouldn’t wake up for several minutes.

I was on my own.

Wolfman turned to me.

I uttered some kind of keening noise, like the battle cry of a savage, and I threw myself at him.

Like before, I tackled him to the floor and landed on top of him.

Unlike before, I didn’t give him much of a chance to react. I clawed at his face, still screaming. I dug my fingers into his eye sockets.

He yelped.

I pressed my advantage, scrabbling with my other hand for his gun.