“Here’s where I’ll start,” he remarked, then grabbed a handful of my hip and gave a hard upward swipe with the third knife.
I bit my lip so hard to keep from screaming that I tasted blood. Calibos snickered. Max held up my severed piece of skin like it was a trophy.
“Nice tattoo,” he said, flinging it to the side. “Maybe I’ll have that shipped to Bones, so he can have a spare.”
My hip flamed where there was now a bleeding open wound instead of the crossbones tattoo I’d gotten to match the one on Bones’s arm. My mother didn’t cry out this time, but she drew in a deep, shuddering breath.
“I love you, Catherine,” she whispered.
I had to look away, because I didn’t want to give Max the satisfaction of seeing me cry. I couldn’t remember the last time she’d said that to me. She must believe we were both doomed to die.
“I’m sick of holding her, I’m putting her under,” Calibos said, turning green eyes to my mother.
“Stop it.” Max’s voice was a whip. “She’s going to see this. She’s going toknow.”
Calibos made an exasperated noise, then dragged my mother over to the drapes by the window. He yanked one off, ripped it down the center, and then tied the end of it around her neck.
“Max,” I said warningly.
He swatted me in the head, hard. “Shh, I want to see what he’s got in mind.”
Calibos threw the other end over one of the railings in the banister on the second floor. My mother was struggling, but she was no match for the vampire. I began to strain against the knives pinning me down. Max shoved another one through my wrist almost like it was an afterthought, then punched me in the gut where I’d been shot.
The blast of agony must have knocked me out for a minute, because when my eyes focused again, my mother was standing on a chair, one end of the drapes wrapped around her neck, and the other tied to the banister upstairs. There was hardly any slack in the line, and one of the chair’s legs was missing.
“Now she can watch, and I can join the fun,” Calibos smirked.
Max gave him an approving grin, then turned his attention to me.
“Do you want to know what I’m going to do to you, little girl?” he asked in a conversational tone. “After I torture the hell out of you, I’m going to chop you into pieces. Can’t risk Bones getting someone to raise you into a ghoul, now can I?”
Vicious prick wasn’t stupid. With my half-vampire bloodline, it was entirely possible I could be raised as a ghoul, if Max were just to murder me. But if I was dismembered, that option was out.
“Same rules apply. Let’s see how long you last before you scream and I get to cut something off Justina,” he taunted.
Max’s fist began knocking my head back and forth like a toy on a spring. Blood filled my mouth and my lip split, but I bit my tongue and didn’t make a noise. After a few minutes, the ringing in my ears dulled the thwacking sounds of him beating me. Then he stopped.
“Stubborn bitch. Hmm, let’s see if you can keep quiet through this…”
He pulled a lighter out of his pocket, flicked it, dialed the flame up as high as it could go, then held it to my arm. My whole body shuddered and I twisted futilely, gasps and grunts coming from me. After a few minutes of unimaginable agony, I couldn’t hold back my scream any longer.
Max laughed, delighted. Vaguely I was aware of throwing up.
“I think that’s going to cost Justina a finger,” he remarked. “What else will you make her lose?”
“Even if you kill me, Bones will find you,” I panted. Sweat was pouring off me and my arm hurt in ways I didn’t know were possible. “Believe me, you’ll be sorry when he does.”
Calibos and Max chuckled like I’d told a joke. “That vampire won’t start a war over you.” Max grinned. “Hell, the only reason Bones married you was to spite our sire.”
That’s why Max felt secure enough to risk pulling this? Because he thought he had enough protection from his new “friends” and Bones had only married me to piss off Ian?
“Oh, Boneswill find you. Count on it.”
They glanced around, uneasy at the vehemence of my tone.
“Pathetic,” Max said at last. “You’re trying to scare me into letting you live, but it won’t work. Still, Calibos, go outside and keep watch. Just in case her playboy decides to drop by early.”
“But I haven’t gotten to play with her yet,” Calibos protested, with a look my way that made me recoil.
“You’ll get your chance,” Max snapped. “But I set this up, so I go first.”
Calibos smirked at me as he headed out the door. “I’ll see you soon, sweetie.”
Max got up and sauntered over to my mother next. She was almost on her tiptoes to keep the drape around her neck slack enough to breathe. Underneath her, the chair wobbled ominously on its three legs. Her hands were tied together with another piece of drapery, and Max grinned as he contemplated her fingers.
“Which one will you lose, Justina? Let’s see, this little finger went to market,” he started to singsong, tapping one of them. “This little finger stayed home. This little finger had roast beef…”
I tried to mentally prepare myself for my chance. Now that one of them was outside, this was my best opportunity. It was hard for me to focus, however. I’d had years of experience getting knocked around, but with all of my injuries, I kept feeling myself wandering closer to unconsciousness.
My mother met my eyes…and then kicked the chair out from under her.
“Goddammit,” Max snapped, holding her up with one hand. “Why’d you do that?”
In the second that he was distracted, I yanked against the knives on my wrists with all my strength, feeling my flesh shred. I’d gotten one of my hands free when Max turned around.
“What the hell?”
He let my mother go. She dangled by the neck, her feet well above the floor, while I wrenched my other arm free, ignoring the white-hot burst of pain that caused. I tried to grab one of the knives, but my wrists were too damaged for me to hold anything. I kicked them away and then lunged at Max instead, head-butting him hard enough to knock him over.All I need is a little of your blood, I thought, biting at him savagely,and I’ll be healed enough to fight.
A burst of noise jerked my head toward the window. The last thing I saw was glass smashing-and then there was a burning in my neck and my vision went black. I thought I heard screams, but all at once, everything seemed farther away. I couldn’t feel anything, either. It was a relief to be free from the pain.
Awareness came back with something wet being poured down my throat. I tried to cough it out but couldn’t. The flow wouldn’t stop, forcing me to swallow. Again. And again.
“…don’t you let her die!” I thought I heard my mother scream, then there was Bones’s voice, very close.
“…come on, luv, drink! No, you have to have more…”
I gagged, the liquid overflowing my mouth, when shapes around me formed into clarity. I had my mouth plastered to a blood-slicked neck, and I pushed away even as I coughed and swallowed once more.
“Stop it,” I managed to say.
Hands set me back. It was Bones’s throat I’d been pressed against. His neck wasn’t the only thing smeared red, either. So was the entire front of him.
“Christ Almighty, Kitten,” Bones breathed, stroking my throat.
“Catherine,” my mother cried. I jerked my head around in time to see her slip in something as she staggered toward me. That drape was still tied around her neck, but the other end was no longer attached to the banister. In the far corner of the room, I heard Max’s muttered cursing and a feminine English reply.
“Don’t you move, you little shite.”
“You’ve got him?” Bones asked in a truly chilling voice.
Annette sounded as fierce as I’d ever heard her. “I’ve got him, Crispin.”
My mother reached me. She was hugging me and trying to pull me from Bones’s arms even as she kept feeling my neck.
“Did he fix it? Are you all right, Catherine?”
That’s when I noticed the rest of the blood. It wasn’t only splattered on Bones, but all over me, around me, even on the nearby wall.
“What happened?” I asked, torn between dizziness, numbing gratitude that we were alive, and being aghast at all the blood surrounding us.
