The Severed Thread (32 page)

“Yeah,” Andrei agreed.  “She was just asking what we wanted.  I was about to tell her.”  He turned back to me.  “You do still want to know, don’t you elf?”

When I didn’t respond, his mouth thinned in irritation.   He took another long pull on his beer before coming around to my side of the island.   He put his hands on the arms of my chair, leaning right into my personal space. 

“I don’t like being kicked in the head, little girl.  And I don’t like being interrupted once I’ve gotten my knife out.  Sampson will pay for wrecking my fun the other day.  But that’ll have to wait.  I plan on making up for lost time tonight.”  He smiled before whispering in my ear, “And this time there won’t be any interruptions.”

“Ah Andrei, the boss said…” Luca started before he was cut off.

“I don’t give a fuck what the boss said,” Andrei snarled without taking his eyes off me.

“But,” Luca said, his face worried.  “He specifically told us…”  He was silenced as Andrei grabbed the front of his shirt and slammed him against my refrigerator.

“I know what he told us!” he shouted into Luca’s face.  “Do I look like I fucking care! I had my knife out and didn’t get to use it!”  He roughly shoved Luca away from him before turning back to me.

“I’m owed this,” Andrei said more softly.  The hunger on his face chilled me to the bone.  He couldn’t get that knife of his out without gutting someone?  What was up with that?  Here I had just pegged him as a hired thug.  But no, he was a psychopath.  Dangerous.  Unpredictable.  I started to pull at the bindings holding my arms as my beast began to pace, back and forth, back and forth.  

“That won’t do you any good,” he informed me with an ugly laugh.  “Those zip ties are reinforced with titanium mesh.” 

I stilled at his words. 
Of course they were
.  This kept getting better and better.

He smiled again.  “Ah, I see you are familiar with them.  I guess you would be since they’re berserker proof.”  They were used to subdue a berserker for transportation, after they were shot full of tranquilizers of course.  No one would dare get close enough to put them on while the berserker was conscious.

Andrei reached to his belt and pulled his knife from its sheath.  He turned it side to side watching the light glint off the finely honed edge, his eyes alive with anticipation.  I could just imagine him sharpening that thing while he envisioned using it on me.  The beast was pounding, pounding, pounding.  I struggled with her fury over Andrei’s threats.  And for the first time in my life I was seriously considering just letting her out.  I mean, what was worse?  Gutted on the floor of my kitchen after Andrei did God knows what to me, or allowing my berserker to shred him to bits and spending the rest of my life in a padded cell.  Not much of a choice there.  Hell, I was already in berserker restraints, at least with her free I might be able to do
some
damage.  As if sensing my weakness, she ratcheted up her efforts to get out.

“
I help!
” she hissed.  “
I help!
”  My head lolled as her words echoed inside my head.  She needed to stop doing that.  It really messed with my equilibrium.  I opened my eyes to find Andrei once more inches from my face.

“Don’t pass out on me, little elf,” he said, obviously misinterpreting my reaction.  “We have a lot of fun ahead of us tonight, and you have to be awake to fully appreciate it.”   To prove his point, he ran his knife under the buttons of my blouse, each one landing with a
plink
on the floor.  I flinched as the point of the blade shallowly grazed the skin at my collar bone in a careless arc.  He smiled in satisfaction as a fine bead of blood formed along the cut.  He then used the knife tip to slowly push the two sides of my blouse away, exposing my bra.

“Pretty,” he murmured as he gazed at the blood that had begun to trickle down my chest.  I started pulling at my bindings again, even knowing the effort was futile.  My mind and body were screaming at me to try to get away.  I was frantic, yanking and tugging at the restraints but I only succeeded in tearing the skin bloody on my wrists.

 
“
Naris!
” I screamed in my mind as my beast continued thrashing in her cell.  Pounding, pounding, pounding – she was relentless.  I could already feel the burning in my eyes, and knew I was only moments away from giving in to her demands.

“
If I interfere directly Abigail, something important will be forever lost.  Something you would not wish.
”

There was that word again,
directly
.
 
He had better be doing something
indirectly,
or I was going to be seriously pissed.  And what could possibly be more important than not being raped and sliced up with that knife?  Maybe something would come to me later, but at the moment, nothing seemed more important than getting free from this chair, killing Andrei, and if I was lucky, maybe I would get to kill Luca too.  My bloodthirsty thoughts were a good indicator of how close my beast was to the surface.  I stilled as another idea formed, my feet pressing down on the floor for confirmation.  Was I really that dense?

I could feel my eyes come alive with roiling flame as I looked at Andrei.  His confidence visibly slipped when I bared my teeth at him.

“Berserker restraints may hold me,” I wheezed, my words deep and rough, “but this chair won’t.”  I leaned forward onto the balls of my feet, flexing into my ankles before leaping high into the air.  Andrei lurched backwards in surprise.

I leaned back, forcing the chair under me as I crashed to the floor.  Thankfully the wood splintered, allowing me to move my legs.  I swiped one of the broken rungs as I got to my feet and shook free of most of the chair.  The bad news?  My arms were still behind my back, even the one with my meager weapon, and my left leg was partially encumbered with the remains of the chair.

“Very impressive,” Andrei said, clapping.  “You are making this too much fun.”  He flicked his head at Luca, indicating he should circle around behind me.  Luca grimly did as he was told.  Having him behind me was bad, even if he was the weaker of the two. 

I had only taken two wary steps back towards the hall, when Andrei rushed me.  I jumped over him, landing on the floor awkwardly, still encumbered by chair pieces.  Swinging around, I kicked the back of his knee, making him stumble to the floor. 

I needed to get my hands out in front of me and fast.  There wasn’t much time to turn myself into a human pretzel but I did it anyway, thankful for long arms and many years of yoga.  I sat on the floor and slipped my hands under my butt then behind my legs and feet.  I groaned in pain as I forced my wrists and shoulders to do something they were never meant to do.  Finally, my arms were where I wanted them – still connected to each other by the restraints but at least out front.

When I looked up, Andrei was bearing down on me with a murderous expression.  Tightening my grip on the rail of wood more firmly, I leapt to my feet.  I could still feel the rage of the beast but it had subsided somewhat as she waited to see what would happen next.  I guess I had made some progress.

A loud bang from the front of the house distracted me and in the next second Andrei was on me.  I toppled backwards onto the floor, his legs straddling me.  My tightly gripped piece of wood was the only thing between my neck and his blade.  My muscles strained with the effort of holding him off.  In desperation, I kneed him in the groin.  He rolled off me to clutch his balls, the knife clattering to the floor. 
Really
?
 
I could hardly believe it.  I had just downed a psychopath with the ole’ knee to the groin?   

I rolled into a crouch, warily watching Luca while still clutching my wooden chair rail.  He hesitated, undecided about whether to run out the back or engage whoever was barreling down the hall.  He wavered too long.  In the next instant, his head was ripped from his body by a furry chestnut blur.

“Bitch!” Andrei bellowed behind me.  I had forgotten about him as I watched Luca’s beheading in awe. 
Stupid
.  I pushed my arms out, and leapt to the right, swinging the short wooden bar at the same time that he lifted his knife.  I landed hard on the floor, unable to brace myself with my bound arms.

Andrei was still standing, a bewildered expression on his face as he looked down at the piece of wood protruding from his chest, his knife clattering to the floor for the second time tonight.  I heard a rumbling growl from behind me and the scrabble of more claws in the hall.  The chestnut wolf with a silvery grey streak on his face was stalking forward, blood and saliva dripping from his fangs, while others crowded into the room behind him.  A grey wolf burst from the throng, knocking Andrei to the floor before tearing out his throat. 

   There was a mournful howl from outside that caused all the wolves to look up.  Several left to investigate.  The grey wolf approached carefully, running its snout along my face and arms, sniffing.  He nudged my still bound hands.

“I’m okay, Corbin,” I said as I awkwardly scratched his ears, blood from my wrists smearing on his fur.  “Well, mostly.  I think I may have cracked a rib when I hit the floor.”

I looked over at the chestnut wolf with the bright green eyes.  He was watching me as I rubbed Corbin’s fur.  I met his steady gaze.

 “Thanks,” I said softly before lying back on the kitchen floor and closing my eyes.

Chapter 29

I blinked several times at Agent McCabe as he peered down at me.  The last thing I remembered was the green eyed wolf in the kitchen.  Now I was on the couch with no memory of how I had gotten there.  Being carried around while unconscious seemed to be a theme tonight.  I was trying to be thankful that someone had had enough sense to cover the couch with a sheet first since I seem to have blood all over me, but I was stuck on how disconcerting it was to have been moved again while not aware. 

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Agent McCabe said.  Andrei had said something similar the last time I opened my eyes.  Prey.  You are acting like prey, Abigail. 

“Um, thanks,” I said, wincing at the pain from my split lip.  “I think.”  My mouth tasted like I had been up all night licking old envelopes and my head was pounding.

“You up for giving a statement?” he asked as I sat up with a groan, holding the front of my shirt together.  I wasn’t sure what hurt more, my head or my chest.  I was going to have to get my ribs looked at.  Someone had obviously already taken care of the cuts on my chest and wrists because they were covered with gauze and tape.

“Only if I can have a glass of water and some ibuprofen first,” I replied.  I was trying to get my bearings as we spoke.  There were a lot of people milling around my house, mostly members of Jonathan’s pack and a handful of people wearing black jackets with the Interspecies Bureau logo.   

“I think that can be arranged,” he said, smiling sympathetically.

“There is a bottle in the same cabinet as the glasses,” I told him.  “To the right of the sink.”

He came back a minute later with the water and ibuprofen.  I popped four of the little brown pills into my mouth then gulped the whole glass of water, trying to get rid of the nasty taste in my mouth.

I recounted what had happened with a few small changes.  Agent McCabe didn’t need to know about the Locating.  Instead, I told him I had been meditating when Andrei and Luca had arrived.

“How do you know Andrei and Luca?” he asked.

“I don’t really know them,” I said.  “I saw them talking to Harvey Keltan one day about two weeks ago at the coffee shop near the office.  Then they showed up last week when I was grocery shopping.  When I asked them if they were following me, Andrei went and pulled out that ugly looking knife of his.”

“Then what happened.” 

“Sampson and Trevor were at the store.  They came along and defused the situation.”  His pen made scratching noises as he added more notes in his little notebook.

“Alright, back to tonight,” he said.  “What did Andrei and Luca want?”

“It was mostly Andrei… Luca didn’t seem like he wanted to be here,” I said, running my hands through my hair, the movement causing my to wince in pain.  “Andrei was apparently more than a little irritated that he had gotten his knife out last week and hadn’t gotten to play.  He seemed to think he was owed some time with me and the knife.”  I shivered at the thought.  McCabe’s hand stilled on the page.

“Owed?”

 “His words,” I shrugged.  “The guy was a wacko.”

“Alright,” he said as he resumed writing.  “Then what happened?”

“I broke the chair, got ahold of one of the chair rungs and was able to fight him off somewhat.  If the wolves hadn’t shown up, I’m sure I would be dead right now.  Or, at least wishing I was,” I added.

“Well, Ms. Lassiter.  Life around you is never dull, is it?” he said after asking a few more questions.

“Not this month,” I said, as he got up to leave.

I went into the kitchen after Agent McCabe was gone.  There was a photographer taking photos of Andrei’s body where it lay in a congealed pool of blood.  I could only see Luca’s feet.  Thankfully, the rest of him was on the other side of the island.  Severed heads were not really my thing.

“Abigail, how are you?” asked Jonathan from behind me.  I turned back into the hall where he stood looking fresh in a white button-down shirt and jeans. 

“Okay,” I said.  “How did you know I was in trouble?”

“Samantha called Corbin in a panic when she couldn’t reach you,” he explained.  “He was training at the Den.  When the two wolves guarding the house didn’t pick up their cells either, he rounded up a few pack members and headed over.” 

“Who was outside tonight?”  I asked, even though I dreaded the answer. 

“Jamison and Fortuna,” he responded grimly.  I could see the sadness in his eyes.

I reached out a hand and placed it on his forearm.  “I’m sorry.”

 “You should be,” said Alexander.  He was standing at the end of the hall glaring at us in a pair of faded jeans and a long sleeve grey thermal shirt that was covered in smears of blood.  I reflexively pulled my hand back from Jonathan at the censure in Alexander’s glaze.  “We lost two pack members tonight because they were watching your ass.”