Monstrous Intent, page 12
“Answer his questions and he will,” I say as I fold my arms over my chest and lean back against the wall, like this whole thing is boring to me. I’m not sure yet what we’re going to do to get him to talk—
That’s when Lake sneezes.
“MOTHERFUCKER!” Roger screams as he flails before the chair goes flipping backwards.
My eyes snap up to Lake who is slowly looking over at me. “D-Did you just cut his finger off when you sneezed?” I ask in disbelief.
“Maybe? I sneezed and it really hurt, so…” He mimes squeezing his hand shut. “Involuntary response, you know?”
“So your first response was to cut his finger off?”
Lake shrugs as he bends down and picks the finger up. “Here’s the thing, Declan. I thought we were torturing him. And now you’re mad that I tortured him!”
“I’m mad that we didn’t lay down something first so when Emma comes back, she won’t notice the blood. Hold on. Why did you pick that up?” I ask.
Lake examines what’s in his hand. “What? The finger?”
“Of course the finger!”
“I don’t know! I thought you didn’t want blood on Emma’s floor! What do you want me to do with it?”
“We have to get rid of the evidence before Emma returns.”
Lake’s quiet for a moment. “Like you want me to eat it?”
I sigh loudly as I question how I ended up in this position with a literal monster.
“No! Please! I’ll tell you! Please don’t eat me,” Roger says.
Lake hands me the finger before grabbing Roger. “Oh? Well, I’m starving, so spill it.”
I don’t want the fucking finger! Quickly, I look around for a place to chuck it when I decide dropping it in a vase will be the best place for it right now.
“I-It’s not all Jameson. The board is in on it, mostly the head of the board in Clinton. They need more funding from the state for what they’re doing.”
“Which is?” Lake asks.
“I believe they’re trying to control chimeras. I don’t know why. I just overheard that they needed to show the state the influx of chimera activity,” Roger says.
“Like you think the DRD is purposely bringing them here?” I ask in disbelief. I can’t even wrap my mind around this. “People are dying because of this.”
“I don’t know! Alright? I don’t know what they’re doing,” Roger declares. “I know they wanted to do some testing. This was Jameson’s doing. I didn’t interact with the board at all. I just know that they wanted to see how well they could control the chimeras.”
“How?”
He nods at Lake. “By using him.”
“Me?” Lake asks.
“Yes.”
“Huh…” Lake seems to consider this for a moment as I scrutinize them both. “He didn’t control me too well. Maybe he was too caught up in my wickedly good charms,” he says before giving me a model-perfect smile. I honestly think he’s under the impression that his smile alone will make me forget that I’m currently wondering what the hell is happening.
“Lake?”
“Yes, dear?”
“What were they using you for?”
He shrugs, and honestly, I can’t tell if he’s telling the truth or not. “I really don’t know. I did have the suspicion that he was using my blood for something, but I never pinpointed that. Roger, we’re not done, and you still have nine fingers and ten toes left.”
Roger lets out a squeak like he’s not too fond of this or maybe he was hoping he had ten fingers and ten toes. “W-What else do you want to know?”
“Tell me what Declan was injected with when he was young,” Lake says.
Roger shakes his head. “I honestly don’t know that. I know they did some testing that’s locked down tight. While it was happening, I was still a hunter. Jameson won’t even speak to me about what was done… what I do know is that a lot of hunters died before they put an end to it. Honest to god, that’s all I know.”
Lake snaps the scissors in front of Roger and the man goes even whiter.
“Final question. How do you get this band off my wrist?” Lake asks.
Roger shakes his head. “That’s all Jameson.”
“You made it.”
He seems terrified that Lake knows this. “I… did. Cutting it off will inject you with a lethal dose as I’m sure Jameson has already told you. There’s a five-digit code only Jameson knew. You have to use his phone and the code to get it to open. Five wrong codes will also kill you.”
“Why didn’t Jameson just kill you with that, then?” I ask Lake.
“My guess? He wanted to enjoy watching me bleed out,” Lake says. “Oh, and he had no proof that it’d actually kill me, now did he? In his eyes a shot to the chest was more fun and a surefire way.”
“Maybe,” I say, but I still feel like Jameson was smart enough not to do something so risky. Maybe it wasn’t a guarantee it’d work, and he’d lose the element of surprise? If he wasn’t sure it’d work, that means there’s a chance we could get it off without killing Lake but… then again, do I want it off? It’s forcing him to stay in his human form. What’s to say he’s not using all of us until he gets free of this band to—
Lake’s head turns and I can tell he’s listening. “It’s just Emma,” he says.
I glance at the massacre that has now taken place in her family’s cabin. “Shit. Like… wrap his finger up or stitch it or whatever. I’ll get something to get the blood out of the carpet.”
“I could cauterize it.”
“No! Don’t you dare touch me!” Roger screams.
Lake holds the shears up close to Roger’s face. “I could give you something more to scream about.”
That attack works shockingly well and Roger says not a peep as I rush upstairs and find Emma carrying in loads of bags.
“That was quick,” I say, which means, “Why the hell were you so fast?”
“Yeah, I didn’t want to waste too much time. Everything good here?”
“Yep!” The moment it comes out of my mouth, I regret it.
“‘Yep’?” she asks. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say ‘Yep’ in your life. You’re like my student who tried sneaking a frog in the classroom.”
My eyes narrow. “Nothing happened,” I say.
She doesn’t seem to be sure if she should believe me or not, so I hurry on my way to grab some hydrogen peroxide to get the blood stains out of the carpet. She seems preoccupied, so I hurry down the stairs only to find Lake dragging the man by his foot out of the room. Roger’s still attached to his chair as he gives me the most pleading look he can muster.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
Lake gives me a look like he can’t understand why I don’t see how obvious this is. “He said he needed to take a piss.”
“You can let him out of the chair to use the bathroom,” I say.
Lake looks down at the man he was taking for a stroll before going, “Huh. Good point, I was really hoping I didn’t need to hold his penis to aim. We aren’t bros yet, are we, Roger? Remember all the times you told Jameson that he should kill me? Remember that? Huh, Roger? Remember the time you slammed my head against the desk?” he asks, and I watch as he continues to drag Roger off, making me realize that maybe he didn’t need my advice about untying him. Hell, I might not even be surprised if he drowns him in the toilet while he’s gone.
While he’s off… doing who knows what, I start on the blood stains. I manage to get a good bit of it cleaned up by the time Lake comes back with his prisoner, still dragging him. On the man’s wounded hand is a feminine pad that seems to have been stuck on with another pad.
“I see you found the good bandages,” I say.
“I did,” he says with a smile like he’s proud.
Finishing up, I walk over to the entertainment room that’s also in the basement. This room has a few rows of seats before a large TV, so I slump down into one of them and Lake sits in another.
“We should become professional torturers after this,” Lake decides.
“You sneezed,” I say.
“I know… it hurt. You go get shot twice and then sneeze. Buuuut it got us our answers. Admit it. You think I’m a genius,” he says with a big beaming smile. He starts to lie down, obviously planning on taking over my lap again, but I scoot far enough away he’s forced to lie down on the chair. I watch as he picks at the thing around his wrist. “I need this gone.”
“Why?” I ask. “People will trust you more with it on.”
He stares up at the ceiling. “It’s hard to explain how it feels. It’s like having this big empty hole inside you. It’s as though you’re suddenly missing half of what makes you who you are. You’re doing a phenomenal job of distracting me, but I still can’t get rid of that hollow feeling, you know? I want to shift, to stretch out…” He closes his eyes and must be imagining this because he’s got a soft smile on his face at the mere idea.
“Does this have a tracker in it?” I ask.
“It does but it goes to Jameson’s phone. When I go in on Monday, I’ll grab his phone. I would go in today or tomorrow, but I feel like I’d draw more attention to me being there, especially when they might be questioning what happened to Shithead and Shittierhead.”
“When you find the phone, you can’t bring it here. On the off chance that no one else can track this thing, we don’t want anything that might lead them here.”
He opens his eyes before reaching out for my face. “You’re so smart. You’re sexy and smart and my god, just exquisite. And you’re all mine.”
I scowl at that declaration. “I’m not yours at all. I will never be yours. I’m not a fool. I will never get involved with you beyond using you.”
He’s grinning at me like he believes absolutely nothing I’m saying. “Did you ever think you’d work with a chimera?”
“I’m using you, not working with you.”
“What is even tying you here?” he asks. “You claim you want to know what they did to you, but you haven’t known during all of these years, and what’s it change? Admit that you’re drawn to this. You might not enjoy the life Jameson gave you, but you’re good at this.”
Anger eats at me as I listen to the man speak. I don’t desire this life. Do I really desire all the shit Jameson put me through? “You know nothing about me.”
“I know that you’ve been forced into this life. You’ve been molded to be what Jameson wanted you to be, not the person you wanted. And because of that, you feel like you have to hate what you are.”
“Shut up! You know nothing about my life. I want a normal life,” I say, anger that’s not even aimed at him eating at my words.
He watches me closely. “Why do you think you have to push yourself into being something you’re not?”
“What the hell do you know about life or any of this shit? You’re a monster.”
Lake closes his eyes again. “Maybe. But I also know the loneliness that comes with trying to force yourself to be something you’re not.”
He falls quiet as anger makes me want to snap at him or say something. But what exactly am I pissed about? That he’s right? That I really can’t figure out how to live a “normal” life? I’ve had four years to do it and while I enjoy the children and feel like I’m good at my job, I never feel as free as I do with a gun in one hand and a knife in the other.
But while I feel free in the moment, the second I’m done, all I can think about is the shit I’ve been dragged through. The death, the pain, the hatred. The goddamn loneliness that comes with this life… with a life Jameson built for me.
Yet now Jameson is dead.
There’s a stray book sitting on the seat next to me that I pick up and look over. It’s some dreadfully boring-looking book that I hold over Lake’s face before dropping it.
“What the hell?” he asks as his eyes snap open.
“Don’t try to assess my life again, got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You’re not cute or smart or any of that shit,” I say.
“No, me ugly and dumb,” he says before giving me the most dazzling smile any living thing could ever give me.
It makes me scowl as he laughs.
“I had fun torturing with you. We should do it again sometime,” Lake says.
I just give him a grunt before getting up and heading upstairs to get as far from that stupid grin as I can. Even then, I’m not sure it’s far enough. The damn moon might not be far enough at this point to get that annoying expression out of my mind.
I will not fuck a monster.
Right?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
LAKE
There’s a noise… a shrill one that’s bordering somewhere between a scream and a holler a moment before Emma comes barreling up the basement stairs.
Declan, the beautiful savior he is, is already in action to save his pet but before said pet can be saved, she breaches the doorway.
The look on her face makes Declan stop and decide saving her really isn’t in today’s plans.
She does look a bit angry. “W-Why is there… a finger in my great-grandmother’s vase?” she whispers.
“Where else do you put fingers?” I ask. “In the finger vase, of course.”
No one seems to find me hilarious which is honestly their loss. I’m fucking amazing.
“I might have… seen Lake do that,” Declan says.
The gasp I give him is epic. “Me? I gave you the finger after you said I couldn’t eat it!” I remind him.
Emma’s eyes are getting wider. “I’m in a fever dream. You’re both serial killers, and I’ve fooled myself into believing that you’re good guys. If I try to leave, you’ll kill me. If I continue to make myself useful, you might not. What is the answer?”
I step up to Emma and take her hands in mine. “You are a strong and brilliant pet. You are obviously struggling with something in your life and you’re trying to fill that hole. Maybe it’s because you’re getting close to spinster age, I’m not sure, but you might as well fill your hole with Declan and me.”
Her expression really doesn’t go anywhere near where I thought it would.
“You want me to fill… my hole… with you two?” she asks as Declan chokes a little.
“Now that I hear it repeated back to me, I see that it was, perhaps, not the best advice I’ve ever given someone, but my pet, please remember, I will eat you if you tell anyone.”
She seems even less encouraged than before my speech, which is absolutely ridiculous! I was trying to help her, and my help was wasted. “Declan, you’re one of my closest friends, so… I trust you. I do not trust this other man. And why does he keep calling me ‘pet’?”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t either. He’s the one that cut the finger off,” Declan says.
“I sneezed!” I say. “I will never sneeze again, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. Come on, if we’re getting there by eight, we need to get going. Emma, you can do whatever you want, but if you do decide to go to the police, please let me know so we don’t come back here to a trap.”
Emma stares at him. “You’re not going to clean the finger up before you go?”
Declan glances at his phone. “No time. I’ll get it when we get back. If you’re bored, flush it down the toilet.”
Looking stunned, she continues staring at both of us as we head for the door.
“She’s totally going to go to the police, isn’t she?” I ask.
“She’d be insane not to,” Declan says as he heads out to the car.
“I think she’s secretly enjoying this, you know? A little dash of fun. Being a spinster must be dreadfully boring, you know?”
“You realize we’re both older than her and single, right?”
“There’s a simple way to fix that,” I say as I point both of my index fingers toward each other and make the tips touch before motioning between the two of us. He oddly grimaces at the thought which makes me wonder if he thought I was talking about something other than a beautiful penis kiss. Hell, these humans are so complex sometimes. “I mate for life. So I’m waiting on my lifemate to realize that he will eventually be better off caving.”
“Sounds dreadful.”
“And if it doesn’t work out, I’ll just eat you and find another one. Simple.”
“Super simple.” The way he says it tells me he oddly doesn’t find it as simple. Ah well. “Can you please spend some time thinking about how you’re going to pull this off?” Declan asks.
“I am a master actor, Declan. I fooled you into thinking I was human, did I not?”
He scowls at the memory like it isn’t a fond one.
“We should eat chocolates off each other’s bodies after this. Like a reward, you know?” I decide.
“This drive is far too long.”
“Yet not long enough,” I say as I try to take his hand. He pulls out a knife and aims it up so every time I get within the circle of his hand, his knife is facing me. “Is this like a test to see how much pain I’d go through for you? Did you forget I took two bullets for you?”
“I’m not sure how any of that was for me,” he says.
“Because I went ‘For Declan!’ as I was shot.”
“Sounds like a sad life, dying for someone who really can’t find it within himself to care.”
And while he might say this, it’s obvious that he doesn’t believe it. Nah, he’s warming up to me little by little, and while the monster bit might be a wee hurdle for him to climb over, we’ll get there eventually.
* * *
As Declan pulls up outside of DRD, he turns to me. “Any sign of danger, get out.”
“Aw, you care about me.”
“I just want to be able to see them off you out on the front lawn where I’m watching,” he says.
I nod like this is a brilliant idea. “I love it. What else?”
