Page 31 of No Asylum Here

“I’m going to have to pass. I’m pretty attached to my nose.”

“Oh, you’re funny. So what’s it gonna be, Doc? I’ll let you in on the dirty details of the green poison he shoots up all his minions with.”

“The Treatment?”

“How many doses has he given you?”

All the moisture evaporated from my mouth and caused my voice to crack. “O-one.”

“I almost hope that you’ll survive both. Normally, I don’t give a shit when new souls break under the stress.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The mutation reaches their brains and they…” He trailed off, and I knew he was leaving me in suspense on purpose to bait me into taking his deal.

“I’m not taking off your chains or your jacket.”

The look he gave me might have been enticing if it wasn’t for the leather and steel muzzling his defined jaw and taunting mouth. “Have it your way. You’ll find out eventually, after the second injection.”

“If there’s something I should know, you’ll tell me, or⁠—”

“Or what? There’s no threat that’s going to work on me, Doc. You can’t do anything to me that hasn’t been done before.”

There was a dark bend to his tone that suggested he didn’t believe his own words. I took mental note of that. “I’m going to prescribe you medication that will help you ease the symptoms of your schizophrenia.”

He bared his teeth, eyes flashing with anger. “Figured you were like the rest of them. Keep me sedated so I can’t fight back when you come for me in the night.”

I frowned. “No one is coming for you. We’re here to help you.”

“Were you trying to help me when you crawled into my bed with the face of my father?”

“Now you’re talking complete nonsense.”

He paused, head canting and black hair spilling in messy locks over his insidious eyes. The high collar on his straitjacket stretched to his jaw, and the topmost leather strap around his throat groaned as tendons and muscles flexed in his neck. “Am I, or are you just woefully uninformed?”

My head swirled, like a shaken snowglobe. This bastard was charismatic, cold, calculating…and unequivocally deranged.

“This secret you have, I want you to tell me. I’m not going to release you from your restraints. Tell me what else you want.”

At that, his eyes lit up. He knew he had me on the hook. So much for not taking his bait, but I needed some answers to the questions swirling around Patient Seventeen, my strange dreams, Lauren’s ghost, Saint Bart’s and its noseless director.

There was something dark at play here, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that some of it was connected.

“I want to get removed from the isolation ward and put back into general pop. On level two.”

“Can’t do that either.”

“Why not?” he growled, teeth gnashing in frustration behind his mask.

“Because Rook has you in isolation for a reason. The same reason why I can’t unchain you. You’re dangerous. To everyone, yourself included.”

“Fine. Lean back. Spread your legs and show me your pussy.” His tongue wedged between the bars in his mask, teasing a slow lick up the breath-fogged metal. “That’s my final offer.”

I ripped my eyes away from Patient Seventeen—the first time since I removed the bag from his head—and settled my focus on the window to the unkempt lawn.

I rubbed my sweaty palms into my skirt and began to count beneath my breath to center myself.

“One, two, three. One, two, three.”