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CHAPTER 58
MATHEW
The room was bare and cold. A single steel table stood in its centre with white tin cabinets adorning the walls. No windows, chairs or clutter in sight. Even the floor was basic cement, grey and somewhat stained with age.
It was a small space, not meant for more than two people, but inside, Marie stood on one side of the table, Axel and I on the other. We’d shut the door upon entering, locking for both privacy and safety.
“The nurse will let me know as soon as there’s news on Ray,” Axel said to no one in particular as the three of us stared at the female body between us, covered in a crisp white sheet. It had been placed on the table and scheduled for a post-mortem first thing tomorrow morning. The room was cold, equipped for keeping corpses fresh until burial, like a massive walk-in fridge. Our breaths clouded before us as we stood, watching Tanya’s body as though it might start moving again any second.
“You sure he’s still in there?” I asked, looking up at Marie.
“Oh, he’s there. I can feel him.”
“Alive?” My heart raced.
“Yes.”
Fluorescent lights illuminated the sheet, casting greyish shadows over the floor, where coldness seeped into my boots. I didn’t want to think of the many bodies that must have moved through this tiny space before, how many stories these walls could tell.
“Shall we?” Marie asked, stepping closer to the table.
I glanced at Axel, he nodded, and I dipped my chin towards Marie. In the silence, the sheet whispered as she slid a wrinkled, veiny hand beneath the fabric, pressing her palms to the corpse’s forehead. She’d asked us not to remove the sheet, not wanting the wreckage underneath to distract her. I was glad for it, and preferred never to look upon what I’d done to that poor girl ever again.
Beside me, Axel stood deadly still, his jaw clenched, one hand propped to his chin. I didn’t know what to do with myself. How to stand, how to breathe, so I shoved my hands into my pockets, focusing on Marie instead.
“He’s here,” she said, as her irises rolled back into her skull, revealing the whites of her eyes.
Axel cursed under his breath and pressed a hand to his mouth.
“Who’s there?” she suddenly asked in a voice that couldn’t possibly be human.
Axel cursed again, this time a bit louder and paled around his lips. A shiver ran down my spine, but I steadied my feet, squared my shoulders and answered. “My name is Mathew, I’m the Alpha of Blade Rock.”
“Blade Rock?” the entity mused, “the gatekeeper to Marillia?”
I frowned, “I guess you could say that.” We were, in fact, the northernmost pack. “Who are you?”
The entity was quiet for a moment, and then said, “Hale. Lord Hale to you.”
“Well, Hale-”
“You want answers and I want freedom. I sense a deal is in order?” He cut in before I could even finish.
Axel scoffed beside me, “we know how your deals work. There is no way in hell we’ll ever be making a deal with you.”
Marie’s face turned, facing Axel, although her eyes remained rolled back. “And you are?”
“Axel Scott, twin brother to the woman you tortured and held captive for eight years.”
“I’d hardly call it torture, she’d been in such a deep state of unconsciousness, none of what I did ever affected her.”
“What about the marks you left on her skin? The family and friends she left behind? Her life you had stolen?” Axel was getting ahead of himself, his emotions getting the better of him.
The entity speaking through Marie shrugged, “it had to be done.”
“Why?” I asked, placing a hand on Axel’s arm and squeezing once before I removed it again. He inhaled slowly and exhaled in a haggard breath. I saw him trembling, jaw turning white around the edges.
“Because we had a job to do,” Hale replied, turning Marie’s head back to me.
