AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Okay,secondmost likely scenario.Sienna moved slowly, making sure that the throbbing in her knees was an aching soreness and not a sign of more serious damage, before pushing to her feet. “You’re the one who woke me up.”
“I really don’t have the patience for your bickering.” The voice of the unnamed man who’d possibly—probably—abducted Piper, and apparently now abducted her, snapped Sienna’s focus to the side. And there he was, leaning against a stool seat as if he had all the time in the world, half-hidden by the natural shadows of the barely illuminated space around them.
“You…” Her stomach clenched uncomfortably. “You seriously kidnapped me?” She wanted to know how, and how he had the gall to do something like that mere feet from Death, but the latter seemed irrelevant since he’d obviously succeeded. She swallowed both back for a question that mattered more. “Where’s Piper?”
“Ugh.” Florence made a sweeping gesture in Sienna’s direction but returned her attention to the male. “Why did you bother with this one? I never said I wanted to keep her company. Why can’t we just cut her up and be done with her?”
Maya’s bloodied body flashed through Sienna’s memory and anger surged inside her. She knew both had participated, just as she knew Florence had been the worst offender. She let out a raspy, gasping scream and threw herself at the blonde bitch who’d hurt her sister and caused Fenn so much grief. She may have attempted to articulate actual words, but nothing so coherent reached her ears.
Florence let out a shriek as they tumbled to the hard concrete slab. “—off! Get off, you animal!” She was screeching and shoving, her fingers curled in an effort to scratch and stab with her pretty manicured nails.
The nails bit into Sienna’s face and got caught in Sienna’s ruined sweater, but Sienna didn’t care. She forgot most all of her self-defense training as she jammed a knee into Florence’s ribcage and alternated between trying to choke and punch the flailing woman beneath her. She saw nothing but the red of her sister’s blood, her ears full of Maya’s muffled tears.
Maya had always protected her. Maya had been a problem child in her own right when she was younger, but for her sister, she would have moved mountains. She feared no one. She wasn’t afraid to use her gift to her family’s benefit.
And this woman—this jealous, self-absorbedmonster—had attacked her for no reason other than her relation to Sienna.
Sienna didn’t think she’d ever known hatred so strong or all-consuming.
Florence’s voice reached new levels of ear-splitting as Sienna felt something break beneath the knee she was shamelessly putting her full weight into.
The next thing she knew, Sienna was jerked backward and crashing on her ass on the concrete. The air she’d managed to keep semi-steadied in her lungs rushed out of her from the impact and she barely heard the unnamed man’s clicking tongue over the immediate rush of realization and humiliation.
Yes, she hated Florence. Yes, she thought Florence was a horrible excuse of a woman, who had without a doubt surrendered any claim to her humanity. And yes, she believed Florence deserved some kind of punishment—not just for what she’d done to Maya, or even for her years of tormenting Fenn, but for all the pain and psychological torture she’d undoubtedly inflicted on others. But none of those feelings made Sienna’s own actions any more acceptable.
She almost felt the need to apologize to the bitch.
“While I’m impressed with your ferocity,” the man who’d kidnapped her and subsequently pulled her off of Florence said, taking a step forward as if to stay between them, “I can’t have you forcing me to kill you just yet.”
“H-hey!” Florence gasped, sitting upright on the floor behind him. Her skimpy outfit was torn and stained with bits of blood—nothing like Maya’s had been, but enough to be visible. She was not, however, struggling to breathe. She held an arm around her midsection and only anger radiated from her eyes. “Didn’t you see what she just did to me? Why are we not ripping off her head with old, rusty pliers or something?”
Sienna balked, and she’d probably have barked back if she hadn’t promptly choked on her still unsteady breath.
The man sighed as if unfairly burdened. “Because I’m curious, Florence,” he said. “Don’t you want to know how she’s able to touch him?”
The anger and shame heating her blood ran cold and Sienna gaped back at them.
He met her gaze again, finally squarely in the little pocket of light overhead. And for the moment before he spoke, Sienna realized why her description had caused Fenn to investigate his own colleague. Seeing him in person, and having met Cassian, she couldn’t help but wonder if they were related in some way.
Hands tucked into his pockets as if they were having a casual conversation, he said, “Now that I have your attention, Miss Jacobsen. I am Lycus. And if you want your sister to be returned to her home unharmed, you will cooperate with us.”
Florence rose to her feet and brushed her hands down her damaged dress. “Obviously she’s already blown that. What can you really learn from someone like that?” If it weren’t for the traces of blood still soaked into her clothing, there would be no trace of Sienna’s attack.
Again, an image of Maya flashed through Sienna’s mind. This time of lying in her bed, wrapped in sloppy bandages and crying in her sleep.
A thought popped into Sienna’s head and she swallowed, envisioning a lump labeledpridedropping down where she could stomp on it. “Make her heal Maya, too,” she said. She’d never hated the sound of her own voice so much as she did now that she couldn’t breathe through it and it was physically misshapen. She hated the idea of what she looked like, or would look like once the blood was cleaned up.
Florence gaped at her. “I beg your—”
Lycus held up an arm, physically barring her. “I already have your eldest sister in my grasp,” he said. “Yet you think you can negotiate?”
Sienna stood carefully, keeping herself in place. “I only want my sisters to be okay. You’ve fucked that up pretty good tonight. So set it right, and I’ll cooperate. Whatever you want.” The words were hard to spit off her tongue, but she had no power to fight back with. Her ineffective, frankly pointless, assault on Florence only drove that home.
“Give me what I want,” Lycus said, “and I’ll see your sisters safe and well.”
“Well I won’t.” Florence said with a huff.
“Exactly,” Sienna said before he could do more than open his mouth. “If I give first, there’s nothing compelling you to do your part. And honestly? Neither of you has proven to have that kind of honor.” Insulting them was likely a stupid strategy, but she supposed the worst thing they could do was kill her or her sister—and then Fenn would find them. Undesirable, but not truly the worst-case scenario.
