Darling Wildfire (Red Rabbit #2)

30

THERON

I woke up to water being splashed on me. I sputtered and choked on the onslaught but then frantically tried to gather what I could as it ran into my mouth. I welcomed anything to ease the intense thirst plaguing me. A man came over and released my wrists leaving me unrestrained but I didn’t even have the strength to sit up. Vetticus walked over and stood with his hands shoved into his pockets, a smirk on his face.

“We’re going to play a game,”

he said. “I’m going to give you an order. If you obey, you get rewarded, if you disobey, you get punished.”

I stayed where I was on the ground; the anger towards him flared again, but it gave me less strength than last time and it was hard to hold on to. My body wanted rest and didn’t want to entertain my frantic, volatile mind.

“Sit up,”

Vetticus said.

He stared at me for a long moment when I didn’t move. A slow and cruel smile pulled at his lips and electricity shot through me. It originated from my spine and locked up my entire body in a painful rigor. When it stopped, the pain left immediately, replaced by a deep soreness. I glared up at Vetticus who pulled a device from his pocket.

“We put a chip between your shoulder blades,”

he said. “It has many uses—GPS, identity marker…but also delivers a nasty shock whenever I press this button. Now, I’ll ask again—sit up.”

Before I could think about it too hard, I struggled to my knees.

“Crawl to me,”

Vetticus said.

I looked at him through narrowed eyes. There was an evil hunger there as his mouth curled into a smirk. He made a show of it as he lifted the device and hovered his finger over the button.

I didn’t move.

He pressed the button, and I collapsed again.

“Crawl to me,”

Vetticus repeated.

I rolled onto my stomach and laboriously got to my knees again. I stared at him, my stubborn nature refused to give him the satisfaction of my submission. He shook his head in amusement and shocked me again. It seemed to go on longer this time.

It stopped, and I groaned as I pulled myself once more to my knees, only to topple sideways as the room spun. I caught myself on my forearm and waited until the room grew solid once more.

“Pride has no place here,”

Vetticus said. “Crawl to me.”

Again, I refused.

Again, he shocked me.

This time when it stopped, I fell forward with my face pressed against the concrete. The tears poured down my cheeks as my eyes watered. Every muscle was sore, and I turned my head and rested my forehead against the ground. I pulled one laborious breath after another into my aching lungs. My body screamed at me to stop this, to just submit, but my mind broke down every reason not to.

He could not win.

“Crawl. To. Me,”

he demanded.

I sucked in breath after breath and refused to lift my head. The chains shivered against the concrete as my body shook from shock and fatigue but still the small voice in my mind refused to obey him.

When the shock came again, I passed out before it ended.

I don’t know how long I was out for.

When awareness slowly came back to me, I was alone and they hadn’t restrained me again, which told me they didn’t think I was a threat. I didn’t blame them. I was barely coherent. I rolled onto my back and that effort alone caused me to break out in a sweat.

My mind tripped over itself as I struggled to form any kind of thought about my situation. I would not win like this. My body would give out before my mind ever did and if I had any hope of taking out my rage on this man, I needed to be able to at least stand on my own. At the moment, I wasn’t even sure I could get to my knees.

I closed my eyes and took one deep breath after another drifting in and out of consciousness. I hated to admit it but Vetticus was right—pride didn’t have any place here. As much as it physically made me ill to think about—I needed to play his game. I needed to focus on survival. Time didn’t exist anymore, just the amount of breaths I took as I willed my body to stay with me.

I would survive because only then could I get my vengeance.

I would do it for Cole. I would do it for Whit.

I would do it for Emy, because a small part of me hoped she’d escaped. I couldn’t think about that too hard though because it brought me too much pain and guilt.

Was she still in the forest? Terrified?

Even worse, what if Vetticus had found her?

Regardless, I would play his game until it was time to play mine. I would get my revenge in this life, or I’d die trying, but I’d give myself every advantage possible and that meant leaving my ego behind—for now.

He didn’t know how much of a monster I could be.

Vetticus returned, and I watched his shiny brown shoes cross the room until they were in front of my face. He crouched down, sucking on his teeth as he looked me over.

“Like a wild animal who doesn’t know when he’s beaten,”

he sneered. “You’ll want the reward I have for you today but first you need to do as you’re told.”

There was a pause. “Crawl to me.”

I lifted my head and met his eyes.

“Crawl to me,”

he said again, the challenge written all over his face.

I pushed myself to my knees as I thought of a million ways I wanted to make him scream. Then I dragged myself forward a foot, as I thought about all the ways I wanted to kill him. Driven by gruesome thoughts of Vetticus’ death by my hands, I crawled another few feet, slowly pulling myself across the ground until I collapsed on his boots, spent and seeing stars as they exploded across my vision.

Vetticus crouched down and yanked my head up. I scrambled to get my hands under me, breathing hard through my nose, teeth bared as our eyes clashed. He brought a cup to my lips, and I tasted water as he poured it roughly into my mouth. I choked, water cascading down my chin as I struggled to swallow. He shoved my head away.

“On your knees,”

Vetticus commanded.

I pushed myself onto my knees, slouched over, barely able to hold my head up as Vetticus grabbed my chin. My eyes took a moment to focus on him and when they did, anger surged through me only this time I held my temper in check.

“Good boy,”

Vetticus crooned. “You know what comes next,” he said.

A prick in my neck was the only warning before I was thrown back into the world of agony as he used the serum on me again. He drove my body past every pain threshold I had and my mind sank deeper into the safety of the darkness where thoughts of revenge festered and grew. With every painful touch and barked command, I found strength in my resolve to survive long enough to dedicate whatever was left of me to his complete annihilation.