41. VANYA

Ezra stilled.

My eyes shot over to Joy and narrowed. She was smiling as if what she asked was the funniest thing ever, and I guessed for her, it probably was. I looked at my father, but he was acting like he hadn’t heard.

“So?” Joy questioned when I didn’t answer. “Do they—?”

“Shut up,” I hissed at her.

Her mouth dropped open and then slammed shut. “Excuse me?”

“You’re excused.”

Joy’s eyes shot over to my father. “Are you going to allow that brat to talk to me like that?”

“Joy—”

I pushed my chair back as I stood. Planting my hands on the table, I leaned forward and smiled at her. “I can talk to you anyway I want to, because you are not my mother.”

She gasped. “I raised you!” She pressed a perfectly manicured finger against her chest. “I gave up on everything I wanted to do to raise you! I bought you clothes and I—”

I scoffed. “Buying me clothes and dragging me to little tea parties is not raising me,” I yelled. “I don’t remember all that much about my mom, but I knew she—”

“Your mother was a cheating little bitch—”

With a scream, I threw myself across the table and tackled her. The chair was knocked backwards by the force of our bodies colliding.

Joy screamed as she fought me. My cheek burned where she had managed to hit me and I was sure the shape of her nails would appear on my arm where she caught me.

I managed to get a few hits in before an arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me away from her.

“What type of behaviour is this?” my father questioned as he helped Joy to her feet. “A few weeks living in the forest and you turn into one of them!”

A laugh fell from my lips. “It’s funny how you call them animals when it’s actually the other way around. Humans are the real animals. Don’t you see it, Father?”

“Vanya,” Ezra whispered against my ear, but I ignored him.

“Those people living in the forest you call animals are more fucking human than you’ll ever be! They have more morals than you! They might not be blood related, but they would do—”

“Enough!”

I fell silent even though I had more I wanted to say.

Ezra stepped in front of me and blocked my view of my father and Joy. He carefully gripped my chin and tilted my head back so our eyes locked. I wasn’t prepared for the emotion I saw in his eyes.

“We need to leave,” he whispered. “Now! We need to leave now.”

He didn’t give me time to argue.

I expected him to lead me back up to my room, but he didn’t. Ezra led me right out of the door and then out of the front gate.

“I’m going to shift,” he told me as he took a step back. “Get onto my back and hold on.”

“Ezra…” My words died down when he pulled his shirt over his head.

Within seconds, he was naked and crouching on the ground. I flinched when his bones started snapping and squeezed my eyes closed. The sound made me feel sick to my stomach.

A soft nudge against my hand made my eyes snap open.

They all looked different in their shifted forms.

Ezra walked around me, rubbing his large body against mine. When he stopped in front of me, he lowered his body and growled.

“How the hell am I supposed to do this?” I questioned him.

His hair was too short to grip and his body was way too big to wrap my arms and legs around.

Another low growl, but this time, he flashed sharp teeth at me.

I swallowed and risked a glance over my shoulder at the house. Nobody had followed us outside, but it could change at any second.

Shit. Why is he in such a hurry to get away?

Charlene’s funeral was tomorrow. We couldn’t leave now; even though I didn’t want to stay, I wanted to attend my best friend’s funeral.

I gasped when Ezra nipped at my skin with his teeth. “Ouch!”

He hissed at me.

It was the last thing I wanted to do, but I climbed onto his back and held on for dear life when he took off into the trees.

***

We didn’t go back to the cabin or the main house.

We went deeper and deeper into the forest until we were swallowed completely by the darkness. Night time fell faster in the forest than it did in town. I couldn’t see a damn thing, so I pressed my face against his velvet fur as he ran.

What felt like hours later, Ezra finally slowed, making me raise my head.

He was panting and shaking slightly. Ezra lowered his body to the ground and pressed his snout against my elbow.

My body was stiff from staying in the same position for so long, which made it a struggle to climb off his back and stand on my feet.

The moment I was on my feet, Ezra started shifting.

“Close your eyes,” he muttered, taking hold of my hand.

“Why? I can’t see a thing, Ezra,” I told him.

“Sorry, I forgot that you don’t have the same eyesight as us.”

He entwined our hands and then started guiding me. The ground was uneven, making me stumble, but thankfully, Ezra was there to steady me. We had only walked a few minutes before we stopped again.

I heard something creak and then we were moving again. A few steps forward, Ezra suddenly turned and gripped my hips, making me gasp and reach out to grip his shoulders.

Light suddenly broke through the darkness. It was dim like Obsidian’s bedroom which didn’t help me see my surroundings.

“I need you to stay right here, Vanya.”

I frowned at him. “Why?”

“Just listen to me, sugarplum,” he begged. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

“Where exactly is here?”

Ezra ignored me. “Stay.”

After a moment’s hesitation, he spun around and disappeared down what looked like a tunnel.

My stomach twisted with unease when I couldn’t hear him any longer. I was standing in an unfamiliar place all alone and with no damn clue where the hell the exit was.

I glanced around before staring at the tunnel he had disappeared into. How long will he be gone for? Where does that tunnel lead?

It was a bad idea, I knew it and I should’ve listened to Ezra, but I didn’t.

I sucked in a deep breath and then entered the tunnel.

What I didn’t expect was for the tunnel to split into two. I had no clue which path Ezra had taken, so I was at a crossroads.

Left or right? 

I swallowed and took the right tunnel. I was about halfway down the tunnel when I heard it—a scream.

An anguished cry.

Panic hit because I thought that Ezra might have gotten hurt. So, I took off running.

A short distance later, I spotted the bright lights ahead. My footsteps slowed, and my face scrunched up in disgust when the smell hit me.

Urine, sweat, blood, human faeces.

With a hand covering my nose and mouth, I hesitantly stepped out of the tunnel. The colour drained from my face when my eyes fell on the man hanging from the ceiling by chains wrapped around his wrist.

Blood and what looked like pieces of skin and some bones covered the floor underneath him. The man was naked and dirty. It took me only a few seconds to notice that his skin wasn’t only covered in dried blood but vomit, bruises, cuts and faeces too.

I hadn’t walked down a tunnel, I realized. It was a hallway of a building that led straight into a torture chamber.

Behind the man stood a medium-sized table against the filthy wall. Arranged neatly on the tabletop were different tools, used as torture devices. Some of them were covered in blood and the others were still clean.

I was frozen in shock with my feet glued to the floor, making it impossible to move even when I spotted Obsidian.

He was slowly making his way up to the man, stopping only a few inches in front of him.

I swallowed.

Obsidian wore his usual attire, but he was shirtless and barefoot. Blood splatters clung to his bare chest. He was holding something small in his right hand that was dripping with blood.

For a moment, he just stared at the man, then he tilted his head to the side.

“You look like hell,” he rasped. “It’s about to get a whole lot worse. Tell me what I want to know, and you’re free to go.”

The man made a sound—something that was probably supposed to be a laugh. “Lies,” he spat. “You’ll kill me.”

“True,” Obsidian rasped. “I am going to kill you, but I’m not done playing just yet. You still have the answers I need.”

“You’re a fucking monster!”

His words had no effect on Obsidian at all.

“Who paid you to dump the body?”

The man remained silent. Obsidian stared at him for a few minutes and then slowly smiled. A smile that showed his sharp, blood-stained teeth which made the man urinate.

He looked so fucking scary. It was a side of him I’d never seen before, and it scared me.

As Obsidian walked closer to the man, he stopped right in front of him and made a show of licking the knife clean. When it was done, he dropped his hand and took a step back.

“Last chance, human.”

“Fuck you.”

“I found something the other day that I’ve been dying to try,” Obsidian said as he stepped around the man and walked over to the table. “It’s called the Blood Eagle.”

Obsidian leaned over and grabbed something from the table, but he turned away before I could see what it was. Instead of walking around to face the man, he stopped behind him.

The man screamed as Obsidian started cutting open his back. He stepped back and walked over to the table to drop the tool onto it and grab something else. Obsidian had cut the man’s skin on his back off in layers and exposed the man’s spine and ribs, then walked back over to the table again. For a few seconds, he stared down at the instruments before he finally picked something up.

I wished I had the ability to move.

I wished I could’ve blocked out every snap of bones.

I wished I could’ve blocked out the man’s painful screams.

I wished I’d listened to Ezra.

I wished I’d never witnessed how Obsidian tortured the man.

I was sick to my stomach, and it intensified when I realized how much Obsidian was enjoying himself.

Finally, he stepped back and studied his handy work. My eyes followed one of his hands as he reached down and adjusted himself in his pants.

There was no way to stop the bile from rising when I realized how turned on he was by the pain he just inflicted on the man.

I turned and threw up all over the floor and my shoes.

“Vanya.”

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand as I straightened. The acidic taste in my mouth, combined with the smell of the room, made me feel even sicker.

There was no way I could look him in the eye after what I’d seen.

“Vanya.”

I took a step back, but my legs suddenly gave way beneath me and the darkness swallowed me whole.

***

Something cold was pressed against my forehead.

The smell of cooking meat filled my nostrils.

Frowning, I opened my eyes and blinked at the rocky ceiling above me. My eyes instantly locked on Obsidian when I turned my head.

He was crouched next to the fire and leaning forward to stir something in a small pot placed over it.

To my relief, he was clean of blood and fully dressed.

Licking my lips, I reached up and removed the cloth from my forehead. When I slowly sat up, my head spun for a few seconds and then cleared.

“You’re awake.” Obsidian looked at me. “How do you feel?”

Weak, shaky, confused, scared, sad… but I said nothing.

I took in the big grey t-shirt I wore and frowned. Who changed me? How did I get here?

“Food’s almost ready.”

I ignored him and slowly got to my feet. The strange sound filling the cave was the waterfall, I discovered. We were inside a cave behind the waterfall. So this is where he’s been staying. 

I walked around the cave and took everything in as he finished cooking.

“I know you don’t feel like eating,” he rasped, as if reading my mind. “But you need to eat something. Even a few bites will make you feel better. You need some kind of nutrition in your body.”

Obsidian watched me with hawk eyes as he sat down across from me after handing me the bowl of food. His eyes were void of any emotion, like usual.

I hated it. I hated his inability to show emotions. I hated that I might be falling in love with him despite it all.

“Eat.”

My eyes dropped to the bowl in my hands. It was a stew without the vegetables, but with small chunky pieces of meat and a thick sauce. Even without tasting it, I knew I was going to like it.

“Rabbit,” Obsidian muttered. “It’s rabbit meat.”

The mention of a rabbit made my mind trail back to the day when one of the hybrids caught the rabbit. So it had been him. I knew it deep down.

I stared at the fire as I ate. After the first bite, my hunger returned at full force. Obsidian was a great cook, but I wasn’t going to compliment him.

“You saw it.” It wasn’t a question.

“You enjoyed it,” I whispered.

“Yes,” he answered without hesitation. “I can’t change who I am, Vanya.”

“When we fucked, did you think of doing that to me to stay hard? Did you have to think about—?”

“You make me hard, sweets,” he interrupted. “Kissing you and touching you. It’s all you. I don’t need to think about anything else to make me react to you. I—”

My eyes shot up to his when he broke off. Obsidian was staring at a spot to his left, and a few seconds later, I knew exactly why he had stopped.

Devrim paused, dripping wet, at the entrance. His eyes darted over Obsidian and then locked with mine.

I had a feeling that whatever he was here for was not something I was going to like.