Sylvia's Torment (Enforcers and Coterie Book 2) (12 page)

“Just a moment, let me make the call.” He pulled out his cell phone and speed-dialed Mara.

“Hello, Derek,” she said, her voice deceptively soft.

Zmitro sighed, and Derek slanted a glare at him. Damn it. This odd obsession his Beta had with Mara needed to end. Nothing good would come of him chasing her.

“Hello, Mara. I need to ask you a favour. Can you send me over an Enforcer?”

Pleasantries annoyed Mara so it was best to get straight to the point. Her favourite saying:
Even with a long life, I still don’t have time to waste.
She also didn’t bother asking why he needed the Enforcer. Her way of ferreting out secrets was uncanny and sometimes a tad bit creepy.

“You’re in luck. Jackson has been eager to work, and this will get his feet wet again. I’m sure he’ll be happy to help out. I’ll send him to you immediately. Markus is too busy to do grunt work, and Victor…well. He’s best served where he is right now.” Her words held a wealth of knowledge, the situation clear to her.

“Thank you, Mara. I owe you one.”

“I know. And I’ll collect from you soon.”

She hung up without saying good-bye. A little rude on her part. Didn’t matter how busy a person was, a good-bye didn’t take that long.

His phone buzzed amidst his mental grumbling. A quick check showed him a message from Mara. All it said was
Goodbye.

“Damn woman. How does she do that?” he complained, half-hearted and distracted.

Shifting his attention to his waiting Betas and Deltas, he didn’t relay the conversation. They had all unapologetically eavesdropped.

“How long ’til Jackson gets here?” Kurt asked, shifting restlessly in his seat.

The ringing doorbell interrupted anything Derek had to say. He maneuvered past the group, making his way through the hallway to the front door. Light spilled through the stained glass panels of the door, cheerful colours splashing across the floor and nearby walls.

Recognizing the shape on the other side, he pulled open the door.

“Jackson. Come in. Did Mara explain the situation to you?” he asked, not wanting to go over everything again. At the mage’s nod, he continued, “Okay, good. Come in. The rest are waiting in the kitchen. We’ll discuss rotation and procedure.”

As he turned to make his way back to the others, Derek had to sidestep to avoid barreling into Sylvia. The bright smile on her face was a knife in his gut. Would she ever give him that look? Be that happy to see him?

Fucking mages got all the love from her.

Chapter Sixteen

The human blubbered
in the corner, curling into a tight ball to escape Victor. Begging and pleading for the pain to stop. Victor
tsked
as he stepped closer.

“I’ve watched the videos. I saw the pain you inflicted, and not once did you flinch. You expect
mercy
from me?” Anger crept into his voice. How dare this miserable waste of air demand anything from him?

He crouched next to the pathetic creature that had once been a scientist at the research facility. Lifting his hand, palm up, he gathered an energy ball. Child’s play and harmless. A little tingle if it touched another person, but this person didn’t know that.

“Please, please, don’t hurt me. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know,” he cried as he pushed his body against the wall. As if that would help if Victor wanted to hurt him.

Victor smiled, and the man flinched. Demons had taught him that even friendly expressions can horrify with the right emotion behind it.

“What was the point of the facility? What were you looking for?”

“Superhumans. We want to hold our own. We’re weak, frail, defenseless against the supernaturals. Food, prey,
amusement
,” the prisoner spat out, his hatred loosening his tongue.

Victor rocked back on his heels, surprised at the animosity. “We protect the humans. The Enforcers police the supernaturals.”

“Good fucking job, too! How many of us die because we have to rely on other races to protect us? No, we’re fixing our genetic flaws, doing what evolution hasn’t yet.”

“How many research facilities do you have? Who’s in charge?”

The human shrugged, his chains rattling with the movement. “No idea. We don’t interact with the other places, just our own. We never see anyone other than those working with us. Guess they were thinking ahead, making sure if you get one, you don’t get us all.”

“Is the Human Coterie involved? Did they sanction this?”

“How should I know? I did my job. Close to a breakthrough, too, for regeneration. You assholes are ruining my research.”

Victor clenched his fist, extinguishing the energy ball. “This asshole watched a good friend lose her finger on video. You bastards watched it grow back.”

“Experiment 4626. A fascinating subject.”

Rage took over Victor’s good sense, and he slammed his fist into the prisoner’s jaw. Watching the man slump, stunned from the punch, he growled, “Not a subject. My friend. Rot down here.”

He stood and turned on his heel. His mind crowded with appalling images as he left the deep recesses of the Coterie Headquarters where they housed the prisoners. While he dreaded viewing more of the video surveillance from the facility, he had to search for more information. Perhaps someone he’d recognize would appear in them. So far, the only one he knew had been Sylvia.

A shudder went through his body as he recalled the broken bones, eviscerations, beatings, and an amputated finger they had inflicted just so they could observe her regeneration. Not once did the men flinch, just did what they needed to and then made notes. Occasionally, they’d called in guards to do some of the dirty work.

They wanted to harness the regenerative powers of werewolves. Were they hoping to find the gene that caused werewolf-ism? It wasn’t a disease or virus that created them. Werewolves were born, same as any human or mage.

What exactly did these scientists know about werewolves? Actual fact, or beliefs held by the public as a whole? Not much truth was known about werewolves. They were very secretive.

Due to his job as an Enforcer and his friendship with Sylvia, Victor had learned a bit about their society. Although it wasn’t often he tracked down a rogue werewolf, it was still a possibility, which meant he had some training.

Fae, vampires and humans were also possibilities in his line of work.

The Fae, like demons, didn’t have a police force on Earth. Instead, the Coterie handpicked a group of Mage Enforcers to deal with their rogues. Jackson and Victor were part of the demon hunters, a very prestigious position.

When the Werewolf Treaty went into effect a couple hundred years ago, werewolves had integrated with the general public. Before that they had kept their packs and identities hidden, worried about attacks. Humans had spent incredible amounts of time and money hunting them down and trying to exterminate the whole race.

Mages, however, had never had any issues with humans, due in part to the amount of power they wielded with magic.

And humans wondered why the other races didn’t play nice with them. They should look to their own histories for that answer.

Victor kept himself isolated from humans on purpose. Dealing with demons was bad enough with their lying, murderous ways, but at least they were predictable.

Entering one of the security rooms on the fifth floor, he settled at the main desk and logged into two different computers. Six LCD monitors faced him, and he hesitated.

Did he really want to watch more? He hadn’t even finished all the ones with Sylvia.

“Find anything interesting in the videos?”

Victor jumped a little, not expecting anyone else. He spun in his chair, facing away from the multiple monitors.

Markus lounged in one of the chairs behind him with his legs stretched out and casually crossed at the ankles. There was no way he could’ve snuck in and sat down without Victor hearing him.

“You son of a bitch. You teleported in to scare the shit out of me?!” He wanted to smack Markus but stayed his hand.

“I’ll have you know, my mother is a wonderful woman. Very sweet and loving. Not once did she act like a bitch.”

Victor snorted in amusement at Markus’ deadpan voice. A sense of humour was unexpected from the scary mage.

As their areas of expertise didn’t overlap, Victor didn’t have many dealings with Markus. Capturing demons was not part of the other mage’s job description. Jackson, however, had cultivated a friendship with the older mage and seemed to enjoy spending time with him.

Not that their friendship had stopped Markus from hunting Jackson for a year.

“Now that my heart is no longer trying to escape my chest, I can answer your question. Yes, I did find lots of interesting things in these videos. Many of which were simply disgusting.” He turned back to the monitors and searched for one to show Markus. “Ah, here. This is one that stuns me. What they do to this poor woman...”

A faint squeak as Markus shifted in his chair, leaning closer to the screens. Pushing his own chair to the right, he gave Markus an unobstructed view.

His mind rebelled from watching again. Too many horrific images already swam in his consciousness. And yet he couldn’t tear his gaze away. He studied the screen, watching a guard wheel a metal hospital bed with a comatose woman on it into the lab. No mattress softened the metal. A white sheet covered her from the neck down, but failed to disguise her nudity.

A wild tangled mass of hair masked some of her face, and the angle of the camera obscured the rest of her features.

One of the scientists held a needle full of a glowing liquid, one Victor couldn’t identify. At least, not until he saw the results. Then he’d gotten a damn good idea what the needle contained.

The scientist pulled the sheet down, exposing her upper half. Neither him nor the other man in the room reacted to the woman’s body. They viewed her as nothing more than a lab animal.

Scientist One nodded to Scientist Two, who then typed something on his notebook computer. One checked to make sure there was no air before he plunged the needle into the woman’s chest, hitting the heart. He injected the full contents, withdrew the needle and stood back to wait for the results.

He didn’t have to wait long.

The woman started convulsing and the sheet slipped from her body to pool onto the floor. Neither man approached her, even when blood poured from her mouth. Poor woman must’ve bitten her tongue.

Then the changes began.

Green scales appeared on her arms, torso and legs. Horns grew from her forehead. Her nails lengthened into deadly claws that punctured the metal bed and tore deep furrows in it. She threw back her head as her mouth stretched wide. Red stained her lips and streamed down her cheeks, creating tiny rivers on the shiny silver surface beneath her.

Victor was sure she was screaming, though the video lacked audio to verify his suspicions.

He glanced at Markus, not surprised to see his mouth hanging open in shock. Victor was certain he had looked the same the first time he’d seen the video, and the most amazing part hadn’t even happened yet.

“She screamed for a minute or so while the bastards watched her writhe in pain. This, this is the part you need to see.” Victor skipped ahead, resuming playback a few seconds before the event.

The unfolding scene riveted Markus. A bomb could’ve gone off, and he wouldn’t have reacted. Victor turned his attention back to the screen in time to watch the woman disappear. One minute she was screaming in agony, and the next, gone.

Just gone.

“Where the fuck did she go?! Rewind it. Show it to me again.”

Would Markus figure it out? It had taken him several viewings before he’d understood what had occurred, and only then because of his specialty.

“Again. Show it to me again.”  Markus leaned in close, not even blinking as the woman vanished once more. Understanding spread across his face, followed by a brief glimpse of awe before he shuttered his expression.

“What was she? What race?” Markus demanded, expecting Victor to have the answer. Which, of course, he did.

“Human, 100% pure human before they experimented on her.”

“Well holy shit, they actually succeeded in creating a demon using a human host. That liquid was demon essence, and she teleported just like one.” There was no question, just a statement of fact. “Do we know where she went?”

“No, no clue. They don’t know, either. I interrogated the ones involved right after I watched this, and they were clueless. In fact, the idiots even didn’t realize demons could teleport. Luckily for them, they hadn’t succeeded in capturing one, or a very pissed off demon would’ve destroyed the whole facility.”

“Where did they get that liquid?” Markus pinned him with his deadly gaze, his black eyes flickering with a banked fire
.

Victor flinched. Once before he’d seen that fire flare in Markus’ eyes. He, along with a roomful of Coterie and Enforcers, had then spent hours frozen as a statue. Julia had almost died that day, hit with death magic, and Markus had lashed out. The amount of power it took to lock down so many people at once was truly frightening.

“I’m not sure where they got it. They didn’t even know. And like you, I’m pretty damn sure it’s demon essence. When a demon is banished from our plane, their bodies are destroyed, and the essence goes back to their own plane. As you’re aware, a demon can’t be killed since they’re not tied to our plane. Makes no difference what happens to them here, they will always manifest back home. Seems they found a way to keep that essence and use it on this poor woman. The idiots told me she was the first one to survive. The rest died within seconds of being injected, convulsing and bleeding even though there were no wounds on them. I do have a few of those on video as well. Damn disturbing to see a person bleed out from their pores. Want me to put one on?” He suppressed a shudder at the memory, hoping Markus didn’t want to see it.

He really didn’t want sit through it again.

“No, I don’t need to see it. Find that woman. She can’t just wander around. Contain her. And if necessary, destroy her. I’ll have another mage relieve you down here.” Markus stood up briskly as if he’d already dismissed this concern from his mind.

Victor knew protocol and would immediately hunt for this unknown woman. Markus would be his point of contact as he had given Victor this assignment.

Mages didn’t check in with Mara or Roan. The grunt work didn’t concern them.

“Speak to Keeper before you go. And this time,” Markus paused at the door, not bothering to turn around, “don’t piss him off.”

With that, he left the room.