Page 121 of Psycho Shifters

Slowly, I pulled off his next toenail, going down the line.

Hurting John calmed the black void. But only a little bit. For some reason, the abyss was swallowing me whole, and I didn’t know why.

I hadn’t been this irritable in a long time. Not since the dark time in my life. Still, with each toenail, I felt a smidge better. It was the little things.

With a vicious yank of John’s big toenail, the beta sputtered into consciousness.

Both Jax and Ascher crowded the prisoner. They had been lounging against the wall, letting me work.

John mewled like a little baby, and tears streamed down his mottled face. Poor little fucker was scared. Boo-hoo.

I pulled another one of his toenails off. For no reason other than fun. Fucker deserved it.

“Why were you kidnapping Sadie? Tell us everything you know regarding her and the fae queen,” Jax alpha-barked down at John with disgust.

Instantly, the cuffs flared a bright blue, and electricity traveled down John’s arm, up his face, to his mouth.

His entire body shook violently as the electricity took him over. Gotta love fucked up fae enchantments.

When John spoke, it wasn’t his normal voice. The enchantment spoke for him.

“The fae queen has a massive bounty for whoever can bring her in alive. All alphas have bounties for live capture, but hers is the largest.”

The thought of the fae queen getting her fucking putrid hands on the girl made me sick to my stomach. She might annoy me, but she was still mine to torment. Nobody else’s.

“Why does the fae queen want alphas?” Jax ran a hand through his braids with frustration.

It didn’t make any sense. Why pay for prisoners? It was easier to try to kill us than to pay massive amounts of money to capture us. What game was that bitch playing at?

“The fae queen doesn’t want alphas. The beasts do. They pay the queen to bring them back. But the fae queen is playing both sides. You don’t know who you are fighting for. You are all fools.”

Jax grabbed John’s face and screamed at him, “Who are the fucking beasts?”

“The beasts are, are, are—” John began to choke, and foam came out of his mouth. Jax slapped his face, but the beta just convulsed and said nothing.

Abruptly, he gasped loudly and spoke in his normal voice, “Fae flame, fire, flicker, burn.”

There was a loud crack, and shimmery blue flame twirled lazily in the air.

The void consumed me, and I took a step back. I knew that blue flame. Had felt it along my flesh.

It had broken me.

The fire came from the tiny glass vial hanging around John’s neck, and we hadn’t seen it because it was covered in his blood.

The bright, shimmery blue began to crackle and pop. Then it defied gravity and lunged forward. John gasped as it rushed into his nose and open mouth.

Immediately, John’s body collapsed.

“No, no, wake up, damn it.” Jax leaned forward and shook John back and forth, desperate for answers.

Ascher looked sick and backed up.

I grabbed Jax around his shoulders and pulled him away. He needed to get away from the fucking blue fire. I knew just how dangerous it was, how painful it was.

It was still in John.

“Don’t touch him.” I pushed Jax against the far wall, and he stumbled back in shock.