Page 170 of Infernium

The tears fell down my cheek when I closed my eyes on the horrific scene. Once again, I found myself questioning if I was asleep and merely in a nightmare.

“You will learn to respond to a woman’s touch,” I heard the clergyman say, before a loud sob broke free from the child.

I couldn’t bring myself to watch, the sickness in my gut rising up to my throat as I imagined the woman in there violating her.

Beside me, Vespyr let out a whine of panic and covered her ears, before screaming, “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!”

I wrapped my arms around her, feeling her body tremble with sobs against me. Tears fell down my cheeks as she broke in my embrace.

“Say your name!” The clergyman’s voice crackled around us.

“Vespyr,” I whispered. “Your name is Vespyr.”

I felt her fingers digging into me, clutching me so tight and confirming my thoughts of whether, or not, this was simply a nightmare for her, or real.

The room darkened, the light of the lantern flickering to blackness. A sudden emptiness in my arms sent a wave of panic through me. “Vespyr?”

A new light filtered in behind me, and Vespyr was gone.

Spinning around brought me peering through the window, where she lay in a chair that looked like something found at a dentist’s office. Her arms and legs had been strapped. A leather band strapped at her throat. Her eyes shifted frantically over the men who surrounded her, dressed in white uniforms that made them look like orderlies. All of them bearing the Pentacrux symbol.

But off to the side stood the clergyman, holding his black book, his eyes an unholy red. “This child harbors a demon! We must banish it! Banish this lust for lying with men! Men dressing as women! It is a sin!”

Eyes wide, I lurched forward and banged on the glass. “Hey! Hey!” I slammed it harder, frantic. “Leave her alone, you fucking prick!”

“Farryn!” Vespyr cried out through clenched teeth. She broke into another sob, shifting and squirming in her binds, to no avail.

“Quiet, demon! You will no longer find safe harbor in this body! I banish you! Banish you to Hell!”

The hum of electricity had my heart pounding against my ribs when one of the orderlies flipped a switch connected to one of many cables that fed the leather straps.

No. Please not this.

Vespyr’s screams bounced off the walls, stoking the hysteria already hammering through me. I twisted around, searching for something. Anything I could throw through the glass. The room on my side of the window was completely empty of furniture, or any objects large enough to break it. There was no door to the other room. No other means of getting to her.

Her screams rose up again, and I lifted my bare foot, slamming my heel into the pane.

It didn’t give.

I banged again, thumping my palm so hard against the glass, pain shot up through my wrist. “Stop! Stop this! Get the fuck away from her!”

Vespyr’s screams reached a deafening pitch, and I slapped my hands to my ears. A darkness flashed over me, dragging me into it. In the black space, the screams vibrated all around me. Deep inside my ears. Not her screams. My screams. Impossibly high-pitched screams.

I opened my eyes to the glass shattering and falling around my bare feet.

Vespyr lay shaking on the bed. Neither the Pentacrux priest, nor the orderlies were anywhere in sight. I climbed through the window, careful not to cut myself on the shards of glass sticking up from the frame. Once clear of it, I scampered toward her and went to work unlatching her binds. I removed the bit that had been shoved between her teeth, and she whispered in rapid succession: “Say your name. Say your name. Say your name. Say your name.” Over and over.

As gentle as I could, I slid my arm beneath her back, and helped her to a sitting position, but her eyes remained staring, as if she were looking at something past me, the sight so chilling, I turned to look, and found nothing there. “C’mon, Vespyr. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

51

JERICHO

Iheld the vial up to the light, studying the way the liquid moved, as if in slow motion. Definitely not Nightshade, as Soreth had presumed.

The door to my office slammed open, and Vaszhago burst through, breathing hard. “She went into the wall.”

Shooting up out of my seat, I nearly dropped the vial, and tucked it into my pocket. “Farryn?”