Deja Dead Page 0,163
against his teeth.
“I brought you something.” I felt his body twist, and the hand came off my mouth. “A present.”
A slithery metallic sound, then he pulled my head forward and slid something cold past my face and onto my neck. Before I could react, his arm jerked and I was yanked into a place far beyond thinking, a place of bursting light and choking and gagging. At this point I could do nothing but categorize my pain according to the moves he made.
He released, then pulled up hard on the chain once more, crushing my larynx and twisting my jaw and vertebrae. The pain was unendurable.
I clawed and gasped for air and he spun me, grabbed my hands, and circled my wrists with another chain. He pulled it tight with one sharptug, clipped it to the neck chain, then yanked and held both high above his head. Fire roared through my lungs and my brain begged for air. I fought to remain conscious, tears running down my face.
“Oh, did that hurt? I’m sorry.”
He lowered the chain and my tortured throat gasped for breath.
“You look like a big fish dangling there, sucking for air.”
I was facing him now, his eyes but inches from mine. Through my pain I registered little. His could have been anyone’s face, an animal’s face. The corners of his mouth quivered, as though teased by an inner joke. He circled my lips with the tip of a knife.
My mouth was so dry my tongue stuck to it when I tried to talk. I swallowed.
“I’d li—”
“Shut up! You shut your fucking mouth! I know what you’d like. I know what you think about me. I know what you all think about me. You think I’m some kind of genetic freak that ought to be exterminated. Well, I’m as good as anybody. And I’m in charge here.”
He gripped the knife so hard his hand trembled. It looked ghostly pale in the gloom of the hallway, the knuckles bulging white and round. Surgical gloves! That’s what I’d smelled. The blade bit into my cheek, and I could feel warmth trickle down my chin. I felt utterly without hope.
“Before I’m through you’ll be tearing your panties off, you’ll want me so bad. But that’s later, Doctor Brennan. For now, you speak when I tell you to.”
He was breathing hard, his nostrils white. His left hand toyed with the choke chain, wrapping and rewrapping the links around his palm.
“Now. Tell me.” Calm again. “What are you thinking?” His eyes looked cold and hard, like some Mesozoic mammal.
“You think I’m crazy?”
I held my tongue. Rain pounded the window behind him.
He pulled in the chain, drawing my face close to his. His breath brushed the sweat on my skin.
“Worried about your daughter?”
“What do you know about my daughter?” I choked.
“I know everything about you, Dr. Brennan.” His voice was low and syrupy again. It felt like something obscene crawling in my ear. I swallowed through my pain, needing to speak, not wanting to provoke him. His moods were swinging like a hammock in a hurricane.
“Do you know where she is?”
“I might.” He raised the chain again, this time slowly, forcing my chin into full extension, then he drew the knife across my throat in a slow backhand motion.
Lightning flashed and his hand jumped. “Tight enough?” he asked.
“Please—” I gagged.
He eased off on the chain, allowing me to drop my chin. I swallowed and took a deep breath. My throat was on fire and my neck was bruised and swollen. I raised my hands to rub it, and he jerked them down with the wrist chain. His mouth did another rodent twitch.
“Nothing to say?” He stared at me, his eyes black and all pupil. The lower lids quivered, like his lips.
Terrified, I wondered what the others had done. What Gabby had done.
He lifted the chain above my head and began to increase the tension, a child torturing a puppy. A homicidal child. I remembered Alsa. I remembered the marks in Gabby’s flesh. What had J.S. said? How could I use it?
“Please. I’d like to talk to you. Why don’t we go somewhere where we can have a drink and—?”
“Bitch!”
His arm snapped and the chain tightened savagely. Flames shot through my head and neck. I raised my hands in reflex, but they were cold and useless.
“The great Doctor Brennan doesn’t drink, does she? Everyone knows that.”
Through my tears I could see his lids jump wildly. He was reaching the edge. Oh, God! Help me!
“You’re like all