Rogue Descendant (Nikki Glass) - By Jenna Black Page 0,113

legs up toward my chest as he squatted beside me with that smug, sadistic smile.

“Let me explain some basic rules of physics to you,” he said. “A human body cannot pass through a solid object. Death-god descendants pass through walls by making themselves incorporeal, but they can’t actually move themselves when they’re incorporeal. Imagine them like astronauts, floating through the vacuum of space. If you give them a push, then the momentum will keep them going indefinitely. But if you could drop them into the vacuum in complete stillness, then they’d have no momentum to move them, and nothing to push against to give them momentum. A death-god descendant takes a step toward whatever barrier is in his way, giving himself momentum. Only then can he go incorporeal and keep moving.

“Anderson will awaken completely immobilized by his metal casing. He can go incorporeal all he wants, but with no momentum, all he can do is flail around.” Konstantin frowned dramatically. “It might have been enough just to immobilize him by burial. After all, Kerner could go incorporeal, but he couldn’t get out of his grave until his jackals dug him out. But, as I said, overkill seems like a good idea.”

Konstantin sat back on his heels with a happy sigh as I tried to absorb the horror of what he’d just told me. I really wanted to find a flaw in his theory, or at least to believe he was lying. But no, he was way too happy and self-satisfied. He was sure Anderson wasn’t getting out of that hole. Ever. And I was beginning to fear he might be right.

TWENTY-SEVEN

I was deathly afraid of whatever Konstantin was going to do next. Even if there was some miraculous way Anderson could escape when encased in solid metal, I was sure it would take a while. Hell, it would probably take a while before he could possibly come back to life. I had no idea how long it would take that molten metal to cool, but I was sure its temperature would be lethal for quite some time.

Meanwhile, I was chained hand and foot and trapped with a man who thought rape and torture were fun. The only other living person who knew where I was was Cyrus, and he’d made it abundantly clear that he had no intention of saving me.

In short, it was looking spectacularly bad for the home team, and I was fighting the very reasonable urge to panic. I tried to wriggle my hands out of the cuffs, willing to take off as many layers of skin as necessary to escape them, but I didn’t think I was getting out of them without removing a few pesky bones from my hand.

Konstantin licked his lips, and I couldn’t tell if it was an unconscious gesture, or if he was trying to feed my panic. He smiled over his shoulder at the hole in the floor, the contents of which were still emitting a faint red glow.

“I’m sure that will hold him,” he said, turning back to me, “but a little more overkill can’t hurt.”

I tried to flinch away as he reached for me. All I managed to do was tip myself over. Konstantin grabbed me by the waist, then flung me over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. I wished I could struggle more effectively, but it’s hard to do much of anything when your hands are cuffed behind your back and your ankles are shackled.

“Patience, Nikki dear,” Konstantin said as he started up the narrow stairs. “I’ll give you plenty of things to get excited about later, but being carried up the stairs isn’t one of them. You might want to save your energy.”

Raw terror coursed through my veins with every beat of my heart. There was nothing I could do to get his hands off me. The sense of helplessness and dread was crushing, but I was never, ever going to give up fighting. I struggled and squirmed, not caring that getting free of Konstantin at this moment meant another painful tumble down the stairs, but I’m a small woman, and Konstantin was way too strong for me.

Konstantin paused when we reached the pool deck.

“I wonder how long it would take you to bend to my will if I dropped you in the pool for a while. It certainly helped put our dear, departed Emma in a more accommodating state of mind.”

I struggled even harder as Konstantin walked to the edge of the pool. I didn’t