My Darkest Shadow

Chapter 11

Ava pushed past the medical team to the head of the table. Standing just behind her, I could see Kael. His face was damp with sweat and his lips tight. Breaths came in short and shallow bursts. The sight made me dizzy. The moment she had told me they were using alternate interrogation techniques I had known, but I had allowed myself to hope I was wrong. Ava was torturing him.

Ava slammed her hand on the table beside his face. I jumped. Shades of blue and green were more prevalent than his normal skin tone. She bent down. With gritted teeth threatened, "Tell me where it is and I'll make this easier. I want to help you, but you know the deal. I'll have them dig around all day if I have to."

Kael didn't respond or I missed his reply. He didn't look fully conscious, although Ava was far too clever to waste time on an unresponsive person.

"Fine!" Ava snapped. She turned back to the physician, her lips pursed tightly. "Get this cleaned out. Take your time." She met the doctor's reluctant gaze. "That's an order!"

Shoving past a few stunned personnel that had moved in front of me, I returned to the bedside. What was happening here didn't make sense or even seem possible. Kael's eyes opened slightly. He was somewhat lucid now. In the florescent light, I appreciated the extent of his injuries. From what I could tell, his left eye was swollen closed. Bruises and dried blood covered most of his upper body. Though my stomach wasn't the weakness it used to be, I wasn't accustomed to such gore. I looked away from his torso, focusing instead on his face.

Kael wasn't looking at me. His gaze was fixed on some distant spot, and I suspected he didn't know I was here. Scrubbed staff moved in to obey Ava, their pinched expressions indicative of their discomfort with her orders.

I stepped back toward Ava, grasping her arm in desperation. "This is wrong and you know it," I growled, struggling to keep from shouting. In a room full of medical staff, somehow I had to be the one that would question her. "Stop this now. Please Ava."

Ava frowned and twisted out of my hold. With a firm hold to my shoulder she pulled me to the side, away from the bed. "Calm down." Ava sounded impatient as she chided me. "We talked about this. Kael and I hold each other to high standards. I'd expect the same treatment if the roles were reversed." Ava folded her arms. A single, thin eyebrow shot up toward her hairline. "Let's finish this."

Ava's face hardened with determination as she twisted my arm back behind me. I tried to fight her, but she had the advantage of surprise. Her fingers locked around my arm as she pressed it painfully against my back and pulled me to the head of the bed. With a hand she hit between my shoulders and shoved me forward, my face angled toward Kael's. Less than six inches from me, I could feel his panting breath, hear it catch as the doctor sunk wet gauze into a gaping wound in his side.

"Where is it?" Ava shouted, slamming her fist by his head on the table.

Reasoning had failed. Genuine desperation took over me as she tightened her hold and, it seemed, her resolve. "Stop! Please," I cried.

Words were my only recourse now. I couldn't move without further injuring my arm. In the position she'd forced it into, pain was shooting up into my joint and shoulder. Kael's eyes flew to me as he winced with another intervention by the doctor. It was as if he was seeing me for the first time. Under normal circumstances, he would have been fully sedated for something like this. But not with Ava at the helm. I hated her, Interpol, and myself for coming here to enter a world where I was shown time and time again that I didn't belong. Tears stung my face as I watched.

"Get her out of here!" Kael gasped between another wave of agony.

Ava swore behind me and yelled, "She stays right here! Where is it?"