Phoenix13: Resurrection (Phoenix13 Book 3)

Part #13: Not Easily Conquered: Chapter One

Chapter One

"Desai."

The blow fell across his chest, knocking the air from his lungs. Tears stung his eyes. Streamed down his cheeks. Tracing and retracing paths already forged in salt and water on his skin. Shut up, he wanted to say. But his head was throbbing, and his tongue felt heavy in his mouth. Stop. Please. Just stop.

"The Forest of Thieves. Your safe place. Your refuge. Desai."

"Yes," Jason replied. Because that was what this man, whoever he was, wanted: confirmation. Always confirmation. He spit blood onto the concrete.

"Jackson Eve."

This time the pain of a well-aimed knife strike, accompanied by a vicious, bruising blow, fell on his right flank. He felt something break deep inside him—was that even possible? he'd always thought it was all guts in there—and let out a sharp cry.

"Your half-brother. Your mother's son. Your charge and responsibility. Your victim. Jackson Eve."

Jason ducked his head. Sharp steel bands bit into his wrists, into his ribs where they coiled around his chest. Into the soft, delicate skin under his chin, chaffing his throat raw. "Yes." The word of agreement was poison on his tongue. "Jack was my brother, and I killed him. Is that what you want me to say, you motherfucker? Fine. It's true. I shot him in the head. There. Are you happy now, bitch?"

The unknown assailant laughed a deep, throaty sound. When he spoke again, there was something almost familiar about his voice, but Jason couldn't quite place it. It was driving him crazy, knowing that he knew this man (probably knew all the ways to get into his head and give as good as he was getting) and yet couldn't figure out who was behind the mask of darkness surrounding them like a heavy, frigid cloak. "Piper Morgan West," the torturer growled. The tip of a knife brushed Jason's jaw, trailing down his throat to rest against his collarbone. "Your enemy. Your lover. The mother of your child. Piper Morgan West."

Jason's breathing picked up. He heaved in deep, clear breaths, fighting the pain that lanced through his forearms as he shifted. He was shackled to the ceiling, hanging limply with his toes only just touching the ground. The room was completely dark, but he could tell from the smell and temperature that he was in some sort of subterranean dungeon. Carceris Caeci, maybe. The thought sent chills racing down his spine; he arched his back and let out a low groan.

"Is it true?" His tormentor's question was accompanied by another merciless blow to Jason's ribs. Jason buckled, folding into himself as much as possible as tears of pain clung to his fluttering lashes. "Answer me!"

"Yes," Jason panted. "Morgan's my lover. My enemy. The mother of my child." He wasn't sure he wanted to know how that last one could be true. But after the events at Stonehenge, after all that he'd witnessed as he lay frozen in a pool of blood on that godsforsaken alter stone, anything seemed possible.

"Good." The knife slid down Jason's bare stomach, down to the belt that had previously held his weapons. The tip sank into the skin just left of his hip, drawing a thin line of scalding-hot blood.

"Gods damn it, you fucking animal." Jason hissed as pain sent another surge of adrenaline flooding through his bloodstream. "Either kill me now or let me down and make this a fair fight!"

Silence from his captor. Ever since he'd woken up in this horrible, dank-smelling and lightless room after the Wall between the World came crashing down, Jason hadn't been able to get a single scrap of information out of his tormentor. Apart from the fact that the other man sounded like he was using a voice-changer, there was no way to know who this stranger was. Or was he a stranger? Probably not, if he was using a voice-changer, Jason thought. He let out a deep, long groan of frustrated pain.