“I like it,” Emerson said, giving a one-shouldered shrug. “Can we help? We need to hurry this along.” My eyes widened. Her words were in disparity with her pixie-petite appearance and soft-spoken voice.

I shook my head at the conflicting image and spared a wink. “Who would I be not to include my in-laws in the fun?”

Tanner rolled his eyes and Emerson groaned.

I entered the operating theatre with pizzazz, opening my arms wide. “Let me introduce you to Dr Mudlark, otherwise known as the mad scientist!” The man in question stood on the opposite side of the room, a drill contraption loose between his hands. His mask dropped and absolute terror coloured his face as he processed my blood-drenched clothes.

I glanced at the patient gagged and strapped to the trolley, recognition flaring at the sunshine man. Dead flowers still wove through his matted hair, his eyes begging for rescue.

Disgust laced my taste buds from the fresh remainder of my most recent capture. I lit another cigarette to expel the taste. “You depraved fuck,” I spat at the doctor.

“What is this?” Emerson asked, stalling at the threshold.

Tanner rounded the gurney with intentional strides. The atmosphere pitched below freezing, waveforms of pure threatening menace radiating off his flesh. I practically got high off the potent fumes. It was fascinating to watch the rapid transition from a stoic waveless shore to an inevitable soul-destroying tsunami.

Dr Mudlark stood frozen, his pallor transitioning into a dusky green. Tanner removed the drill from his stiff fingers and examined the instrument. “You weren’t even going to knock him out?” His frigid tone added to the pressured ambience.

My mouth curved into a shit-eating grin, unrestrained delight tickling my insides. Pretty Boy had been holding out on me.

I released the gag from Sunshine Boy’s mouth and pulled on the buckles restraining his limbs. At his victim’s release, Dr Mudlark miraculously found his balls and launched for the door.

Emerson tsked, preventing his exit by a swift kick to his legs, his old bones ricocheting off the tiled floor.

“The goddess provides…the goddess provides,” Sunshine Man repeated, his deranged gaze bouncing over the doctor’s body.

Tanner palmed the drill over to me and assisted Emerson with replacing Sunshine on the trolley with the good doctor, his gurgled screams cut short as a gag was shoved between his teeth.

While they applied the restraints to his bucking form, I laid a loose arm over Sunshine’s shoulders, guiding him to the head. “Your devotion has not gone unnoticed, and the Sun Goddess has decided to reward her most faithful subject.”

He vigorously nodded, muttering praised nonsense. I turned the switch on and the pointed drill tip began to spin on its axis. I placed the vibrating, humming hunk of metal into his bony hand, his gaze raising to mine with the undeniable glimmer of hunger.

In the depths of his orbs, I saw the same excessive thirst that all us crazy motherfuckers were afflicted with. I got the impression this hadn’t been his first visit with Dr Mudlark, and he had most likely fallen victim to numerous questionable experimentations in the past. He needed this more than me.

No further words were required.

With Dr Mudlark strapped tightly to the trolley, we left Sunshine Man alone with his tormentor.

Emerson hummed next to me. “Spence is going to be so pissed she missed out.” She sounded pleased.

“Who’s Spence?”

“Your new favourite person,” Tanner chuckled in front of us, his previous death persona nowhere to be seen, washed away by a silent tide.

Who the fuck are these people?

My steps lightened as we trailed towards the exit. Satisfaction hummed in my chest, accompanied with the irrefutable echo of steel grinding against bone.

Chapter 25Psycho

We arrived at the staff side entrance and Emerson laid a hand on Tanner’s shoulder. They both spared me an expectant glance, gesturing for me to do the same. I lifted a brow in question.

Tanner tsked. “Grab onto me, fool.”

As soon as my fingers wrapped around his arm, he led us through the open doorway. The security barrier whirred with energy, my skin tingling with mini barbs of static, attempting to hold me captive. Tanner’s muscles tensed, a weightless void pushing against the barrier, releasing us from its hold.

For the first time in one year, I was released from Oakview Asylum.

Relief was short-lived as my Variant remained inaccessible, despite escaping my prison. I was an empty shell, a phantom of my former self, staring down at my trembling hands as my brain filtered through the shock. The barrier had no effect on me anymore. Instead, that endless space of nothingness grew stagnant in the air surrounding Tanner. A vortex of fathomless oblivion.

He smirked at my panic. “Humbled?”

“What are you?”

He winked before disappearing around a sharp corner, his words resonating after him. “I make you human.” Whatever the fuck that means.

“How boring, right?” Emerson snickered before following after him.

I rounded the bend to find an auburn-haired female leaning against one of three motorbikes. She turned down her nose, piercing green eyes lasered over my frame, all while chewing on bright pink bubblegum.

She was all sharp angles with the attentiveness to match, her keen gaze never wavering. Man-eater. That’s the term that came to mind. Not in a sexual sense. More the literal sense, like she’d eat you alive and pick your flesh from her teeth with your own bones.

She popped a huge bubble with her gum. “From the way Micah went on about him, I was expecting something…more.”

Tanner geared for the bike next to hers, releasing a snort. “He killed two people on the way out. Is that the ‘more’ you were looking for, Spencer?”

Her smile turned serpentine and Tanner straddled his ride. “Let’s go before they find the bodie—" His words were cut off by a high, screeching alarm.

Emerson followed suit, revving the engine of her bike, the vibrations lost in the echoing alarm and police sirens in the distance. She beckoned me forward with an impatient wave. Before I could reach her or process what happened, I was bodychecked by the redhead. I found myself staring down the barrel of her gun, aimed directly between my eyes.

“Hold it there, Goliath. You’re going to tell us where to find our sister. Now.”

I arched a sarcastic brow in reply, which definitely pissed her off. Her green eyes ignited with the challenge, as if she was trying to restrain herself from pulling the trigger. “Now listen here, Psycho. I know your pea-sized brain rattles around in that oversized head of yours.” She lurched forward, the pistol digging into my skin. “But let me explain this real simple for you, okay? You. Will. Tell. U—"

“Cut the shit, Spence,” Emerson interjected. “He’s already had the talk, and we’ll sort it out back at the Temple. We’ve got to get out of here,” she finished, shoving a helmet to my chest. “You ride with me.”

I turned to Tanner with raised brows. Are these girls for real? Throwing out commands as if I’ll automatically obey? He shook his head and chuckled before slipping on his helmet. “Emerson’s the best rider. If anyone can get you out, it’s her.”

Blue and red lights glowed brighter and a crowd was beginning to swarm the surrounding streets. The motorbike dipped under my weight as I grabbed onto Emerson’s hips.

“Cop a feel, big man, and you’ll find yourself without fingers.”

I grunted. “There’s only one woman I willingly want to touch, and trust me little one, that isn’t you.”

“Maybe his brain isn’t so small after all,” she said, humour lacing her words.

I barely had time to slip on my own helmet before she hit the throttle. Shooting out at high speed, my ass nearly fell off the back with the sudden shock.

All three Kings split ways, Tanner and Spencer disappearing into the distance as Emerson rode through the main street, gaining the attention of the police force.