The creature’s dark blood trickled over my hands and down onto my chest. A rancid smell filled my nose; my blades must have hit an organ inside of the creature as it thrashed. The hand-woven leather grips on my swords were starting to get slick from the Berserker’s blood. The only thing keeping them firmly in my grasp was the crosspiece. I couldn’t let go of my swords without risking being bitten, so I used all of my strength to push the beast away from me. I could feel its substantial weight trying to crush me as it looked for leverage. Black eyes seemed to bore into my soul as the Berserker tried to gain the final few inches toward my throat. I used my gift to augment my strength and started to push the creature slowly away from me.
The magic would only be able to buy me a few extra seconds at most. The Berserker’s constant movement and relentless ferocity were rewarded as its gnashing teeth inched closer to my throat. In a totally mindless rage, the Berserker kept throwing its body from side to side, widening the holes my swords made, hoping to rip them from my grip. I gave one last huge push with all of my magically augmented strength, and the Berserker’s head disappeared, covering my face in a thick stream of rancid-smelling blood.
Through the blood, I looked up to see a grinning wolf’s head. Sarah had removed the Berserker’s head with one swipe of her giant paw. I swear she did it just to get me covered in the creature’s filth. The deep rumble coming from her throat was familiar. She was laughing at me. Ignoring her gallows humor, I pushed myself back up to my feet, focused once again on catching the Fallen who was controlling the Berserkers only to see him turn and run away. With my hands now free to move, I sheathed one of my swords and used a little magic to burn the foul-smelling blood off of my skin. There was only one option now: we had to grab the dockworker and get out of here before the Fallen could summon reinforcements.
Before I could even say a word, Sarah was already rushing toward the wooden door at full speed. The weight of her shifted form easily smashed the office door, knocking it off its hinges, sending it sailing toward the back of the room. The glass center shattered across the floor as the door hit the back wall. The tinkle of falling glass had not even stopped before Sarah grabbed the man we had been following. She must have tracked his position by scent, because she knew exactly where he was in the room without looking. A solid punch to the side of the worker’s head, and she had his unconscious body draped over one shoulder. I felt a slight gust of wind brush my face as she exited the room in a hurry.
As Sarah was exiting the room, I was quickly moving in. I killed the other man in the office without a single thought. His head lolled to the side as a wide gash appeared at his throat. The expression of surprise never had a chance to leave his face. It was regrettable to have to kill him, but we couldn’t risk that he would tell someone that we had been there. The last thing we needed was to start an open war with the Fallen. I really hated running from a fight, but sometimes, you had to pick your battles. We hadn’t expected Berserkers to be at the warehouse or to actually see a Fallen. There was no way we could know what other surprises could be in store for us if we stayed. With the dockworker unconscious over Sarah’s shoulder, we sprinted out of the building.
5
John
We hunkered down in the basement of the warehouse across from the docks until morning. I snuck out of the warehouse early and purchased Sarah some new clothes. That left my naked partner in charge of keeping watch over our esteemed guest. While I was out, I placed a call to Adam, asking him to send someone to pick us up. We snuck out the side of the building and waited for our ride to show up. It came quickly, and Sarah loaded our guest into the back of the covered cart. It never ceased to amaze me just how strong she was, even in her human form. She lifted the hundred-and-seventy-five-pound man like he was a sack of flour. Once he was secured in the back, Sarah jumped in to keep an eye on our prisoner, and I jumped on the front bench with the driver.
The cart moved slowly through the city. Our journey back to the base took longer than I would have liked, but it was faster than we could have made it on foot. The crowded city streets showed us just how big the city had grown since we moved here. Once we made it safely inside the gates of our compound, Sarah jumped out and pulled out the prisoner, who was just starting to come around. I leaned over the side of my seat and shouted back to her. “Sarah, can you take our guest down to holding and then meet me in Adam’s office?”
Sarah looked back at me and gave me her fiercest gaze. “So now you think you can order me around because I am your woman?”
I gave her my goofiest grin and said, “You know it.” She shoved the prisoner to the ground, and before I could blink, she reached up and gave me a little shove. I knew it was little because I ended up falling out of the cart, straight down to the ground instead of flying across the compound. I looked up at her with a cowed expression, which seemed appropriate from my new vantage point in the dirt. “Point taken.”
Before I regained my feet, she had already picked up the prisoner and started walking away. Over her shoulder, I heard her say, “The only reason that wasn’t worse for you is because I know you were kidding. Next time, you’re on prisoner duty.”
I smiled. There was something special about being with a warrior woman. I dusted myself off as I headed in to speak with Adam and update him on what we had found.
Upon entering Adam’s office, I went over to the bar and made myself a drink. Once the two ice cubes settled nicely into my whiskey, I took a seat in front of Adam’s desk. He looked up from what he was working on, taking in my slightly bloodier than usual appearance. His eyes wandered over me again while he waited for me to start talking. I filled him in on what happened at the warehouse and that we had a prisoner in custody.
Adam walked over to the bar and poured himself a drink as well. “It is concerning how many Berserkers were at the warehouse to attack you. Do you think they were just the personal guards of the Fallen you saw, or might they have a nest near the warehouse? I wonder just how long they have controlled that section of the docks? How had they been able to keep that information from our informants?” While Adam was talking mostly to himself, Sarah entered the office. It was a nice distraction, and it gave Adam time to finish getting his thoughts in order.
After Sarah had taken the time to get a drink and seat herself, she filled Adam in on the preliminary details of the prisoner. “His name is Sam Wakefield. He has a wife and daughter living in the city. I dispatched two members of the Ascendancy to bring them here to us. I gave them strict instructions to tell her nothing except that they were being taken to see her husband. The family could be useful in our questioning of Sam. It is also possible they could be targets for the Fallen now that Sam is in our custody. So far, he is refusing to speak, beyond identifying his family. Before the interrogation, I had two of the guards take him to a room where he was allowed to bathe, and we provided him with standard prisoner garments. He declined the offer of food, and I cannot really blame him after he was locked in a cell. Outside of asking him a few routine questions and not getting any information, we haven’t pressed the issue.”
Sarah paused for a second before jumping back into her report. “I do not think he saw me last night before I knocked him out. So he has not asked any questions about seeing a Lycan or said anything about how he wound up with us. I have a sneaky feeling that he knows something about our world, though. It is more than likely he had interactions with the Fallen if he runs their warehouse.”
Adam seemed to consider what Sarah had said for a moment, as he took a sip from his drink. “Go and get some rest. I know you could not have had gotten much sleep waiting in the warehouse overnight. We will let our guest stew for a bit. Then I think we go at him hard and hope that we can break him quickly. All options, including torture, are on the table. We need to find out what the Fallen are doing, and we need to do it fast. There is no time to waste when the Fallen have been working this hard to keep a secret. The Demons are getting stronger every day, and the last t
hing I want is to have you working on this for too long. If you need to use his family to get the information, do it. The lives of three humans are not worth more than the lives of everyone in this city!”
I looked over at Sarah. I knew she did not like the thought of torture, mental or physical. She would not want to threaten the welfare of a woman and child to gain that information.
Adam noticed the look I was giving Sarah. “Will that be a problem for you?”
She looked back at me and then to Adam. “I won’t be part of torturing a family to get information. It just is not something I can do.” She spared me a quick glance before she got up and left the office.
Adam and I sat in silence after Sarah left the room. After an uncomfortable amount of waiting, Adam looked at me. “Can you tell me what that was all about?”
I looked down at my shoes before looking back at Adam. “Sir, with all due respect, I think that is a conversation you and Sarah should have together. What I can tell you is that it has to do with her family history and with the Gifted. You know our history with her kind, so you can guess the outcome for yourself.”
Adam at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed. I am sure he already knew about Sarah’s history, so it shouldn’t have come as a huge shock that she would not be part of using members of a family against each other to gain information.
Adam’s expression hardened, and he looked back at me. “I can assume that you don’t share the same feelings as your partner?”
I felt a small smile play out at the corners of my mouth. “Not at all.”
It was no secret that before I became a field agent for the Ascendancy, I’d been responsible for questioning Pretenders and other guests of our prison facility. It was a skill that came in handy in the field with the Demons. We showed them no quarter, so our only chance to ask questions was in the moment.
I had spent twenty years being trained by the best inquisitors that we had, men and women who had learned gruesome tricks while working through the European Inquisition. These inquisitors had dedicated their lives to finding ways to extract information from people who would not talk. Anyone can torture someone and get an answer that may or may not be true. These men and women asked questions and always got the truth.
Having the ability to use magic added a whole other level to what I could do to break someone, and if the information was needed, I would do anything to get it—and still be able to sleep like a baby afterward. The best trick I learned during my time with the inquisitors was that physical pain only gets you so far. It can also produce more false information than real leads. I learned that the real trick is to break someone’s spirit, and then their mind. Once they gave up all hope, you could get whatever information you needed.
I said my goodbyes to Adam and made my way through the compound to our new quarters. Adam had been kind enough while we were out to upgrade us to a new suite. It was twice as big as the rooms we had alone. Now that we were trying to be out in the open with our relationship, sharing living quarters seemed like a great start. The new rooms also came with some perks. We had food and maid service, as well as a kitchen of our own. I was looking forward to eating and then getting some much-needed rest. We had been up most of the night and now half the day. I was trying to temper my excitement about the job I had to do when I woke up. Asking questions was one of my guilty little pleasures.
When I entered our quarters, Sarah was already in bed. I undressed and headed into our bathroom, looking forward to a nice, long shower. I could not wait to clean the rest of the Berserker’s blood off of me. I was also looking forward to a fresh set of clothes.
When I came back into the bedroom, Sarah was sitting up in bed looking at me. “So did he ask you why I left?”
I went and sat down next to her and put my arm around her shoulders. “He did, and I did not tell him a thing. I told him if he wanted to know, he had to talk with you about it.”
She smiled and snuggled into my body. “I know sometimes we have to get information by force. It’s just that after what happened to my family, I simply can’t bring myself to watch it, and certainly can’t be a part of it.”
I gave her a squeeze and tucked her into bed. “I know, my love, I know.”
She fell asleep right away, and I stayed up thinking about why she wouldn’t be a part of torturing someone for information.
A long time before I met Sarah, the Gifted were at war with the Lycans in Europe. The war, like many others, easily spread from their continent to ours. It was not unheard of for members of the Gifted to capture the alpha of a Lycan pack and his family. They would do whatever they could to force the alpha to give up members of his pack or to get information on where the next pack was located.
Sarah’s father was one of the alphas captured by the Council’s mercenaries. He was tortured to death in front of Sarah and her mother. When he died, she snapped, and it was the first time she shifted. The Gifted made a mistake that night thinking that a young girl would not be able to defend herself. In her shifted form, she attacked and killed the Gifted who had tortured her father, but her mother fell under the blades of their remaining captors. Sarah escaped and ended up being raised by the alpha of a nearby pack and never forgot what the Gifted had done to her family.
It was amazing that she was able to put that behind her to help us with the Demon outbreaks. Sarah was the strongest person that I knew, and the fact that she was willing to love a person like me made her even better. She was the most important thing in my life, and I would do anything to protect her.
6
John
I made my way over to the jail and prepared myself just outside one of the interrogation rooms. Sarah had gone to see Adam to plan what to do next, if the interrogation did not pan out. We had to have a backup plan. It turned out Adam had reached out to a local named Joseph to try and find out a little more information.
As they brought in Sam, I turned away from the door and faced the wall. When they started to strap him to the chair, I interrupted them. “Please remove the subject’s clothing, before securing him to the chair.”
Sam screamed out and tried to fight, but the guards were used to that. In less than a minute, they had him naked and strapped firmly into the chair. The guards then positioned themselves on either side of the door.
I looked over to them and motioned for them to leave. “I think the subject and I will be more comfortable in here alone.”
Without the slightest hesitation, they walked out of the door. I heard the lock slide into place on the outside and smiled as I turned around to face my subject.
“Sam, isn’t it? Before we get started, Sam, I always like to offer my subjects one last chance to confess. It would make both our lives so much easier if you just tell me what I want to know.” I watched him tense and try and break free from the bonds restraining him. All the while grating his teeth and shouting obscenities at me. My favorite part was Sam telling me that he would kill me if he ever got loose.
I walked over and placed a calming hand on his forehead, gently brushing the hair out of his eyes. “I know just how you feel. I’ve been in that same chair on the other side of this conversation before. It is part of what makes me so good at what I do now.”
I walked back toward the door and picked up my case, then placed it on the table right in front of the chair, so my subject could watch as I opened it up. As I opened the case, revealing the tools of my trade, I watched him. All my tools were polished to shine in the bright lights of the interrogation room. They were meant to be shiny; it makes it harder to look away from the blades. Not being able to look away sometimes makes it easier for subjects to accept their fate.
Sam’s gaze shifted from the tools to me, and I offered him a sad smile. “You can still tell us what we would like to know.” He thrashed again against his bindings. They always did. Always with some deep down hope that a strap would break and they would get free. The straps never broke.
I started to unpack my to
ols, making sure to pull out each one and hold it up to the light. I liked to turn them from side to side, as if I was looking for a blemish in the steel’s polish. What I was really doing was making sure my subject could see each and every instrument I had very clearly. It added a level of raw fear and desperation to the process. Once all of my tools were laid out, I pulled a stool over and sat facing my subject. I gave him a small smile. I was sure he found it more disturbing than reassuring.
“Who do you work for, Sam?” I could see his eyes move back and forth, trying to think of something, trying to find a way out of this situation. I picked up a scalpel and held it up into the light, slowly turning it back and forth. The light bounced off the silver scalpel, reflecting in my subject’s eyes.
He screamed out, “You don’t understand. They will kill me, kill my family.”
I looked down at him with pity in my eyes. “What do you think I will do to you if you don’t answer my questions? We have already brought your wife and daughter here. I would prefer not to touch them, but if it is the only way to get you to talk, I can have one of them brought in here. I can ask you the questions while I do this to them.”
Sam started to cry and struggle in the chair.
“You can always decide to tell me what I need to know. That way, we can move your family out of the city, set you up with a job and place to live. Or I can ask you and your family the questions.”
He looked up at me with just the faintest glimmer of hope in his eyes. “How do I know that you won’t just kill me once I tell you what you need to know?”
I looked down at him strapped to the chair. “Would that really be worse than the situation you find yourself in now?” I watched as his body physically deflated and knew that I had already won.
Ascendancy Origins Trilogy Page 5
