A little guilty that he'd heard my thoughts, and surprised that he knew I'd stopped, I turned and continued the long walk to the house, and to the Soul Eater.

Chapter Twenty-Two
To Worse

"So, you didn't tell them anything? In the whole time you were there, you didn't tell them why you were coming here or who you were looking for?"

Max lifted his head. Sweat mingled with blood dripped into his eyes. "What did I tell you?"

Anne regarded him coldly for a moment. "Why do you have to make this so difficult? I really liked you. I was even going easy on you. But you just keep pushing and pushing."

There was a sickening crunch, one he'd come to identify as bone being crushed between the blades of a wire cutter. He concentrated on the sound in an effort to ignore the pain as she snipped another finger to the first joint. If this was taking it easy, he silently thanked himself for being so nice to her all those years.

"I don't like doing this," she said with a sigh. "Well, I do like it. Reminds me of the old days. Torture was kind of my thing."

Another section. He'd been keeping track. So far, she'd done away with his pinkie and half his ring finger on his left hand. He'd looked down once, saw the split flesh and splintered bone littering the floor, and puked. Now he kept his eyes up, focusing on the oculus that would eventually open and let in frying sunlight.

Don't pass out before Bella gets in here. Pull yourself together, 'cause she is going to freak.

The huge doors scraped open. Anne spun him to face them. "Oh, look who's here!"

A vampire pushed Bella's wheelchair. They'd dressed her in a black velvet gown with laces on the front, and her hair was down, like some princess in a low budget fantasy movie. Only this princess looked worried and tired. He tried a lame attempt at a wave and realized he'd only managed to wiggle his injured hand, flinging droplets of blood across the marble floor. She gasped and paled.

"You look like Morticia Adams," he quipped, but his voice was hoarse from screaming.

She moved as if to lunge from her chair, and the vampire behind her gripped her shoulders. "Don't move again."

"Do not hurt him again and I will not be tempted to," she said, as threateningly as she could manage.

Max hoped the tremor in her voice was from fatigue and not worry over him. I'm not dead yet, he thought, willing the words to materialize in her brain. But he didn't have telepathy, and he knew it was pointless.