refused to open her eyes. Not yet.
“What about her hand? The guard shattered it,” another voice asked.
A near-silent whimper escaped her lips as her attention focused on the hand in question. Moving it proved impossible. She couldn’t even twitch her fingers.
What had they done to her?
A third voice chimed in, “No healing yet on the hand. Perhaps her body does prioritize. Leg is needed for escape if wounded. Hand, not as important.”
Fuck you! she screamed in her mind, trying hard not to pant in pain.
“Hey, remember what we talked about yesterday? Well, I’m doing it. I’m inviting a friend over tonight. See if Amy is up for it.”
The shift in conversation startled her. Weren’t they discussing her injuries, the ones they gave her?
“No! Really? Does your friend already know?”
“Yep, she’s all for it. Said she can’t wait to fuck me and Amy.”
“Damn. You better give us details tomorrow. Better yet, see if you can get pictures.”
Rage swept through her as they laughed. Sylvia tuned them out before she lost complete control and attacked them, hurt or not. They discussed their personal lives while she laid here broken as if she meant nothing. She didn’t even warrant a full conversation.
An unsteady inhale followed by a shaky exhale as she strived for calm. Torture she could handle. The pure hatred, though, was harder to rein in.
Emotions contained and sectioned off as useless, she focused her hearing to the right. Faint breathing indicated two other people. Possibly male and facing away from her. A few moments passed with no other sounds.
Five men in total then. On a good day, these odds would’ve made her laugh.
This was not a good day.
Taking a chance, she cracked open her eyes just enough to view the room. Somehow she had missed one person. The scientist who had drugged her. He stood at the foot of her metal bed.
Silent and watchful. Lethal. The coldness in his eyes chilled her. His attention, however, wasn’t on her. He focused on the other men, the three to the left.
An eerie glow appeared in his dark blue eyes, darkening until they appeared black. A touch feathered across the sole of her right foot. She almost sighed, almost forgot their audience. Flexing her toes and her fingers proved her suspicions.
He’d healed her.
Strength surged through her. What was that spell? Did he inject her with pure adrenaline? Her body practically hummed. Had she ever felt like this before? Doubtful, and never during her time in this nightmare.
Eyes darting around under lowered eyelashes, she located the three men to her left. They crowded around a pair of computer monitors. Each wore a white lab coat and one had a clipboard in hand. Pretending to be real scientists and not butchers.
One of the screens, forgotten in their discussion of sexual positions, contained an x-ray. Three separate, and very noticeable, fractures on the thick thighbone. Her thighbone. The other screen, almost hidden from her, showed another x-ray. She squinted, trying to decipher it. Was that her hand? It didn’t seem possible. So many tiny fragments and shards.
Shit, they caused that much damage to her?
Unable to stomach the evidence of her shattered body, she glanced away and studied the room. No windows, and a single door was the sole exit from here.
While the medical field didn’t interest her, she’d watched enough TV shows to recognize a few items. Several microscopes, Bunsen burners, glass beakers and racks filled with test tubes littered the countertops. On the walls were illustrations, sheets with formulas and whiteboards with notes scrawled across them.
And photos of her body. Images of wounds, broken bones, and missing digits in various states of healing.
Bile rose in her throat, and she swallowed hard to keep it down. Her claws itched, needing release.
They’d taped pictures of her bleeding, broken body to the wall.
Fucking monsters.
Calm, she needed calm. It wasn’t yet time. She pulled her