Free Deliverance by Adrienne Monson Page A

could.
    “You did it,” Liam praised. “You can stop now.”
    Samantha stood and looked down at herself. Her shirt was covered in the man’s blood, as well as splashes of her own bile. She used her sleeve to wipe the sticky fluid from her chin and stumbled until Nik caught her in his arms. Again, he picked her up and started carrying her. They walked past the group of prostitutes who were now without a handler. Samantha wondered if their lives would get better because of what they’d done, or worse. The women immediately lowered their heads and scrambled down an alleyway as Nik and Liam passed. A few of them had enough courage to watch them. One of them met Samantha’s gaze. The older woman’s face was haggard and lined. She looked at Samantha with pity shining out of her hard face, as if Samantha was the one with the most wretched life, not them.
    “You are very strong, Samantha. Not many humans can bring themselves to do that.” Nik’s voice was laced with possessive pride. She broke eye contact with the prostitute and stared at Nik’s chest.
    Samantha didn’t feel like she’d accomplished anything. Com­partmentalizing her emotions when she’d helped Leisha and Liam feed was one thing. Actively participating in murder was something else altogether. Bitter tears fell from her eyes and she squeezed them shut. Let’s just hope I never have to go through that again.

Chapter 9

    T he interrogation continued for three more days. Leisha was able to track the time because Willem and Arthur were very routine about when they came back to dole out pain again. They always gave her just enough time for her body to start healing before they returned to abuse her some more.
    On the second day, Leisha started to hallucinate. When Arthur asked once again who Liam’s father was, Leisha thought she was watching Rinwa getting whipped all over again.
    “Please leave her alone, Ptah,” she screeched. “I’ll be a vampire. I’ll do whatever you want. Just stop hurting my baby!”
    The two immortals paused and watched her with curious expressions. They stopped interrogating her and exited with their heads close together as they whispered to each other. Even after they left, she kept murmuring, “My baby. Don’t hurt my baby.”
    The third day brought some release of tension. Suddenly, Leisha’s wounds healed up about halfway, and her mind was almost coherent. That could only mean one thing. Samantha had drunk human blood, and a lot of it, if how she was feeling was any indication.
    “No,” she muttered into the darkness. Regret pressed down hard and a tear leaked out. I should have died. I wish I’d never gotten her mixed up in all of this! Samantha should have had a normal life of ballet and boys and no worries.
    Later, when Willem opened her stomach and pulled out her intestines so she could see them, Leisha looked past him the entire time. She could feel the agony and screamed at the torture, but her mind had shut down beyond that. She couldn’t live with the idea that this would go on indefinitely and that Samantha would continue to drink from humans to keep them both alive. That’s the true torture.
    She kept her unfocused eyes on the wall as Willem walked over to Arthur. “This is unusual. Her body has healed miraculously, but her mind seems to be slipping further. Do you think she’s emotionally snapped beyond repair?”
    Arthur’s warm hands slapped both of her cheeks, yet Leisha didn’t respond. “I thought she was stronger than this,” he muttered. “But maybe you’re right.”
    “Most men I know, vampires or otherwise, would have shut down like this days ago,” Willem commented as they left her to the darkness.
    Leisha was sleeping fitfully when the door swung open. She had no idea how much time had passed. Whoever had come in didn’t turn on the lights, and Leisha figured it was someone coming to rape her again. When big hands roamed over her body gently, she thought it a cruel indignity for