Sister Death (Acid Vanilla Series Book 4), Matthew Hattersley [best book club books for discussion .TXT] 📗

“Do you know why you are here, Acid Vanilla?” she asked again, with an intense shrillness.

“In this room?”

“In Spain.”

She swallowed. Her throat was dry and it hurt to speak. “I’m here for The Dullahan,” she croaked. “For Danny.”

“No!” Magpie yelled into her face. “You’re here because I brought you here.”

Huh?

“Did you really think I didn’t know who the mark was, who his uncle was? I knew the old fool would send you to the rescue. It’s the only reason I took the job. Why I spared the mark’s life until you arrived in Donastia.” She sat back. “He was nothing to me but bait.”

Acid nodded weakly. It was all she could do. “So, what? You’re going to kill me?”

Magpie wheeled the metal table closer so she could see the assortment of torture devices laid out on top – knives, bone saws, gauging devices, plus an electric drill and what looked like a hand-held jigsaw. Acid closed her eyes.

“Where is the USB drive?” Magpie asked. “The egg?”

She opened her eyes a fraction. “I thought it was me you were interested in.”

“I’m interested in the money Delgado is paying me to retrieve his possessions.” She picked up a surgical scalpel and held it up in the light, eyeing it greedily. “Money is important now more than ever since you ruined everything.” With a swish of her habit she lunged at Acid, thumping a sharp fist into her stomach which left her winded. Before she had a chance to catch her breath Magpie had her hand around her jaw and was pressing the cold steel of the scalpel against her cheekbone. “Being taken on as an operative at Annihilation Pest Control changed my life. For the first time I had real purpose. Significance. I’d found people who truly understood me. It was a place I could work on my craft whilst learning from the best.”

“You should have said,” Acid rasped, both eyes on the scalpel. “I’d have shown you the ropes.”

“Imbécil! You were never the best.” Sour spittle hit Acid in the face, accompanied by a sharp burning pain as Magpie slashed her cheek open. “I was the best. I am the best.” She stepped back. “And you took it from me. Because of you the organisation is in ruins. Caesar has fled. Maybe never to return. You have taken everything from me.”

Acid raised her head. She was starting to feel her body again, the numbness leaving her system. Whether that was a good thing or not, she wasn’t sure. She pulled at the chains but they were fastened tight.

“Did you think I was going to let you get away with what you did?”

“Not this again.”

Magpie placed the scalpel down and picked up a wooden-handled gauging spike about half an inch long. “Our message was clear, was it not?”

“I guess not.”

“You betrayed your work, helping a mark to escape like you did. It almost took down the organisation. Everything we’d all worked so hard for. Surely even you can see you had to pay for your mistake?”

“Yes, me. Not my mother. Not her.”

“She was, how they say, collateral damage.”

Acid gnashed her teeth, rattling the chains overhead. “Bitch. I’ll kill you. I swear it. I’m going to fucking kill you… Argg—”

A sharp pain in her side splintered through her abdomen as Magpie pierced her flesh with the gauging spike. Not deep enough to hit any major organs but enough to tear through layers of skin and muscle. Enough to leave her riling and weakened.

“Where is the egg?”

“I don’t have it.”

She struck again, another spear to the side, ripping the spike away as Acid stiffened, fighting the pain. “Tell me.”

“You’ll kill me if I do.”

Magpie stood facing her, eyes wild with energy. “I’m going to kill you either way. So choose. One path is quick, relatively painless, but the other… well…” She lifted the gauging spike up to her face. “It will take time. A long time.”

Acid lifted her head, moving away from the weapon as much as her constraints allowed. “Lingchi.”

Magpie nodded. “Death by a thousand cuts.”

The technique, originating in ninth-century China, had always been one of Magpie’s specialities. It was a brutal and protracted way of killing someone, but it sent a clear message, and the more notorious and sadistic of Annihilation’s clients liked that sort of thing. Acid remembered Caesar explaining to her – with some degree of veneration – how his new recruit had picked up the practice working for the cartels. At the time she’d thought the stories were bullshit, told by Magpie to make her sound more deadly than she actually was. But maybe not.

“What happens then?” she asked. “If you kill me. What then?”

Magpie frowned. “Then I find the mark and retrieve the items for my client, what else? So please, don’t tell me where they are. Choose the path of penance. Perfect for a sinner such as you.”

“You still want Danny? I thought you only used him as bait.”

“It was, how you say, two birds with one stone. I got you where I want you, yes. But I took the job so I will complete it.”

“For money? Isn’t that a sin?” Acid yanked some more at the chains, testing the strength of them, lifting her feet a little off the ground.

Magpie watched, laughing derisively. “The love of money is a sin. For me it is simply a tool. And I care a great deal about my reputation.” She sneered. “But I understand now. You see, I saw you together. Writhing naked, like disgusting animals. I always knew you were a loose-moralled puta who couldn’t keep her legs together, but you actually have feelings for the mark.”

Acid shot her a look, the numbed helplessness she’d experienced since waking switching to an intense rage. “This is about Spitfire, isn’t it? I saw the way you used to look at him.”

Magpie sneered again, but under the folds of the wimple headdress Acid noticed her eyebrow twitch.

“What can I say, Mags.