Another Half

Author’s Note: Don’t worry if you don’t know Spanish. Blade will soon personally recite the following free-style poem for you in English… :)

Las Tres Bellas Doñas

La Dama de Blanco es amable pero lenta,

Pueden escaparsele.

¡Desen prisa, mis hijos!

La Dama de Azul es veloz pero silenciosa,

¡Corran, corran, mis hijos!

Pero nunca se le escaparán.

La Dama de Rojo es la peor de todas.

Llena de odio y maldad,

Saca lo que está adentro

Y pinta las paredes con su carmesí

Nadie la olvidará

De nadie se apiada.

De nadie se apiadarán

Rex watched as his mate got off the chair and ambled toward Jonson. She jiggled around the knife impaled in his leg before yanking it out in such a way that it made the wound deeper and wider. There was no pity in her eyes when Jonson grunted with pain. Blade used her knife to cut the cloth of his jeans away, exposing the now long gaping knife wound as it continued to gush blood onto the stone floor.

Jonson swallowed hard and ground his teeth. Sweat began to run from his hairline. “What are you going to do? Suck the wound? I have something else you could suck on, bitch.”

Rex wanted to punch him again, but his mate was in front of Jonson. Without obstructing Rex’s view, Blade got close to Jonson, just a few inches from his face. She ran the knife gently down Jonson’s cheek, scraping his smooth neck.

“Do it, bitch,” he said, gulping. “I fucking dare you.”

“I absolutely love this defiance of yours,” she said, cooing like Rex had seen her do with Andy. “It’s exhilarating. It makes me think about all the things I want to do you, but not yet, Jonson.” She laughed lightly. “Why we’re just getting started and we’re going to have so much fun! But let’s take a break first.”

Blade went to the table. She set the knife down and poured a cup of steaming tea. She took a sip.

Sergio and Ax looked at Rex with alarm, and Rex shrugged.

“What the fuck are you doing?! Do it! Kill me now! It ain’t time for a coffee break!” Jonson yelled. “You fucking lazy bitch!”

“Did you know,” Blade said conversationally, “that ginger has antiseptic properties? Isn’t that amazing?” She moved over to where Jonson was. “That a root as ugly but as tasty as ginger can be so powerful. It’d be a pity to let your wound become infected, don’t you think? I mean, infected wounds fester, and then gangrene sets in, and then I’d have chop off your leg. I mean, fuck, what if my knife slipped and I also chopped off the wee leg sticking out of your crotch? Wouldn’t that be unfortunate?”

She poured the hot tea on Jonson’s gaping wound, and Rex could have sworn he had become momentarily deaf. Jonson’s scream came not from his throat but from deep within him. Even Blade distanced herself.

Once Jonson stopped screaming, Blade went up to him again.

“Hmmm. I seemed to have missed,” she said loudly, looking down at the wound. “Which is weird because I never miss. I was aiming for your crotch.” She looked at Jonson and winked. “Maybe next time you’ll get lucky?”

Jonson clenched his jaw and sweat ran down his face and neck.

Fuck, she’s vicious, Sergio relayed via mind-link.

Rex crossed his arms and smirked at him from across the room. I told you so.

Sergio looked at him with annoyance. Were you ever going to tell me she knew how to, uh, do this kind of thing?

No.

You knew she was going to do this?

Not exactly, but I’ve seen my mate’s mind. She’s capable and she doesn’t fuck around. Right now she’s in a different state of mind, one I hadn’t seen.

Remind me never to get on Blade’s bad side, Ax said contributing to the conversation.

“Now that I have your attention, Jonson,” she said softly, “here’s what’s going to happen. I ask you questions, and you respond with specific answers. Got it? Fail to answer my questions and you get to choose whether you want Alpha Rex to help you remember or me with my flesh-loving knives. What’s it going to be?”

“I want neither of you assholes touching me! I am innocent, you fucking whore!”

Rex gently pushed Blade out of the way and knocked the wind out of Jonson. Blade didn’t seem bothered by either of Rex’s actions.

“Oh, well, I was hoping you’d say you wanted a third alternative!” Blade said brightly.

She went to the table and took out the rucksack from the basket as she observed Jonson. He looked away when he saw it, and apparently, that’s what Blade was looking for, because her cheerful smile grew.

“My grandfather used to recite a poem for me. He said it was a poem that ran in his family. Shall I recite it for you? I think you’re familiar with it, actually.” Blade went about the business of organizing the bottles on the table. “It’s called The Three Beautiful Ladies…”

Jonson paled immediately and looked at her with wide eyes before looking away.

Blade began to recite:

“The White Lady is kind but slow,

You can escape her.

Hurry, my children, hurry!

The Blue Lady is fast but silent,

Run, children, run!

But you will never outrun her.

The Red Lady is the worst of them all.

Full of hate and malice,

She turns everything inside out.

She paints the walls with her crimson.

Nobody will forget her.

She pities no one.

They will pity no one.”

Sergio and Ax looked at each other and shrugged. Rex put his index finger on his lips and looked toward Jonson, who started trembling.

“It looks like our guests have no idea what we’re talking about, Jonson.” Blade said in a low voice. “Did you know that Belladonna means Beautiful Lady in Italian? I mean, in Spanish it’s Bella Doña, and I think that sounds sexier, but it’s all the same. Shall I tell them that the three ladies in the poem are actually three poisonous concoctions? Shall I tell them about how when we combine Belladonna with other compounds she becomes deadlier than when she’s by herself? What do you say, Jonson?” As she spoke, Blade continued to mix different substances into a vial.

“Tell them about what most people think is the White Sickness, Jonson. Go on. Tell them. This is your moment to shine, baby!”

“I can’t,” Jonson rasped with his eyes shut, “tell you anything. They will kill me. My life is done if I say anything.”

“Fine, be that way. I will tell them, then,” she said with resignation without taking her eyes off of him. “The White Lady is a slow poison. Thallium and the waxy milk of a certain poisonous toad in the forest mixed with Belladonna, the best known of the poisonous Nightshades. It won’t kill with one or two doses, but it’s great for anyone playing the long game, isn’t it, Jonson? Kind of like arsenic, but arsenic is too well-known. The White Lady, well, nobody knows about her and people tend to think it’s a sickness. That’s what you were doing to the refugees and afterward to the people in Azul’s infirmary. You poisoned their food while they were imprisoned and the food you fed them during the escape. I’ve no idea how you poisoned the people in the infirmary, but you’re one creative soul, I’ll give you that. Meanwhile, you took small doses to throw off any suspicion from you, but you had the antidote,” she said as she lifted a bottle. “Right here. So you wouldn’t feel too sick. But no one noticed you weren’t as sick.”

“I was told to do it! I was forced!”

“Who? Who forced you, Jonson? Tell me.”

“None of your fucking business.” He ground his teeth together.

Blame shrugged.

“Who are the Blue Lady and the Red Lady?” Ax asked. Sergio ribbed him, and Ax scowled at him. “What? I want to know!”

“The Blue Lady is who killed Cobalt Lake’s Beta and Gamma and their mates, Ax.” Blade put a stopper on the vial she had been working on and began to shake it vigorously. “Belladonna mixed with cyanide will kill you almost instantly. Once the Beta and Gamma had outlasted their usefulness, whatever that was, the invaders saw it fit to dispose of them and their families the quickest way possible.”

Jonson continued to look away and said nothing.

“But it’s the Red Lady who’s the most interesting, right, Jonson? You all saved her for the Alpha, his family, and whatever poor soul happened to be invited to that Pack House dinner,” she said softly. “You see, Ax, the Red Lady’s purpose is not just to kill but to inflict fear in the most horrific way possible. Belladonna is mixed with at least two powerful anticoagulants and she ‘turns everything inside out’-- meaning they essentially bleed to death from every opening–eyes, mouth, nose, ears, even the pores of their skin. Blood runs out of them like it’s boiling over and, of course, they’re in excruciating pain.” Blade’s voice had become monotone, cold and unfeeling. She looked into the vial she was holding. “I mean, it’s not fun if they’re not in pain. Isn’t that right, Jonson?”

“You’re one sick fuck, bitch.”

Rex stared at his mate in shock, his brain scrambling to make sense of everything she had said.

“Holy shit,” Ax whispered.

“Once everyone in Cobalt Lake saw what happened to their Alpha and his family, no pack member could resist the invaders lest they or their loved ones suffer the same fate.” Blade removed the stopper and took a syringe. “The Red Lady is the most effective weapon of terror I’ve ever seen. But you know what, Ax? I can tell you all of this and it’s not really much fun. My grandfather always used to tell me, ‘Show me, don’t tell me.’”

That got Jonson’s attention on Blade again.

“No. Please,” he whispered, and Rex couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pity for him. He had no idea his mate was capable of doing something like this, but he had resolved to not stop her.

Rex, I don’t think we should let her--Sergio began.

Shut it, Sergio! Do not interfere! That’s an order for you both!

“Times up, Jonson.” Blade’s cheerful voice returned. She gently flicked the syringe to make the bubbles rise. “You know I don’t have the time or patience for the White Lady, and the Blue Lady is no fun. She’s the blink-once-and-you’re-dead kind of gal, and I’m not in a hurry. So, I guess the Red Lady it is!” She raised the syringe and looked at Jonson with sick triumph.

Rex glanced at Sergio and Ax, and they were both pale.

Blade approached Jonson, and he cowered into the wall as if wishing the stone would swallow him.

“And I’ve made this one special. Just for you.” Blade’s face lit up with a deranged enthusiasm that unnerved and fascinated Rex. “I’ve added a retardant to the anticoagulant. It will be slow, but that’s a good thing because it’ll give you plenty of time to think about all the shitty things you did to the innocent people of Cobalt Lake, the pups that died when you got to Blue Ponderosa, and even that pregnant she-wolf you falsely claimed was your sister, and not to mention the lives you took here, at Azul.” She paused. “You’ll get to watch your blood slowly flow out of your body like it’s running away from you and there won’t be a damn thing you’ll be able to do about it except beg to die. You’ll cry and beg to be killed quickly. And while you beg, you’ll tell me the truth because you’ll be desperate and you'll say anything, anything at all, to stop the pain, to stop the fear and the horror that will consume you—”

“Stop! They’re from the Nightshade Pack! They’ve been planning to take over this Azul Valley for years!”

Author's Note: If you have a moment, I would appreciate any thoughts you may have on this particular chapter. Specifically, I'm interested in knowing if you think the violence was too heavy-handed. Or perhaps you think it wasn't heavy-handed enough--which would be just as interesting to know! I am not interested in contradicting or disagreeing with you. If you ask me a question, I will answer it, however.

Thank you for reading my story and for your valuable time! ~Rio