Cold metal touched against her little toe.
Eva tensed. She tried to curl her toes but a strap over her foot made it near impossible.
The cold disappeared and another slice shirked through nothing but air.
Eva didn’t relax.
The cold reappeared around her toe.
Eva screamed out. Or tried to. Her mouth wouldn’t budge. It came out more as a loud hum.
Her toe was off. It hurt. It hurt.
Sawyer popped back up holding a small, fleshy colored thing between his fingers.
“It was just a little toe and you’re trying so hard to thrash around? I’d have assumed a blood mage would be used to the pain. Are you really a blood mage?”
Eva glared at him, grinding down on her own teeth.
“I mean, there are no shards of blood exploding in my eyes. Not a single tendril of blood between your foot and the toe trying to reattach it. And,” he gave it a squeeze. Blood dripped down, pooling on the floor.
Eva could sense it. She could ‘see’ it. The blood on the floor, his fingers, his shoe. She could see it all even without turning her head.
“And its black. I thought something was odd back in the woods. It might have been a trick of the light. Nope.” He laughed. “Black blood? You’re a demon yourself, aren’t you?”
With the restraints on, Eva couldn’t respond. She didn’t want to. With a deep breath, Eva concentrated on healing her damaged foot. Stopping the bleeding was the only thing she could do.
“That my restraints can hold a demon… Well, that brings a tear to my eye.” He laughed again. “I thought we’d barely get any money from selling off your body parts, but demon parts? Ohh boy, we’ll be living like kings. At least for a week or two.
“To be honest,” Sawyer leaned down, all but licking Eva’s ear. “I don’t care about the money, or the stupid book. Weilks’ plan wouldn’t have turned it into the real thing. He’s a deluded fool getting on in age and getting a fear of Death.”
Eva glared. It was all she could do. Desperately willing the blood on his fingers to do something, anything, wasn’t working. Even if she could snap her fingers, the blood hadn’t touched her blade.
“If your kidnapping draws out the Elysium Sisters, all the better. Them trying to use their augur to find you would be the best case scenario. Weilks is out watching their movements.
“Meanwhile,” he snipped the cutter again, “I get all the fun!”
He knelt back down, snipping the cutter as he went.
“Oh good, you stopped your bleeding. It’d be a shame if you missed out on the fun by passing out or, Death forbid, dying.”
Eva hummed as another toe splattered to the floor.
—
Her last pinky dropped off its nub. Sawyer caught it in a small sack along with the others. He wiped a lock of blond hair back over his forehead. He didn’t seem to mind it being stained black with her blood.
“Ten toes, ten fingers. I honestly have no idea who would want to buy demon toes.” Sawyer’s grin was visible even through Eva’s tears. “I’m sure someone will. There are a lot of real freaks out there, you know?”
Eva couldn’t think. Her right thumb was the last to go and it didn’t even hurt. There was too much other hurt going on. She felt light-headed. Not a lack of blood. A lack of air. Her heart hammered non stop. Two nostrils were not enough for her needs.
“Now,” Sawyer said. He pulled a long, shiny knife off a side table, “there are a lot of real expensive goods inside here.” He patted her stomach.
Eva froze. Not that she had any choice, none of the restraints had loosened in the slightest. She might not have to worry about a hammering heart much longer.
“Not a lot you can live without though.” The knife glinted as he slid it back towards the table.
Eva almost relaxed. Almost. She’d learned better over the last hour.
“Then again, you are a demon. Who knows what you can live through?” His hand flashed to her chest. The knife drew across her skin.
Eva healed herself as fast as she could. The cut itself was barely a scratch against the pain pulsing out of her fingers. She glared at him all the while.
Sawyer drew back. “That’s an annoying ability. I might actually have to knock you out to get in there.” He pulled the whole tray of surgical materials into Eva’s line of sight. “I’m sure there is lots of other fun we can have until then.”
His hands passed over various implements. With each one, he paused and looked at Eva as if considering whether to use it or not.
None of them looked like anything Eva wanted used on her.
“Ahhh, this one might work.” He picked up an odd-looking metal stick. It was long and flat, with clear pincers at the end. “Watch close and I’ll explain how it works.”
Eva gave him her best glare.
“Enucleation. Know what that means?”
He got a glare in response.
“No? Well then, this thing here is flexible, see?” He bent the tip of the thing. “By pulling on a string at the end, it can hug whatever it is around. By pulling another string it goes snip-snip.” He demonstrated. The little flexible end snipped shut.
“Would you like to see how it works?” He laughed and pinched Eva’s cheek. “Of course you do.”
Sawyer gripped her forehead with one hand and pulled her eyelid open. With one deft movement, he jammed the thing into her eye.
Eva tried to scream. She tried to step. She tried fireballs and blood. Nothing worked. Nothing helped.
“Snip.”
Eva’s eyeball jiggled in its socket as Sawyer slid the implement around.
“Snip.”
Her toes and fingers were nothing. Losing her leg was nothing.
“Snip and snip. Okay, now the big one. Big smiles for the last one.”
Eva tried to scream. She tried to cry.
The cutter shoved further back. She could feel it. It wrapped around the backside of her eyeball.
“Snip.”
Her left eye went dark.
“And,” Sawyer made a popping sound with his mouth as he forced her eyeball out of its resting spot.
He held it up. A red-hazel eye stared back at Eva.
Eva threw up. For the first time in nearly eight years, Eva threw up.
It flooded into her mouth. With nowhere to go, it spewed out her nose. Two nostrils were not enough for her stomach. It dribbled down her bare chest, pooling under her seat.
Her lungs burned. Her nose cleared. Eva greedily inhaled, some of her own stomach acid flew back in, burning her lungs from the inside. With great effort, she swallowed back the stuff in her mouth before she started coughing.
Coughing didn’t work so well with your mouth covered.
It just hurt more.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Sawyer said, having taken a step away from her. “There’s still one left though.”
He moved in while Eva was still reeling from the first one. He quickly snipped out the smaller cuts and then stepped back.
Eva couldn’t move her eye anymore. It hung loosely, affected more by gravity than any of her will.
“You know,” he said, “demon eyes will fetch quite the price. Regenerate them quickly enough and maybe we won’t kill you. We’ll just harvest your eyes until you pay us back.
“With interest, of course.” He lunged forward, jamming the tool into her eye.
Eva’s vision went dark.
“If you promise to work on growing back your eyes, I’ll leave you alone for now.”
Eva felt fingers touching her cheek. They pulled away. A moment later, footsteps walked away from her. A door opened and slammed shut.
It took all of her willpower to concentrate on stopping the blood. Her eye sockets were slowly filling up behind the useless flaps that were her eyelids.
Eva slowly got herself under control. It might have been an hour or ten hours, she couldn’t tell.
Eva couldn’t even slump. She just sat in her chair. Body fluids still dripped from her chin down her chest. The dried parts cracked and stuck to her, but they were far from the most unpleasant thing she was feeling.