Page 111 of The Beast Who Begged Me

The car waits behind them, lit and empty.

I stop beside it and listen, but there’s no sound from below. No voices. No machinery except the low hum of the elevator.

“Too fucking easy,” I mutter.

Fontana comes up beside me. “Yeah.”

I put a hand against Benedetti’s chest when he starts toward the elevator. “You stay up here with them.”

Benedetti has kept his nerve so far—mostly—but if King’s left us some gruesome gift, I don’t want him to be the first one who sees it.

His eyes flick toward the open doors. “But Sammy⁠—”

“If I find him, I’ll bring him up. Until then, you stay with Fontana.” I hold his gaze until he gives me a reluctant nod, then look at Nick.

“I’ve got him,” Fontana says.

I step into the elevator alone. There’s a keycard reader beside the controls, but I don’t touch it. When I press the basement button, it lights up anyway, and the doors slide shut.

No card. No guard. Every fucking obstacle taken out of our way. I watch the doors, part of me expecting a blast when they open below.

Nothing.

There’s a long dark hallway ending in another open door. I think about what might be waiting beyond it.

I move down the hallway, a rushing sound in my ears. At the end of the corridor is a small room with a metal table and an open box of gloves. A bloodied dressing lies in the trashcan.

The receiver responds more strongly here. My hand tightens around it, and I make myself look at the opposite door.

It’s ajar.

I’m trying to tell myself it’ll be fine; whatever’s behind that door, it won’t be my worst nightmare⁠—

But when I kick it open, I find it is. Because there’s no one in there at all.

A metal toilet and a metal sink glisten in the dim light. There’s a single caged bulb overhead. Then I see the little capsule on the edge of the sink, sitting in a smear of blood.

I’ve found what brought me here. Just the tracker, still sending out its signal.

There’s no Sammy.

And no Caligula.

I pick the capsule up off the sink. Caligula’s blood is tacky on my fingers. The signal still beats on the receiver, steady as a pulse.

The only piece of him they left behind, still calling out for me.

CHAPTER 35

CALIGULA

I open my eyes.

Sammy is leaning over me. Sammy.

I try to lift my head, but it aches when I do. I reach back to touch it, but Sammy catches my wrist.

“Leave it alone. They’ve done something to the back of your neck.”