Chapter 3

Kevan stared at her, his gray eyes wide with shock. He stumbled backward, then turned and sprinted down the dark corridor, his footsteps echoing wildly.

Ella turned back to the cell. She reached out and pulled a heavy iron ring of keys from a hook on the wall.

She stepped up to the iron grate. She shoved the largest key into the rusted lock. It ground against the metal with a loud, ear-piercing screech that echoed through the dead silence of the dungeon.

Daulton watched her every move. His muscles were coiled tight. A low, warning growl rumbled in his throat, but he didn't dare step forward to stop her.

Ella pushed the heavy iron door open.

The stench of necrotic tissue hit her like a physical wall. She gagged, pressing the back of her hand against her mouth.

What the hell, she cursed internally. She forced herself to breathe through her mouth, treating this exactly like walking into the worst, most neglected animal hoarding case back in New York. She locked her emotions away and let her clinical training take over.

She walked straight up to Cordaro.

He was a massive man, easily over six-foot-three, built with thick, dense muscle meant for hunting giant monsters. Now, he looked fragile.

Sensing someone approaching, Cordaro's survival instincts flared. He was half-unconscious, but his lips curled back, exposing sharp, terrifying canine teeth. A weak, rattling snarl tore from his throat.

His eyes were glazed over, unfocused and cloudy, but they still burned with a stubborn refusal to die.

Ella ignored his warning. She didn't hesitate. She crouched down and reached her hand straight toward his rotting chest.

"No!" Daulton gasped from the doorway, terrified she was going to dig her nails into his brother's open wounds.

But Ella's hand stopped an inch above the ruined flesh. She didn't touch him. She just hovered her palm there, feeling the heat radiating off his skin.

It was like holding her hand over a lit stove. His fever was dangerously high.

Her veterinary instincts processed the data instantly. The toxin had bypassed his muscular tissue and invaded the lymphatic system. This wasn't a surface infection anymore. His organs were cooking from the inside out.

Cordaro felt the slight shift in air currents from her hand. His body violently convulsed in pain. The heavy iron chains rattled loudly against the stone wall.

Ella looked up at his face. His deep, charcoal-gray wolf ears were plastered flat against his skull, a universal animal sign of extreme distress and submission to pain.

A fierce wave of protectiveness surged in Ella's chest.

Without thinking, she softened her posture. She leaned in slightly, and she whispered under her breath, uttering a strange, melodic string of syllables he had never heard before.

"You poor, big guy."

The words were barely a breath, but Cordaro was a wolf beastman. His hearing was infinitely sharper than a human's.

Even through the thick fog of his fever, his ears twitched. He caught the sound. It was a tone of pure, unfiltered pity. It was a sound that the cruel, sadistic Ella Ortiz had never made in her entire life.

Cordaro's thick eyelashes fluttered. He fought against the heavy weight of his eyelids, trying desperately to focus on the face of the woman crouching in front of him.

Before he could clear his vision, the darkness dragged him back under. His head slumped forward.

Footsteps slapped against the stone floor outside. Kevan rushed back into the cell, carrying a wooden basin filled with steaming hot water.

He stopped dead in his tracks. He saw Ella crouching near Cordaro. She wasn't holding a whip. She wasn't pressing salt into his wounds. She was just looking at him.

The sheer confusion on Kevan's face was obvious.

Ella heard Kevan's ragged breathing. She instantly wiped the pity off her face, replacing it with a mask of deep disgust.

She stood up abruptly. She snatched the basin from Kevan's hands and deliberately slammed it down onto the stone floor.

Water splashed everywhere, hissing as it hit the cold rock.

A splash of scalding water hit Daulton's boots. He jumped back, his amber eyes flaring with renewed hostility.

"Clean the filthy blood off his chest," Ella ordered Kevan, her voice dripping with contempt. "And do it fast. The smell is making me sick."

Kevan didn't dare disobey. He dropped to his knees, ignoring the searing pain in his own sliced hands. He dipped a rag into the hot water and began to carefully, agonizingly wipe away the crusted blood around Cordaro's wounds.

Ella stood a few feet away, her arms crossed. Her eyes were locked on the texture of the wounds, her brain calculating the massive dose of broad-spectrum antibiotics he would need to survive this.

Hot water wasn't going to do a damn thing. This world didn't have IV drips or modern medicine. She had to rely on that stupid System.

She screamed in her mind. Lex Cantor! How do I get medicine for this?

[Host must accumulate Animosity Points to purchase the High-Tier Healing Serum from the System Shop, ] the cold voice replied.

Ella ground her teeth together. She looked at Daulton and Kevan. They were terrified of her, but they didn't hate her enough right now. She needed points, fast.

She suddenly lashed out, kicking the wooden basin with her heavy leather boot.

It flipped over with a loud crash, spilling the remaining hot water across the floor.

"You are too slow!" Ella screamed at Kevan.