by Ford, Rinna
“That’s good, then,” Ronan said.
I couldn’t tell if he meant it in a hopeful way for himself and the future, or if he was a tad bit jealous. Probably both for all I knew. I didn’t know what to say after that. What could I say?
“I bet they’re both going out of their ever loving minds with you gone.”
I slowly closed my eyes and tilted my head back. “I’m sure they are,” I told him and closed my mouth. I was ready to tear shit apart just to be closer to them again and I was the one taken, not them. I knew what happened but they didn’t. The unknown is always harder to deal with. I missed both of my men so fucking much.
Seeming to understand how uncomfortable the conversation had become for me, he immediately changed the subject and began talking about his family back in Scotland. He talked about his mother and little brother, who wasn’t so little anymore, and what it was like growing up there.
I fell asleep to the sound of Ronan’s voice talking about a time when he was happy.
Chapter Nineteen
“You look better, my dear. Is everything more to your liking?”
As per usual, I only slept for a few hours the night before, waking during the middle of the night. Ronan was still fast asleep, so I made sure not to make too much noise to wake him. He didn’t say it but I could tell he’d been put through a lot since he’d sacrificed himself to let me get away from Dev’s cabin during the battle.
I didn’t know how long I sat there in the dark before the asshole guards came for me. Their loud taunts woke Ronan up and when they roughly hauled me up toward the stairs, he yelled at them to leave me alone. They both laughed but completely ignored him as we three marched up the stairs.
I prayed he’d still be down there when I returned, if I returned. Nothing was ever guaranteed when it came to Michael Ironshot, except for lots of pain.
Instead of bringing me back to Ironshot’s office, I was led toward an opulent dining room. My captor was sitting alone at the head of a large oval shaped table, and he had a plate of food in front of him and a steaming mug of coffee in his hand when I sat down in the chair to his left. It all looked and smelled delicious. I averted my eyes away from his plate and up toward his face.
He sat his cup down and looked at me expectantly as he waited for my response to his question.
“Yes, thank you,” I gave him a forced smile. I wanted to seem less hostile and more grateful. Oh, I was far from giving up, in fact, since seeing Ronan again, I had a renewed sense of hope.
“Good. That’s good.” The councilman smiled genuinely and picked up his fork.
He dug into his breakfast, taking his time and savoring each bite. In between forkfuls, he would do things like look out the window, smile at me, glance down at his phone, all so he could draw it out as long as possible. In all that time, he never said a word or acknowledged the loud growling that came from my stomach until every last bite was consumed, the prick. The way he was torturing me was subtle, and it pissed me off. However, I did well hiding my true feelings and grinned at him.
Ironshot wiped his mouth with a cloth napkin when he saw a servant come into the room to gather his dishes and dropped it down on top. She gathered it all quickly and exited the room without a word.
“It’s interesting to know you still need food,” he observed once we were alone again.
“I was surprised when I figured that out too,” I replied.
There was an art to telling lies effectively. If you mixed truth in with the lies, they seemed more honest, more believable. I didn’t underestimate Michael Ironshot’s intelligence but if there was one thing I was skilled in, it was self preservation. I would tell him some truths about me when he asked questions, but I wouldn’t be honest for all of them. I couldn’t. Too many lives depended on what I told him and whether or not he would believe me.
“There are few things I can’t eat or drink now, coffee being one of them.”
“How awful. I don’t think I could survive without coffee.”
I chuckled. “It was hard at first but I’ve gotten used to it. I don’t need caffeine anyway.”
“Ah, yes. Blood. Vampires are very interesting creatures. And you, my darling, are the most interesting creature I’ve ever met.”
And there it was. He wanted to study me before he ended my existence.
“Well, I don’t know if I’d call myself interesting. Different, for sure.” I feigned embarrassment at his sentiment and glanced down at my lap.
“Oh, but you are special! I’d love to learn more about you!”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know how much you can learn with my dragon and vampire sides suppressed and my caster side gone completely. The only thing that’s remained constant in the last day is my thirst for blood. Other than that, I’m as ordinary as a human.”
“I had heard you lost your magic but I’m not sure that I believe it.” He looked at me skeptically and reached across the table’s surface. “Give me your arm.”
I did as he commanded and waited for him to see for himself. Several seconds passed before his mouth turned down in a frown and he released me, putting his hands in his lap like a petulant child. He was such an odd man. Then his eyes went from sad to dark in a split second.
“Tomorrow,” he told me, “you will go to my lab and you will cooperate with every instruction you are given. If you don’t, I will make you suffer in ways you can’t even imagine. Do you understand, Emelia?”
I nodded my head even though I knew I wouldn’t. I couldn’t.
I had so many questions. I thought he’d be happy to learn I didn’t have access to all three species. But I was learning he was far from predictable, that was what made him so dangerous.
“I need to prepare.” He rose from his seat and ordered for me to do the same. “Kenny, Harris,” the two guard walked into the room when they heard their names called and waited for their instructions, “put our guest in the cell next to her mate’s and bring her something else to wear.”
He looked down at my sports bra and leggings in disgust and walked out of the door, leaving me in the care of my jailors. Assholes one and two grabbed my arms as they usually did and pushed me back toward the basement, this time without comment.
They walked me past my previous cell and threw me into the one right next to Ronan’s. My caster mate sat quietly on his mattress the entire time, eyes watching closely for any abuse the guards might throw my way. It wasn’t like he could do much from his position, but I appreciated it anyway.
Harris and Kenny locked the cell door and left the basement much like the way we entered it; silently. I was grateful for it. After my brief interaction with Ironshot, I needed to get my head on straight, not have to deal with their disdain. He confused me in ways I couldn’t even describe and I knew that was what he was going for.
“What did they do?” Ronan asked, his tone full of concern.
“Nothing.” It was true and yet, so much had happened. “I’m fine. He wants to study me now. Observations start tomorrow. Said he needed to prepare.”
“Fuck.” Ronan rubbed his hand over his face as he cursed out loud.
He knew better than me what that would be exactly. He was at one time a part of the very Council that had imprisoned us both.
“Ronan, you don’t still work for Michael Ironshot and the Supernatural Council, do you? I mean… shit.”
I was having trouble asking him the question without sounding like a completely horrible person. He’d obviously gone through Hell since he was imprisoned, but I needed to know if he still believed the things the Council, namely Michael Ironshot, still believed.
“You mean, do I still want to take over the world?”
His jaw ticked, annoyed he needed to answer but he should have known I’d have doubts. After all, he tried to capture me because of his job the very first time we met.
I nodded my head.
“No, Millie, I don’t. I don’t want the whole world to know my name anymore.
Just you.”
He flopped down on the mattress and rolled over, showing me his back.
“Ronan, I’m…”
The door at the top of the stairs opened and tweedle dee and tweedle dum marched down into the basement. Kenny threw a set of scrubs into my cell while Harris dropped another bag of blood and something else wrapped up in a napkin on the other side of the bars, just out of reach.
He laughed evilly before they both stomped back upstairs. Ronan didn’t move.
Sighing, I looked at the scrubs but decided to eat before putting them on in case things got messy. That was if I could reach it.
I lay on the ground and stretched my arm as far out as I could. My middle finger snagged the rough plastic of the bagged blood and pulled it close. Once I had it in hand, I stretched my arm back out to try and get the other thing, whatever it was. The napkin it was wrapped in slightly opened when it was dropped. My finger curled around the corner of it and pulled it close. It was a biscuit, leftover from Ironshot’s breakfast.
My mouth watered at the sight of it. I tore off a piece of the doughy goodness and brought it halfway to my mouth, but then I remembered that Ronan didn’t get any.
I broke it in half, eating mine before putting the second half back in the napkin and lowering it into his cell. I then backed away and ripped the corner of the bagged blood like I did the night before.
But unlike the first time, I didn’t try to smell it first. I just pinched my nose and threw it back. It didn’t go down easily, not that I expected it to, but at least I felt a little bit stronger. Not at all like I would with human or supe blood, but it would do.
When I was finished with it, I glanced back over at Ronan’s cell. He’d moved off his mattress and had picked up the biscuit. Instead of eating it, he put it back on my side of the bars and backed away.
“It’s yours,” he told me. “They’ll bring me something to eat soon.”
I frowned and picked up the napkin handing it back to him. “Why don’t you eat it now and then give me a bit of your food when they bring yours? There’s no need for you to be hungry when I have this to share.”
He signed. “I’m not hungry, lass. I promise.”
“When was the last time you ate then?”
“Yesterday. Before they locked me in here with you.”
He answered quickly and I wasn’t sure if he was lying or not.
“Besides, you need your strength more than I do. I’m not even sure why they’ve kept me alive actually.”
That was a good question. Why had Ironshot kept him alive when killing him would be a quick solution to his problem?
One thing I learned about Michael Ironshot was that he always had a reason. He kept Ronan alive when he could have easily killed him. When I was captured, they moved Ronan so he was in the same cell block as me. Lastly, I was moved into the cell directly next to his. Why? What was the purpose?
He knew my magic was gone; he felt it himself, but maybe he wanted to see if it could come back; to see if I truly was a threat. Oh, shit. That had to be it.
I needed to keep my magic on lockdown as long as possible. The more I thought about it, the more I believed that not only my life would be on the line when my magic returned, but Ronan’s too. Once I took the potion, I’d have about another eight days before it wore off, so that left me about two weeks to try and find a way to escape. I knew I had to change my mind and take the potion when it was time. I needed to.
I glanced over at my caster mate’s cell with dread. The biscuit lay on the napkin in the exact spot I last left it on Ronan’s side of the bars, untouched. I started to tell him to eat it but he was asleep again. He seemed to be doing that a lot.
I needed to get him out of there because I wasn’t sure he could last two weeks.
Chapter Twenty
“Ah, there she is!” Ironshot threw his arms out excitedly when my two guards brought me into his caster’s lab.
I gave him a tight smile and quickly looked around the room, noting it was very similar to the one Devlin kept back at the rebel mansion, except for one important difference. Potions were brewing on table tops, books and jars of ingredients were lined up on shelves, and there was lots of light, which was good for growing plants used for making things.
The thing that was different between this lab and Dev’s was that at the left end of the room stood a long metal table that looked just right for experimentation on living things. If I were a betting person, I would say the drawers and cabinets that surrounded the table contained all kinds of cutting and collection instruments as well.
“Don’t worry, stepdaughter. I don’t think you’ll need to worry about that side of the room. At least not yet.” Ironshot caught my eyes lingering on the table a little too long before finding their way back to his face. I gulped and did my best to look unaffected, but he knew exactly what his words would do to me.
I was already on edge for several reasons when Harris and Kenny collected me from my cell, mostly because Ronan never got food the day before. Kenny gave him a mini water bottle but that was all he got for sustenance that day. I begged him to eat the biscuit but he flatly refused, saying I needed more strength than he did.
It sat on his side of the bars all night and by morning it was rock hard. Worried what my guards would think about finding untouched food, I ended up eating it myself. I didn’t want them to deny me food because they thought I didn’t want it or whatever.
I hated that I was at this man’s mercy. I hated that my life depended on the mood of one seriously mercurial caster with a superiority complex. It was so wrong, so degrading but I wasn’t ready to give up. So there I was, playing along with his game in hopes that I’d find my opening.
A man and a woman stepped into the room through another door and approached us in the middle of the room. The pair studied me with interest, making me feel a little uncomfortable.
It was obvious they were twins because they were almost completely identical. With exception of their heights and hairdos, they could easily be mistaken for the same person. They even wore the same clothing-black slacks and a green and yellow striped shirt. It was uncanny… and very creepy.
The strangest thing of all was the way they were looking at me, and I thought Ironshot was weird. He had nothing on them.
“Emelia, meet the doctors, Hanson and Hanson, Jill and James.” Ironshot thought to introduce us and normally it would be a nice thing to do but I wanted nothing to do with any of them.
I gave them both a tight smile and I thought they might reciprocate, but they just acted as if studying me was more important and continued staring while blinking dramatically.
“Exquisite,” Jill breathed and leaned in closer toward me while adjusting the glasses on her face.
I took a small step backward when she did that and frowned at her. What the fuck, man? Personal space apparently meant nothing to her.
“Have a seat, Emelia,” Ironshot commanded, thankfully giving me a little space from the creepy twins.
Harris and Kenny led me over to a gray metal stool situated near a table, pushing me into it, and then moved to their spots by the door. Fuck, I hated them. I gave them ‘go to Hell’ looks then turned back around toward Ironshot and the twins. The councilman found a chair in the corner and sat stiffly with his arms crossed over his chest while Jill and James sat on stools on the opposite side of the table. They both opened notebooks and clicked their pens at the exact same time, then looked up at me expectantly. Their similarities were beyond freaky, but I tried to not let it get to me. I needed to stay on my game if I wanted to get out of there with my life.
I gave them another small smile and waited for them to do whatever they were going to do. I didn’t have to wait long. James looked down into his notebook and began reading from notes.
“So, Emelia Jane Stratton, born to mother Lucia Stratton, caster, and father Eric Von Brandt, dragon shifter. You were raised by your mother as a caster until your first partial shift into a dragon
at the age of twelve.”
My eyes shifted to Ironshot, wanting to see his reaction to those words being spoken aloud. He kicked out one leg and clenched his jaw so hard, I almost expected him to break some teeth but otherwise remained silent.
“What magic were you able to perform at your young age?” James then asked, making my attention return back to him.
I frowned and began playing with my nails on top of the table.
“I don’t remember much,” I replied, “just the basic stuff. Lighting candles, learning to make potions, stuff like that. My mom believed in learning the basics before performing the actual acts, so I did a lot of studying before I was able to do anything.”
The twins both wrote down my responses quickly, wanting to make sure they got it all.
“What was your first shift like?” James questioned.
A lump formed in my throat as the memory came back full force. It was one of those things I would always remember for the rest of my life… now that I had my memories back, anyway. I remembered every detail from what I was wearing to the look on Chei Yun’s face when he saw me change. I looked out toward the window as I recounted the event.
“I’d gone to my friend’s house and his father answered the door…”
“Councilman Chei Yun Liu.”
“Yes, Councilman Liu. I asked if his son was home and he told me he wasn’t.” I couldn’t say Xan’s name without breaking down into tears, so I didn’t. “That was when my body felt strange, which turned into unbearable pain and I fell on the ground. I wasn’t sure how long it lasted, although it felt like forever and no time at all, all at the same time. He began yelling and I got scared, so on wings I didn’t know I had, I flew home, across the field that stretched between his house and mine. I don’t know how I made it. That part and everything that followed is a blur.”
I looked back toward Ironshot, who was watching me intently. If his gaze were magical, I was sure I would have been turned to stone by the way he was looking at me. He hated me, not that I didn’t already know it. But him sitting there, listening to me recount that one event that sealed my fate. He couldn’t hide his true feelings.