The sight nearly made Zeriel vomit. He stepped up to the bed and ran his fingers over the bandages around Jaylen's healing injuries. With only a little trouble figuring out what was going on, Zeriel removed the funnel and the thin wooden tube from Jaylen's throat, causing him to cough dryly as it was pulled delicately out of his throat. He threw it aside then wiped the spit from his paladin's pale parched lips that were cracked and bleeding.
He loosened the leather straps then unlatched them, sliding Jaylen's thin arms and legs out. The bindings left dark bruises in their place. He then removed the one around the boy's chest and put his arm behind his back to help him sit up. Still, Jaylen was silent.
With shaking hands, Zeriel untied the knot that secured the blindfold and held his breath as it fell to the bed. When Jaylen didn't open his eyes, he reached out and slowly pulled the boy's eyelids open. "Jaylen? Jaylen, it's me, Zeriel. Do you know who I am?"
Jaylen only stared at him blankly, his normally bright blue eyes were dulled and foggy. The whites of his eyes were horribly bloodshot and dark circles had formed around them as if he hadn't had a proper night's sleep in weeks.
Zeriel reached out to touch him, but the boy retracted in fear. "Jaylen, it's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. No one is going to hurt you again. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm your friend. I'm going to take you home. We're going back to your house here in town. It was left untouched after we left."
Jaylen didn't respond. When he finally did do something, it was a haunting sight that Zeriel would never forget. Jaylen knelt down in front of him then timidly took Zeriel's hand and guided it to his throat. He looked up at him with begging eyes as he tightened Zeriel's fingers.
Zeriel withdrew his hand. "No. I'm not going to choke you."
Jaylen slowly crawled across the floor on his knees and hand until he reached the wall. Then he stopped and placed his palm against the peeling yellow wallpaper.
"What are you doing? Jaylen, we need to leave. We're going home." Zeriel watched him closely as he removed the thin cotton shirt. He gasped as he saw the hundreds of tiny holes in his paladin's back and buttocks, some of them still red with blood and surrounded by purple bruises. "Jay, are those from needles? What have they been doing to you in here? Please talk to me. Say something. I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong. I hate seeing you like this. If those people have hurt you, I need to know. I can take this evidence in front of the court. We can fix this."
Jaylen twisted the shirt in his hand and teeth then slipped it over his head and pulled the ends tightly.
"No!" Zeriel lunged at him and ripped the fabric away from him. "No. You can't do it. Why are you trying to kill yourself? Why? This isn't just some kind of brain damage. This is . . . this is worse. What did that amulet do to you?"
There were footsteps in the doorway. "It's bad, isn't it? Look how he crawls around naked like some kind of animal."
Zeriel spun around to see Gavin holding out a blanket. "Gavin, where have you been?"
Gavin sighed as he knelt down beside Jaylen and wrapped the blanket around the quivering paladin. "I could ask you the same thing. I heard what happened at the fort. I heard rumors about Jaylen, but I didn't believe them. This wing of the castle has been so heavily guarded that even I couldn't find a way to get in here and check on him very often. The best I've been able to do is disguise myself as one of the guards for a few minutes every other day or so and hide in the hallway to watch what those monsters they call healers have been doing to the poor kid."
"What have they done to my paladin? I need to know so I can help him."
"What do you want to know, exactly?" Gavin asked, pushing his bright red bangs out of his face.
"Those tiny holes in his back-"
"From injections. They've been running countless and nonstop experiments on him. You should know something. Jaylen wasn't like this when they first brought him in here. He was fighting back, screaming your name. He was crying and fully aware of everything. Sure, he was a bit beat up from falling out of the sky with you and having two trees fall on him, but other than that, he was still Jaylen. Then they started this . . . torture. That's what it is. It's torture. They've been force-feeding him, as I'm sure you've noticed. But that was probably the most humane thing they did. At first, it started with them continually twisting the broken bones in his leg without mercy. When he screamed, they would slap him across the face and tease him when he started to cry from the pain in his jaw. Then came the sleep deprivation. They would stay at the bedside and shove needles into every inch of his body whenever he started to fall asleep, turning it into a sadistic game and placing bets on which sensitive place would make him scream the loudest. That went on for a week. They were slowly breaking him down and changing him into . . . this."
Jaylen stayed silent as he stared at his left wrist where his hand used to be as if he was trying to figure out what happened to it.
"What now?" Zeriel asked. "I feel so unable to help him. I don't even know where to start. The court gave me full ownership of him, but I'm not sure if I want him, not like this."
"I understand. But you have to remember who he used to be. Deep down, I believe that Jaylen is still there and he's clawing, screaming, and climbing with all of his strength to get out from the place they locked him away in. We can help him. And yes, I mean we. I'm going to stay in Ilyan with you and him and help in any way I can."
"Thank you, Gavin. Can you help me get Jaylen across town to his house? I can't carry him with my cane. When I fell, one of the trees landed on me and cracked my pelvis. It's incredibly painful. I can't even fly again yet."
"Sure, Zeriel. I'll see if I can get him to walk beside me. Though, they did occasionally take him on walks around the hallways. They used a leash and a collar like a dog."
"We're not doing that. Jaylen is not an animal. I will not put a collar on him like a dog."
"Woof! Woof!" Jaylen licked Gavin's cheek as he continued to bark like a dog. "Woof!"
"Uh . . ." Gavin patted Jaylen's messy blond hair. "Good boy?"
The blanket slipped off of Jaylen's body as he curled up in Gavin's lap and quickly fell asleep.
Zeriel raised an eyebrow curiously. "So, what do we do about that?"
"No idea. I'm as clueless as you are. Well, have you ever had a dog before?"
"That's not funny."
"It wasn't really meant to be funny. I'm kind of serious. If Jaylen only responds as a dog, then maybe we need to figure out how to communicate with a dog then relate that back to human terms. Oh, Hell's flames. I hope the idea I just had was wrong. You don't think they could have been turning Jaylen into a . . ."
"A werewolf?" Zeriel asked. "Yes, I had the same thought."
Gavin continued stroking Jaylen's hair. "Though, I don't think that's right, either. He doesn't have any of the physical changes that come along with something like that. No. He's not a werewolf. I would be able to sense that. This seems to be more of a mental conditioning to make him believe that he's a dog."
"What kind of twisted experiments have they been conducting on him? Making him believe he's a dog?"
"Dogs are usually considered to be obedient, submissive, and completely reliant on their owners for everything. If they could turn him mentally into a dog, then they could ensure that he would be obedient to their every command. That's it!" Gavin pointed to the wall by the door where a collar and leash were hanging. "They've been training him."
"Training him?"
"Yes. They've been completely controlling every aspect of his life down to his thoughts and emotions. They stripped him down to nothing and shaped him into an unthinking animal."
"I understand now. But why? Why a dog? What could they have been planning to use him for?"
"We may never know." Gavin stood up then took the black leather collar and matching leash from the hook on the wall. "Aha. Here's Jaylen's collar with his name inscribed on the metal tag. If he is mentally nothing more than a dog, then we need to tre
at him like a dog until we can build him back up to being human."
"I'm not going to put a collar on Jaylen."
"Then I'll do it." Gavin clapped his hands together and whistled. "Jaylen, come here, boy. Come here. We're going for a walk."
Jaylen perked up then stood and came to stand in front of Gavin with an eager look on his face. He tilted his head to the side. "Woof?"
Zeriel shook his head as he glared at the incubus who secured the collar around Jaylen's neck. "I hate you so much, Gavin. Hold on. Jaylen, you like your collar, don't you?"
Jaylen was panting like a dog as he joyfully licked Gavin's face again.
"Then you weren't trying to strangle yourself earlier, were you? You were asking for your collar because you knew we were going to leave. I understand now. I mean, this is very odd and concerning, but I think I'm starting to understand how I can help you get back to your normal human self. Gavin, can I lead him?"
Gavin handed him the leash after he clipped it around Jaylen's collar. "Sure. First, he needs clothes. I don't think him being naked outside is going to help anything. We're already going to attract all kinds of unwanted attention on the walk to his house, you know?"
"I don't care what other people think. I'm only concerned with helping Jaylen find himself again. Tie that shirt around his waist. It will at least be something." Zeriel petted Jaylen's head and watched the flicker of happiness in the boy's eyes. "You're in there still, aren't you? Don't worry, Jay. I will help you get out. I'm not going to give up on you, no matter how strange things get. Now, let's go for a walk."
* * *
As soon as they entered the house, Jaylen was pulling hard against the leash and barking nonstop. Zeriel unclipped the leash then jumped out of the way as Jaylen ran off to the bedroom. He turned to Gavin as he listened to the bed creaking in the other room. "So, what now?"
Gavin placed the groceries on the kitchen table and lit a lantern. "Let him get used to being home again. I think he's excited. He probably recognizes the place and has to mark it as his own."
"Oh, gross. He's not going to pee on everything, is he?"
"Not like that. You know what I mean." Gavin pulled the flour, cinnamon, sugar, and eggs from the basket. "Now, I believe you have some baking to do."
Zeriel hobbled into the kitchen then sat at the table before removing his soaking wet coat and hanging it over the back of the chair to dry. "I'm going to make cinnamon buns. They were always Jaylen's favorite. I will start on the dough if you want to light a fire in the hearth. It's terribly cold in here."
"Do you hear that?" Gavin asked.
"No. I don't hear anything but the rain outside."
"Exactly. I think Jaylen is getting some much needed sleep."
"That's good. He needs it after what those people have been doing to him." Zeriel suddenly remembered something from many years ago that had slipped his mind. "Actually, I've seen that collar before."
"Jaylen's collar?"
"Yes, or one very much like it. Doran used to make him wear it when he misbehaved. He made Jaylen bark like a dog then he would punish him and feed him treats and pet him."
"Sounds twisted. What was wrong with that man?" Gavin asked.
"Many things. Could this be connected somehow? What if Jaylen felt the need to punish himself so he adopted the mindset of a dog?"
"Could be a possibility. We will look into it later." Gavin started piling up kindling in the hearth. "Can we talk about what happened at the fort?"
Zeriel really didn't want to talk about that or even think about it ever again, but as long as Gavin was willing to help out with Jaylen, he didn't really have a choice. "What do you want to know?"
"There was a rumor going around that Jaylen stood there and watched as everyone died."
"That's true. To this day, I don't know why. I simply don't know why."
"And is it true that Oviel, Brinx, Trevor, and Liam are all gone?" Gavin asked.
"Jaylen and I were the only survivors aside from Sulstair and Axaniel. I wouldn't in a million years have believed that Axaniel would turn on Oviel like that. They used to be so close."
"Sometimes the lines between friends and enemies can blur."
"I don't know. Then there's my sister. I had just started to get to know her. I was looking forward to having Brinx in my life after so long without her. But I guess it just wasn't meant to be." Zeriel cracked an egg into the bowl. "I bet my father is having the best time of his life right now, knowing that I'm suffering so much."
Gavin sat back as he watched the flames engulf the small twigs and sticks in the hearth. "You've forgotten what's under my mask, haven't you? This half of Carvael isn't happy in the least."
"You know, I was thinking about that, actually. You're supposed to be the half of Carver's soul that became a demon, but you are friendly and caring. Then Carvael is supposed to be the angel half, but he's cruel and heartless. What if things got crossed and messed up in the process?"
"I suppose it's a possibility. When that much magic gets going out of control, I guess anything is possible. The more pressing question I have is where we go from here. I feel like before, we actually had something that could pass as a vague plan. Now, all of that is gone. There's just one thing I want to know."
"What's that?" Zeriel asked, stirring the batter in the bowl. "If it's what we're both wondering, the only person who can answer you is Jaylen."
"It is that. Why didn't he fight? Why did he let them die? Trevor and Liam were his friends. Oviel took care of Jaylen through so much. Out of all the people around us, I never had Jaylen pegged for the sociopathic homicidal maniac."
Zeriel shook his head as he coated his hands in flour. "He's not homicidal. It's not like he actually killed them."
"He didn't save them, either."
"Listen, I know my paladin. I firmly believe that if Jaylen was in his right mind during that battle, he would have saved them all."
"So you think there were other powers at work in Jaylen's mind?" Gavin asked.
"I know there were. He was wearing that stupid amulet that Carvael gave him. Ever since he got that thing, he has been acting strangely with it on."
"Did you think about the possibility that maybe it wasn't something magical that did that to him? He's sixteen. He's young. Maybe seeing that much bloodshed traumatized him to the point of shutting down. Seeing things like that can hurt people mentally. Those effects can last a lifetime."
Zeriel rolled out the sweet dough on the table and sprinkled it with cinnamon. "I don't know. At this point, I don't care why it happened. I just want to fix Jaylen and make sure that it doesn't happen again. That is . . . if he can be fixed."
Gavin stood up and stretched. "You know that I still have to fulfill my contract that I took with Sammy's sister in Wolfekin, right?"
"Killing Carvael and finding the baby? Yes. I know."
"There's one more facet to that problem that I didn't tell you in the first place. If Carvael dies, I die as well. We are, after all, two halves of the same person's soul."
"So you will be killed by the archdemons if you refuse to fulfill your contract, but you will die if you do fulfill your contract?" Zeriel asked.
"Exactly. I'm screwed either way. Of course, I'm not the kind of person to go down without making the biggest splash, so I'll do what I can to make the most difference in the world before I die."
"As long as we're talking about this, I want to ask you a question that might make you angry. If you knew all the horrible things Carvael was doing to innocent children, why didn't you commit suicide so he would die as well and save them from all that torture?"
Gavin watched the flames dancing in the hearth. "A very good, but very complicated question. Many, many years ago, I did try to kill myself, but Carvael was always there to stop me. Now, I want to wait for the precise right time to kill him that will lead to the best changes in Aldexa. I have to wait until all the pieces fall in line to ensure that no new archangel will ever place himself
above Sola."
"So you do think that Sola is being controlled by Carvael."
"I'm not sure if she's being controlled by him or if he's done something to her to make her unable to do much. I do know one thing for certain. There are dark forces in play in Heaven right now."
Zeriel grabbed his cane then stood up slowly. "If you will get these over the fire and baking, I will go check on Jaylen."
"Sure thing."
Zeriel shuffled into the hallway then slowly opened the door to Jaylen's bedroom. What he saw nearly brought tears to his eyes. Jaylen was curled up in a tight ball in the middle of the bed, still wearing his collar. Zeriel smiled at the sight. At least he was sleeping soundly. He went to the bed and smoothed Jaylen's messy blond hair. "Sleep well, Jaybird. We will work on finding you again in the morning. I know you're still in there. I swear I will never give up on you, no matter what Gavin and I have to do." He leaned down and gently kissed the boy's cheek. "Goodnight, my paladin."
Chapter 11
"How is our little puppy this morning?" Gavin asked as he started a pot of tea over the fire in the hearth.
Zeriel stepped into the main room, shivering and dripping from the bathwater that had completely soaked through his black shirt and pants. The water squished in his boots and spread out over the wooden floor. "You'd better get that tea going before I catch a cold."
"Why are you all wet?" Gavin asked with a giggle.
"I tried to give Jaylen a bath. Apparently dog Jaylen doesn't like water."
"And where is he now?"
Zeriel dug a towel out of the cabinet against the wall then started the process of drying his face and wings. "Hiding in his closet whimpering. He still has shampoo in his hair."
"You're not going to leave him in there, are you? He needs you, Zeriel."
"I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this. I feel like I'm not getting through to him. If there is any piece of human Jaylen still inside that mind, then I haven't been able to find it."
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