Becoming Banshee

by Kimberly Quay

  “I know, but it happened, and you’re confused. You love him.” I glanced her way, and started to deny it, but she continued before I could. “Let’s get through tonight. Later, if you want to, we can talk more. I’ve known Ian for a long time.” She reached out and linked her arm with mine.

  I stiffened for a second. I’d never had a female friend. Sheryl and I didn’t have a friendly relationship. We had each other’s backs during missions, but that was about it. I’ve always been closer to Seth than any of the females in our clan. Maybe it’s because a man raised me?

  “I’d like to get to know you better. I will be staying at the house with you, so we can talk any time you want.”

  “Okay, thanks.” I glanced behind me to see that Sheryl was walking with Ian. She was flirting up a storm, but what got my blood boiling was seeing Ian flirting back. “Ass.”

  Triza turned to see where I was looking. “Oh, you don’t have to worry there. She’s tried nailing him down for years. He’s never taken the bait.”

  I caught a glimpse of Slash watching Sheryl and Ian. He did not look happy about it. That interesting tidbit was something to think about later.

  Chapter Nine

  As we got closer to the clichéd old mansion on a hill where Gabriel had taken up residence, Ian caught up to Triza and me. He leaned in close to her, speaking so softly I couldn’t hear what he’d said. Triza smiled at me and turned to go back to the others.

  “Goldie…”

  “Stop worrying, Ian, please. I don’t want you to worry about me while we are in there. Then I’ll worry about you worrying about me. We can’t be distracted like that. I got this. You’ve trained me well.”

  He looked pained. “I will be fine, I promise.” Rising onto my toes, I kissed him. Just a light peck, but it seemed to relax him at least some.

  When the others reached us, I went over to Bryce and wrapped my arms around him. “You be careful, okay?”

  “You do the same, my pip.”

  We entered through the back of the house. Slash found an unlocked window that led to what must have been a library back in the day. The shelves I imagined once held books were full of cobwebs and thick layers of dust. I took a moment to appreciate how amazing the house must have been once upon a time and longed for a house of my own one day. I may be a kick-ass banshee killer, but the softer side of me wanted the same fairytale life most other girls did. Ha! Fairytale! If they only knew.

  I heard a faint tapping noise coming from somewhere above us. I raised my hand to tell everyone to be still. Once their shuffling had stopped, I strained to hear the noise better.

  I tugged Ian’s shirt until he bent closer to me. “Upstairs,” I whispered.

  He nodded and signaled for everyone to split up to search the house. He stayed with me, as did Bryce, Sheryl, and Slash. It seemed Slash didn’t want to be too far from Sheryl. Curiouser and curiouser.

  Ian pointed down a dark hall to the right once we reached the top of the stairs. There were six doors, three on each side. He motioned to the second on the left. We approached the door and listened. Sure enough, I could hear the tapping noise coming from the other side of the door.

  I inhaled deeply and felt a rush of adrenaline when I recognized the scent. Gabriel was in there.

  I pointed to myself then the door. Ian shook his head. I pointed more emphatically making him glare at me, but he agreed.

  I swung the door open. “Gabe, fancy meeting you here!”

  His eyes widened proving we’d taken him by surprise. The tapping had been from a cane he was using to pace the room. Banshees don’t need canes. Something was up.

  He used the cane to press a button on the desk in front of him. A hidden panel slid open and a few of his minions came into the room. Damn.

  “Qadira, my dear, how nice of you to pay us a visit. I’ve missed you,” he hissed.

  “Wish I could say the same, asshat.”

  His men were ignoring me and focusing on everyone else.

  I focused my full attention on Gabriel. He dragged a sword from the cane. Ah, that explains it.

  “I see you noticed my men are paying you no mind. They know I want you all to myself. You are mine.”

  He was backing toward the wall on the far side of the room. I moved with him knowing he’d try to escape again. He may be old and powerful, but he was also a coward. He used his followers to fight his battles.

  “You’re not getting away from me this time, Gabe.” I gripped my knives tighter.

  “Oh, I have no intentions of getting away from you, my pretty-little-half-breed.”

  He pressed the tip of the cane into a nondescript spot on the wall behind him. A hidden door swung open.

  Oh shit, this can’t be good.

  I continued to move with him as he stepped over the threshold into the next room. Once I was in, I maneuvered myself so my back wasn’t to the door. That turned out to be a mistake. A quick scan of the room showed that the hidden door to be the only way out.

  I heard the telltale sound of the door locking as it closed. Yeah, this was a mistake. I examined the room again looking for any chance of escape. I could only assume his cane worked as a key and was the only way to open the hidden door.

  The only hint to anything leading to the outside was the huge fireplace which was burning brightly and provided the only light in the room. So, I could crawl through the fire and work my way up the chimney. Being burned, even though I’d heal, didn’t sound enjoyable. Or I could fight Gabriel, take his ridiculous cane, and get my ass out of here.

  I braced myself for a fight. But could never have prepared enough for Gabriel unleashing his full power. I was good at sensing a banshee’s strength, but Gabriel was even better at hiding his. His fist connected with my jaw with such force that it threw me across the room like a rag doll. My knives flew out of reach.

  Gabriel pounced, flipping me onto my stomach and pinning my arms behind my back. He dragged me to the huge bed against the wall opposite the fireplace. The only piece of furniture in the room. Suddenly I knew what he had planned for the evening.

  Panic blossomed. I felt sick. Taking a breath, I tried to regain my composure. I had to fight. I stomped my foot onto his, crushing his toes. He howled in pain but didn’t loosen his hold. I stomped again until his hands slipped enough for me to break his grasp.

  I spun and landed a roundhouse kick to his face. Before he could recover, I charged him slamming his back into the wall next to the fireplace. Without my knives my only hope was to knock him unconscious, so I hit him as much and as hard as I could. I gripped my hands together and brought them down on his skull with all my might.

  The blow stunned Gabriel, but not for long. He kneed me in the gut, knocking the air from my lungs. It incapacitated me for only seconds, but it was long enough for him to bring his knee up into my face, breaking my cheekbone. I stumbled back, giving him the chance to grab me around the waist.

  He once again dragged me to the bed. This time he tossed me onto it and jumped on top of me, pinning me to the mattress.

  He used handcuffs to first lock my wrists then my ankles to the headboard and footboard. Just like they had in the storage unit, Gabriel used faeritonium cuffs, enchanted with an aura-stifling spell. I had no options left but to reason with him. I had to try something.

  “Gabriel, come on, think this through. Ian and the rest of my clan are out there. You’ll never get away with this.”

  “I don’t care. I don’t care if they kill me, as long as I do what I need to do first. My men will hold them off long enough for me to complete my goal and have fun while I do. Lots and lots of fun.

  “You took her away from me. I had plans for her. You ruined my plans and you will pay for it.”

  “Come on, Gabriel. Jilda was trying to kill Ian. I couldn’t just let her do that, now could I?”

  He tilted his head to the side and looked at me in confusion for a second. “Oh, her. I forgot about her.”

  He’d been referring to
Juliana, not Jilda. He didn’t seem to care that Jilda was dead. What the hell did he want with Juliana? I cringed thinking of her in Gabriel’s hands. Thankfully, she was now safe.

  “You took my queen away and now you will replace her, you stupid mutt-whore! Now you’re mine.”

  I was his? That so wouldn’t work for me. I only had one weapon at my disposal: my mouth.

  He was close enough that I was able to take his bottom lip into my mouth. I smiled the best I could and bit. Howling in pain, he jerked away tearing off a chunk of his lip. I spat it back at him showering his face in blood.

  “You stupid bitch!” He smacked me across the face over and over. So hard I saw stars, so much that everything started to blur.

  I choked back my sobs of pain, knowing they were what he wanted. He’d enjoy hearing me suffer. I vowed to myself not to make a peep. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

  “Hmm, you’re a quiet one. We’ll just have to do something about that, won’t we?” he said cheerfully, his lip already healed. He bounded off the bed to remove his shoes and shirt. Bare chested, he moved to where my knives had landed.

  He jumped back on the bed to straddle my legs. “You will scream for me. Feel free to take your time though, I’ll enjoy myself until you do.”

  He tore off my shirt and pants, leaving me in only my underclothes. He made a deep guttural sound as his eyes took in what he’d uncovered. The thought of him doing more than just torture made me sick. I don’t think I’d get over that. Torture was painful, but I’d recover. Anything more would be devastating.

  Gabriel placed the knives on either side of my legs and ran his hands over my thighs, brushing the elastic of my panties. He slipped his thumbs under the waistband and pulled them down as far as he could. He grabbed a knife and cut them off, tossing them into the fire.

  His oddly gentle caress moved over my churning stomach to my breasts where he cut off my bra. Taking my breasts in his hands, he massaged tenderly at first, before squeezing so hard the shock of pain made me gasp. He groaned at the sound. I’d let that one slip, but that was all he was getting. I stared at the ceiling and began doing the multiplication tables in my head while trying to pretend this wasn’t happening.

  When he stopped touching me, I looked back to him. He was staring at my body, his mouth slightly open. His tongue slipped out to lick his lips. A cold panic slid over me when my suspicions became real. He was going to rape me. I had no way to stop him. A suffocating feeling of hopelessness overcame me.

  Ian, where are you? Fear quickened my breath and Gabriel looked encouraged.

  I had to try to distract him, maybe it would hold him off until Ian arrived.

  “Gabriel, when Ian finds you — and he will — he will make you hurt more than you could ever make me. Think about what you’re doing.”

  “Shut up! Just shut up! I don’t care if he tortures me! It will be worth it to see you suffer first. I’d do anything for the mission. Even die. I just need to do my part first,” he said, his voice distant and maniacal.

  Before I could respond he ran the blades of my knives along my torso. I sucked in a breath at the sting. I bit my inner cheek to stop any other signs of pain escaping me. Though I couldn’t stop the tears.

  He watched the blood bead up before he made two more the opposite way, making a macabre tic-tac-toe grid. I lay back and looked back to the ceiling and felt his fingers moving around near the wounds. I glanced down to see he was making little X’s and O’s in the grid.

  “For fuck’s sake, Gabriel! What is wrong with you?”

  He was playing with himself. Although, I must admit I was thankful it was a nightmarish version of a child’s game he was playing with and not something else. Because even through his pants, which he still wore, it was obvious just how much he was enjoying his work.

  “What?” he whined like an admonished child. “I told you I’d have fun. Wanna play with me? I’ll let you go first.”

  “No, you crazy bastard, I don’t want to play with you!”

  His gaze narrowed. “I. Am. Not. Crazy. You’re not a nice mutt, are you?”

  As punishment he gave me another piece of artwork. This time he zigzagged a line from my sternum to my navel. He wasn’t going deep enough to cause any real damage, just enough to weaken me from blood loss.

  Calling him crazy was a huge mistake because he no longer dilly dallied in his “fun”. He cut, hit, and bit me for I don’t know how long. I lost consciousness a few times. Even that didn’t slow him. He found excruciating ways to bring me back to awareness.

  I must have been pretty far gone at one point because he had to stab me. When my eyes refocused, he smiled and jumped off the bed. Although, my mind had entered a protectively numb state from the torture, it awakened fast when I saw he was naked.

  Helpless and beyond distraught I began to cry silently. I watched him skip to the fireplace. He wrapped his hand around a handle sticking out of the flames.

  “Now, I have something special for you before the grand finale,” he said in a singsong voice while rubbing himself with his free hand.

  Relief washed over me as I realized he hadn’t raped me… yet. There was still time.

  “This will prove you are mine. I will achieve greatness using you, so you deserve this. It’s an honor. I don’t share this with just anyone.” He lifted the handle and pulled a branding iron out of the flames.

  Complete, unadulterated rage slammed into me at the sight of a naked Gabriel holding a branding iron with a glowing orange ‘N’. The realization that he was about to brand me and then rape me gave me some strength.

  “Stay the fuck away from me!”

  Suddenly, the flames exploded from the fireplace. So hard and fast they reached the ceiling before settling again. Gabriel stared at the flames for a moment, then turned back to face me. His lips spread into a smile as he leaped back onto the bed to straddle me.

  “That was a neat trick! Do it again!”

  I didn’t know what he was talking about. I was about to lose consciousness again. My outburst had cost me what little strength I had left.

  “You don’t know do you?” Holding the branding iron over my right hip. “You are unique. My plan will be even more successful than I’d hoped!”

  “Fuck off, Gabe.”

  “Ooh, you are a saucy little mutt, aren’t you? But I don’t want to get too excited just yet.”

  He rubbed himself again. With a frighteningly brilliant smile he pressed the molten iron to my skin. The pain was searing, and I could no longer hold back my screams. As weak as they were, they still left me panting and my throat sore.

  Gabriel moaned and gripped himself again. “Oh, that was good. See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” He dropped the iron and positioned himself between my legs. “I think it’s time for that finale.”

  So weak, so broken I didn’t care anymore. I no longer had the ability to feel anything. I wanted it to end.

  “Why don’t you just kill me?”

  “And stop all this fun? No, my little mutt. Now that I know how to make you scream, I’m going to finish this round, then I will heal you and start over again.” He let out a horrible, crazed laugh.

  Suddenly, his laughter stopped. “What? How is that even possible?” he asked out loud.

  I focused and heard a banging sound coming from the vicinity of the hidden door. Ian’s voice calling my name. They were rescuing me.

  Gabriel figured that out as well. He jumped off the bed to press another hidden button. Another secret door beside the fireplace slid open. In a flash, he was gone.

  There was a sudden boom followed by a blur as Ian ran into the opening following Gabriel. There was still a chance of getting Gabriel.

  “Oh, Kadi,” Sheryl said as she ran to my side, tears streaming down her face. “Oh Kadi, what did he do to you? I’m so sorry.” She was sobbing so hard her body was shaking.

  She moved to sit on the bed beside me and I winced as she pulled the stained comforter over
my battered body. “We will get you home soon. Get you healed.”

  We sat there for what felt like an eternity. Sheryl murmured comforting words as I fought to stay conscious. Finally, Ian came back into the room. Alone.

  I groaned in pain as Ian’s power washed over me in a blanket of pin pricks. His body was quivering slightly. His aura glowing and pulsating around him, electrifying the air. My raw skin burned with it.

  At least once in all his years alive, I was sure he’d released the full extent of his power, but I’d never witnessed it. He always held back. Even in the worst of battles, but here it was in all its glory. It was truly amazing.

  The power emanating from Ian’s aura intensified causing me to hiss in pain. It only lasted a second and the pin pricks began to subside.

  Ian moved to stand beside the bed. “Goldie.”

  He was still glowing, making him even more attractive. “You’re magnificent,” I whispered.

  “I…” he started, but Bryce entered the room with Seth and Peder.

  Bryce let out a yelp and reached out. I shook my head to stop him from touching me. It would hurt too much. Sheryl slid off the bed and moved to put her arms around Bryce.

  “Shit is she…” Seth’s words trailed.

  “No, but she is close,” Ian replied.

  He unlocked the shackles holding me to the bed. Gabriel, not expecting an interruption, had left the keys on a bedside table.

  Peder gave me a warm smile as he turned to whisper something to Ian. He was close enough for me to hear that they found more mortal captives.

  There were fewer this time, but they needed attention. I was irrationally jealous that it was so easy to erase the torment they’d endured. I’d never forget.

  “Thank you, Peder. I will handle that after I take care of Goldie.”

  “Of course,” Peder said, leaving the room and taking Sheryl with him.

  Seth and Bryce watched as Ian slipped his hands under my limp body. “This will hurt. I am sorry.”

  As gently as he lifted me it still sent shards of white-hot pain throughout my body. There was no stopping the scream that tore from my lips or the blackness that came with it.