Credo (Scars of the Wraiths Book 3)

by Nashoda Rose

  I swallowed the bile in my throat, shaking my head. “No.”

  “Delara. You must.” He closed his eyes as if the effort of speaking was too much.

  I inhaled a quivering breath. “If I can convince him to let you go, maybe—”

  “Like hell. I won’t leave you here.” Waleron’s opened and I witnessed something different. It was softness. Warmth I hadn’t felt since… since before he was taken by the Lilac.

  I ran my hand over his shaved head, the bristles so familiar, and yet it had been a long time since I’d caressed him. It took him being beaten to near death for me to be able to hold him like this.

  I wiped the tears away with the back of my hand. The image of Waleron’s body being thrashed, the pain on his face…. God, I’d do anything to save him from that again.

  Damn it, hadn’t he suffered enough?

  He raised his arm, chain clanking, and stroked my cheek with his thumb. He grimaced from the movement, but did it anyway. I kissed his palm, then each finger.

  I had to be strong for both of us, but there was that gnawing hopelessness that clung to me like leeches. Tarek. It was Tarek who made me feel that way.

  “Baby, we are only hopeless when we’re not together.” He closed his eyes, and before I could respond he fell unconscious.

  I JOLTED AWAKE TO THE lever creaking and moving upward, then the door opening. I shifted Waleron’s head off my lap and scrambled to my feet as Tarek entered with a cocky grin and a bounce in his step.

  Disgusting, pathetic worm.

  Nothing would give me more pleasure than to wrap that golden rope in his hand around his neck and hang him up by it, then whip him until he took his last breath.

  Waleron groaned and his muscles twitched when he tried to sit up. “No. Don’t move,” I whispered.

  His back was ravaged and he desperately needed a Healer. Jesus, this was my fault. Tarek was demented, and obsessed with me. I had to find a way to get Tarek to release him.

  Tarek swung the gold rope in his hand back and forth. Zurina was the only person who had the connections to obtain a rope with powers. She must have been planning this even when Tarek was in Rest, hovering like a snake in the grass until he rose and then collaborating so they both got what they wanted.

  God, why? Why after all these years would Zurina betray us? She was a Taldeburu Healer and had been loyal to the Scars for centuries.

  Tarek snapped the rope in the air. I sidestepped to the right, to block him from Waleron.

  “Protecting him? Sweet. But that won’t last long,” Tarek said.

  He stopped in front of me and I smelled the sweat leaking from his pores. His fingers tightened around the rope and his arm muscles flexed.

  I tensed, waiting for him to hit me, but instead his fingers caressed my cheek, then curled around the base of my skull.

  He yanked me up against him and my stomach curdled. Memories flooded, and it took everything in me to keep from fighting, but I had to protect Waleron. Now wasn’t the time to fight. Both of us were too weak from whatever drug he had given us and Tarek had that goddamn rope.

  “Twenty years I lay in Rest, dreaming about you,” he spat, fingers cruelly digging into my neck. “The nightmare of finding his letter repeated in my dreams over and over again. The beating. The agony of what I’d done. I don’t want to hurt you, Delara. You force me to. All I want to do is love you, but you won’t let me.” Bullshit. Love didn’t come with fear. “But we’ll be together now.”

  I had to do something. I had to get us out of here.

  “Delara. Break his hold. Now.” Waleron’s voice whispered in my mind.

  I didn’t question him, just reacted, slamming my elbow into Tarek’s face. At the same time Waleron leapt to his feet, staggered a second, and tackled Tarek, trying to get the chain around his neck. The gilded rope whipped into the air before it fell to the ground.

  I ducked and the rope missed me.

  “Get the door open,” Waleron ordered.

  I ran. But my feet were heavy from the drugs and everything was moving in slow motion. I reached the lever and pushed up with both hands, but it wouldn’t budge. Shit.

  “I can’t get it!” I pushed, pulled, yanked on the lever. Nothing.

  I glanced over my shoulder at Waleron. Tarek threw him back and Waleron landed on his back, his face a mask of agony. Tarek jumped on top of him while coiling the golden rope.

  “Waleron, the rope,” I screamed.

  Waleron dove to the right, but a second too late. It lassoed his neck and Tarek yanked.

  Both men were on their feet now. Waleron’s hands latched on to the rope and I smelled his burning flesh.

  No. I ran toward them and Tarek half turned just as I jumped on his back and we both crashed to the cement floor.

  Tarek’s elbow thrust into my side and knocked the wind out of me. I lost my grip around his neck and fell to the side as he leapt to his feet, still holding the rope around Waleron’s neck.

  I leapt up and ran at Tarek again, sliding on the floor at the last second and using the momentum to kick Tarek in the back of the legs. He stumbled forward and released the rope.

  “Fuckin’ bitch,” Tarek yelled as he went for me.

  I kneed him in the groin and he dropped like a lead weight, eyes tearing and his face a mask of agony as he cried out.

  “Waleron.” I ran for him and helped him lift the rope off his neck. His skin peeled away with it. The burns looked deep and had just missed his Ink.

  Waleron was bleeding profusely; the wounds on his back had reopened and blood was now trickling down his skin and pooling on the cement floor.

  I turned to see Tarek swinging the rope over his head like a lasso. I ran at him.

  “Delara, no!” Waleron shouted.

  I cursed my weak legs, but managed to jump for the rope at the same time Tarek threw it to lasso Waleron. The gold-covered cord ripped at my hands as I stopped the momentum.

  Tarek yanked on the rope and I stumbled forward, falling to my knees. I tried to gain my feet, but Tarek was already on me. He grabbed my arm, pulled it behind my back, and wrenched it so hard I cried out.

  “He can’t leave here, Delara.” Tarek jerked up on my arm and I fell to my knees. It is a pointless fight.”

  “Not if you’re dead.” I gritted my teeth as my shoulder screamed in agony.

  “I miscalculated your strength. I’ll have to be more careful.”

  Tarek waved his hand at a lever on the wall and it shifted downward. The chains slowly became taut as Waleron was pulled up until his feet barely touched the ground.

  “I’m sure you remember what this feels like. Sixty-one years as Jasmine’s play toy. I suspect she kept you tied up nice and tight in her webs. Did she fuck you?”

  The chains rattled violently and I heard Waleron’s roar of fury in my head.

  “Waleron. Don’t. On my life, I swear I will get you out of the chains and you can Trace to the Realm. Whatever it takes. However long.” And whatever I had to do, even if it meant submitting to Tarek.

  “No more oaths, Delara. No more fuckin’ oaths.”

  Tarek pulled me to my feet and I stumbled toward the door.

  Waleron’s words blasted into my mind. “You stay alive. No matter what, you fuckin’ stay alive. Do whatever you have to do to survive, maitagarri.”

  He’d said those words once before a long time ago and I did. I survived and I would again. We both would. We were never meant to be apart.

  I nodded and Tarek noticed. “Speaking with him? Make sure you tell him how much you enjoy me fucking you.”

  I spat in his face then jabbed him in the throat with my fist. He coughed and choked, but reacted with a brutal punch to the side of my head.

  Waleron’s chains clanged. “I will fuckin’ destroy you, Tarek.”

  Tarek laughed as he dragged me out the door.

  THE LEVER LIFTED AND THE door swung open. Tarek strolled into the basement, a cocky sway in his step. I had no idea how
much time had passed, a day, two days; fuck, I’d been in and out of consciousness so often it could’ve been weeks for all I knew.

  “Where is she?” I gripped the chains. Blood dripped down my arms from the manacles cutting into my wrists.

  “Exhausted.” Tarek smirked. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Rest, but you certainly wake with one hell of a sex drive.”

  I ignored the cramps in my arms as I strained against the manacles. The thought of Delara being forced…. Christ, no. How would she survive that?

  Because she was Delara and she’d done it before. She’d survive because she had to and I’d taught her how. She knew how to stay alive. She should’ve never survived days beaten and broken lying in the ditch, but she had. And she’d survive this.

  I’d tried to reach Delara telepathically, but she had either blocked me from her mind or she was unconscious, because I couldn’t reach her.

  My body had gone through violent shivers and muscle spasms for hours until finally it stopped and shut down to the pain.

  Numb to the torture. Even my Ink hadn’t risen again.

  Tarek circled me, admiring the wounds as if inspecting a piece of meat. With a finger he traced a jagged open wound from my shoulder down to my waist.

  “She begged me, you know.”

  I remained motionless, but inside I roared with anger and it was the first flicker of something from my Ink.

  Tarek touched the cut and with his fingernails picked at it. I clamped my jaw at the agony, but refused to cry out.

  Instead I thought about gutting him. Peeling his skin from his body and making him suffer for fuckin’ centuries.

  “She begged me to stop, until I told her every time she disobeyed me, you’d be tortured. You know what she did?”

  A nail ripped into a scab and a tortured groan escaped my throat. But it wasn’t from the pain he caused; it was the anguish of what was happening to Delara.

  “She fell on her knees in front of me, and I assume you know what she can do with that mouth of hers. Or perhaps you don’t?” Tarek dug his nail beneath torn skin, and warm blood trickled from the reopened wound. “Can’t have you healing, now can we? Tracing out of here would ruin all my plans.”

  Tarek’s head bobbed, as if he were listening to a song he liked.

  “I broke her once and I will again.” Tarek flicked his wrist and the chains lowered until my feet touched the floor and there was slack in the chains. “Once that happens, I will no longer need you anymore.”

  Pins and needles erupted in my arms as the blood rushed back, and I ground my teeth together as circulation returned along with the pain.

  Tarek reached into his pocket, pulled out a plastic water bottle, and threw it on the floor in front of me.

  “Don’t need you dying yet. Oh, and it’s better you don’t try to speak with her.” Tarek drew a gun from the back of his jeans and pulled the trigger. The dart plunged into my neck.

  The last sound I heard was Tarek humming a tune as he waltzed out the door.

  Sitting on the floor with my back against the wall and knees pulled to my chest, I dozed in and out of sleep. But every sound woke me and images of Waleron haunted my dreams.

  “Waleron,” I whispered as my head rolled to the side, eyes closing. I tried desperately to stay awake, but exhaustion took hold and I slipped into the nightmares.

  “Delara?”

  The familiar voice entered my dream, but it was different, as if he were there. Like he was real. “Xamien?”

  “I’m Dreamstepping with you. I’ve been trying for days to reach you.”

  But I’d avoided sleeping.

  “I’m linked to you. Kind of like mindweaving, but this is in your dream.”

  My heart pounded. They could save Waleron. Get him out of here. “Waleron. You have to help him. Tarek. He’ll kill him soon. I can’t—”

  “Delara. Deep breaths. You must remain calm. If you wake, I will lose you.” His voice became a whisper, soft and soothing. “I want you to tell me where you are. Can you do that without waking? Stay deep in your dream.”

  There was no ground, no trees, no sky—just ominous clouds, and when I sniffed the air, all I could scent was him, Waleron. Where was he? Was he with me? “I don’t know, but I smell Waleron. Is he okay?”

  Xamien sighed. “Delara, you’re sleeping. This is a dream. I want you to think about where you are when you’re awake. What is around you? Is Tarek with you?”

  Tarek. The clouds began to bleed red and the gentle mist turned violent.

  “Delara! Fuck. Let your mind relax. Tarek can’t hurt you here. You’re safe. I’ll never let anyone touch you in your dream. Tarek will never be let in. He can’t reach you in this world. You know this from mindweaving. I control it.”

  Slowly the red dissipated.

  “Good girl. Now, think about where you are when you’re awake.”

  “In a room. It’s warm, humid, salty. I can hear the waves constantly hitting the rocks. And the thunder tonight. Oh God, it’s like the whip that….” I muffled a sob.

  “Where, Delara?”

  “We can’t escape. Waleron tried…. He beat him, Xamien. Tarek beat him.”

  “Who brought Waleron there? Did he Trace?”

  “No. A gift. He paid for him to be brought here. He was brought here. I don’t know who. But he’s chained and in so much pain.”

  “Can you tell us anything else? Is Zurina there too? How many men does Tarek have?”

  “I don’t know. I never saw anyone. But Tarek… he separated us.” I heard footsteps. Were they Xamien’s? Were the footsteps in my dream or real? I couldn’t separate the two anymore. “Xamien, I can’t see you, but I hear you coming. Where are you?”

  “Stay with me, Delara. Did Zurina Trace you to Tarek?”

  “She drugged me. He keeps us drugged. An island. It’s an island.” The footsteps stopped and the scent of Tarek drifted into me. “He’s here. You promised he wouldn’t come here. I can’t move. I can’t fight him.”

  “Delara. Wake up!” Xamien ordered.

  I jolted awake, my head hitting the wall at the same time Tarek entered the room. Dread plowed into me when I saw his smile and the knife in his hand.

  My knife.

  I scrambled to my feet, pressing my spine against the wall.

  “A present for you. I thought it would give you some sort of… what shall we call it? An offering? Yes, offering.” He grinned, but it didn’t meet his eyes. The rising sun glimmered off the steel blade as he held it up and ran his finger over the edge. Then he frowned. “What is it, Delara? You look upset.”

  I gritted my teeth and glared. “I’m going to kill you really slowly, Tarek.”

  Tarek threw back his head and laughed. “Ahh, nice to see some spirit, my love. I always knew that was in you.” He held out his hand. “Come here, Delara. And be quick about it. I don’t want to have to go to the basement.” He tweaked his finger at me. “You don’t want that, do you?”

  Waleron. He was going to constantly use him against me, and unless I had a chance to kill Tarek, I had no choice because I wasn’t letting him win.

  Lifting my chin, I walked toward him.

  For now, I’d do whatever he wanted. But there would be a moment; he’d falter and I’d be ready.

  Patient. Calm. Vigilant.

  I stopped a foot away.

  He walked around me. The hardwood creaked with each step.

  He stopped behind me and his warm breath tickled the back of my neck. “You missed me, didn’t you?”

  I swallowed. “Yes.”

  His arm hooked my waist and he dragged me to him, teeth nipping the lobe of my ear. “And you’ll be obedient this time, won’t you?”

  The urge to slam my head back into his was overwhelming. Instead, I dug my nails into my thighs and replied, “Yes.”

  Staring out the barred window, I listened to the waves hit the rocks on the shore. I matched my breathing to the soothing rhythm.

  �
�Hold your arm out.” He curled his fingers tight around my wrist and held my arm steady. “Did you think I didn’t know why you cut, Delara?” He breathed heavily into my ear and cold shivers slunk down my spine. He slid the flat edge of the blade down my arm, then up again.

  His teeth clamped hard on my ear and I couldn’t stop the sharp intake of breath at the pain. “Mmmm, I forgot how amazing you taste.”

  I closed my eyes and counted the waves. One. Two. Three. Four….

  “I missed you, my love.” The cool blade continued to rub against my skin. “I want you to bleed for me.”

  Ten. Eleven. Twelve….

  My breath hitched as the point of the blade pierced my skin and dragged down my arm. My instinct was to fight. To get away. But I remained still as the blood rose to the surface of the cut then slipped over the barrier of the separated skin and trickled like a beaded pearl down the inside of my arm.

  “You like the pain. Don’t you, Delara?” he whispered.

  No. I hated it. I hated what it reminded me of. The weakness of being unable to face my emotions. The feeling of hopelessness.

  He ran his finger across the wound, smearing the blood across my skin. “I will always give you what you need.”

  Inside I screamed and shouted, and in my imagination I grabbed the blade and tore open his throat. And I would.

  He pushed me away from him and I stumbled to my hands and knees. “Get up. Lean over the bed.”

  No way in hell. I’d kill him or I’d die before I let him rape me.

  The vibration of his cell rang in his pocket and he swore beneath his breath as he took it out and barked, “What?”

  He glared at me then walked out.

  THE ANGER SIMMERED LIKE A pot of water on low heat. Slowly boiling. Waiting for the moment it would finally boil over.

  And it would. I would.

  He didn’t exist.

  It was my mind I had to hold on to and find a way to escape. Tarek was a cruel, vicious, pathetic asshole, but he wasn’t stupid and had thought of everything. An island. Keeping me drugged, although it was only mildly now as he knew I wouldn’t fight back knowing Waleron was drugged and wounded.