by Ian Haywood
Zephal could see his old friend, and every single one of his stomach muscles hurt as he tried to speak to Gereziac.
Gereziac could clearly see that and he spoke softly to him.
“I’m sorry for what just happened, Zephal. I will make sure that he pays for what he has done to you and I’m glad that we were here to stop him from doing more harm than he did. I have no clue who the man was that you sent to us telling us where Alana’s secret hideout was, but I’m glad because you managed to stop the battle before it became an all-out war.”
Alana had overheard Gereziac and she immediately worked out that the man who Zephal had sent to find Gereziac and his men was none other than Harran – the other body that had disappeared from the beach.
But Gereziac continued.
“You’ve taken quite a beating, my old friend – but it won’t be long before you are back on your feet causing chaos somewhere. I’m sure the mortal world is still shaking from your visit there!”
Zephal suddenly grabbed hold of Gereziac’s arm and managed to force a few words out.
“Is Naomi okay?”
Gereziac placed his hand on Zephal’s arm in a friendly gesture and answered.
“I hope so – I know that you did everything you possibly could to make sure that she never fell into the wrong hands. Don’t you ever think that you have failed me because if you were not around then she would never have made it this far alive. We will find her and then we can put everything in place to secure the future of our people.”
Zephal loosened his grip on Gereziac’s arm and as he did so, Gereziac rose to his feet and immediately turned to the soldiers who were waiting to help Zephal.
“I want you to take good care of General Zephal here – he is as stubborn as a mule at the best of times and no matter how much he insists that he does not need your help, please remind him that if he doesn’t accept your help then his injuries will be far worse when I get my hands on him back at the barracks!”
And then he turned his attention to a small number of guards who were keeping watch over Alana.
“Keep a close eye on this one because she is capable of anything if she is given the opportunity. She is now our prisoner and should be treated accordingly.”
Alana didn’t like the fact that she was just referred to as a prisoner and immediately spoke up.
“I will never be your prisoner, Gereziac! I have not surrendered to you in any shape or form. It will only be a matter of time before my remaining men discover that I have been taken by you and they will prepare themselves to free me!”
Gereziac laughed.
“Do you have any soldiers left, Alana? You haven’t seen how many we have disposed of in this secret hideout of yours already! But I must say, you really have turned it into quite a cozy set up for you and your men!”
But Alana stood defiantly.
“I have a lot more men than you think!”
Of course Alana had a number of spies working for her dotted around the Sumarian Valley, but most importantly some had managed to infiltrate the Great Council – the very people Gereziac wanted to take her to for her trial.
They could still prove incredibly valuable to her cause because just one word from her would be the signal for them to rise up and kill the other Elders within the Great Council until Gereziac held no control over it.
They could cause mayhem both physically and tactically.
Outside, Lucius had completely lost his mind and he was trying to fight with every one of Gereziac’s soldiers in the corridor and Alana knew that if he continued to do so, then it wouldn’t be long before he was killed.
And that would mean that her secret remained safe.
Lucius was in no fit state right now to reveal to the world that she possessed the Disciples of Draig tattoo on her wrist, therefore making sure that all the surviving members of her army still held Alana with the same respect as they did before.
Gereziac had mentioned that he and his men had disposed of quite a large number of Alana’s soldiers while they made their way through her secret hideout.
But he also said that more of her soldiers perished while Gereziac and his men travelled here and Alana held on to the slim hope that there may be some survivors close by heading back very soon ready for action against the enemy before Gereziac gave the order for them all to leave for the Great Chambers.
No matter how bad everything looked for Alana, there was still an incredibly slim chance that she could continue with her mission with the little resources that she had left.
Alana now believed that this battle may be over for her, but the war was still alive.
And as Alana watched Zephal being helped out of the room to be taken to safety, Gereziac instantly gave the order to the soldiers keeping watch over her to move out of the cell and into the corridor.
To Alana’s surprise, the corridor was relatively empty and there was no sign of Lucius anywhere – just a few soldiers waiting for their orders.
It was clear though how much respect they had for Zephal because as he slowly passed each of them, they immediately bowed their heads to him.
Alana walked through the very corridors that she had overseen being built to the sight of dead bodies everywhere – all of them wearing the very uniforms that she had personally chosen.
The floors were awash with blood and where there should be echoes of shoes on hard floor, all that could be heard was the feint sound of splashing.
And as they made their way into the giant Meeting Room, Alana caught sight of more bodies scattered around on the floor – but these ones wore robes that indicated their higher stature within Alana’s ranks.
Every one of her Generals must have gathered here before making their way to the cells where Lucius was going to reveal Alana’s secret to them.
But just before they were about to head towards the two massive doors which led towards the tunnels, their path was blocked by the sight of two soldiers holding Lucius, who was now bound from head to toe with rope.
Gereziac walked up to the restrained Lucius and ordered for the soldiers guarding Alana not to move on until he told them to.
Everyone waited in silence to hear what Gereziac was about to say next and it wasn’t long in coming.
“Lucius! This reunion could have been a lot better if it wasn’t for your silly hot headedness! It hurts me deep down that you could have turned your back on the greatest thing that you ever had. You were destined for great things when you served under me and Zephal only did what he did to help you succeed further. You speak of us as if we are pure evil, but it is you that chose to take the dark path.”
And with that, Gereziac turned and addressed Alana.
“You must take part of the blame for what Lucius has become, Alana! The man was weak when your paths crossed and whatever you put into his head took every ounce of decency out of him.”
“You talk of decency!” Alana shouted back, “The only thing that was filling his mind when I met him was the betrayal he felt when he discovered what you had done!”
Gereziac looked directly at Lucius and spoke.
“You know what happened was not meant to be, Lucius. You knew what that mission was about. Zephal was only following my orders – you should hate me, not him.”
Alana laughed sarcastically.
“Would you not hate the man who killed your own parents, Gereziac? And even worse, he was not satisfied in just killing them, he had to take the life of the woman he loved too! All the attention that Zephal gave him was his own way of making up for the murders that he had committed. The moment he saw Lucius injured on the riverbank days after the attack on his village, Zephal immediately recognized him as the young man who had tried to fight him off. Zephal felt guilty and he gave Lucius a life filled with lies and you were in on it too, Gereziac! But your plan backfired because when Zephal turned Lucius from a mere mortal into a vampire fighting machine, one of your Generals slipped up and inadvertently revealed that you were behind the at
tack on Lucius’s village which wiped out every person he loved! So – don’t act all high and mighty to me because you Gereziac have quite a lot of blood on your hands too!”
Gereziac tried to hold back the anger he was feeling towards Alana right now.
“I can understand Lucius’s anger towards me and Zephal, but your own personal reasons for my demise confuse me, Alana.”
“Don’t act all innocent! We all have our own secrets, don’t we?” Alana replied.
“If you’re talking about Naomi,” Gereziac answered, “I did what I did to protect her from people like you! Now, her life is in great danger and I am in no mood to be wasting time hanging around here. Now, my second-in-command has been carried away with injuries that were sustained by your second-in-command – so I think it only fair that I make things a bit more even.”
Gereziac drew his sword and turned to Lucius and spoke to him.
“Let’s hope I hear the right answers then, Lucius.”
Lucius began to struggle, but it was all in vain.
Gereziac looked back towards Alana.
“Where is Naomi?” he asked her.
“You already know the answer to that question, Gereziac!”
Gereziac nodded his head in agreement.
“That’s right. You told me earlier that she had been taken by the Disciples of Draig! But everyone knows that they have been banished from the immortal world forever! There is no way that any of the Realm Guardians would have left them just wander in through the portal without any kind of fight!”
Lucius wanted to shout out that Alana bore their tattoo and she could be in on it, but the gag around his mouth prevented him from doing so.
Alana sniggered.
“Just like the Realm Guardian stopped Lucius from entering the mortal world to find Naomi in the first place?”
Gereziac knew that Alana had a point and he grew concerned at how safe the portals were right now – and what Alana told him next confirmed his fears.
“Besides Gereziac,” Alana announced, “the Realm Guardian cannot be blamed for who comes in and out of the portal anymore because he is dead! And that’s why the Disciples of Draig are back wandering around our lands!”
Gereziac continued his questioning.
“And where have you hidden the Great Book, Alana?”
Alana just shook her head and lied.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Gereziac immediately knew that she was lying because that was the only way that anyone could have ever known about Gereziac’s daughter’s existence within the mortal world and he could not contain his anger anymore.
“Listen to me!” he shouted, “Stop playing games right now! My daughter is in great danger because of your crazy obsession in destroying everything that I have built throughout my life in order to maintain stability throughout the lands! You have taken from me and I am going to take something from you!”
And without saying another word, Gereziac lifted his sword and swung it down with such force onto the top of Lucius’s head that it split straight through his skull down to his neck, revealing Lucius’s brain.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
I have no idea what happened to me seconds after watching Zephal and the two other men who had sneaked up behind us crashing down the rocks, but everything transcended into darkness and now I find myself waking up in a strange dimly lit room with my mouth gagged and my hands tied to a wooden beam above my head.
Looking around the room, I can consider myself lucky for being in such a position as there were a number of other young women tied up as well, but by their feet so they were hanging upside down.
Being in such an uncomfortable position had taken its toll on the other women and only one or two made some kind of noise to indicate that they were still alive.
A couple of the women around me looked like they may not live for much longer and the expressions on their faces was one of defeat and expectant death.
But within seconds, a sudden burst of light filled the room and I looked up to see where it had come from and noticed a couple of men making their way into the room through an open door.
One of them was carrying a whip and he certainly wasn’t afraid to use it.
He found it extremely funny to randomly whip a couple of the women and the two men took great pleasure in watching those that were picked out squirming with pain as the hard leather made contact with their exposed skin.
But their laughter came to a halt as they suddenly caught sight of me.
Fearing that I was about to become their next victim, I tensed as they started moving towards me.
But instead of feeling the whip striking my body, I felt two pairs of hands working their way around every single inch of my top half and with my hands tied, I was helpless to stop them from doing so.
One of them was sniffing the side of my face and it was blatantly clear that he was getting incredibly turned on by what he was doing and just the thought of him breathing on me was turning me sicker by the second.
The other man had cupped my breasts and was squeezing them so hard that I shuddered in pain, but in doing so I just made the two of them even more excited.
“Looks like the princess doesn’t like being touched!” one of the men whispered into my ear, “I can see why the Master hasn’t disposed of you yet.”
The other man joined in as he continued mauling my chest.
“It has been a long time since we have seen one as pretty as you! If there is one thing that we love to see, it’s someone suffering, but we could make an exception in your case if you were ever so nice to us.”
I shuddered as two hands moved down my body and met just below my belly-button.
Being gagged, I was unable to shout and I kept shaking my head from side to side, indicating that I was certainly not going to let them get what they wanted.
All the time the two men were pawing at me, I kept having flashbacks of the night I had been attacked in the alleyway when I was almost raped.
That was the main reason why I couldn’t go through with having sex with Lucius – which I was glad of after realizing what he really was and if I couldn’t go through with it voluntarily, then no way was anyone going to get it by force.
I fought as hard as I could whilst being restrained and in doing so, managed to loosen the grip they both had on me.
But one of them came back at me twice as strong and tried to nibble the side of my neck and the fear that was inside me quickly turned to anger and he was about to regret making such a bold move on me.
His mistake was to turn to the other man who was watching on to brag about what he was doing to me.
“She tastes so good! If the rest of her tastes as sweet as her neck does, then I will not be disappointed!”
And that pause was enough time for me to prepare myself for my next move.
Without a second’s hesitation, my head met with its intended target of the man’s face with such force that he immediately fell to the ground in both shock and pain.
I was amazed to see how much blood was pouring from his nose as he looked up towards me, but whereas I had stopped him from hurting me in one way, I had just given him an extremely good reason to hurt me in another.
I suddenly felt something slowly trickling down my face and no matter how hard I tried, I could do nothing to stop it from passing my upper lip.
I tried my best not to let it get into my mouth, but to no avail.
I knew exactly what it was as soon as I tasted it and I thought that I was going to be sick as I realized that it was blood.
But was it my blood that I was tasting?
The strangest thing was it tasted incredibly sweet and I found myself licking my lips to get more of it.
The feeling of ecstasy that was running through my body was like nothing I had experienced before and my body was craving more of it by the second.
I just wanted to break free from the ropes and feed on the blood that was pouring from
the face of the man that I had just injured.
Whatever was happening to me, it was nothing like anything I had ever experienced before and whereas my body was craving the sweet taste of blood again, my mind was scared of what I may have become.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
With every second that passed, the muscles in my body became tenser and tenser until it felt as if they were about to burst through my skin at any moment.
Something has seriously changed within me and I’m fighting with myself not to turn into some kind of wild animal and do something that I may regret later.
The weird thing is I feel as if I could easily break free from the ropes that have me tied to the beam above my head as my inner strength grows increasingly stronger by the second.
I no longer fear anyone and judging by the looks on the two men’s faces in front of me, they may be fearing me.