Smoke and Mirrors (Smoke and Mirrors Series Book 1)

by S. N. Nair

  “The difference between myself and that coward is the intention behind our actions. I spilled blood in order to protect my family and pack. So, let me ask you a question…what is the reason for your brother’s actions because I can assure you, that from the short time I have spent with him, he does not give a damn about anyone besides himself. His actions have no goal other than power and prestige.”

  I turned my face from hers, unable to meet her eyes as I did not know the answer to that question. She took my silence as permission to continue.

  "Sweetheart, let me take you away from your world of unicorns and rainbows. This is the real world, not some fairytale where the princess forgives the prince, he sweeps her off her feet and they ride off on a white horse into the sunset to live happily ever after. In this world, there are people so twisted that nothing they ever do will redeem themselves, your brother is one of them. You want to know what I feel about your brother, well here it is. I feel that anyone who does this to their mate deserves to go to hell, I am sure that there is a special place where he can burn for eternity, and you can bet that I will do nothing except sit back and laugh as he screams. I promise that the thought of helping him will never even cross my mind.”

  I ran out of that room with tears welling in my eyes, I began to sob as I heard her call out.

  "Welcome to the real-world, darling!"

  Chapter Nine: Disgraced King

  Damien Black

  Frustration was all I could feel. No one had ever lasted this long in my torture chamber without at least letting out a whimper or scream, this girl did neither, the only sound I could get from her were scoffs or the occasional curse.

  Her eyes bothered me the most, they said that the eyes were the window to your soul and that your eyes would betray any emotion you tried to hide. Most people who had the honour of being personally tortured by me showed me that statement was true. Most of them at least for the first few days tried to put up a brave front but their eyes showed me just how afraid they were. This girl's eyes told a different story, the only thing they showed were contempt, disgust, and defiance towards me, there was not a single drop of fear at all.

  Every day I tried to find new ways to break her, the first few days I started out simple, with a silver knife I carved her skin and flesh, most people would have let out screams of pain and agony, begging me to stop but she did not, in fact she goaded me to carve deeper. The whip I used on her in the beginning was meant to break bones as well as skin, this usually produced screams from even the most battle-hardened wolves, but all it produced from her was silence.

  "Is that all you got? What kind of an Alpha are you?"

  Those were the only full sentences I got from her.

  I suppose that I should treat her better like what my mother made me promise her.

  *"Damien, promise me that when you finally find your mate, you love her and cherish her. Remember, you are not your father, just because his blood runs through your veins, it does not mean you are doomed to be like him."*

  I might have made good on my promise to her if my mother had not left me one night and ran away, leaving my sister and me at our father's mercy. The love I had for my mother soon turned to hate, over the next few years I started to realize that my father spoke nothing but the truth. Mates were nothing but an inconvenience. They trap you and limit your freedom.

  That girl was proof of it, she invaded my dreams nightly and consumed my thoughts, even when I was with other women I could only think of her. I was not going to lie, she was beautiful with her smooth copper skin and dark eyes that were framed with thick lashes. I as her mate should be proud of her beauty but in the end, she was nothing but a weakness to me.

  Her beauty was nothing but a mask. Like a serpent hiding behind a beautiful flower, waiting for a gullible person to foolishly be entranced by its beauty and reach a hand towards it, that is when she will strike and watch as her poison slowly courses through his veins before it consumes him. Like it did me when all I could see was how beautiful the flower was.

  I tried to busy myself with other affairs, but she kept creeping into my mind. I was currently busy with one of those affairs when one of my guards stepped into my study.

  "Sir, you should come and take a look at what our scouts have found."

  I cursed as I rose from my chair, the girl below me whined as my lips stopped their work.

  "Damien, you will visit me tonight, right?”

  Her soft voice filled with uncertainty as she threw me a nervous smile, arms wrapped around herself.

  “Of course I will, Karmen, I am yours forever, remember?”

  Karmen smiled at me softly, her eyes filled with relief at my words before placing a kiss on my lips. She was so easy to please, I just needed to throw her a little assurance her way every so often, and she would contently continue to eat out of the palm of my hand.

  The look of disgust on my guard’s face was evident as she walked past him, but he quickly masked it before gesturing at me to leave with him.

  We walked down the steps of the stronghold, the walls of the staircase slowly disappearing with a thick layer of grime as we ventured into the depths of the building, stopping as we reached one of my favourite places in this accursed place... the perfect place to release all the frustration that Sapphire gave me.

  I whistled as I walked down the corridor of my lower dungeon, there were no screams or curses thrown my way which was expected of a proper dungeon, I kept my pace before stopping in front of a cell.

  The man in it was well-built with blonde hair and supposedly ‘gorgeous’ brown eyes, he would have cursed at me if not for the fact his mouth was sewn shut and his tongue cut out. It was a mandatory practice I had instructed my warriors to do as it was just tiring to hear the same threats thrown at my face every time I came down here, "I will kill you!", "I will have my revenge!", it just got so boring and repetitive that I decided that silence was better. The sewn mouth would have been enough, but I couldn’t risk the stitches ripping from the pain… allowing them to offend my ears with their pleas once more. I ran into a problem at the beginning, as prisoners began to die of starvation before I could toture them. So after many unsuccessful experiments, the best solution to this minor issue was to cut open the stitches every week to force feed them and sew them back right after. I crouched down to see him eye-to-eye before laughing at his face.

  "Ryder Blackwater, it has been awhile since we've seen each other. You gave my men a lot of trouble trying to find you. You might have made it even further and might have even escaped me if you did not decide to carry your pack’s gold with you. You know… you made execute quite a few of my best warriors when they came back empty-handed."

  "Mmhmm mmmm"

  "That's right, you bribed my men to let you go free while the rest of your pack fell trying to save you. You know if you just gave in to my demands earlier, we would not have this sticky situation and you could have continued living your life as Alpha of the Blackwater Pack, save for a few changes of course. You could be with your precious family right now... it is truly a shame the way things turned out. You made a bad choice, and so many paid the price for you… so unfair."

  I would have continued if my men had not interrupted me. I smiled at them as they threw me a bloodied sack. At least these men did their jobs, and thus, got to keep their lives...it was that simple, why couldn’t people see that? I stood up to examine the contents of the sack in my hands before smiling, revenge was truly sweet.

  I walked up to Ryder watching him try to scurry back despite his chains pulling him in place. This situation was so ironic as he once declared that he would be the one to put me in chains… oh how the tables have turned. I grabbed the bottom of the sack and turned it over, before emptying its contents in front of Ryder. He made a sound that sounded like a scream, his stitches pulling tightly at the skin of his lips before moving as far away as possible, not caring for the silver chains that burned him. It pleased me indefinitely to see him so vulner
able and scared, he always acted as though nothing could ever harm him or scare him but I guess, there was something that could.

  "Why squirm, Ryder? Did you not boast about how many of these you have seen in battle? That you ended many of your enemies this way?”

  He grabbed and pulled at his chains, looking more like a feral animal trying to escape than a man. Should I kill him now? Be merciful and end his suffering?

  Of course not, he deserved to suffer. He betrayed me after all, his love of his position and wealth brought him here. So…what should I do to him? Have his skin painted with silver…or should I use Wolfsbane…or…

  “Sir, she is awake.”

  Ah, my new toy was ready for me to play with her again, it used to be Ryder… but the heart is a fickle thing after all. My lips curled into a grin before turning to meet Ryder’s terrified eyes.

  “I guess that time is on your side, after all. If you only knew who I had with me…”

  His shoulders sagged with relief, he did not care if I was going to torture someone else he only cared that it was not him. He thought I was going to leave him alive. I waited for his heart rate to go down back to normal before signalling two of my men, who I sent off on an errand, to step into the cell.

  They carried a large pot with each holding on to one side, the iridescent purple liquid sloshing from side to side with some of it splattering harmlessly onto the stone floor. They sat it right in front of Ryder who proceeded to start hyperventilating, one gave me gloves and a vial. I crouched before the pot and dipped the vial into the liquid, there was no smoke or hissing, but Ryder still tried to become one with the wall behind him. I filled the vial and stood up before him, his muffled screams filling the room as my men held him down.

  “You are really that gullible to believe that I would leave you alive? I said time was one your side, not luck. With whom I have now to occupy my time, you no longer interest me or in other words, you have now become worthless.”

  He struggled as I held the vial over his pelvis before tipping it over. My men turned their heads as he thrashed and writhed like a snake. The vial gleamed in my hand, a faint silvery sheen coating its insides.

  “It took me a while to get the perfect ratio of silver and Wolfsbane that would allow each component to maximise its use…I always wanted to test it out…turn him upside down.”

  He tried his best to escape while they unlocked his shackles, but a swift kick to his pelvis made him more compliant.

  Chains rattled as he swung back and forth like a pendulum, his head inches from the ground.

  “You dug your grave, Ryder. Time to lie in it.”

  I lifted his head slightly before pushing the pot under his head to drop it. The liquid around his head bubbled as he screamed, the pain causing him to rip his stitches open. I turned on my heel and was about to leave when one of my men cleared his throat.

  "Sir, should we burn the remains?"

  I was about to give the order for them to, when a much better idea came into my mind, Ryder might finally be of some use to me.

  "Not just yet."

  I looked at the bloody remains on the floor and Ryder’s still struggling body before and smiled, this is going to be fun.

  Chapter Ten: Betrayal of Blood

  Damien Black

  "Good morning, Sapphire! How is my favourite pincushion ?"

  I was only met with a growl. I guess someone is grumpy in the morning. I saw that all the cuts and bruises I left on her had all healed leaving only smooth skin, moreover, she did not seem like she was going to crack anytime soon. The heightened healing she possessed gave me a constant fresh canvas to try out different patterns, it was fun at the start, but now… it was just irritating.

  "What do you want?"

  Ah, there was that rare sweet voice, I swear there would have not been any difference if I treated her like all my other prisoners. She made less noise than they did, and they lost the use of their lips and tongue. I watched her eyes follow my men, who brought in a small pyre, they left after dousing the wood with kerosene. I kept eye contact with her as I struck a match against the wall before letting it fall into the pyre, watching as the firelight reflected against her eyes.

  “Is that what you plan to do? Despite what you hear about me, I assure you I am no witch. although being burnt would be a pleasant change in our little routine.”

  "I don’t plan on doing anything to you… at the moment. I just wanted to talk about my favourite topic…family."

  (Add on) “Oh do tell... the stories I have heard about yours have been extensive. Which should we start with? The egoistic and humiliated father? Or the enslaved mother who ran away, leaving her children to fend for themselves?”

  I dug my claws into my skin at the mention of my family, her eyes trailed to my hands and smiled. She wanted to get under my skin, and she had succeeded a long time ago, but with what I was about to do… it was going to be a long time before she ever smiled again.

  “Oh, we are not going to talk about my family. We are going to have a conversation about... yours.”

  Again, a growl ripped through the air and I found those dark eyes of hers staring at me, the flame reflected in her eyes seemed to grow brighter. I smiled as I pulled up a chair in front of her, she jerked against her shackles paying no attention to the injuries she was causing herself. This was what I wanted, I was finally able to get under her skin... just like she was able to get under mine.

  "Your sister, the beautiful Cordelia Nightshade, I heard she was expecting, it truly is a pity that child will never see the light. Was it a boy or a girl?”

  I paused as the sound of metal clanking filled the room, I smiled as I carried on.

  "Then there is your brother-in-law, the Great Alpha Ryder Blackwater, did you know that he sold you out just so that he could save his own miserable hide."

  "You're lying!"

  I smiled as I heard her scream. This was the chink in her armour, her Achilles heel. Her upbringing in an environment where pack loyalty was reinforced was going to be her downfall. She was a warrior, I was an Alpha. Her purpose was nothing more than to be a barrier against the enemy and her Alpha, the Elders would have drilled that into her head so that when the situation was dire she would protect her Alpha first not herself. Thus, her delusion that everyone else thought that the pack should come first.

  "I am not lying, your precious brother-in-law bribed my warriors to let him live, he did not bargain for your pack, not you, not even his precious mate and son."

  I closed my eyes for a moment as I reminisced about the moment where I brought Ryder to his knees.

  *He sat in a chair in front of me, legs and hands bound by rope, not silver. The sack around his head was soaked with sweat.*

  *“Where did you bring me, Damien?”*

  *“I don’t think you are in any position to ask questions, Ryder. Besides, you wanted to speak to me. So, I believe that the question should be directed at you.”*

  *“I know about your plans to attack my pack. You have hit every other pack around us leaving no one from the Alpha family alive.”*

  *“Yes, so what is it to you? Are you here to beg for your pack and family? I know every inch of your defences; your pack is as good as dead.”*

  *“I am not here to beg for their lives…I am here to beg for mine.”*

  I opened my eyes and saw the pure denial in Sapphire’s eyes, the usual hard glare was now swapped with a soft vulnerable gaze. This was the first time any other emotion besides anger was seen, she was so naïve, she thought that just because she was so brutally selfless everyone else was, she was living in a fairy tale world.

  “It is truly a pity that his pride and lust for power prevented him from accepting my terms. Who knows? You might have remained in Blackwater, oblivious to the changes around you, laughing with your sister as you held your nephew in your arms... getting ready to welcome the new addition to your family.”

  She told me that physical pain was nothing to her that the
re was nothing I could do that she had not already faced. So, now I have decided that I am going to play her game.

  Family, that was of utmost important to her, her faith in family and loyalty built her up to be the person she is now. Today, however, this time her family is going to break her for me, Ryder’s betrayal was just the tip of the iceberg.

  I lifted the stained sack that had been laying near the fire to hide its scent, and waved it in front of her face, she sniffed the air before her eyes widened.

  "No… no… no!"

  I smirked before overturning the sack, two round objects hit the ground with a sickening wet crunch before rolling till they stopped right at her feet. I watched as tears welled in her eyes when they met the glassy ones on the floor, she bit her trembling bottom lip as she looked at the ceiling.