by Jennie Dah
“What wrong with her?” I get that something’s wrong with me but why’s everyone gotta be asking that? It’s seriously starting to get on my nerves.
“She seems to have lost her memories,” Gruffy says shuffling nervously.
“Impossible,” he breathes looking like wind has been knocked out of him. “We don’t lose our memories.”
“Dr. Snow did some tests and there’s a memory block in her head.”
“Has Snow been here to check on her?”
“Yes Master. He’s working on the potion now,” Gruffy answers more confidently this time.
He’s been staring at me the entire time and he moves closer to me and trail his fingers softly down my cheek his expression full of wistfulness. “My love don’t worry everything will be fine and things will go back to normal. It’ll be just you and me again soon.”
I move my head back knocking his hand off my cheek. I thought Dr. Snow was the one that wants to keep me? Ohh. It hits me then realisation dawning on me. This guy doesn’t know Dr. Snow’s working behind his back to bond me to him.
A smile tilts my lips and I paste on my most innocent look before asking. “What do you mean ‘me and you'?”
“I mean us together,” he says a frown pulling at his brows. “Just like old times.”
I laugh silently not wanting to give away that I’m enjoying this. “Oh? I thought I was Dr. Snow’s mate?”
“What the hell is she saying?” he voice comes out in a gritted whisper but I jerk as if he’d yelled the words. Gruffy looks around in agitation looking between us and the open door.
“Somebody better start explaining before he pops a vein,” I singsong when a vein appears on his temple and starts throbbing like crazy.
“It’s all Dr. Snow’s idea I swear,” Gruffy falls to his knees and starts begging. “Master I had nothing to do with this.”
“How long have you known this?” he asks calmly.
“Only recently Master,” he says his voice cracking. I don’t like the look of fear on his face. I feel bad I put him in this position. He did try to intervene last time when Ugly had been beating the shit out of me.
While Gruffy was begging for his life, the Count gives a discernable nod of his head and Sneer face who’d been behind Gruffy pulls out a long gleaming sword from the scabbard around his hips and raise it above his head. My eyes widen in horror when I realize what’s about to happen. And Gruffy has no idea his pleas are falling on deaf ears.
I scream in horror when the sword starts to descend and my stomach warm and it’s like everything happens in slow motion. I watch as the long gleaming metal get close to Gruffy’s neck and I close eyes tightly not want to watch someone get beheaded.
My ears ring loudly when a crashing sound fills the room and my eyes fly open just in time to see the sword splinter into pieces as it bounces off the glowing shield around Gruffy. Everyone’s eyes widen when Sneer face holds up the shattered half of his sword. Gruffy seems frozen and his eyes fly to my face and then back to the shield around him.
The warmth in my stomach spreads up to my chest and I grunt my breaths coming in harsh pants. I grit my teeth trying not to lose control of the shield. Perfect time for me to remember I had abilities before this bush animals destroyed my mind. Slowly the Count pivots to me and starts clapping his hands.
“Magnificent,” he breathes his voice full of wonder. “You been hiding things from me, Angel.”
Memories flash through my head again and I grunt at the pain ripping through my skull losing my hold on the shield a little.
Okay, I let a out harsh breath closing my eyes and envisioning Gruffy on a Caribbean island with lots of sun away from this murdering maniacs. When my eyes open back up again he’s gone and the shield makes a soft popping sound before it disappears.
“Where is he?” The Count asks curiously rubbing his smooth chin.
I miss Nicholas and his neatly trimmed beard. The ache in my heart intensify as the minutes tick by. What’s taking him so long? Didn’t Michael get him to wake up? I hope he’s doing okay.
“Somewhere you’ll never find him,” I whisper my energy drained. My head falls forward and my eyes close to half slits. It won’t be long before I lose consciousness.
“Angel?” I ignore him and keep my head down. I’m so tired and with the flashes of forgotten memories hitting me left and right, I’m surprised I’m still awake. Sweat drips from my face to my chest and I watch it trail slowly down my body before disappearing into the waistband of my jeans.
‘Hang on baby, I’m coming.’
A spike of adrenaline shoots through me as the smooth deep baritone washes over me. A smile pulls at my lips and I breathe in relief.
Finally! He’s here. He’s actually here. I didn’t think sending him the images of where I’ve been dragged through would work and I’d barely been conscious after that idiot pumped my system full of his drug.
But it worked! And now he’s coming for me. I could’ve probably find a way to escape on my own—I've done it before with lots of help but still I escaped—but it’s nice to know I have someone who cares about me enough to come looking for me.
‘We did it conscience!’
‘I can’t hold on much longer.’ My heart drops to my feet at the hoarse whisper.
‘What’s wrong with you? You don’t sound very good.’
‘Your mind’s broken and I can’t hold on much longer.’
‘That can’t be. I’m perfectly fine.’
‘I can’t stay anymore.’
‘You can’t leave me, I need you,’ I say desperately when I feel her slipping from me.
‘I’ll die if I stay,’ she whispers hoarsely.
‘Then tell me how to fix it,’ I plead and a wave f affection rushes through me.
‘You can’t, not this time.’
‘Just hold on for me.’
‘This past few years with you have been the best years of my life.’
‘No, don’t do this,’ I whisper pleading my inside chilling.
‘Kafui—’
‘Just hang on, please.’
I take her silence as the go ahead I need and groan pitifully out loud. “Argghh!”
“Angel are you okay?”
“Chains… arms… ugh…” I croak in a hoarse whisper hoping he gets the hint.
“Master, I wouldn’t advise you to do that,” someone says irritably and my head comes up and I groan in pain sounding even more pitiful.
I look at the Count pleadingly and he waves his hands his mouth moving a few times and then the chains disappear and I fall to the floor. His arms come around me and he lifts me off the ground and over to the cot. I sit up not wanting that thing touching any part of my skin.
“She’ll never hurt me,” I hear him say and almost lose it laughing.
Yeah keep thinking that buddy.
“But Master, she’s developed new abilities while on Meridian.”
“Really?” His voice is full of surprise. “I didn’t think she’d get more powers in addition to the other one she has. How many?”
My ears perk up at that. I have multiple powers? How come I didn’t know that?
“Well two but I can’t be sure,” Sneer face scratches his head. I look to his right but the other guy is gone. “The one she just used now and the fire power.”
“The fire power?” he leans even closer to my face. “You really are going to be the perfect mate.”
I clamp my jaw shut even though I want to curse him to hell and back. He gets off the mattress and walk over to Sneer face. “We need to test more of her blood again, I need that serum. Tell them to get everything ready.”
“But Master—”
“Leave us,” he says his voice going hard. This guy must be really confident in his abilities if he wants to be in here with me alone. I just need to keep him talking till Nicholas gets here. Then I can sneak off to the lab and grab one of the mind mending potions that are upstairs. The several test subjects they use
sometimes eventually break under the pressure so Dr. Gideon makes a potion to mend their minds before they start the process all over.
Sneer face bows before leaving the cell all the while shooting daggers at me. I smile in return before sticking my tongue out at him behind the Count’s back. He walks over to me again and sits beside me and it takes everything inside me not to move away from him.
“Do you really not remember me love?”
Love? Is this guy for real? I resist the urge to suck my teeth and roll my eyes at him. I shake my head slowly and ask, “Why am I here?”
“Well I need your blood to recreate the serum that you were injected with,” he says casually like we’re discussing the weather. He must read the confusion on my face because he continues.
“You see your father made a serum—”
I cut him off with a dry laugh. “No. You got the wrong person,” I say moving away from him to lean against the wall not making it obvious his closeness is just creeping me out.
“You see, I’m Celia. I was born and raised in Ghana. I lived with my grandmother all my life because my mother took off a few days after I was born and my father didn’t want anything to do with me and my mom so this is all just one big misunderstanding that can easily be forgotten if you’ll only let me go.”
I steal a look in the corner and Ashley is still there. Thank God. I don’t know why I can see through her shield and they can’t but I’m just glad they can’t. “You really have lost your memories.”
“Huh?”
“Your father was one of the scientists that were working on the serum that’s supposed to enhance the abilities of a supernatural being. But the project got tanked because there wasn’t any progress. What no one knew was your father had the formula right and he made a serum but didn’t tell anyone.”
“That isn’t true and even if it is, what does any of that have to do with me?”
“I’m getting there,” he snaps glaring at me. Jeez, keep your robe on and don’t swallow me. “There was this woman, she meant the whole world to me.”
Of course, there always is. I roll my eyes at the whole situation. When did my life turn into a goddamn movie? And not even a good one too.
“Your father stole her from me. She was pregnant by the time I found out that she was with your father. A month before the baby was due, my anger had taken a hold of me and I destroyed the entire family. I stabbed her over and over again while I made him watch and then he’d just gone cold. There was so much blood I went outside to dig a hole to dump them in but when I came back she was gone. By the time I tracked her and caught up with her, she’d had you ripped from her womb and by some magical feat you were still alive and your father’s best friend had already injected you with the serum to keep you alive and hidden you somewhere I could never find you.”
My stomach twists painfully at his words. How is he so calm talking about killing two innocent people? “Turns out your father told Jeremiah about the serum and had given him the one he made for safekeeping. If he hadn’t ripped you from your mother’s womb, you’d be dead too. I still smile when I see the statue of your father in my courtyard.”
Oh my god. He’s sick. My dad’s a statue? “You see my father sired me to a common human so I’m only half what my father is. The serum would have made me stronger than everyone else but he took away that hope when he told the council to put a stop to the research.” He gets off the bed and paces in front of me his face twisting uglily. There it is, the ugliness that’s his soul.
“Now I have a chance to perfect the formula and become the strongest most powerful demon that ever lived. The formula is only seventy percent successful now after being tested on Sub #4532 but with you here now we should be able to achieve hundred percent.”
Subject #4532? Oh no. Baby Ash? They been testing that volatile substance on Baby Ash?
“How did I end up here?”
“You see when I finally figured out where Jeremiah that sly dog had hidden you, you were already gone. So angry at losing the opportunity to have that serum again, I killed that old lady that raised you,” he waves dismissively.
The blood rushes to my head so suddenly my vision goes blurry before clearing again. My blood has turned to ice in my veins. Nanaga? He killed Nanaga?
He digs the knife in deeper and twists, shredding my insides.
“I remember what she said to me before I ripped her tongue out and watch as the life drained out of her eyes,” he says a cruel smile twist his lips as tears blur my vision and my heart squeezes painfully. I pull my legs up to my chest and wrap my arms around it.
“Don’t you want to know what she said to me, love?”
Gut wrenching sobs wrack my body and I cry like I never have before. I never understood how my perfectly healthy Nana had died so suddenly.
It turns out she was murdered by this cruel evil emotionless tank of insecurity?
So it really is my fault she died. My Nana’s brother had hailed insults at my head blaming me for her death and telling me how I should’ve been the one that died. I didn’t even think about it twice, I mean the man never liked me so when he adamantly made it clear I wasn’t invited to the funeral, I just thought he was hurting. But he was right. Nana died because of me and I should’ve been the one that died.
I cry for the mother I never met, the father I’ll never know and the man that died protecting me. My Nana that never deserved to be caught up in all this. My blood heats as anger rushes through me.
It’s not my fault they died. They died because of the cruelty of the man in front of me right now. They died protecting me from him and I’ll be damned if I’ll just sit here and let him get what he wants.
I have dreams I want to live. Building a home with Nicholas, raising our children and waking up every morning to his beautiful face that I don’t deserve. No fuck that. I deserve to be happy and that just what I’ll do after I kill this bastard.
“Tut-tut, don’t cry angel,” he comes back to the cot and kneels in front of me. “She said ‘She’ll kill you one by one’ and then you know the rest.”
So he speaks fluent Ewe too. I won’t disappoint you Nana. A fresh wave of warm tears trail down my cheeks as my stomach knots in agony.
“Now don’t you cry Angel,” he says wiping the tears on my cheeks. “We’ll be so happy together, Lucia.”
Huh? Lucia? Who the hell is Lucia?
“Imagine my surprise when I saw you again for the very first time in years,” he says wistfully his eyes unfocused. “Only three years ago.”
“What the hell do you mean three years ago?” I sniffle swiping a hand under my nose. I wipe the mucus on his shirt and he look at me like I’m adorable. “I only moved to New York last year.”
“Aww, angel you really did lose your memories. I saw you three years ago walking back from class and at first I didn’t believe it but after I’ve watch you for a while I realized that it’s true,” he smooths a hand over his immaculate robe. “You look so much like your mother, it’s uncanny but the only difference between you and her are your eyes. You have your father’s unusual brown eyes.”
“That can’t be,” I whisper my mind stuck on three years part, confusion clouding my mind. “I was in a coma for seven months.”
“No,” he laughs condescendingly getting back to his feet. “Angel, you and I were together for a year and a half before someone turned you against me and helped you escape.”
Bullshit! I lost my memories not my goddamn mind. There’s no way in any universe I’d have anything to do with this guy. And the few memories that I have back are to be trusted then this guy is full of horse shit.
He face twists in an even uglier mask when his irises turn black and the white of his eyes bleed red. I scramble away from him till my back connects with the wall fear rushing through me.
His hand reaches out and grip my jaw painfully and I hiss in pain clutching his hand to loosen the hold but his grip gets tighter. “Now you’re gonna give me the name of t
he person that helped you escape and then I’ll deal with you later for your insubordination.”
Like hell I am. Does he really think I’m gonna betray the only people who made my life bearable after he made me a prisoner? I don’t think so. I mean he can’t really be that stupid, right?
I cry out at the stinging slap across my face. Damn it. I really need to cut my habit of saying what I’m thinking out loud. I jerk my head whipping to the side when he backhands me.
“Ahemm!!” my eyes fly to the door and my eyes widen at how different the woman standing there looks.
Stella! Or Mistress Stella as everyone in the Bunker calls her. Her hair is pulled back into her signature shiny forehead ponytail making her face look severe but still beautiful. Black formfitting leather bodysuit and the baddest stiletto boots ever.
Damn it, the bitch’s got taste. My eyes snag on the whip at her hip and I wince as I remember how she used to whip me to within an inch of my life because I refuse to call her ‘Mistress’.
Good times. I can’t believe how stupid I’ve been to fall for her innocent kind act again. That’s how I ended up in the Bunker the first time after that idiot hexed me. Now I remember? She smirks at me before stepping inside.
“Master, I’ll like few minutes with her please,” she purrs rubbing a hand over the whip at her hip. “I’ve missed her.”
I shudder at what she’s insinuating. Damn, I can already feel the sting of the whip on my back.
“I really should leave you with her but—”
“Please, anyone else’s face will seem like an angel’s after yours,” I ground out. My statement earns me another backhand across the face. I grunt as the sting washes through me.
My blood heats but not enough. Just my luck that I’ll have abilities that thrives on pain. “Aww come on, how the hell did you even manage to kill anyone when a five year old can hit harder than that?”
My head snaps back and bangs against the wall with a resounding thud when he punches me right in the face. Stars explode behind my eyes and it takes everything in me not to give into the darkness that swarms my mind.