"Nix…” The world went black. I had never been so afraid of the darkness before.
• • •
My wrists were cold. Not only were my wrists cold, but my whole body shivered at once. I shivered a great powerful shake that forced my eyes to a dark grey world. Rock surrounded me. I was in a small cave-like room, a barred caged made of metal was the door. Memories shook my body until my whimpers echoed off the walls. I tried to bring my arms in closer. I couldn’t. I couldn’t get smaller. My arms were chained to the wall. I was open. I was so very open. The world was so cold around me. Rocks pressed into my back. My heart beat so hard it threatened to break free and run away without me. My breath hitched. I started to pull, I needed to become small. I needed to be small. Small meant less to hit. Small meant less to notice. Small. Small. Small. I looked around. There. Cracks.
One. Two. Three. Four. A sound distracted me. No, don’t stop. Ten. Eleven. It grew closer, a dragging of metal on metal. It’s a sharp piercing noise to the ears. Twenty-four. Please make it stop. Please make it stop. My eyes lost their place. Start over. The noise was overwhelming. Don’t look. Please, please, please don’t look. I looked.
Standing in the doorway was a beautiful blonde man. His downcast eyes were hidden behind a fall of hair. He was large, bigger than me. Fear was running through my body so intensely I was amazed it wasn't oozing against the fear coated walls, feeding them. He looked up as soon as the door made a click.
Horrid, beautiful eyes stared back at me. Such a strange hazel color, rings of light brown, green, and grey. All separate, but connected. The hatred, the cold unfeeling colors behind them made me cringe into the wall. It was safer. I wanted to be part of the wall. His feet slammed and echoed around the room as he approached.
“Right where you belong.”
His smooth, inviting voice terrified me. I swallowed. He watched. He gripped my neck in his hand pressing lightly. He cocked his head, watching for my reaction. I forced my face blank. Blank like Stone’s. Stone. I would think of him and find strength. He thought I was much braver than I actually was. I was scared that he would notice one day. That day he would no longer look at me with those sunset eyes. I had to prove him right. I had to prove that I was brave.
“I wanted you dead.” His lips curled into a snarl.
“And yet, I breathe.” Did I just say that? How was my voice so strong? His hand tightened. I felt that. I felt each finger press just a little tighter into my skin.
“Yes, because I ordered it to be so. If I wanted you dead, you would be. Yet, I find myself wondering why three of my best agents are leaving their clan for you. And better yet, my little treasure, will bring an even better hoard my way. I will be the one who destroys the dragons, once and for all.”
“You’re Cain.” The Braden clan leader. His smile confirmed it.
“Ah, yes I did forget to introduce myself. I suppose it would be considered bad manners but seeing as you will be dead soon, I will not fret over it. Now, tell me Audrey…how did you manage to get a wraith on your side? That is what I am the most curious about.” He pressed his mouth to my ear. He was uncomfortably close. His other hand moved on my body in ways that only Stone could do without making me feel ill. I squirmed my legs trying to move away from his touch. He gripped my neck tighter. I couldn’t breathe.
“Oh, quit your moving. I don’t want you. I was just wondering if you offered your body to the wraith. I think he would have feasted quite nicely on your fear. You reek of it.”
His words bit into me. I still couldn’t breathe. I was gasping now, desperately wanting air. Not to feel relief for my lungs because I realized that I wanted to live. For the first time in a very long time, I felt the need to survive. He let go as soon as the darkness started to sink in.
“If you won’t talk, then you will simply be destroyed.” With that, Cain turned on his heel and walked away. The door remained open and someone else stepped in. I recognized the werewolf.
He looked a little older since I had last seen him, but I suppose he would have been under a lot stress considering his prized capture had escaped. He looked at me with a glint of madness in his eyes. I wished that I had passed out from the assault that Cain inflicted.
Now, the real torture would begin…
Time slowed. Minutes felt like years. Each second dragged against my skin like a jagged old knife. Only it wasn’t time that was cutting deep into my flesh and forcing the rushing blood out, to part with it forever. His claws pulled an endless amount of screams from me, and a limitless amount of pain. One set of claws would dig in and stay there, while the other found old scars and forced them to reopen. Reopening the wound doubled the already too intense pain. When I would start to fade, the moving hand would stop, the other would come out, forcing a hard gasp from my throat. And it would begin again. And again. And again.
He didn’t ask me questions. This wasn’t torture for the answers I had. This wasn’t meant to be a torture device. This was meant to be revenge, to show me who was in charge. He was the Alpha here. I was nothing compared to those claws.
So much blood. It puddled and formed a river that moved around his feet, and soaked his shoes, I hoped it soaked his socks, too. Nothing was quite as bad as wet socks. If I didn’t learn how to stifle my laughs all those years ago, the thought would have cost me another rip of skin, probably over the ribs. Screaming was the easy part; not screaming and holding in the tears was the hardest. They knew you were in pain when you screamed, but when you stopped it became too much. When it became too much they stopped. They allowed you to rest. They would start again.
When our time together was up, he left looking satisfied with his work. My head fell forward, I could finally rest now. Darkness was a comfort once more. How I missed it.
• • •
I lost track of time. I fell asleep and woke up so many times I wasn’t sure if it was the same day, different month, or minutes separated by minute nightmares. Nightmares haunted me even in the waking world. My throat was raw. There were no screams left. That is what I feared the most. When the screams stopped. The blood had stopped leaking from my open wounds, I was barely holding on.
I rolled my eyes so I could look down. My poor skin. New angry lines, slimmer and shorter, joined the long thick scars I already wore. But the new wounds were healing quicker.
The dragon was there, I felt her stirring when I first woke, but now, with less blood, no sleep, and fear shaking my body, she hid. I needed her, but could barely feel her. I wanted her strength. I tried to breathe properly.
I think I fell asleep again. When I woke, my hands were numb, and my body slumped forward, putting pressure on my wrist, cutting off the circulation. My legs were weak and could barely hold me up. With the blood loss, and my lack of food, I was too weak to try to solve the problem of numb hands. I tried staying still instead. My mind started to take me places I did not dare visit.
I couldn’t help but wonder if they had taken Nixie as well? Was she safe because she belonged with the Braden clan or was she being tortured and beaten? I couldn’t bear the thought of her going through the same pain as me.
Then, my mind wandered to Stone, his eyes shifting to a pink color that showed his love for me, his beautiful scar-mapped skin, and callused hands touching my face. I leaned toward the phantom feeling, wishing that I could have felt his touch one more time. I felt something brush down my cheek. I thought for sure they were Stone’s fingers, that he was trying to wipe away the grime coating my face. But when I looked up, there was no one there. The feeling came again, and I realized that I was crying. I couldn’t understand how it was possible that I had tears left.
Later that day, after a period of suffocating silence, a new noise came. I didn’t realize how much I had become accustomed to noises since I had been freed from the white room. I didn’t realize how much I missed it. Not the echoing screams, but the small mutterings of Stone while we slept, the creaking of the bed, walls, and floors. Everything. Those small n
oises joined to make a symphony. The noise that I heard now did not bring comfort. Just steady footsteps. They stopped outside my door. I hoped they would move on.
“Oh, wee lass.”
I looked up. Marcus stood there. His shocking red hair, and strange yellow eyes looked so unnatural in such a dark, dirty place. He came into the room, barely making a noise. I tried to flinch away, but my body barely could move.
“Lass, I would ne'er hurt ye.” His words soothed me and spread over my skin like a balm. I knew I shouldn’t believe him, but I wanted to believe him so much. I wanted to be safe from violent hands.
“Can ye lift yer head for me, Audrey?”
I lifted my head up as much as I could, and he helped support it with a gentle hand as he poured small amounts of water into my mouth. It felt so good for a second, then it too became a torture of its own. I tried to cough, but it took too much energy. I wanted to slump back down and give up but Marcus wouldn’t have it.
“Nae, lass, stay with me. We will have ye out of here soon. Waitin' for reinforcements.” He winked at me.
I didn’t understand and tried to tell him, but he just gave me a reassuring smile.
“Th' less ye know th' better.” Marcus winked and tried to feed me some more water. He did this a couple more times until my throat actually felt less raw and I was able to get the water down without coughing it back up.
He left, promising to be back soon. When he left, I was hoping for sleep, my stomach felt like it was caving in on itself. The water went through me absorbing into my dehydrated system. I needed food. I tried to keep my mind off of it, but the pains were getting worse. I was tempted to slam my head against the wall behind me hoping it would knock me out. Instead, I hung on by a thread, waiting for my sanity to snap.
A light noise woke me. It was funny how before I was craving the small noises but not if they forcibly tried to pull me out of sleep. My heart started to race. I couldn’t handle another round of torture. When I looked up, there was nothing there. I tried to go back to sleep, but I felt another presence.
I opened my eyes there still was no one. That is when I felt the stirring in my mind. It was my dragon, she was waking. I could feel her. It should have been an amazing feeling but I was so scared that even this couldn’t save me. She pushed at my mind as if trying to take over. I didn’t think I had the strength to stop her, but I also didn’t think I had the strength to shift. She pushed again, I let go and passed out once more.
I woke up again, the room was silent, but I was in a different position. I lay with my belly on the ground, arms underneath my head. When I opened my eyes I didn’t see my arms. I started to panic. The noises I made were rougher, more animalistic. That is when I heard more footsteps, I crawled into myself. It seemed like my shape had shrunk incredibly. The footsteps stopped in front of my door.
“Where the hell is she?” Jacobs roared.
His voice echoed in my ears causing me to flinch. He was looking at me and yet he didn’t see me. Marcus and Dallas stood there as well. Marcus was actually seeing me, and for a second, I saw the awe pass over his eyes. Dallas, like his father, scanned the room. Marcus kept his face blank when Jacobs glanced at him.
I started to move to get up, Marcus made a stay there motion very briefly. I didn’t move.
“Dallas, go inform the guards. Marcus, check around down here and see if she is hiding somewhere. And someone tell me who was on guard last night!” Jacobs continued to yell as he moved through the dungeon. I didn’t dare move until Marcus came back to the cell I was being kept in.
“Wow lass, ye look like a mini-dragon. I knew yer father was a dragon, but I was under th' impression ye couldn’t shift.” Marcus moved closer to me. I backed away, confused by what he was saying. “Ah, they did nae tell ye yet did they? You’re lookin' at their greatest kept secret.” Marcus winked at me with a bright smile.
“No, hen, we have tae get ye out of here. Stay as ye are though, I am nae quite sure what is gonnae on, but ye are invisible tae everyone else. Weel everyone but fey, we can see through all glamours. Come along lass.”
I watched him closely. I wasn’t sure if I could trust him. Then, I remembered what Stone and Nixie had told me about fey. They couldn’t lie, granted they would twist their words to the truth enough to make it sound like what you wanted to hear, but he flat out told me that he was going to help me out of here. I followed, crawling in my new body.
Marcus looked back at me a couple of times. “Amazin'.”
I looked up at him, not understanding what he was so amazed about, but in this form I couldn’t speak. I would have to wait. I was going to be free.
Chapter Forty-Two
Stone
As soon as my body became aware of itself again, I was up. I couldn’t stop pacing. Nixie tried talking me down, I just snarled at her. She had been right there. She could have saved Audrey. I knew deep down I shouldn’t blame her that she had been attacked as well, but this was Audrey. My Audrey. Drake wasn’t any better than me; York had to take him away to calm him down.
We waited while York gathered information.
In a logical part of my mind, I knew that we were waiting to find a track to follow, getting a plan together. Important things that I would have normally been a part of. Right now, though, I couldn’t think past the black suited man that had taken her. The same black suits I used to wear doing exactly this. Stealing what wasn’t mine but what I thought would be better. I thought this would be for the best. I slammed my hand against the wall. Audrey might have never looked at me like a monster, but damn did I ever prove her wrong.
“Time to head out,” York announced, standing in the doorway. He looked almost as angry as Drake, I understood that he was taking his position as Audrey’s new parent figure seriously and while I respected his decision to treat her like kin, she was mine now. I was protective of that fact that she didn’t know. She hadn’t accepted him yet. I wanted to brush past him; I wanted to prove that she was mine. I held in the instinct. At this point he was my only way to her, I had to play nice. For now.
• • •
The team that assembled took a helicopter in. I wanted to fly; I wanted to be out where Drake and York were in the sky so I wouldn’t feel so trapped. I could get there faster. But they said that if I didn’t stay in the helicopter they would force me to stay back.
I twitched in my seat, watching the ground below. The forest beneath us seemed never ending. I felt as if the Eurocopter EC155, which I didn’t even think was open for public sale, couldn’t have been going fast enough. My skin felt tight as if I needed to change forms immediately. I straightened my back trying to get more comfortable. I knew nothing would help.
Nixie looked mildly sick and kept her eyes shut tight, muttering how she hated the sky. Normally flying with her would make me feel slightly at ease, the rest of the team and I would always get a good kick out of her hatred for the sky. Even the familiar memory couldn’t break my concentration. I used to be one of the torturers; I knew what they would be doing to her. I could feel it on my skin as if it was happening to me. How could I have ever let them take her? I would never be able to forgive myself. I promised I would protect her.
The Valkyrie, Elijah, and Imogen the witch, were with Nixie and I in the first helicopter. Elijah kept giving Imogen the coldest looks I had ever seen him give and she just smiled back at him. I think there was a loose screw in her head because she was looking death in the face and smiling.
I kept shifting in my seat. It had been a day since she went missing. A lot could happen in a day, but one thing I knew, I knew she was alive. Drake told me before we left that Marcus was their last surviving undercover agent, and this wasn’t only a mission to save Audrey, but to retract him as well. I nodded understanding, hoping that he would be able to help Audrey. I started to recognize the air, the trees. We were getting closer. It felt like an old piece of home, but it would never be my home again. It didn’t matter, my home was with Audrey.
We set down a few miles from the Braden headquarters. I paced restlessly, and watched as Drake had chose to stay in his dragon form. York walked over him looking a little grim. His tail twitched, and wings fluttered. I noticed his fists were as clenched tight.
“We haven’t heard from Marcus. We thought he would have contacted us the moment that Audrey stepped into that building. Drake wants to attack. Gods dammit Stone would you stop that infuriating pacing?” York snarled at me.
I wasn’t going to let that slide. I moved close to the tall Gargoyle, I didn’t realize that I started to add inches to my height until I was eye to eye to the six foot six inch Gargoyle. My face was set in a snarl.
“Do not tell me how to act when my mate is in there.” I paused and quieted down, “What if it was Drake?” I tried to keep my voice low not knowing if that their mating was a secret to both Elijah and Nixie. Though knowing them, they probably picked up on their relationship the first time they saw the two together.
York looked down and he stepped back.
“We didn’t…”
I growled not letting him finish. I started to pace again. My gut was telling me something was wrong. I had to move, I had to do something, anything. Drake blew a bit of smoke toward York who headed over to talk to his own mate.
Night started to fall and I was going mad. I needed to go after her. I started to head out. I couldn’t stand there knowing that every minute her skin was being torn apart only to repair itself and the process repeated. I knew the other types of torture would happen, I had perfected the art of Braden warfare. We didn’t take prisoners to let them live, we extracted information and destroyed every fiber of their being.
Drake’s head popped up. I watched him closely. His nostrils flared and his slit, reptile eyes narrowed. I expanded my senses as far as they could go and the lightly burnt scent of lavender. My eyes popped opened, and I ran through the familiar trees toward her scent. I avoided any underbrush not allowing anything to get in my way. My heart pounded in my chest, and all I could think was that she was close.
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