She thought back to when she was fourteen, when her father had kidnapped her. How had she handled the pain then? She'd built up walls, walls that could hold all of America's
gold; vaulted, steel, coded walls.
Storm had cracked that code, broke through the steel like it was tissue. He'd gotten to that precious gold that Emerald had so desperately tried to protect. Now it was all gone,
she'd given it all to him.
She'd lost everything.
Suddenly a hand came down on her wrist. Her eyes flew open and she sat up straight, looking over to her right to see who it was.
"Dad," she breathed, meeting his eyes, her eyes.
Jonathan smiled pleasantly. "Hello, Emerald." he said smoothly.
Emerald's eyes flickered over to the desk, the man was missing; the two people who greeted you at the gate were also gone. None of the workers were nowhere to be seen.
Emerald tried to pull away, but Jonathan grabbed her wrist tightly, cutting off her circulation. She twisted her wrist, trying to get it out of this iron vice.
"Let go of me." Emerald spat through gritted teeth, so angry her voice shook.
"I heard you and Storm broke up." Jonathan commented. Emerald looked away and took a deep breath.
"You've been stalking me." she accused when she had found her voice again.
"I promise you, I haven't." Jonathan assured.
Emerald glared at him again. "Then how—?"
"I am your father, Emerald, whether you like it or not. And, as your father, I just know certain things."
"What do you want from me?" Emerald asked slowly trying again to pull her wrist out of his hand. His grip tightened and Emerald shifted in her chair uncomfortably.
"Now you know how I feel." he said. "How your mother felt."
Emerald turned to look at him, ready to roll her eyes and say, "The only thing we have in common are our genes." But when she looked over at her father the words died in her
throat and the ugly truth finally registered.
She did know how her parents felt and it sickened her. Being related to them by blood was bad enough, now she could actually… sympathize with them. Sympathize with two wicked
creatures that killed and tortured for fun.
Jonathan laughed, startling Emerald out of her musings.
"Please don't tell me that you don't enjoy killing our kind." he said like he was reading her thoughts.
"I don't!" Emerald snapped, memories of talking about this with her mother resurfacing. "I don't enjoy killing! Why do you guys keep saying that?"
Jonathan leaned forward, his face coming within inches of Emerald's. She tried to pull away but Jonathan tightened his grip on her wrist, putting so much pressure on it, she thought
for sure it would break.
Biting back a scream, Emerald turned her head away, not wanting to look at Jonathan. What was he doing here? How'd he know she was here in the first place? What
from her?
"Just admit it, Emerald," Jonathan whispered alluringly in her ear. "You enjoy ridding my kind from the world."
"Let go of my wrist, Jonathan." Emerald ordered through gritted teeth, looking straight ahead, still refusing to meet his eyes.
There was a moment before he did, he finally released her wrist. Emerald stretched her hand as the blood flowed painfully back into her hand. A second before she could pull away,
however, Jonathan put his right hand back on it—gently, thank God—and his left grabbed her upper forearm, pulling her closer to him.
"Give in, Emerald. Give in to those monsters inside of you." Jonathan continued, in an urging tone now.
"I won't," Emerald shook her head. "I won't." she whispered, more to herself now than to Jonathan.
"Stop fighting," Jonathan coaxed. "Stop fighting a losing battle. Give up."
"It's not a losing battle." Emerald told him. "I'm not going to give up. I am not weak like you."
"I am not weak!" Jonathan hissed, his hands closing fully around her arm and wrist again. This only lasted a few seconds, before he got a hold of himself again. His grip slackened
and he took a deep breath. "I know you want to. You can't fight it forever, Emerald. The pain of your breakup will eat you alive until you're an empty shell of yourself." He chuckled.
"Let's be frank here, you are soulmates and soulmates are not supposed to be apart like you are right now. How long will you be able to fight the pain? How long will you be able to
keep those demons at bay?
"My guess is not long if you've been doing it for three years already. Your mind is weak. Your spirit is diminished. You can't take much more of this. Just let go, Emerald. Let go and
I promise that all the pain will disappear. It'll be gone forever. Just think of the relief from a broken heart. You'll be able to breathe. To do whatever you want. To do whatever you
need."
Emerald shook her head, taking deep breaths, almost on the verge of gasping, trying to fight off all demons and monsters that had already broken through the barrier; broken out
of the cage she's kept them in, clawing their way up her throat; fighting to take over her motor controls.
Storm didn't know what to say to this. He was speechless. His innocent, beautiful orchid had turned into deadly, poisonous nightshade.
Emerald's eyes shifted from Storm to Thierry and her smile grew wider.
"Lord Thierry," she drawled. "How's Hannah doing? Oh, wait—" She broke off chuckling.
Thierry growled and walked toward Emerald, grabbing a fistful of her hair. "You lay one finger on Hannah and I swear, I will—"
"What?" Emerald interrupted, still smiling like she wasn't at all bothered by the predicament she was in. "You'll what, Thierry? Kill me? But you made promise to Hannah,
remember?"
Thierry gritted his teeth but let go of her hair and took a step back.
"But I didn't." Quinn snarled coming forward his hand clenched tightly into a fist.
Emerald threw her head back and laughed and for a scary moment Storm thought that Emerald looked exactly like her mother, Trinity.
"Oh, how naïve that thought is." she sighed after she had stopped laughing. "If you killed me now, though, you'd never find Hannah, or your dear Rashel. Isn't that right, John?"
Quinn's fist shot out hitting Emerald so hard that blood spattered. Even with an open lip, Emerald chuckled, her hair falling into her face in a mental hospital kind of way. It was like
she didn't feel the pain, like she was made from stone or marble. That or she enjoyed others pain and anger. Or maybe even both.
"She's right," Storm murmured through unmoving lips. His face was stricken. "She's our only chance if we want to find Hannah and Rashel alive." he continued.
"I'm sure there are others working for him—" Thierry started.
"No, I don't think so." Storm interrupted Lord Thierry bravely, the Reaper coming out. Storm's face hardened and he got control of his torrent of emotions. "Not for something like
this. Even if they had workers, they'd never make such an amateur mistake."
Emerald smiled turning her gaze back on Storm. "You know me so well."
"Get her out of here." Thierry ordered quietly. Immediately the two holding her started dragging her away.
"You'll never get anything out of me!" she started calling. "You will never see your precious soulmates again!"
"Get her out of here!" Thierry growled.
The two vampires struggled to pull her away as she continued yelling threats about what Jonathan would do to Hannah and Rashel. But finally her screaming faded and stopped.
"We should just kill her now, Lord Thierry." Quinn said his voice tight with anger.
"No," Thierry snapped harshly. "Storm is right—"
"Storm? Storm, that girl's soulmate? Someone who could be working with her and Jonathan?" Quinn asked incredulously. "No way. I don't trust her! I don't trust him!"
"Just because I
'm her soulmate doesn't mean that I'm working with them." Storm spat with contained fury. "You don't know me and I suggest that you think before you go judging
people by who they know."
Quinn bared his fangs; his eyes surging from his usually pitch black to silver and walked forward getting into Storm's face. "Don't you dare tell me what to do!" he snarled.
Storms bared his own fangs and hissed at Quinn but before a brawl could break out the two of them were thrown back, to each corner of the foyer. Thierry stood in the middle,
looking back and forth between the two, his dark eyes serious.
"Now is not the time to turn on each other." Thierry said in a low voice. He looked over at Quinn. "We don't have a choice. If we want to get Hannah and Rashel back safely we
have to trust Storm." Then he turned his gaze onto Storm. "I'm giving you three days to get a location out of her and if she doesn't talk then we're switching to more severe
tactics."
With that Thierry turned and started up the stairs. With a huff, Quinn stood up and followed, glaring down at Storm on the way.
They had her tied up in one of Thierry's many rooms in his giant mansion. It wasn't exactly a cell or dungeon, or whatever they call them these days. The room was bare, except
for a wooden pillar in the very middle of the room: the thing Emerald was tied to.
Her arms had been pulled behind her back, her wrist bound tightly with thick bast rope. Starting at the shoulders they had tied her to the pillar, the rope crisscrossing across her
body all the way down to her ankles, keeping her completely immobile. If she moved even a faction of an inch the rope would scourge her skin, creating angry, red welts.
Storm entered quietly and stood, leaning against the door. He kept his eyes to the floor, not wanting to meet Emerald's eyes. He didn't think he could bear looking into those
bottomless, pitiless eyes again.
"They don't do things halfway here, do they?" Emerald asked shifting uncomfortably, the rope digging into her wrists and scraping her arms.
Storm didn't answer; keeping his eyes to the floor.
"So I assume this is because you're not happy to see me, then." Emerald continued.
Storm finally looked up at Emerald, her gaze locking onto his.
"I wanted to apologize," he said quietly.
Emerald smiled and tittered. "For what? Why are you sorry?"
Storm looked disbelievingly at Emerald. "For… for what?" he asked his voice a whisper. "For… for what happened to you. For… for what you've become."
Emerald's eyebrows furrowed. "You make it sound like becoming a vampire is a bad thing."
Storm walked toward her. "You said you didn't want to ever become a vampire, Emerald! Now you are one and it's all my fault. I'm sorry."
Emerald shrugged. "You don't have to apologize. I'm perfectly happy being a vampire. I never thought it'd be so great to be on the other side of the hunt. It's an amazing feeling."
Her eyes became wistful.
"Why are you doing this?" Storm choked. "What do you gain from kidnapping Hannah and Rashel?"
Emerald smiled her eyes twinkling in a corrupt way. "Does there always need to be a reason?" She shrugged. "Just to have a little fun in the middle of the desert."
"Emerald, innocent people are going to get hurt because of you and your father! How could you ever live with yourself if they were to die?" Storm exploded. "Where is the Emerald
I know? Because this is not her!"
"She's gone," Emerald answered, "dead."
Storm's eyes widened and the breath came whooshing out of him. "It's because we broke up, isn't it?" Emerald didn't answer but the smile dropped and her eyes hardened becoming
solid emeralds and Storm took that as a yes. "You're a hypocrite, you know that? Running away from your problems by shutting down and becoming just like your parents."
"You know what they say: the apple never falls far from the tree. I know I'm a hypocrite. So is everyone else. We've all been hypocrites in our lives once or twice." she told him
evenly. "But I know how they felt. I knew the pain that they were going through and I finally understood why they gave in."
"Emerald, I will always love you." Storm whispered desperately, coming up and putting his hands on her arms. None of this affected her like it usually would. Her heart had been
coated in a thick layer of stone. "But you have to understand where I was coming from. I couldn't keep living like that. I couldn't stand you putting your life in danger for others. It
was like you didn't even consider how your friends felt! How I felt, and it just… it just infuriated me! You didn't care about your friends! You didn't care about me!"
"I did, Storm. I did understand where you were coming from. Why do you think I came to apologize to you?" For the first time since Storm had seen Emerald as a vampire, it
seemed like something other than coldness and acid had seeped into her tone. "But you pushed me away and that… was the hardest, most painful thing I have ever gone through.
You will never know how much I hurt that day. I hit rock bottom. Loandbehold my father finds me; loandbehold he's my saving grace."
Storm and Emerald looked at each other for a long moment, when suddenly Storm leaned down, pressing his lips roughly against hers, all his frustration, anger, sadness, and pain
coming through. One of his hands cupped her face, while the other was buried in her thick, silky hair. Emerald kissed him back with just as much force, wincing every single time
her arms jerked forward, meeting resistance of the woodbased rope.
It was a few seconds of kissing him did Emerald realize what was happening. She pulled away and turned her head to the side, chuckling.
"You are so full of it." she spat turning her head back to glare at him, though that smile was still on her face. "You think you can get me to give up the location of Thierry and
Quinn's beloved soulmates by seducing me. By getting me to think you do love me. Very clever, but I won't fall for it." By the end, Emerald's jaw had clenched shut and her eyes
had had frozen over once again.
Storm stepped back appalled at what he'd just done. He really hadn't meant to force himself on her like that. It was crude and ungentlemanly.
Storm shook his head and stepped even closer. "No, that's not what I meant to do, Emerald." he said. "II… I don't know what came over me. I… I do love you. I've always loved
you, Emerald. You've got to believe me." he pled.
"You're a good liar, I'll give you that." Emerald said.
Storm hissed. "I'm not lying! Why won't you just believe me?"
"You might as well just give it up and let them come torture me, because you're not getting a single coordinate from me."
"I won't give up, Emerald. I will keep fighting." Storm threatened.
Emerald smiled at this. "The Emerald you knew it dead."
"Just give me a few more days, Lord Thierry," Storm bargained. "I'm getting through to her, I can feel it. I just need a few more days."
Quinn stood ready to argue against that, but Thierry held his hand up, stopping him.
"I'm sorry Storm but I cannot afford to wait a few more days. I gave you three and you have failed to get so much as a street. This is clearly not working. We must switch methods." Thierry told Storm firmly.
Storm stood as ell. "Please, at least another few hours—"
"You got your chance already, Kallahan." Quinn interrupted. "I will not risk Rashel's life for Emerald's."
"She is still my soulmate, Quinn. I can't just stand around and watch her suffer." Storm argued.
"If I'm not mistaken, you guys broke up. Soulmates, please, I couldn't even call what you guys have an acquaintanceship." Quinn scoffed. "Besides if you really think about it, you're
the one who started all of this."
Storm's jaw was taut, his electric blue eyes blazing. "I didn't—"
"You bro
ke her heart." he paused. "You broke your soulmate's heart." With those last words Quinn exited the room, leaving Storm still standing there stunned at first. But when
Quinn's words finally resonated with him he realized the painful truth.
Storm exited without another word and went back to his room. He sat on the edge of his bed, in complete darkness wallowing in selfhatred, regret, aguish.
Quinn had been absolutely right. He'd ripped Emerald's heart out, he'd crushed her spirit. Which in turn made him feel as if his own heart had been taken, as if his own soul was
slowly being crushed right now.
His will to fight this battle was depleting rapidly. If it weren't for the fact that Storm felt there was a tiny shred of hope left for Emerald, he would've given in completely.
The next few days were absolute torture for Storm. Lord Thierry wouldn't let him go see Emerald at all. But that was probably just as well because, like Thierry had stated, they'd
resorted to much harsher tactics. Thierry didn't strike Storm as that kind of type, but I guess if your soulmate was on the line you'd do anything to save them. Storm knew he'd do
anything for Emerald, even in her current… state.
As of now though, he really couldn't do anything. Arguing wasn't going to do them any good and if Storm really wanted Emerald freed from what they were doing he'd probably end
up killing Thierry's workers, which wasn't the best idea right now.
After three days—each day feeling like an eternity had passed—of being locked up in his room, Storm finally stepped out, ready to talk to Thierry. It was only fair that he get
another chance after three days. Storm had been thinking about this day and night; tossing and turning in his bed as he lay there unable to get to sleep when the sun had left their
grace. Nightmares haunted his mind when he did managed to get to sleep, Emerald's screams echoing in his head throughout this neverending darkness that was slowly engulfing
him into its clutches.
Storm had also been thinking about his argument. What he'd say to Thierry to convince him to let him try at least one more time; how he'd say it (in a calm, polite tone); and how
he'd respond to what Thierry might say. Of course, who knows how well Storm would actually take this. He could end up yelling at Thierry if it started taking a turn for the worst.
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