by Ivy Asher
“Drink this,” Siah demands again, pressing the cup against my surrendering lips.
Liquid fills my mouth, and I’m surprised when it’s not the water I was expecting it to be. The consistency is thicker, and the flavor is somewhat sweet. I swallow it down, and Siah forces another mouthful. It dawns on me what I’m drinking, and I try to jerk my head away and close my mouth, but Siah has the cup wedged between my teeth, and I can’t clamp them down all the way. He tilts my head back and forces more liquid into my mouth. I cough and sputter and swallow more of the blood he’s forcing down my throat, and I feel some of it spill out of my mouth and drip down the side of my face.
When I’m choking on the last of the cup’s contents, Siah releases his strong hold and backs away from me.
“Why the fuck are you forcing me to drink blood?” I accuse, my painful, barely there voice not expressing the amount of rage I’m currently experiencing right now.
“Like I said, it will help you recover much quicker. You’ll be able to replenish the magic that was stripped from you faster, and you’re going to need that.”
Like his words just magically ignited the blood I choked down, a tingle works its way through me, and with each second that passes, I start to feel better. Siah gives me a look that smugly communicates an I told you so, but I refuse to recognize that he was right, not when he’s the reason I’m here. He betrayed us. I was a fucking idiot for believing a stranger. With that thought, I push at the parameters of my feeling better and try to call on the runes behind my ear. My breath hitches when the pain slams into me, and I quickly abandon trying to contact my Chosen.
Sorrow floods me, rushing in to mix with my bitterness and fury, and I can feel the sobs forming in my chest. I glare at Siah and shake my head. “Why?” is all I can croak out before I slam down the floodgates on my surging emotions. I will not cry in front of this fucker. I will not let him see one millisecond of weakness from me, I demand from myself. I survived Beth; I can survive this asshole and his psychotic master.
He steps closer to me, and I jerk back away from him when he tries to wipe at the drying trail of blood on my jaw. I glare at him, and once again he’s trapping me against him and forcing my compliance. He wipes my face clean, and then when he’s done, he just stops and stares at me for a minute, his eyes bouncing back and forth between mine.
“It’s not what you think,” he whispers, the sound of his soft voice calling goosebumps to rise all over me. His eyes drop to my lips. For a second, I think he’s going to try to kiss me, but just as quickly as he pinned my face against him, he flashes away from me and settles himself in the corner. He looks at me like somehow I’ve wronged him, and then his heated gaze morphs into ice, and he fixes his stare on a spot on the wall above my head.
I’m not sure what the fuck just happened or what he meant, but for some reason, I feel like if I speak right now, I’ll lose and he’ll win. I pull my gaze from the statue impersonation that Siah the asshole is now doing and look around the room. The walls are a rough stone, and the look of them gives me the distinct impression that we’re somewhere underground. The lighting is electric but dim, like maybe the connection isn’t strong. Or maybe they like it that way. I don’t know much about lamia traits and abilities, maybe they have sensitive eyes.
I’m currently perched on a large bed, the gray bedding soft under my palms. A massive dark wood headboard rises up behind me, and a short but chunky footboard sits at the bottom. There is a side table and wardrobe in the room and an arched doorway that I hope leads to a bathroom. The space is stark, masculine, and for some reason smells familiar. I can’t place what the scent is, but it’s a strange sliver of comfort in all the chaos surrounding me.
Siah’s jaw tenses ever so slightly, and the sound of a lock being released fills the room. The large black lacquered door swings open, and in walks a self-satisfied Adriel. His eyes land directly on me, and his lips tilt up in a friendly smile.
“Pet, I’m so relieved you’re up. You gave us quite the scare. We’ll have to be more careful not to get you so worked up,” he teases. He’s not at all fazed by the fact that he’s the only one amused by any of this. His gaze roves over my face and then moves down my body. When his eyes meet mine again, he studies me for a beat.
“You look like your mother, but you have your father’s eyes and dark hair. It’s a stunning combination,” Adriel observes. I keep my features dead, not sure what he’s trying to get out of me.
“I would ask you how you’re feeling, but I imagine it’s quite an abysmal state you’ve just woken up in.”
I don’t miss the satisfied flash that moves through Adriel’s features with his words. He loves that he’s taken me down, collared me. The piece of shit probably has a hard-on right now. It’s clear he likes stealing others’ power and not just of the magical variety. Adriel’s twinkling red-gold eyes leave mine, and he looks around the room. I don’t take the bait and copy him; I just wait until he gets to whatever it is that he wants.
“This will be your room for the time being. Don’t set that pretty head on escaping; you’ll have guards on you every second of the day, even when you can’t see them.” He pauses for a minute, and his eyes land on where Siah is standing in the corner. He stares at him contemplatively for a few seconds before turning back to me. “Come now, pet, let’s tour your new kingdom.” Adriel holds his hand out to me like he honestly thinks I’m going to take it. I don’t move from the bed.
He clicks his tongue at me in a disappointed tsk’ing sound and shakes his head. “Now, now, pet. You’re new here, so I’ll grant some leeway, but when you’re commanded to do something, you will do it. Understood?”
We watch each other for a minute, and I debate the best plan of action. I’m hurt and weak, although grudgingly doing a little better since Siah forced that blood into me. As irritating as it feels to fall in line like I’m being ordered to do, I need to choose my battles with this mental case very carefully. Is refusing to cooperate now going to gain me anything? I push slowly off the bed. My body protests the movement at first, my muscles stiff and angry, but with each step around the bed toward Adriel, my body feels a little better.
I keep my movements shaky and cringe a couple times for show. According to Siah, Adriel expects me to be down for weeks. I can work with that and play the battered and broken Sentinel to my advantage. All I need to do is find something to cut this fucker’s head off, and I’m back in the game, magic or not. Adriel’s eyes light up as I make my way sloth-fast over to him. I sneak a quick glance at Siah as I pass, and I try to piece together what his deal is. He brought me here to Adriel and, for all I know, had Sorik attack everyone I left behind, and yet he’s trying to get me back into fighting shape as soon as possible and whispers cryptic shit like “it’s not what you think.”
I rub at my chest and reassure myself that everyone is fine. They’re all more than capable of kicking serious ass, and even if they were surprise attacked, it doesn’t mean they lost. I would feel it if something happened to them, wouldn’t I? I ask myself and immediately decide that I would. We’re all connected together through magic, and if that connection was severed somehow, I would know. A reassuring calm washes through me, and I hobble right past the open palm that Adriel is holding out to me. I’ll listen to this fucker, but if he thinks I’m going to touch him, he’s got another thing coming.
I wait to see if he’s going to press the issue of my not taking his offered palm, but he just releases an amused chuckle and falls into step next to me. We exit through the large black doors out into a hallway made of the same stone that the walls of the room were. I look up and gasp at what I find. The ceiling is high, roughly domed and completely made up of crystals. They sparkle from the dim light of the sconces in the hallway, and I run my awed gaze over the various shades of blue and purple. There are small groupings of clear crystals interspersed amongst the other colors, and the whole ceiling looks like a bejeweled image of deep space.
“Magnifi
cent, isn’t it?” Adriel asks me.
He looks so satisfied by my appreciative reaction to the ceiling, you’d think he’d hand made it himself.
“There are many breathtaking places in our home. Just wait until you see the dining room or the pools,” he tells me and then leads me through the hallway.
I’m certain that we’re underground now, but I’m less hopeful that we might be located under the ruins that Siah stopped the car at. I suppose it’s possible that the ruins had lower levels that might have connected to these cave systems, or maybe that’s just my wishful thinking. I didn’t ask Siah how long I was incoherent from the pain the collar caused me, so it’s possible they had enough time to move me somewhere else.
My eyes roam over everything we pass, and grudgingly, I have to admit it’s a good hiding spot. Whenever I pictured Adriel and where he might be, I figured he had a building or home that was hidden just like Solace. But a fucked up sparkly bat cave is a smart move and not something I would think others are likely to search for.
I’m herded down a hallway and into what looks like a massive lounge room that has different spaces that lamia are congregated around. There’s a corner with some pool tables, different sitting areas facing TVs, a grouping of high tables and stools that laptop-using lamia are perched on, and chairs bookending chess boards scattered around the room. Everyone is stunning and appears to be around my age. The place looks like a rad dorm common room or a community center for the super-hot. I look around, and it’s not hard to forget that each of these individuals is a supernatural predator and part of the nest that hunts my kind.
I spot female lamia for the first time ever, and I try not to stare at them. I’ve only ever seen males, and even though Siah said there were females, it didn’t register as real until now. I don’t really know what I expected, but they possess the same impossible beauty as their male counterparts, and I would guess the same speed and strength too.
A tall male walks into the room. He’s holding a leash that’s attached to a black leather collar that’s been secured around the throat of a female who’s walking behind him. He plops down on a lush black leather sofa and pulls on the leash roughly until the female is forced into his lap. It’s obvious she doesn’t want to be there, and my hackles rise as I watch him forcefully position her the way that he wants.
Adriel is boastfully telling me something, but I can’t even be bothered to pretend I’m listening to him as I watch the grimace on the female’s face when the lamia brushes her hair over her shoulder and drops his lips to her skin. The lamia says something to the woman in his lap, and she pales ever so slightly. It doesn’t take a genius to guess what whispered words would have her on the verge of tears, but the picture grows even clearer when he fondles her breasts, and she shudders and squeezes her eyes tightly shut.
I run my gaze around the room, calculating if I can reach them before any of the indifferent lamia in this room would think to stop me. If I sprint, the couple are maybe twelve paces away. Could I get to them? A cheer goes up around the pool table closest to the black sectional couch, and it pulls my attention away from the couple. Adriel says something to Siah, and before I consciously make the decision to do so, my bare feet are slapping against the stone floor as I sprint toward the noisy pool table.
I’m surprised that my body responds to my pressing demands as quickly as it does with how weak I was feeling, but I don’t focus on that as I close in on the rowdy group of pool playing lamia. I drive my foot into the back of a male’s knee and rip the pool cue out of his hands as he yelps in surprise and falls forward into another lamia. I turn like a cheetah cutting prey from the herd, and leap over the back of the couch to land next to the couple. I’m shocked that I’ve gotten this far in a room full of beings that I know first-hand have supernatural speed and strength. Maybe I just shocked the hell out of them with the stunt I’m pulling, or maybe they’re more comfortable and complacent at home than they are out in the world.
Shock registers on the face of the lamia on the couch, and he moves to shove the female off his lap. Before he can even shift his weight to stand, I’ve sunk the pool stick into his neck. He grabs at the wound and a blood-filled gasp escapes his stunned mouth. I move my makeshift weapon from side to side widening the hole I just put in his neck, but I know I don’t have enough time to try and rip his head off as roars of indignation fill the room. I give up on my goal of decapitation by pool cue and pull it out of the lamia’s neck with a sickening squelching noise. Lamia can die if their magic stores get too low, and Siah said magic is found in the blood. So maybe this asshole will bleed to death.
I wipe the blood off the wood on his shirt so it’s not too slippery and turn, my weapon in hand, and step in front of the woman. I’m about ninety percent sure she’s human. I know that Talon mentioned something about Beth being a blood slave, and that’s exactly what this set up between the lamia and the girl looked like. She’s still on the ground, looking up at me in terror, and the rest of the room is very obviously pissed about what just happened. No one has taken one step in my direction, but I’m sure once the shock wears off, that will change. A rage-filled cry echoes around the room, but I don’t look for the source as I focus on Adriel and ready myself for an attack.
Surprisingly, he doesn’t look even half as outraged as the others in the room clearly are. He seems more put out by what I’ve done than anything else. A breeze caresses my skin to the left, and a lamia tries to move in closer to me. I twirl the pool cue in that direction, and I smash him in the jaw. He falls to the ground, cupping his mouth, and glares at me but doesn’t pop up like I expect him to.
I’m perplexed by the lamia’s submission, and it dawns on me that maybe he doesn’t know how to fight. Every lamia I’ve ever run into seemed battle ready, but maybe the whole collective of this nest isn’t. Adriel raises his hand, and the shouts and growls echoing around the stone walls grow quiet. He takes a step toward me, and I tighten my grip around the cue, which is thankfully still whole.
“Put it down now, and I’ll chalk this up to a misunderstanding. You’ve yet to be told the rules of my house and therefore couldn’t know how serious we take slaves shedding blood. Or what we do to anyone who interferes with an elite and their feeder,” Adriel’s words move powerfully around the room, and I can tell they’re meant for the lamia and their rising anger more than they’re meant for me.
I feel the female behind me shakily stand up and press in closer to my back. Adriel takes another step toward me. “I will not ask you again. You will stop this temper tantrum right now, or I will kill the human you’re stupidly risking yourself to protect. I will disarm you, beat you, and then force you to watch me rip her apart piece by piece.”
The female at my back flinches and then quietly whispers, “They’ll torture me anyway.”
Her voice is the slightest puff of air as it hits the back of my neck, and I can almost feel the bitterness in it dripping down my spine. Laughter titters through the surrounding lamia, and I glare at the threat that hangs in the air.
“Would you rather die?” I ask, my eyes locked on Adriel, and he chuckles as an amused glint enters his eyes.
“You’ll need much more than a pool cue if you want to come for me, Sentinel,” Adriel mocks, but I don’t miss the yes that caresses my shoulder.
I drop the pool stick, and satisfaction lights up Adriel’s face. That is, until I pivot behind the female, reach up and snap her neck. She goes limp in my arms, and I carefully lower her to the cold ground. Adriel roars out, “NO,” but I’m unfazed by his outrage. I brush strawberry blonde locks out of the young woman’s face and wonder how the fuck she ended up here? What kind of hell was she living in that would make her rather die than face what might happen next?
I find the buckle on the back of her collar and remove it. There’s so much noise and action all around me, but it feels like a dull roar to my ears as I tune it out and add this woman, whoever she was, to the list in my mind who will be avenged wh
en Adriel is ash. I look up to find Adriel stomping toward me. He back hands me so hard that my entire face and neck explode in pain, and I’m slammed to the ground. My ears ring as I try to push off the ground, and I feel a booted foot kick me in the stomach. I try to roll away from more kicks, but someone grabs me by the hair and pulls me up from the ground.
I grab the wrist of whoever’s fist is wrapped around my ponytail and try to pull up on it in an effort to distribute my weight and keep chunks of hair from being ripped out of my scalp. I dangle painfully until the face of the lamia I tried to kill on the couch is in my face.
Well, fuck!
I’ll have to make the hole in his neck bigger next time.
20
I skid across the rough dirt of the cell I’ve just been thrown into. I grunt in pain from the impact and cough as the dust my body just kicked up tries to settle in my lungs. The door is closed behind me, and I relax against the ground and breathe through the pain. Blood trickles from my nose and my lip, and it mixes with the hard packed dirt beneath me. The sight and smell of it remind me of the room in the barn that I discovered Siah in, and I internally curse at the fucked up full circle moment.
I wipe at the blood slowly dripping from my face and wince at the pain that throbs in my cheek and jaw. I put up a decent fight against the beating Adriel sanctioned. I got in several good hits those fuckers didn’t see coming, but in the end, there was only so much I could do with no magic against the speed and strength of a group of lamia. Lucky for me and my bones, Adriel called it after one of them tried to bite me, and my shields popped up to stop it. The instinctual trigger of my magic sent me to the ground, writhing in pain, and when it happened again, Adriel decided the punishment wasn’t worth the risk of losing me.
