The Tainted (The Tainted Series Book 1)

by Anna Hill

  His light brown hair was combed neatly to the side, framing his rather handsome face, which held a surprisingly soft expression. In fact, he seemed to be looking at her more inquisitively than anything else. It was mainly his eyes, though, that drew her attention. Even in the soft torchlight, they shone a bright yellow-gold, like the eyes of a hawk or eagle, so intense they seemed to pierce straight through her.

  Not realizing she was doing so, Rebecca began to lean toward him, away from the wall. She’d seen those eyes somewhere before. Actually, there was something so incredibly familiar about this man in general that she couldn’t shake the feeling she’d met him before. Though, somehow, she knew it hadn’t been in one of her dreams.

  “You’re cold.”

  His voice shocked Rebecca back to reality and she quickly pinned herself against the wall again. She remained silent, just staring at him, unsure of how to treat this interaction.

  “And you’re hungry.”

  Almost on cue, her stomach grumbled loudly.

  “I brought you these.” The man took his hands out from behind his back, causing Rebecca to flinch. However, to her great surprise, the man pulled out a blanket and a small loaf of bread.

  Rebecca stared in shock at the items, and then back up at the man. “Why would you do this?”

  The man shrugged.

  “Why should I trust you?” She said, glaring at him.

  “I suppose you don’t have to,” he said as he bent down, placing the blanket and loaf on the ground, all the while maintaining eye contact with Rebecca.

  As he stood up, he nodded to her, “I must return before I’ve been gone too long.” Then, without another word, he spun and left the room, closing and locking the door behind him.

  Still stunned and confused by what had just happened, it took Rebecca a moment to pull herself off the wall and make her way over to the items on the ground. Picking them up quickly, as if they might disappear if she didn’t, she made her way back over to her original corner of the cell. She tightly wrapped the blanket around herself and then sat, curled up and wedged into the corner.

  Rebecca stared at the bread, wondering if it could be poisoned. Finally, resigned to the fact that she’d rather die from poison than starvation, she ate the entire loaf without another thought.

  For a long time, Rebecca sat curled up in the warmth of the blanket. All her muscles had grown tight and achy from the constant shivering, and only now did they relax a little. However, after struggling several times to fall asleep, she realized she was fighting a losing battle.

  With one hand keeping the blanket wrapped around her and the other holding onto the wall, she stood up again. Starting in the opposite direction as she’d gone before, Rebecca once more began walking along the walls of the cell, probing for any weak spots and searching for anything on the ground that might be of some use to her.

  Rebecca became so immersed in what she was doing that she didn’t hear the footsteps approaching from the other side of the door, or see the torchlight beyond the small, barred window dim. She was inspecting a small crack in the stone wall near the floor. It wasn’t much, but it was the biggest one she’d found yet. Bending over, Rebecca reached out, attempting to dig at the crack and possibly widen it even more.

  Suddenly, a thick green vine shot out of the crack and constricted around her wrists, crushing them together. Rebecca wrenched back in surprise and fear, the blanket sliding off her shoulders as she fought for freedom.

  Pulling her foot around, she stamped on the end of the vine, frantically trying to kill or break it, but it only swelled in size, tightening its grip around her arms.

  “Eventually you’re going to have to fight back,” a snide voice called from the other side of her cell door. She recognized it as the voice of the first Aillil--the evil one.

  “What do you think I’m doing?” Rebecca desperately implored as she continued to try to wrench herself free. The vine only tightened even further. It was now so excruciatingly tight around her wrists that she was afraid it might snap them. The pain was blinding; Rebecca fell to her knees, her body fighting to remain conscious.

  Just as she was about to pass out, Rebecca felt the vine give way, releasing her. She crumpled forward, breathing heavily and holding her hands close to her shaking body.

  As she lay there, she heard the sound of heeled boots walking off down the hallway. She closed her eyes, and struggled to steady her rapid breathing, fighting against the despair that threatened to consumer her. After a short time, Rebecca felt herself drift off, her body completely exhausted.

  Eighteen

  When Rebecca awoke, she found the blanket wrapped around her body and another small loaf near her on the floor. It wasn’t much, but for some reason, she felt comforted by the small gesture.

  She struggled to sit up. Her wrists had turned deep shades of purple and blue, and even a small movement of her hands was severely painful.

  Rebecca ate the bread slower this time, allowing herself time to enjoy it, since she wasn’t sure when or if she’d be able to get more. When she finished, she rested her head back against the wall behind her, staring up at the pitch-black ceiling above, trying to ignore the hopelessness that was seeping in at the edges of her mind.

  A sudden loud thud at the door made Rebecca snap her head back down. She felt too weak to handle another attack and, as the door slowly swung inward, Rebecca moved to hide herself underneath her blanket. She stopped, however, when the tall, young Aillil stepped into the torchlight. He quickly glanced down the hallway and then stepped inside, pushing the door shut. Taking slow deliberate steps, he walked to the center of the room, all the while silently watching her.

  His unwavering stare made Rebecca incredibly uncomfortable. In an effort to break his gaze, she leaned to the side and, using her hands as little as possible, she stood up. However, when she looked back at him, he was still staring straight at her, his face emotionless.

  “I’m guessing you have a reason for coming.” Rebecca said with an eyebrow raised, finally breaking the awkward silence.

  “My name is Liam,” the Aillil said with a small nod.

  “Alright…” Rebecca felt so uncomfortable around him. Social skills were obviously not his forte.

  “This is usually the point at which you tell me your name.” Liam pursed his lips slightly, as if annoyed by her ineptitude.

  “Rebecca,” she whispered. She still wasn’t sure what to think about Liam’s visits.

  “You need to tell me what your ability is.”

  His sudden, blunt statement shocked Rebecca and her uncertainty swiftly turned to anger. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

  “Yes, actually you do,” Liam answered, his tone remaining irritatingly steady.

  “And why is that?” Ignoring the pain in her wrists, Rebecca balled her hands into tight fists and placed them on her hips, allowing the blanket to fall to the ground.

  “Because they’re going to kill you.”

  “They?” She said, with a cynical, forced laugh. “Last time I checked, you were one of them. Seems to me, if I tell you anything, I’ll essentially be signing my own death sentence.”

  “No, you won’t.” Liam was completely unfazed by her rage and sarcasm. “I’ve decided to help you.”

  “You’re going to help me? Why on earth would you do that?”

  “Because I believe you can help me in return.”

  Rebecca was incredulous, “How could I be of any help to you?”

  “Because of the way you look at me.”

  Rebecca was suddenly extremely self-conscious. She struggled to hide her embarrassment while maintaining her steady glare at Liam. The man was attractive, there was no doubt about that, but she was certain she hadn’t looked at him that way. How could she have, when all he seemed to do was unsettle her?

  “You have information I need, so I’m offering you a trade,” he said, bringing Rebecca out of her train of thought. “I’ll get you out, if you give me what I
need.”

  Rebecca narrowed her eyes into a hateful glare, “If you really think I know something you want, why don’t you just try to force it out of me like the rest of your kind is doing?”

  Still oblivious to her anger, Liam answered. “Two reasons. First I don’t believe the Aillil methods, particularly the General’s, are humane.” Then, Liam’s face suddenly softened in a way she’d never seen, as if there was pride in his eyes. “Second, if I tried that, I don’t think you’d ever tell me. You’re stronger than you look.”

  Rebecca couldn’t stop the blush from coloring her cheeks, so she looked away, staring off at the far wall. “What could I possibly know that you need?”

  “Where my brother is.”

  Forgetting her timidity, Rebecca spun her head back to look up at Liam’s stern face. The realization hit her like a stone to the head, “Trysten…”

  Liam’s body simultaneously tightened and released at the sound of the name. There was a long moment of silence before he spoke, “That is his name.”

  “I thought you looked familiar from the moment I saw you. Now that I think about it, you two are almost identical, minus the age difference of course. I can’t believe he has a brother…”

  “Yes, and I have been searching for him for quite some time.”

  Rebecca’s face dropped in shock, “Are you…are you a Truaillithe?”

  “No, I am Aillil. Pure of blood.”

  Rebecca bristled at the phrase and was about to comment on his arrogance, but Liam continued talking.

  “My father died not long after I was born. After grieving for years, my mother fell in love again, but this time with an Unworthy.” Liam paused momentarily as Rebecca audibly growled at him. “I am simply using the common name. Now, as I was saying, it wasn’t long before she was impregnated by the Un…human, and was forced to hide the child. However, as always happens, she was found out, the child was taken away, and the…human’s memory erased.

  “It was more than my mother could bear. She fell into a deep, dark depression that has completely consumed her. It has stolen her from me. I’ve already lost one parent, and I’m not willing to lose another. So, I’ve dedicated my life to finding the child. I’m going to bring him back to her--to fix her.”

  Though his matter-of-fact attitude about such an extremely complicated situation made him appear a bit disillusioned, Rebecca was incredibly moved. “You would risk everything, including your life, to find him and reunite them?”

  “If it will bring my mother back, then yes. I would not hesitate.”

  Still frightened by his proposition, Rebecca believed that she could trust this Aillil. The pure conviction in his eyes told her he spoke the truth.

  “Alright…I’ll bring you to him, if you get me out of here.”

  “You still have to tell me your ability.”

  Rebecca felt the doubt creeping back in. “Why are you so adamant about knowing it?”

  “Because I must know what I’m working with. You have this entire place up in arms.”

  “Why? I haven’t done anything!”

  “That’s exactly it, you haven’t done anything. Truaillithe always fight back and defend themselves with their ability, but not you. Not when we were chasing you in the woods, not when we attacked you, and not even within this cell. We have to conclude that you’re hiding it. And if that’s so, than you’re hiding something important. If I’m going to take you into my care, I have to know what I’m dealing with.”

  Rebecca searched his eyes for a long time, her fear again entering her thoughts, screaming at her not to tell him, to protect herself and never trust again. Still, if she was to survive, if she was to ever make it out of this dreadful place, he was her only hope. And there was something so genuine about him that, even with her fear, she yearned to tell him.

  Shamefully, Rebecca whispered, “I have dreams.”

  Liam responded softly, “Just dreams?”

  “No…I can get inside people’s heads, Truaillithe’s heads, see their past…I think I could even get inside an Aillil’s.”

  Liam stepped towards her. “You’re a Feiceann,” he said breathlessly, as he looked her up and down.

  Rebecca stepped back in response, feeling incredibly uncomfortable under his intense stare. She’d expected him to run in fear once she’d revealed her secret, but he was only looking at her in awe, as if she were some oddity.

  “I’m a what?”

  “A Feiceann, a seer. They were the people of the mind, many millennia ago, but their skills became so powerful that the royal family had them, and their entire gene pool, destroyed.”

  He was still advancing on her, forcing her to retreat back to the wall. Now, he stood only inches from her, holding his head cocked to one side as he continued to stare. “There hasn’t been one like you in centuries. You’re believed to be extinct.”

  “I will be if I don’t get out of here,” Rebecca said, desperately trying to hide her incredible discomfort.

  “I will help you, as I promised I would,” he said, finally taking a step back, “but I will also guard you afterwards.”

  “You’ll what?” Rebecca said in disbelief.

  “You’re going to need all the help you can get to survive, and someone like you needs to survive.”

  “Thanks, but I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

  “Then why are you in this cell?”

  Rebecca bristled. His words were always so blunt that she found herself hating him for it. They unnerved her--he unnerved her.

  “Fine. Get me out of this cell, and we’ll go from there.”

  Liam nodded, “Alright. But I’ll have to wait for the right time. There will be no warning. When I come for you, you must be ready. Understood?”

  Rebecca nodded.

  “I have to leave now. I’ve been away far too long.” Then, without another word, Liam spun on the spot and disappeared, shutting and locking the door behind him.

  Nineteen

  For what felt like an eternity, Rebecca waited apprehensively in her desolate cell. Every small rustle, every slight movement outside the door, set her nerves on edge and all her muscles twitching in anticipation. Yet nothing happened; Liam never came.

  Finally, after what felt like an eternity of excruciating waiting, Rebecca heard the familiar thump of the lock being pulled back. Her heart swelled with hope, and she thrust her head up just in time to see the heavy door swing forward. But she immediately brought it back down again and desperately tried to hide beneath her blanket. An uncontrollable fear crept up over her, causing every muscle in her body to tremble.

  Taking slow, deliberate steps, the General stalked into her cell, a second, invisible set of footsteps following close behind. “Are you frightened of me, my dear?” his slimy voice, laced with false tenderness, resonated from the other side of the room.

  Rebecca refused to answer, remaining curled up and listening to the two sets of footsteps come to a halt.

  The General’s harsh, mocking laughter reverberated ominously off the cell walls. “You can pretend to hide all you want, little girl, but I’ll find out what you’re keeping from me. I will find a way to break you.”

  Suddenly, a vine shot up from the ground between her legs. It wrapped firmly around her throat, wrenching her head out from underneath her blanket. Rapidly growing taller, it ruthlessly yanked her up to standing position. Two more vines shot up, seemingly out of nowhere, and pulled her wrists down hard, forcefully twisting around the already bruised skin.

  Rebecca tried to scream out in terror, but the vine around her throat clenched even tighter, lifting her flailing body off the ground. She gasped desperately for air, but the vine was too tight. Her lungs quickly began to burn and frantically spasm in her chest. Black spots started to blotch her vision, and a tingly feeling spread down her limbs. She knew it wouldn’t be long before she’d completely pass out.

  “Stop!” a sudden, loud voice called out from the shadows. “Stop, you’ll
kill her!”

  The vine around Rebecca’s throat suddenly loosened, falling away. She dropped down harshly onto her knees, hitting the rough, stone ground and gasping for air. While she struggled to fill her aching lungs, the vines around her already painful wrists kept their tight grip, not allowing her to move from her current position.

  “Who are you to question me?” The General spat into the shadows behind him. “Who are you to interfere with my work?!”

  Rebecca looked to the side and saw Liam’s figure materialize out of the darkness.

  “I meant only to save her because you haven’t yet learned what it is…”

  “Silence!” The General nearly screamed in his face. “You’ll be punished for your insolence!”

  A loud crack rang out in the cell as the General suddenly, and severely, slapped Liam across the face. Incredibly, Liam barely even flinched. He remained standing tall, his hands laced behind his back.

  “Out of the cell!” the General barked, staring Liam down. “Out!”

  Without looking at the General, Liam turned and exited the room. The General shot one last, hateful glance at Rebecca, and then spun and followed Liam out, cracking his knuckles as he left.

  The tight vines loosened and fell from Rebecca’s wrists as the heavy wooden door swung shut, once again leaving the cell awash in dark shadows.

  Almost immediately, several heavy, sickening thuds came from outside the cell--the sounds of something solid making repeated, brutal contact with soft flesh. Shaking violently, Rebecca again pulled her head underneath her blanket. Hiding herself away from the world, she tried desperately to ignore the sheer panic and grave hopelessness that was flooding her anxious mind.

  * * *

  Rebecca had lost track of how long she’d been inside the prison. Before, she had waited so long for Liam, wishing every minute, every second, might be the moment he would arrive, almost going insane with desperation. As stressful as waiting had been, at least it had offered her a glimmer of hope. But now, after having heard those sickening thuds in the hallway earlier, she couldn’t help thinking that the only person who could have helped her, was never coming back.