Array
(
[text] =>
*****
*Corey*
My eyes darted at all the fighting around me. The intruders were retreating because they were losing. They had been so easy to fight off I hadn’t even needed to shift, but in the few minutes we had been fighting, I had lost Jayden’s pull again.
I turned to try to see who else needed help but paused. Wait. In Sweden, those men had said that they had someone on the inside our pack, that’s how they planted the bombs that initially disrupted our pack and destroyed our homes…
“Jason, wait!” I shouted out seeing that Jason was about to kill one of the last of the wolves that were unsuccessful at retreating.
The pair were surrounded by five other wolves from our pack, there was nowhere the wolf that was currently pinned beneath Jason could get away.
Jason’s head turned my way curiously. I chuckled at the sight of wet blood on his snout from fighting and well, killing…
“Let’s talk, shall we? Jason, move.” Jason let out a whine but I frowned at him and he just moved away from the wolf beneath him while letting out a disappointed grunt.
I walked over to them pulling off my jacket before throwing it at the injured wolf.
“Shift,” I commanded. He didn’t make a move, “Alright, Jason, kill –” I was cut off by a growl from the wolf as he began to shift. As he changed forms, I looked around and noted that all the wolves that had managed to stay alive were gone, no one was fighting anymore. Cowards… When I looked back at the ground in front of me, the remaining intruder was completely human again. “I’ll tell you what, uh… What’s your name?” I asked. He just stared at me silently defiant.
Just my glancing at the wolves around us had him gulping in terror. He was not exactly in a position to be defiant. “Enzo…” he muttered.
“How old are you? Twenty?” I asked studying him, he nodded, “Right, Enzo. I’m going to need you to answer a few questions before I either let you go or have my men rip you apart. You’re young, so I’ll assume you want the option to live, right?”
He swallowed again as he sat up, his eyes shifting to Jason beside me and he tensely moved away from him slightly. Jason was still in wolf form, staring menacingly at Enzo as if waiting for the second he was allowed to kill the guy.
“Corey, what are you doing?” I looked up to see Trent, Sean, Marcus and Kaden join us. “Kill him already, why are you prolonging it? We have things to do, people to find.” Kaden said.
“Just tying up some loose ends.” I shrugged at him before looking back at Enzo, “If you answer this right, I’ll let you live. Who are the pack members that helped you?” I asked.
‘I can’t believe I let that slip.’ Sean linked to me in shock.
‘You had other things to worry about.’ I linked back to him. There had been so much going on lately.
“You’ll let me go?” Enzo asked. I nodded. “How do you know I won’t lie?”
“I don’t. He does; warlock.” I pointed at Marcus. “But go ahead and lie just to see if we really would kill you, I dare you.” I smiled at him. Jason growled in delight. Wow, he was blood-hungry at the moment. There was plenty of evidence around us in the form of members of his pack who had already been killed that showed that our pack was not exactly in the mood to be gracious.
Enzo swallowed.
“This guy named Tony and someone uh… a woman… I… Her name was uh…” he drifted.
“Carrie?” It was the first name to come into my mind.
“Yes, her. Blonde, pretty one.” I rolled my eyes. “C-can I leave now?” he asked.
“Sean,” I didn’t bother saying anything else to him as I knew he would take over anyway.
I ran into the house and down into the basement and then to the little cell Sean had decided to hold Carrie in until he figured out what to do with her, because I wasn’t going to waste time on that. She was seated on the untiled cement floor when I walked in.
“Corey –” Carrie sat up instantly.
“Shut up, your sentence is building Carrie and your ending isn’t going to be a pretty one, so while I can still make your death a little easier for you: tell me where they are.” I said.
She gave a dry laugh. “Or what? I’ll be killed either way.”
“Maybe if you help, I’ll get a psychologist and a pastor of some kind before you die, how does that sound?” I smiled at her, “You will finally get some much needed mental help, and then they might help send you somewhere other than hell. It definitely won’t be heaven, but it won’t be hell so it’s better than nothing, right?”
“Keep talking, Corey, just know that you’re here asking for my help.” She said sourly.
“Know that you’re still here solely because I don’t care what happens to you. I could have them kill you, but I’ll let Sean decide, and Sean has some weird hope that he can help people change for the better, that’s why you’re not dead yet, but I’m losing my patience.” I said.
“Help me change? I’m in a cage. This is helping?” She said.
“Consider yourself lucky. You could be one of the wolves we just killed outside.” I shrugged, “Tell me where they are or this is going to be the last few minutes of your life, Carrie.”
She seemed to hear the seriousness in my tone because she sighed and sat up bending her legs in front of her.
“I don’t know.” She said.
I stared at her clenching my jaw. “Carrie –” I forced her name through my grit teeth as I balled my fist.
“I really don’t know! Our deal was they get Jayden, I get you. I didn’t need to know where they planned on taking him, I didn’t care. I don’t know where he is.”
“I don’t believe you,” I said contradicting what I felt, because I did. It seemed like she was being honest for once.
“Believe what you want. I don’t know where that thing is.” She rolled her eyes.
I sighed through my nose. At least there was still Marcus… I wasn’t as strong as Sean was, but it had been nine years and I had to be stronger than I was nine years ago, I had to be stronger than Sean was nine years ago. I could take that spell, even if I couldn’t, I would. I was going to find my mate in the next twelve hours, no matter what.
—–
*Jayden*
I grit my teeth as I desperately tried to pull my arms from the chains submerged in the water surrounding me, but I barely had any strength left. Even though there had only been a few spoons of wolfsbane added, it was enough to keep burning at my skin, making me sick while continuously weakening me.
I had gotten Mike down, I was going to beat him, barely, but I was… before my father returned to the fight. Now I was chained up in a bath with wolfsbane filled water up to my neck.
There was no way I was getting out now.
“Burnt flesh. Not exactly a very appetising smell, right Jay-Jay?” My father waved his hand in front of his face after he walked into the room.
Yeah, the room had no ventilation of any sort in it either, so I was stuck breathing in the smell of my burning flesh, the fumes given off by the plant water stinging my nose as I waited for them to walk in and out talking shit.
“Ge- get me out –” I hissed.
“We would, but your cage is broken and besides, this is much more fun to watch. You’re also more accessible without us having to act like warlocks. That fucking magic thing sucks, especially when you only know the basics.” He said. I clenched my teeth as he lifted the fork from the plate he was holding and poked my collar, just below water level. I let out a yell at the pain of having my currently burning, sensitive skin messed with and he laughed. “This is a fun way to spend the day, but you’ll have to eat first.”
I watched as he stuck the fork into food on the plate while he knelt down beside the bath.
“Eat up.” My jaw tightened at that. It clearly had wolfsbane in it.
I couldn’t argue as he grabbed my chin and shoved some food into my mouth before he covered my face. I cried out, coughing into his hand as the wolfsbane ran over my mouth. There was no way to get rid of it, so I swallowed and tightly shut my eyes while trying not to think about how much pain it caused as it sank down my throat.
“Ouch. Food too ‘hot’ for you?” He chuckled. “I’ll ease up on the spices next time.”
If I could move my arms just enough, just fast enough to splash water onto him…
You would only create bigger problems for yourself seeing as when he recovers, he’ll probably throw a few cups of wolfsbane into this bath.
I hated the voice in my mind, but it was right. Not to mention that Mike was still around as well so I wouldn’t even have to wait for my father to recover for those cups to be added to the water that was already burning my flesh away. Then again, there was a reason they had only put a few spoons in to begin with. The more wolfsbane there was, the faster I would burn, the less I could heal because my healing abilities were terrible. They were trying to keep me alive and hurt me at the same time. They probably would not overdo it to keep torturing me as long as possible. Also, because there was so little wolfsbane in the water, my father would only be slightly affected if I were to splash water on him.
My eyes opened hearing more footsteps I glanced at Mike to see him holding the jar of wolfsbane they had.
I did not want to plead, because I did not want to embarrass myself and knew it would lead to nothing anyway but my head shook without my intending it.
They chuckled. “It wouldn’t be torture if we went easy on you, now would it, Jayden? Old times don’t look so bad now, do they?” I watched in horror as Mike dropped a tablespoon right on my exposed knee, instead of in the water. I let out screams of agony as it burnt through my skin. It was so much worse than the diluted version of wolfsbane most of my body was submerged in, it felt like it was going to burn right through my leg. “Crap, missed the water.” Mike laughed. “Things have to be even though.”
I had not stopped screaming but it amplified as he added a spoon to the other knee. The amount of pain made black dots blur some of my vision as my head spun.
The worst part was that I knew there would be no relief, I was not going to bleed or burn to death, I was just going to keep slowly healing and burning for as long as they wanted me to.
“Should have stayed in your cage.” My father twisted the knife I had plunged into him around his fingers before he stabbed it into my arm.
The stab I did not mind, it was the fact that my arm was in the water and I now had a burning stab wound. Still, that was preferred over what was happening to my legs.
“I could still make you scream louder.” I heard Mike’s voice through my own screams.
“Keep that shit to yourself, Mike. I don’t want to know about your activities.” Mike just chuckled at my father’s disgusted voice.
I felt tears burn my eyes as I clenched my jaw trying to stop my own screaming.
The entire time I had been with them, I wanted to save my son; it had been the only thing on my mind. I still wanted that even though it wasn’t possible. At that moment, death definitely seemed comforting. He was dead. I would be with him. Tamia would have Corey. Eli would have me. It was better than not having anyone. So death would not be that bad…
*****
[text_hash] => dcbda08a
)