Black dots danced in my vision, leaving me feeling as if I were caught somewhere between a conscious and unconscious state as I heard Gregory snark out, “We’ll be taking those daggers back now, love. I can’t wait to see how smoothly they cut through your skin after seeing what they did to that ax.”
Bile worked its way up my throat, burning and nearly choking me, and I had to force myself to swallow it down. The image of them cutting me up assaulted my mind, turning my stomach further.
The hand on my chin shifted to grab a handful of hair at the base of my skull, dragging me up as I struggled to find any strength to stand. Something hit me in the back of the knees, causing me to stagger backward and fall into a wooden chair.
“We know how hard it is to contain a vampyre, but this stuff sure does the trick to drug humans and vamps alike,” Frederick murmured, holding a dark bottle at eye level for me to see. It wasn’t labeled. “This little poison is a personal favorite of mine. It’ll damage your kidney and liver with the dose we’re exposing you to, all while stripping your ability to fight back. We’ll use as much as we need to, for as long as we need to, to get the answers Malakai expects from us. It’ll be such fun.”
Gregory’s chipper voice chimed in, “And while you will heal, we’ll ensure there is no reprieve from the poison, keeping your body in a constant cycle of pain and misery. The release of death will not come to you.”
A large clap sounded, making me wince at the noise before Holmeth’s stench assaulted the air around me once more. “There’s no time like the present to get started. As I said before, you choose how easy or hard this goes, and trust me,” he trailed off as he lowered his lips against the shell of my ear, his hot breath blowing against my skin and making nausea roil through my gut once more. “I love that you’ve chosen the hard path so far. It pleases megreatly.”
“Go fuck yourself with the pieces of that ruined ax,” I spat back, using all the strength within me to pull my head up and keep it straight.
I wasn’t sure if it was the poison making me loose lipped or my hatred for these vampyres, but I found myself spewing the words before I could contain myself.
“How about this instead?” Holmeth questioned, flicking his hands toward the other two to set them into motion. I narrowed my eyes in caution of whatever they were going to do.
Once more, the cloth was placed over my nose and mouth, muffling my grunt as my broken wrists were tugged on top of the chair’s arms and bound. This time, it was cold metal that kissed my bare skin.
I tried to kick out with my feet and yank my arms away, but all my body managed was to jerk a few times. The headache and dots littering my vision intensified, and a constant ring whirled in my ears.
I felt the same metal wrapping around my ankles as the cloth was removed.
Surely I could break through these metal restraints…if I could just gain the full strength of my powers back. I’m sure they knew that, though, hence the poison. Hell, I’d settle for being able to hold my head up completely on my own at this point.
My head lolled onto my shoulder, and I glared at Frederick and Gregory as they stood, inspecting their work before pulling out the daggers and glancing to Holmeth. “Ready, boss.”
Holmeth stood a few feet from me with his feet in a wide stance and his arms crossed, looking down his sharp nose at me. Nodding in answer, he dropped his arms and rubbed his hands together, a glint of utter insanity sparking in his eyes.
“Let’s begin,” he said, as he leaned in toward me. The stench of him churned my stomach, and I swallowed a gag as he asked, “How vast is the population of this empire?”
When I didn’t answer immediately, his fist came flying toward my face. There was nothing I could do to twist my face out of the way in time. My head snapped up from the upper cut to my jaw, rattling my brain from the impact. It took a few seconds for my shock to clear. Feeling blood pooling in my mouth once more, I focused on spitting it out toward his feet. “Fuck you,” I rasped.
My lack of strength didn’t bode well for an escape, but I found comfort knowing that there was nothing they could do to force answers from me. I would never betray the Tridian Empire. I hadn’t been there long, but it was the first place that felt like home since before I was removed from my family's farm.
The Tridian Empire had provided me hope for the future, for what the world could be like when vampyres and humans coexisted peacefully. While I wasn’t a human, I still felt a sense of duty to the humans of the Thaician Empire, ensuring their freedom from Malaki’s tyranny. I hoped they would one day feel the peace that I felt upon my arrival to this brighter, happier empire.
Without warning, Frederick lashed out with the dagger, cutting deeply into my thigh above the knee. Biting down on my lip, I tried to contain the screams of agony that I knew would only serve to get them off. Tears burned in my eyes, so I slammed them shut, forcing myself to breathe through my nose. To my chagrin, the hot tears still spilled down my cheeks.
“How large is their army?” Holmeth asked.
Keeping my eyes shut, I prepared myself for the next attack as I murmured through the pain, “Fuck off.”
Those words would be my mantra with him until the end, no matter what.
My fangs split my lip open as a dagger opened a slash across my other thigh. The tears continued as he asked, “Who is their ruler?”
That was the question I needed. Thinking of Myrin, I felt a drive to stay strong course through my veins. I wouldn’t let her or her empire down. I would get through this, and I would get my revenge.
Swallowing down a lump in my throat, I forced my eyes open. I emphasized each word as they spilled from my lips, “Fuck. You. Holmeth.”
He clenched his hands into tight fists at his side, body shaking as he stared down at me with a sneer. “You think you have any chance of escaping here? You don’t. No one is coming to save you because no one fucking cares about you. All you are is a fucking pawn in Malakai’s game, an expendable one now.”
Despite knowing his words weren’t true, it still felt like a punch to the gut. For so long, his words were the truth—existing as a simple pawn was my life for years. No one cared enough to save me from my prison when I was simply Malakai’s Thrall. Not until Dakath, Elijah, and Kolvar teamed up with Tristan to help me escape.
Without a doubt, I knew I had people who cared about me now, as well. I had Elijah, Kolvar, and Dakath. I had Myrin. I had Tristan, Rina, and Bailey. I had my whole life ahead of me to cement and strengthen the bonds with my chosen family and experience a life full of love.
I let my mind fill with all the tender moments I’d had with my new family as I plastered a smile onto my face. I stared right back at Holmeth.
