Jazz
Jazz glared at the man standing in front of her. His hand was still on her chin, his touch sending a tingling feeling through her body. His bright green eyes gazed intensely into hers and she struggled not to show the emotions that she felt.
Her bear prowled restlessly within her body, as her eyes devoured him. His sculpted, chiseled face was framed with short brown hair. His broad shoulders and muscles rippled, bulging through his clothes. His aura pulled her close, making a shiver run down her spine.
She gazed into his eyes and felt the gravity of his pull. She felt like melting into his arms and surrendering herself body and soul. She started to breathe hard as she controlled the rush of emotions she didn’t understand. Why did this man affect her so powerfully?
Suddenly, she was wrenched to her feet as the guards pulled her up. The man stood up, still gazing at her. His powerful eyes were the last thing she saw before they blindfolded her and dragged her away.
∞∞∞
“Why did you steal the fire ruby?” the man called Lawrance asked her. “Did you do it for someone else? Is that why you ran to the bell tower?”
Jazz just smirked, crossing her shackled arms across her chest.
“It’s useless,” the man called Zao said. “She will never speak like this. We have already been trying for two days. Torture is the only way to get any information out of this slut.”
“Torture is frowned upon, Zao,” Lawrance said. “I will not allow that to happen in my dungeons.”
“You might be the right hand, Lawrance, but you don’t get to fucking order me.” Zao snarled.
“Enough,” Lawrance said without raising his voice. He turned to look Jazz in the eye and said, “Answer me; otherwise, I will be forced to use methods that aren’t very pleasant.”
Jazz laughed, shaking her head before suddenly spitting in his face. “Make me.” She hissed.
The darkness reappeared like a cloud of smoke, slowly surrounding her vision.
“Is that all you can do?” she asked, laughing. “Conjure up a mental fog in my head?”
No reply came as the fog that Lawrance was creating in her mind grew stringer and stringer. Bear shifters were born with many talents. Where Jazz had excellent running speed, Lawrance had the ability to make his victims hallucinate.
Jazz tried not to let the fear show in her face as her vision became pitch black. She knew this was just a hallucination he was creating, trying to get her to confess. She could fight it; she was certain there was nothing he could do that would scare her enough.
While the power of hallucination was one of the strongest abilities a bear could have, it was limited by the imagination of the one who held it. Jazz knew that there was no way he could imagine something so scary that she would confess.
“You are playing mind games when you should be torturing her!” Zao shouted, pushing Lawrance away. The darkness faded away and Jazz could see once more. The relief was short-lived though because a minute later a sharp shooting pain ran through her body.
She looked up to see Zao channeling his power through the chains of Alor, causing them to burn her skin. She shouted and thrashed as her skin started to blister and burn.
“Why did you come after the fire ruby?” Zao shouted. “Why?”
“Let her go!” Lawrance shouted, but Zao flung with him with a swipe of his arm. He held on to the chains, forcing his power through it, even as the guards tried to take him away.
Jazz screamed and screamed; she was barely aware of what was happening around her. All she knew was the excruciating pain running through her body. The chains had melted off her skin and were now digging into her flesh.
“Tell me why!” Zao roared.
Jaz opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn’t. She started to choke and gasp for air as her throat constricted. She started to cough blood as her body refused to answer the questions. The tattoo on the spine of her back started to hurt and burn, radiating pain all over her body.
“I can’t tell you!” she finally gasped out.
“You slut!” He roared. “You will never learn like this!”
He increased his power, and Jazz screamed, her vision going dark from the shock and pain. She could feel the bear inside her withering in agony and pain. She tried to answer but her throat seized up, and she felt herself choking on the blood that was filling her mouth.
The pain vanished just before Jazz was about to lose consciousness. She could hear noises that insinuated that Lawrance had finally managed to overpower Zao. Jazz tried to think but her body was so weak that her mind refused.
Her blistered and burnt flesh reeked, and the air smelt horrible. She gurgled, throwing out the blood that had filled her mouth.
