A Toiling Darkness (30 page)

He needed to kill me.

“I want to be free. Every second feels like
a painful strain, like I should be able to go where I want but
instead I’m held down against my will. I want to be free.”

This is freedom, Akhlys. I need this. I’m
suffering with this gaping black hole in my heart because my babies
are dead. So yeah, I’m going to embrace my decision and follow it
through until the end

They are going to kill you.

I know. Like I said, freedom.

Shit.

“Darkness?” I blinked, refocusing on Kalen.
He was looking at me funny. “Are you okay?”

“Ya—Yeah,” I gave him a weak smile. “Don’t
look like that. I said I’ll help you and I will. You’ll be free
soon enough. I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah? I’ll help you with
Akhlys.”

“At the harbor?” he asked.

I let my smile grow a little more. He was
starting to understand me at least a little bit. Too bad he was
going to kill me. “Yeah, at the harbor.”

I turned and went into the apartment,
knowing he was watching me as I disappeared through the door.

I wonder what death will feel like. Will it
be the ultimate end? Blissful and peaceful like the humans liked to
believe or was I meant to go to a place full of suffering to pay
for all the crimes I committed. The bigger question was how was I
going to let Kalen kill me? Saying I would and actually doing it
were two different things. Good thing I didn’t go back on my word.
I’ll help him find a way to do it.

The apartment building was weirdly
quiet.

I mean, it has always been quiet, but now it
was too silent and for that reason alone, I went on alert. I made
my way slowly up the stairwell, casting out all my senses and got
back nothing, not even the normal feel of another being in the
area.

That couldn’t be right.

There were at least ten other beings who
lived in the building right now. Some of them bloodborns, a couple
of locs, and even a Fae. Everyone kept to themselves and it helped
keep up the pretense of the building being abandoned. It was the
perfect place for beings always in transit. I’ve always been able
to sense them, like background noise. Tonight, I got nothing.

The eerie quiet raised my shackles.
Something was very wrong. When I reached my floor, it became even
quieter. There wasn’t so much as a skitter from the rats. It was
like being in a sound proof room. There should be noise, like the
dripping of water that leaked into the hallway, the skittering of a
rat or two, the distance voices of the other two occupants on my
floor, or the creaking of floorboards. But none of it was reaching
my little ears. I pushed out my power, trying to check my apartment
and found nothing. So very cautiously, I opened my apartment door,
pushing the door against the wall to make sure no one was hiding
behind it. From what I could sense, there was no one in there.

Am I being overly paranoid now? I let out a
small laugh, feeling silly.

I went inside, changing quickly into a
pajama dress. Why was I becoming so paranoid? Kalen still has no
clue about who I really am. Was it because the Consort were around,
or to be more specific, Death himself? I have a feeling he was
going to pay me a visit. What would he think about me dying for the
sake of a slauve? What about El? Surely I was doing something
humane, and El would approve of at least my willingness to help
someone else, even if I was doing it in a way he wouldn’t approve
of. To him, self-sacrifice was just taking an easy way out.

The biggest problem with the promise was
finding a way to allow Kalen to kill me by overpowering my
instincts. Because with my life in mortal danger, my instincts will
take over before Kalen even has a chance to wound me enough to kill
me.

I went towards the kitchen, only to find
myself shoved against the wall across from the bathroom door.
Something wrapped itself around me and searing pain scorched my
skin. I barely kept in a scream, not wanting to give my attacker
that satisfaction. The smell of burnt skin and smoke became
noticeable and a part of me was screaming, yelling at me, telling
me I was the source of the smell. I was being cooked. I grunted
from the pain and clenched my teeth, tasting blood. I tried to
untangle myself, all my limbs useless against the net. I was truly
captured liked this.

Over the roaring in my ears, I could hear a
loud, wicked laugh. I moved just enough to see Paige Chambers
towering over me in a skin tight strapless red dress cut low enough
to show her coven tattoo. She looked just like a sensual cat who
caught the mouse she’s been hunting for far too long.
Unfortunately, I was the mouse.

I tried phasing, but whatever was over me
prevent me from doing it. It didn’t take long to figure out that
the net was able to cut me off from my shadows and made me more
useless than at high noon on a sunny day.

I stopped struggling. There was no point. I
was completely caught. As soon as I stopped, the burning stopped
too, to my relief. I laid there and did the only thing I could do
best, considering the situation. I glared at the witch, mentally
promising her demise. I made the look a challenge.

Release me and lets see who defeats who.
Lets just end this. She saw the look, understood it and only smiled
more, her face nearly cut in half with that smirk.

“So quick to realize struggling is
pointless, how disappointing.” She did a fake pout that only made
her look spoiled.

“What do you want?” I put power into my
words to show her I wasn’t giving up just yet. I was a huge
acquaintance of torture and pain. I even grew partially immune to
the pain, treating it as only another sense I could dim a
little.

Paige bent over and went to caress my skin.
When she got close enough, I snapped my teeth, nearly getting her
fingertips. Damn, I missed by a mere hair width. The net came alive
and burned briefly at the movement but the look on her face was
worth it. Her smile faltered as I rained down on her parade.

I'm good like that.

“I’m going to ask again. What do you want? I
thought you weren’t into revenge.”

She glanced to the side and I refused to
look at what had her attention. Anyone else here were just
grunts.

“Our master got tired of waiting for the
slauve to stop fumbling around. Really, I told him Kalen wouldn’t
be the best choice. That man is all about life. But then again, so
is my master.” As she spoke, her face lit up with adoration for her
master. It was raw enough that I wanted to look away from it.

Me, embarrassed? Yeah, just a little.

That kind of look was proof of a bond
stronger than just a master and his lackey. She may go to the end
of the world for him, probably already well on her way if he’s the
reason for her becoming a dark witch.

“Does this infamous master have a name?” I
asked.

She ignored the question as unfamiliar hands
grabbed me—along with the net—and brought me to my feet. I looked
up at the man to find a complete stranger. He was large, similar to
a body builder, with a square face, dark beady eyes and a
clean-shaven head. All brawns and no brains—the perfect thug. His
meaty hands stayed on my shoulders, just as strong and heavy. When
I tried to move, all he did was flex his fingers, squeezing my
small shoulders and keeping me still.

Paige simply smiled and walked into the one
room in the apartment. One of the walls were now cleared, the
bookshelf pulled away. Scratched into the plaster of the walls were
strange markings I couldn’t recognize, but somehow felt so
familiar, like a fleeting dream. If I have seen them before it was
too long ago to be sure. That thought alone was scary. If this was
ancient magic, then that wasn’t good for anyone. Not for Paige,
Kalen, and especially not for me.

The witch walked over, placed her hand in
the middle of all the circles and said an incantation. The magic
whirled from around the room and into the wall, creating a sort of
portal. It was like looking down a dark grey tornado. The witch
turned to me, pleased with herself.

“You’re messing with magic beyond you. It’s
only going to come back and bite you in the ass. All the black
magic in the world won’t be able to save you by then.”

“Shut up,” she said. “Time to go meet your
end.”

The thug shoved me through. Pain whipped at my skin
and I screamed as I grew weightless and everything went black.

When I came back to myself, I was in a pure
white room with lights all around. On the ceiling, the floor, the
walls, and leaving not even a shadow to exist. I couldn’t open my
eyes without burning them, so I left them closed. I tried to move
my limbs, only to be restricted by shackles.

Okay then.

I was definitely a prisoner. I inhaled and
smelled nothing but cleaning products. I tried to cast out my
powers and it only bounced back weak and useless. All these lights
were making me useless.

Don’t worry, no one is going to miss you.
You can stay down here and rot for the rest of your abominable
life. I’ll be back later on for some fun games.

How many times have I been shackled? Locked
up to rot in some basement or dungeon? How many times have I been
tortured, experimented on? Too many. Way too many.

I don’t know how long I stayed shackled to
the wall. It could have been minutes, hours, or days. Who knows?
Living for so long, years can pass by in what would feel like
seconds. In this moment, it felt like decades. I couldn’t keep my
eyes open longer than a few seconds, my sight unwilling to adjust
to all the light. I swear, the longer I stayed here, the more my
skin roasted. Is this what they wanted to do to me? Roast me like a
Thanksgiving chicken? Or was that turkey?

From what I could see, the room was the size
of a master bedroom and other than me, there was only a large steel
door. Nothing else. Well, magic was there too. It hummed through
the air constantly. There was so much of it that my skin grew
sensitive.

Magic is always in the air, waiting for
someone to come along and use it. Normally it stayed in the
background, acting more like wisp than anything else. It wasn’t
like that in here. The magic was so condensed in the air that I
could probably choke on it. It existed as a blanketed reminder to
the danger that has yet shown itself.

The heavy metal doors clanged open. And the
danger finally showed itself.

I peeked long enough from under my red-hazed
eyelids to sear my retinas and find Paige standing there. Not a lot
of time passed if she was still wearing the red dress. I was
starting to think they forgot about me and days were passing by.
Then again, maybe days have passed by and she was just wearing the
dress again. Doubt it. She seemed like the type to only wear
something once and then forget about it in the back of her
closet.

There was a fizzle and then the pink haze
behind my eyelids lessened. I opened my eyes slowly, weary. The
lights on the walls were off.

“So now that I’m here, what’s next?” I
asked, tired of being in this situation time and time again. I was
familiar with imprisonment enough to know that I could only wait
and see to know what they wanted to do. I was well captured and at
the mercy of their hands; at least until there was an opening for
me to escape.

She smiled. “We wait for my master to come
back with his little pet and then kill you. Fortunate for you, only
Kalen has power enough to kill you.”

That’s interesting, I thought. They were
betting everything on Kalen.

I sighed. “Simple plan.”

Paige frowned when she didn’t get the
reaction she wanted.

I guess in a way, this will work out
perfectly. I just agreed to help Kalen kill me and now here I was,
all wrapped up in a magic tight packaging and powerless. Whatever
magic they were using kept me weak.

“You act as if being chained to the wall and
waiting for your death means nothing to you.”

I shook my head. “Not nothing. It means a
lot to kill me. I hope you’re prepared for what happens
though.”

She let out a small laugh that gave her
nervousness away. Was my aloofness getting to her? I could stay
aloof. I was a master at it. “We have considered everything.”

“Everything?” I cocked my eyebrows and
tilted my head to the side. How much did they know about me?

“Yes, everything, Akhlys.” My name was a
purr on her lips and I pictured her choking on it the next time she
used that name.

“Good luck with that.”

She scowled, her beautiful face twisting
with anger. “You’re cocky. Why are you cocky?”

I was expecting a foot stomp to go with the
question, but instead she waved her hands in a weird fashion and
the lights blared to life, making my skin grow even hotter. I tried
to coil away but there was no place to cower to. It was like being
in the middle of the sun, surrounded by solar flares. The light
stayed strong until I whimpered, then it was like a flick of a
light switch as the room went back to its normal brightness.

“Not so cocky now, are you?” she said with a
satisfied smirk. I tried to smile, pulling the muscles around my
mouth taunt. My skin was tight enough to split open. She burned me
to a crisp. I could only stare at her, wide-eyed, as a new kind of
fear blossomed in my stomach.

No being was truly immortal—just really hard
to kill. All anyone had to do was find that one way that could do
them in and looking at Paige, I could only believe that she found
the way to kill me.

That wasn’t what really scared me though. I
could accept death, maybe even welcome it. But if Kalen was the
only who could kill me, then all Paige could do was torture me. I
tried to draw comfort from that thought except being barbequed made
that a little hard.

There was no darkness to draw power from and
by hurting me constantly; my body was too busy healing itself and
keeping me weak. If they were careful enough, they could keep me
locked up for a very long time and that was what scared me.