Amalgamate

Chapter 71

Rowan was exhausted. She had no idea how much time had passed down in this hole, but Ian hadn't let up since she'd agreed to the training. They'd mostly done physical sparring exchanging blows and learning how to take down an opponent, but lately there'd been more use of swords and knives. Guns were worthless because most lore creatures could only be killed by severing the head and burning the body.

"You're getting better Rowan. Faster, more precise...fewer unnecessary movements." He watched her taking in slow deep breaths, trying to recover from their sparring session.

"I have to conserve my energy. You never let up, vampire." She'd grown more detached down here beneath the ground with him. The only things keeping her sane were the prospects of getting out and developing the skills she'd need to stand on her own two feet in a world where her worst nightmares were her reality.

She'd stopped calling him by his name days ago. He'd noticed. And she never smiled anymore. He was training the human elements right out of her. It was a necessary evil though. Humans were weak and so were their emotions. There was no place for those emotions in this world. They would only get her killed. "Fine then. I'll work on your mind." He immediately began probing, searching for a way in. It was getting harder.

With fewer points of entry, she could now feel him pushing against her, trying to find a sliver in her protective mechanism, but she'd been working double over time on this. The thought of someone reading her mind, seeing what she saw or what'd she'd done... or even worse, controlling her mind was far more frightening to her than anything they could do physically. She probed back.

"Rowan, you are getting better at this as well." He felt her in his head so he conjured up images to hide what he never wanted her to see: his suffering, his time in the dungeons...his feelings for her. "I'm impressed."

Even though she could find her way in, which she hadn't been able to do before, she had difficulty discriminating between reality and illusion in his mind. He let her search the confines of his mind, but only the images and memories he wanted her to see.

Sifting through his mind the memories were like grains of sand passing through an hour glass. There were so many, and they flew by her so quickly that she couldn't figure out how to stop them ...how to focus on one. She reached out, focusing all her energy on one spot in his mind. Reaching into the falling memories, she pulled one out.

Ian stiffened as she latched on to one of his memories...one he had never meant for her to see. He pushed as hard as he could, but it wasn't enough.

She watched as a man, whom she knew had to be Ian, lay starving and filthy on a dirt floor in a small dark cell. The window in the door drew her attention. The eyes looking in on Ian were a fiercely dark scarlet.

"Rowan, stop." Ian had never meant for her to see this. He couldn't bare for her to see him at his weakest during the first part of his stay in Vertigen's dungeon.

Rowan wasn't listening, she watched him stand and walk to the door. When he was only inches away, the creature behind it spoke, "Will you join us Ian?" To which he replied, "Fuck you Mairin," and spat through the window.

Rowan felt an intense force collide with her stomach. Doubling over she vomited blood on the floor. When she was finally able to suck in air she exhaled with all her might, "I fucking hate you." She was tired of being hit and probed and invaded and cut. It was okay for him to tell her what to do, where to go, who to work with and even more so...it had been okay for him, hell all of them, to beat on her. But when she learned from him and found a way to surpass him this was her reward? Well, him hitting her like that was the straw that broke the camel's back.