Where Dark Things Wait: Night Creatures Book One

Chapter Twenty-Six - No Mortal Witch

Trigger Warning : Sexual Assault

Everything hurt. Kalyna wasn't sure when she'd stopped breathing, or when her heartbeat had slowed to nothing. Some might say she was lucky to have vampire in her, keeping her alive, but she didn't feel lucky. When Lapis brought a blowtorch to her flesh and watched it blister, burn, and char as she writhed... that wasn't lucky. When he took a hammer to her kneecaps... that wasn't lucky. For hours, he'd subjected her to nothing but pain.

Or was it days?

She couldn't be sure. Everything blurred together. Her vision slid in and out of focus and she felt like she bobbed along, out of time and space, in her personal bubble of agony. Her screams echoed in that bubble, loud at first, but getting rougher and weaker as her throat tore and her strength waned. She wanted someone to burst that bubble and let out all the pain and fear, but no one would. No one could.

To start with her body had healed itself with vampire speed, but the more Lapis hurt her - breaking bones, or burning flesh - the longer it took. Her body consumed whatever strength it had, and as it did, hunger cramped her belly. Her tongue dried, her throat felt parched, and the scent of the monster torturing her threatened to drive her mad with the need for blood. As much as he disgusted her, even his would do. Anything to quench her thirst and strengthen her body, but her manacled wrists kept her from reaching for him.

She didn't have the strength to stand on her tiptoes against his onslaught, so she hung from her chains as limp as the fae. The iron cuffs dug into her flesh, rubbing her skin raw so that blood trickled down her arms to mix with the gore and soot that coated her body. She doubted anyone would recognise anymore, with one eye swollen shut and blood covering her lips and chin, and still it wasn't enough for her tormenter.

When his hand clamped around her jaw, she tried to pull away. She tried to back into the wall, but there was nowhere to go. Lapis's fingers and thumb dug into her cheeks, forcing her mouth open. When he rammed the nozzle of the blowtorch between her desiccated lips, she tried to beg, to plead, but then there was only pain; white hot, blinding agony. Her tongue, the roof of her mouth, and her throat blistered and burned, and she couldn't think over the scorching, indescribable pain.

Maybe she screamed to start with. Maybe she tasted blood. She didn't know. Then she couldn't scream, and she couldn't taste, and her jaw locked in place because any movement at all made charred flesh crack and blistered skin burst. When Lapis yanked the blowtorch back out of her mouth again, melted flesh came with it, burned onto the metal nozzle, and peeling from her tongue and lips.

"I need to hunt... To feed... Maybe by the time I get back, you'll have healed enough to scream some more, eh?" Lapis said, then strode away, knowing she couldn't answer even if she wanted to.

He slipped out of the cell, and she heard the door lock behind him, leaving her alone with the blonde fae woman. For a time, silence fell, and that would have been a relief if not for the relentless agony of her tortured body.

"Fae can't use magic in here," the other prisoner said eventually, her voice barely a rasp as it passed lips that might not have had a sip of water in days.

Could fae die of dehydration?

Kalyna didn't know. She didn't know much about anything.

"Wolves can't either. Magic that humans use, and which some vampires and lycans use because they were once human, that doesn't work in here either, because of the wards," the fae explained. "Vampires... I've seen the woman change shape... She thinks becoming a panther is frightening... as if what she is to begin with isn't frightening enough... but that is power that comes from being a vampire. If you have that power, mixed blood, you should use it."