Bathe In Fire - Shadows of the Night 2

Chapter 32

Hi!

So here is the next one. I wanted to thank you all for reading, voting, and commenting. There are so many people who responded to this story in ways I never expected. I don't take it for granted. Thank you.

Lara

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Chapter 32

The pain was dull, throbbing like a hot, angry vein somewhere at the back of my head. Disoriented, I tried to reassemble the fragmentary pieces of memory, tried to figure out what had happened and come up with a satisfying answer to the question where the hell I was. The particular memory about the vampire knocking me unconscious came faster than I had wanted it to.

Confusing images of darkness, movement, and the blurry sing-song of a motor. I was in a car, presumably the cargo compartment of some sort of a delivery van. My hands and feet were bound. I tried to wiggle and almost choked on the pain. It was all I could do to not let a howling noise escape my mouth. It was my rib.

Apparently my cracked rib hadn't fared well with me being thrown against a wall. It felt like someone had stamped on it with iron feet and broken my rib cage in two in the process. Now each single breath felt like someone was slicing my lungs with a knife.

An awareness of the direness of the situation I was in came only slowly. I could taste the sour flavor of fear on the tip of my tongue.

The car's motor rattled on and on, letting me know that we were still moving. How long had I been out cold? Where was I being taking? And why? Was there any chance of me escaping? The questions kept coming. Answers? Forget it.

The constant flow of pointless questions ended abruptly when we finally came to a halt. I tensed, willing my senses to stretch and sharpen. Two hollow sounds echoed in the night. Then a loud thud that had me believe the vampire had shut the driver's door. Nothing but my imagination betrayed the vampire's footsteps. Somehow I knew he was moving to the rear of the car. Where else would he go? I braced myself, and yet my heartbeat went berserk when the door opened. I was face to face with the vampire I had attacked verbally days ago. The same one that had given me one hell of a k.o.

The living corpse started to tear me out of the van, ignoring my pitiful attempts at struggling. The scream exploded out of my throat, a pathetic vent for the pain I was experiencing. I tried to work through the pain and called for my magic, pinpricks and goose bumps turning my skin inside out. I felt the air particles tremble and shift before pain detonated behind my eyes, crashing my system. My throat went completely dry when I realized it: The power, my magic, was still there, but I couldn't use a single ounce of it.

"Where are we?"

My voice was raspy, not much above a whisper with recurring waves of pain tormenting my body. If the vampire didn't hurry up and kill me already, my broken rib would do the job for him. The vampire just laughed and hauled me over his shoulder. Another barrel of pain crashing inside of me. I screamed.

"Shut the fuck up! Believe me, you don't want to know what I'll do to you if you don't."

I clamped my lips shut, choking back the pain. There was no way I could control this. There was a whimper hanging on the tip of my tongue, and it wanted out. I tried to breathe through the pain and concentrated on my surroundings instead. We were moving up a set of marble stairs, the night illuminated by an incessant flicker of dark orange; candles, from the looks of it. I tried to raise my head, but found that the attempt hadn't been a good idea. Nausea reared its ugly head. A twin spot of malaise, almost equal to its bigger brother. The rib was still doing a great job at keeping me preoccupied.