Bloodlust

Cruel & Unusual

— LIAM —

An intense ache in my neck stirred me from a sleep so deep that I knew I had been dead.

Groaning through gritted teeth, I was reminded of how breaking your neck was one of the shittiest ways to die. While the act of dying happened rather quickly and painlessly, the bones took longer to settle back into place than other fatal injuries.

Coming to after dying always felt akin to waking up after a bar fight.

When I lifted a hand to rub my sore neck, my wrists refused to lift higher than a few inches off the ground. I realized then my hands were bound to the floor in front of me by chains.

Panic set in and my senses kicked into high alert. I sucked in a deep breath as my heart pounded rapidly.

My ears detected disgruntled whispers between multiple voices, though I couldn't discern the individual words. There was a curtain of white noise in my ears, a ringing that filtered my hearing.

An ache sprouted all along my back and down to my knees. I could I'd been sitting in a slumped position for at least a few hours.

Despite the pang of protest in my vertebrae, I lifted my face and forced my eyes open.

My gaze roved the massive, round room. The space was rather dark except for sunlight streaming in from skylights in the ceiling, which allowed me to see the immense depth of this chamber.

The potent odors of old blood and bodily excrement burned in my nostrils. A dark sensation of death hung in the air, a thin cool mist that was felt more than seen.

Directly in front of me rose a tall, wooden table that stretched the length of the room from one curved end to the other. Ten ruby-eyed and black-gowned Princeps sat behind the enormous desk facing me.

They all stared down their noses through cold, empty eyes. Their postures were perfectly stiff and erect, faces withered and grim.

The black color of their gowns made them seem even paler in the dim room. Like a group of grim reapers, their placid gazes were all trained on me.

"Look who decided to join us today," spoke a familiar voice.

I followed the sound of it to Ptolemy's conceited smile.

"Why am I here?" I said.

"You betrayed our laws to help a fugitive escape. Your presence has been warranted in the courts for decades now."

My lip curled back in a sneer. I had to watch my words wisely or I might inspire them to kill me sooner than later.

"Are the courts aware of how this action might invoke retaliation from said fugitive?" I asked.

"We will handle any retaliation efforts as needed," Ptolemy spoke calmly.

"So you are not interested in capturing the fugitive himself?"

"Our intention was never to take him," he continued in a more terse voice, "or any of his abominations."

"Then why go through so much trouble to capture and imprison me? If he means so little to you, why should my punishment be so severe?"

"Because you decided and executed a treasonous plan, which resulted in the release of the most dangerous criminal that the courts have handled to date!" he furiously hissed at me.

I felt my lip twitch. He appeared personally affected by my actions.

Perhaps he had been the one leading Rob's seizure and imprisonment efforts. My escape plan had foiled their attempt to lock up the crossbreed king. He was too powerful for them to take on now and it was all because of me.