A New World

Chapter 3

Darkness was all Ephraim could see when he finally came to and he began to panic. Not being able to see in complete darkness was something he feared as a dark hunter. He began to hyperventilate and struggle against his restraints. He felt his wrists begin to bleed and whatever was holding him back was digging into his ribs, making breathing harder.

"A-Ash! S-SIMI!" Hot tears streamed down his face as he screamed for the only people who could help him. "ACHERON!"

"Ephraim stop!" He managed to calm down a little bit from the familiar voice.

"T-Taylor?" He heard a sigh of relief.

"Yes it's me... Okay, listen to me, both of us are tied up, but I can see so I want you to trust me." He nodded and started to relax. "Good. Now I want you to scoot your chair towards me."

"How do I know where you are?" He chuckled.

"Just follow my voice, okay. Can you do that?"

"I can." He began to inch his chair towards Taylor slowly and stopped when he felt his legs on Taylor's.

"Okay, now lean forward as much as you can so I can take off your blindfold." He did as he was told and quickly felt Taylor's lips brush up against his nose and cheek, making his body heat up. When the blindfold lowered, he saw Taylor's piercing green eyes staring back into his.

He remained breathless as he saw the individual golden speckles surrounding his pupils and the different waves of green surrounding the gold. "There... I can see, but not very well. Simi explained to me that you can see in the dark." Ephraim blinked before looking around and taking in his surroundings.

"It's a pretty small room, thankfully no windows, one mirror and an intercom system."

"Why an intercom system?"

"How would I know? I just woke up here screaming and crying like a baby." Taylor's face went sympathetic.

"You were scared. It's not like you could've done anything else. Besides, if you hadn't, I wouldn't have woken up and helped you."

"Right..." He looked at his bonds and then at Taylor's. His was a simple rope while Ephraim's was chains that he couldn't exactly break because of the magic deep set in them.

He kicked the blade out from the toe of his boot and cut the ropes around Taylor's ankles. "There, you should be able to move better now." With skill he never thought he had, he broke the blade off of the boot and managed to get it onto Taylor's. "Sorry Kell, I'll just have you make me a new pair." He muttered to himself, hating to break the Romanian Dark Hunter's precious work, but when push comes to shove... "Carefully bring that into your lap so I can reach it."

Taylor carefully, but quickly, carries out the order and Ephraim tried to grab it from Taylor's lap, but couldn't reach far enough. "Here." Taylor lifted his leg with the blade balancing carefully on it and Ephraim grabbed it with his teeth, his fangs making it a bit hard to keep a hold without cutting himself.

He shifted the blade around so he could cut the ropes around Taylor's wrist. When it was cut, he dropped the blade into his hand. "Use that to cut yourself out."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to need you to undo these chains for me. I can't really struggle without it getting tighter." He said, his voice tight because the lack of air. He sat back in his chair and felt the very strong urge to sleep. "Can you fight?" Taylor looked up at him in surprise.

"What?"

"Can you fight?" Taylor nodded. "Alright... There's a dagger in my boot, anyone who comes in here, stab them."

"Woah wait! Why?" Ephraim had already begun to doze off.

"I need to... Recover..." Taylor watched as Ephraim dozed off and sat there for a moment, extremely confused as to why he would sleep in a situation like this. He shook his head and began to cut his ropes.

He stood up and bent down to grab the dagger from Ephraim's boot. "How did I manage to get myself mixed up in all of this?"

"It's simply because you were at the wrong place at the wrong time." He jumped at the sudden deep voice and looked around, instinctively shielding Ephraim. A concealed door opened up and a tall figure stood in the way, all of their features blocked out by the bright light. "It was really about time he fell asleep, those cuts on his wrists are pretty deep." The man, who Taylor assumed was the man who spoke before, closed the door and stood there, not doing anything.

Taylor blinked, trying to see any noticeable features on him, but because of his human eyes, he was unable to identify anything other than his height, build and how long his hair was. He didn't make a move to speak, considering what happened last time. "Like I said, wrong place, wrong time. Poor you, lost your boyfriend to suicide and lost your mind to alcohol. Then little Ephraim here saved your life."

Taylor suddenly felt a hand on his chin, delicate fingers brushed up against his lips and cheeks. "He can speak to you without killing you." The man was right in front of him and he was able to see his face. He wasn't going to deny that he was absolutely smoking, like I would let you step on me and belittle me and I wouldn't care kind of hot. But that's as far as it went, other than his voice being as smooth as butter. "I find that so irritating. Considering I tried so hard to make him understand that I wanted to hear his voice."

Taylor frowned and grabbed Ephraim's shoulder to make sure he was still there. "But now with Artemis in the way I can never hear that lovely voice..." The man backed away from Taylor.

"What're you talking about?" The man laughed.

"Oh I'm sure he'll tell you soon enough. In the meantime, have fun trying to escape this place without any knowledge of what time it is outside. I'll be watching your progress." The man opened the door again and chuckled. "Good luck. You'll need it."

The door shut and Taylor growled. "Dammit... I should've done what I was told..."