The Greater Darkness: A Dark YA Urban Fantasy Book With Vampires

Chapter 5

The pain that shocked Geoffrey awake shouldn't have come as such a surprise. Somehow he'd expected that falling asleep at a church would equate to waking in equally peaceful circumstances. Instead he was back in his apartment, stretched out on a metal frame with an incredibly strong electrical current running through him.

Imastious pulled the wires away from Geoffrey. "Very good, I'm happy to see that you've rejoined us on schedule."

Geoffrey tried to speak, but the gag stuffed into his mouth prevented anything recognizable from making it out of his throat.

"If only you were equally compliant and dependable in other things as well, we wouldn't be forced to continually experience these kinds of unpleasant episodes."

Geoffrey thought that someone was standing at the head of the bed, but couldn't turn his head far enough to verify the fact.

"Now, now. Venice is indeed beautiful, but you should be contemplating your situation, pondering your sins if you will, rather than trying to sneak a peek."

Confident that he had Geoffrey's full attention, Imastious set down the wires, and then turned back to Geoffrey. "The first thing you need to understand is that trying to run or hide is futile. I've told you before that my resources are sufficient to know exactly what you do and where you go. We gave you several days in which to choose your hiding place, and then came and collected you."

Shaking his head at Geoffrey's lack of response, Imastious picked up the wires once again, and returned to the bed. "You will learn eventually. You'll learn to obey me and complete the simple tasks that you're given. Of that I have complete confidence. You learned during our last visit that there are things worse than dying. Today you learned that you cannot escape me. Before I leave you tonight you'll learn that you are not important enough to my plans to merit any further indulgence."

Before Geoffrey could fully process Imastious' words, the older man touched the wires to each of Geoffrey's wrists, causing him to convulse and scream as well as he could past the gag.

No matter how Geoffrey struggled and fought, he couldn't free himself. He was forced to endure shock after shock as punctuation of Imastious' determination to see his spirit broken.

Any thoughts that what he was experiencing was induced by drugs fled within the first few minutes. He still couldn't explain how he could have possibly recovered from earlier sessions so quickly, but he was finally sure that what he was experiencing was real.

At some point Geoffrey started expecting to pass into unconsciousness, but his body proved tougher than he'd expected. That toughness, combined with the careful breaks Imastious provided, kept him coherent for what must have been hours.

Geoffrey never felt the slickness of blood that would have indicated Imastious had started using his knife again, but Geoffrey eventually lost track of what was being done to his abused body. Pain simply moved from one part of his being to another at irregular intervals, leaving him shaking and ever weaker.

The torture had stopped for several minutes before Geoffrey finally felt Imastious pat his cheek to capture his attention. "I hope you are starting to understand just how badly you can be hurt. I stopped just now not because I couldn't continue hurting you. I have other ways of inflicting even greater pain than what you experienced tonight, but I think my point has finally been made."

Geoffrey wished that he could dispute the point, but Imastious had just shown him that things could always get worse, that there were levels of suffering that he hadn't even believed were possible. It had just been starkly illustrated in blood and pain that there would always be a greater punishment waiting in the wings if Geoffrey didn't behave.