Elfin (32 page)

Trik smiled, and it was not the smile of a sane man. The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees.

“Then you will suffer,” Trik responded smoothly.

Trik once again picked up the pliers.

“Where is Cassie being held?”

No answer.

Two more questions and two more silence responses later, Trik, just as emotionless as before, ripped three more nails from Alok’s hands. Alok’s screams reverberated off the walls.

Vashti sat in stunned silence as she continued to struggle against the invisible hold from Trik’s power. She was sweating and though nothing had been done to her yet, she felt Alok ’s pain and dreaded what was to come.

Trik waited for Alok to compose himself. “I’m
going to ask you some questions.”

“It’s not going to work
, Trik, can’t you see that,” Alok blurted out interrupting the assassin. “I will scream but I will not become a traitor to my people.”

“You have one chance to answer.” Trik continued as if Alok hadn’t spoken at all.

Trik didn’t notice the look Syndra gave Tamsin, or the slight shake of his head that Tamsin responded to his Chosen. Syndra let out a deep breath but didn’t say anything.

It was much later when he broke.
After all of his nails had been removed from his body, each finger broken individually by a hammer that Trik had found in the tool box, each toe broken individually by the same hammer, it was the screws that finally got him. Trik had found a Philips-head screwdriver and a handful of screws. Alok began begging him to stop after the first one had been screwed into his foot.

“Talk,”
Trik told him.

“Lorsan has her. She’s staying in the
castle. He, he has her on Rapture.” He stumbled over his words as the pain from his inflictions began to catch up with his mind.

Trik showed the first sign of emotion since he had beg
un to torture his former comrade. His lips tightened and his eyes narrowed.

“He is
testing it on her, to observe the long-term effects on humans.”

“How long has she been on it?” Trik asked.

“A week.”

“Have there been any side effects so far?”
Trik’s anger and fear began to increase as he watched Alok blanch at his question.

“Lorsan didn’t know
what would happen,” he stammered. “He had only tried it on a few humans before and only in small doses.”

Trik took a step towards the man who he had worked with for so long. “He didn’t know what
would happen?”

“It’s addictive
;
to some more than others. She’s addicted to it.” Alok watched as Trik’s face morphed from anger to rage. His speech increased as he tried to get out everything before Trik began to torture him again. “It took one time, one drink, and as soon as it began to wear off she was begging for more. If you haven’t noticed Lorsan has managed to block all the entry points into Sanctuary except for the one that comes directly from his throne room. He has her dancing at Sanctuary.”

Trik lunged for the dark e
lf but Tamsin was there in an instant. “Wait!”

Alok let out a
sardonic laugh. “You needn’t bother rescuing her, Trik. She is not the girl you knew. She would not leave with you, not unless you promised her Rapture. The girl you knew was good and pure and innocent. You knew Cassie. But it’s like the drug draws out a side of the humans that is buried deep. They lose inhibitions, but that’s not all, they begin to give into that part of them that they keep buried, the part of them that wants all the pleasures life can bring and damn the consequences. Your Chosen is sultry, sexy, and more than one elf has petitioned Lorsan to have her.”

Trik roared
and Tamsin lost his grip on him. Power pulsed through the room driving the other elves to their knees. Alok and Vashti cowered in their chairs as Triktapic, King of the Elves lost his cool façade. He grabbed Alok from the chair and threw him across the room. The dark elf hit the brick wall with such force that shards of debris broke off the wall and scattered across the floor. Trik moved towards Vashti and had her by the throat in a matter of seconds.

“You are the reason she is gone. You are responsible for what is being done to her an
d I, Triktapic, King of the Elven race, chosen by the Forest Lords, sentence you to death.

Vashti’s face morphed into a look of contempt as she looked down at Trik.

“You sentence me to death? You have killed thousands, you have tortured thousands upon thousands and you think you have the right to sentence me to death because your little human is addicted to a plant?”

“Careful s
he-elf, I hold your fate in my hands. I can kill you quickly and it will be over, or I can drag it out for decades and the pain will be so atrocious that you will beg for me to break your pathetic neck,” Trik snarled. He used his power to put pressure on her mind and her organs. She would feel like she was being crushed from the inside. He watched as she struggled to breathe and panic began to settle in.

“I have killed, I have tortured
, and I will suffer the consequences of my choices. That life is over for me. I am your King; you will not speak to me with such insolence.” Trik eased up on his power and Vashti took in a deep ragged breath.

“Lorsan will kill her and you,” Vashti told him.
“No matter what you do to me she is already dead, and that is no more than you deserve. You should suffer as those you made suffer.” And before he could stop her Vashti produced a knife out of thin air and stabbed herself in the heart.

Trik dropped her body to the floor and it hit with a sickening thud. He looked down in disgust at the one responsible for his Chosen’s capture and knew that her words were true. He deserved to suffer. He deserved to die, but Cassie did not and he would not leave her in the hands of the Dark Elf King.

“Tamsin,” Trik turned to address
the Light Elf King.

“My lord,” Tamsin bowed his head and waited.

“I will not ask you or any of your warriors to assist me. I do not deserve your loyalty. I would ask that if I get Cassie out, that you would care for her and protect her.”

Syndra
stepped forward and met Trik’s eyes. “We will always care for our Queen, but you must return, Trik. Do not let the words of a mad she-elf turn you from your fate. The Forest Lords have called to you and want to see you fulfill your purpose, don’t let the judgment of those who do not matter keep you from your path.”

A slight smile appeared on Trik’s face, though it was brief. “Tamsin
, I do believe your Chosen is wise.”

Tamsin smiled and looked at
Syndra . “She is more than wise, Triktapic, and you would do well to hear her words.”

“I hear them. I will not fail my people a second time.” Trik turned back to where Alok’s body lay. The elf still breathed but he was unconscious.

“Put him in a prison. I will not grant him the mercy of death just yet,” Trik told Tamsin. “I will meet you at your castle in a few days. I imagine that I will have to make my way through Lorsan’s land and he will not make it easy on me, though I have some old tricks up my sleeves that he will not expect.”

“Before you go, I have some things that
belong to you,” Tamsin told him. “Come back with me to the castle and then you can depart from there.”

Trik’s head cocked to the side
. “Things?”

Tamsin smiled slyly.
“The Forest Lords did not leave you unarmed and defenseless.”

Ch apter 15

Darkness is all around me. I’m at the bottom of a pit and no matter how hard I try to climb up the walls I cannot get to the top. My nails bleed from the clawing and my face and body are covered in dirt. I writhe in pain and misery and I cry out for more; more of the red liquid that brings me happiness, fleeting though it may be. My body hums in remembrance of the warm liquid sliding silkily down my throat. I dance and those around me sing and laugh. Some whistle and call out my name and I dance faster. Then the feeling is gone and I’m sinking into the pit again and I cry out for more; more pleasure, more warmth, more feeling, more anything but the emptiness I feel when the high is gone. ~ Cassandra Tate

“Cassandra,” a female voice pushes through the haze that fills Cassie’s mind. She tries to sit up but her body won’t cooperate. Her breathing is labored and pain courses through her veins.

“More,” her voice is hoarse from the hours of screaming.

“I know you want more, but first we must get you ready,” the female voice tells her as she helps her stand. It’s painful. Her legs are weak and don’t want to support her body, but she is thinner now and so she is able to force them.

“Ready?” She asks wearily.

“You must dance tonight. Dance for a suitor. King Lorsan is growing tired of the endless requests for you and so he is going to give you to a male tonight.”

Cassie frowned, or at least she thought it was a frown. Give her to a male. What did that mean? So she asked.

“It means you are going to be Bound in Union,” the woman answered.

“
Bound?” Cassie whispered.

“Yes, but you must try to stop saying his name at night. You call it out endlessly and I imagine your mate will not take kindly to his woman calling the name of another.”

Cassie’s breath caught in her throat and she felt jolts of pain sear through her. She yelped in pain and fell to the floor. Whose name? Who did she cry out for in the darkness of night, in the dreams that swirled in her mind as she slept? She could see his face but his identity eluded her. She reached for him in her dreams and no matter how fast she ran she could not catch him. When she got close to him she would hear the words that repeatedly ripped out her heart.

“I don’t want you,” his deep, smooth voice carried to her ears.

“Please,” she would whisper as she fell to the ground. “I love you.”

Always he would shake his head, his beautiful black hair so dark
that it appeared to have a purple tint and pity would fill his silver eyes. “I don’t love you.” His red, full lips moved and yet the words that came out were words that she never wanted to hear.

“Who is he?” she asked the woman. She could never remember her name, but she came every
day and helped bathe her and dress her.

“You
don’t need to worry about that; it’s best if you simply forget him.” She held out a glass to her and Cassie’s eyes glazed over. She grabbed for the glass greedily and guzzled the liquid down. The warmth hit her mouth and trailed down her throat and she moaned. She knelt there as the full effects of Rapture coursed through her body and when she was numb and consumed in the glorious high she stood, her movements like a languid cat.

“That’s more like it,” the woman crooned.
“Now off to the bath with you.” She ushered Cassie through a door that led into a lavish bathroom. A tub was filled with steaming hot water and Cassie could smell the perfume that had been poured into the bath. She stripped off her night gown and climbed slowly into the tub and let out a soft sigh as the hot water surrounded her. Her skin tingled everywhere that it touched and she giggled at the sensation.

The woman clucked her tongue at her. “You really are much too young to be married off.” She hurried around the bathroom, setting out clothes and a towel. She placed a brush on the counte r and various lotions and oils, all of which were designed to make Cassie’s skin softer and shiny and her hair silky. She had to admit that she enjoyed being pampered. She didn’t think that it had always been this way. She couldn’t help but think that in another life she had not had all the luxury that she had now. But as Rapture continued to haze her brain with pleasure, she pushed the thoughts away and focused on the sensations and the here and now.

The woman had been talking but Cassie hadn’t been listening to a word she was saying. She looked over at her and saw that she was very young , though her demeanor seemed so much older, more like a mother hen than the young chick she appeared to be.

“What is your name?” Cassie asked.

“Tsk, tsk,” the woman frowned. “You ask me that every day and I tell you every day. Why don’t you just make one up and try to remember it?”

Cassie smiled. S
he liked this woman with her spunky attitude and sparkling eyes.

“Okay then, I will call you
Flora,” she told her with a decisive nod.

“Why Flora?”

“Because she’s a fairy godmother, and you remind me of one, always flitting about and taking care of me.”

Flora smiled.
“Well that’s nice. It’s better than calling me a mother hen so I will go with it.”

Cassie smiled and it was a dreamy look. Flora looked at her and Cassie saw the sympathy that filled them. Why did Flora feel that way towards her? It’s not like her life was hard. She just slept, ate, drank her wonderful red drink and danced. What was so bad about that? But there at the back of her mind, something lay just out of her reach, something important discarded and forgotten.

“Why do you look at me that way?” Cassie finally asked.