Entwined With the Dark (22 page)

Finally, she spoke, in her musical, French accented voice. Like a million crystal chandeliers tinkling in a gentle breeze.

"
Sanguis Vitam Cupitor
, you have kept us waiting."

It wasn't a question, so I didn't answer, but I did stand upright again despite her not giving permission. A small demonstration of rebellion, but luckily she chose to ignore it for now. Perhaps she had bigger chastisements in mind.

I took in her ensemble and kept a neutral mask on my face. Southern Belle it was. A lovely two toned floor-length blue dress with full skirt. Hooked buttons ran the length of her torso, there must have been fifty of them. Getting in and out of this thing would be a chore. The blue sleeves ended mid-forearm, white lacy material hanging below over her delicate wrists. The full skirt was layered, hiding her feet and making her seem like an adornment on top of a cake. Her porcelain features perfecting the image of decoration. She always looked like a tiny, young, china doll to me.

"Are you finished with your assessment?" she asked, arching a well manicured brow.

"Yes, Champion. You look lovely." She did, it was no lie. But then she always did.

She frowned at my compliment. "I am displeased with you, Lucinda." A warning that any attempts to placate her would fail. "What do you say to the charges I have placed?"

What charges? Nothing specific had been said.

She growled. "Don't toy with me, Hunter." Reminding me she was in my head.

I took a steadying breath in. "Forgive me, Champion. Can you repeat the charges? Please?"

A shot of pure rage slammed into my shields. The power of her
Sanguis Vitam
was formidable. I watched through hazy eyes and the veil of pain, the shifting of several uncomfortable councilmen on their chairs. But none came to my aid. I dreaded to think what pain she would be inflicting, if I didn't have Light shields as strong as mine. I had fallen to my knees with the effort required to maintain them. A metaphysical attack like this took its toll. But at least I
did
have a modicum of defence.

"Arghh!" she screamed in annoyance. "Lower your shields!"

"No," I managed in a pitifully weak voice.

I was unaware of what was happening to my vampires, all I could see was black and red. Finally after what felt like an eternity had passed, she ceased her assault on my body and mind. She was breathing as heavily as me, her eyes a wash of the Mediterranean Sea. She was shaking her head in disbelief.

"You have so much power to spare, yet will not give it to your Masters." The words were said through gritted teeth. She ran a trembling hand through the few loose curls of her black hair by her face. I couldn't tell if the tremors were due to anger or the effort she had just used.

I hadn't planned on speaking, when in the presence of the Champion you wait to be asked. But the words were out of my mouth before I could temper them. "I have no control over what you receive. It is out of my hands."

"No!" she shouted and in a split second she was grabbing a fistful of my hair and pulling me to my feet before her. She's shorter than me, slighter too. It would have looked ridiculous, this child-sized woman lifting me easily to my feet. But then I noticed she was hovering a few inches off the ground. Giving her the height and leverage she needed, to execute the move.

Her perfect features blurred in front of my eyes and tears from her painful hold spilled down my cheeks. I could defend against a metaphysical attack without appearing as though I was fighting her back, but a physical assault was another thing.

"You are withholding what is rightfully ours," she said in a deadly quiet voice. "You have come against the
Iunctio
, siding with our enemies, colluding against
us
. What punishment should I give you, Nosferatin?"

I felt compelled to defend myself. Her accusations were incorrect. If I didn't put this right now, it would only escalate further. Besides, I was beginning to get pissed off myself.

"I am not withholding anything," I said through clenched teeth and saw Gregor in my periphery offer up a small negative shake of his head. Don't do it, it said, but I ignored him. "I am not against the
Iunctio
." She looked amused at my attempts to defend myself. Amused and increasingly angry. I tried my last defence. "
You
chose the kindred I had to join with. The joining failed because of your choice."

It happened so quickly, I don't think I managed a breath in or to blink. She threw me across the room by her grip on my hair alone and I smashed into the solid structure of a column to the side. Plaster rained down on top of me and I managed a weak grunt in response, before she was on me again, flinging me across the marble floor like a bowling ball, smashing through my vampires and coming to rest at the feet of an
Iunctio
guard. Who promptly kicked me in the ribs, the sound of bones breaking echoed through the silent room.

I wanted to fight back, I wanted to send a bolt of pure Light right at her heart. But I couldn't kill her, as she couldn't kill me. And attacking would mean Michel's death for sure. I whimpered a little, unable to stop the pathetic sound from escaping my lips, as her skirt hem appeared in my flickering vision beside me. She crouched down like a child inspecting a fallen toy and smiled sweetly.

"Do you care to revise that assessment?" she said equally as sweetly and to my and her astonishment I shook my head: no.

She let a breath out in surprise. "You have no sense, Nosferatin," she whispered and abruptly stood and faced the Council.

"Interrogator," she said in a high pitched voice, amusement and anticipation dripping off the word. "She is all yours. I wish a solution to this problem by nightfall. And, Avery, I will be checking in regularly to make sure your efforts are sound."

At her nod to the remaining Council she left the room and all members rose from their seats and dutifully followed. None shot a glance towards my broken self. Not even Gregor. I rolled onto my back and let out a breath of frustrated air. Avery was to
interrogate
me then. Well, it couldn't be that bad. He'd be obliged to heal any injuries he inflicted, the joining would see to that. But I had witnessed the results of his interrogating practices recently. They did not look nice at all.

His footsteps across the marble floor sounded ominous as he approached, then silence once he reached my side. I waited for the smart comment, the derogatory and snide remarks. For several seconds he said nothing and then he reached down and picked me roughly up by one arm. My head lolled around on my shoulders for a moment, lacking the strength right then to hold it up. Finally I managed to meet his eyes.

"Once again, Ms. Monk, you have placed us in the middle of a monumental mess." He ran his hand down my cheek and I felt his healing wave of power wash my shields. I lowered them fractionally, letting the joining urge to make me whole inside. Within a few seconds, my ribs were healed and my vision cleared. And all pain had disappeared.

Then he pulled back his hand and hit me, letting go of his hold at exactly the same moment his fist hit the side of my cheek. Pain radiated out and up my skull, as my body twisted away from the impact of knuckles meeting and crushing bone in my face. Blood splattered against the wall behind
me, my head screaming at the assault. Then as the world turned to a hazy grey shadow and voices of outrage sounded in amongst the ringing in my ears, black replaced the grey.

And my only thought was: the bastard hit me. He actually hit me. I was going to stake his ungrateful, abusive heart!

I can handle a lot of things, I have had to learn to do this or suffer unimaginable distress surviving life. But physical pain has always been the hardest. I can shield against mental assault. I can fight back against physical attack. But right now, with my body securely fastened to a torture device reminiscent of some medieval scene, and the threat of Michel's death being carried out if I fought back with so much as a smidgeon of Light, it was impossible. I couldn't defend against Avery's pursuit of pain. I couldn't fight back.

I had no idea where my vampires were, whether they were suffering from the same indignity as me. And I had no idea how long I had been strapped to his rack, arms wide above my head, ankles secured some distance apart below. I was upright, hanging on a blood stained wooden device, the leather straps that secured me had already worn through the skin at my wrists and feet. I was also dressed in only my undies and bra, my dress and jacket lying discarded in the corner of the room.

Marks marred my skin, smears of blood across my chest. Pain; all-consuming, all-encompassing, racked my body and tore screams from my mouth. I could feel Michel's panic and alarm, he was unable to block them streaming back down through the open connection to his mind. I knew he was on the way, but I also knew he wasn't fully healed and when he got here, I was petrified of what could transpire.

Luckily, I kept losing consciousness, but Avery simply healed me again, my shields shattered by the amount of misery he was inflicting. Every time his power washed me, I'd wake up from a fog and then promptly groan at the sight of Avery looming over me, some device of torture in his hands, and the Champion smiling grotesquely off to the side, encouraging him further.

I tried to reason with them. I tried to appeal to what little connection Avery had with me, his kindred. But whether the retreat of my power from the joining, meant there was a diminished amount of empathy for each other, I didn't know. He'd frown, maybe turn away momentarily. But he'd always return when the Champion instructed him to again.

I was trapped in a loop of pain, unconsciousness, healing and then terror as it started all over again. I began to feel my Light swelling of its own accord. I knew before long I would strike back whether I intended to or not. And the thought of my defending against this heinous treatment, only sent panic though my blood. If I struck back, the Champion would order Michel's death. She had me where she wanted me, but she didn't have the solution she sought yet.

"Nosferatin," the Champion's girl-like voice met me as I woke from another healing trance. "Why do you resist us so? You put your kindred through much, by making him continue with this interrogation. He does not need to suffer this. Tell us how to correct the joining and this will all end. I am a reasonable vampire. If you help us gain the power we need, Lucinda, you shall be rewarded in kind."

"You're wasting your time," I said in-between pants of breath. "It cannot be fixed. Maybe reversed, but not corrected. It's a weak joining and it always will be."

My head lolled onto my chest, the effort required to lift it no longer there. For a few blissful moments I found sleep and then the sharp bite of a knife slicing into my palm woke me from the dream. I opened sluggish eyes and watched Avery repeat the gesture on his hand and then he reached for my bleeding palm and meshed our fingers together. Palm against palm. Blood to blood.

Nothing happened, just the metallic scent of more spilled blood on the air.

"This isn't working," the Champion declared in disgust. "That's the sixth time you've tried." I had no recollection of the five before. Her eyes drilled into mine. "How can it be reversed?"

Avery let out a sound of protest, but the Champion cut him off with a simple wave of her hand. He groaned at whatever effect it had on him, I was betting unpleasant. I was hoping for painful.

"Well," the Champion demanded as she stepped into my view.

I licked my lips, unable to think of a thing to throw her off this path. Admitting a fairy could do it, a fairy that thought I was his one true love and had declared war on the
Iunctio
because I didn't go willingly with him - something I had yet to tell the Champion - did not sit well. I was already neck deep in shit, I didn't need to pile on more.

She slapped me across the face with a well placed, steel-like palm. My cheek stung with the bite of pain and tears filled my eyes. I blinked them away determined she would not see me cry. Then hardened my resolve and took in a deep breath.

"The Prince of
Ljósálfar
." She choked back a sound of disgust. I soldiered on. "He reversed my joining to Michel just before he was killed." He hadn't actually died, but he had cheated death.

"Where is this Prince?" the Champion asked feigning only casual interest in the question as she toyed with a few torture items on the table against the wall.

"In
Álfheimr
. I have associates hunting him now." I crossed my mental fingers and hoped she'd not ask who.

"And when you find him?"

"I can make him reverse the joining." It was a hollow promise, but right now I would promise her the moon.

"And then you could rejoin with one who would allow us the power we require." She hadn't asked it as a question, I think she was thinking aloud.

"This Prince?" she inquired, turning back to me in a swish of layered blue. "Is he the one who calls you his
elska
?"

I held her gaze, trying to determine just how she might react to my reply. "He believes it. I am not."

She laughed her delicate tinkle, throwing back her head with delight. "Even being held in a torture chamber you are defiant until the end."

"I am a woman, Champion. We are stronger than we appear."

Her piercing blue gaze met mine. "Indeed." She stared at me for a few moments and then abruptly said, "You are worthy of him, you know."

Whoa. Where had that come from? She didn't elaborate further and I got the impression it would be a bad move to press her to. So I let her drop the subject and return to her haughty, absolute monarch stance.

"Release her, Avery. She has given us all she can. Heal her and have her brought to Council chambers. We'll assess where to from there."

She twirled away again and glided from the room.

A second or two passed and then Avery undid the ties at my wrists and ankles. I slumped to the floor unaided, rubbing the marks which had appeared again since the last time he had healed me. He crouched down in front of me, anger washing off him in waves.

"Is it not enough," he started in a low, menacing voice, "to have embroiled me in this bloody crap, but now you have to encourage the Champion to cast me aside too?"

I looked up at him and held his anger-filled gaze. Amber, ochre and jade flashing in his eyes. The Champion had gone, left the room and instructed I was to be healed and no longer harmed. She'd never know this happened, it would be his word against mine and right now he was fuming, because his position of power was potentially about to be destroyed. She wouldn't believe him. I was still, despite everything that had happened, priceless to her.

I gathered my Light in blindingly quick speed and smashed it into his chest. I forced it through his shields, I drove it hard inside his skull. I used every ounce of energy I had left, well aware that he would never heal me again now, but not giving a damn. I smashed his defences, I crushed his protection and I made him suffer a million deaths in a matter of minutes. Only stopping when a guard raced into the room at the sounds of his screams and the sight of my blinding Light.

The guard stood shocked and uncertain on the threshold of the room. I staggered to my feet and he withdrew a sword. I gave him a dismissive grunt in response and dusted myself down. Knickers and
bra somewhat clean. Then slipping on my dress, jacket and precious necklace - not being able to find my Svante or stakes - I turned to the guard and said, "Lovers tiff. My kindred was being an absolute arse. You know how it is." I shrugged my shoulders and stepped over Avery's slumped body, giving it a well placed kick in the groin as I passed.

"Arsehole," I muttered and walked out of the room.

The guard followed behind me until I came to a fork in the corridor.

"Where're my rooms?" I demanded.

"You're required back in the Council chambers," he answered in a small voice.

"My rooms," I gritted out and allowed my Light to illuminate the hall.

"This way," he said after a few taut moments.

Five minutes later I was reunited with my guards.

Sanguis Vitam
washed over me in a joyous rush. They were unharmed, well not visibly, certainly not to the extent of me. Nataliya clucked as she stripped me down and ran a bath, Sergei and M&M ranted and raved in disgust at the bruises and scrapes still evident on my skin. Underlying it all was their overriding sense of relief. I had survived and I had returned. Right now that was an enormous thing.

The bath water stung, but also helped soothe the bone shattering aches and I felt myself relax for the first time in hours. The Council would be expecting me, but they could fucking wait. I passed the Champion's test, I had survived her punishment. And even though I knew it wasn't over by a long shot and she was as unpredictable as I had feared, I also knew the worst was done. Until she found out about the
Ljósálfar
declaring war.

Wait for me, ma douce
, Michel's voice murmured in my mind.
I am almost there, together we'll advise the Champion. I could not bear for you to go through another day such as this. Stall at all costs.

I knew he had witnessed all that had happened, I knew even without a joining and Bond he had felt it too. His anger was palpable through the connection he continued to keep open. It fuelled both him and me.

"Where are Avery's vampires?" I asked Nataliya as she brought in my normal hunting wear at my request. I'd done the dress to impress, now they'd see the hunter I truly am.

"We told them to fuck off and find accommodation elsewhere," she answered with a smug smile.

"And they just left?" I asked with a huff of indignant surprise.

"Oh, not until we beat the crap out of them," she replied and flashed me an evil looking smile. I couldn't help it, I responded with my own equally as evil smile, making us both start cackling maniacally, until tears streamed down our cheeks.

I finally hauled myself out of the cooling water and allowed Nataliya to help me dress. My body cried out with every movement and I had to grit my teeth to stop from replicating the sound. Nataliya's anger started prickling against my skin, until I told her to calm the fuck down. She hadn't realised what she was doing, but it still added to my aches and pains. With a look of utter remorse she finished helping me dress and followed me into the lounge.

The
Iunctio
guest quarters consisted of a beautifully, luxury appointed, main room with cream leather lounges and a large screen plasma TV, high-tech stereo equipment, well stocked drinks cabinet and priceless wall art. A kitchenette ran along the back wall, with the bedroom and ensuite bathroom off to one side. It was beautiful, but I always felt a little cold when here. As though the opulence hid the tumour that rotted deep inside.

Matthias thrust a
Bacardi and Coke
in my hand as I entered the room and I gratefully accepted it. A little alcohol for medicinal purposes wouldn't go astray.

"We don't have long before they will call for you, mistress," Sergei announced from his corner in the room, a half full glass of vodka resting in his hand on one of his knees. "Do you have a plan at all?"

I took a fortifying sip of my drink. "No plan, just stall until Michel arrives."

"He's about to land," Marcus offered, still looking a little uncertain of his place in the pecking order of the room. I smiled reassuringly at him.

"Good, then we don't have to bluff for too long," I announced, feeling infinitely better at hearing the news.

"Long enough," Matthias offered, standing to attention, just as Nataliya and Sergei did too. "Someone is at the door."

The knock sounded a second later and Sergei opened the door after nodding to my guards to ensure they were ready. I remained in my seat and downed the last of my drink. Nerves suddenly getting the better of me and desperation at gaining any numbness from the alcohol taking control of my normal reserve.

"The
Sanguis Vitam Cupitor
is required in the Council rooms," the Champion’s Civil War vampire announced.

"Give us one moment," Sergei replied and closed the door in the man's complaining face without a backward glance.

Nataliya came forward with my stakes, much to my relief and I pocketed them swiftly. "Where's my sword?" I asked, looking up expecting to see it in someone's hands. Everyone looked momentarily nervous. "What's happened?" I asked with a resigned sigh.

"The Champion snapped it in two when she noticed the dragon on its hilt." Nataliya was the one brave enough to tell me.

Bloody hell, she must have used a fair amount of
Sanguis Vitam
to achieve that. My Svante was made of tempered steel, it wouldn't have given up without a fight.