Salvation (The Captive Series Book 4) (3 page)

   David turned away; he walked to the edge of the clearing
where he leaned tiredly against a tree. “She’s my daughter, she deserves happiness. I
want
happiness for her, more than anything.”

   “We all do dad but they’re right,
Aria’s
right, there are some times when our wants no longer matter,” Daniel said softly.

   David wouldn’t look at them; Jack could smell the scent of tears in the air
as his head bowed and his shoulders shook slightly. “If she is to leave after so be it, but we have to get her soon. She can’t be kept in there…”

   “We’ll get to her soon
,” Jack promised.

   Max shook his head
ardently. “No,
now
. You didn’t see what Caleb was doing to her; I don’t think he’ll keep her alive…”

   “He’ll keep her alive,” Jack asserted.

   “He was draining her!”
   David finally turned away from the tree, tears didn’t streak his face but his eyes were watery. “He’ll keep her alive,” Jack insisted.

   “How can you be so certain?” Max demanded impatiently.

   “Because he’ll smell Braith on her,
in
her. He won’t kill her.”

   “So he’ll just torture her?”
Max accused. Jack’s eyes flitted nervously to David as he stepped away from the tree. William and Daniel were beginning to shake as their jaws clenched and a muscle jumped in William’s cheek. “Abuse her? I know that you’re one of them Jack, but you have no idea what goes on in there from our viewpoint. Aria was lucky last time, but by all accounts Caleb is a sadistic son of a bitch.”

   “We
will
get her back,” Jack assured him.

   “Braith has to know what
Caleb is doing to her. He has to be aware of everything before he makes the decision to wait,” Max insisted.

   “I’ll
break your neck before I allow you to tell him that,” Gideon vowed.

   “Jesus Gideon shut the
fuck
up!” Jack barked in frustration. “Max, we can all guess at what might be happening, but you can’t just go and shove it in his face. He may think he knows, may think he realizes it, but if you confirm it, there will be no stopping him. If there is to be any chance of getting her back alive we have to do this right.” Max looked away from Jack. “You can’t tell him what you know; we’ll lose them both if you do.”

   “I don’t like this.”

   “None of us do but I need your word that you won’t do anything reckless, yours too William.” He added with a pointed look in William’s direction.

   “I won’t,” Max muttered resentfully.

   William shifted uncomfortably, his jaw locked and unlocked before he bowed his head and reluctantly voiced his agreement. “I’ll do what Aria would have wanted me to do. I won’t ruin our chances of succeeding.”

  
Relief flowed through Jack and his shoulders slumped slightly. He studied Gideon as he contemplated whether or not he should tell the vampire that he didn’t believe any of their plans would work, or that the only reason Braith was even remotely sane right now was because she was still alive. He decided to remain quiet though, he didn’t trust how Gideon might react if he realized that there would be no separating them.

CHAPTER 3

   There was a
sensation in her fingers that she often associated with warming up too fast after being out in the cold for too long. A sharp tingling that woke her from the darkness that had claimed her for an unknown amount of time. Her heart seemed sluggish; it ached as it worked to pump blood through her body.

   She was dying, she was certain of it.

   She didn’t want to die. She’d told Gideon she would, but now she was terrified by the possibility. She’d meant the words when she’d said them to Gideon, but that was when her death would have been quick. That was when it would have been for others, for her family. There was no reason for her to die now. For the first time in years she felt like a child, she felt every bit of her seventeen years, and she longed for more of them.

  
Mostly she wished she could have said goodbye to Braith and her family.

  
Her tears were cool against her already icy flesh as they slid down her cheeks. “She’s awake.”

  
She hadn’t realized that there were others in the room. She was ashamed of herself for crying but she couldn’t lift her hand to wipe them away. Aria didn’t have it in her to face Caleb right now. Even under Braith’s protection she’d been fearful of Caleb, terrified of the cruelty the middle brother radiated, and now she was his to do with as he pleased. “Give it to her.”

   The other voice was unfamiliar to her, but she didn’t have time to ponder it as hands seized her hair. A small cry escap
ed her, but she was able to hold most of it back as she was hauled up from the floor. She didn’t have time to take in her surroundings as something metal was thrust between her lips and her head was tilted harshly back. The vile taste hit her, causing an explosive reaction to erupt from her. She struck out at the hands holding her as the thick liquid was forced down her throat. She gurgled, choked, but her head was kept tilted back. The liquid pooled against the back of her throat till she was finally forced to swallow.

   Bile surged up her throat, tears
unwillingly burst free of her eyes as more was forced down her throat. Once, when she was a child, she’d eaten a handful of berries that she’d mistakenly thought were blueberries. They’d been bitter, foul; the taste alone had made her vomit. But this, this was worse. She’d gladly eat those revolting berries again before swallowing one more drop of the viscous liquid spilling down her throat.

   She
was abruptly released. Her head was thrust forward; she staggered but was unable to keep her balance. Falling back to the floor, her shoulders heaved as she panted, choked, and dry heaved. Her stomach twisted into knots, tears blurred her vision. She felt as if she were dying even as heat began to spread through her numb limbs, even as strength gradually returned to her weakened extremities. Sobs stuck in her chest, a new anguish twisted through her body as she realized what it was they had given her.

   Blood. Caleb’s blood.

   It had tasted nothing like Braith’s. Braith’s was sweet and soothing when it filled and strengthened her, it was right in so many ways. Though Caleb’s blood had renewed some of her strength, it felt hideously wrong in her body, it didn’t belong there and although her body was absorbing its healing properties, it was also revolting against the influx. A scream built inside of her, she had the unreasonable urge to rip her own skin off in order to release the blood that didn’t belong there.

   She was shaking. Her hands wouldn’t sit still on the hard floor
as they jumped and danced over the marble beneath her. She tried to steady herself, but it felt as if she were no longer in her own body, but in someone else’s entirely.

 
This was only the beginning of the suffering to come. Caleb could do this to her over and over again, and he would, because her reaction had just revealed how appalling his blood was to her, how miserable it made her feel.

   “Apparently someone only likes big brother’s blood.”

   Aria’s eyes flew open. For the first time fury and indignation tore through her. Her eyes narrowed as they focused upon Caleb, her jumping fingers curled into her palms. He appeared unreasonably dignified in his refined clothes as he smirked at her. He was somewhat shorter than Braith, but broader through the chest and shoulders. His dark hair tumbled in waves around his face; his green eyes would have been pretty if they weren’t so icy. Caleb’s nose was a little larger than Braith’s, his lips thinner, but there was no mistaking that they were related.

   Caleb
knelt before her and seized hold of her chin. He turned her head first one way and then the other. Aria’s jaw clenched but she didn’t give him the satisfaction of trying to pull away. He squeezed her chin until she finally flinched and he threw her face away in disgust. Her lip curled as she slowly turned back to him, she itched for her bow.

   “Enough. Bring her here.”

   Aria was so busy glaring at Caleb as he hauled her to her feet that she didn’t immediately notice who he was dragging her toward, and then her gaze traveled to the dais. Foreboding slammed into her when she saw the man casually sitting in the large throne, a throne meant for a king.

  
The
King.

   For a moment Aria’s legs almost gave out on her. It was sheer will that kept her on her
feet as Caleb pulled her forward. She’d never seen him before, but she knew him instantly, simply for the fact that he looked so heartbreakingly like Braith. His hair was that same black shade but his features were different in subtle ways. His nose was sharper, and his mouth crueler as it curved in a sneer. Though she knew just how merciless Braith could be when he was pushed to his limits, there was a depravity about this man that Braith could never possess.

  
She shuddered at the thought of what Braith was like now, without her.

   The k
ing rose to tower over her. This close to him she was able to pick out the other differences between this man and his son. There was no sparkle within this man’s callous green eyes, the king’s forehead was higher and his cheeks broader, but she was still unnerved by the similarities.

   His
leisurely gaze raked her from head to toe and back up again. She felt exposed, judged, and found lacking. “I smell my son on you,
in
you.” Aria remained still, uncertain what it was that he expected of her. If they planned on killing her, she felt she would already be dead.

   The k
ing rested two fingers against her cheek. Pride kept her face impassive as he turned her head first one way, and then the other. “He has also fed from you, recently, and on what appears to be a fairly regular basis.”

  
She continued to remain immobile as his fingers slid briefly over her neck and then her collarbone. Bile rose up her throat, goose bumps broke out on her chilled flesh as his fingers brushed against her breast and a leering grin crossed his full mouth. Caleb was the threat she’d known upon coming in here, but the other one was now standing in front of her, touching her far too much for her liking. The king was the one with all the power, the one that would now control her fate.

   “You willingly allow this?” He
required an answer; she just wasn’t sure what she was going to say to him. Her heart hammered, stammered, and then leapt into full blown panic mode as his fingers wrapped around her throat and he leaned closer to her. “You
allow
this?”

   He would
n’t tolerate her disobedience; he wouldn’t tolerate her willfulness. She was alive for some reason that she didn’t understand, but she knew he would kill her without hesitation if she didn’t at least pretend to play along with him. “I do.” Her voice was as strong as she could make it considering the hold he had upon her.

   He smiled but it did
n’t reach his eyes. “Delightful.” She was ashamed of the tremors that shook her as his fingers trailed over the bare flesh of her arms. She would have preferred death to having this man continue to touch her in such a way. “Simply delightful. Will my son come for you?”

  
The lump in her throat had become uncomfortable. “I…” she swallowed heavily. “No, he will not.”

  
She wasn’t sure if it was a lie. She knew Braith would be furious, devastated, he would blame himself, but she had to trust in the fact that he would do what was right. It was what she had hoped for, what she had plotted with Jack and Gideon for after all. No matter how badly she longed for Braith to storm in here and take her away from the foul creature across from her, she knew he couldn’t be careless. Braith had to think this through; he had to realize that he couldn’t throw everything they had worked for away. He had to accept the fact that she was most likely a lost cause.

   And so did she.

   The king’s face was suddenly in hers. “You
really
don’t think so?” There was a quirk in his eyebrow, a shifting in his eyes that caused alarm bells to start ringing in her head. Not only was he powerful and sadistic, but she was beginning to realize that there may also be a little insanity lurking within his twisted mind. His fingers encircled her wrist, for a moment she thought he was going to break it in order to punish her for some offense he thought she’d made.

   “No,” she said forcefully
. “I don’t believe he will come for me.”

   “If that is true than you are of no use to us
, maybe you should change your answer.”

  
Her teeth clenched as she grated the single word. “No.”

   He pulled her a step closer to him, the
ir noses were almost touching. “I think you should. There is a reason my son left here, a reason he gave up everything he knows. What
are
you to him, and what do you know?”

   “
I’m nothing but an ex-blood slave and a rebel teenage girl. What could I possibly know?”

   “Your pulse is racing.”

   “I’m frightened,” she admitted.

   “Like any normal teenage girl would be I assume.”

   “Yes,” she confirmed.

   “Why is my son with you?”

   “I… I don’t know.”
   His hand clenched on her wrist, pain lanced up her arm as he twisted it back and grasped hold of her middle finger. Her eyes widened as she gazed at the massive hand wrapped around her finger. She was unable to stop herself from flinching as he pressed his nose to hers. “You’re lying.”

  
A startled cry of pain escaped her as he snapped the finger back. He grinned maliciously at her as the distinct crack of bone reverberated through the massive hall. Sweat beaded her brow; her breath came in rapid pants as nausea swelled up her throat and tears burned her eyes. He squeezed remorselessly as he pulled her downward. Aria strained to stay upright, but he was far stronger than she was and her broken finger was throbbing relentlessly. The king loomed over her as he drove her to her knees.

  
She should be afraid, and she was, but there was also a righteous fury building within her chest, a self-respect that refused to allow her to cower before him. He had managed to force her to her knees, he had maimed her, and she was certain he would do far worse to her before he was finished, but she managed to tilt her chin up and glare defiantly back at him.

   “You’re far more than what you let on and there is something between you and my so
n. Perhaps even both of my sons; it was Jericho that led you from here the first time.” Sickened by him, she leaned away as he bent close to her neck and sniffed her like a dog. “But it is only Braith I smell in you, and myself, of course.” Aria started in surprise; she turned to meet his shrewd green eyes. It wasn’t Caleb’s blood that had been forced into her, but
his
. “Do you know what that means?”

   She knew exactly what that meant, but she couldn’t put the
appalling realization into words. It didn’t matter, he continued on without her reply anyway. “It means that I can find you
anywhere
. It means that what once belonged to my son now belongs to me. If you somehow manage to escape these walls again, I will hunt you down and destroy anyone with you. I will shred everyone in your life and then I will shred you.”

   His fingers lingered over her cheek; she couldn’t stop herself from
turning away from him. “There are things I will do to you that not even an animal should have done to them, but I’d prefer to do them in front of my son. I will save up every little torment, every little pleasure I have planned for you, until that moment. I know that you are lying to me my dear, he
will
come for you.”

   She couldn’t tear her gaze away from his. She was mesmerized by the cruelty
she saw in his eyes, trapped by the horror of his promises, and the glimmer of his insanity. His hand wrapped around her brutalized finger again and he began to bend it back bit by bit. “Oh and what superb torture it will be.” His other hand brushed against the tears that were wrenched from her eyes as he bent the broken appendage farther than it was meant to go. “Is he out there now, near the town? I imagine he probably wasn’t far from you, but Caleb says there were only three other humans with you.”