Shattered Promises 02 - Fractured Souls (21 page)

“Maybe I’ve always been evil. I mean, you barely even know me and, from what you do know, I’m a sick, twisted, perverted asshole.” He tucks the Ira under his arm and makes air quotes. “But before you making assumptions, maybe you should consider how much you know about Stephan. Or about his precious son, Alex. You trust him so much, yet he is the son of the man who ruined your life and so many other peoples that it’s absurd. He’s supposedly some high and mighty Keeper, yet he has more darkness in him that anyone can comprehend.”

“Did he ruin your life?” I ask. “Is that why?”

He shifts his weight, uncomfortable, and I get the impression that I’ve struck a nerve.

“What did he do to you?” I press.

“I think I’m going to go take a walk.” He evades my question and stuffs his hands into the pockets of his pants, rocking back on his heels. “I’d say wait here, but I don’t think you’ll be going anywhere.” He turns his back on me and walks out of the room, taking the Ira with him. He shuts and locks the door behind him as well.

I let out a frustrated scream, tugging on the chains. The praesidium rolls off the footboard and onto the floor, but stays close enough that my energy is uselessly trapped inside me. My battle against the chains goes on for hours until I can barely move my legs or arms and I’m dripping with sweat. Exhaustion takes me over and all I want to do is shut my eyes.

So I do, not knowing where I’ll end up, what I’ll see, or what I’ll feel. However, it doesn’t really matter, does it? Because at the moment I don’t have control over anything.

Chapter 21

I’m beginning to learn what rage is. I didn’t fully understand it like I thought I did because what’s stirring within me is definitely rage. It’s like a building storm; rolling clouds and thunder, but lightning hasn’t arrived yet. It’s getting ready to snap its raging energy against the ground, though, and make the world rumble with its bellowing echo.

I’m losing track of time as well as my grip on sanity. Hours stack upon hours, then days upon days. I’m thirsty and hungry while I’m still in my disgustingly muddy clothes, so I smell repulsive.

Nicholas comes in and checks on me occasionally, only unhooking my chains to let me go to the bathroom, which he gives me no privacy for. It makes me feel revolting inside, like something has been taken that I’ll never be able to get back. He always makes vulgar comments about me and he feeds me only bread and water. He also likes to keep the Ira on the nightstand, close enough that I can feel the vibrant energy exuding from it, but far enough away that I can’t channel it; even though it’s useless since the praesidium remains close enough to lock my powers within me.

I try to make several attempts to escape, but always fail and end up paying for it. I quickly learn that Nicholas has a violent streak in him after he hit me a couple of times when I said and did the wrong thing. It doesn’t make me back down at all, though. In fact, it makes me more determined to get away and pay him back in full for what he’s doing to me.

In the beginning I expected Alex or Laylen to show up and save me. I made a comment about it once and Nicholas informed me that no one could save me. That his house is merely an illusion in the mind and only those he allows to see it can.

There doesn’t even seem to be a point in what he’s doing. Stephan never shows up to collect me and when I ask him about it, he says he’s been detained. Although I think he might be enjoying having me here a little too much.

The strange thing is that he appears to be growing weaker by the day; pallid, his eyes tinting yellow, while his skin looks cracked and dry. It’s repulsive to look at and even he seems disgusted by himself. His connection and obsession with me, however, seems to be growing stronger. He’s always touching me, trying to kiss me and grope me. I have no idea where his fixation with me is coming from, but I’m starting to think it might be to my benefit if I can find the right moment

Around the six or seventh day, I begin to connive a plan to get away. The one that I create makes me utterly sick, but I don’t think I have another choice other than to stay here forever and sink further into my rage.

I mentally prepare myself for what I’m about to do when he walks into the room. He drags a chair from the corner and puts it beside the bed, sitting down.

He slants his head to the side and examines me with curiosity as he props his foot up against the side of the bed. “You know, you’re very talented and I have to say I’m quite surprised that you haven’t found a way out of this yet.

Oh, I have. I’m just waiting for the perfect moment.

“You can go into and out of visions without a crystal ball,” he says enviously. “With a little practice and enough emotion, you could travel anywhere without a crystal ball as well.” He pauses, assessing me. “I could teach you… we could work together—we’d be amazing together.”

I stare blankly at him. “Maybe.”

He studies me with a distrusting look on his face. “You don’t trust me.”

I remain neutral. “You’ve given me no reason to trust you.”

“You’ve barely gotten to know me,” he says. “Maybe I’m different than what you think. Maybe there’s a reason for everything bad that I do.”

“Prove it,” I challenge.

He stares me down defiantly. “How much do you know about the Fey?” he asks.

I bend my fingers downward and itch beneath the cold metal cuff, the skin has been rubbed raw underneath it. “Not much.”

“Of course you don’t, since you’ve been spending most of your time with Keepers, Witches, and Vampires.” His lips twitch. “And of course there was all that time you spent by yourself unemotionally detached.”

I frown. “You know about that?”

He shrugs. “Of course. I’m a Foreseer and can
see
anything I want, something you should learn… but that’s a story for another time.” He drops his foot to the ground and transfers from the chair to the bed, the mattress concaving beneath his weight as he sinks down beside me. “The Fey have been around forever, you know. Most people think of us as tricksters, which we are, but we can be very serious as well, given the right circumstances, like if our kind are suffering.” He brushes his hand over the top of my head. “I’m not sure if you’ve heard of him or not, but there used to be a man called Malefiscus who was the personification of evil.”

I shake my head, letting him pet me because it helps me with my plan. “I’m sorry, but I haven’t.”

He rolls his golden eyes. “Haven’t the Keepers taught you anything?” He withdraws his hand from my hair, but only to tap his fingers on his chapped lips. “Then again, they might not want you to know about it since Malefiscus started out as a Keeper.”

“The personification of evil started out as a Keeper?” I ask, remembering what Laylen told me about the Mark of Evil and how it used to exist and was directly related to the Keepers’ blood.

“Are you surprised?”

I want to say yes but the more I learn about the Keepers, the more I realize they aren’t as good as they portray themselves to be.

He smiles, pleased, and begins petting my head again. “Well, I’ll fill you in on the story of Malefiscus so you can get a better understanding of what he was—what a Keeper could become if they ended up switching sides and getting branded by evil.” His fingers drift to my cheek and I refuse to look away, knowing I have to do this.

“During Malefiscus’s time, there was sheer and utter chaos in the world,” Nicholas explains. “He tortured everyone—Vampires, Witches, Faeries. Even humans. He had a whole army of followers and they would go around on killing sprees or trying to persuade people he saw fit to join him.”

“There was so much death and blood as well as pain that the Fey leader of that time decided he’d had enough. There were too many Faeries dying and so he made a bargain with Malefiscus to try to save lives.” His fingers roam to my mouth and he strokes his thumb against my lips as he licks his own. “He told Malefiscus that if he would leave the Fey alone, that we would forever be indebted to him—that we would exchange a favor for the Fey's freedom from his chaos.”

“Did he agree?” I ask, my lips brushing against the pad of his thumb. He tastes salty while he smells like dirt and murky water.

He nods, sticking his thumb into my mouth, and I just about gag. “Malefiscus agreed to it since the Fey are very powerful and he loved power. So the leader of the Fey and Malefiscus made a Blood Promise.” He removes his thumb from my mouth, although he keeps it resting on my bottom lip.

“What’s a Blood Promise?”

“Not too long after the promise was made, though,” he continues on with his story, discounting my question. “Malefiscus was caught and sentenced to his death. The Keepers made the sentence and supposedly they executed him, but deep down people wondered whether they really did or not. There were a lot of traitors at the time and rumors started flooding that someone had snuck him out the day before he was supposed to be hanged.” He pauses and then lies down on the bed beside me, his fingers tracing a path across my stomach, his skin feeling as rough as sandpaper. My gut churns and a slimy chill slithers down my spine, but this is right where I want him; close and distracted.

“Alive or dead, it doesn’t really matter because his bloodline didn’t die with him,” He continues while sketching circles around my belly button as he props up on his elbow and watches my reaction. “It carried through the decades, going completely unnoticed for a while and so no one really knew about it until just recently.” He pauses. “It carried on and now resides in a man named Stephan Avery.”

He stills and I’m too shocked to breathe. Stephan is the descendant of evil. Alex’s
father
. God, what does that make Alex?

“Because his bloodline carried on, so did the Fey’s promise to grant him a favor. Only now the favor is owed to Stephan.” His fingernails plunge into my stomach and slice my flesh open. Blood oozes out, but I tell myself to shut out the pain.
Shut down
. “I had barely heard of this story and I think a lot of Fey had forgotten as well until surprise, surprise, Stephan came to collect a few days ago,” he says venomously. “And he didn’t want just any member of the Fey to fulfill the promise. He wanted the Faerie who has the gift of a Foreseer as well.”

My eyes enlarge as the severity of the situation that I’m in registers in my head. “He asked you… to do what?”

“I think you already know that.” He pivots on his hip and aligns himself over me, his fingers stroking the section of my stomach that he had clawed moments ago. I feel my chance arriving and I try to get myself ready for the wretched place I’m about to go. “He wanted me to track down a very beautiful, feisty, and very tortured girl with the most magnificent violet eyes.”

“What does he want you to do with me?”
Stay calm. You can do this. You’re strong.

“Bring you to him.” He inches closer to me like he’s about to kiss me.

I stay as still as I can, despite my initial reaction to squirm and head-butt him. “And why haven’t you?”

“Because I can’t seem to let you go.” He tucks a strand of hair behind my hair and wets his chaffed lips with his tongue.

“You could just let me go,” I dare to suggest. “You could come with me… go into hiding with us.”

He rolls his eyes. “Alex would never let that happen and you know it.”

“I could make him,” I say in an even voice. “I have ways.”

“You are a devious thing,” he remarks and places a sloppy kiss on my cheek. My heart thrashes and my throat burns with the taste of vomit. “But even if you could convince him, I still couldn’t… I don’t have a choice anymore with what I can do to you.” He leans back a little and rolls up the sleeve of his shirt all the way to the top of his arm. On the side of his arm, branded in red and black ink is a triangular mark.

“What is that?” I whisper, although I think deep down I already know. I’ve seen it before in my dream, on Draven, and with all the talk about the Mark of Evil, it’s pretty clear what it is; even if I don’t want to believe it.

“The Mark of Malefiscus, also known as the Mark of Evil,” Nicholas growls, wrenching his sleeve back over it. “I’m branded with the Mark of Evil and I can make you stay all I want, but eventually the power of it’s going to take over. It will make me give you to Stephan.”

“How did you… how did you get it?”

“Stephan.”

My body jolts upward as horror slams through me. “What!”

He smiles and it almost looks like a sad smile. For a brief instant, he looks almost human. “Stephan can do a lot more than what people think.”

I shake my head and open my mouth to ask more questions, but he places his finger over my lips, shushing me. “No more questions. My time is running out…” he looks down at his pale, cracked arm and then his eyes lock back on me. “I have to take you away soon.” He leans in to kiss me.

I shove every ounce of revulsion down and lock it in a box inside me. I become a different person, one that doesn’t feel, and for a second I feel at home. I kiss him, holding everything in me, and pretending like I’m somewhere else. Somewhere the sun shines and my mood matches it. Maybe on a beach. Even though I’ve never been to one; the idea of the sand, the ocean, and the heat seem like it would be a wonderful, relaxing experience. I picture myself there, lying in the sand. Someone is with me, but I can’t tell who yet. A sturdy male figure with skin as smooth as porcelain. I hold myself there as Nicholas’s hands digress all over my body.

He gets more intense the further he goes, but my bound legs and arms are making it hard for me to do anything except lie there.

As he tries to draw our bodies closer, my legs get in the way.

“I’m sorry,” I apologize with as much sincerity as I can.

His lips are puffy as he leans back with his eyes unfocused, like he’s stoned. It’s almost like I have some sort of power over him and I wonder what it is. Regardless, I’m using it to my advantage.

“It’s fine,” he says and leans back in to kiss me. After a lot of time passes—time where I zone out and my body just moves on its own—Nicholas finally gets frustrated and undoes the cuffs from my ankles and wrists.