Chapter Thirty-Four
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RAMIEL STILL FELT GUILTY the next morning after hurting Caterina so badly.
She’d been devastated when he’d told her what had happened to her kin in the past. He’d used the other cambions as an excuse to keep her at arm’s length, even though she was nothing like them.
“Except for her ability to fry her enemies to death,” he murmured.
Caterina was still asleep in her bedroom across the hall from his. He’d stayed up long after midnight before forcing himself to try to sleep. It hadn’t worked and he’d lain awake all night, replaying their conversation in his mind.
“I bet she wishes she never met me now,” the knight said, then let out a deep sigh.
He was sitting on the couch, scouring the map as he tried to guess where his brothers were.
While he’d circled a lot of places to search, nothing really jumped out at him.
He felt clueless and adrift, floundering as he tried to figure out where to go.
It could take weeks or even months to get lucky and locate his squadmates.
“I need a ham radio,” he said as inspiration struck. “The Mad Prophet has already given me one hint. Maybe he’ll tell me what I need to do now that I’ve found my cambion.”
He winced at calling Caterina his yet again.
He’d screwed up royally last night and he had no idea how to make it up to his female.
Sitting around waiting for her to get out of bed wasn’t helping.
She’d tossed and turned even more than he had, so she probably wouldn’t get up for another couple of hours.
Peering at the map, he found a small town that was close to his current location. “I’ll go on foot so the truck doesn’t wake her up,” he decided. If his luck was in, he would find a ham radio and be back before Caterina even knew he’d been gone.
He rose and left the map on the coffee table. He’d found some keys to the building and locked the door behind him on his way out. The deadbolt could be unlocked from the inside without a key, so Caterina could leave if she needed to.
Ramiel sprinted ten miles to the town and halted on the outskirts.
He detected a few humans inside the houses.
None of them were moving around, so they were probably still asleep.
Moving noiselessly, the warrior began searching the houses for a ham radio.
It wasn’t easy to break into locked buildings quietly.
An hour later, he’d scoured every unoccupied home and had come up empty.
“I need to check the other houses,” he said dourly, unwilling to give up yet.
His luck was in and he heard a noise coming from one of the buildings he’d sensed a human in.
He could hear the low hiss of static and went to investigate it.
Ramiel approached the house from the back, detecting two people inside.
A window had been left open a couple of inches, so he shoved it upwards.
Climbing into an empty bedroom, he winced when the floor creaked loudly as he made his way to the door.
The door of the bedroom directly across from him was yanked open as soon as the knight stepped into the hallway.
The male lunged forward with an incoherent scream, attacking him with a knife.
Catching the man’s arm as it descended, Ramiel wrestled the weapon from his assailant.
The other human came running and looped a belt around his throat from behind.
Pulled off balance for a second, Ramiel didn’t even see the next blow coming.
Something crashed into his head hard enough to fracture his skull.
He went down, taking the human who was standing behind him to the floor as well.
Waking up a few minutes later, Ramiel groaned when he realized he was dangling from chains again.
At least he was upright this time. A chain was looped around his neck.
Two more were attached to shackles around his wrists.
They were holding his arms straight out from his body.
He was standing on a low stool, being kept aloft by the bonds on his arms. His shirt was gone, but he was still wearing his pants and shoes.
“He’s awake,” one of the humans said in cruel anticipation. “You chose the wrong house to loot, guy,” he said.
Ramiel lifted his head to see six men with black souls watching him.
They were grinning like he was about to give them the best entertainment of their entire lives.
“You’re making a big mistake,” he warned them, pulling on the chains to test their strength.
He could call on his sword, but there was no way he could cut his way free.
The angle was wrong and the blade was too wide to insert between the small links.
Laughing uproariously, one of the humans kicked the stool from beneath his feet. Ramiel immediately began to choke when the chain around his neck tightened. His feet only dangled a few inches above the ground, but he might as well have been strung up several yards in the air.
“Let’s burn that pretty tattoo off his arm, boys,” another bandit said.
Ramiel didn’t panic and thrash around, knowing it would just hasten his demise. He managed to loop both hands around the chains holding his arms up, then lifted himself up just enough to take the pressure off his neck. Gasping for air, his partially crushed throat began to heal.
He looked around to see he was in a churchyard. The church loomed behind his assailants, casting early morning shadows over them. A campfire had been lit a few feet away. Dread coursed through him when he saw several metal rods. They were resting in the flames to heat up the tips.
The male who’d spoken grabbed one of the rods and picked it up. He blew on the tip that was glowing red and cackled. “I’m not gonna lie,” he said. “This is gonna hurt, son.”
Ramiel had been tortured with fire before and he knew how unpleasant it was going to be.
Holding himself in the air, he waited for the male to draw closer, then snapped one of his legs out.
His foot caught the man beneath his chin and broke his neck.
Dropping to the ground, the human landed on the metal rod and his shirt caught on fire.
“Put the flames out before they spread!” someone shouted, then rushed forward to flip the body over.
One of his friends tossed water onto the grass that was aflame, while the others threw water on the corpse.
“You’ll pay for that,” a male spat in hatred. “Chain his legs together!” he ordered.
Cursing beneath his breath, Ramiel fought them off with his feet for a couple of minutes, but they finally got a chain around him. It was much harder to lift both legs at once and kick at his attackers now. The biggest man stood behind him, holding him still.
Sweat broke out on Ramiel’s forehead when a goon picked up another metal rod and advanced on him. He gritted his teeth when the male pressed the hot tip against his tattoo. The smell of burnt flesh wafted through the air as the humans cackled in delight.
Ramiel resisted screaming for as long as he could, but his roars of agony finally split the air.
His tattoo had been obliterated by now and his flesh was scorched and bleeding.
His sweaty palms slipped and he lost his hold on the chains.
The bonds around his neck tightened again.
He began to gasp for air as his throat was slowly crushed.
He knew he had no right to hope that Caterina would save him yet again, but he mentally reached out to her anyway.
He hoped it wasn’t just his imagination that his female seemed to be getting closer.
The cambion would have felt his pain, but maybe she’d decided to cut ties with him after he’d rejected her last night.
Maybe he even deserved to die at the hands of these evil, black-souled marauders.