Chapter 21- Gordy
EVERY PART OF my body is sore. My tail can’t move, and it feels like my arms are being pulled up like I’m a puppet. My lips are super dry despite the humid air. Where am I?
Blinking my eyes open, it takes me several moments to absorb what’s around me.
I’m in an unknown environment, some sort of dark basement.
A singular lantern illuminates the area, and, as I focus, a male figure comes into view.
A tall man I don’t recognize, wearing overalls, stands toying with some ropes.
He seems menacing, and every instinct tells me to snap at him with my reptilian jaws. Oh, it seems I’m in my turtle form.
And my tail and feet are bound by rope at my ankles. I’m seated on the dirty stone floor, and my arms are held up above me, presumably by more rope. When I try to pull my arms down, the motion draws the attention of my captor. Shit.
“Well, well, well, look who’s awake.” The man puts down the rope and takes out a pistol.
Panic fills my heart, and I struggle against the ropes.
As he slowly steps toward me, I attempt to muster up magic.
If I’m in my turtle form, Loxley’s magic dampener necklace should be gone.
Still, it’s almost as if the fire inside me remains bottled up.
“You might as well quit struggling. It’ll make it easier on all of us.” The older fellow crouches down and gazes at me. With a sinister, confident tone, he says, “Well, I’ll be. You really are the ultimate catch of the day.”
As I gulp and try not to hyperventilate, my life flashes before my eyes. I’ve been kidnapped, and I might get murdered. I’ll never see my roommates or my folks again.
I’ll never see Loxley again.
At this, my inner turtle grows enraged. Working against the ropes, I flail and snap at him with my sharp teeth. My magic may be gone somehow, but I still have jaws.
The man steps back and says, “Whoa, nelly!” He points the pistol at me, and I immediately calm down. My expression is filled with fury, I’m sure, but I don’t want to give my captor a reason to kill me so soon.
“I don’t want to have to use this, but I will.
” Biting back a growl, I stare at him in contempt.
He simply smirks at me and steps forward.
“Good little Godzilla. Since you know what a gun is, I’m guessing you’re human-like.
Perfect; when we sell you to the tabloids, we’re gonna make a pretty penny. ”
He chuckles as I assess my situation. I’m bound up, but there has to be a way out of here. I’m one of the Four Guardians, a mage shifter, for heaven’s sake. I ought to be able to free myself from some guy who has to resort to using a gun and ropes. I doubt he even has magic.
But where is my magic? I’ve gotten so used to being able to pull the arcana from within my body in the past few weeks. Now, it’s as if there’s a massive cage binding up my inner turtle’s power. To cast a spell, all I have to do is think of Loxley’s face, his scent, his body, his voice…
Loxley. I might never see my fated mate again. The despair sets in, and a tear falls from my eyes. If I hadn’t argued with him, none of this would have happened. Now I might die at the hands of some kidnapper.
The man walks over to the lantern table and picks up a shiny piece of metal.
“Maybe I ought to dissect a part of you. You’ll still sell well with one less finger.
Or claw, whatever.” He grins like a maniac, and it’s then that I recognize the metal as a small knife.
When he reapproaches me, I tense up and try to shift away from him. Why has my magic abandoned me now?
“That’s enough, O’Connor!” A small voice from the far end of the room pulls both of our attention.
The light from a stairwell cloaks the figure in a silhouette.
My torturer, O’Connor, stands up and walks back to the figure.
My relief turns into confusion when the new, petite person steps forward and reveals themself.
After blinking and scrutinizing this second person, I remember that face was in a van.
That’s right―I was at the bus stop. I saw the face of a kidnap victim, so I went to check, and it all went blank.
And I remember her from the Union. “Sally?” She doesn’t react, but it’s her, the girl who was so eager to be part of our cohort of witches. “Sally, get out of here! He has a gun!”
She doesn’t react, her face expressionless. Sally takes two more steps closer to me, and O’Connor lets her by. Her hair seems disheveled, but if she were kidnapped like me, then why isn’t she bound up? Unless…
“Ooh, doggy, the lizard freak does talk.” O’Connor giggles in glee, and I’m so confused that I don’t have time to pay attention to him. Sally gets closer, and the fear grows in my gut.
“Gordy, right?” she asks in a gentle voice. I’m frozen still, and the girl gets closer. She touches my bound-up wrist, and I pray she’s about to release me. “I am sorry. About all of this.”
“How much do you think we can get for him? The science world’s gotta have lots of cash for a real-life King Koopa like him!” O’Connor’s words are drowned out by my attention on Sally. She studies me with an odd mixture of sorrow and darkness.
Once she’s crowded my space, she leans into my wrist. In the next moment, she’s…sniffing me? “Okay, that’s one way to appraise the monster,” O’Connor remarks. I’m just as confused as he is, but fear has me tongue-tied. What is going on? In an instant, the girl reveals long fangs, and then―
“AHH!” I bellow. Sally’s chomping on my wrist. The pain feels like nails driven directly into my arm.
“Hey, what the hell are you doin’?” O’Connor asks. He steps forward, but all my focus is on the woman crowding my space, literally feeding off of me. I struggle to get free, but I’m not going anywhere. Sally is going full vampire on me.
She’s the threat. The one who stole Declan’s magic. And now I’m her victim.
“Lady, what is your deal?”
Sally briefly turns to O’Connor and yells, “Get out!”
“Wh-what?” he sputters. Meanwhile, I’m getting dizzy, but I try to focus on what they’re saying.
“Leave, O’Connor! I already paid you to kidnap him!” she says in an almost feral tone. “I gave you all the magical tools to bind him up, and now our deal is complete!” She bites my wrist again, and I grunt.
“Hey, whoa, what? We were gonna sell this lizard freak to make billions!”
After pulling off me, she turns to him and says, “I said get out!”
“What? No!” He raises the pistol. “You one of them, aren’t ya? A freak of nature.”
Sally lets me go and strides right up to him.
After clapping her hands, a wave of red arcana pulses out from within her.
O’Connor is knocked back, dropping his pistol and knife.
I watch in horror as she steps toward him.
With a wave of her wrist, the gun and knife float in the air, pulled to her by strands of red energy.
“Witches. Aren’t. Freaks.” With that, her red energy turns to fire and blazes in a circle around the gun and knife. She melts the metal, and it drips to the ground. “You have one last chance to leave here and never return, O’Connor!”
He stares at her in horror, then scrambles to his feet. “Fucking bitch!” he shouts as he runs up the stairs.
With that, I’m alone with Sally again. The woman with fangs who apparently fed off me.
“You…you tried to get into Boysen House,” I say. My speech is slurring, and I feel like I’m inebriated.
She wipes her mouth of my blood using her wrist. “The Boysen House witches are weak, but together they are strong. And I didn’t dare go after the powerful Jade Lion.”
My only relief is knowing my loved ones are safe, for now. “You…did this to Declan.”
“He was nothing. Less than an appetizer,” she says with derision. “But now I have one of the Four Guardians. The Ruby Turtle. Again, I am sorry about this.”
As the room spins, I try to keep my wits. “They’ll come looking for me.”
“That’s what my spell-dampening runes are for.
” She steps closer and taps her foot on the floor.
Even in the dark, I notice some etchings on the ground―that would explain why my magic has gone AWOL.
“All I needed was a moment when you were alone and had less magic to resist my knock-out gaseous potion. And now, you’re here. ”
Shit, this is what I get for wearing a magic dampener necklace. “Then, kill me. Just do it―”
“I would never kill you!”
What? She, once again, crowds my space and bites into my wrist. “Agh!” The pain is searing, and I feel my consciousness slipping away. When she lets go, she studies me with serious intent.
Leaning forward, she looks right at me as the room goes blurry and dark. “None of this is ideal, but you have to understand how desperate I am. I need to feed. Until I can cure myself of this, you will satisfy my hunger.” Those are the last words I hear before blanking out.