49. Chapter 49
Chapter 49
Cain
I t’s after a long month of dealing with the uprisings that I finally return to the headquarters, a single question on my mind. I don’t get a chance to call for a briefing, though. The moment I use the private entrance to my quarters, I hear a knock on the door.
“Enter,” I say as I take a seat behind my desk.
Fritz walks in. “General, a couple of urgent matters for you,” he recites as he lowers a stack of papers on the table in front of me.
Of course. I’m almost never away from the battlefield, which is why my men know to take every opportunity they get.
Still, I have to fight not to let out a sigh. It’s a thick stack and I’m running out of patience here. Gritting my teeth, I take the first folder, open it and start reading.
“Should I call the medic?” I hear Fritz ask.
I look up to see him awkwardly motion at the gash on my chest. I throw him an annoyed frown and resume reading, giving out orders for each of the issues presented to me, all the while keeping an eye on the dwindling number of folders in front of me.
Once I’m done, Fritz takes the papers and moves to salute me on his way out.
It’s with a look that I stop him. I down the water in the glass on the table and inhale deeply. Anticipation starts to build inside me even before I ask, “Any news on the Jaeger woman?”
Fritz blanches. “She’s still refusing to talk, General, but don’t worry, it’s only a matter of time before the men break her.”
For one long moment, I just keep looking at him, my jaw working. A whole month I gave them to get the information out of the woman and they learn nothing ?
“Which cell is she in?” I demand as soon as I collect myself.
Fritz’s eyebrows shoot up. “Number 429, General.”
It seems to take him even more by surprise, when I get up and start moving for the door. “Dismissed,” I say on the way out.
It’s straight to the prison block that I go, deciding I will not be made to wait one more day to learn where she is. So if I need to get the information myself, I’ll get the information myself.
As I walk, I start feeling this unusual fatigue. I glance down at the wound. I might need to take care of this after all. Right after I’m done here.
I open the door to cell number 429, finding the Jaeger woman tied to one of the two chairs around the instrument table.
Locking eyes with her, I slowly close the door.
Her eyelids are swollen from the beating so it takes a second for her gaze to come into focus, but as soon as it does, her eyes widen.
She looks away, fixing her eyes ahead.
I stroll over to the chair next to her and take a seat, tilting my head at her. She doesn’t move a muscle. She’s trying her hardest not to show fear, but she reeks of it.
Still, I take a moment to observe her. There’s the issue of the fatigue and of the fact that I want answers and I want them now, but she’s proving to be a tough nut to crack, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about torture, it’s that the anticipation of it is usually worse than the pain itself.
“I’m guessing you already know who I am,” I start as I lean a little forward, my movement making her flinch a little, “as well as what my presence here means for you.”
She doesn’t say anything. She just grits her teeth.
“No?” I ask softly. “Let me clarify it for you. It means you ran out of luck. Do you know why?”
More silence.
I turn my focus onto the instruments strewn across the table to my right, pretending to struggle to choose as I say, “It’s because, out of all the people who have come to pay you a visit, I’m the one most intimately acquainted with pain.”
When I finally pick up a scalpel, with the corner of my eye, I see her screw her eyes shut and sense her hold her breath.
I spin the scalpel around my fingers before I lean a little forward. “Where to inflict it, in what manner, for how long… Which is why I strongly suggest you don’t hesitate to share any of your knowledge with me.”
I lift my hand and use the blade to trace the particularly sensitive muscle in the neck, and she doesn’t make a sound, but her heart does start bouncing around. “Now, the Aurora,” I demand as I press the blade into the skin. “Where is she hiding?”
The words barely pass my lips before the room starts spinning around me.
I lean back and glance down at the wound, expecting to see blood gushing.
It makes me frown, when I find it in the same state I did minutes ago. I get up, my frown only growing deeper when I feel myself sway in place.
I only manage to grab onto the edge of the table before I drop to the ground.
All of a sudden, I can’t move and I’m struggling to stay conscious.
There’s a moment of silence before I hear Jaeger inhale sharply.
I grit my teeth. There are people here. They’re not saying anything, but I can hear them untying Jaeger.
Mustering all my strength, I try to get up. My body only slumps back to the floor.
“I’m sorry,” I hear someone say, in a familiar voice filled with tension. “I gave him a dose that would knock a mammoth out cold, he really should’ve remained unconscious the entire time.”
It takes me a moment to place the voice, but when I do…
That fucking soldier I found torturing Jaeger. Number 2307. Sieger, Alaric.
And then there’s the image of the glass of water on my desk swimming before my eyes.
Gritting my teeth, I pledge to kill the bastard with my own two hands. But the next thing I know, the world around me is turning pitch black.
*
My head is throbbing and my body is urging me to go back to sleep, but there’s this vague sense of something not being quite right that makes my eyes fling open.
I don’t move. It’s even before the world around me comes into focus that the realization hits me. I’ve been caught and taken somewhere. I’m lying on my side on some kind of straw bed, the sight I’ve woken up to unfamiliar to say the least. I’m still shaking the fog off, but I’m in a cage in a room in what looks like a castle.
And I need to find a way out, stat.
My eyes dart to the person getting out of a chair placed next to my cage. This blond fale mae I don’t recognize. His eyes glued to me, he cautiously walks backwards and out of the room, probably to alert the higher-ups of the fact that I’m awake.
As soon as he’s out of sight, I push myself off the bed and spring to my feet. I quickly scan the room, coming to the conclusion that this is Grimm Academy, which means that my captors must be the Resistance.
Then I give myself a quick once-over as well. It’s obvious the intention wasn’t to kill me, but there’s not a single bruise, let alone a more serious injury on me, which means they’ve been careful not to hurt me in getting me here. And considering I’m not bound in any other way, I think as my eyes scan the bars, it must be the cage they’re relying on to make sure I don’t hurt them .
So it’s the nature of the cage that’s my first concern.
But just as I walk over to its front side, a scent enters my nostrils, making me freeze in place, then double back.
It’s her. Lilith Tower was the first and only time I’ve ever actually smelled her, but I’d be able to recognize that scent anytime, anywhere.
And she’s getting closer by the second, sending my heart racing.
*
Gritting my teeth, I tell myself to get it together. After all, this is the moment that will determine my worth.
But I don’t get a chance to prepare. The very next moment, she walks through the archway and stops, her eyes landing on me. Just like last time, the very sight of her makes my breath catch.
And when she says, “Hello Cain,” her voice once again proves to me that none of it was a lie. There’s magic in her, all of her.
Just ignore it, I tell myself, and while she’s still standing over there, seemingly waiting for me to say something, I take the opportunity to subtly try to use blood magic on her.
The cage just absorbs it.
I don’t let this affect me, but when I hear her awkwardly clear her throat and start moving towards me, however slowly, I ball my hands into fists.
“First of all,” she starts in a hesitant, apologetic voice, capturing all my attention, “I’m sorry for kidnapping you. I hope you believe me when I say I wish there had been another way. There’s no need to worry, though. I only want to have a conversation with you, and as soon as I do, I’ll be letting you out of there.”
I almost let out a scoff. Then, as soon as she stops walking, once again seemingly waiting for me to say something, I force myself to ignore her and go back to the task at hand.
It’s one thing to create a cage that can keep Blood Magic in, but Shadow Magic…
I turn all my focus onto summoning a subtle shadow.
“Well,” she starts talking again, “you obviously already know who I am, but I’d still like to introduce myself. My name is Anna Novak, I generally just go by Anna, but if you want…”
Then she starts moving again, blowing my focus. “You can call me Anyi.” And she’s getting way too close for comfort.
I stalk forward until I’ve reached the bars, and it gives me pleasure, when I see her flinch and come to a stop. “Take one more step,” I tell her in a low growl, “and it will be your last.”
She looks at me with confusion on her face. “I only wanted you to smell me so—”
“I can smell you alright,” I cut her off, practically snarling. “So back off.”
She just stands there for a second. “Right,” she drawls softly as she takes a couple of steps back. “And you did hear me, back in Lilith Tower, when I told you we were mates?”
Ah, the mate ruse. I tip my head back and retreat a little myself. “Those are children’s stories, and I’m not a child.”
“Mate bonds?” she asks with growing confusion. “You think they’re… you think they’re not real?”
I don’t reply, I just let out a scoff and go back to trying shadow magic, quickly realizing they’ve somehow managed to make the cage absorb that as well.
“Look,” she keeps going, making me have to take a deep breath to fight the frustration off, “I guess, in a way, I’ve been in your shoes before. I’ve had connections like this happen to me without expecting them. So I understand why it all must feel a little surreal, but mate bonds are real, and you and I share one.”
Oh she’s good, but sadly for her, I’m not letting myself fall for it.
Still, she doesn’t relent. “You know how I know we do? I know it because it was you who helped me awaken my vampire powers and I know it because of the way I feel around you. And I’m sure the way you feel about me is telling you exactly who I am to you.”
And now she’s trying to catch my eye, waiting for me to reply. It all makes me grit my teeth with growing anger.
There is nothing in this bleak world gained without great sacrifice, and it takes a man above men to take on the task of ruling a world. Such a man, he needs to be unwavering, he needs to be uncompromising, he needs to be superhuman. He needs to be everything and nothing at the same time. To fulfill a destiny like that, the greater the pleasure, the more you steer clear of it. And the higher you reach, the greater the temptations.
So I look at her, distinctly remembering the night my father first told me about her. That, one day, there will come a serpent in the body of a beauty. She will have a magic that will help her spin me around her finger. And if I want to fulfill my destiny, no matter what I do… I can’t let her.
So yes, I’ve been expecting her to show up and try to slither under my skin. I just didn’t expect to hate her so much for it.
“I know exactly who you are, witch ,” I grind out, obviously taking her by surprise, “and I will never believe a word that comes out of your mouth. So get the hell out of my sight.”
Now I’m pissed enough to start emitting shadow magic involuntarily. It should make me victorious, the fact that the cage is not absorbing all of it after all, as well as the fact that she seems too taken aback by my reaction to notice.
But it doesn’t, because the Resistance seems to have been very smart about my capture. Which means I’ll need to buy myself time to figure it out before I make any attempts to escape.
Time I’ll probably have to spend further resisting the witch.