24. Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Two
L ucas gained consciousness slowly. He tried to sit up, but his head hurt so bad he could barely see. His hands came up to grip at the pain because it felt as if his brain was going to fall out through his ears. He touched a spot in the back that had him crying out. He pulled away immediately.
“Shh... Still bleeding.” Someone touched his back, rubbing it.
Lucas knew it wasn’t Bennett, he would have smelled him by now.
Then that hand stopped rubbing and he lost consciousness again.
It didn’t feel as if he lost large chunks of time.
Maybe just a few minutes, and no one touched him. He must have been dreaming.
He lay there for several minutes, concentrating on his breathing, needing the air to work through his lungs to lessen the pain enough so he could open his eyes.
Even the migraines he used to have weren’t as bad.
Nothing felt like the kind of pain he had.
Childbirth, maybe. Not that he would know anything about giving birth but based on what his mother used to say about his own birth, he could guess it was pretty awful.
His thoughts were scattered enough that he couldn’t focus on anything but the pain.
Headache.
He lay there for long minutes on his stomach. There was straw underneath him, as if he were a goat in a zoo. Still, it did alleviate some of the hardness of the cement beneath.
Headache.
He thought about his light and tried to focus it through his body going to the spot on the back of his head.
It was a gradual process, but the pain started to lessen little by little.
It was as if a group of tiny surgeons was in there sewing him back together.
Thank God he was a witch and not a human, or he would have been in a lot more pain for a lot longer.
When he could focus enough on his surroundings, he felt Bennett in his mind. The worry Bennett felt turned Lucas’ stomach. He dry-heaved, his eyes watering. The tears ran down his cheeks as the pain in his head worsened.
…Fucking be okay, baby… I’m coming to get you… God, please just be okay. It was the same thing over and over again.
Benny. Lucas sat up slowly. There was still just a hint of pain at the top of his head as those little surgeons finished their job, and he had to be careful.
“Benny,” he said out loud, not ever realizing he did it until he thought about the sound of his voice echoing off the gray cement walls and the metal bars surrounding him.
Thank God. Are you okay? Bennett said through their link.
Yeah. I’m okay. Just trying to figure out where I am.
Something scuffled around, like shifting body weight from somewhere in the room .
“Hello,” Lucas said softly, not wanting to yell because the sounds were magnified around them in the small spaces. He stood up and walked to the metal bars.
Tell me what you see.
Um…cement and bars. Like a jail, I guess. It kinda smells. Like shit and pee and mold. Also, it smells like that waiter, Sage. Someone else is in here with me, only in another cell.
Someone made a noise, like a clearing of their throat.
“Hello. Please, talk to me. Who’s there?”
“I heard them bring you in last night,” Someone croaked out, almost whispered.
“What’s wrong with your voice?”
Don’t fix anyone, Lucas. Bennett said as if he was privy to his conversation with the croaking man. I mean it. Stall them for as long as you can.
I’ll try my best.
Please, baby. I wouldn’t be able to make it without you.
Me too. So you be careful too.
“Ask the bitch. She cursed me.”
“Who?”
“Is that you, Lucas?” the man asked, instead of answering his question.
“I—” He paused. It threw him a bit to hear his name. Lucas tried to look through the bars as much as he could to try to figure out who was down here. “Yes.”
“Oh my God, I thought Gary killed you,” The man started crying.
He finally realized who spoke. “Shawn.”
“Yeah.”
An arm extended from one of the cells, reaching for him .
“Well, isn’t that sweet. A reunion with the witch and the big-mouthed boy,” A woman said from the next cell over.
He saw Shawn’s arm go back and Lucas started crying. It was as if Shawn died all over again in that moment.
What’s going on?
Shawn is alive. He’s in one of the cells. And I think there’s another witch in the cell next to me.
“Don’t talk to her, Lucas. She’s evil. She’s the one that did this to my voice,” Shawn said.
Lucas bit his lip. He tried to concentrate on the woman next to him, getting an idea of who she was.
“Get out of my head, you little maggot. How the fuck are you doing that?”
“You’re not that strong,” Lucas mumbled to himself.
“Strong enough to hobble you,” the lady said, not understanding that he really was just talking to himself. It helped him separate someone else’s feelings from his own.
Lucas rolled his eyes when he heard her chanting. He blocked himself from whatever spell she was about to do. He kept digging into her mind.
“You have a lot of knowledge, though.” She was smart. He’d give her that. Even if she only had a tiny bit of witch’s blood in her, she made the most out of what she did have.
A door opened and closed, and Lucas moved back when a vampire dragged Sage down the hall. Sage had marks all over his face and one of his eyes had already started to bruise and puff up. The snake shifter looked anywhere but at him as the vampire opened his cell door and threw Sage through it.
“Fucking snakes taste like shit,” the vampire said as he walked out of the small room .
The lady in the cell next to them laughed manically.
“What are you doing here, Sage?” Lucas took Sage’s elbow and tried to guide him to the straw in the corner.
Sage shook his head. “I can’t sit down.” His chin started to wobble as his back hit the wall.
Lucas rubbed his arm, trying to comfort him. He wanted to cry for Sage. No one deserved to be violated. Raping someone was like fucking with their mind, not just their body. Lucas could see it on Sage’s face. “Those fuckers will pay for touching you.”
“Why do you care? I thought you hated me,” Sage said.
“Naw, just got a little protective of Bennett. It’s a mate thing.” Lucas gave him a small smile. “I would like to know why you’re here and not in Saint Lakes.” Lucas knew what he promised Bennett, not to fix anyone, but Sage was in a lot of pain and it would be easy to take his pain away.
I have to fix Sage.
No, baby.
It won’t take a lot from me. I have to, Bennett. He’s bleeding from his…butt. It’s horrible. He doesn’t even know. The blood is all over the back of his pants. Lucas pulled up a ball of light and put it to Sage’s hip. Better to just do it instead of arguing with Bennett.
Fuck.
Sage widened his eyes. The marks on his face healed and Sage touched his cheek.
Then his fingers came down to his jeans.
He felt the wetness and his hands started to shake.
Instead of commenting on it, he answered Lucas’ question.
It was probably easier than asking the silent one about the blood on his pants.
“Umm, last night I had to close the diner, so I got to Estelle’s late.
When I pulled up into the driveway, I saw someone I didn’t recognize enter the house through the front door, so I followed him. Didn’t see the guy behind me.”
“I’m sorry you got caught up in all this.” Lucas leaned against the wall next to Sage.
“My timing has always sucked.” Sage tried to give him a half smile but couldn’t quite pull it off.
I’m fine. I fixed him and it didn’t take a lot of energy. I can’t fix Sage’s mental wounds, though.
Tell Sage to shift and see if he can find a key.
“Bennett wants to know if you can shift and look for a key.”
“They take them with,” Shawn croaked.
Lucas thought about it for a moment. He needed more information. He needed to know why he was here in the first place. Lucas pulled away from the wall and focused on Shawn for a second.
Shawn had willingly given himself to the vampires for money. In exchange the vampires would feed from him. Something had happened, though. “The coven leader is ill,” he mumbled to himself.
“Nicolono,” the lady said as if she was in his ear. “You should destroy him. Make him pay for kidnapping you. He plans to use you until there’s nothing left.”
Lucas didn’t respond. Instead, he probed her mind.
“Get out of my head,” she yelled and chanted something that he couldn’t stop in time.
All of a sudden, Sage fell to the floor, crying out in pain as he did. His leg looked like it was broken at the femur.
Lucas was instantly pissed and never even thought about what he did. Whatever small gift the woman had, Lucas focused on it and then thought about erasing it, as if he was standing in front of a chalkboard.
The woman screamed, getting louder as Lucas kept erasing.
Someone opened a door, probably alerted to the noise.
Lucas didn’t even think twice. He stopped the guy in his tracks, quite literally.
He was just about to fix Sage’s leg, but he noticed it straightening out, as if it was mending itself.
Lucas wasn’t sure how it was possible, because it wasn’t him fixing Sage.
The woman stopped yelling and Lucas knew her mind was broken. He didn’t have time to think about her, though, or about how Sage’s leg was normal again. He crouched next to Sage. “Are you okay?”
Sage nodded.
“My voice is normal. How?” Shawn said. “What the fuck is happening right now?”
Maybe taking away the woman’s powers also erased every curse she ever put on anyone.
“Do you think you can shift and get the key from that guy? I won’t be able to hold him much longer,” Lucas said, ignoring Shawn.
Sage shifted immediately. His clothing fell to the floor.
He slithered out from under his bloody jeans and through the slats of the door.
His little black head turned to Lucas. Lucas smiled at him in encouragement.
He really was rather pretty as a snake He was all black with green stripes running down his back.
Lucas watched as Sage shifted to his human form, grabbing the keys.
Blood smeared across Sage’s naked ass and Lucas wanted to cry for him. Instead, he sucked in the tears and gathered up his clothes.
The vampire struggled against Lucas’ influence. Lucas could feel him in his mind, seeing the guy’s lust for blood. He had a hunger for killing. He also knew what he’d done to Sage.
Sage’s hands shook as he grabbed the keys from the vampire’s pocket. Sage ran back to him quickly and fumbled with the keys in the lock for several seconds. Lucas touched his hand, stilling it. Tears gathered in his eyes.
“He won’t be able to hurt you or anyone else ever again. None of them will when I get done.” Lucas meant every word because Sage needed him to forget his own fear and exact justice .
It didn’t escape Lucas’ notice that Sage could have slithered out of the cell long before now. Lucas had been a dick to him at the café and still Sage had his back, quite literally as it turned out.
Sage finally got the key into the lock and Lucas pulled his hand away. The door opened and Lucas stepped out, handing Sage his clothing.
He heeded Bennett’s warning about not draining himself and decided to do to the vampire what he’d done to the crazy lady who seemed to curse every single person she came into contact with.
He stood in front of that chalkboard again and began erasing the vampire from the man.
It took longer, because vampires were closer to human and that made it harder to separate the parts that made him a vampire.
Lucas hesitated when he felt life leave the vampire.
His skin wrinkled as if his time on earth was catching up with him all at once.
Then Lucas thought about what he had done to Sage and he kept erasing.
“Holy shit. What is happening to that guy?” Shawn said from directly behind him.
“Lucas is happening to that guy,” Sage answered.
Lucas finished erasing the vampire until he turned to ash. Erasing took longer, but he exuded a lot less energy.
Lucas turned to them then and Shawn shied away from him when Lucas tried to hug him.
“What the fuck are you?” Shawn asked.
“I’m a witch. You know what I am, Shawn. You knew even before I did. I’m not going to hurt you.” Lucas pleaded with Shawn. He missed his friend and just wanted to know he was real. Lucas sighed and turned back around. “Let’s go.”
I’m out of that stupid cage.
We’re ten minutes out .
I don’t know if I can get us out of the house in one piece. There’s a lot of vampires in this place. I sense a shifter too. I think he’s held prisoner somewhere.
Are you sure?
Not one hundred percent, no. I feel someone, though. We can’t leave him to these people.
He hated to admit that but killing all these people would drain his energy way too fast.