Chapter 51
Lock
“You know, that kind of tickles,” I mused, staring up at the ceiling while I wiggled my toes.
With the ash wood stakes through the tops of my feet, I couldn’t shift and moving caused a sharp pain. I did it again, letting it help me keep my head clear.
“Is this how you crawled up Rafiki’s brain stem? It’s like a magical lobotomy. I’m telling you right now, you can’t fix me. All the bitches in college thought they could, but… They all ended up dead, usually with my dick still inside of them because they annoyed me. Except for Sam, of course. Well, I guess she did end up dead.”
“I’ve never met someone this infuriating,” Davi growled, covering his face with his palm.
“It doesn’t matter if he’s infuriating,” Sibon replied calmly. “Or if he cares that we’re torturing him. His mate will feel it and that’s the purpose.”
It wasn’t worth mentioning that I was focusing my energy on trying to keep any of my pain from traveling through the bond. On countless occasions, Sam had run straight into danger and that was before she was a vampire. I had no doubt that she would find a way to get here if she felt what they were doing, so my top priority was keeping that from happening.
It was damn difficult. Not only was it hard to rein in the way my blood literally called out for her, but I also didn’t know how much Sibon could discern by rooting around in my head. It didn’t appear to be a foolproof ability and I didn’t think she had access to my actual thoughts, but I had to be careful.
There was one saving grace here, at least. Her mind trickery wasn’t hard for me to get out of. It seemed to frustrate her, even though she was trying to brush it off. Somehow, she was able to manipulate my memories in order to attack me with them, but the joke was on her. I didn’t have an emotional connection to anything from my past. Therefore, no matter how tightly she grasped onto them, they couldn’t hurt me.
“What happens when Samara shows up?” I asked casually.
Sibon paced toward the bed, then back to the wall where a window really should have been. I wanted to ask her if she was the dumbass that decided a room didn’t need windows, but I refrained. While I was sure I could withstand their torture, they hadn’t done much besides rifle around in my head and I figured it was better to let them continue like this. They’d bled me out quite a bit and at one point, Davi got so frustrated with me that he cut my neck all the way through to my esophagus. Other than that, this was like a mini vacation.
“I will consume her,” she replied.
Biting the insides of my cheeks to keep from telling her to go fuck herself, I nodded. When I’d taken a few cleansing breaths, I looked at her.
“You’re going through all of this trouble for a midnight snack?”
“Don’t act like a fool. I can feel your intentions and I know you’re trying to stall. You know very well what the point of this is.”
“Actually, I know the gist of your little operation, but not the nitty gritty. You have a lust for power. You think you’re divine. Yada, yada, yada. Honestly, I find the god complex to be a bit much.”
She looked at me pointedly. “Don’t trouble yourself with what I have planned. If you behave, you’ll be allowed to walk away and live out the rest of your miserable existence.”
“Well, Sam and I have a death pact, so that’s not exactly true.”
“Idiots,” she muttered, shaking her head. “Of all people, I thought you’d be smart enough to walk away. You could be so much more, Hemlock. You were once. Now, you’re the slave of some cursed bond.”
“Yeah, it’s a pity. The sex, though, is out of this world. Makes all of the other stuff worth it.”
“Sex is the least important thing of all.”
With a long whistle, I leaned back against the headboard. “Sounds like someone hasn’t found any worthwhile cock in a while. Tell me. Does it get dusty when you haven’t used it in a while?”
A pressure appeared in my head, making me smile.
“A trip down memory lane?” I taunted. “Let’s review that time my mother died. My plants were fat and happy that year while they fed on her remains.”
“Clearly, your head is broken. Let’s see how much you can focus on blocking your mate when your body is in agony.”
Ah, so she did know what I was doing. I was starting to lose even more respect for her because she was dense. Tapping my fingers on the mattress, I waited for what she had in store. Probably pulling fingernails or some rookie shit like that.
The sound of a power drill drew my gaze to Davi. The bit he’d put on it was long and sharp. I had no doubt it could run all the way through my skull and make a nice hole in my brain.
“Doing some remodeling?” I asked.
“You deserve to be shredded for what your mate did to Erla,” he said, his lip curling comically.
“Please tell me she beheaded her. I’d kill to see her holding it up like Medusa’s gourd.”
My growl was smothered by how tightly I gritted my teeth when he drilled into my thigh. It hit bone, making me drop my head back. I refused to give him the satisfaction of breaking me. Sure, it hurt like a fucking bitch, but it was just pain. Screaming and crying about it didn’t help one bit.
Instead of pulling it out, he angled it in a different direction. It was horrific, if I was being honest. The chipping and grinding down of bone was a sort of agony you didn’t think about often. There were extensive nerve endings in them, which made them great as a focus of torture.
Pursing my lips, I tried to stifle a laugh. Davi’s brows drew down, his eyes flashing with rage. Leaning forward, I bared my teeth.
“You’re not very good at this.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah,” I panted. “You’re boring. Unoriginal. I wouldn’t be surprised if your ugly whore offered herself to Samara so she could escape your worthless cock.”
I sucked in a deep breath just before he drilled into my trachea. Blood was trying to rush down my throat, so I let it. Fighting it just made you splutter and choke. The wound was already beginning to heal and I had another solid minute of air in my lungs if I could manage not to expel it.
When the hole sealed, I cocked my head and swallowed the rest of the blood.
“It’s going to be so fun.”
“What’s going to be fun, psychopath?” he snarled.
“Showing you how a god brings his prey to ruin.”
Sibon moved closer, watching our interaction. She had her arms folded over her chest, the fingers of one hand gripping her jaw. I was still deciding how she was going to die. Asphyxiation was simple and overdone, but there was a beauty to it that never got old. It gave a person time to panic while they slowly lost strength and hope. It wasn’t painful enough to dull their racing thoughts or give them something else to worry about. Death. That was all they had on their mind the entire time. It was sensational.
To watch someone like Sibon come to terms with their mortality would be the stuff of dreams and orgasms. I wasn’t sure where she fell on the immortal spectrum, but I doubted she could survive being strangled until her eyes popped out. If I had to put her through a meat grinder, I’d happily do so. We’d serve her in the tower as a celebration.
Was cannibalism too far? I literally drank people’s blood for a living, but I didn’t eat them. I probably needed a philosopher to answer that question.
Davi narrowed his eyes when I leaned closer, stopping mere inches from his face. “You think you’ve lost something? Wait until you’re under my blade. If you’ve so much as smiled at someone on the street, they’ll lose every inch of skin on their body. Have you eaten raw human skin? It’s slimy and, judging by those I’ve forced to eat their own, it’s chewy.”
“Are you seriously threatening me right now?”
“If you expected anything different, you’re denser than I thought. There’s no scenario where you get away with this. I may not have freaky witch powers, but I don’t need them. You, on the other hand, are nothing without them. I was fucking born for this and one day I will show you that Chaucer was full of shit. Time does not, in fact, heal all wounds.”
Davi glanced at Sibon with an expression of disbelief. He could think I was crazy if it made him feel better. While he was distracted, I lunged forward, opening my mouth wide before biting down on a large portion of his neck. I pulled back with a chunk of skin and tissue in my mouth and he stumbled, holding a hand over the wound.
“I’m going to kill him,” he declared.
Sibon grabbed his arm before he could descend on me. Raising a brow, I pushed his skin out of my mouth with my tongue, wrinkling my nose when it splatted on the floor.
“You probably should kill me,” I said. “At least start chopping off limbs. Why haven’t you done that already?”
Sibon motioned for Davi to leave the room. He did so reluctantly, then she turned to me.
“It would be easier,” she agreed, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Here’s the thing, Hemlock. Things are much easier if Samara comes to me. In my experience, people react aggressively when they arrive to find someone they love in… Less than ideal condition. If I must, I will send her body parts until she complies. So, you may believe you’re doing the right thing by keeping her from your pain, but it will not end the way you want. I will acquire her. It’s up to you how much she has to suffer before I do.”
“That’s where you and Seraphim have both been wrong. The right thing doesn’t matter to me. Sam is strong and I’m not afraid of her being broken. All I care about is making sure you don’t get your hands on her.”
“She’ll come for you regardless. That is how mates work.”
“Mates have been known to consume each other. I wouldn’t count on her doing what you want. She never does.”
She twirled a strand of hair around her finger absently. “Vasile believes I should add her to my family.”
Tucking my hands underneath me, I gripped the sheets. “Is that so?”
“Tell me, Hemlock. Would she be useful to me?”
“No, she’d have no interest in making a little magical vampire army with you.”
“It’s a good thing that’s not what I’m doing.”
“She also wouldn’t want to help you consume them and grow stronger.”
“You’re quite ignorant.”
Rolling my eyes, I sighed. “While I may be incredibly intelligent, I cannot read minds. Perhaps you’ll elaborate on your plans.”
“Perhaps not. It would be more prudent to wait for her to arrive.”
I was about to tell her she’d never get her hands on Sam, but the bedroom door opened. Vas walked in, sparing me the briefest glance.
“What is it?” Sibon asked, getting to her feet and smoothing down her pants.
“A message,” he replied in a hushed voice.
“From her?”
“Yes.”
He passed her a picture and I craned my neck to see. I could tell it was the tower and there were bodies, but I couldn’t make out the specifics.
“She sent something else as well.”
“Sent?”
“Well, she released a few thousand helium balloons over the bay.”
“A few thousand?” Sibon repeated. “For what purpose?”
“They were carrying body parts. Individual fingers, limbs, teeth, eyes…”
“Oh my god.”
“We can’t find her head.”
Putting one hand over my mouth, I attempted to smother my laughter. I had to use the other to move the blanket over my body.
“Are you getting hard?” Sibon asked with wide eyes.
“Can you blame me?”
“Jesus fucking Christ. I need to find Davi.”
She marched out the door, leaving me alone with Vas. He looked exasperated as he rubbed his temple with two fingers.
“You might want to join her,” I said, running my palm over the bulge in my pants.
“You’re a monster.”
“Well, yeah.”
As he turned around, he flexed his fingers outward. When he closed the door behind him, I yanked the stakes out of my feet and stretched. I wanted to do some more exploring while we were on a torture break.
Right now, though, my dick was straining against my pants. I pulled it out, letting out a sigh as I stroked it. This was the perfect time to open up my connection with Sam.