Chapter 23

After five long days, one thing I could count on was routine.

Samil was usually drunk when he wandered down to punch me around like I was some no good stray dog. Each time he asked me to beg to be healed, I gave him the finger. There was an advantage in knowing how to push his buttons. I was not fed, and my body slowly began to weaken. While his intent was to break me, I knew there was something more underneath it all. Resentment, and it had a lot to do with my nightly visitor.

Every night around the same time, the small man with the spectacles came in and stole my light. The first two nights I struggled and fought back. I learned the hard way that he followed through on his promises; being repeatedly slapped in the same spot carried more pain than a full beating. Chinese water torture taken to a whole new level.

His taste for me was becoming an addiction and the arguments between him and Samil increased in frequency. Samil never stole my light and I could see he wanted to, but there must have been some agreement.

The visitor was angry about Samil weakening me; apparently, it had an effect on the quality of my light. Samil claimed his right as my Creator to inflict whatever punishment he saw fit.

My body was frail and I reminded myself that I was a Mage and all of this was only temporary. What I wouldn’t give to be back on the sofa with a box of crackers and a book of Mage law.

I could only guess the reason my healing was slowed to a non-existent state was because of how much energy was being juiced from me.

After the first night with Justus, I quit my visits to the Grey Veil. My deteriorating condition would only fuel his anger. He had warned me so many times about these types of people and how a Mage was my own worst enemy—I just never imagined. My perception was changed, now, and going forward I would be stronger for it. And smarter.

Almost all of the boxes in the basement had been cleared out after I tried impaling Samil on his own damn pen. That was the night I got my first broken rib. It was worth it; to draw blood from him brought me great pleasure. It was morbid, but I swelled with pride and looked forward to each confrontation—fighting back was empowering, even if it didn’t end in my favor.

Part of my demoralization was the removal of all my personal items, including the dirty pile of blankets that kept me warm. The only clothing allowed was my bra and a pair of shorts and I slept barefoot on the cold cement floor. Samil wanted to strip my dignity thread by thread.

Quite honestly, I was running out of threads.

There was a gash in my forehead from the hairline to the eyebrow. My shoulders were riddled with bruises, I had a cut from his ring on my collarbone, and just to sum it up—I was a mess. All things considered in my weakened state, I felt tougher—hardened. I never gave the satisfaction of crying, which was a silent victory for me.

The visitor’s beatings, on the other hand, were another matter. He found a sensitive spot on my side and slapped it repeatedly with full force… minutes went by and beads of sweat formed on my brow as I writhed in agony. On the second night, I was prepared to fight; I wasn’t prepared to get punished in the same manner in the exact same spot, which was still raw. The pain was so severe I actually bit into my own arm to feel pain elsewhere.

The door creaked and I remained motionless. Something was off—Samil didn’t give his usual introduction of “ready to beg?” He was also sober.

“Get up,” he ordered. “We’re leaving.”

“Where?” I didn’t just have butterflies in my stomach, I had pterodactyls.

A rope unraveled from his hands and I staggered to my feet. I tried to get by him, but he slammed me to the floor and bound my hands behind my back.

Then we were in an SUV and I was reminded that it was winter as I was shaking from the cold.

A key popped in the ignition and the vehicle roared to life. “If he cannot meet my demands, then I will not negotiate. He has no right to take what is mine .”

The car rumbled down the road, throwing me off balance from my seat. I could still smell the embers from a fire burning, mingling with the scent of pine that was leaking from the vile car deodorizer dangling from his mirror. Despite the impending danger, it felt good to be free again. Nothing good ever came of being tied up with rope and thrown in an SUV driving through the dark woods, so I thought of what to say to him.

“I thought I was yours?”

His fingers bore into the steering wheel, and he made a hard right turn. Samil’s temper flared and whether he was talking to me or himself, I wasn’t sure.

“He was only to taste, but he has grown greedy and now expects me to turn you over. Why he wants you, I do not understand. I have made none that have transformed their appearance as you have, but I do not see anything special about you. He wants you more than the others and yet offers me less? Now he threatens to take without pay.”

I swallowed hard, bouncing on the seat when we hit a pothole. His speed was erratic and my weak heart was struggling to race.

“He doesn’t seem stronger than you.” My voice remained cautious as I did not want to provoke him even further.

“You know nothing of his power,” he snapped. “He plays with fire.” His lips curled back. “But two can play at that game.”

“Where are you taking me? Look, I’m no trouble.”

“You are more trouble than you know. I do not give so freely to my enemy.”

“Enemy? I thought you were business partners.”

“Friends close, enemies closer.”

“You’re my Creator; I thought that gave you the trump card. Where are we going?” I felt nauseous and scared—I wanted Justus.

I couldn’t jump out of a moving car with my wrists bound. Samil ran a hand through his stringy hair, flipping it away from his face.

Justus was right. It took little practice to move myself into the Grey Veil and I found that I could do it with ease, even in the car. I was alone, and I screamed. I screamed so loud it echoed off the distant mountains.

I fell to the ground in panic. “Please hear me, please come. I’m in trouble, I need you. Justus… Simon… someone .”

Hands fell on my shoulders. “Silver, what is it? What’s wrong?”

“Simon?”

“Tell me what is happening!” he demanded.

Simon looked different. He was dressed in white pants and tall boots with a long coat. He looked like a British soldier from one of those old paintings I remembered from history class. His hair was tied back into a ponytail and I wondered if that’s who he was before he was turned.

He saw the damage done, all of the marks of abuse, and his eyes became daggers seeking a target.

“Fucking animal .”

“Simon, he’s driving me somewhere, I think he’s going to kill me. My hands are tied, I can’t get away.”

Simon fell to his knees in front of me.

“Silver, you must listen to me. The pendant, do you still have it?”

“Yes. It’s hidden in my bra, but I still have it.”

“Good girl. When the time is right, you need to pull from it. The pendant will give you enough energy that you might be able to fight him off, but use it to run.”

“Can you find me?” Simon scooted closer and held me in his arms, brushing back my hair with his hand.

“Yes love, but it will take time to pinpoint your exact location. Go back and look around for a sign or marker so we know where to look. If we are within proximity, we will be able to pick up your energy if you do not conceal. But hell, Justus will be able to sense you regardless.”

I drifted back to the vehicle and watched mile markers fly by, hoping for something that I could give to Simon. Two miles passed with my head pressed against the window. A sign blinked in the distance and fast approached as I squinted to read it. Just as soon as I returned, I blurted out the mile marker and the name on the sign before I was suddenly yanked back out.

“Nifty little trick he taught you, isn’t it? I never did understand the use of that gift, now I see its value,” Samil said.

Nausea loomed and something salty and metallic was on my tongue. I blinked and felt a warm stream of blood running down my head across my face. Samil had smacked my head against the dash to wake me and reopened a cut. I moaned, trying to wipe the blood from my eyes with my knee but I only smeared it. A fit of anger surged and I spit on his arm.

“Do that again. I dare you.”

“Same goes to you,” I threatened.

We hit a hard turn and I lost my balance, falling onto his lap. Revolted, I tried pulling myself away, which was not easy to do with my hands bound behind me.

“Remain where you are!” He held my head against his lap, curling his fingers tightly in my hair. “This could be enjoyable.” He laughed darkly.

I bit his leg.

He stopped laughing.

Samil howled and I sat up against the door. While he cursed in another language, I noticed that my pendant had broken free and was lying on the seat between us. It was only a few inches away.

I didn’t have time to waste because if he spotted it he might toss it out, or it might slip from reach. The chain moved a little more, sliding into the crevice of the seat, and panic washed over me.

Without thinking, I put my back to him, swung my legs up and thrust my bare feet at the window. On the second kick, I grasped the necklace tightly in my fist and the window shattered, spraying a shower of glass. A blast of cold air rushed in and I pulled myself up. Had I just bent over to grab the necklace, he would have suspected something. So as stupid as it might have been, a distraction had to be created. Samil peeled off of the road and threw the car into park.

“This place will have to do,” he muttered as he stepped out and circled around.

I pressed the necklace in my hand and focused, pulling out the power. I’d never done anything like this before but there it was—a heat stirring in my fingers. With an audible snap, the energy was unlocked from the metal and flowing in my veins like a drug. My door yanked open and I was shoved to the ground.

“You know, Silver,” he said with his knee pressed into my back, untying the rope, “it is my sincere regret that I have to do this.”

“I’m sure it is.” I grunted, spitting out a mouthful of dirt. Another tug and the rope loosened.

“Sometimes fate has a sense of humor. You are too much of a liability.” He turned me over to my back and straddled me as he locked my wrists over my head. “I think I should like to have a taste before we end this.”

“Why go through all this trouble creating me, just to haul me off and dump me in the middle of nowhere? You’re a lunatic!”

“Maybe so, little girl.”

“Too weak to kick his ass?”

His hand went around my throat and he bared his canines, lips peeling back angrily, and those green eyes looked as if they were on fire.

“You are too stupid to waste time explaining what you’ll never comprehend with that puny little peanut brain of yours that is freshly human.”

His thumb ran down my neck and I seized the moment, shoving my fingers into his eyes and blinding him.

I stumbled over my bare feet as I watched him shaking and moaning in pain. While you should never put your power into another Mage, I did discover that pushing it directly into the eyes causes temporary blindness. A split second was all I needed to decide what to do next: run like hell.

The icy wind burned against my skin and my lungs were on fire from the frostbitten air. My bloody feet ran on patches of snow and twigs, moving on a current of newfound energy. I felt his presence gaining on me. There was an open patch of sky as I emptied into a clearing. Samil was standing at the tree line and I knew I could no longer outrun him—it was time to face my maker.

The faint light of the moon illuminated a fog around me; my breath stirred heat in the crisp air. I thought about my sessions with Justus and knew I had to listen to everything he had taught me. There was no more running. I swallowed back all of my pain until I was numb to it.

“Come out and face me, you worthless piece of shit!” The hatred inside of me was bubbling like an inferno, fueling the spit and fight I had left in me. I was going to need every ounce of energy I could get.

“Strong words from a weakling.”

“You can either keep running that mouth of yours or come out here and get your ass kicked,” I called out. I needed to do this while I still retained the energy.

Samil edged out of the dark, his long stride more pronounced as he stepped into the moonlight. Black hair obscured his face, but through the strands I could see the power within his eyes. Eyes like mine. I hated that the power in me came from him, that no matter what—I would always have a part of him in me. He stalked toward me, amusement touching his lips. That was the moment I realized help would never come.

“You are a brazen one, I will give you that. Come on then, show me what you can do.”

He crouched and sprang, flashing forward. I used my senses to detect his movement and flipped to the side, kicking my leg out, which knocked him off balance.

Score one for the weakling!

I changed position before he could check himself and flashed behind him, stomping his head. He reached for my ankle but I moved to his other side.

Our bodies became pure reaction, slicing through the air as we gave attack and defense, until we were nothing more than rhythm.

His face crunched when I kicked it with my bare foot. A glimmer caught my attention and I glanced down at a knife he kept strapped to his lower leg. My hand touched the handle and I hesitated.

It was long enough for him to knock me to the ground.

It was over.

Samil suffocated me with the weight of his body and I wondered if there was ever a time in his life he had reason, sanity, or compassion. Was this man ever truly human?

I struggled against his punishing grip, Samil’s savage eyes bore into mine, and he roared with the knife at my throat. The knife sailed into the ground all the way to the hilt.

“I will take what is rightfully mine—I have waited long enough!”

From my open hands, he pulled every drop of light he could get until I was as fragile as a dandelion in the breeze. I cried so loud that any living thing that heard me would have wept, but my screams were absorbed by the cold night.

His green eyes blazed as he bathed in the rush of my power—the power he had not been privy to. I was taken back to the moment of my death, which was replaying itself.

“A Unique—no wonder .”

His body slid over mine in a declaration.

“Not yet, little girl; we’re not done by a mile. Why the fuck didn’t you tell me you were a Unique?”

His gaze lingered on the marks he left on my body as his eyes claimed ownership. Ownership I didn’t want and would rather be dead than have to endure. He groaned, rubbing at my breast—he stank of maliciousness. I opened my mouth, but the only word that came out was Justus .

The hammering of my heart against my chest became a battle cry. Now it was up to the stars if they would allow such an atrocity. I looked at them pleadingly, begging them to fall down and smite us with their power, but they only blinked indifferently.

As they had once before.

With my free hand, I weakly hit him in the face, unleashing the last remaining ounce of fight I had left in me. I clawed, scratched, and snapped my teeth until he smacked my face so hard it sounded like a whip crack.

I thought about how I had always wanted to visit Italy, Greece, even Paris, and travel on a train cross-country. What was Adam doing at that exact moment? I missed Sunny and wanted to know if she’d ever find love. What did an apricot taste like? I wished I could pet Max one last time and kiss his nose. It’s funny the things that run through your mind in the end.

“You are unlike anything I have ever made,” he whispered, high from the power he was juicing himself up with. His throat cleared. “I will find a way to keep you from him and build my power source. The light is so… strong.”

There was a brief moment it seemed as though the earth was shaking, but it was only me. I was sick with fear, cold, and overwhelming sorrow. I was ready to die in that moment, but not ready to live if it meant staying with Samil. His hand pushed painfully against my thigh. There was the metallic sound of a zipper and my legs struggled against the horror of it.

“Please don’t do this,” I cried.

“It’s customary, don’t take it personal.” He laughed. “A female Mage holds no value but to service the male.”

The moon gleamed off the patches of fresh snow, and in the distance, I imagined Justus standing there, armed to the teeth with daggers to save me. His stance was fierce, as a warrior. I watched the light in his eyes pierce the darkness until they found me. In a flash, the image of my Ghuardian disappeared.

Dreams are cruel.

“Are you ready to beg?”

Violence exploded above from an impact of muscle. There was a surge of power all around me like a halo… and a battle cry so primal it was deafening.

But it wasn’t mine.