Nothing To Lose

15- Dead and Kidnapped

I waited for Damon in the hallway, trying not to scream or cry. I couldn’t stand the idea of him being hurt. I heard someone behind me and spun around, coming face-to-face with Erin. She was dressed in a sparkling dress and heels.

I sighed in relief; even if she disliked me, at least she wasn’t trying to kill me. “Hi Erin… Are you still not talking to me?”

“Oh, I’m talking to you,” she laughed and before I knew what was happening she had my arms behind my back, holding on at the wrists.

I struggled, trying to get away from her. “What are you doing?”

“Shut up,” she muttered before pulling me into the room that Damon had gone into less than a minute ago. I gasped at the sight in front of me. Alia was against the wall, a cut in her forehead that was bleeding slowly. Damon was lying on the floor with a knife implanted in his stomach, blood everywhere.

Tears immediately started falling from my eyes. “Damon!”

“Shut up!” A voice snapped at me. Elise stood in the room with her hands on her hips and two tough looking guys standing behind her.

All I saw was red as I acted on impulse. I spun out of Erin’s grip, landing a kick to her side and shifting into my tiger. I hissed at Elise and lunged at her, only to be stopped by her bodyguards. They knocked me onto the floor, restraining me from getting back up despite my struggles.

“Now, now; there’s a good kitten,” Elise smiled smugly at me. I shifted back, loosening the grips of the guys holding me down. Then I jumped back up and shifted again, aiming for Elise. She simply stuck out her palm towards me and I fell to the floor, paralyzed.

I snarled at her and she rolled her eyes. “I’ll make you a deal. If you stop struggling, I’ll let Damon and Alia leave.”

I shifted back, the only thing I could do, and snapped, “What good would that do? He’s already dead because of you!”

“Huh, good point,” she smirked before kicking my head and making the world go black. Maybe now I could finally be with Damon without all these complications.

I woke up with a splitting headache. I was lying on the ground; that was the first thing I noticed. At first I thought I’d rolled off my bed, but I opened my eyes and suddenly remembered everything from the night before. Instantly I started to cry, ignoring the pain it caused me. Damon was gone. He was dead because of me.

Once I got over my crying, a long while later, anger filled me and I shot up, looking around. I was in a room devoid of any furniture with darkish gray walls and only one door. The light came from a small round bulb hanging from the ceiling. I knew before I tried it that the door was locked.

I sighed and leaned against the door, wrapping my arms around myself and realizing I was wearing the same dress I’d been wearing at the party rather than being nude like I usually was when I shifted. I hoped Elise had some magic spell that put the clothes on me and that one of her bodyguards hadn’t dressed me. The idea made me shiver in disgust.

As I sat down against the door I knew there was no hope for me. Damon was the only one that could have saved me from this and he was dead. More tears spilled out of my eyes as my heart broke into tiny pieces.

Suddenly the door behind me flung open, knocking me to the floor. One of Elise’s guards walked in and grabbed my arm, yanking me to my feet. “Elise wants to see you, now.”

“Whatever,” I muttered, suddenly not caring about any of this. In fact, the sooner Elise killed me the sooner I could be reunited with Damon. I stumbled along as the guy pulled me through hallways until we entered a brightly lit room where Elise was sitting on a sofa chair that looked like a throne.

When she saw me, she smiled smugly, “Enjoying your stay?”

“Just kill me already,” I muttered.

Elise laughed bitterly. “That would be no fun. I already have you here with no hope of escaping, which means I’m going to break the curse. I don’t need to rush it.” I glared at her, not knowing what else to do. There was nothing I could say to convince her of anything and nothing I could do to escape. I was stuck.

“What are you going to do to me than?” I asked, incapable of feeling even a shred of fear. There was nothing she could do that could possibly hurt me more than Damon’s death.

She shrugged and said, “Well, I have to make sure your death is painful so your sister will be hurt. After all, she shot me which gave me a huge stomach ache.”

“You’re pathetic,” I spat.

Elise’s eyes became bright with fury. “That’s what losing your mate will do to you! I know you feel how awful it is; how much it hurts. Imagine that pain every day and never being able to do anything about it- never being capable of feeling happiness. It turns you into someone else entirely.”

“Are you trying to make me feel sorry for you?” I asked incredulously. I couldn’t muster any sympathy for the witch that had killed Damon.

She huffed and turned to the guy that still had a tight grip on my arm. “Take her back to her room and make her regret speaking back to me.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said formally, pulling me back to my room.

I stared at him once the door shut behind us. “What are you going to do to me?”

“Exactly what Elise told me to,” he stated and pulled out a knife. I flinched back, but he dropped it at my feet. “You can’t hurt me. The curse doesn’t just affect Elise.”

I wrapped my fingers around the knife’s hilt, confusion coursing through me. “What do you want me to do with it?”

“Fight me,” he instructed.

I was frozen in surprise. “What?”

“I want to see how skilled you are. You can’t kill me, so I have nothing to lose and I can’t kill you or Elise would rip my heart out. I’m interested to see how this will turn out.”

Taking a deep breath, I straightened my posture. “Alright, let’s do this.” I would fight my hardest to avenge Damon, but if I lost I wouldn’t be in any great amount of pain. Losing my mate was more painful than anything else that could be done to me.  

And when I died, hopefully sooner rather than later, I would join him in the afterlife. Forever.

Sorry for the long wait (I've been busy) and short chapter (I ended up making it completely different from how I originally had it). Thanks for reading :)