Torn Asunder

Chapter 7 Valentine

I wasn't handcuffed. I wasn't collared. I wasn't locked up or hidden away. And yet I was still a captive. But as I tend to be a glass half full kind of girl, I was rather pleased with the lack of cuffs, collars and armed guards. Well, that would be assuming that the people I travelled with weren't heavily armed. And I knew they were.

Whatever voodoo Andros had done, it had kept the oogie boogies from finding me. And after I had mentally run from my twin, I hadn't really felt him inside my head. It was the eye of a storm, I felt, this unnatural quiet that pervaded my life suddenly, and I knew it wouldn't last. Still the time away from death, damnation and absolute maddness gave Andros the time he needed to at least not bleed everytime he moved, and gave me a chance to shore up my mental defences for what promised to be an unpleasant trip to the Mercy.

"The leader the last time I encountered them was Deb, if she's still running the show, then let me do all the talking." Caleb instructed to all of us. Ever since the kitchen incident, he has made it plainly clear to everyone that I was his girl. I should have been thrill by this but.... do not want. It's hard to explain but the fantasy of being swept off my feet by Caleb had been more satisfying than being his girl actually was. Though I was learning that sex is a lot more fun when you get into it, I was starting to really hate how Caleb thought that me being his girl suddenly meant that I couldn't speak for myself. I mean yeah, I used to let Luka speak for me all the time but this is different. Isn't it?

"How do you know the Mercy and their leader?" Andros asked, one arm still held in a sling. His wounds were doing better but he was always looking at me weird now, as if he were trying to figure me out.

"That's a long story..." Caleb tried to deflect. Problem was, we'd just boarded a train to take us over the distance between here and there, and we all had nothing but time on our hands. He must have seen on everyone's face that we weren't going to let it slide that easy and Caleb sighed. "Alright I guess I can share the love." he rolled his eyes, fussing with a cigarette. We weren't allowed to smoke inside, and I was glad because as much as I like a puff off a doob once in a while, a cabin full of tobacco smoke would make me hurl.

"Ixchel knows this story from the end sequence onward, but only Deb and I know all of it." Caleb looked out the window, the cigarette in his hands subconsciously getting placed between his lips. "Back in the day, I was young and reckless and rather untamable." he smiled as he lit the cigarette despite the lack of air circulation. "This was before the Sentinels and I wanted to get an old world feel before I made my mark in the new world. So hop, scotch and skip later, I'd left Dublin and made my way into Italia." his tone was turning self mocking and he didn't smoke his cigarette so much as hold it aloft like a torch against the darkness inside. "I made a mistake and followed the wrong lass down a dark alleyway, and when I woke up I was the main course." ash fell from the burning end of his cigarette, my eyes tracking the flakes as they succumb to gravity.

Not even Andros is saying anything yet. This might be the abridged version of events, but it was still a catalogue of Caleb's past exploits and those were never to be interrupted. Too often he'd clam up and you'd never learn the end of a story. It sucked!

"The Family that caught me wasn't going to turn me or kill me though. No. Somewhere in my family history, something not quite human was bred into the mix and even though I'm nothing but normal, although fantastic, the vamps said my blood was richer than any mortals. So they kept me." his tone lost it's edge, as if he still isn't 100% sure that being kept was a bad thing. A man like Caleb should hate the idea of being a bloodmare and yet... he sounded almost whistful right now. "The human mind is an adaptible creature, able to learn to live with anything as long as there's a sliver of hope. My sliver of hope was Mayabelle." he looked at me and smiled sadly for a moment. Seriously, it didn't bother me to learn about his past lovers, I got far more graphic descriptions on the women around me via Dante than Caleb. "She had been turned and I was her first Feeding. A...bond developed between us and eventually Mayabelle wanted me as her own pet. Because she was the Family Master's current favourite, I was made a gift. It was then that I started to slowly transition from bloodmare to pet, to lover, to..." Caleb cut off his own words, taking a belated puff from his almost extinguished cigarette. "And then the Mercy came after us." he huffed out the smoke. "Fuck this." Caleb suddenly stood up and walked out of our compartment.