A Touch of Madness (A Recipe for Disaster Novel 1)

It will hold my hand

Edward grabbed me by my hair and pulled me up to my knees. I snarled at him and grabbed his hand. I jerked his thumb out of joint and he had no ability to maintain his grip so I rolled away from him and made a dash for the door. I got into the hallway and ran down to where I heard my fellow captive banging at her cell door. I got the lock turned, threw open the door and got tackled by a very irate Edward. It’s hard to struggle after someone’s smashed your head into the floor, twice. While stars chased little birdies around my head, I head the other captive struggling with devilkin. Once again Edward grabbed me by the hair, and he dragged me by it down the hall, heaving me back into my cell. “Fight back all you want Callahan, you can’t stop me.” He spat the words out. He wiggled his fingers right in front of me. “Remember this; I can heal any damage you do to me, Demon’s share powers with each other. You on the other hand will suffer whatever injury we give you until I decide to heal it. My blood’s in your veins now; I own you.” He announced smugly. The devilkin followed him out leaving me alone in the cell, arms bound tightly in tangle wire. It’s a magical construct that binds tightly and needs an actual magical word to undo. Despite the dampening effect this Realm had on my magic, the spelled wire worked just fine.

“Thanks for trying.” I heard echo up from the hallway. I got to my feet and walked to my door so I could be closer to the bars.

“What was that?” I asked trying to look around the barren hallway as much as possible.

“I said thank you for trying to free me. Although I appreciate it, you should have made a run for it.” My mystery friend advised.

“Yeah, teach me to have a soul.” I said dryly. I heard a chuckle. “I’m Cal.” I added cautiously. Rule number one in a situation like this; trust no one you don’t already know, and rule two was trust no one you do know just to be safe. Marcus was obviously a proponent of psychological torture as shown by him using Edward as my jailer, so I wouldn’t put it past him to have traps set up.

“I’m Nikka. Welcome to my own little hell.” She introduced. “I’ve been here for, as I can figure just under two months. I’d captured Marcus’ boy Lucien and he jumped me here. What’s your crime?” she asked casually. Nikka was just too calm and composed for someone who’s been tortured for two months; I’m guessing she was either a trap or she’d slipped a screw loose during captivity.

“J walking.” I lied tersely. I suddenly felt uneasy about talking out loud with Goddess knew what listening in.

“Don’t want to discuss it? That’s fine; I’ll be here all night when you decide to change your mind.” I heard Nikka shuffle away from her door and I felt a twinge of guilt.

“Sorry Nikka. Is there no one else down here with us?” I called out, hoping I hadn’t just blown away my one source of some possibly reliable information.

“Not since Marcus managed to overcome your boy’s mental defences. He was down here for about week, having the works done to him. Marcus was rushed so it wasn’t pretty. Whoever he was, I hope his sanity is gone because I would not want to be cognizant in there.” Nikka replied. I squeezed my eyes shut as I felt grief wash over me. Edward was perfectly aware of what he was being forced to do. Marcus had somehow stripped away Edward’s decency and amped up his aggression and hostility, but it was still Edward, just him at his very worst.