Aleron let himself into Pharzuph's home, marching right into the foyer, slamming the door shut behind him.
"Bardhal!" He barked out.
Lucille wasn't in that house. He was certain of it. Anywhere she was she left a hint of herself, a whisper of her energy to call out to him and to ascertain him of her presence. When he first left her at Pharuzph's he could feel her right up until the moment he was materialized back in their home realm, and even then he could even pick up lingering traces of her energy left behind from her spending so much time in the mansion.
Now, he couldn't sense one bit of her.
Bardhal came from one of the halls, anger quickening his stunted gait.
"Why the hell are you yelling? Do you not realize that people are trying to sleep?" He shouted back.
Even though he wanted to snap, to yell at him and demand where she was. He put a great effort into keeping his voice level.
"Where is Lucille?"
Bardhal sighed and grumbled lightly before he responded.
"Come with me."
"Don't worry about it, Bardhal. I'll handle him." Pharzuph said, stepping out from the opposite hallway than the one he had taken Lucille down.
Rage was burning in Aleron's veins just at the sight of that damned angel. Whatever he'd done with her, done to her, if she was harmed at all he was going to kill him. In his time he'd never heard of a fallen angel dying, but he'd find a way to make it happen.
"I let Lucille have her privacy earlier. I figured she would be stressed from everything that had happened and might be tired, so I set her up in one of the guest rooms with the hope that she could at least relax a little bit while here." Pharzuph explained, turning back down the hall with Aleron following behind. "The other girls have their own rooms here for when they aren't with me, so I figured she might feel comfort in knowing they weren't far from her if she needed anything."
For whatever reason Aleron wasn't buying it. Hearing that should have been reassuring, it should have sounded caring and kind. Maybe it was the lack of her energy here, the sheer absence of her making him question his decision to leave her here and to trust Pharzuph with her care. He was certain she wasn't in this house, and if she wasn't, then where the hell could she be? And there was no way she could leave without Pharzuph finding out, so he had to be hiding something.
When they came down the hall, there was a single door ajar. That trepidation crept faster up Aleron's spine as Pharzuph walked towards that exact door. Every fiber of his being was telling him to screw formalities and to shove past him to look for her himself, but he held back, biting his tongue as he watched Pharzuph knock lightly and push the door open. A frown crossed his face.
"She's not in here."
"Well then where the hell is she? I think we both know that there is absolutely no trace of her in this home right now."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. She could just be somewhere else in the house, perhaps she is in Claire's room spending time with her." Pharzuph said, trying to sound cool but there was a crack in that countenance showing his worry.
Pharzuph steps down the hall a ways, to the green door. Aleron was seething. Did he take him for an idiot? Pharzuph had to be able to sense her too, seeing as she was a chip off his energy. But he followed him. With Claire's door, he didn't knock, he simply pushed his way into the dark room.
Just past Pharzuph's frame he could see the outline of Claire sitting up in her bed. Squinting, she glanced from Pharzuph to Aleron.
"What's going on?" Her voice was thick with sleep.
Just as Aleron expected Lucille hadn't been hanging out with Claire in her room.
"Have you seen Lucille tonight?" Pharzuph asked in a cool tone.
Aleron's anger was boiling up inside of him. They were wasting his time with all of this. Time he could have spent looking for her, trying to figure out where she was so he could save her. Had Pharzuph done something to her she would surely be scared and wondering where he was.
"No, I haven't, I've been asleep. I didn't even know that she was here." Claire said quietly, rubbing her eyes.
"Stop playing games with me, Pharzuph. I think we both know very well that she isn't in this house. We also both know that she isn't going to be running away in this realm, so where the hell has she gone? What did you do with her?"
Pharzuph nodded solemnly, taking a deep breath.
"You're right, she isn't in this house. But I had nothing to do with this, truthfully I have no clue where she could have gone. It's been quiet here this entire night. I don't know why she would, but maybe she did run off somewhere for some reason."
"Bullshit. There isn't a chance that she would even think to do that, she knows better than to run off on her own in a demonic realm. I'd be willing to bet that you sold her to one of your contacts for a high price." Aleron said, his rage starting to rear its ugly head.
"Are you fucking kidding me? That would be the most moronic thing I could possibly do in this position. The last thing I would do is sell her to someone. Clearly she wasn't happy with something and decided it was time to get out of dodge. Given the fact that there was no struggle or anything, that's the only logical solution." Pharzuph stepped closer and Claire sucked in a breath. "My morals may be skewed but I'm not an idiot."
"You were only ever in this for the money, I should have known better than to trust you to watch her for anything more than a second." Moving closer, he brought himself just inches from Pharzuph's face. "I am going to give you one more chance to redeem yourself. Tell me who you sold her to or where she is."
"I wouldn't start fights you know you can't end, Aleron." Pharzuph whispered coldly. "I am going to say this one more time: I didn't sell her. Wherever she is, however she got there, she is probably in grave danger. I suggest instead of wasting your time here accusing me of things I didn't do, you start searching for her. If you don't find her then someone else might and then there won't be much that either of us can do. I am sorry she went missing under my watch, this shouldn't have happened but it did, and standing here yelling at me isn't going to change that."
Aleron still wasn't buying it. He knew for a fact that Lucille wouldn't have ran away on her own accord unless she had been in danger, and if she had there would have been some sort of struggle and Pharzuph, no doubt, would've known about it. He had to have done something to her.
"This is low, even for you. If anything happens to her it is entirely your fault."
He would come back to deal with Pharzuph once he found Lucille. He was right about one thing, the more time he spent fighting with Pharzuph the more time Lucille had to spend enduring whatever torture she was being put through.
Wasting no more time, he transported himself back to his mansion, hoping this would be the last time he would have to recruit his servants to help him find Lucille.
Lucille's head was pounding and her eyelids were so heavy that it was a struggle to open them up. She was also so groggy that she had to fight to stay awake. The ceiling above her looked like grey concrete speckled with black mold.
She had no clue where she was, or how she got there. Anytime she tried to move her head to look around the room it felt like it weighed a hundred pounds and when she managed to move it the room spun and nausea clenched her stomach. Closing her eyes, she tried to think about how she had gotten there. The last thing she remembered was laying down in a bed in Pharzuph's home. Maybe Aleron had come back for her and transported her somewhere and that had just made her forget the events leading up to that?
What she was experiencing did remind her a lot of the transportation sickness. Though she had to wonder how bad it had to have been for him to transport her so rapidly that she got sick. She only ever got sick anymore if she wasn't prepared for it.
Then two voices began talking in the next room over. A man and a woman. She could recognize the man's voice, though she couldn't pinpoint who exactly it belonged to. It definitely wasn't Aleron, nor was it Pharzuph. Something about the voice made her skin crawl, which made her all the more frustrated with the confusion that she couldn't seem to shake no matter how hard she tried. It scared her too.
The woman's voice seemed like it could be familiar too, but she wasn't entirely sure on that.
Taking a deep breath she opened her eyes again and slowly moved her head just enough to get a better idea of where she was. Around her were four dark walls with a deep cherry wood door right in front of her. The only light in the room came from flickering candles sitting on a dresser to her right, just beyond the four posters of the bed she was laying on. Cobwebs decorated everything in the room, from the corners of the walls to the deep grooves in the design of the bed posts.
She couldn't imagine why Aleron would bring her here and that only seemed to make her more confused and scared. Even through the depths of her confusion she could draw together conclusions that she didn't like. With a choke, tears started to stream from her eyes.
Aleron must've needed to take her somewhere quick, maybe this was a safe place that was just so old and unused that it had cobwebs. That had to be it. She didn't like the idea of what could've happened to lead to this, but she liked that a lot better than the alternatives she was thinking up. That had to explain why she felt so bad.
Over her sniffling she heard the door quietly open.
"Aleron?" She said, her voice thick.
"No, Aleron isn't here. Don't worry about him anymore." The male voice said moments before a tall incubus stepped into view, towering over her and the bed.
His deep olive skin contrasted with his piercing blue, pupil-less eyes. A cold shock of panic coursed through her body, making her limbs go numb. For the life of her she couldn't remember where she knew him, but she was certain they'd met before and just his presence struck fear down to her very core. This was wrong, very wrong.
Deep sobs ripped their way out of her chest and she fought against the heaviness in her head and tried to move away from him. It was then that she realized that all four of her limbs were tied down to the bed with thick, coarse ropes.
Her heart felt as though it was going to pound out of her chest as she fought even harder against the restraints, pulling on them as hard as she could manage until her wrists and ankles ached. She couldn't understand how she got from Pharzuph's home to here with absolutely no recollection of anything.
"Let me go!" She screamed in between sobs. "I belong to Aleron and I want him!"
The incubus strolled over to the side of the bed, a small smirk on his face. Leaning down closer to her, he reached out and stroked a hand over her hair. She flinched away. The grin on his face was almost threatening and the fear it instilled in her had her paralyzed.
"You don't belong to Aleron anymore, so don't you worry about him anymore." His voice was thick and accented. He leaned in closer, running the bridge of his nose along her neck and inhaling deeply. "Ah, my sweet new pet. You were so worth it."
Her chest hurt she was sobbing so hard. She could feel her tears running down her cheeks and soaking her hair and neck. A new fear rose in her mind, and that was for Aleron. She knew in her heart that there was no way he would willingly give her up, not without a fight. What had happened when he went back to the mansion to search it? Did this incubus have anything to do with the broken door?
Even if something had happened to Aleron, she'd been with Pharzuph. Had this demon been so powerful that he'd taken out both Aleron and Pharzuph and now she was stuck with him forever? She desperately wanted to know what events lead to this. For all she knew, there was no one in this world for her anymore. She didn't want to think of that possibility and what it entailed for her. She hoped that at any moment Aleron would burst in here and save her from this monster.
Another voice filled the room, the woman.
"So she's finally awake?" Her voice was high pitched and nasally. "I want to play with her too."
Squinting through the tears she looked at the woman. She was a waif compared to the giant of a demon looming over her. Her pale blonde hair was practically a curtain framing her body. Her skin made her look more like a porcelain doll than a living being. Along with her voice, something about her elicited a hint of familiarity. It didn't evoke anything near as strong as a response as the incubus did, though.
The incubus had also looked up at the woman.
"No, not yet. I think this one needs to be punished and put in her place before we play with her and have fun." He said with a grin.
"I don't see the fun in that." She said, pouting and stepping over to the incubus' side. "Wouldn't you rather just feed off of her?"
She placed a hand on Lucille's thigh. Lucille felt the sweet burn of an influence seep into her and she shuddered softly. It was sweet and gentle, but it did absolutely nothing to comfort her.
"Not yet, she is mine so I decide what happens and when. She needs to be broken first."
The influence seeping into her abruptly stopped and the succubus glared at the incubus.
"I went through a lot of trouble to help you get her, I think I deserve to decide too and all I want is to play with her and get a taste of her energy. There is no reason to torture her."
The way she pouted and complained triggered the hint of a memory in Lucille's mind. She was certain that whoever this succubus was, she had been in the mansion at some point during her time there. She still didn't think that this succubus was there to help her.
"You did hardly anything to get her here, plus you went into this knowing that Lucille would be mine and that you would be getting seconds." He said, sliding open one of the drawers next to the bed. Metal clinked against wood and then the drawer was sliding closed.
Lucille couldn't turn her head enough to see what he had just grabbed, but she could see the look on the succubi's face change. Fear pervaded the anger in her expression. That scared Lucille so much more.
"What are you going to do with that?" The succubus asked.
"I am going to have my own sort of fun with her while I punish her, just as I said I would." The grin on his face was chillingly sadistic.
"What the fuck is wrong with you? You know what, I don't want anything to do with this anymore. I just wanted to get back at Aleron and get a taste of her energy. I never wanted to hurt or torture her. You and I both know this won't last forever and I'd rather not be part of the fallout."
The male let out a loud laugh, one that sounded so unhinged and crazy.
"There won't be any fall out for me, I'll be just fine. He's never going to find her."
Right then the succubus made eye contact with Lucille. It was the first time that she had really acknowledged her.
"Please help me, please." She muttered. Her mouth and throat were so dry they felt like sandpaper.
A sharp slap landed on her thigh in response.
"NO!" The male demon's voice boomed. "Did I say you could speak?"
Lucille yelped then whimpered. Tears began to stream down her raw cheeks again. Pity flashed across the succubi's eyes. She still looked sort of scared, though.
"I don't care, I want nothing to do with this anymore. You're clearly psychotic." She said, shaking her head and leaving the room, leaving Lucille all alone with the sadistic male.
Lucille's breath grew shallow, coming in quick pants. She couldn't help it. She was so terrified for her life and for the pain that he was going to likely put her through. He could do absolutely anything to her and there was nothing she could do to stop him. She didn't want to know what sort of horrible things his mind could think of to do to her, but she was going to be finding out very soon it seemed.
"We don't need her anyways." He muttered, shrugging.
His hand lifted up to her line of sight, revealing to her the enormous, shiny knife he was holding. A choked cry escaped from her lips as he brought it close, running it along her cheek. Not enough to cut, but he did apply enough pressure so she could feel just how sharp it was. It took a great deal of effort to hold still. She was fighting against the sobs heaving her chest, her anxiety making her tremble, and the strong urge to recoil from the blade.
"You're going to have to learn to be a good little slut for me before we can have real fun."
Aleron stood in the middle of his throne room, preparing to summon his assistant to bring in help. Though he tried to keep Taimed out of personal matters and only involve him in business, he was a valuable resource and would prove helpful in this situation. He had a knack for knowing things and getting information. Aleron's first suspect was Eranel and if anyone would be able to find out where he was, Taimed would be the man.
He hated to admit that he was stalling, for a lot of reasons. The first and foremost was that he knew that the longer he took to find Lucille, the more fear and trauma she would have to endure. Every second he spent stalling was another second that something could be happening to her. He also didn't like that it was solely because he was panicking. His heart was racing and he felt out of control, irrational. He didn't want to be seen that way, especially not by someone he'd worked so closely with for so long. Taimed had seen him in all sorts of states, but not in this weak, panicky state.
He lurched when a sharp knock at the door pulled him out of his deep thought.
"Sir, somebody is here to talk to you!" One of the servants called out through the door before he even had a chance to respond. "It's urgent."
"Let them in." He said, turning to face the door.
Summoning Taimed would have to wait, it seemed. Hopefully whoever was waiting on the other side of that door wasn't here to waste his time.
The door opened and in waltzed Evera, her long blonde hair flowing around her like a cape. She wore a simple golden bra top that sparkled in the mansion lights and a white loin cloth twirled around her feet as she walked. She had been the absolute last person he'd expected to see walk through that door. He hadn't seen since he cast her out months ago when he'd first brought Lucille to the mansion. He'd assumed that that was that and she was out of their lives, never to be seen again.
"Evera, what do you want?" He asked, almost irritated.
"Wow, what a warm welcome. I know where your little pet is and I thought you might want to know too." She said, her tone aloof and airy.
"What the fuck do you mean you know where she is? Did you have something to do with her going missing?" He took a step forward, clearing the space between them.
He was about two seconds away from destroying her, had she done anything to harm Lucille. She was young and weak, she'd be stupid to encroach on his territory. But yet, she'd not done much to show a great deal of intelligence in the time he'd known her.
"You need to chill out. I am here trying to help you." She put her hands up, taking a step back. "That incubus, Eranel, abducted her from Pharzuph's home. He doesn't have her in his home realm, though. He's got her on a Southern island in the realm Chitragaar. He's got this sort of shack there. It's kinda old and gross looking, inside and out."
That news came as no surprise to Aleron whatsoever. This had Eranel written all over it right from the start. The destruction at the back door was all just a ploy to distract Aleron from Lucille's protection and it had worked. Whether he had anticipated on having to get her from Pharzuph's home, Aleron wasn't sure, but clearly it hadn't been that much of a problem. He still wondered how Eranel had managed to take her without creating any sort of ruckus or alarm.
Evera hesitated for a moment, then continued.
"...And he's planning on hurting her to punish her and put her in his place, so he said. He's off his fucking rocker."
Aleron had thought that the rage building inside of him couldn't burn any hotter, but at those words he thought he was going to explode. For the first time in all of his existence he could finally say that he understood what it meant to be so angry that you saw red. Though he wasn't thinking clearly, the one thing he was clear on was that he was going to kill Eranel for even thinking of harming Lucille. And it would get them out of their lives for once and for all.
He bit past the rage, clenching his fists, just enough to respond to her.
"Thank you. I will compensate you for this information, after I've found and have saved Lucille."
"Alright, fine. I'll wait here for you to return."
Aleron let out a tense sigh. He would rather her not hang out around the mansion, not in this time, but he'd rather not waste another precious second arguing. He was going to care for Lucille for as long as she needed his immediate attention, Evera could just wait until he had a chance to deal with her.
Logically he knew that he should be taking some sort of backup with him. Eranel is older, and therefore stronger than him. But he was so blinded by his rage that he was certain he would be able to destroy him by himself. Besides, there was nobody he could trust with this task that was strong enough, except for himself. Evera would be useless, there was no doubt about that. Even if she wanted to help, she was so much younger than both of them that she would stand no chance against Eranel.
So he wasted no time in transporting himself to Southern Chatragaar.
The fog was starting to lift itself from Lucille's mind. Though she still had no clue where she was, her brain didn't feel like a thick, murky mess.
If anything, the clearer thought only made her panic more profound. The fear felt all the more intense as this incubus teased the blade of the knife down her body, just softly enough to where it wouldn't leave a cut just yet. He ran it over her jugular, down and around both of her breasts, over her stomach and in between her legs.
"Where should I cut first, hmm?" Pressing the point of it right into her vulva, just enough for her to really feel it, he cooed some more. "This would be the perfect place to mark you as my own with my initials. Wouldn't that be nice?"
"No, please don't." She sobbed, shaking her head back and forth.
Next she was hit with an aggressive lick of influence and she froze as the memories flooded back into her violently. She remembered fucking him, being attacked by him, the obsession this incubus had from her from very early on and the fight Aleron had trying to keep him away from her. Of course it was Eranel. Of course.
She jolted again, the fight in her renewed. She struggled even harder against her restraints until her wrists and ankles felt raw from the rope rubbing against them. She still had no clue how she got there. Of all the memories that had flooded back to her, her mind stopped right where she was laying down in bed at Pharzuph's, trying to fall asleep.
"How the hell did I get here, Eranel. Let me go!" She screamed, yanking on the restraints so hard she worried her bones would break before they did.
Eranel simply chuckled.
"Ah, it looks like you're coming out of it a little too much. Unfortunately I simply don't have the patience for that much fight." He tsked, turning around in his chair to grab something else off of the night stand.
He turned back around with a glass of clear liquid. Setting down the knife on the bed he placed his free hand under the top of her head, tilting it up. When he pressed the glass up to her lips, she tightened them into a thin line. No way in hell would she be drinking whatever the hell that was. As awful as the raw fear felt, she still wanted to be as lucid as absolutely possible.
"Drink, Lucille." He said sternly, pressing the edge of the glass more firmly against her lips.
She shook her head, keeping her lips firmly closed. She was going to hold out on opening up for him as long as possible.
He dropped her head and his hand disappeared to her side, right where the knife had been set down. Before she even had a chance to react he was dragging it down her thigh, cutting deep. A sharp scream ripped out of her throat as the pain hit her. Her mouth opened almost grotesquely wide. He hastily poured the liquid into her mouth, splashing some of it on her face in the process.
It was extremely bitter as much if it went down her throat. She choked and spluttered, trying to get most of it out of her mouth and throat. It ran down her cheeks, soaking her hair and the pillow under her. Still, she was afraid most of it made it into her stomach. She'd been more concerned with the burning pain on her thigh and the blood running down it than she had been with the liquid.
He then ran the knife up her stomach, from below her belly button to up between her breasts. Even in his haste he was careful to not mortally wound, but to cause her pain. Deep sobs racked her body and she pulled against her restraints out of fear. Even though she knew that pulling on them wouldn't help, she couldn't stop herself.
"You need to learn to obey me, every single thing I say. The longer it takes you to learn this the more pain you'll have to endure."
Through her sobs she took a deep breath and let out an ear piercing scream. Immediately she felt the knife at her neck and the scream fizzled out to a whimper. She trembled, waiting for the inevitable pain that was to come.
"Nobody is around to hear you but me. But you can scream all you want, so long as you can still say yes master at the end of the day." He whispered threateningly, his face getting dangerously close to hers.
The room went silent, save for the sounds of her deep sobs. She felt the cold knife leave her throat.
"Good choice." Eranel muttered.
Next, the cold of the blade met her pelvic region. She whimpered quietly again. Her limbs were growing heavy once more and she could feel that heavy fog entering her brain, making her confused and groggy. Clearly she'd gotten enough of whatever drug he had given her. She hated the idea of being even more at his mercy than before, she was terrified of what he would do to her in her drugged state. She was already in so much pain from what he'd done.
Blood was running down her leg and the sides of her stomach. She could feel the sheets growing wet and sticky under her. Between how much blood she was losing and the fact that Eranel would inevitably feed off of her, multiple times, she was certain she would die before Aleron was able to find her. She wasn't ready to die, it was too soon. She had too much to do, too much to see.
And she didn't want to die here, by the hands of Eranel. Not like that.
Her mind was growing hazy, but the pain of the knife point digging into her vulva was very real and very clear. She cried out, yanking against the restraints holding her legs down, trying desperately to get away from him. Fighting felt so pointless and futile, but she couldn't help it. The fear coursing through her body made her try anything she possibly could to get away.
She could have sworn she heard something outside and the way that Eranel's head shot over, looking at the door with a scathing glare, filled her with hope.
"Help!" She screamed, her voice going hoarse already. "Help me!"
"Shut the fuck up." Eranel said, standing up.
She was answered by Aleron's voice, yelling angrily in one of his demonic languages. He was pissed. Had this been under any other circumstance the raw rage in his voice would have terrified her, but instead it filled her with joy. She laughed, tears rolling down her cheeks.
She fought against the pull of the drug, trying to drag her down into sleep. She was so relieved and excited to see Aleron. She had to stay awake for him, he had to know that she was alive and alright. She wanted to be awake when he took her home away from all this mess.
When she tried to call his name, it came out sounding slurred and she just couldn't seem to get her voice above a whisper. The dizziness was starting to take her under faster and faster, despite how hard she tried to stay awake. It was like before, where she couldn't even lift her head if she tried. Somewhere far off she felt the knife drop onto the bed next to her leg.
With a tremendous crash the door burst open, breaking off of its hinges. She could hear the slivers of wood landing on the floor. Just out of her peripheral she could see that it was Aleron. He was here to save her. All she managed was a joyful giggle before her vision blurred and began to darken.
She could hear Aleron saying something, but she couldn't quite tell what it was. Maybe it was demonic? She wasn't entirely sure. All she could catch were brief lapses of clarity in her hearing. Eranel's laugh followed.
"But isn't this what you do? I thought selling and buying humans was..."
Though Lucille fought hard to hear what Eranel was saying, his voice was one of the things that slipped away from her. All she could hear was the pounding of her heart and her blood roaring through her veins. She didn't want to believe her ears, nor did she want to pass out now. Not during something so crucial. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop the pull of the darkness.
What if I'm dying? She thought, right before she slipped away into a dark state of nothingness.