I gulped as I laid down my knife, having suddenly lost my appetite. My heart started pounding recklessly at the thought of having to meet with Dexter face to face. But if Aven had already canceled my training, I was sure I didn't have a choice in the matter. "What about?"
"See, that's gotten me curious as well," Aven said, still as coolly as before. "But who am I to refuse a dying man's wish?" That vicious smile appeared on his face once again, sending shivers down my spine.
"When?"
"Now." Aven motioned for me to get up from my chair.
I tried swallowing some nerves away, but to no avail. I got up with trembling legs as I followed Aven out of the dining hall. I didn't dare look up at Jerr when I passed his table, but I could feel his gaze burning in my back.
I stumbled after Aven, who was clearly in a rush. He didn't bother to check if I was following him. But he knew that I wouldn't dare disobeying him by not following him out that dining hall.
He didn't say a word to me the entire way we made. We were walking in the gardens surrounding the Manor, heading to the outer edge of it. We couldn't have been walking for a long time, when I saw a small building pop into view, with two men and one wolf guarding its entrance. I instantly knew that that was where Dexter would be.
Both guards stepped aside as soon as they saw Aven, after one of them opened the gates for us to enter. I silently followed Aven in the building, where we entered a small chamber, with nothing but stairs going down.
Aven hasted his way down and I followed suit, careful not to trip. The steps seemed to be more slippery the more we got down. The air around us chilled as well when we finally arrived at the last step.
"Welcome to our dungeons," Aven said, without even taking the effort to look at me.
We arrived in a hallway, where another pair of guards were stationed, guarding another iron gate. The guards did the same as their upstairs companions as soon as they saw Aven. They silently opened the gate and got out of our way.
The tang, iron-like smell of blood immediately flooded in the air and circled me and Aven. I guessed they kept Dexter weakened, to prevent him from using Agni's powers.
Other unpleasant smells, like sweat, urine and feces, hung in the air around us as well. I wasn't all that surprised, given these dungeons didn't look that hygienic in the first place.
I followed Aven to the back of the hallway, where Dexter lay in the last cell. All the angst I had, ebbed away at the petty sight of him.
He still wasn't recognizable. He was even more bloodied than before. His left leg was broken, bending in a weird angle halfway down his shin. I supposed now that he was stuck in this cell, he had no more use of his legs.
He was also prevented from fixing his broken bones, as both of his hands were bound by iron chains that hung from the ceiling. The skin of his wrists was bruised and had some deep cuts surrounding the iron cuffs, indicating he'd tried to tear his hands out. With his hands locked and spread above his head, he also wasn't able to transform. Not without ripping his own limbs off. The anatomy of a wolf wasn't capable of such turns and twists.
Another chain coming from the wall was adjoined to his neck. The same cuts and bruises decorated his neck, where his skin peaked out of the iron collar. They really weren't taking any risks.
Good.
Aven crouched down so he was on the same eye-level as Dexter. I stayed up, refusing to make myself inferior, or even equal, to Dexter ever again. Aven licked his lips before he spoke, the corners of his mouth curled up in that threatening menace. It reminded me of a wolf, waiting to finally dig into its prey, which was fitting in this situation. "You've got a visitor."
When Dexter deigned to react, Aven slammed his hands against the railings of the cell. The clattering of the iron bars caused Dexter to flinch, but his chains were so tight, he had nowhere to go. He looked up and for a split second, his eyes went wide when he saw Aven.
He was scared, I realized. Dexter was scared. Afraid of Aven. I wasn't sure I wanted to know what exactly Aven had done to evoke such fear from a wolf like Dexter. But it reassured me, knowing that Aven was staying here with me. And that he was powerful enough to be the cause of such damage in Dexter after only night. If it had even been that long.
Dexter's eyes trailed off and finally locked on me. He laughed before he was able to talk. He could barely get the words out of his mouth, not without coughing up blood. "Hello, old friend."
"You wanted to talk," I stated. As much as I relished in his misery, I wanted to get this over with as soon as I could.
Dexter bent his head backwards a bit, as far as the chains let him. He was trying to get a better look at me through all his swollen bruises. "I did."
"Then talk," I urged him. Aven chuckled next to me, and once again I saw Dexter flinch at the sound. However hard he tried to hide it, there was no mistaking it. He was terrified. I knew I could win this game. I could. I would.
"Let me look at you first," he sang, blood still staining his chin with every word he spoke. "My dearest Sari, traitorous bitch."
"You can do better than that," I challenged him, letting my apathetic side take over. I was going to take him down. Today, I'd be the last nail in his coffin when he would realize that he had no more power over me.
"My, my, what has happened to you. What would your dear father think of this?"
I shrugged my shoulders. All his words were a futile effort to make one last dig at me. I wouldn't let him. "I suppose you could ask him soon."
Dexter huffed. The movement in his shoulders resulted in a hiss of pain, that he did his very best to try to hide as well. "Do you really think Beckett is not on his way to come for me now? Fools," he spat.
"Where is he, then?" I smiled. "He could have been here days ago. By the Moons, he could have even come for you on your way here. But he didn't. And you know as well as I that he won't."
"I'm his Beta," he snarled.
"I'm willing to bet he already has a new one." It would be foolish of Beckett to risk coming here to retrieve Dexter. Not now that Aven was present, and not now that the pack was prepared. I knew that taking such a risky move probably wasn't worth endangering whatever plan he had. The more I thought about it, the more I knew for sure that if Beckett was planning to come for Dexter, he already would have.
"Don't underestimate him," Dexter warned. Aven sat up straighter. Even that subtle movement enticed fear in Dexter. I almost felt sorry for him.
"I think you are overestimating him, actually," I retorted.
Dexter laughed at my response, and I noticed some blood-stained teeth were missing. Whoever he had been before this, right in this moment he was reduced to nothing.
"Did you ask for me just to tell me this?" I asked.
"No," he hummed. "No, no."
"Then get on with it," I ordered.
Dexter tried to smile, but the wincing at his facial movement removed any menace he was hoping to eradicate. "Why would I?"
I was surprised Aven let me do all the talking. "Make your point, Dexter. Unlike you, I actually have better things to do."
"Auwtch," he yelped sarcastically. "What has this place done to you? You're no longer that sweet, innocent pup."
"I never was. You made sure of that," I snapped.
Dexter briefly closed his eyes. "I should have just killed you when I had the chance. I wanted to, you know. I even planned out how I wanted to do it."
I swallowed the thoughts away. He continued before Aven or I had the chance to intervene.
"I'd stain your pure, innocent soul. I'd make you wish for death. Oh, all the nights I thought about doing that. All the foul, unspeakable things I wanted to do. Too bad Beckett forbade it. The killing, that is. The selfish bastard wanted you all to himself." A small smile appeared on his face as he stared off in the distance. Probably reminiscing on whatever it was he had planned to do with me. And some of those foul things he had actually done to me.
I could feel my hands tremble as my heart sped up just a bit. But I didn't let it show, I wouldn't give him the satisfaction. So I crossed my hands behind my back, hoping he wasn't listening to my heartbeat. "What a shame that our Moons have decided otherwise in a cruel twist of fate."
"Such a shame, indeed. You remind me of me, you know, standing there," he mused. This was just his last attempt at breaking me, I reminded myself. His final game to win. I couldn't let him get to me.
"We are nothing alike," I bit.
"You keep telling yourself that," he laughed. "Yet here you are, enjoying my misery."
"I didn't bring her here so you could look in a metaphorical mirror," Aven cut in. He sounded annoyed. "Make your point or we're leaving."
Dexter kept his gaze on me as he answered Aven. "Can I talk to the lady alone?"
"No."
"Then how am I supposed to talk freely?" A hint of annoyance laced his words as well, but Dexter was still careful not to anger Aven even more.
"I don't care."
Dexter grumbled at Aven's dry response. But he made no other effort to get his way. "I just wanted to say goodbye. Things in Fire Moon have not been the same since you left."
I squinted my eyes at him. "Somehow, I highly doubt that."
Dexter took a deep breath. "You're right. Things changed eight years ago, didn't they?" A defiant curl of his lips formed on his face. "When your idiotic father took it upon himself to challenge an Alpha. And your naive mother just had to follow him. Such good parents, deliberately leaving their fourteen year old daughter all alone in such a cruel world."
"Don't speak of my parents that way," I seethed.
"Your parents were not as innocent as you would like to believe," he said. "Far from it, I'd even say."
I shook my head. "Those are just the words of a desperate man, sensing his end is near."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night," he hummed. "You can ask Beckett next time you see him if you don't believe me."
"Why would I believe a single word either one of you has to say?"
Dexter angled his head, so he was looking at me more directly. I saw the iron collar cut into his neck, but he didn't seem to care. "Why would we lie, Sari?"
"Why would you tell the truth?"
"Why wouldn't we?"
"You're just wasting our time," Aven interrupted. Dexter subtly shrunk himself at Aven's annoyance. "We're going. Get a good night's rest, Dexter. It will be your last." And with that, Aven got up and went back to the exit of this hallway.
"No," Dexter murmured. "Beckett will come!" He screamed.
"No, he won't," I said. "You're all alone here. No one is coming for you." After I said those last words, I followed Aven out of these dungeons.
"I'm not done," Dexter screamed behind us, the words barely understandable because of the blood and spit that was coming out with them. "You can't do this!"
I heard his chains rattling, which told me he was moving, trying to escape and run after us. The smell of fresh blood followed soon after. He'd cut his own hands off this way.
"I'm a Beta!" He kept screaming. "You will regret this!"
Aven simply laughed.
"Even if he doesn't come for me, he will come for you, Sari. You sunburned bitch!" Dexter screamed after us. I could hear him practically choking on the blood that came up because of his shouting.
I stopped in my tracks, and simply turned around to glance back at his cell, talking with the calmest, coolest voice I could muster. "I will be waiting."