I sent out my sensate skills to see if Edward was spelled and actually sat down in shock. Edward was a demon, I could feel it was undeniably as I felt Alex to be a Changer. Edward’s power saturated the air around him, and yet he was no Demon Lord. I didn’t know the Granite Realm’s hierarchy well enough to determine exactly what he was though. Besides that, I could feel the hold Marcus had on his mind. Edward was most definitely spelled and I had no idea how to break him free of it. The devilkin still alive pulled me painfully to my feet. When Marcus had arrived, I’d felt a second ward snap into place, this one felt like Sebastian and it was to keep people out. What it meant was that I had no where left to run, but at least the bastard wouldn’t get Cassie. I wondered briefly when Edward had been taken over, and if the Counsel knew.
“I see we managed to surprise you. My Master is a little disappointed, he honestly thought you’d have put up more of a fight. But then I knew how to stop you dead in your tracks. See, that little enforced vacation you made me take inside your mind clued me in on it. Your guardian evokes so many conflicting emotions in you that you become overwhelmed; trust and betrayal, love and disgust, oh it’s a wonderful mix. The only thing better would have been if I’d gotten your tiger. Your love for him is all wrapped up in your fear of being dominated by him. But it doesn’t matter. Without ever touching you, I’ve made you helpless. So come along, there’s no fight left in you.” Lucien poured acid on my emotional wounds. He also made a huge tactical mistake; he’d come within reach.
“What part of my nature makes you think that I’ll just give up?” I asked then jerked the knife out of my shoulder and rammed it into his throat all while forcing my fire into the wound despite the pain it caused me. He looked very surprised as he choked out blood, wept fire, and collapsed. I tried to turn and use the knife on Marcus when fingers gripped the hole in my shoulder and squeezed. At the same time Edward snapped us somewhere new. The devilkin grabbed me on either side and held me up. The knife slipped from nerveless fingers as I sagged under an impossible pressure.
“Welcome to the Granite Realm. Edward, take her to her cell and patch her up. I do not want her bleeding to death before I get what I want.” Marcus barked out.
I felt like I was trying to breathe in syrup. It wasn’t so much of a drowning sensation, but instead like I was surrounded by a heavy, viscous fluid. I was literally dragged into a cell and dropped onto a cot. The cell Alex had stuck me in was all metal and invoked the feeling of security; this cell was all stone and invoked the feeling of a dungeon. Edward peeled the little green blood soaked sweater off of me and I could see the jagged tear in my shoulder, which only served to make it hurt more. Then much to my surprise, Edward cut his two fingers open and jabbed them INTO the gaping wound. It definitely did not make the wound hurt less to have two long fingers rammed into it and probing around a bit; but the most horrifying part was that I could feel the real Edward trying to push Marcus’ influence away, it just wasn’t budging. The demon blood burned away the shocked, numb feeling that was settling in. I couldn’t even scream, instead I could only sob in pain and yet I could hear a woman screaming nearby so I focused throguh the pain onto the fact that I wasn’t alone. Even if she couldn’t hear me I swore to the screaming woman silently that I would get us out of here. Having that bit of focus gave me the strength to push away my slight despair at being captured. I still didn’t know what Marcus wanted me for. And from what little I’ve learned about him, I could tell he wasn’t the chatty type so I was probably going to remain ignorant for a while longer.
Finally Edward pulled his blood coated fingers out of my shoulder and smiled at me as he stuck his fingers in his mouth, sucking them clean. I could faintly feel Cassie whimper in my mind; it was so very faint, so weak that at first I was terrified that she was hurt. But it wasn’t until I tried to reach out with my sensate skills that I figured things out. Even pushing past the pain in my mind my sensate skills felt useless, like I was trying to read a book in a fog bank. It wasn’t that I was unable to do it, but as if I was experiencing extreme interference. That would probably be due to the weird pressure that was stealing my concentration. In Underhill, all magic was amplified, so I’m guessing that the Granite Realm had the opposite effect on magic, dampening it down. My shoulder began throbbing in a hot, painful wave, stealing away even my little bit of concentration. My entire body started jerking in hard spasms in time to my heartbeat and the pain increased with each second until finally I stopped being able to breathe through it, and I just had to gasp for breath around those moments. Finally every muscle in me eased down and I took in breaths while I could. I groaned and curled up on my side, holding my arms, which was when I noticed that my shoulder was working fine. I looked down at it and saw wet blood stains and a dark jagged mark where the wound had been. I swear it looked like a scar that had turned bronze instead of white.
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.
“His name’s Edward and he is very much aware in there.” I was doing my best to keep my eyes squeezed shut against the tears. I heard uncomfortable silence from Nikka. At least she didn’t ask me how I knew, just took my word for it. “Do you know what he meant about his owning me?” I asked mental fingers crossed.
“Did he mix his blood in with yours?” Nikka’s guess was astute.
“Yah.” The dread in my gut warned that no matter what that would never be a good thing.
Nikka’s sigh confirmed it. “All demons can all share their innate skills with each other. Demon Lord Marcus can heal almost any wound instantly, thus your Edward would be able to do the same when Marcus is in reach. What he did to you is a low level blood bond.” She fell silent for a moment. “It means you get his healing but it also means that if his will to dominate you is stronger than your will to resist, then he can take you over the same way Marcus took over him. Even without that the blood connection will be able to aid him in manipulating you, and it marks you.”
I gave a humourless laugh. “Oh.” Made sense, but my mind was my own. No way was I just going to let anyone, not even Edward, take away my ability to think for myself. “You sound like you know what you’re talking about. Are you an expert or just a ferocious autodidact?”
I kept half my concentration on Nikka and the environment around me, but the other half went to focusing on the tangle wire. I could in fact escape it, if my magic would work. I managed to slowly focus on the feel of the construct’s energy signal but Nikka stayed silent on however the hell she knew the theory of magical nature in the Granite Realms. I could feel the humming of the construct’s energy as I snapped myself into it, hiding my own magical self inside that signal. The tangle wire loosened immediately and I nearly hit the floor as a wave of exhaustion rolled over me. Normally I can do something like that without even thinking about it but here it took almost everything I had. At the very least I confirmed that I could do it, so I pulled the tangle wire back on and slipped myself out of its aura, for the lack of a better term. The wire engaged immediately and sometime after that I must have dropped into a stupor because my next real memory is of Edward banging my door open.
He grabbed the tangle wire and jerked me to my feet so I lashed him across the face with my elbow and slammed my foot onto the top of his. I felt the little bone in the foot snap as he howled at me. A devilkin guard prodded me with an innocent looking rod and I jerked as if I’d been electrocuted; my muscles went haywire and I hit the ground roughly. That close, I could hear the bone in Edward’s foot snap back into one piece. How was it that his magic worked fine while I bumbled along without mine? Edward straddled my chest, using his knees to pin my shoulders on the floor as he hit me in the face. They were only open handed slaps but he kept it up for a couple of minutes so that I was only able to see blurry figures for far too long of a while once he stopped. He got up off of me and I could hear in his voice that he smiled. “Bring her.” He commanded the devilkin guards. So my caring captors then dragged me out by the tangle wire around my wrists; it wasn’t a fun feeling as the metal quickly dug into my skin and I started to bleed.
I was dropped off on a cold marble floor near where Marcus was. Despite his brother’s flare for the melodramatic, Marcus was sitting at a simple desk. No throne, no ornate setting at all, I was the one thing that didn’t belong. Though on closer inspection, every item in this office was of very high quality material. He seemed to enjoy his creature comforts. As soon as I could, I rolled off of my backside to my knees. Both devilkin moved to jab me back to the prone position but Marcus waved them off.
“You can end this at any time Ms. Orenda. I’m a reasonable man and my conflict is not with you. Just give me what I want and I’ll let you be.” Marcus informed me simply. Demons can’t lie but his general statement was hardly reassuring.
“What exactly is it you want?” I demanded, carefully easing to my feet. No sudden moves or my twitchy guards would prod me back into insensibility, that or I might end up falling face first onto the floor without any help at all. Along with my messed up ability to feel magic, my natural equilibrium seemed completely askew; as if the laws of physics that normally govern my world are not obeyed to the same degree here.
Marcus smiled at me in a way that reminded me that here was a being that had only a faint acquaintance with sanity. “Just tell me where your sister is. Somehow Sebastian spirited her out of my wards.” He leaned forward in his chair. “My associate was supposed to nab her after I got my hands on you. You’re inconsequential, Cassandra however is quite pivotal to my strategy. I promise that she will not be harmed, but I do need her.”
He still hadn’t made any assurances about my continuing health, nor had he said why he needed her. Also, I wasn’t just going to give Cassie up, not for anything in the world. So I looked Marcus in the eyes and deliberately spat to the side. His smile wiped away at my implied rejection, then he gestured to Edward and the devilkin grabbed my shoulders and pulled me out of the room. The next room I was brought into was a lot less comfortable. It was filled with grated floors and giant tubs of water, one of which was steaming.
“I’m not going to like this am I?” I asked rhetorically. One of the guards chuckled.
“You won’t, but I certainly will.” Edward purred into my ear, making me jerk my head away; I just didn't trust him not to try and take a bite out of me honestly. I was hauled over to the cold water tub. “You can end this at anytime. Just tell me where Cassie is.”
“No.” I defied simply. So the guards kicked my feet out from under me and then Edward dunked my head under the water for a minute or so. He pulled me out for a split second before shoving my head back under. Then I was pulled up and dunked back under before I could get a proper breath in. Too often I would try to suck in a breath only to be slammed back under the surface and accidentally suck in a lung full of freezing cold water, which led to extended bouts of trying to cough the water out of my lungs only I didn't get enough time to do it properly; so I learned that you can cough and gasp under water and that the colder the water is, the more it hurts. I never did get to pass out though; every time I thought that maybe I’d slip into peaceful unconsciousness, Edward would hold off for a few seconds. I was just really starting to go numb to the shocking cold when he dragged me over to the hot water. The transition from freezing cold to just under scalding was excruciating because even though the hot water wasn’t boiling, after the icy water it sure felt it. I couldn’t help swearing that first time, and then promptly choking on the water. I could feel Cassie screaming in my mind and I shunted her out. I’d learned recently how to block out my twin so she wouldn’t feel the magical pain, so now I did it to protect her from the physical pain. It didn’t stop me from feeling it, but I locked it all down so none of it would seep through.
“Please Callie, please don’t make me keep doing this. Just tell me where Cassie is and I can stop.” Edward pleaded. Hearing him speak like the Edward I had always known, hearing the pain in his voice made me tremble, but the glint in his eyes gave away the ruse. Although my Edward really didn’t want to be doing this, the Edward who was holding me tightly by the hair had no problem keeping this up. I had a pithy insult lined up, but Fate gave me an involuntary response that was perfect. I puked on his shoes. I’d swallowed a lot of water in the last few minutes so this wasn’t unexpected, but I couldn’t have timed it more perfectly. I heaved, mostly water, onto his clean shoes. So he decked me, closed fist this time. I moved with the blow but it still spun me onto the floor and he followed my descent and kept pummelling on me. I curled up as much as I could to protect my head, but he knew how to hurt. I’d never associated Edward with physical prowess before, despite knowing him all my life, but I would have been dead wrong because he knew how to strike a body in the most effective and painful way possible. I felt a rib cave and finally the beating stopped. It hurt when the devilkin picked me up and plopped me back down onto my cot.
The bones of my broken rib grated against each other, as they left me like that. No instant healing this time which made me absurdly grateful; at least the pain was mine. I felt very uncomfortable with Edward’s blood healing me so I’d stick with the injuries. I shifted painfully until I could settle into a somewhat comfortable position, having to breathe shallowly but at least I could still breathe, which was a plus. It was also hard to fight the urge to sleep but I figured that would be a bad idea after the little romp around I’d just had.
“Nikka, talk to me.” I called out weakly; it hurt so much to try and speak that I wasn't sure she would have heard me. The effort left me panting in pain and nausea.
“You’re still conscious? I’m impressed considering how much pain you’re in.” She sounded surprised.
I was huffing a little, trying to keep from puking so it took me a moment to catch the meaning of her words. “How...” I started but stopped before I could finish. I curled up in pain over the side of the cot and retched blood tinged foam. Blackness ate at the edges of my vision as I continued to heave up the last of the water and some blood.
“Cal,” Nikka called, “stay with me. I don’t think passing out right now would be in your best interests.” I agreed with her. “You wanted to know how I could tell your pain right?” Thankfully she didn't wait for my affirmative because I simply couldn't muster the strength to make the noise. “I’m something like an empath, which means that I can feel emotions and strong sensations. So I know the sensations of your pain; I can, however, block it out so you don’t have to worry about me.” Yes, because that was obviously what I was doing, actually I was too busy trying not to pass out to be worried if my like-an-empath cellmate could detect my pain.
That burning sensation started in my shoulder again so I gave a hoarse cry of dismay, a few seconds later and I was jerking to my own heartbeat unable to breathe. Once more the sensation fled in a rush and I was able to breathe properly. I grimaced, Edward had healed me again. This time he wasn’t even in the same room with me, which scared me and was probably the point.
The rest of my time followed that irregular pattern; I’d get one chance to talk to Marcus and failing to divulge my twin’s location, the water sessions would commence and so would the beatings. I’d also be fed and allowed to sleep on an irregular cycle. All the while I could feel Edward’s hold on sanity slip a little bit more each day. It broke my heart, knowing that I could save him but it would cost me my twin so I stayed silent and felt my guardian slowly start to die. By the end of what I figured to be a week, I lived inside my little bubble holding my physical pain and mental anguish away from Cassie always. By this point I had gotten so good at it that even somewhat empathetic Nikka couldn’t feel my pain and I was all of twenty feet away from her.
Edward opened my cell door and stood in the frame. “I’m so glad you’ve decided to be stubborn. Playtime’s over, I’m all warmed up and ready to break in my new toy. Even Marcus doesn’t believe you’ll last long through what I have planned for you.”
“Well with a build up like that, I’m just an eager beaver to see what’s behind door number two.” I replied sarcastically, hoping that maybe they’d take the tangle wire off and I’d finally be able to stretch out properly. I have to be careful when I remove it as I really don’t want them knowing I can do that, so I've reluctantly spent more time with it on than off. Edward snapped his fingers at me and I felt a quiver of an urge to rise. He’d been doing that all week, trying to use the blood connection to control and manipulate me. It wasn’t hard to resist the overt attempts, but it was the little insidious ones that I was constantly on watch for. When it was clear that he couldn’t make me rise, the devilkins were gestured to come in and drag me out. My own little tradition, I fought like hell and forced them to beat me into insensibility. Thus far I’ve killed three of my guards and I’d go on doing so until I broke free of here. Nikka didn’t understand my tactics, but then again she couldn’t fully understand why I still believed I could break free.
Once more I was dragged into Marcus’ office. He actually looked annoyed, which gave me a small surge of pride. I rolled from my back to my knees but didn’t get a chance to gain my feet, instead Marcus slid out of his chair to study my face up close. Even with the two devilkin guards standing nearby and with Edward a mere breath away this was still a risky move on his part. Chances were fairly high that he could pummel me into compost, but that didn’t stop me from jerking my hands up to smash his nose into his skull. Immediately I felt the hammer of blows raining down on me from the devilkin but they stopped almost immediately. Marcus jerked me up from the floor and snorted the blood out of his nose. You could hear the cartilage snap and grind back into place, which was actually rather gross. He casually wiped the blood off onto a napkin and resumed his wordless study of me, keeping a steel grip on the tangle wire while Edward held my hair to keep me from jerking my head. There were several things I was expecting from him; cryptic statements, another offer to give up my twin for freedom, a beating but what I wasn’t expecting was for him to kiss my forehead in a fatherly manner and resume his seat. It was more than a little creepy to say the least.
“You are a very stubborn woman Ms. Orenda. An in depth discussion with Edward has yielded the conclusion that you may be more compliant if you were more informed.” It was actually sounding like maybe I would be getting some answers and be kept in the loop. Marcus slouched back in his chair and met my eyes; it was only after I felt myself relaxing against Edward’s side that I jerked away from the eye contact. Marcus chuckled. “Since I can’t seem to force your compliance, I plan on trying to entice it. If you agree to sit calmly while I explain myself, I’ll unbind you and even remove the guards. It’ll be just you, me and Edward.” I really didn’t trust his reasonable tone of voice but as I wanted both the explanation and the chance to be untied, I agreed.
I felt really grimy sitting on the nice leather chair that was set up for me. I may have been getting a regular dunking in water for the last several days or so, but I was still in the low-rise jeans and blood stained bra I’d started out in. Most of the blood I’d been coated with had dried and flaked off, or been washed off but there was no way you’d mistake me for being clean. Edward held my wrists gently and unwound them with a whispered word. Try though I might, I didn’t catch it and I don’t think it was an English word anyways. Then he turned my wrists over and kissed each one at the pulse point. I pulled my hands away and chafed them, trying to rub away the stiffness and the feeling of the kisses. Now I was totally feeling like something terrible was going to happen. Edward walked around behind my chair and rested a hand on my shoulder, probably as a preventative measure just in case I decided to try another break for freedom. I looked at the hand and then up at Edward. “Do you mind not touching me?” I asked archly. Instead of removing his hand, he rested the other one on my other shoulder.
“Sorry, it’s necessary. You’re quite resourceful.” He purred. The little hairs on the back of my neck went on end. It made my skin crawl and I had to clench my teeth to hold still but I resisted the urge to fling off his hands; they weren’t hurting me, just freaking me out.
“As I mentioned before, your sister Cassandra will in no way be harmed. She is merely a necessary aquision so that I may test a theory.” Marcus explained suavely.
I raised an eyebrow in scorn, not even trying to keep the emotion off of my face. “Even though you can’t lie, I still don’t believe you. In the utmost literal sense I haven’t been harmed as all the damage you’ve inflicted on me has been healed. So unless you can give me your bound word that a whole host of things won’t be done to her, I couldn’t agree. But to be honest, even after that I wouldn’t give her up. She’s my twin sister, I just will not betray her.” I was surprisingly calm as I talked. I felt very relaxed despite the seriousness of the discussion. “Maybe I can help you find out whatever it is you want to know without involving Cassie.” I offered. Edward’s hands stilled and I realized that he’d been gently rubbing my shoulders without me even noticing. Adrenaline suddenly surged through me but his hands clamped down before I could push out of the seat.
“Shh... it’s alright Cal.” He murmured and I snarled. I slammed every mental block I could imagine into place, trying to keep out his undetectable influence. Marcus just chuckled at me, sounding like a psychotic clown.
“I highly doubt that you’d be able to help. And I know you wouldn’t be willing once you understood. No Ms. Orenda, the only way you can help yourself is to help me. You will eventually give me what I need, but you could avoid so much anguish if you willingly surrendered.” He chided.
“Not going to happen Marcus.” I retorted honestly. Marcus smirked at me and flicked his wrist dismissively. I heard the door behind me open and the devilkin returned while Edward walked around to the front of me and rebound my wrists with tangle wire. The devilkin shifted uneasily as I seemingly went meekly back to my cell without a fight. They hadn’t heard the discussion, so for all they knew I’d been subverted. So instead of my balls to the walls fury and typical attempts to escape, I just calmly walked. This trip they were nervous, but eventually they’d relax and a screw up would occur, giving me a chance to escape. I just had to be patient.
I sat on the bed and waited for them to leave. But Edward surprised me; he knelt down and unbound my wrists again. “I do wish you’d help us. Just give us what we want and I’ll be very rewarding.” He offered suggestively, I curled my lip in disgust.
“I’d rather piss glass.” I rejected crudely. Whatever else happened from here on out, even if I broke out of here and found a way to rescue Edward in the process, I rather doubt I’d ever have the ability to stand being alone with Edward ever again. I’d been uncomfortable with him lately but after all of this, he was the enemy to me even if I knew there was a part of him that wasn't in control. He frowned at me and left the cell without another word, which just made me feel uneasy.
“Hey Nikka, you there?” I called out. Since only silence responded, I assumed that she was having her go at whatever it was they did to her. We still know next to nothing about each other, but it was heartening to have an ally in all this so I hoped that she was holding up alright.
Since I had no one to talk to, I continued on in my little hobby this past week. My magic might be severely underpowered here but it wasn’t completely disabled, so I used what I could to try and escape. In this case, I was slowly grinding my way through the encasement around the door hinges and lock. Eventually I’d be able to get the door out of the wall entirely but it was slow work; I had to keep stopping to let my magical strength return. At the same time as I tried to work the door free I was also trying to force my magic to hook into the limited Power of this plane of existence so that I could use it more effectively. Eventually I had to stop entirely because I was just too worn out. There’s not really much you can do while stuck in a cell on your own awaiting the next round of torture, so I lay on the bed as if I were sleeping and joined minds with Cassie. She was horrified at the abuses I’ve suffered but understood my need to connect to a world outside of where I was. Additionally, all the information I learned could only help her and the others helping her. She confirmed that I’ve been gone for a week and filled me in on what they’ve been trying to do. Mainly they’d used Alex to contact the Counsel; he was an independent authority to them so they couldn’t browbeat him and he was keeping Cassie’s location a secret because they believed that a Counsel member was in Marcus’ control. Immediately I thought of the one that had zeroed in on Edward after the fire so I sent Cassie an image of his face and his name: Jeremiah.
I broke off contact immediately when I heard noises in the hallway. Nikka’s cell door slammed shut and mine slammed open. I was really not thrilled to see Edward look that exuberant; like a kid who’d gotten exactly what he wanted for Christmas. “Your turn.” He announced. That alone convinced me the scrap my earlier plan; I put up a fight when he sent the devilkin in for me. Since they’d looked battered before I started whaling on them, I assume that Nikka had the same idea. It really is instinctive to fight back when you know that they’re going to cause you pain. This time they didn’t just jab me with the cattle prods though. No, this time Edward did something to the blood bond and the pain he’d made go away came flooding back. I screamed and tried to fight through it but I felt the tangle wire slide back into place before the pain stopped. I was panting in shock as I lay there, waiting for the next horror to start.