Chapter Thirteen (Alexander)
The barn was huge inside with two levels. It wasn't full of the usual things barns contained, however. It was far more modernized on the inside. The floor above us was made entirely of glass, revealing an office of some sort, but the rows of desks were empty and the lights were off, save for a couple that were connected to the lights on the ground floor where we were at.
The ground floor was just one big room with one side that looked something like a photoshoot studio. Well, except for the dried blood that was splattered up against the white backdrop and on the cement block that sat at the center. A nearby table revealed several sharp, painful looking instruments and several video cameras sat around the area.
And unfortunately, that was the area Minerva was shoving me towards.
"What're you doing?" I demanded, wincing as her nails dug into my throat. I grimaced in disgust as she brought her face near mine, her breasts pressing up against my arm and her fingers running through my hair before she gripped it.
"Sweetheart, there's only one way to draw out the beast." She sneered, then shoved me forward, making me stumble and almost fall. The unknown man caught me and spun me around, wrapping the same wire around my wrists, but this time, he tied them so tightly that I could already feel the blood oozing from my skin. I hissed past clenched teeth in pain as he sat me down on the cement block.
I started to get up when he began to unbutton my shirt. He shoved me back down wordlessly, continuing the buttons carefully, his mismatched eyes staring at my chest intently. I jerked my head up to look past him to see Minerva directing the others to take a camera. She turned to the one beside her, turning it on before she went to a switch on the nearby wall. She hit it and lights flashed in my face, making me wince and look down to see the man now cutting my shirt off, having gotten fed up with the buttons.
I gritted my teeth as the cool air touched my bare skin, giving me goose bumps and making the hairs on my arms stand on end. He began to undo the buckle on my pants and panic swept through me. I brought my knee up into his nose, making him reel back sharply. Blood dribbled from his nostrils, making my fangs throb and stomach growl viciously. I watched the thick red blood run over his lips and down his chin, his expression placid the entire time as if I had hardly hurt him.
But I obviously pissed him off because he swung his hand around and backhanded me across the face, almost knocking me off the block before he caught me by my throat, steadying me again as I gasped for air. He let go and returned to undoing my pants. I ignored the blood dripping from the corner of my mouth, my jaw throbbing in pain, as I tried to shove him back again.
"Get off!" I ordered angrily. He hesitated, almost as if he were contemplating my order before he looked into my face. I stared at him, confused before I realized he had returned to undoing my pants. He started to tug them down and I squirmed, but he shoved me so I fell back off the cement block and smashed into the floor, gasping as my head struck the concrete below.
Stars flew across my vision as I blinked rapidly before realizing I was completely naked now. I closed my legs, hunching over to hide myself as the man tore me onto the block again. He stepped back as I glared at him past my hair, watching him toss my clothes aside before approaching Minerva. He cocked his head to her and she nodded as if understanding before she looked at me with a big smile that a little girl might wear if she saw a famous celebrity.
"This is just too cute," Minerva squealed after a moment before snatching the camera off the stand, coming close to shove it into my face, "You're so pure and soft!" I turned my head away from the camera, only to have the strange man come up behind me and force my face forward. I kept trying to pull away, but it was damn near impossible to move with him gripping a handful of my hair like that.
"Look at those lips," Minerva sighed dreamily, focusing the lens on my mouth as she reached up with a long fingernail to run across my lips, making me hiss at her, only to have her catch my jaw as she motioned for the man to hold my mouth open, "Oooh, goodness, and those fangs! So white and sharp! Mmm..." She brushed the pad of her finger against my sensitive fang, splitting open her skin.
Her blood washed up against my fang, making my eyelids flutter as I moaned at the fresh taste of it. I flicked my tongue out and licked at it before I went to bite into her finger, but she withdrew, making me glare at her she pointed the camera at my eyes.
"So blue! Are you looking at how blue his eyes are? Huh, are you... Vladimir?" Minerva focused the camera on my stunned face as she laughed.
"Look, Vladimir. Look how distressed your lover is. All tied up and naked. We could do anything we wanted to him." She added, winking at me as I glared at her, baring my fangs, only to have her withdraw a couple steps before focusing the camera along my torso. I tried to hunch over and hide myself further, but the man behind me jerked back on my hair, snapping my head back and making me wince. He put a hand on my bare chest, keeping me stretched back a bit as Minerva slid the camera up and down, giving a full view of everything. My cheeks burned with embarrassment as Minerva stepped back a little more, placing the camera on the stand.
"Now, we're just going to start with something slow. Maybe once he starts screaming, you'll decide it's time to stop playing hide and seek." Minerva mused, walking past me to the wall behind me. I frowned in confusion as she tore down the backdrop.
I gasped as warm sunlight fell across my back. At first, it was just warm like standing near a stove in the middle of winter. But slowly it became hotter and hotter until I felt like someone was bringing fire closer and closer to my back. I gritted my teeth, snapping my head to glance over my shoulder for a split second to see the skin on my back turning red before the heat became too much for my face and I looked away to glare at Minerva, who had come back around to adjust something on the camera.
"So, Vladimir, how do you like your lover? Roasted or fried?" Minerva laughed as the heat intensified. I gasped, feeling my skin split and blister. I hissed and bared my fangs in pain, writhing and trying to get away, but the man tore me back onto the cement block. I felt like someone had thrown fire at my back as the stinging, burning pain of my skin blistering my back grew hotter. I gritted my teeth, trying to arch my back away.
"His face is so cute when he's writhing in pain," Minerva giggled, twisting the lens and focusing in on my face as I tried to look away, "I can see why you love him so much, Vladimir. He's adorable. Let's see if we can make him scream, though." With the burning hot pain of the sunlight roasting my back, I watched Minerva walk past us again. The man behind me moved in front of me, but at an angle so the camera could still see, including the ones that the others were using. I went to twist my head around until I heard something crack and my back flamed in pain as I cried out, trying to jump off the block, but the man held me still.
The harsh, barbed sting of a whip cut across my back, ripping through the tender, burnt flesh. I felt tears threaten to fall, blurring my vision as the fiery hot pain of the sun and barbed whip combined to something inhumanly painful. I panted hard for breath before the whip struck across my back again and I cried out, writhing in pain.
"My, my," Minerva paused, sniffing the air, "Mmm. His blood smells pure. So sweet! Like candy!"
Crack!
I gasped in pain, choking for air as pain assaulted my back. I felt the blood running down my back, trailing down onto the cement block underneath me.
Crack!
Crack!
Crack!
I coughed and gasped for air, trying to fight the hellish agony coursing through my back and the stench of burning flesh and blood. The whip cracked a couple more times before I heard it hit the ground and Minerva came up behind me, burying his face against my throat as she smiled, her fangs brushing my throat.
"Hmm... I wanna take a bite of your candy, Vladimir." Her eyes locked on the camera lens before I felt her fangs sink into my throat. I gasped and tried to pull away, which only resulted in her fangs cutting jagged lines into my throat. Blood gushed freely down my throat, trickling along my chest as Minerva licked at it gently, pausing to moan and reel back as she covered her mouth in bliss.
"Take a taste, Xed." She murmured, licking her lips. The pale blue haired man leaned in close to me, parting his lips to reveal a pair of fangs that reminded me of Sen's. My eyes widened and I gasped, trying to twist away, but he caught me and tore me close against him so I could practically feel his heart throbbing in his chest. Unlike Minerva's fangs that felt like a pinprick, Xed's felt like a pair of knives cutting into my skin and I gasped. I didn't squirm, though, in case his fangs tore my skin.
I could only tilt my head back as he buried his mouth against my throat, his fangs sinking deeper into my throat, causing blood to gush forth into his mouth. He breathed hotly against my neck, lifting his face from my throat before staring at me with his mismatched eyes. However, I didn't see the same thing I saw in Minerva's eyes, or Sen's. It was something else. I stared at him a moment longer before he dug his fangs into my throat again and I gasped, gritting my teeth and arching my back in pain.
I began to feel heavy and dizzy. My vision swam and my head spun. My body felt too heavy to move, too weak. I only managed a little whimper as Xed finally released me. I hit the floor in a crumple, bleeding heavily as I panted for breath.
"Make your choice, Vladimir," Minerva told the camera, smirking as she knelt down beside me, grabbing me by the hair and lifting my head to face the camera, "Because for every day you don't show up, we'll slowly rip your precious lover into pieces." She shut the camera off and nodded to Xed, who picked up my clothes.
I didn't even move, just let him move me on his own as he dressed me halfway, but instead handed me my shirt. I looked at it tiredly, then peered up at him past my hair in disgust. He studied my expression, then draped the shirt over his arm before he pulled me to my feet.
My knees buckled the instant I was standing, however, resulting in me tumbling toward the ground. I gasped as Xed caught me around the waist, careful not to touch my bloody back. I panted hard, glancing up at him in exhaustion. He averted his eyes and helped me limp toward the door. I glanced over my shoulder at Minerva and the others, who were discussing the tape.
I grimaced, then looked up at Xed as we emerged from the barn and into the sunlight. I hissed instantly, grabbing onto Xed and trying to hide behind him to avoid the sunlight. It instantly burnt my skin red as I tried to hide my face. Surprisingly, Xed didn't shove me away or push me into the sunlight. No, instead, he dropped my shirt onto my head and led me toward the house. I was breathing hard by the time we entered and almost fell again, but he caught me and carried my shirt as he steered me toward the stairs.
The house was still silent, as if not a single person was there.
But I could smell them. All their hearts beating and pumping their blood through their system calmly, signalling that they were all asleep. I could even hear Xed's heart beating beside me, the smell of his hot blood coursing through his veins. My mouth felt cotton dry and my throat as if I had swallowed sand. My whole body was nothing, but one aching muscle now. An aching burnt muscle that was healing at a rate that made Dial-up look like high speed.
Xed led me down the stairs before pushing me against the post at the bottom, making Storm shoot to his feet and rush over. He caught me before I almost hit the ground.
"What did you do?" Storm demanded hatefully, glaring up at Xed, who gazed at him mutely before placing my shirt on the last step. He withdrew and went up the stairs, shutting and locking it behind him. Storm cursed and pulled me over to the bed, but set me in a sitting position. I hissed past clenched teeth in relief at the cold air on my burning skin.
"Alexander, you're not healing fast enough. You need to drink something." He ordered, picking up the half empty bottle of Kristophe's blood. My stomach instantly churned sickeningly and I almost vomited at the thought. He tried to bring the bottle to my lips, but I turned my head away quickly, pursing my lips.
The thick, heavy scent of Kristophe's blood sailed up my nostrils and made my senses buzz excitedly. My fangs pulsed in my gums, the tips of them threatening to cut into my lower lip.
"Alexander, stop being so stubborn," Storm snapped at me, making me grimace as I fought to keep my mouth closed and senses leashed, "You have to drink this if you want to heal. You're killing yourself by doing this."
"No," I refused, turning my head away, gritting my teeth, "I promised I would never drink from an unwilling donor, ever. I won't drink it." My ears rang and the scent burned my nose and stomach worse than the blistering skin on my back. I panted hard for breath and Storm grabbed my jaw, forcing me to look at him. He pressed the bottle to my mouth and I writhed, trying to push him away, but it was like trying to fight off a stone wall.
I choked as the warm, metallic blood flew over my tongue and down my throat to slosh into the pit of my aching stomach. My senses whirled and I gagged, trying to fight both Storm and the instinct to drink, but it was too much.
I was so tired.
I was so tired of everything.
I stopped trying to spit it back into the bottle, parting my lips and sucking everything out of the bottle. I licked desperately at the nose of the bottle, trailing every last drop. My tongue found its way to Storm's fingers, salty and bloodied from his previous wounds and leftovers from the bottle. The bottle fell to the floor as I panted, reaching up to grab Storm's hand.
"You're starving," Storm scolded me in irritation, but didn't pull his hand away as I licked every last drop off blood off his hand, my fangs grazing his fingers and the faint pulses under each smooth pad, "Alexander, you have to drink as much blood as you can. Something tells me this won't be the last time they pull you out of here."
His words were muffled now as I focused on the throbbing in his fingers that trailed to the artery pounding in his wrist. I felt like all my rational thoughts, all my morales, everything was completely discarded as the only thing that sang to me was blood.
Storm's blood.
The way it bubbled with his inner rage and swept through his circulatory system like a beautiful river, rushing through his pounding heart that seemed to skip a beat as my fangs poked his fingertip. He fell silent, watching me as I dug my fang into his fingertip. I moaned at the taste of his blood squeezing out onto my tongue. I lapped at the blood, squeezing his finger to draw more. I almost bit into his finger before he pulled away and caught me by the shoulders, giving me a little shake.
"Alexander, snap out of it." Storm ordered, looking me right in the eye. I blinked, my vision all blurred and disoriented before it snapped back to normal. And by normal, I mean, everything became sharply contrasted and real and pure. I could see every angle of Storm's handsome face, the icy blueness of his eyes with the occasional fleck of silver. The sweat beginning on his brow under his crazy black hair from rolling around in his sleep. The stubble that was beginning to coat his face from not shaving.
"Uh." I responded, confused, blinking a few more times before it hit me as to what I was about to do. Heat filled my cheeks and I grimaced as Storm slowly let go of me, studying my face.
"Give it a few minutes. They tore you up pretty bad. It'll take some time to heal, even with the amount of blood you drank." Storm advised, rising to his feet slowly. I only nodded, clasping my hands between my knees as I already felt the skin on my back healing. It still burned and ached, making me flinch every time I moved. I watched Storm pace around the room like a caged tiger, his blue eyes glaring hard at the floor.
"They probably filmed it, didn't they? They're going to send it to my father." Storm said at last, stopping in front of me. I peered up at him past my hair, giving a shaky nod, hissing past clenched teeth as the skin pulled and stretched over my back.
"They're going to do this for every day he doesn't show up." I managed, making Storm frown as he paused to put his hands on his hips.
"Well, then we don't need to worry. He'll show up." He stated, turning away from me to start pacing again. I frowned a little, digging my nails into my knees as I hunched over, sweating from the pain of my healing back.
"What makes you think he will?" I dared to ask. Storm stopped pacing and turned to face me, frowning and watching me with piercing blue eyes.
"Alexander, don't get me wrong. I love you like the brother I've never had, but there are times when I seriously want to box your ears," He paused, making me scowl as he sighed, "My father adores you. He's obsessed with you. Everything he does usually has motivation behind it involving you. There is absolutely no way he'll ignore a clip of you in pain. If anything, he'll probably go ballistic and destroy half of Rome trying to find you."
For some reason, that comforted me, but I couldn't imagine Vladimir breaking character over me. I'd seen him do it over Storm, definitely, but me? I didn't respond, though, just hung my head to look at the floor as Storm started walking around again.
"What gets me is why they want him to come to them, instead of vice versa. They're planning something and what also concerns me is that we haven't seen or heart anything about Newt at all. He's obviously not with William anymore." He thought aloud, rubbing the back of his neck. I peered up at him, blowing a couple locks of hair from my face as I leaned on my knees.
"There has to be someone bigger behind all of this." I stated. Storm glanced at me with a curious frown.
"What makes you think that?" He asked. I averted my eyes thoughtfully.
"It has to be. It makes sense. In Slade's vision, Newell was still blindfolded and chained up, which means someone doesn't trust him. They were leading him to us, though. And, I don't know about you, but Newell isn't powerful enough to draw in Oneiroi and Oni. There has to be someone else pulling the strings now since Newell was put out of commission." I informed, sitting up a little straighter as I dared to reach behind me. I touched my back, which still burned, but the skin had returned and it was no longer blistered and bloody. I glanced up at Storm, who seemed to consider it.
"That's true... But who? Newell was calling all the shots until he was captured. After that, the rebellion had cooled down for a couple days. The only reason my father took this vacation was to get away from the press and his council. They were bombarding him for not killing Newell." Storm recapped, frowning curiously. I blinked, looking up at Storm.
"Wait, Vladimir never killed Newell. Do you think maybe he did it because he already knew?" I asked. Storm hardly looked surprised at the suggestion, which meant he was thinking the same thing. I grimaced as Storm came over and sat beside me on the bed, pausing to examine my back before he sat forward, resting his arms across his knees as he stared at the floor thoughtfully.
"It's possible. My father's done this thing before. He knows something's about to happen. He doesn't always know the specifics and actually, he guesses a lot of the time. I think it's whatever's inside him. It knows when something disasterous is about to happen. I think it's what warned him about last time, when you and Slade were kidnapped, but it didn't know the specifics. Vladimir automatically assumed it was you, though. And he's right. Zephyra knows his weakness and that's you." He explained matter-of-factly. I frowned.
"And what about you? You're his son. If he were to die, you'd take over in his place and Zephyra would once again be barred from making decisions." I pointed out, my stomach clenching at the thought of Vladimir ever dying. Storm seemed unnerved by the idea as well, but shook his head.
"I'm not as strong as my father is. Zephyra would rip me to pieces the moment I take the throne. Why do you think I haven't done so yet? I've been of age for years, but my father won't let me take his place because he knows Zephyra will kill me. He certainly cares about me, there's no doubt, but right now, his main focus is you, Alexander. And you've already been harmed." He added, making me tilt my head away from him.
For some reason, that made me blush. I shook my head and focused on the task at hand.
"Well, anyway, do you think Vladimir knows who did it?" I asked, making Storm shrug.
"He may know for sure or he may just be, as I said, guessing. He's mysterious and sometimes, even I can't read him." Storm admitted, leaning back on his hands to stare up at the ceiling with a thoughtful scowl. I nibbled my lower lip, avoiding my fangs.
We sat in silence, both of us trying to wrap our minds around everything that happened and will happen.
There was someone else behind this.
There had to be.
Newell couldn't have planned all this while in that cell. Someone was taking over Newell's position as the leader of Zephyra.
And I could only hope that Vladimir knew who it was.