Kannein had listened to his captors approach and gather around him, the presence causing him to tense in anticipation of the pain that would inevitably follow. But for the first time, nothing came. Not against him in the dark. He could not see what was happening around him and had assumed that they had blinded him at some point during his torture, but he could hear them massing around him.
They were moving oddly, whispering amongst themselves and making noises that were more akin to purring than anything else. They did not even seem to remember he was there, moving around amongst themselves with no interaction with him. His mind yearned to leave the present once more, hide in itself and seek the solace of sleep. Instead of giving in to oblivion, he forced himself to be cognizant of the moment, took the chance to understand the situation he was in. Kannein felt his body stretching physically, testing its limits and realized he was chained by the ankle and wrists by heavy metal links.
Kannein's body was stiff and weak from disuse, but he quietly forced himself to tense and relax, nearly crying at just how weak he felt himself to be. Through his torture and imprisonment, he had no idea how long they had chained him in place, but the condition of his body told him that it had been a while. It caused a pit of dread in his belly, to know he would be helpless, even if they forgot about him and left. The chains were cold and heavy, and being blind, he would not know how to escape, even if the metal cuffs were gone.
Beyond where he was being kept, where he was being held, with all these monsters that swarmed around him. Kannein could only assume that he was a long distance away from help and knew that he could not rescue himself if he needed to. He had always been capable and strong, what he couldn't fight his way through, he could always use his wits to help him accomplish. But now, there was nothing but a hope that someone else would come save him.
As if summoning their attention with that thought, he felt one of his captors touch him, a hot breath on his cheek as a clawed hand ran down his arm. But they didn't gouge and scratch, instead the touch was almost a caress, though it caused his skin to crawl as he heard a purring voice in his ear. "You are of no worth to us now. Your blood is nothing compared to that which we have now tasted."
In the background, other voices whispered gravelly. "We will taste again."
Kannein felt something warm and wet snake up along his throat and jaw, causing him to dry wretch when he realized he was being licked. His body trembled with involuntary revulsion and he could feel tears of frustration at the corner of his eyes when he realized he couldn't even pull away from the contact.
Helpless, he didn't respond, merely laying motionless and pretending to be locked safely inside his mind.
"Perhaps we will let you live, knowing that we succeeded, only because of you." The voice purred again.
When he didn't respond, the captor moved away from him, chuckling. Around him more voices chuckled and whispered about 'the one who was coming'.
Kannein wanted to cry out in frustration. Wanted to wretch. They had tasted someone else's blood, he could only assume that whoever had come for him, the first team, the first people had been killed by his captors. Friends of his, soldiers of his, perhaps his family, had already fallen, in addition to the guard that had been slaughtered during the ambush.
And his captors expected more to come. He was helpless; he needed rescue, but his presence was leading the people he cared about to their deaths.
As the voices faded away, he held onto the despair and anger that those thoughts caused, tensing and stretching his body, moving it as much as he could to push through the pain. He needed as much strength as he could get.
Kannein would not lay idly by and let himself become a trap. He would force his captors to kill him before that would happen.