Bound By Desire

Chapter 12: Interrogations

Rosalia’s POV:

I’m awoken by a harsh slap across my face that leaves my cheek stinging. “Ow,” I mutter grumpily as my eyes blink open against my will. Taking in my surroundings, I feel a chill snake down my spine as the cold torture room takes shape before my eyes. Panic instantly engulfs me and I struggle to get free. Or at least try to. My arms and legs feel numb and when I look at myself I can see I'm chained to the floor by my ankles and my hands hang limp over my head, numb to all feeling. Trying to move my shoulder, a sickening twinge of pain shoots down my arm and I scream.

“Oh lark, don’t you know better than that.” A horrifyingly familiar voice sounds from the shadows as my eyes land on a pair of icy grey eyes. The man steps out of the shadows and I instantly recognise him. Master Orion. He smiles slowly and I cower against the wall in fear.

“M-Master Orion” I stutter, suddenly thrown into a memory of my seven-year-old self. His smile broadens and I feel my heart stutter once before regaining a steady rhythm as a comforting feeling settles around me. You’re safe. The second voice from earlier drifts back through my mind. I smile slightly despite myself and relax against the wall. Master Orion notices this and slowly smiles again, causing an icy terror to wash through me and shadow the comforting feeling I had. Hiccuping once I try to push down my fear. He laughs and another voice joins in. Master Asher.

Eventually, I can’t keep my terror at bay any longer. “Please. Please don’t.. h-hurt me.” I heave a sob and feel the tears trickling down my face. They both laugh and I attempt to hide deep inside myself and create a wall to keep all the bad things out. Closing my eyes, the last two tears fall and I push my feelings away into a box. Blinking twice with my eyes closed, I school my features into a blank mask of impassivity and erect a wall to keep my feelings hidden. Swallowing calmly, I open my eyes and stare at the wall. Breathing evenly, I keep all my feelings buried behind the wall inside me but focus on the protected feeling that lies behind all my worry and fear.

“Who healed you?” Master Asher asks me again and I shrug nonchalantly. My tranquility seems to push him over the edge and I feel the chains around my wrists and ankles tighten. Behind the wall, I’m screaming in mindless agony, but outwardly, I keep my calm composure and stare at the wall.

“I don’t know,” I reply in an emotionless voice that matches my blank expression. Subtly watching his reaction out of the corner of my eye, I see his eyes darken with apoplectic rage and he struggles to control himself for a moment. Master Orion appears to have a different approach as he asks me to sing like I did when I was younger. I knew I could sing and knew that was the reason behind Master Orion’s nickname of lark. I had the voice of an angel. Now, however, in my blank, impassive state, I sang as asked, but it was tuneless and lacked melody. A pale comparison to what I could really do. When I finished, I laughed humorlessly in the direction of the wall I was facing as I leant my head back against the smooth stone.

“Who. Healed. You?” Master Asher’s voice rings out through the empty room and I shrug with a bored expression on my face. When he sees that’s my answer he glares at me and I feel the same pain twist through me as before. I’m shielded for the most part, but somehow some of the pain still manages to chip away at the armor I built to keep my emotions down and I’m horrified at the crack in my defenses. “WHO. HEALED. YOU?” Master’s voice roars and I shrug again. My calm state allows me to almost embrace the pain coming my way.

“I already told you. I. Don’t. Know.” I reply calmly. His eyes focus on mine again and I feel the agonizing pain rip through me again and again. Each time it seems to chip away at more of my defenses until they are left like ashes. “I DON'T KNOW!” I eventually scream into the room, my terror rushing back and breaking the calm tranquility I had embraced before. My sudden terror races through me and chases away all other emotions. Expect one. The feeling of comfort and protection still remains and I instead turn and embrace that when my defense of disconnection crumbles. “PLEASE, MASTER. I DON’T KNOW!” I scream the truth several times but it falls on empty ears, Having already decided that I’m lying, he calls into the darkness and vanishes. Being replaced with Master Orion. I scream and try to move away but stop when I hear the click of my shoulder dislocating. Fiery agony rakes its claws down my arm and I scream again.

Master Orion sighs and tuts to me. “Oh, little lark. What’ve you gotten yourself into now?” I whimper in fear and attempt to scuttle back against the wall, but a sudden pain stops me and I know I’ve twisted my ankle from the sharp pain radiating up my leg. Master Orion’s eyes darken and he pulls my head to the side, his eyes dark with an old lust I seem to recognise. Another whimper escapes me and I beg silently with my eyes. Please don't. Please. Please. It’s in vain, as seconds later, I feel his teeth and then the pain. My back arches in agony and I hear my screams tear through the empty room. What’s worse than last time, however, is that I can feel when he pulls his fangs out that he’s left something in me. Another small fragment of memory shakes loose inside my head and I feel fear flood me when the room starts to go hazy.

Through tunneling vision, I see Master Orion walking away and passing Master Asher. Help, someone please help me. I scream to the emptiness of my own head as I have little or no blood left, so I can’t speak. It’s like my mouth’s been sewn shut and no sound escapes. I start hearing a low keening sound breaking the silence of the small room and I notice it was coming from me. Help. PLEASE! I know my pleas go unheard when Master Asher’s golden eyes suddenly appear in front of my own. He shouts something at me and I catch the words ‘dumb b***h’ and pull away in fear, but he’s not done with me yet. Instead, he pulls my head the opposite way to Master Orion and sinks his fangs into me, drawing out my blood with every pull. When his teeth leave me, I can feel that, like Master Orion, he too has left me with a parting gift. A gift of nightmares and delusions.

My keening reaches a higher pitch and before my eyes can fully close I feel something heavy slam me against the wall and I pass out.

Hunter’s POV:

Keeping well away from Ash, I keep a mental tab on Rosalia after I leave her with Mara. She sleeps a while longer before Mara joins her and wakes her up. Sensing an urgency behind her actions, I take a look in her mind and my heart sinks. As I predicted, Ash wanted to see her and I could only imagine what torture he had lined up for her. I mentally reach out and am surprised to see Eirs is still close.

Eri, what are you still doing here? I want to scold her for her carelessness, but deep down I know she can see that I’m just curious as to why she was spending extended time in enemy territory.

A laugh bounces back to me a second later. I’m past the border, little H, I’m okay. She senses my frustration at the old nickname, but I brush it off. Eris picks up on my hesitation. Is she okay?

For now, but Ash wants to see her. Presumably to ask her why she wasn’t working.. or to ask who healed her yesterday.

How’d you think she'd answer that? Eris’s tone is thoughtful and analytical, but I know mine is one of fear.

I don’t know. I focus on my friend and notice she’s looking at the two of us. I sigh. Eri, what are you up to?

Looking to see if you’re linked to her and if she’s linked to you. Eris’s tone is distracted and I can almost see her crouched out of sight with her eyes closed and moving rapidly as she searches. I think you might be, but there’s one way we can check for sure.

How? I ask. My curiosity peaked. Eris, how? I ask again when she remains silent.

She’s slow to respond but eventually, she gets back to me. See if you can get inside her situation. Or share emotions… I try to concentrate on Eris’s voice when a sudden feeling of terror grips me, but the emotion is not my own. It has to be hers. Testing my theory as I close my eyes and suddenly my view changes so I can see her.

She’s chained to the floor by her ankles and her arms are also chained above her head. I see her eyes flash with animalistic fear and her voice sounds in my mind clear as day.

“M-Master Orion.’ I hear a low laugh and then a male voice answers her.

“Oh lark, don’t you know better than that.” He moves towards her and she recoils, screaming when her shoulder dislocates and her ankle twists. I stifle a grunt of pain as the same feelings spread through me. Odd. Keeping my eyes on the scene, I guess I’m invisible to them as they continue.

He asks patiently time and time again who healed her, but she stays silent. Each time he glares at her and I feel pain rip through both of us. She attempts to remain blank and emotionless, but eventually, pain outweighs her resolve and she crumbles, yelling: “I DON’T KNOW!” Again and again.

“WHO. HEALED. YOU?” I hear my brother’s voice ring out in the room and when I look at him his eyes are dark with an apoplectic rage that seems to frighten her and break down her earlier defences of disconnection from the situation.

“I DON’T KNOW!” She screams it again but I can see she knows it falls on deaf ears. I try to feed into her strength and feel Eris’s joining mine. She smiles once and then starts screaming as my brother and his friend both attack her. I feel her anguish as they pull the blood from her veins as well as a glimmer of fear as they both leave some of their venom in her system. Meaning for her to have nightmares that she can’t escape from.

I want to help but can’t escape the feeling that I am just a bystander who can see how the experience plays out. I glare at my brother’s retreating figure and move to see if she’s okay when a high-pitched keening sound comes from the far corner. Holding my breath, I move over to Rosalia to see that her lips are clamped tightly shut yet the low sound still seems to echo..

HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME! PLEASE! Her psychic shout echoes emptily and I find myself reaching for her only to be stopped by a barrier when I get about a foot away - confirming my fear that I can’t help. HELP! PLEASE! Again she screams and her anguish seems to cut through me, leaving me breathless. I keep hearing the low keening sound but now it seems to be increasing in pitch. I'm about to help her when a dark blur spins towards her and throws her head against the wall with a deafening crack that shatters the silence.

Abruptly, I’m pulled back and I open my eyes, shocked. What just happened? I take deep breaths and feel Eris’s thoughts nudge mine. What, Eri?

IT’S TRUE! Her mental scream is one of jubilation and I struggle to work out her happiness before her words register with me. It's true. I’m Linked to Rosalia. What does that mean though? I wonder to myself when Eris laughs softly and I focus back on her.

What does that mean? I ask Eris and she’s silent for a moment before her voice comes back, fainter than before but still audible.

Well, for a start, it means she can’t just be human. Why else link her to you, H? You’re royalty and from one of the most powerful vampire families. What makes her so special?

I laugh. I wish I knew, Eri, I really do. What do you think she is then? If not human. I wait for her reply and when she does I’m shocked.

I didn’t say she wasn’t human, I merely said she can’t just be human. Unless this is the universe's idea of a cosmic joke. She laughs and so do I, but mine is without humour. She seems to notice my despondency as she tries to cheer me up. I’m not sure what she is, but I’ll look okay?

Okay, but how can I help her? I fire back, my anger and impatience at my brother causing me to snap at Eris. She‘s silent for a moment and I know my harsh tone hurts her, sorry Eri, I didn’t mean to snap at you, it's just… I groan mentally and she gives a light laugh in response.

I know. About how to help her try and see if you can protect her from your brother until the next auction and then I’ll make sure she ends up there. Once that’s done, you know what you can do.

I nod, my plan forming until a sudden thought stops me in my tracks. How do I know he won’t blame me for taking her and saying I broke the law? I ask Eris and I feel her fall quiet for a moment before she speaks, her voice clipped and curt, so I know she’s worried she’s been found.

I’ll get a couple of other witches to help me and call in a few favors that I’m owed from some powerful people. Don't worry, there’s no way the plan could be traced back to you. You’re safe. Both of you. She rushes through her words so fast that I almost miss what she’s saying, but somehow I manage to catch it all.

Okay, now you need to go. I mutter, hoping she catches onto my urgency and listens to the bad feeling she’s getting. She sighs and I smile, knowing that she’ll be able to feel it. Seriously, Eris, you need to go before someone catches you and you end up in trouble or starting a war. I try to transmit my urgency to her and she eventually seems to catch on as I feel her make up her mind and she starts to fade out of my mind. As she leaves, the last thought I catch from her is simple. Two simple words that hold me still by the sincerity behind them.

Be careful.

“I will,” I mutter to the empty room before I leave and run straight into the last person I wanted to see. “Ash, fancy seeing you here.” My tone is cold and polite but I know the stony expression I have doesn’t match,

“Hunter, just the person I wanted to see.” Ash’s expression is murderous and I wonder who he plans on killing this time. “You did something wrong, little brother. Something very wrong. And now someone else is paying the price,” As he says that Rosalia’s screams tear through the hallway and I flinch. Ash knows he has my attention and smiles coldly. “Why did you do it?”

“Why did I do what?” I ask coldly as I move to leave the conversation. Ash, however, has a different idea and moves to stand in front of the hallway. I growl softly. “Ash. Move.”

“Only when you answer my question. Why did you heal her?” He fixes me with a calculating gaze, but I refuse to show my anger. “Why did you do it? She wasn’t yours to help.” As he keeps speaking it clicks with me that he was talking about Rosalia.

“I didn’t heal her. She healed herself. Some witch put a protection spell on her which was also, incidentally, why you couldn’t kill her either.” I reply in a frosty tone, letting a small amount of my simmering anger slip into my tone.

Ash lets out a small sigh and another scream rips through the silence. I take a deep breath and force myself not to visibly flinch as her pain cuts through me like a blade. When the screams die down, Ash faces me and shakes his head. “Then why can I smell your scent on her as well as one I couldn’t identify, and why does she have your blood in her system, little brother, if not from you healing her?” Ash’s tone is mocking and my heart sinks when I realise that he knows. He knows and now he is punishing us both. I glance at the ground and try to keep my anger under control, but Ash keeps needling me, clearing expecting me to explode and tell him I helped her. Too bad. I won’t do that.

“This conversation is done.” I snap and move past where he still stands in the doorway. Ash shoots me a cocky grin and I curl my hands into fists in front of me so I won’t be tempted to punch him and add fuel to his furnace of revenge. He doesn’t call out to me once and when I reach the next corner and turn to look back, he’s already gone.

Rosalia’s POV:

The nightmares come vivid and fast. Each one is more terrifying than the last. It seems my subconscious can reach out to memories that I didn’t know I had, as each fourth or fifth dream I come face to face with the face of another man that I recognize as a previous Master. Each is sadistic and cruel and ends with my crying out.

Some were more clever though. They acted kind and attempted to appear different to me, so that I fell into their trap. They gained my trust, perhaps did a few favors for me, but then they all resorted to cruelty as if to laugh in my face that I thought they were different from the rest. Master Orion was my first but by no means my last.

Eventually, those nightmares faded away and I was back running through the palace with my Master on my heels. I twisted and turned but it seemed that each time I thought I’d gained the upper hand he laughed maniacally and sprung in front of me like a demented ghost. Each time I scream. He laughs. I run. Round and round the cycle continues until I reach one of the lower levels of the palace. This one ends with a corridor and, at the very end, a thick wooden door with bars over the small window appears. The sight of this door fills me with unspeakable dread and I feel my very soul recoil from the coldness emanating from the room beyond. Regardless, my dream forces me onwards and soon I’m grasping the cold metal handle.

The open room looks like a prison cell and I struggle to accustom myself to the lack of light coming in to see through. The room appears empty until a hand rests on my shoulder. Spinning, I turn round to come face to face with the emerald-violet eyes of my dreams. I immediately turn and let the stranger pull me into their arms, drifting along with my dream self.

“Hunter, where are we?” My voice sounds shaky and I can tell he is afraid by the way he keeps hold of me. “What’s going on?” I feel tears slide down my face and he pulls me closer.

“I don’t know, Rosa.” Is all he has time to say before the door opens and the dream falls on top of me like sand.

I snap awake, seeing that I was alone in my bed in my room. Mara, Chalice and another girl sleep soundly but I can tell that my throat is sore from screaming into my pillow and my face is wet with tears, my eyelashes sticking together. Rubbing my eyes, they feel bloodshot and sore. I must be turning into an insomniac with the lack of sleep I seem to get with all the nightmares.

I hear footsteps outside the door and quickly lie down and close my eyes, trying to appear asleep. This person, however, comes into the room and brushes my hair away from my eyes, their touch scorching me like an open flame. They sigh quietly before leaving and I fall back asleep, though this time without any more nightmares.

Hunter’s POV:

What the f**k just happened? I lay down and tried to sleep, hoping that some of my anger and tension from Ash’s confrontation would ease, but to no avail. However, what I wasn’t anticipating was to be sucked right into Rosalia’s head. Into her dream. She screamed a lot and then it came to what seemed like a memory of the two of us.. yet it hadn't happened. Had it? Maybe it’s a vision of the future? I lie there and puzzle it over until I remember she also shared the dream, so maybe I should go check on her. I thought it through for a moment before deciding that it wouldn't do any harm to check she was okay.

I shrug and get up to check if she’s okay. Reaching her, I smooth her hair away from her eyes and notice the trails of tears. The hoarseness of her voice indicates she screamed a lot and I sigh before moving away and drifting back out of the room.

I hope I can save her before he kills her or drives her mad. I think to myself as I walk slowly back to my room with my hatred for Ash and worry for Rosalia warring inside me. Maybe I could ask Eris? I soon dismissed the idea, she already said she’d look and she still has the second most powerful coven to run. I can‘t ask for any more favors. Yet. Wandering back to bed, I lie back and look up at the ceiling while the recent events swirl around in my mind. What makes her so special? Is it because she’s Linked to me or is it on a deeper emotional level that I can’t get her out of my mind? If it is, then..

Unbidden memories of the last slave I saved rush through my mind and I push them away. Fearing that if I let them resurface for too long they will tear me apart. I will save her. I must.