(I'm issuing a warning for extreme violence. If you can't stomach torture, you can skip it if you'd like)
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Iris's eyes fluttered open, furrowing her brows at the intense pain radiating through her skull and down her spine. The raven haired vampire groaned, her vocal chords straining against the effort. A mirthless chuckle resounded in the dank emptiness of the torn graffiti ridden warehouse.
The abducted vampire pulled at her restraints to no avail, the cold iron of the cuffs digging into her skin. 'Enchanted cuffs, well played Gabriel' her thoughts hazy but lucid enough to realize there was no escape. Iris only hoped Anna Lee would get to Asha or Ishtar on time.
The beast that was now Gabriel lurked closer to his captive, he snarled at her, the bitch still smelled like her whore of a consort. He crouched behind Iris, leaning close enough to level with her ear
"We can do this the easy way my love," he began slowly, his putrid breath causing Iris's features to contort in disgust "Relinquish your whore and I'll make her death swift,
*meine geliebte "
Iris cast her head to the side to escape his rancid stench as he resumed to speak "or we can do it the fun way, and I can rip the flesh from her bones as you watch helpless, leaving her barely alive to watch me reclaim what's mine" he inched closer, rubbing his snout against the flesh of her neck, only to notice the intertwining serpents on her neck growling loudly.
Iris's breath hitched fearfully, eyes shut and flinched away from him but said nothing. 'please Anna hurry' she pleaded to herself realizing there was no saving Gabriel anymore.
His anger was boiling slowly yet surely, that whore had marked what was his. He grit his stained teeth almost painfully, jumping in front of Iris at blinding speed.
His talons raised towards her cheek " what will it be my beloved?" he whispered harshly, his pitch black eyes meeting with her dark orbs.
Yet Iris remained silent, her heart hammering against her ribcage in terror. This was the man she had tried to save, the one she'd inadvertently betrayed.
Her lack of an Answer infuriated him even more, his snarl ripped through the silence as his claws ripped easily into Iris's cheek, leaving several bloody gashes "you leave me no other choice" he huffed and walked away from his victim. Iris breather a sigh of relief but it was a short lived reprieve.
Gabriel carried with him several blood bags, a piece of cloth and several bags of equipment. The raven haired vampire wondered where he had gotten it all, surely not from this abandoned warehouse.
He set everything down not a few feet away from her to get right, dumping coals and lighting a fire, letting it slowly build, pushing a 4 inch long skinning knife into the hot embers.
The beast worked in silence setting up and unpacking other equipment to get left, first he unrolled the leather pouch of knives, then the set of pliers and a set of medical vials with their prepped syringes.
"Last chance Iris, or I kill you and your beloved whore" the beast threatened again but Iris couldn't bring herself to look his way. He sighed exasperated and threaded his talons into her hair, dragging her into the chair.
He strapped her legs and arms to the chair smirking down at her, he reached for the largest pair of pliers taking hold of her right index finger gripping hard into the distal phalanges and bending backwards. The sickening crunch of breaking bones was accompanied with a chilling scream of pain that left Iris sobbing quietly and thrashing against her restraints.
He scoffed, moving the pliers towards the intermediate phalange of the same finger, once again bending it backwards in a jerk, hearing the satisfying crunch of bone and another wail of agony. He glanced up at Iris "had enough Iris?" he taunted his mate but the raven haired vampire spit in his face, tears streaking down her cheeks in rivulets.
"Fine. Have it your way" he spoke, anger seeping through the restraints and tainting his voice. He gripped the pliers tighter as he shattered the proximal phalange of Iris's index, leaving her finger bent at an odd angle with drops of blood dripping down onto the floor. He smiled at his prey moving on to the next finger, then the next...
Iris bit into her cheek trying to hold in her screams, with each finger that Gabriel broke, she could feel her inner resistance growing. She just hoped her physical strength would hold long enough for Anna to save her. His demented smile grew larger and more sadistic with each finger he broke until it bordered an insane cackle, but Iris was putting up more of a fight than he had expected her to, it was time to search up tactics.
He maneuvered his way towards his set of knives taking out a slim curved boning knife, trailing the pointed edge along Iris's sternum, towards her ribs. He set it down on the table beside the chair, moving away to the pliers set.
The beast chose a Stille-Liston bone cutting pliers with a satisfied smirk, setting the instrument near the knife, he made a surgical incision right below her left breast between the ribs, using the boning knife to clear a path to the bone, Gabriel forced the pliers into the bleeding wound and snapped the rib like a twig.
Excruciating pain flared within Iris's torso, burning so hot she could not longer hold on her agonized scream. Her sobbing intensified whilst the man she used to love worked diligently, cutting and snapping away at two more ribs before her vision began to swim; dark spots obscuring her vision.
It must have been hours by the time she had woken up again, Iris shook her head to clear the goofiness from her mind. It was dark, probably night again, a dull throb pulsed along her left side reminding her exactly why she'd passed out in the first place.
She could feel Gabriel still in the room, he emanated an aura of evil so disgusting it almost made her gag. She held herself a little more rigidly as he inched into her field of vision
"Someone's awake again, good to have you back with us meine geliebte we've certainly missed you" her stalked closer to her placing his lips firmly against her forehead, Iris recoiling at the contact.
"You've bad your fun Gabriel, you've punished me" Iris managed to choke out, her voice scratchy from the strain of screaming and crying.
"Now let me go so we can end this now" she pleaded with him, not that she believed he could be reasoned with any more
"Drop the whore and maybe we can start over... after I kill her that is" he drawled out in the thick German accent Iris used to love.
"Now where were we before you took your nap hm?" Gabriel wondered out loud "ah yes! You know, for a vampire our fangs are vital for our survival, they regenerate slower than any other injury we sustain and until then, any fangless vampire cannot feed" Gabriel recounted slowly, fingering one of the red handled slip joint pliers smirking at Iris, the look of horrified comprehension dawning on her face
He grabbed her face, squeezing tighter to force her jaws open, he was stronger than she was, even if she was his elder. Her jaws snapped open, Gabriel moving the pliers to grip one of the protruding fangs "now they will regenerate if I pulled them out but I won't do that" he smirked tugging the pliers upward shattering the tooth clean off, leaving the roots embedded deep within Iris's jaw. The beast shattered the second fang leaving his beloved Iris slumped forward panting hard.
"I don't understand why iris...why did you do it" he almost pleaded with her, his voice broken and almost a whisper. Iris barely looked up at him ready to answer as he spun around and lashed out at her, his claws digging deep into the side of her face ripping away chunks of flesh. The raven haired vampire could feel the essence of her life pouring out of the open gash yet she flinched back when Gabriel leaned in closer "How could you betray me like this Iris? Break our bond for some cunt of a succubus? Is that how little I meant to you?" he yelled at her nearly ripping into her skin again. He cast his head to the side gazing off into space, his panting breaths rapid and hurried.
Gabriel's features furrowed for a brief moment, shaking his head, his eyes glasses over in confusion he muttered indistinctly.
He stepped away from his former lover hands shaking visibly. With one last glance towards his prisonner Gabriel bolted out of the room. Iris let out a sigh of relief, she needed all the time she could get to recuperate.
"Come on Anna, please please please"
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( End of Torture Scene)
Both women stood there staring at one another as of they were hallucinating, as if the other would vanish in a cloud of smoke.
Alexandra ran her clawed hand through her white hair staring Asha up and down. Alex could tell that Asha was tired, standing there slouching, shoulders sagging. Eyes glassy and fiery spark Long gone, the vampire standing across the room was a shell of the Asha she knew before. Long gone was the confident stride and the sexy away of her hips, long gone was the perfect porcelain complexion replaced by a deadly pallor. She could taste the desperation that clung to her beloved.
The vampire seemed to be stuck in place, struck by the sight before her. Alex, her Alex was alive yet...not quite. Her pulse was a slow beat in tandem with the pulsating energy around them where once used to hum a steady human pulse; he hair once a golden honey blonde now bordered a blinding white that cascaded in rivulets around her face, her fair skin a shade or two lighter than it used to be, the light steel grey morphed into a tumultuous wirlwind of stormy grey swirling within her eyes.
Alex shook off her stupor first, taking long strides towards Asha, wrapping her arms around the vampire pulling her into a passionate embrace. Amira had silently slipped out of the room and stood guard outside with Bashaa and Ishtar, giving the women some semblance of privacy.
Alex and Asha's lips meshed together perfectly, tongues battling back and forth to set the pace to their volatile lip lock. Both women broke apart panting heavily, their eyes meeting unblinking, neither wanting to tear their eyes away
"I've missed you" breather the fiery redhead, trailing her finger along Alex's jaw leaning in to peck her lips softly only for Alex to hide her face into her vampire's neck "I...i thought I'd never see you again Asha, when I woke up-" Alex's breath hitched trying to hold at bay what remnants of human emotion that she still possessed
"When I woke up Asha, I was so angry with you. I thought you'd ignored all I asked if you even though you promised me but Amira managed to yell some sense into me" Alexandra explained through shaky exhales but Asha shook her head soothing down the wild curls of Alex's hair
The vampire sighed and stepped away "it's complicated Alex, we had nothing to do with it, well maybe your death but not Your transformation" Asha walked into the appartment with Alex in two, She never thought she'd be here again.
"You're what we call a shinigami, we didn't figure it out until a few weeks after the funeral and by then you had already broken out"
"So, in plain English terms Asha, what the hell am I?" Alex inquired less than subtly
"Uh...a harbinger of death almost, your job is to maintain the balance between life and the afterlife. You gather souls when it's their time and guide them into what lies ahead, protect the delicate mortality of the universe of you might. We didn't find out a lot about what you can do but there's barely anything to go by anyways"
Alex was thoughtful for a moment, relishing in the physical presence of her other half with her "but that doesn't quite explain how I got here. Sure What Gabriel did to me got me here but I've always assumed I was...human"
"You were never human Alexandra" Bashaa's voice filled the quietness that settled over the room "your mother was a shinigami, your father one of my mortal descendants, they perished before they could train you in their ways but tmfate brought you and Asha together somehow and it triggered your metamorphosis" he explained slowly, his deep vpuxe soothing away any fears Alex might have had
"So I've always been this shinigami thing? All I had to do was due for it to show?"
"Yes something of the sorts, the pain and the nightmares you suffered from before your death were the poison Gabriel had injected in you acting against your base nature and eventually that stronger base nature won out" he explained further, Alex was taking it better than he could have hoped.
The hurried rhythmic thump of footsteps sounded again, this time Anna Lee had burst through the appartment door, nearly collapsing at the top of the stairs, leaning heavily against Amira as exhaustion set in.
"Gabriel...He has Iris"
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meine geliebte* My beloved
Knife set
medical Pliers set
Normal pliers set
Phalanges
Stille-Liston Bone cutting Pliers/Forceps