Chapter 18: Blood of the True

AsaLynn

Everything is dark. Images keep flashing in my mind. My dad. My siblings. My stepmom. Flora. Levi. Flashes of my mother fly before my eyes.

~“Danger is coming. Don’t give up.”~

Then Julia’s words telling Flora to stay by my side start to repeat in my mind like a never-ending echo. Oh no… Flora!

The thought of Flora makes my eyes shoot open. I still can’t move very well, other than my head. My body feels cold and aches all over.

I lift my head up to look around. I’m in some sort of cell. The walls and floor are damp and concrete.

It smells of mold and moss. Then the scent of blood hits me, making my nose burn. I don’t see Flora, but I smell her. Where is she!?

My head starts moving around frantically. I try to adjust my eyes to the darkness to figure out where I am.

Finally I notice only one of the walls is concrete, the other three are bars. Through the bars I see a lifeless lump on the floor.

I beg my body to move as I struggle to regain just enough energy to sluggishly crawl over to the figure. There’s blood all over, but I hear her heartbeat.

It’s Flora! Her hand lies limp next to the bars, and I slide mine through to touch her.

“Flora. Please wake up,” I croak. I sound like I have been in a desert for a year. My mouth is so dry.

Flora doesn’t move. ~Please be okay, Flora. Please.~

I begin to cry, eyes flooding with tears as I hold her hand through the cage. She looks so bad. Her hands are cold and stiff.

My only hope is seeing her chest rise and fall slowly.

I hear a noise from down the hall past my view. And I look through the bars without moving. Footsteps!

The steps grow louder as they approach, and I hold her hand tighter. Who is it? What do they want from me? Maybe it’s someone who can save us.

That small glimmer of hope vanishes before my eyes as a figure steps up to the cage. His face looks like he has lived a thousand tragedies.

It is unshaven and not maintained. His clothes are filthy. He is tall, though, and built with pure muscle. He looks like a demon in human form.

“Well, well, well, you shouldn’t be awake now, should you? I shot you with enough tranquilizer to keep you out for weeks,” the man says darkly.

“Who are you? What do you want?” I try to say, but my voice is practically a whisper.

“Queen Luna… I thought it would be much harder to get to you. You’re so naive, running off territory without your mate.

“Speaking of stupid, your mate fell right into my plan. Make a little mess and he goes away. Leaving you alone.” He laughs.

“Unfortunately for your friend here…” He shrugs in the direction of Flora. “She wasn’t supposed to be with you, but alas, she was a victim of circumstance.”

“Then please just let her go,” I rasp out.

“Oh no. You see, this played out much better than I planned. I get the queen and the beta’s mate all in one swoop. This will cripple the order so much faster.”

“Why?” I barely force the words out.

All he does is laugh and walk away. I hear him say in the distance, “Power, the only thing that matters.”

I don’t understand what’s going on. Nothing in my life has made sense lately. Why can’t one thing go right?

I try to push to link Levi, but it won’t go through. My body doesn’t have the energy.

I push and push over and over again, but all I accomplish is wearing myself out. It feels like something is blocking communication.

Everything goes dark again. I keep Flora’s hand in mine and let the darkness flow through my mind, taking me with it.

Leviathan

It’s been two fucking weeks! Two weeks that I haven’t held Asa. Haven’t heard her voice. Haven’t felt her touch. Seen her smile.

My wolf is struggling to get out every waking moment.

Zade isn’t doing much better. The mate madness is overtaking him faster than me. I don’t have much more time before I lose him.

Our mates may still be alive, but we aren’t made to be apart from them this long.

I sent two of my men to America about a week ago to find the ~Seer~ that I sought out years ago. If anyone can help us control ourselves, it’s her.

I have heard of her healing this before.

Until she arrives, I have been meeting with my mercenaries and warriors from all over the world. Trying to figure out how to find Marcus.

Once he took the girls, he vanished. Nobody has heard a thing since. Liddia has a hunch that may help though.

What is Marcus playing at? I have never done anything to warrant this from him. He chose to live out his life with his mate, and I let him do so.

Now the bastard has taken the only thing in the world I care about.

“Leviathan.” I hear a voice so soft and gentle come from my office door.

I look up and see her. She hasn’t aged a day in the last hundred years. I see sadness overcome her eyes. Maybe it’s pity?

“Julia. Thank you for coming. I am sorry to call upon you, but this is a dark hour.”

“I already know, Leviathan. The Goddess foretold this to me over a millennia ago. Not the specifics, but that you would call again.”

She walks over and places her hand on my shoulder.

“I feel your pain deeper and truer than you can understand. All of us have lost something during this horror.” A tear slips down her face.

How could she understand my pain? My mate is gone. There is no pain that could relate to this. I won’t take it out on her though.

I must keep calm. This anger is from the madness. Trying to take control.

“I need you to get your beta and meet me in the garden at the moon’s rising peak. Can you both hold on until then?” she asks. Her voice is shaking.

“Yes, we will meet you then,” I reply.

A while later, midnight rolls around, and I grab Zade. He has destroyed his room and has been detained after he attacked another.

“The witch is here to help us. We need to meet her in five minutes. Let’s go.” I unlock his shackles and let him out.

Zade’s eyes are dark with bags. Neither of us has been sleeping, and we have been in so much pain. I can see the toll it has taken on him.

His head stays low as he follows me down to the garden, all energy drained from his eyes.

“Man, I don’t know about you, but I haven’t even felt a twitch from Flora. The bond feels so…distant,” Zade says, all stress showing.

I stop and catch myself as I look him in the eyes.

“Be glad that’s all you have felt,” I respond with a heavy heart, and he looks at me, confused.

“Every few days I feel Asa riddled with pain. It started a few days after she disappeared. Marcus is hurting her. If you aren’t feeling that pain, then he hasn’t hurt Flora…yet.

“Be grateful. I’m going to kill him in the worst possible way when we find them, for what he has done.” My wolf begins to claw as I speak my confession.

I feel my body angrily trying to shift, and I feel Julia place her hand on my shoulder. She chants something in an ancient language, and my body calms.

Julia removes her hand and takes Zade’s hands in hers.

“My son. You must stay strong. Your mate is okay, but the worst has yet to come for you. Please hold on. I promise this is not the end.”

Julia chokes on emotion as she speaks.

Her words are like a riddle neither of us understands.

“What did the Goddess tell you, Julia?” I say angrily.

“Leviathan, you know I cannot tell you this, but I can tell you this horrible event must happen for a new beginning to rise.”

She is pissing me off with this cryptic shit. Why would the Moon Goddess wish for my mate to be tortured?

Have I not done everything she has asked? Have I not given up everything for her?

Julia places her hands on both of us and begins to chant the moment the clock rings midnight. I feel an ease through my body.

My wolf goes quiet until I no longer feel him at all.

My eyes shoot open. “What did you do, witch! Why can I not feel Damien anymore?!” I roar.

Julia speaks, her tone calm as can be.

“Your wolf is not gone, but he has…gone into a kind of hibernation. The only way to cure the mate madness is to put your wolf into a dormant state.

“He will become active again when you are near your mate or, in the case of some people, a second-chance mate.

“You will still have your link to the pack and your mate.

“You will still feel the bond, but it will not cause your wolf to take control and the madness to hit the point of no return. It is the only way.”

“You didn’t tell me that!”

“You never asked. You simply told me to cure your madness, and I have,” she says somewhat sarcastically.

Zade stays quiet, but I see the anger building. Then his face deflates in defeat.

Julia looks at Zade. “I am so sorry. Please know I bear this pain with you.”

With that, she vanishes like a mist in the air.

AsaLynn

I’m so hungry. It’s been what seems like months but could possibly have only been days or weeks since I was captured. There is no way for me to tell.

There is no light or windows. All I know is the man has brought food and water a few times. I think it may be every few days. I try to ration it out, but it still doesn’t last long enough.

Flora hasn’t woken up yet. I spend most of my days holding her hand and lying here. Praying to the Moon Goddess for her to move, even a little.

I am a little happy she hasn’t woken up though.

The man has made it routine to take and beat me. I have been tortured so many times. Every bone in my body has been broken over and over again.

The cuts he makes have now stopped healing as quickly. He takes a knife and slowly slices at my skin, but he will not tell me why he is doing this.

He doesn’t speak at all. He just smiles.

My body doesn’t have the energy or nourishment anymore to heal quickly, and my wolf hasn’t been able to even stir.

He put a silver collar on both of us the day we got here, and because of that, she can’t come out. She only whines.

I lie here on the cold ground, rubbing Flora’s hand. Staring at her sunken face. She has lost so much weight.

She has always flaunted her curves, but now all the life I once saw in my best friend is gone. She is just a hollow shell of who she once was, but I’ll be strong enough for the both of us.

I have to be.

After my next torture session, the man throws me back into my cell. This time I don’t have the capacity to move over to Flora. I just lie where I land.

I feel my own blood pool around me. I can’t form tears to cry anymore; the salt only burns my skin more.

I felt sadness and anger from Levi after my first beating and turned off the physical link. He would push and push to contact me but never could get through.

The guilt he has is tremendous. I can still feel him, but I don’t want him to be burdened with the extent of what I bear.

I don’t want him to blame himself or to lose himself. He has to stay strong to get us out of this.

I lie here staring at the ceiling. Feeling my body ache. Unable to move. Barely able to breathe, and I suddenly hear a voice.

“Oh my goddess, ASA!”

I strain my eyes open and see Flora kneeling at the bars, barely hanging on herself.

“Flora… You’re okay.” I try to muster a smile, but I’m pretty sure I fail.

“No no no… What happened to you? Where are we? Who did this?” She barrages me with questions.

All I can say is, “I don’t know.”

I’m too weak to respond. Flora looks pretty weak as well. The tube feedings the man gave her haven’t done much for her.

I don’t even understand why he is even keeping us alive.

I hear footsteps coming down the hall again.

~No no no! He can’t be coming back. Not while she is awake. He will hurt her!~

“Sleep. Pretend.” That’s all I can say.

“What are you talking about?” Flora says.

The man walks up to her cage. Hands gloved, holding a silver metal bowl, he brought some scraps in with him. He uses silver bowls so that I can’t eat all of my food.

The sick bastard knows the silver is painful for us and we can’t get all the food without causing ourselves immense pain.

“Ahhh, so the beta’s mate has awakened,” he says with a twisted smile.

“What the fuck did you do to her! Who the fuck are you, you bastard?” Flora screams.

“Ohhh, quite the mouth on this one. I missed having someone with some fight around.”

Flora begins to chant, but nothing happens. She looks confused and frantic.

“Tsk tsk. Do you think I’m stupid? The moment I realized you were a witch, I put up runes to prevent you from using your magic. You have no power here, you witch whore.”

The man opens her door and steps in. Flora tries to lunge with what little energy she has but to no avail. There is a silver shackle around her leg I never saw before.

The man grins from ear to ear and takes the metal bowl, smashing it upside her head. The metal shatters. All I can do is sit and watch as he beats her.

The pain of watching her go through this is unbearable. I want to just scream for him to hit me instead.

I hear her bones shatter. I hear her cries, and yet I can do nothing. She lies there. Limp. Tears rolling down her face, in so much pain.

She crawls over to the bars closest to me as she spits up blood. The man unravels a whip laced with silver tips from his belt loop and starts to strike her back.

She turns her body to me, taking the brunt force of his hits. She is screaming, looking at me with need. I try to reach out to her but can’t.

It hurts to watch, but I lie here motionless, unable to look away. With every hit, I feel a piece of myself die.

I stare into Flora’s eyes and watch as they haze over. They fog with a white film, and her screams stop.

This only makes the man hit her harder, angry she isn’t making noise. Her body goes scary still like stone. She isn’t there.

Physically I see her, but her mind is off like when she did the ritual.

Flora stays like that for almost a minute. When her eyes finally clear, she screams in pain again. She somehow manages to mind-link me through the pain.

“~The Goddess told me what I must do. I love you, Asa.~”

With those words, she stands and turns to attack the man again, and he punches her, causing her to fly across the cage and smash into the bars again next to the broken metal.

She lies there for a minute and grabs a silver shard of the bowl. She looks at me with a small smile, tears flowing from her eyes, and mouths, “I love you.”

She takes the shard in hand and brings it to her throat.

She glides it over her neck and I watch as the blood pours from her like a red river, covering the floor as she collapses before me.