A/N: This story has been nominated in the Non-Canon awards in four categories: Best Non-Canon Author, Best Bella/Jacob, Best Lemon, and Best Suspense/Horror. Many thanks to whoever made the nomination. Also, some of you may have missed chapter 36 altogether, as FFN inconsistently sent out the new chapter announcement on Monday. So if this looks confusing, go back and read the previous chapter first.
Warning: Graphic violence continues. Seriously. Very graphic violence.
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June 7
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Bella springs awake, an awful shriek ringing in her ears. When she gasps for air, she realizes that she was the one screaming. Rachel stumbles into the room, hair tangled, makeup free, and wearing her pajamas. Charlie stands in the doorway behind her, frowning but looking less alarmed. It isn't the first time he has been awakened by her nightmares. Bella scrambles to her knees in Jacob's bed and yanks the curtains open, revealing the moonlit backyard and nothing else.
Bella drops the drape and slumps forward, leaning on her hands and knees. Rachel approaches cautiously. "Bella? What was that?"
Charlie clears his throat. "Did you have a nightmare, Bells?"
She shakes her head. "Yes. I mean, no. It was... It was..."
"It was real?" Charlie clarifies.
Bella nods, trying to clear her mind of the awful image, but it is the only thing she can see.
Her father sits on the edge of the bed and moves into her line of sight. "Tell us what you saw," he prompts gently.
Bella's hands move to her neck. She knows now why she has felt a circle of pain choking her for the past several hours. "Razor wire," she whispers.
"Oh, god." Rachel gulps and backs away from the bed.
Billy's voice sounds from the hallway. "What is it? What's going on?" He peers in.
Alarmed, Bella whispers harshly, "Don't tell him!"
Charlie knows as well as Bella that there is no point in giving the lurid details to Jacob's father. He sits up and faces his old friend. "Bella just had a dream. I think she needs a minute to compose herself. Then maybe she can tell us what she knows?" He glances at her, concerned.
"Yeah, okay." But then she catches sight of Billy's terrified expression. "He's still alive," she reassures him.
He sighs in relief. "Oh, thank god. Okay, okay. How about I put on a kettle of tea then, and you can come out to the kitchen when you're ready?"
The room empties, and Bella makes her way to the bathroom and flips on the light. She grips the sink and stares at her reflection and tries to figure out what to say. Certainly she isn't going to disclose her intimate moments with Jacob. But she only got a little glimpse of him, of his corporeal body, before her own shrieks woke her up. She doesn't want to get anyone's hopes up, but she doesn't think she has anything useful to offer. Only horror.
But when she can no longer delay, she makes her way to the kitchen. Coffee is brewing in the pot on the counter, and a kettle of water is on the fire. Rachel turns to her. "It's only, like, four AM. I wasn't sure if we'd want coffee to wake up completely, or chamomile tea to try to go back to sleep."
Bella shakes her head. "There's no way I can go back to sleep now."
"How's your neck?" Charlie asks. Until now, they did not know why Bella felt the sharp circle of pain encircling her, nor why it started to dull, but did not disappear, around midnight.
"Feels the same. Hurts, but not awful. I think I know why." It is a good place to start as any.
"What did you see in your dream?" Rachel asks.
"He's unconscious, I think. Or maybe just asleep. I don't know. When I fell asleep, I was waiting for him. He showed up a bit later, I'm not sure when exactly. In the dream, he was okay. Fine, actually. At first, he didn't look hurt."
"Did he tell you where he is?" Billy wants to know.
"I'm sorry. That's not really how it works. When we're asleep, we can't remember all of this." She gestures around her. "It's really hard to remember anything that happens in real life. When we wake up, we remember the dreams perfectly, but not the other way around. It's really frustrating."
"I guess that makes sense," Charlie muses as Billy slumps dejectedly in his chair. "I mean, you're asleep, right? So it's not like you're thinking straight."
"Right. The dreams are usually located in his bedroom, or sometimes in mine. But if you look out the window, it's different."
"What do you mean?" Rachel asks.
"Out the window, I can see where he really is. Or he can see me. Normally when I look out the window, I just see the backyard. But sometimes it's actually in the middle of the woods. If I go out there, I can actually find him. It's when he's the wolf, actually sleeping in the woods. I've done it a couple times now. And that's how he found me in that vacation house Edward held me in. He got in through my window."
"So the window is a door to the real world?" Rachel's eyes widen.
"Something like that, I guess. So in the dream, I opened the curtain, and I saw him." She sees three sets of hopeful eyes trained on her, and she hates how little she has to offer them. "I only got a glimpse. I don't know much of anything useful."
"Anything is more than we have to go on now!" Charlie insists. "What did you see?"
Bella stares hard at the wood grain of the table. "He's alone, for now. Passed out or asleep, like I said, I'm not sure. He's cuffed to this... this thing. Like a great big metal X in the middle of the room."
"What's the room like? Any windows? Any distinguishing features?" Charlie prompts.
Bella bows her head, trying to shrink into herself. "I didn't see any windows. I was probably situated where the door must have been. It's like a... like a dungeon."
Rachel's eyebrows rise up. "A dungeon? Like, bars on a cell and stone walls and stuff?"
"No, just a brown room with no windows. Does it matter? He's shackled to a metal thing in the middle of an empty room."
"Is he hurt?" Billy asks quietly.
"Nothing more than before, I don't think. Nothing new. All the aches and pains feel, just, less. Probably because he's not awake to notice them."
"That's a blessing, anyway," Billy sighs.
"I'm sorry I don't have more information," Bella apologizes.
"Don't apologize! But maybe you should try to go back to sleep and learn more? Look around?" Billy suggests.
Rachel agrees. "Go through the window if you can."
Charlie frowns. "But what if she gets stuck there?"
"But she's really here. As soon as she wakes up, she's just back here, right?" Rachel argues.
"Maybe," Charlie shakes his head. "But she doesn't remember real life when she's there. How's she even going to think to crawl through?"
"Maybe she will, maybe she won't. But it's the best we've got," Rachel answers.
"I think we should tell the pack first. Then try to go back to sleep," Billy adds.
"I don't think I can sleep," Bella denies.
Rachel insists, "Take a pill, then!"
Charlie shakes his head. "Hold up. Let's tell the pack first."
Billy dials his sister, trying to reach Collin, but learns that he actually left to join the search for Jacob and Jasmine hours ago. Other than Jacob, he has the farthest range for spirit walking. So he left in wolf form to journey to Jacob's last known location, the storage facility, and spirit walk from there. Sam had Alpha ordered Quil back to the reservation in case the vampires appear there, which was actually an excuse to allow his injuries to heal. The rest are combing the area around the storage facility in ever widening circles to try to pick up a trail.
Bella returns to bed dejectedly. Her body throbs in pain wherever Jacob was injured, although the sensation is rather dulled. Between adrenaline, anxiety, pain, and despair, she is unable to return to sleep. But she knows that the only way for her to help Jacob is to return to her dreams to learn more about where he is being held captive.
Inevitably, trying to fall asleep only results in more frustrating insomnia. She rolls over and buries her face in the pillow, gripping it tightly with both hands. But when she shifts her head to the side to take a breath, she opens her eyes only to see Jacob's incorporeal form bending over her.
She reaches out for him involuntarily and cries out his name, stumbling off the bed and into nothing when he isn't actually there to break her fall.
Bells? His voice is faint and hollow, but she can hear him.
"Oh my god, Jake? Is that really you?" She picks herself up and puts her hands out. Her hand looks like it should be touching his chest, but she feels only the slightest increase in the temperature of the air.
Yeah. It's me. I found you! I really found you! He, too, reaches for her, the tips of his fingers against her face. She feels a light tingle on her skin.
Bella resists the urge to close her eyes and lean into his hand. "Jake, where are you? Are you spirit walking?"
Yeah. I was dreaming that wonderful dream with you, but all of a sudden you were gone. I woke up just then. They had left me alone, and I realized that I should try to spirit walk and find help.
"So where are you? The pack is looking. They tracked you to a storage unit, but by the time they got there, you were gone!"
They saw my eagle and realized they had been followed. We weren't there very long. Alec incapacitated us again, and then they moved us. I woke up in this, like, kinky torture sex room.
Bella hears footsteps approaching. No one else had fallen asleep yet either, but they can hear her talking. Charlie and Rachel peer in from either side of the doorway. Rachel looks confused, but her father has already figured out what's going on. "Is he here right now?" Charlie asks.
"You can't see him?" Bella asks.
Rachel frowns. "See who?"
They can't see me, Jacob explains.
Bella points at Jacob, but to Rachel and Charlie it looks like she's pointing at the dresser against the opposite wall. "He's here! Jacob's here! He's spirit walking!"
Billy's voice calls out, "Thank the spirits! Is he okay? Are you okay, son?"
Tell him I'm fine, Bells. No permanent damage so far.
"He says he's fine! No permanent damage."
Charlie interrupts. "That's great and all, but where is he? If he can tell us, the pack can come get him."
I'm not exactly sure. When I left my body, I just had this incredible urge to be with you. I was here sort of in a blink of an eye. But I saw the building from above before I ended up here. It's a mansion. Really big. Black roof, white siding. It's on a lot of land, several acres. There's a little pond behind it. I think it's pretty far south of here, but I'm not sure how far. I really don't know where it is.
Bella repeats his description before Charlie asks about Jasmine.
She's being held in another room rig... But before he can finish the sentence, Bella feels a chill across her body, and Jacob is gone. She yells, "Dammit!" and struggles not to burst into tears. "Come back!" she yells. "Jacob!"
Billy visibly slumps down. "He's gone, isn't he?"
Bella crumples to the bed and nods miserably. "They must have woken him up or something. He's gone."
"Well, if he can't come to you," Charlie urges, "You try going to him."
"Yeah," Rachel nods. "We'll tell the pack what you told us. And you go to sleep."
Her father agrees. "And I'll work with what he told us. Big white mansion, south of here, on a lot of land, with a little pond in the back."
"But I can't fall asleep!" Bella protests. "All I can do is think about sleeping, and freak out, and that makes me more awake!"
Billy rolls away. "I've got some allergy pills around here somewhere. Clear up your sinuses and knock you out like a light." He returns a minute later with two little pink pills in his palm. Bella takes them obligingly and returns to Jacob's bed. After half an hour, her exhaustion and the sedative combine to draw her under, and she sleeps.
X-x-x-x-X
Jacob is pulled away from Bella by the sensation of drowning. He opens his eyes only to see gray and nothing else. His head is covered with sopping wet fabric, and he is being doused with frigid water. He gasps for air, but inhales only water. He struggles and tries to shake his head free, but concrete hands hold his head in place, and what little movement he manages only digs the wire further into his neck. Just when he thinks he'll pass out from lack of air, the water stops, and the cloth is removed from his face.
He gulps in air and blinks his vision clear. Caius is standing directly in front of him on a stepstool to raise his height above Jacob's, and he has an empty cooler of water in his hands. "What the fuck have you been doing in here?"
"What?" Jacob blinks at him, trying to appear confused. He doesn't know how Caius would have been able to tell the difference between his spirit walk and his unconsciousness. After all, when he last left the room, he had bashed Jacob's skull so hard against the back of the cross that he was knocked out. His skull still throbs.
"Don't play dumb with me!" Caius roars, and the wet hood descends over his face again. But this time he is prepared. He manages to take in a lungful of air before the water descends on him again. He struggles enough that they cannot tell that he is, in fact, sucking the water into his mouth and drinking it. This is the only fluid intake he has had since he was in the forest.
Soon enough, however, he does feel as if he is drowning. He coughs and chokes and spots of lights flash in his vision, but then the water stops again. The fabric is still pulled tight over his face, but he can get a little bit of air through it. When he realizes he can breathe if he stays calm, he tries to suck as much water from the fabric as he can, and when he hears Caius step up the ladder again, probably with a fresh container of water, he sucks in a huge breath and holds it. This time, although his lungs burn by the time the episode is over, Jacob knows that Caius doesn't actually have enough water in any one jug to actually drown him. The fabric stays on his face, but Caius yells, "Tell me what the fuck you were doing!"
"Being unconscious," Jacob answers, his voice distorted. Then the fabric disappears.
"Then what the hell is that?" Caius glares at him and points at his shoulder.
Jacob honestly doesn't know what he's talking about. "What?"
"That!" Caius spits out, flailing his hand at Jacob's neck, then gesturing wildly at the floor. Jacob looks down in confusion, seeing only the huge puddle of water that has accumulated. And then he breathes in, inhaling the scent of his own seed that had spilled on the floor after his dream with Bella. And then he blushes.
It actually makes Caius laugh. "What, now you're embarrassed?"
Jacob looks down at himself, ears burning. He is naked and trussed up in a BDSM playroom, and only now is he self-conscious. He is fairly certain he was alone during his dream, since when he awoke, there was no one with him. But he has no idea what to tell them.
Caius prompts, "What on earth were you doing in here while we were gone? I mean, that is the real purpose of this room, but it's still rather unexpected!"
Jacob tries to turn the tables on them. He doesn't want them to know about his psychic connection to Bella. He narrows his eyes at Caius. "I should be asking what you perverts did to me! You're the one who knocked me in the head so much I passed out. You were there, you know you did! Between then and now I was unconscious. So you tell me!"
Caius scowls at him in distaste. "Nice try, but I don't think so. I don't buy your little ignorant act."
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Jacob yells.
"Then explain to me this. I've cut your skin, sliced you open from stem to stern, and not a scratch is left except where the wire is still embedded in your neck. Yes?"
"Yeah," Jacob admits, still confused as to the direction the conversation has taken.
"Then what on earth is that?" Caius points at his shoulder.
"What's what?"
"That!" Caius gesticulates.
"I can't see, I don't know what you're talking about!"
Caius flashes to the wardrobe and returns with an ornate hand mirror, holding it in front of Jacob's eyes. Jacob gasps. His heart stutters in his chest. Over his clavicle is a moon-shaped scar. It looks old and healed over, but Bella left her mark on him in their dream not long before, and both he and Caius are certain it wasn't there before Caius left. "I didn't think it was possible," he murmurs.
"What's possible?" Caius demands.
Jacob's eyes snap from his reflection onto the angry face of the vampire, who tosses the mirror in the corner, where it shatters. He tells a partial truth as he searches for a plausible explanation. "I didn't think it was possible for my skin to scar. Not from something as simple as a bite, certainly." Then his expression darkens, and he snarls, "Did one of you leeches bite me? Fuck, is that what you did while I was out?"
Caius's eyes blaze as he glares at Alec over Jacob's shoulder. "Did you? Is that what you did? Did you try to turn him while I was hunting?"
Alec sounds horrified. "What? Of course not! His blood smells repulsive, and I knew you were on your way back with food! Why would I do that?"
Caius examines Alec's expression closely before dropping his gaze back to the mark on Jacob's skin. "It isn't his bite. We've been feeding together for centuries, and I know what his bite looks like. That's not the right shape." Then he grabs Jacob's chin in his hand and hisses in his face, "What the hell were you doing in here?"
"Getting bitten and molested, apparently!" Jacob snaps back. "I sure as Hell didn't do that to myself!"
Caius retaliates with a flick of his hand, and Alec tugs the cloth tightly over his head again. They repeat their simulated drowning over and over, but Jacob has nothing else to tell them. In between gasps, he marvels that Bella's mark appeared on him. He marked her in this fashion, of course, and also in a dream, which was remarkable in and of itself. So it should come as no surprise that she can mark him this way as well, except for the fact that his skin does not scar.
When they finally tug the hood off his head again, Jacob spits water from his mouth and says, "Seriously, waterboarding? Ripping a page out of the CIA's manual? If cutting me to ribbons didn't work, why do you think this is going to make me tell you anything? And you know as well as I do that you knocked me out yourself, and I obviously didn't escape while you were gone. So what could I possibly have to say to you?"
Disgusted and exasperated, Caius and Alec finally step away and into a corner behind him. They whisper to each other very quietly, but he is able to catch most of their conversation. Caius accuses Alec of leaving Jacob unguarded and allowing something to happen. Alec insists he had been interrogating Jasmine as instructed, but would have heard anything amiss in this room. He reports hearing some groaning, which he thought was due to Jacob's pain, but nothing else. And Jasmine obeyed Jacob's order perfectly, answering not one of his questions, even the harmless ones. Caius grows increasingly agitated.
He wants to learn how to control the wolves. They mutter to each other about their options, but without knowing if they can harness Jacob's control over Jasmine and the rest of the pack, they have no idea of their own strength. More than once, Caius considers beating Jacob again, but Alec reminds him that it gained them nothing before. But threatening Jasmine, on the other hand, produced results.
Alec disappears to retrieve her.
She looks even more disheveled than she did when he last saw her. Her hair is a tangled mess and her dress is filthy and torn. But rather than being nearly mummified in chains, she shuffles in with her ankles and wrists shackled together. Her eyes are bloodshot, and she has obviously been crying.
He asks her, "Are you okay?"
She nods, free to answer his questions even if she is unable to speak to Alec and Caius. At first, she doesn't notice the mark. The razor wire wrapped around his neck is much more striking than a healed-looking scar. The waterboarding had washed away much of the dried blood that had streaked his chest, but each small cut oozes a continuous, slow stream of bright red blood that trickles down his torso. Were it not for his incredible ability to heal, he would already be dead. But even his body is unable to close these wounds when the razors are still embedded in his flesh, and eventually, he will succumb to blood loss if they do not remove the wire.
She tries to move forward, but Alec keeps a tight hold on her. She is able to mouth, "Are you all right?" at him as new tears well up.
He gently reassures her as best he can. "I'm okay. I'm okay."
"You don't look okay!" Caius laughs. "You look half dead."
Her eyes widen as she moves in front of him and spots Bella's mark on his skin. It is stained with his blood, but still visible. She is as shocked as the vampires at its appearance, but she says nothing.
But Caius notes her expression. "So. That means something to you, mmm?"
She frowns. She has heard of marking a mate, but knows almost nothing about it, nor does she know that Jacob marked Bella in a dream, even though she knows they share them. And at any rate, she can't answer due to Jacob's Alpha order. Caius pushes, "Tell me what that is."
She just blinks at him.
Alec interrupts. "I think she really can't. She can't go against his injunction. She wouldn't even answer obvious questions. I asked her if she was a girl, she couldn't answer that. I asked her if she has nine fingers or ten, she didn't answer that either. She hasn't been able to answer anything since he ordered her not to."
Caius murmurs jealously, "What power you wield over your subjects. Incredible." He then begins to circle Jasmine. After one revolution, he stops behind her and touches one index finger to her shoulder, very lightly. But then he tugs the ripped collar of her dress aside, baring her shoulder. Jasmine cringes away from him, but he just moves with her. "And this subject is so... appealing. Will she do anything you tell her to?"
"That isn't how it works," Jacob lies, desperately trying to prevent whatever horrors Caius has in store for Jasmine.
Caius shakes his head. "Oh. But I think it is. Think of what fun you could have with such a power!" He sweeps his hand out, indicating the room at large. "It makes a place like this entirely superfluous, doesn't it? Who needs restraints when you can just tell her to do what you want?"
Caius flicks two fingers toward Jacob as a signal to Alec, and the smaller vampire grabs the cat o' nine tails from the wardrobe and stands right in front of Jacob, ready to lash his chest. Caius presses himself against Jasmine's back, and she trembles with rage. She nearly phases right there, but he chides, "No, no, no, my dear. You'll stay just like this unless you want him beaten further. But I would like some answers out of you." Jasmine just snarls in response.
But then Caius moves his hand to her waist and tortuously slowly slinks it up and around to cup her breast. He glances at Jacob. "Have you ever partaken of this lovely specimen? Ever told her to get down on her hands and knees before you like the dog she really is?"
"Fuck you! Get your hands off her!"
Caius squeezes her breast so hard she cries out in pain. "Two choices, then. If she insists on silence, I'll bend her over that chair and take her in front of you, and then young Alec can have a turn. Or she can answer my questions."
"Go to Hell!" Jacob screams. But he spots the horrified expression in Jasmine's eyes, and his face falls.
Caius sees his defeat. "Lift it. Lift your injunction!"
Jacob whispers, "You can speak, Jasmine."
"Get off me!" She bats away Caius's hand and rushes forward to Jacob, but Caius yanks her back before she can touch him. She immediately accuses them of causing the scar on Jacob's shoulder. "Did you do that to him?"
Caius rolls his eyes and lets her go. "Do you think he'd still be alive if we had? You tell us? What is that?"
"I don't know," she answers honestly. "It looks like a bite mark."
"I can see that," Caius answers irritably. "I want to know how it got there!"
"I've been in the other room! How should I know?"
"There are only four of us here," Caius says slowly and angrily. "And only three of you were in this building when it happened. Alec says he was with you the entire time, and I know that's not his bite. And surely he didn't do it to himself. So what the hell is it?"
Jasmine isn't sure if she is supposed vouch for Alec, but he was with her until Caius returned. "He was. I was with him, he was with me, until you came to get him. So as far as I know, one of you just did that to him just now!"
Caius grows tired of her answer. He grabs the whip out of the wardrobe and yanks her by her hair, forcing her to her knees. He strikes her brutally across the back, and she screams in pain as Jacob yells at him to stop. "Tell me what that is!"
"I don't know!" she wails.
"Tell me!" Caius rages at Jacob.
"She doesn't know! I don't know!" he screams back. Caius lashes her again, and Jacob yells, "I've already asked her to answer, don't you remember? She has to obey me. She really doesn't know, and neither do I!"
Alec jumps in. "Maybe she doesn't know, but she has plenty of other answers."
Caius steps away from her and runs a hand through his hair, trying to calm himself. "Of course. You're right." He kneels in front of Jasmine, on her hands and knees on the floor. "Tell me about the rest of you. I know that he has an array of abilities. Do the rest of you?"
Jasmine opens her mouth to say yes, but instead, only a grunt comes out. She realizes suddenly that although Jacob lifted her order of silence, he did not lift his order that prohibited her from answering their questions. Her mouth gapes open, and as the seconds pass by, Caius becomes more suspicious. He raises the whip above her head before she decides to try something else. She can't give away vital information, but can she lie? "No," she whispers. Emboldened, she continues feeding him untruths. "He's the only one."
"So he is the shaman!" Caius crows triumphantly. "Where are the rest of them?"
"I don't know." This is a truth that she can speak. She can't give him information she doesn't possess. "I'm in here with you!"
"Do they live in the forest where you ambushed us?"
"Yes." The lie falls easily from her lips.
"And all of you have to obey him? Do everything he says?"
She isn't sure how to answer this question. They have to obey his Alpha orders, but Jacob normally makes requests instead of issuing those. She tries to say no, but "Yes" comes out of her mouth.
"So if he told you kill yourself, you would?"
Jasmine just stares at him, wide-eyed. Caius doesn't care at her lack of response. He is learning what he wants to know already. "And if he commanded you to fight for me, you would?"
Again, she remains silent. Caius just smirks at her. A plan develops in his mind.
Alec interrupts. Caius's plans of ruling the vampire world without Aro mean little to him. He is here for revenge for Jane. "What did you do to my sister?"
Jasmine wants to deny that they touched her, but Jacob's injunction keeps her from answering this truthfully. She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out.
Alec screams, "What did you do to her, you bitch?"
And at her silence, he snaps. He flies at her, nails and fangs bared. He lands on her, toppling her backward, and scratches wildly at her arms and face. She shrieks and tries to shove him off, but he is tenacious.
Behind him, Jacob yells, "Get off her! Don't touch her! Jasmine, answer his question! The truth now, the truth!"
"I don't know what happened to her!" she yells. "None of us do! When she left, she was fine!"
Alec grabs the chain between her shackles and uses it to pin her arms down with one hand while he lands punch after punch to her face.
Jacob frantically tries to stop it. "She's telling the truth! Stop hurting her! I ordered her to tell the truth! We don't know what happened to them!"
Caius places a hand on Alec's shoulder, and the blows stop. Alec falls heavily off of Jasmine. She rolls to the side, at the base of the wardrobe, and spits blood from her mouth and wheezes, "We don't know. We really don't know what happened to them."
Caius says quietly, "They could still be lying. I don't know how we could possibly tell, although he did just order her to tell the truth. But I think I have a lie detector test on hand." Alec looks up at him and catches his smirk, and they grin at one another. Caius nods toward the door. "Bring it in."
Alec runs out of the room. Caius removes his cloak and hangs it on the wardrobe's open door. Jasmine hears the muffled sound of a jingle from a hidden pocket at the movement. She exchanges a quick glance with Jacob while Caius's back is turned.
A minute later, Alec returns dragging two people behind him. A woman and a man, both middle aged and wearing matching wedding bands, blink in confusion at the suffocating smoke surrounding them.
"Ah, you brought our dinner." He turns back to Jacob. "Now. These two humans are already dead. You know this. They aren't walking out of here. But their end? Well, that's up to you. You can tell us what we want to know willingly, and they will die painless deaths. Alec can leave his mist surrounding them, and they will just slip away. But if you don't tell us what we want to know, well. I think you know what will happen then."
Jacob pulls uselessly against his shackles. "Leech, were you not listening? We can't tell you what we don't know! If we killed them, we'd happily take credit for it! I'll tell you about every single bloodsucker I've ever killed right now. But we didn't touch them!"
Caius feigns disappointment. "Ah, such a shame. So stubborn." He shakes his head. "It's too bad. For them, at least. I rather like my meals to have a little bit of fight in them!"
And Alec pulls away the mist.
As they regain awareness, the couple begins to cringe in fear. The man asks in a quavering voice, "What the hell is going on here?"
The woman catches sight of Jasmine first. "Oh my god. Oh my god. What have you done to that poor girl?" Then she sees Jacob strung up, naked, and bleeding, and she screams.
"Ah, the mouthwatering smell of fear!" Caius leans over the woman.
The man starts to blubber, "What do you want? What do you want? We've got money. Take it all! We have more, you can clean out our bank accounts!"
Caius laughs delightedly. "And the begging! My second favorite sound in the world, second to the screaming!"
"Caius, let them go!" Jacob yells. "We don't know anything! We would tell you if we did!"
The woman stares at Alec. "Shit. You're just a kid!" She actually glares at Caius. "Let him go! Let the child go! What do you need him for?"
Alec grins ferally at her. "I'm no child, my dear, and I don't need your protection."
Caius grabs the woman by her hair and lifts her off her feet. She struggles and twists in the air, and Alec grabs her wrist. "Let me go! Let me go!"
Jacob screams at them to free her, while her husband scoots back toward the door.
"Last chance," Caius taunts Jacob. "Tell me now, or you will see the effect of my venom!" And he bares his glistening teeth.
"Fuck you, you bloodsucking monster! I don't know anything! I don't know!"
And the woman screams as Alec buries his teeth in the woman's wrist. The husband yells and flings himself around Alec's legs, only managing to injure his own shoulder in the process. Caius cackles and bares the woman's neck and sinks in his fangs, and the woman thrashes and shrieks. Jacob's shouts add to the din.
And Jasmine sees her chance. Neither Alec nor Caius is facing toward her. She rises silently to her feet and slides her hand out to Caius's cloak, reaching for his keys. But the chain binding her wrists to her ankles prevents her movement. She grits her teeth and tries to squeeze her hand as small as possible, yanking at it and trying to free it. Her wrists are small compared to the cuffs, but she still cannot slip out. Finally she takes a deep breath and with a painful pop, dislocates her left thumb. Her hand slides through.
Immediately, she reaches for the cloak, searching for his keys. She realizes her dislocated thumb is useless and shoves it back into place with a wince, then reaches back into the cloak. Jacob sees her out of the corner of his eye and raises his shouts to screams to give her cover. She closes her hands around the small piece of metal and grins in victory.
Just then, the dying woman yells, "Aaron, run! Go!"
He yanks at Alec in futility and cries, "No, I'm not leaving you behind!"
Jasmine pulls her chains taut to keep them from clinking together and slowly makes her way across the room. Her first instinct is not to free herself, nor even the human man and woman, but Jacob.
Irritated, Alec kicks Aaron away, and the man lands by the wardrobe. Seeing his chance, he grabs the deadliest looking weapon he finds, the mace. He doesn't hesitate. He rushes at Caius.
But Caius, of course, is much faster than than the human. Caius drops the writhing woman to the floor before Aaron gets close enough. And when Aaron swings the mace at his face, he deftly catches the chain mid-swing and yanks it out of the man's hands. Aaron's jaw drops open in surprise, and he catches sight of the door. He sprints for it and makes it into the hallway before Caius laughs wickedly and follows him out. Alec remains in the room with the dying woman, her weeping filling the air, her blood running freely down her neck and hand. His back faces Jacob and Jasmine. He bends over her, yanking down her pants to access her femoral artery at the top of her thigh, and sinks his teeth back in.
The distraction is tragic but perfect. Alec hardly notices anything in his feeding frenzy, and Caius isn't even in the room. They hear the screams of his victim somewhere down the hallway, and Caius's dark laughter.
So Jasmine reaches Jacob, her progress across the room extremely slow to ensure she stays out of sight of both vampires and remain silent in her movement, no small feat considering the chains draped in front of her. There are seven keys on the ring, and it takes her three tries to figure out which one opens this lock. Silently, she opens the manacle restraining Jacob's right wrist. He mouths silently to her that she should finish freeing herself, but she shakes her head. She hardly cares what happens to her, so long as he can get free. Not only does she know that it is her fault they were captured, but his pain hurts her more than her own.
Seeing that she won't obey him without an Alpha order, he switches to trying to remove the razor wire from his neck while she goes for his other wrist. The edges bite into his fingertips, but he manages to unwind the excruciating choker.
But then their luck runs out. Jasmine's chains clink as she stretches for his left wrist, and Alec lifts his head from his meal just as she is inserting the key.
"Watch out!" Jacob whispers, not wanting to alert Caius as well.
Jasmine spins around, and the keyring falls to the floor before the tumblers fall into place. Jacob struggles to try to reach it as Jasmine phases on the spot, but his left arm bound to the cross makes it impossible. Her small stature saves her from being crippled as she transforms. Her cuffs do not budge and bite deeply into her flesh, but not deeply enough to sever through muscle or tendon. She flings herself on Alec in a rage before he manages to throw up his hands, and her powerful jaws lock on his screaming head, ripping it free from his torso, as a cacophony of voices fills her mind. All of her brothers yell at once, and she is unable to distinguish them from one another, as they encourage her, beg for information, panic about the sight they see through her eyes, and ask her where she is. She has no answers.
Caius appears in the room only a moment later. The first thing he sees is Jacob, one arm free, rather than Jasmine bent over Alec in the corner. He flashes to Jacob in a rage and grabs his free arm, shoving it back against the beam.
He yells, "What the hell is going on in here?"
But before he realizes what has gone on behind him, Jacob screams a command. "Run! Crush the head and run! Get out of here!"
Jasmine despises the Alpha order. She wants to stay here and fight for him. But they all know that she isn't a match for Caius even with full range of movement. So she obeys, the rest of the pack wishing her speed in her mind. She gallops away as best she can, but the chains bind her. She tries to snap them apart, but doesn't possess the strength. But Alec's disembodied head is no match for her teeth. She crunches the vile, stony flesh as she flees through the hallway and around a corner. Sharp chunks fall from her mouth and scatter along the rug. Her own blood runs down her paws where the alloy bites into her flesh. She expects to hear heavy footsteps behind her at any second, but agonizing moments pass, and all she hears behind her are yelled epithets and blows. Just as she sees a crystal chandelier and a broken, lifeless body on the broad staircase before her, she hears it.
Jacob is screaming behind her. It is pure agony. She wills herself to turn around, to aid him. Her brothers beg her to turn. But she has to obey his command. Her paws stumble down the stairs, every step causing jolting pain in her dislocated thumb or in the slices the metal makes in her skin. Behind her, Caius curses, and then she hears a sickening crack, and Jacob's scream becomes an excruciating howl. And as the last tiny fragments of Alec's skull fall from her lips and she crashes through the heavy oak front door, the very worst sound of all. Silence.
Tears stream out of Jasmine's eyes as she trips away from the house. She doesn't look back. She makes it halfway to the trees before she hears Caius behind her. She yanks as hard as she can, but her bones will give way before the chains will. She hears the panicked voices of her brothers and sister in her mind, some screaming at her to run faster, others begging for information about Jacob.
Sam's voice finally silences the rest. Enough! Jasmine, turn to look. Just long enough to see where he is.
Without stopping, she turns her head, and to her horror, sees that he is gaining on her. He is nearly upon her. Sam asks, Can you outrun him?
No. These chains...
Then fight! Turn and fight! Kill him like you killed Alec! And she does. This is exactly what she wants to do, but the fact that Sam's Beta order is able to override Jacob's Alpha command terrorizes her. But she obeys.
She whirls and leaps, and Caius meets her midair. Her bulk forces him back, and she lands on top of him. But the fall is meaningless to him. She snaps at him with her jaws, trying to get them around his head, but he reaches up and catches hold of her snout with his right hand and her chin with his left. He tries to pry them apart, and barely manages to keep her from biting his face off. She uses her only free paw to swipe at him, tearing out a chunk of his shoulder.
But he uses her chains to his advantage. He catches the metal linking her ankles together with his foot and shoves, and she loses her balance over him. As she begins to tip over, he grabs the freely hanging manacle and yanks, tripping her entirely. She lands on her side, and he is above her in an instant.
She hears her brothers begging her to rise, and she flings him away with her free paw. It only slows him down long enough for her to struggle to her feet. But she doesn't have time to plant them before he springs at her again. She bares her teeth just in time, catching his forearm with her canines. She snaps her jaw shut, but comes away with only a ribbon of his flesh, and he rolls away from her. By the time she turns to face him again, he is gone.
Seth yells a warning. Above you!
She steps to the side, but not quickly enough to avoid Caius. He lands perpendicularly across her back. Her quick movement is the only thing that prevents him from landing astride her and grabbing her head to snap her neck. From this position, it is all he can do to hang onto her as she runs forward and thrashes, trying to dislodge him. But he keeps a firm grip on the fur of her left flank with his left hand and manages to get his right around her throat.
She bucks and twists, but she can't breathe, and he will not let go. Her lungs burn for air and her vision grows dim. After a few more steps, she can run no more. She sees flashing lights in her eyes as her brain uses the last of the oxygen in her system, and she collapses to the ground.
She hardly feels the pain when Caius begins to pummel her ribs, back, and finally her skull. She blinks in and out of consciousness and isn't certain which of the voices in her mind are her dead grandparents calling her home, her brothers willing her to rise, and Caius's angry rant. She feels herself being dragged across the lawn and back into the house. Her boneless limbs refuse to budge when he pulls her up the stairs, nor when he pulls her down the hallway.
She isn't certain if it is a nightmare or a living Hell when she feels herself stop moving and opens her eyes. She is back in the torture chamber, sprawled out across the floor at the foot of her Alpha and imprint.
She hardly notices that Jacob is still restrained to the St. Andrew's Cross. She doesn't register that his right wrist is now purple from a fracture where it is cuffed to the metal. She doesn't realize that his head lolls forward, and his eyes are closed. All she can see is his chest ripped apart, his ribs broken, the cartilage along the left side of his sternum separated to expose Jacob's heart.
And she finally understands what Caius has been trying to tell her. "Do you see? Do you see what I've done to your precious shaman? Did you hear him scream when I tore him open and crushed his heart with my fist? Could you feel it when he died? Now, what do you think I will do with you?"
He keeps talking, but she stops listening to him. All she hears are her sister's and brothers' agonized howls in her mind.
X-x-x-x-X
A/N: Next update will be on Monday.