Hey Everyone! It's been awhile-writing on a slower pace lately. Hope this longer than usual chapter makes up for it. Another pushing the envelope on T rating chapter-hope everyone is ok with it. I use the Black Butler anime as my guide post-it is technically a "Teen" anime but it goes dark (I think even darker than I've ever gone in my stories) so I figure if it can get away with Teen, my stuff can. However, open to changing the rating if what I do is too strong for teen-it is guesswork on my part. Anyway, hope you enjoy and thanks for reading as always! Stay safe out there and get the COVID vaccine if you can.
Eostre's knees hurt. The decadent red carpet leading to Reynardo's throne evidently wasn't padded underneath. With her arms still lashed to her sides, getting up would be difficult. She would no doubt fall down the stairs as Reynardo's previous companion had done, and she was damned if she was going to give Reynardo that satisfaction. As much as she would have liked to have kept her gaze averted, she didn't want him grabbing her chin again. She kept him in her baleful gaze as she would any threat.
Reynardo's hand lashed out with a speed that Eostre couldn't counter (even if she had not been bound) and struck her across the cheek. Eostre cried out instinctively as the blow forced her off balance. She would fall like Spiritus had, she thought in horror, just to be brought short as Reynardo grabbed her ropes like a handle and pulled her back upright. She was back kneeling before him again.
"What the hell did you do that for," Eostre demanded, the pain and shock making her lash out in anger.
"I just wanted to establish the rules of our little game," Reynardo commented conversationally. "You are in my power, little girl. I just gave you a taste of what I can do if you don't play by my rules."
Eostre could feel blood dripping down the corner of her lip, no doubt as a result of one of Reynardo's gaudy jeweled rings having gouged her, coinciding with the icy dread down trickling down her spine. She would not snivel, cower, or beg though. She would give him nothing to work with.
"And what rules are they exactly," she ground out, glaring at him with cold hatred. "Did I give you any indication that I would resist? You have already seen to it that I cannot run or fight," she concluded with icy logic.
"Of course you will resist," Reynardo replied as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I can see it in your eyes. In your very stance. When you've had as many women on their knees before me as I have, you can recognize both types. One type meekly begs for her life, thinking to appeal to my, humanity. The other, less common type, like you, is smart enough to know meekly begging will avail her nothing, and will resist at every turn. At least as long as I allow it," he added dangerously.
"If whoever hired you is devoted to the light, won't they take issue with me being handed over to them, harmed," Eostre returned, appealing to logic, as she had already figured out long before his comments that he had no sense of mercy.
Reynardo met her gaze with amusement. "And this is why the second type of woman is so much more interesting! You will be so much more fun to break, and believe me, there are so many ways to break someone without leaving a visible trace."
Eostre shivered with revulsion. She didn't want to know what ways of subtle torture he would try next. If he wasn't above striking her, there were far worse things he could do to her. Try to keep him talking, she thought, ask any question that popped into her head. Even if he didn't answer, it could stall. For what though? It's not like she could expect a rescue. Still, she had no interest in anything else Reynardo may have in mind.
And he might strike her again simply for speaking. She was willing to take that risk though, she thought with a flare of furious defiance. He wouldn't get her to shut up unless he knocked her out or killed her. And either of those options would be visible to his light serving superior. Words were all she had left, and she would use them, whether he liked or not.
If he had already cast her as the defiant type, she might as well oblige him. She ignored the fact that the thought echoed in her mind in Ardyn's voice. It was so like something he would say, she thought. Perhaps they were more alike than she realized.
"Who hired you? Do you know why they want me," she asked, tension in her voice no matter how she tried to keep her tones neutral.
Reynardo raised a lavender eyebrow. "Trying to get me to talk? To delay the inevitable," he taunted.
Eostre bit her lip in frustration. He was as clever as he was vicious. But then again, he had already mentioned that he had had others in his power like this before. She was certainly not the first. If she had her arms free, she would be the last one he would ever treat like this.
"I will find out eventually. It wouldn't do you any harm to tell me at this point," Eostre reasoned. Knowledge was power, even if power was an illusion in this case. If she was going to be abused, at least she would have some background as to why she had come to this asshole's notice.
"Business rules, dear," Reynardo drawled. "I never divulge my employers. As to why they want you, who cares? That's incidental to me. I do hope your presence brings Ardyn Lucis Caelum to my door. I'd much rather have him tied up and kneeling in front of me. Ah, that dreamboat," he purred, making it obvious it wasn't for revenge reasons that he wanted Ardyn.
There was no point in bluffing that help was forthcoming. It actually gave her perverse pleasure to crush his offputting dream. "If you were hoping he'd mount some kind of rescue, you're wrong," she stated firmly. "He doesn't care what happens to me. You won't be able to suck his blood," she added with malicious triumph.
Reynardo's eyes narrowed as his grip tightened on her rope. "I'll just have to suck yours then, darling," he cooed. "Your lifeforce will be nothing compared to his, but I need my sustenance after all."
Eostre reeled back appalled. "You are a vampire," she gasped out.
"Still harping on that," Reynardo replied, laughing derisively. "Your mind fails to even conceive of what I am."
"And what would that be then," Eostre demanded. Not that she cared one way or the other or wanted to hear his life story, but playing to his ego may keep him talking even longer.
"I consume life forces, not blood," Reynardo replied smugly. "Blood is just the most convenient conduit. I don't have the luxury of Ardyn's gift of immortality. I have to supply my own means of longevity. Human, animal, daemon. All suffice for me. The less willing and more defiant the meal is, the better the taste. It is second only to daemon in quality."
Eostre didn't know if she was more horrified or disgusted. "You've consumed daemons," she asked, trying to digest what she had just heard.
"Oh, don't give me that look, honeybun," Reynardo taunted. "Daemons were living things just like you. Anything that lives can be food if you have adventurous enough tastes. Ah, daemons," he broke off in fond remembrance. "Their life force—that was something else. It was like the most potent drug. You knew it was bad for you, but it tasted sooo good," Reynardo smacked his lips. "If only Ardyn would come to me. Oh, what a flavor he would have! It would be just like sampling daemons again," he added wistfully.
Eostre retched, bile rising to dangerous levels.
Reynardo cocked his head inquisitively, long lavender hair sliding down his satin-clad shoulder. "Hmm, I wonder if I can collect life force from somebody's vomit," he mused. "I've never tried."
It was sheer will that kept Eostre from giving him the opportunity to try. A few deep breaths later, she was able to at least speak. "So, you are immortal like Ardyn," she asked. If he were immortal too, there'd be no chance in hell she could fight back against anything he did. That also left him a major threat to Ardyn. She was glad Ardyn was too much of a jerk to even think of trying to rescue her. It left him safe for now at least, regardless of what it was leaving her for.
"I could never be like Ardyn no matter how hard I try. He was truly the master of all. Immortality, darkness. He was a God," Reynardo replied reverently.
Someone else who had had ties to daemons and had been immortal would have been a major threat to Ardyn during the years of darkness. Where had Reynardo been? Why hadn't Ardyn known of him? "If you like him so much, why didn't you approach him during the ten years of darkness," Eostre asked in an attempt to find out. "He would have enjoyed a loyal subject."
Reynardo yanked at her ropes, forcing her to her feet. Eostre realized she had said something very wrong. She could see from his diabolical gaze that stalling was over, and she had just asked her final question.
"I am nobody's subject," he replied, voice tight with fury. "I am a King in my own right. Ardyn may have had Lucis, but I had this. This sceptered isle, soil formed from the charred remains of the delectable plague victims sent here so long ago. The path paved with their shredded bones, spiced with the essence of the daemons Ardyn saw fit to give to the world. Ardyn knew nothing of this land. It was all mine. Everyone here, living or dead, is mine. As are you, Eostre, merely by setting foot here."
He tugged her forward, pulling her onto his lap. Eostre struggled, kicking, aiming for anything tender. He merely hooked her feet behind his knees and sat down on his throne once more, keeping her legs pinned against the throne with his legs, binding them just as her arms already were. He laughed at her struggles.
"Now, how shall I sample your life force," he mused.
It was over. Eostre had nothing left to fight with. Except words, as always. She gave Reynardo a glare cold with hatred. "Whatever you do, just be quick about it," she spat out. She watched as his head descended to her neck. She smirked derisively. Despite it all, he evidently lacked creativity in his leeching, going for the neck just as he had done with Spiritus. It was still cold comfort though. She was just as defiled, or worse.
It had been too easy getting here. The denizens of the woods had done their job, leading Ardyn to where the woods met the overgrown courtyard.
"Thissss is as far as we can go," they had told him. "We are bound to the woods for all eternity. As will the others inside be when he drains them dry."
Their comments just raised further questions that, if Ardyn had the time, he would have delved deeper into. Know thine enemy and all of that. However, he had to hurry. Even now who knew what horrors were befalling Eostre? And the forest entities's comments just made the stakes higher.
With a curt nod of acknowledgement to his guides, he crossed the courtyard with no resistance and stepped inside the main hall, bracing for a legion of guards and/or Mystios blocking his way to Reynardo and Eostre.
He was, nonplussed, at what he saw inside. There was no resistance at all. No guards, just decadent partygoers engaged in activities that made the revelry in town seem tame in comparison.
His gaze narrowed as he searched for Eostre amid the revelers. If they were forcing her to be part of all of this against her will…
He did not see her, which was perhaps worse. Given what he had seen and heard so far, he wouldn't put it past Reynardo to have a torture chamber here somewhere. Thinking of that and Eostre in the same sentence made his blood run cold.
The rasp of his sword as he summoned it from the void didn't even faze the revelers. They stayed in their drunken stupors and their, quality time, with one another without abatement.
"I do so hate to interrupt a party," he called out mockingly. "I am here for Reynardo. Where is he?"
This was enough to get some of the party goers to at least glance his way. A black tuxedoed man emerged from a shadowy corner of the room, gave Ardyn a single glance, and calmly pointed him to the doorway in the back.
No resistance, no guards, no nothing. Just a civil direction to the back. It was too easy. It had to be a trap. Traps only worked if he was caught though. And he had no intention of getting caught in it.
Despite Eostre's defiance, she still wasn't brave enough to watch Reynardo actually bite her neck. She closed her eyes tightly as she felt Reynardo's mouth touch the skin of her neck.
"Oh, sorry! Am I interrupting something," came the familiar drawl from the doorway.
It was enough to disrupt Reynardo's leeching attempt, much to Eostre's relief, albeit a short-lived relief as her eyes flew open to see Ardyn advancing further into the room, sword drawn.
Ardyn was here? He had, come for her? No—it couldn't be that. He had to have some kind of angle, Eostre thought in shock as she digested that he was actually here. However, the fact remained that he was here, and Reynardo had wanted him to come. Not only had Ardyn defied the odds and showed up, but he had also walked into a trap. Damn it!
"Ardyn, Lucis, Caelum," Reynardo crooned, drawing out each syllable as though he were savoring Ardyn's very name. His lascivious gaze fixed upon Ardyn's advance, and became even more lewd as Reynardo appraised him further. It was as though Ardyn were a buffet he couldn't wait to feast on.
Ardyn stifled his disgust and fury for the moment. His first concern was Eostre. He saw the wound on her face and didn't like it one bit. He liked her in Reynardo's arms even less.
Whatever he did when he fought Reynardo, he would be sure his blades sliced the fiend's face in the process to return the favor.
"You're in danger, get out! He's immor-," Eostre stated urgently, only to break off in a gasp as Reynardo snaked his hand around to cover her mouth.
"Hush now," Reynardo crooned mockingly, violet gaze never leaving Ardyn. Eostre, too defiant for her own good, or so Ardyn thought, retaliated by biting Reynardo's stifling hand.
"Ooh, you like to bite too, do you," Reynardo taunted, smirking in some kind of sick enjoyment. "How about you, handsome?," he was evidently addressing Ardyn at this point. "Are you a biter? You must be from how you turned so many into daemons." Reynardo did not remove his hand, allowing the blood Eostre had drawn to drip down his lace-cuffed wrist.
"I may be willing to tell you all about it, if you release the woman," Ardyn replied coolly. "I like it when full attention is on me, and speaking to someone distracted by a woman on his lap does not seem like a receptive audience, you understand."
Reynardo's gaze became calculating. "Why should I give up my, bargaining chip?"
"You think I came for her," Ardyn replied just as coolly as before. "You really give me too much credit. You have made some powerful enemies on the mainland who could be powerful allies to me. All I have to do to assure their friendship is to kill you."
Eostre began struggling at that, trying to get her mouth free to tell Ardyn that killing Reynardo would be impossible. Reynardo's fingers lifted from her mouth for a moment, only to push brutally on the wound on her face his rings had left earlier. Eostre's warning became a gasp of pain instead.
Seeing Eostre's distress, Ardyn's hand clenched reflexively on his sword.
Reynardo chuckled as he licked his fingers, sampling the bits of Eostre's blood on them before returning the hand to her mouth before she could get in any words. "You are such a liar, Ardyn Lucis Caelum," he taunted. "I can tell how much want to rip this bitch out of my arms before you run me through. As long as I have her, you will do anything I want in exchange for her safety."
Eostre stiffened in Reynardo's arms, not liking what he had called her, let alone that he had called her that in front of Ardyn. Reynardo ignored her this time, gaze still fixed on Ardyn. As he had said, she was just a bargaining chip at this point, Eostre realized. The conflict was between Reynardo and Ardyn. Still, she may be able to use that to her advantage if he kept his focus away from her. If he would just loosen his grip on her legs…
"But you'd prefer to have me alone," Ardyn oozed, having already taken the man's measure. "It would be a lot more, intimate, with just the two of us, don't you think?" Ardyn felt dirty even saying that, but he was willing to play up to Reynardo's perversion if it would get Eostre out of harm's way.
Ardyn was beginning to understand why there had been no resistance once he reached the castello. Reynardo wanted him. If Ardyn could safely remove Eostre from the equation, Ardyn would be all too happy to let Reynardo have him. And he would kill the bastard before Reynardo could even make a move.
"Very well," Reynardo shrugged. "Since she's such a third wheel then," he pressed harder on her mouth, using the leverage to push her head back to expose her neck before beginning to lower his mouth to it once more.
Eostre again struggled, but it was clear she was still pinned.
"He drains them dry. The defiler. Trapped here for all eternity…" Those words repeated in Ardyn's mind. He didn't need to have asked the denizens of the forest for more clarity. In that moment Ardyn pieced together what Reynardo was capable of, and what he was planning. He was going to drink all of Eostre's blood and make her one of those, things out there.
Ardyn was damned if he was going to let that happen. He had not spared her from a fate worse than death in Gralea just to have it happen here. He moved then, warping forward, grabbing Reynardo by the throat and lifting him from his throne, holding him up by the neck.
"Since it seems like you wish to play with me, why don't we cut out the middleman, er woman," Ardyn taunted, voice cold and deadly.
Ardyn wanted to run the fiend through. His sword was in his other hand, ready to stab him. However, Eostre was still in the danger zone. He didn't want to risk stabbing her, or getting more of Reynardo's blood onto her. He belatedly realized his first move should have been to get Eostre out of the way. However, the urgency, plus his visceral desire to hurt the man who had tormented Eostre, had won out.
Unusual that—he normally wasn't this rash. However as usual, his standard behavior fell by the wayside when Eostre was involved. He was beginning to have an inkling as to why, but it just raised further problems. And now was not the time to think about it.
Eostre took care of herself though, after a fashion. Ardyn's lifting of Reynardo was enough so that Eostre could get her legs free. Once she could move her legs, she pitched herself sideways, toppling off of the dais to land flat on her face on the marble floor below. She hated the indignity of throwing herself just to splat on the floor, but at least it got her out of the way, and out of Reynardo's vile clutches.
Ardyn could see her from the corner of his eye, as she rolled like an upside-down turtle to get enough leverage to rise to her feet, a difficult task with her arms bound. He ached to save her dignity by cutting the ropes to free her. However, his priority was Reynardo, who seemed to be enjoying the pressure on his neck far too much.
Ardyn had had enough of catering to this man's fetishes. He didn't even hesitate, using his sword to run Reynardo right through the chest, pinning him to his throne. Only when he assumed it was a mortal blow did he release him.
"He's immortal, Ardyn. You can't kill him," Eostre called out desperately from her awkward position on the floor.
She appeared to be correct. Reynardo, clearly not dead, gazed up at Ardyn, rubbing his bruised neck. "Aw, you stopped just when it was getting good," Reynardo taunted breathlessly.
He should have thought of that, Ardyn thought derisively. The fact that the island had been cursed for so long, and Reynardo was evidently keeping up that curse pointed to that. It made fighting him tricky though.
"You can't win this, Ardyn," Eostre cried out, voice fading in and out as she continued fidgeting, trying to get up without the use of her arms. "He wants you! Don't give it to him! Warp out of here while you still can!"
Eostre's obsession with being a martyr was really grating on Ardyn's nerves.
"And what do you suppose will happen to you if I follow your words of wisdom," Ardyn sneered. "I didn't come all this way to—"
"Look out," Eostre cried out.
Ardyn whipped around just in time to see Reynardo, clutching Ardyn's own sword in his hand, just about to slash his leg. Ardyn twisted aside to avoid it, and summoned his sword back to the void to disarm his foe.
Reynardo must have ripped himself violently from the blade's pin to make his move. His shirt and satin jacket were shredded on that side, exposing his chest, which was a welter of blood. Evidently his immortality worked differently from Ardyn's, Ardyn mused. Whereas he had not been able to sustain any wounds, Reynardo could—they just didn't kill him.
"Oh, so close," Reynardo complained, retreating slowly back to the dais to keep his distance from Ardyn now that he was disarmed.
"Perhaps you should have aimed for my chest," Ardyn returned bitingly. "That would have been harder for me to avoid."
"Don't give him pointers," Eostre demanded, aghast that Ardyn would even think about giving Reynardo ideas.
"I should have known you'd be scolding me instead of swooning into my arms in gratitude," Ardyn replied sarcastically over his shoulder to Eostre.
"Gratitude—for leaving Lux and putting yourself into danger," Eostre spat back.
"Trouble in paradise," Reynardo replied dryly. "Perhaps you did come for me instead of her, Ardie, dear,"
Ardyn didn't like that pet name at all. His anger at Reynardo was stronger than his anger at Eostre for the moment, but it was a toss up.
"As it happens, I don't want you dead, yet," Reynardo continued affably. "Incapacitated would do. How else will I get to sample that sweet essence of yours?"
"Can you kindly have a normal conversation, or are innuendos the only language you know," Ardyn replied repressively.
"I can speak normally," Reynardo replied coolly and in all seriousness, reaching behind his throne to emerge with a rapier. "I will paint both you and the bitch red then drink every luscious drop of blood to replace what you took out of me."
Ardyn's eyes narrowed. A swordfight with an immortal where he was not the immortal? That was a trifle unfair, wasn't it? He had to think fast. Reynardo wasn't lunging yet, but he would any second.
"You will just paint me, I think," Ardyn replied, making the first move by warping over to Eostre's side, summoning his dagger, and slicing her ropes with one deft slice.
She rose to her feet stiffly but quickly, rubbing her arms to remove the pins and needles.
"Kindly return the favor by leaving now," he commanded her.
"And leave you here to be killed, or worse? I don't think so," Eostre replied, shocked that he would even think that she would just ditch him. Even if his motives were cloudy, he had come despite it all to rescue her. She wasn't about to leave him alone to be killed, or worse, in exchange. Although what she could do to help him was unknown and probably nonexistent.
Ardyn growled low in this throat in frustration. "Gods above, you're a handful," he snapped out in hot fury, anger at Eostre winning out for the time being. For one moment he was uncertain if he wanted to strike her or kiss her just to get one blissful moment of silence from her. He would use that anger and frustration on Reynardo instead.
And in Reynardo's case, he knew full well what he wanted to do. He would find a way to kill him and make it hurt first.
A duel between a mortal man and an immortal one? In which he was the mortal party? What could go wrong?