Chapter Ten~

I struggled to free myself all night.

I pulled and yanked my arms up, clashing cold hard metal against my skin. I was strong, but not strong enough to escape from these chains. I gave up, but the fleeting image that I had caught of Danica, her limp arms and body held up by vampires who had done God only knows what, and what might have happened afterward pierced me like the scent of death. It powered me to find a way to free myself, if not for me, then for her. I pulled my arms up again, feeling flexed muscles behind my T-shirt. No matter how much force I used, I could not release myself; these chains that bounded me did so not only physically but also emotionally.

I drifted off to sleep sometime during the night, having spent so many hours trying to free myself I was exhausted. A terrible thirst overtook me and my mouth dried like a furnace. My lips became two flames, lapping up any source of moisture that they could find. I had no idea when the last time was that I had drank anything; I still wasn't entirely sure how long I had sat unconscious in the backseat of Theron's car with Danica.

Danica! I had lost her forever now, and the pain that I felt in her loss was worse then any other that I had ever encountered.

My eyelids were dropping, not entirely closed and not entirely open. I watched as blue-orange flames flickered and sizzled until they had burned into their centers losing all but a fallen icicle of wax that was left hanging and dried before reaching the floor.

I lay in a kind of catatonic state for hours. I gave up, and I longed for the taste of death on my dry lips and Danica's spirit guiding me into whatever came next. I wanted all the pain to die. I wanted myself to die.

My eyes flickered open slightly when I heard a loud bang from outside the window that I took only to be thunder. Its rolling scream followed closely by the burst of white thunder that smashed through the closed curtains easily and lit the room in a ghostly light.

The light was like acid to my eyes, scratching and scrapping at the even balance of darkness that they had been used to all night.

The light flashed again; I turned my head away, burying it underneath my chained arm. By then, I had lost all of my will to survive. The lightning was followed seconds later by another clap of thunder. I hung my head lower. I was longing for death again, and my capture of it was just out of my reach; lying like poison on my dried lips, I was ever ready to take it. It was in this state that I heard Diane Acevedo's voice in my head, ringing like a gallant bell atop a high steeple: "Bless Alex for his courage and let him know how much we love him and regret that he did not come to us sooner." She had loved me, even though I was not her flesh and blood as she thought I was, yet she believed in me. Why could I not believe in myself? She had loved me truly for who I was, and under no facade or yoke of family or ideals; she had loved me and I left her without even saying goodbye. Just as I had left Danica, whom more then anything treasured me as her lover and companion and not just her king and husband. She had loved me, and like Diane I had left her and never said goodbye. Through my closed eyes I could see Diane Acevedo's old and grief-ridden fingertips as they grazed along the silver beads of her rosary. I wondered if she still prayed for me, even after I had left and probably would never return to her. What would she say now? "Heavenly Father above, allow Alex to find his true path in life and let him live his life upon it happily." Her words were useless to me now, her prayers should be given to wiser and more deserving people like Danica, who I now envisioned had died alone in a closed off room in this compound.

The room that Theron had left me in was undoubtedly silent; through my closed eyes I could still see the translucent glow of thunder, but the thunder had quieted slightly, my ears were no longer a keen to its noises. My body was no longer willing to hear it. I was slipping further and further into a place that was strange to me. However, through its strangeness, it was inviting and through that veil of feeling and numbness I began to fade within. No longer Alex, no longer Zane, I had become a part of the numbness itself. Nameless, faceless, alone in the abyss of time and space and spinning faster on the wheel of destiny then ever before...

My eyes opened suddenly; the thunder and sounds of the compound came back to my ears. I felt hands on me - warm tiny palms and fingertips pressing at my chest and face. I searched the space around me but my vision had blurred. "Who?" I managed to choke out, still not able to see around me. Twitching my body I asked and again, and I heard a gasp of surprise from someone else in the room. I opened my eyes wider, trying to search the stranger out in the darkness. I jumped slightly when the roll of thunder barked again; louder then I had ever heard it before. Lightning flashed and in the corner of the room I saw the outlined figure of a small girl.

I could tell that the figure in the dark was female; even through my blurred vision I could make out her slender and curvaceous form and gentle physic. She was meek and completely foreign in that I had never seen her before. I wanted to reach out to her but my chained arms prevented me. With outstretched fingers I spoke to her: "Help me!" My voice was barely a whisper, cold and clammy. She looked afraid, and her petite form jumped slightly when the thunder outside gyrated again. "Please?" She itched at her arm, long nails scratching at skin as though she wasn't sure about something, her doubt mounting against her eyes. She looked to the slightly open door across the room and then back to me, still chained and lying on the bed. Her hands crawled up to her face, as through she wanted to tare her skin off and have her bones escape and start anew. I knew instinctively that she was afraid to help me, as she continually looked back at the cracked door once every few seconds and then back to me. Her tiny form still huddled against the wall beside the bookcase.

"Are you the Cobriana, the one that Theron speaks of?" Her voice was thin between her shaking lips.

"Yes," I answered quickly, feeling a bit of strength return to me. Had Theron told her about me? Had she come to set me free? "Why have you..."

She wouldn't let me speak, she threw her finger up to her lips negatively and her furrowed expression told me to be quiet. "Theron will hear you if you speak!" she alleged, her voice still small and breathless. She took a step toward me, out of the shadows and in her hand I saw a small glass, half filled with the pale crystal clear sweetness of water. I forced my head up slightly, silently begging for just the slightest sip. She obliged me, coming closer until she was completely at my side; her fears almost calmed now and with one hand under my neck she held the glass to my lips and tilted it slightly. A flood of moisture nourishing my dry lips, mouth, and throat. Reliving me off my dehydration. I drank until the glass was empty, but still I would have preferred more. "Thank you," I offered, and she nodded, excepting my thanks. "My name is Zane Cobriana." I knew that this girl was probably my only chance at escape from this place, and I knew that I would need to befriend her before I could even dream of her helping me.

"I'm Katie. Just Katie, slave to the master Jaguar, and I know who you are. Theron speaks of nothing else. Every story he tells is about you."

I would have been flattered if I wasn't so uncomfortable in this place.

"Do you think you can help me get out of these chains?" Without a word she pulled a heavy set of metal keys form the waste pocket of her pants. Hundreds of tiny keys lined a large chain but she quickly pulled what she believed to be the right one of the cluster within a few minutes.

"Theron has taken Jeshickah to bed already; he never takes the keys with him, and always leaves then in the same place."

"How do you know which one is the right one?" I asked, amazed at how much she knew about her master's schedule.

"Jeshickah likes to chain us sometimes, and all of the chain's work under the same lock."

She didn't waste any time. Moving to the chains around my ankles first, she shoved the tiny key into its hole and twists, immediately freeing one, and then the other. I pulled my knees up, flexing the tired and sore muscles in my legs for the first time in hours. When I moved them I felt a searing pain behind my knees, pains that I remembered must have been caused when Theron's guards kicked me in order to stop me for getting away from then and going to Danica earlier. After my feet were free she moved to my hands, freeing one, and then moving across the bed to the other. Once I was completely free I thanked her, knowing full well that I would not have gotten this far without her.

"I have to go now," she began, "but you can make your escape through the hallways. Be careful of the guards." She took a step away, but I hastily grabbed her arm, wrapping my fingers around its tiny flesh covered bone.

"Please, before you go, do you know anything about Danica Shardae, the girl that I was brought with? I know only that they took her to a small room down the hall, and that she was unconscious last time that I saw her." My heart was racing, and her eyes lowered, as though searching the reaches of her mind for the right concoction of words to form and tell me the truth.

"There is nothing to be done for her now;" she said matter-of-factly, her voice plane and truthful.

"NO!" I yelled, my voice louder then I meant it to be and I hoped immediately that the guards had not heard me. I rushed to my feet, and I saw Katie fly back to the wall where she stood before, her hands protectively placed in front of her face as though she thought that I would hit her. I backed away, not wanting to scare her further. "Thank you for all that you have done." I spoke lightly. I turned from her and ran out of the room that had held me captive for hours. The force of movement on my numb muscles was hard and aching underneath my skin. My bones screamed at me to stop and rest, but I could not; I had to get to Danica. It was my last hope that I could do something to help her.

I ran, and ran, and ran further until I was lost and had confused myself in the vast labyrinth of corridors that made up Midnight. I checked every door, open or closed, not caring of what I stumbled upon when I opened it. I couldn't remember exactly where I had seen Danica. Every hall was hazy in my memory and I wondered for a fleeting second if I had really seen her or if it had all been a figment of my desire filled imagination.

Finally something looked familiar, a doorway, its inside hidden from me by a closed dark mahogany door. I approached it slowly, wondering if it were really the right one and if I would find happiness or despair on the other side. My hand trembled as I turned the knob and entered.

The room was filled with light, hot florescent light that was as unnatural as I had ever seen it. Tall, huge bulbous lamps at either side of a surgical table shone down on a motionless Danica. Her skin covered in a thick sweat, her hair drowned in it. "Danica?" I breathed, still in the doorway; I wanted her answer more then I wanted anything else in my life. She remained still, and I took another step toward her, "Danica?" I called out again, but still no answer.

Without hesitation I ran to her side, my hands cupping themselves around her clammy cheeks, her eyes were half open, and looked up at me, but I could tell that she had no idea what was going on. Was she alive? I placed my hand at her wrist and waited, the seconds endless as I counted. She was alive, but barely. Her face was bruised, and her skin ablaze with fever. I looked around, several tubes were attached to her skin, from one arm it sucked blood out of her and from the other it injected a strange amber-tinted liquid. I pulled both tubes from her arms carefully, my hands covered with thick red blood as it spurt from the open wounds. "Danica?" I called again, bringing my hands back up to her face once more, wishing that my touch could arose her from whatever state Theron and his thugs had placed her in. "Dan-"

I silenced myself; from down the hall I could hear footsteps, fast and hard against the creaky floor. Had I been heard? Was it Midnights guards that were coming after us again? Would they separate us? I held firmly to her cheeks again, if this was the last time that I would see her, even in this state that she now lied in I had to feel something of her love again. I bent down, tilting her head slightly toward me and with tender lips I kissed her...