Prisoner of the Sarafan

"Wake UP!" menaced a cruel voice as its owner hit Lent in the face. His body swung back and forth from the blow. "You have a visitor." The door swung open, and the vampiress stepped in. Lent took a moment to observe his surroundings. He was hanging by his wrists by a thick piece of rope connected to a beam that kept him swinging back and forth. No window, just a door, the guard, and this vampire traitor. "Hello, my dear," she said sadistically. "Are you ready for our little date?" Lent didn't say anything. "Counting on your friends to save you? You're out of reach here." She said while noticing his tattoo. "A Loki. You are a fine specimen indeed. I had thought you were but a myth." She waited for Lent to respond, but still he said nothing. "My name is Natalia, and you've probably noticed I'm a vampire." "Your name is mud, you dirty traitor." She chuckled to herself, and then punched him with her vampire might. Lent groaned. She continued her interrogation, "Tell me, where are your friends?" Lent didn't reply. "If you're counting on them saving you, you can just forget it. You're in the Sarafan keep, and the guards here are expecting your friends to attack. If they have any common sense they'll abandon you. No vampire could ever break in, or out, of here. A human has even smaller chance." "It doesn't matter, they can abandon me for all I care," Lent said. "I'll never turn traitor like you." The guard punched his face and Lent swung back and forth. "You're already a traitor to your kind, you scum," the guard said and spat in his face. Lent looked at them both, and said in the ancient language, "I am no traitor, I am Loki and have been faithful servant since before recorded time." Neither one of them understood him, but Lent got another blow to the gut. "Quit that voodoo nonsense," the guard said. "You see, my morsel, you can stay quiet all you want. It just makes this more fun for me," Natalia taunted with a sadistic grin. She ominously concluded, "I've got all night."
The torture went on for hours. The screams of Lent deafened the nearby prisoners, but no matter what she did, he would not talk. Natalia scratched at his face, he was whipped, beaten, and cut repeatedly. After hours of this, Lent looked up at her. He was a bloody mess, and she couldn't have been more aroused by this. "Have you had enough?" she asked mockingly. "More," came Lent's defiant response. "What?" she said with surprise. "Give me more. I'll be dead, and your fun will be over," Lent reasoned. She couldn't help but smile. Lent was a mess. His blood dripped down his boots and had already made a puddle on the floor. "No, my toy. I will not kill you. This has been so much fun, we should do this again tomorrow," she said while taking her knife out. She punctured her wrists and the guard grabbed Lent's mouth. He tried to struggle, but she managed to get three drops of her blood into him. Lent knew what that meant. She intended to keep him alive and healthy so she could torture him all over again tomorrow. "See you tomorrow," she confirmed as both of them left.
Lent hoped his companions would not attempt to rescue him. Such a thing would bring him dishonor, not to mention they'd be walking right into a trap. Still, none of them knew where he was, so they were safe in that matter. His only worry was Novanus. That egomaniac would try to break into the Keep. Lent gave a look of disgust at the thought of Novanus rescuing him. He didn't like him, he was far too reckless and eccentric. Lent would have to find his own way out of here.

Izael listened to the two vampires, and then joined the conversation. "I will go after him. If the Sarafan have Lent, they have probably taken him to the Keep, a mighty fortress that is the center of all Sarafan power. I have read many books regarding it when I was a child, and I've always wanted to visit it. I know its history, its halls, rooms, even the thickness of its walls. I am...I WAS a Sarafan, so I know all the passwords and salutations of the brotherhood. And, the Keep is far too well guarded for any of you vampires to even get near. However, it takes no effort from a human to pass through the glyph gates as you know. I know you do not trust me, but give me this chance to earn your trust! However, I will need my Sarafan armor back. What say you?"

It was early morning when the door swung open again, the sun had barely risen. Natalia walked in, and greeted Lent. "Good morning, my little Loki." She smiled as she walked around him, inspecting the wounds which had already healed due to her blood. "You are a fine specimen, not even a scar," she said while caressing his chest. Lent jerked his body away from her touch. "Still bitter, after all we've shared?" She viciously scratched his chest. "You should know better by now." "Get on with it," Lent said coldly. "Where's your sense of foreplay?" she mocked, and gave him a kiss. Lent spat in her face. Growling, she punched his jaw, and smiled. "If you're seeking death from me, you shall not get it. I find it much more amusing to keep you alive." She said while leaning against him, "You're my toy now, and I'll do with you as I see fit." She cut him loose and Lent fell to the ground. He then shot up and gave her an uppercut with his two tied hands. She fell on her back and then tripped Lent. He fell down and she was on top of him. "There is fight in you. Good, I like that." She got up and grabbed Lent's tied wrist. With her vampire strength she tossed him out of the cell.
Lent flew to the other side of the prison, hit the opposite wall, and fell thirty feet to the hard stone ground of the keep. Natalie leaped from the cell and landed on his stomach. Lent groaned with pain. "Enough foreplay," she said. "Let our games begin." She tied Lent to a rack, binding his hands and feet. With a sadistic grin she turned the wheel as it began to stretch out. Lent felt his limbs stretching from his torso. Again and again she turned the wheel; Lent felt like a taught rope, his back didn't even touch the bed of the stretcher, he was totally suspended.
Natalia then mounted Lent as he lay there helpless. "Tell me where your friends are, and I'll give you the death you seek," she said while cutting designs in Lent's chest with a knife. "I'd rather suffer for eternity." "That can be arranged," she said while dismounting him. Lent tried to look over at what she was doing, but his answer came all too soon. A whip came down and struck his chest. Again and again he was whipped repeatedly. Lent's strength was failing him, his muscles relaxed, but as soon as he did, the wheel turned and stretched him out further. He cried out in pain.
"Your friends have abandoned you, they can not rescue you. Why do you protect them?" she asked. "Because, unlike you, I put others before my own life, you pathetic excuse of a vampire." Natalia was furious. She would have killed him on the spot, but she knew that's what Lent wanted. She grabbed the whip from the guard and swung at him. It must have been for hours, Lent couldn't tell, he lost all track of time. She became exhausted, and Lent was a bloody mess. "I'll leave you here to think over my offer. I'll be back tonight." She blew him a kiss before leaving the prison and Lent on the rack. He was still stretched out, and the guards looked at him with pity as they left. Her cruelness had even softened the hearts of the hardened guards. "What could you have possibly done to deserve such torture?" a prisoner asked while tied to the wall. "I'm a vampire worshipper," Lent muttered. "Huh," the prisoner said to him, "You deserve all that you get then, you traitor."

The situation vexed Gadorian more and more with each passing hour. Novanus and he would be trying to penetrate a fortress designed specifically for thwarting vampires. Izael could get inside...but, if he was caught, the loss would be phenomenal. Part of him said to forget Lent. He was a vampire worshipper; he would love nothing more than to die for the cause. Gadorian knew Lent would never give in, but he also realized that he was the bait for the most devious of traps. Deep in his heart, though, there still flowed some human blood, and it would not let him abandon one who had served the vampires so well. He would have to compromise, but he still feared he was betting too much. If his hand fell through...
"Yes. Izael will go to the keep to rescue Lent. I will accompany you as far as the keep, where I will wait outside. You must be extremely careful, Izael, we cannot lose you. Your life no longer belongs just to you; there would be no dishonor in running to save it. I just pray that it does not come to that. Novanus, you will stay here with Lessa." Novanus' eyes burned red. It seemed as if the room itself shook with his rage. "You would risk the bearer of the Sword to save a vampire worshipper? Lent has served us well, and I do care for him, but the cost is too great! If Izael were to die, the supports holding our world together would come crumbling down and we would all be consumed by the Nerayan! There would be no Lent to save, no you, no I, no future, no Nosgoth!"
Gadorian turned to face Novanus, "Oh yes, let us save our precious Nosgoth, in all her beauty. Our world, where one can only survive by stealing from his brother. The killer is king, the liar, his prince, and the cheater their court jester. Who would weep for our lady Nosgoth, if the sun were never to rise on her again? Shall we be the heroes who save her, but abandon our own friend? I will not fail him to save a dying world, not for mine, nor your, millennia old life! Let the fires of the abyss consume this world, I shall not fail again!"
Gadorian turned and headed towards the door, listening for Izael to follow. He looked out upon the land before him as the sun set, for even he was surprised at the outburst of righteousness he had just displayed. He was no longer the same vampire who had met this boy on the docks that night long ago...

"Wake up, my little Loki." Lent stirred. Sometime during the day he had passed out. He now awoke back in his cell, dangling like bait on a hook. "Did you miss me?" Natalia said while stroking his chest. Lent didn't move, he was too exhausted to resist. "Oh, did I wear you out this morning? You gave me such a good time last night I couldn't help myself," she laughed. "It's alright, I'll make it all better," she said while dropping a few tears of blood from her wrist into Lent's mouth. She watched as his wounds started to close, and licked at his blood-stained chest. "Are you ready for another go? I fed early just so I could be here with you." "I'm flattered," Lent replied sarcastically. Natalia then said, "It's not often I get such amusement out of a human. You are remarkable. What is the secret of you, Loki?" "What ever do you mean?" "This one," she motioned to the guard, "if I give him but a drop of my blood he'd become my willing and obedient slave, begging me for the dark gift. But you, you put up great resistance. Such strength, you must get that from your ancestor." The wounds she inflicted earlier were practically gone, the only evidence that he was ever tortured that remained was the dried blood on his skin. "Care to tell me your secret?" Lent didn't reply. "Oh, you're ready for another round?" She smiled, "Good." She nearly gasped out of joy when she struck him first. Aside from the thud of her hitting Lent's face, the only other sounds were her sounds of joy.
There was a knock at the door. "My lady," said another guard. "Sebastian requests your presence. He suspects a rescue attempt tonight." "Oh?" She sounded disappointed. "I guess our games will have to wait. Until then..." she said while giving him a kiss. Lent took this opportunity to bite her tongue. In an instant blood spouted and filled Lent's mouth. He managed to swallow it before she struck another blow. "Keep it," she hissed. "After we capture you friends there will be no need to keep you alive." She turned to leave. "Make sure he doesn't get lonely," she said to a guard. "I wouldn't want him missing me."
Natalia left the guard with Lent, and this was all the opportunity Lent needed. The drops of blood she gave him healed his wounds, and the mouthful he stole from her was more than enough for his escape. The guard took a swing at him, but Lent adjusted his body weight and dodged. The guard stumbled off balance while Lent quickly put his legs around his head and used the rope that tied his feet together to strangle the guard. Hanging with his hands in the air, and the guard still caught in the ropes at his feet, Lent lifted his legs up and hung upside down, pulling the guard up with him. He grabbed the guard's sword with his hands, and then let the guard drop as his sword unsheathed. Lent quickly cut the ropes and dropped to his feet, surely a guard heard the body drop. Sure enough, a guard burst into the cell and drew his sword. The guard thrust his sword at Lent, but it was no use. With a quick twirl Lent rotated over the guard's back and quickly sliced his throat as he landed.
"Please, help me, kind sir!" said one of the prisoners. "Aren't you the same prisoner who said I deserve being here for being a worshipper?" The prisoner stopped. "Help! Guards! The vampire worshipper is free!" Lent threw his sword at the prisoner's head, silencing him, but it was too late. The guards had heard the prisoner's cry and the alarm had been sounded.
Lent ran, busting through the prison door, and none too soon. Sarafan Knights were everywhere looking for him. Lent managed to hide in a clean laundry cart, just as a servant came and pushed the cart up to an elevator. Lent couldn't see, but he felt like he was going up. "Great," Lent thought, "Now all I need to do is find the exit. Perhaps I can just walk right out the front gate."
The servant got out of the elevator and pushed the cart. He could hear the guards yelling, "He must be in the basement. He's got nowhere else to go! Find him!" The cart continued to move, and finally stopped. He could hear footsteps, walking further and further away. Lent peaked up and saw that he was alone. "Lucky break." He jumped out of the cart. He had no idea where he was, nor how he was going to get out. He opened a door and to his surprise he was on the second level of the keep. He looked below, careful not to be seen, and saw guards running around on the first floor, searching for him. Lent ran through the upper halls, trying to find a way down, a way out, something. He tried several doors; all were locked. Suddenly the door handle jiggled in front of him and the door opened. A servant came out, and Lent made quick work of him. He then went inside the door and saw bows, arrows, swords, shields and armor. He had stumbled right into the Sarafan armory! Lent quickly grabbed a sword. "What's this?" Lent said while running to the other side. The moonlight beckoned him from a damaged wall, now gated up. If he could just loosen the bars he might squeeze through to freedom, if he survived the drop into the water below.
"Going somewhere, my pet?" a familiar female voice said from behind him. "Take a good look at it, 'cause it's the last time you'll ever see the night's sky." "Natalia," Lent said with contentment. "If you think you're going to stand in my way of freedom, think again." She laughed. "What a bluff. You can't defeat me. I could make a meal out of three of you." Lent held his sword tightly. He could feel her blood course coldly through his veins, and to be honest, it felt good. His muscles seemed to be tighter, his body seemed to feel lighter, he had taken more than his share of blood from her. It was time to see if his father spoke the truth.
They did battle, exchanging blow after blow. Blocking her attacks was devastating. When her sword struck his, it sent a vibration down to his arm that shook his bones. Lent began dogging her attacks, but she sprung up from behind him and gave him a back hand. Lent flew back to his gate of freedom, and one of the bars shook loose. Lent looked ahead and she was going to run straight through him. He had nowhere to dodge, but he didn't need to. This was the moment Lent needed. Lent grabbed her sword and moved it aside, and when her momentum hit Lent's body they both broke through the gate and plunged into the water. Lent was free, and his nemesis was dead.