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Olivia watched as the woman kept removing her armour. First the helmet then the gloves that covered her long fingers. She swept her black cloak, a wolf skin sewn at the top, off her shoulders and laid it across one of the chairs. A skirt made of pleated leather with metal studs followed along with the matching belt and the heavy breastplate came last. Olivia stared at the woman in front of her, dressed in only a loose white shirt and black leather breeches, her falcon sword strapped to her hip. She was thin, without all the metal, with small breasts that allowed her to maintain her illusion. She picked up the other chair and dragged it to the middle of the room. She sat and stared for a moment, hands held in her lap.

'Close your mouth Olivia.' The sound of her voice, deep yet so unmistakably female did nothing to help Olivia's shock. She waited patiently, hands still held still, for her prisoner to regain the use of her facial muscles and it was only when Olivia closed her mouth and took a deep breath that she spoke again.

'I believe you, you know. About the money that is. I could torture you for days and you would never be able to give me a penny.'

'Who are you?' Olivia asked breathlessly, ignoring the woman's comment, happy to hear that her voice held firm.

'The sheriff deep down knows the same. I think he just wants you to suffer; punishment you know.'

'Who are you?' Olivia asked again not to be deterred.

'He wants to see you bloody and broken at his feet, crying and begging. It gets him off I think.'

'I don't give a fuck about the Sheriff, who are you!' Olivia shouted, her patience and temper worn thin by the situation.

'There's no need to get angry Olivia.' She replied with an even tone, 'You know who I am, we've met before.' Olivia didn't join with her smile, just asked her question again.

'Who are you?' The smile left the woman's face and she tilted her head to the side slightly.

'You're like a dog with a bone aren't you?' A slight pause followed as if she was pondering whether to actually answer, 'My name is Alexandra; if that answers your question and to highlight your previous statement I think you really should give a fuck about the Sheriff Olivia.' She paused again to let her statement sink in before continuing in a lighter tone. 'Is it true your whole family are dead, home destroyed… etcetera etcetera?' Olivia gave no answer and pouting slightly Alex looked away.

'How does it feel pretending to have a dick every day of your life?'

Alex smiled again, happy Olivia had decided to fight back. 'The world is made for men, having a dick, as you so politely put it, gives me the respect I need to take what I want.'

'I have respect and I'm a woman.'

'I can see,' Alex replied dragging her eyes over Olivia's body. She smiled at the blush she saw. 'They tolerate you because you give them things. You have to buy what you have, it's not real. Me. Anywhere I go people do what I say; they stop talking just to watch me; they would bow at my feet if I asked them to.'

'That's not respect Alex that's fear.'

Alex hid the jolt she felt through her body at hearing her name on Olivia's lips, keeping her voice even and light. 'Everyone knows it's the same thing. People respect that when I want something, I get will go and get it.'

The air hung heavy with Alex's promise and Olivia tried not to see the hungry look in her eyes. 'What is it you want?' she asked, though slightly afraid of the answer.

Alex leaned back in her chair and ran her hand over her head. She stopped smiling and said in a dangerous but somehow sad voice, 'Well, that remains to be seen.'

They sat in silence after that. It seemed to Olivia that Alex had become a statue, her face once again empty of emotion, her grey eyes flat. Now that the shock had had time to wear off Olivia could see that she was an attractive woman. Thin but not bony with defined features and long legs, that the leather breeches only helped define. It was hard in her head to equate the person sitting before her with the almost monstrous Black Cloak, as if once the helmet was off Alex became a completely different person.

However, she knew the Black Cloak. Knew what he wanted, who he worked for, what to expect from a man who loved to kill. Alex, on the other hand, was a mystery and one that made Olivia unable to catch her breath. The Black Cloak would torture her for sure. She didn't know what Alex planned to do; what emotions were rolling behind her eyes and that unknown scared her.

She couldn't let Alex see that fear of course. To show fear made it real, gave it to the enemy to use against you. She tore her eyes away from the still unmoved woman and stared at the wall behind her head. She focused all she had on one singular brick, anything to keep her mind from whatever Alex was going to do; she shifted her feet and willed the acid bile she felt in the back of throat to stay in her stomach. She started counting, slowly and steadily till only the numbers filled her head.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven.

Questions and voices wouldn't find room, blood and pain wouldn't be able to get in, only the numbers would be allowed in her head, only her own mantra and she prayed that it would be enough to see her through until morning.

She'd gotten to one thousand five hundred and thirty four when Alex suddenly moved. She sprung out of the chair as if some voice only she could hear had told her it was about to catch fire. With three long strides she crushed her lips to Olivia's and brought one hand up to her breast. She pressed her whole weight against her and Olivia felt the cold stone hard against her back as long nails clawed at her hip and a surprisingly soft hand pawed at her chest. The lips against hers were moving at a pace she couldn't match even if she had been inclined to do so, moving with a hunger that couldn't be satisfied. Before Olivia could react, beyond her initial shock, the lips had moved to her jaw and then her neck, trailing kisses and biting at the skin.

Then just as suddenly as it had started it stopped. The hand digging painfully into her breast became still and the nails at her hip were loosened. Alex was breathing heavy, taking gasping breaths that blew warm against her skin. She stayed still for a moment, frozen against Olivia before almost throwing herself away.

She turned and strode to the table at the other side of the room, placing her palms flat on the surface and hunching her back, letting her hair shield her face. The only sound was of her breathing. Olivia didn't know what to make of the attack, if she could even call it that. Her own breathing was heavy and after a moment the pain at her hip made her look down. A small trickle of blood was rolling down her leg from the scratches in her skin. She paid it no mind, didn't even really notice the pain, she'd gotten worse from rose bushes.

She didn't understand, if Alex wanted her, and her actions implied that she did, why didn't she just take her, it wasn't as if she could fight back. She didn't want to be raped, it was one of her main fears about being captured but it was expected. She knew what to do with expected, could put up her own mental barriers that would get her through; but throw in a torturer who doesn't know how she wants to torture and Olivia was thrown. How could she fight against, protect herself against, a weapon she couldn't see?

'They say you're perverted' Olivia was yanked out her reprieve as Alex spoke again, body still turned to the table. 'That you like to lie with women.'

Olivia gave no answer, not yet sure what Alex was trying to achieve from her questions.

'Bet you liked that huh?' turning around Alex finally looked in her eyes and waited for an answer.

'I'd have to get a guard down here if I wanted to see you squirming, hmmm? Should I go and get one… maybe a couple?' Olivia wasn't rising to the bait, only staring and Alex couldn't stand to see the pity in her eyes. She strode back over to her and brought her hand to Olivia's cheek. It wasn't a small slap, like the one you might see in a fight over a boy between friends or even a light punch but a full power right hook. Olivia felt her head snap back and her right temple smack against the wall. The dungeon seemed to grow darker for a moment and her ears were ringing but she slowly brought her head back round. She spat out the copper blood from her mouth at Alex's feet but still said nothing.

The punch had seemed to clear Alex's head and she was once again the calm and controlled woman who Olivia first saw. She walked back over to her chair and seemed to accept that Olivia might never decide to speak.

'We had a pervert in here once,' she started, checking to see if Olivia was paying attention. 'It was quite a few years ago now, I was maybe thirteen, fourteen, I don't remember exactly; it's not important. My father brought me down to the dungeons- armour on of course- and sat me a chair in the corner to learn.' Olivia tried not to let her disgust for the Sheriff show but felt her mouth pull tight without her control. Luckily Alex didn't seem to notice, so lost as she was in her story, her aim to scare Olivia seemingly forgotten.

'My father's companion was in charge of the dungeons those days- he's been a dead about five years now- and he was a rough, barrel chested man who didn't much care for anything if I'm honest. The pervert they'd caught was man, a sodomite, but his partner had managed to escape. They wanted to know who the other man was.' Alex seemed to drift further away into her memory, her hands still on her thighs. 'He was younger than I'd expected, about our age now, maybe twenty five, twenty six, or so and he just wouldn't give up the name of his partner. They stuck him on the rack and even when his shoulders ripped out of their sockets he wouldn't speak. Hot brands were run down his ribs and I think they even put out one eye, although that could have been someone else now I'm thinking about it, but still, the point is he just wouldn't speak. I learnt a lot that day about the endurance of man and all the different ways one can stretch it.'

Alex sighed and ran a hand through her hair. What she didn't say was that she'd also learnt a lot about love that day. She'd marvelled that someone could love someone else so much as to suffer through all of that, just for them. She envied that someone could be loved, even by a pervert, with such selflessness and with such devotion.

'It was his first offence so when they realised that he just wasn't going to talk they went ahead and castrated him. You know, for all the talk men give about their dicks it wasn't even the loudest he'd screamed that day.'

Olivia let the silence hang for a moment before deciding to finally speak.

'Was that supposed to scare me? Make me hate myself? Pity you? What the fuck was the point of your little story Alex?'

Suddenly the tables were turned and Alex was the one sitting silent, unable to answer, unable to understand herself why she had told that story, only knowing that when she had started she had to finish.

'Who the fuck are you Alex? Hmmm are you the big bad scary Black Cloak or the little girl made to watch as a man got his dick cut off. The woman who rants about the perverted but wants to fuck me and can't understand why. Who hates herself but goes on killing anyway?' Olivia had started loud, throwing the words like knives at Alex but by the end the volume had fallen and it was with an almost tender tone she uttered her last question. Alex still couldn't reply and pity filtered slowly back into Olivia's eyes.

'You've got to figure out who you are Alex and you've got to do it soon.'

Alex was prevented from answering by the sound of the door. She scrambled to her feet and ran back to the chair with her armour dragging it back into the shadows.

'Don't worry, it's just me.' The voice of the Sheriff drifted down the steps and he sauntered slowly down behind it.

'She's a little cleaner than I expected Alexandra,' he said running his eyes up and down Olivia's body, 'but I like your attitude to clothes.' He turned and smiled at the blond who came and stood at his side.

'I was just getting started.'

'You're going to have to be a bit quicker than this I'm afraid. I've come to announce the date of your death Olivia.' He smiled his sickly smile as she tried to hide her fear. 'How does sunrise sound?'

It sounded sickening. She was counting on more time in dungeon; more time for the others to come up with a plan and rescue her.

'But we had an agreement, we…'

'I know what we agreed Alexandra,' her father interrupted, annoyance entering his eyes, 'but things change. You get your night with her. Make the most of it and get me my answers.' He raised his hand and ran his thumb over her cheek. After a moment she let the anger melt off her features and smiled, nodding slightly in agreement.

'Great,' he said clapping his hands, 'now that's all decided I'm going to go and personally pick out your noose.' He turned and started back up the stairs.

'Have fun ladies.' he chuckled as the door slammed shut behind him.