I absentmindedly walked around the room I was locked in. After Kevin had left I had managed to track down some clothes and now found myself walking around the empty room. At every door there were two guards and more were waiting below the windows, leaving me no exits. Even if I could leave, using my powers, I found myself not wanting to.
I was a prisoner, but in a way I was perfectly free. I had never been away from my family as entirely as I now found myself, never been so free to make my own decisions with no interference. Even when I had travelled away from my parents I had been stuck enduring the constant prodding of Ben and the watchful eye of Grandpa Max. Here, despite the arrogant bastard I was stuck with, I had no one I had to obey or put up with. I was entirely detached and loving every moment of it.
I wandered over to the window and looked out, below the guards looked up at me ensuring I didn't try anything. I glared down at them, the thought of getting rid of them itching at my mind. Even though I didn't want to leave, and had no where to go regardless, it annoyed me to have surveillance on my every move. I glared down at them, my face scrunching in irritation. I couldn't walk away entirely, but that didn't mean I couldn't explore a little.
I stepped back from the window, waiting a few moments so the guards would stop looking. With a wave of my hand a glowing orb formed around me, encasing me and lifting me off the floor into the air. I looked towards the window and the orb carried me towards it, then out it and over the guards shouting for me to stop.
A small market came into view and I returned to the ground, the guards so far behind I chuckled at their incompetence. I looked around as I walked forward, everyone returning my gaze with their own curious ones. I knew I looked different from everyone, after all I was human and they generally were not, which only gave me more questions about why Kevin was here.
I silently continued walking forward until I spotted a commotion up ahead. I approached, curiosity pulling me towards the crowd. There, standing before me, within the circle that had formed around them, were a couple of men probably around twenty. They were arguing and browsing the faces in the crowd, nothing that would have warranted an audience if not for the fact that these men also looked human making them a spectacle for all those who were not (meaning everyone else in the market). I turned to leave when a hand clamped around my wrist and I whipped my head back around angrily to find one of the men latched onto me, his face baring an annoyed expression as if the fact that he grabbed me was something he didn't want to do.
"Let go." I demanded, jerking my arm away from him and out of his grasp.
He silently rolled his eyes and in one fluid motion picked me up and flung me over his shoulder as if I were a piece of luggage that he didn't want to deal with.
The crowd had moved back, encircling me along with the two men in order to get a better view of my involvement. I clutched my hands into fists and pounded his back, continuing to demand he put me down, while the second man cleared a path through the crowd. My blows didn't even seem to phase my captor as he just made his way through the crowd not noticing me at all.
"I thought she would be more trouble than this." The second man scoffed, looking towards me like I was a disappointment. "He usually doesn't tell us to be careful when he sends us to collect someone."
The man carrying me made a noise in his throat that could have passed for laughter if it didn't hold so much irritation.
My face burned with anger at their conversation. They spoke as if I wasn't even there or important. An inanimate object they were sent to get from the market.
"I said LET GO!" I demanded, my anger overflowing into power as my fists began to glow with an energy that sparked like lightning.
I swung again, this time my fist sending the man carrying me to the ground as my power pounded against his back with my punch. He released me as he fell and as my hands met the ground before my feet when I flipped forward and landed. I whipped my head around to face them, now standing behind me, my hands still glowing as my eyes began to as well.
I raised my right arm out perpendicular to my body and unclenched my fist, the power surging as if it were a fire spreading over my skin. My face contorted into pure rage as I looked at the men before me. Taking a deep breath I curled my wrist and thrust hand towards them, my palm now facing them as if I was telling them to stop. The glow surrounding my hand flew forwards like a bolt I had shot at them and knocked them both backward onto the ground.
"Who are you?" I demanded taking a step towards where they groaned on the ground.
The man who had been holding me looked up at me with an expression that held a mixture of anger and something that looked like he was impressed with me. I met his gaze, my hands still glowing along with my eyes as I waited for his response.
"I told you to be careful didn't I?" I heard someone chuckle to the side of where I was standing.
I turned, ready to throw another bolt at the new voice when I realised who it was walking towards me.
"Kevin." I growled, unhappy that I had been found. "What happened to that meeting you were supposed to be at?"
My hands stopped glowing as he looked from me to the men now picking themselves up off the ground.
"Yeah, I was walking back to the room when I saw you out the window kicking the crap out of two of my men." He raised his eyebrow at me.
"Your men?" I said back irritated.
"They're part of the guard that was supposed to keep an eye on you."
I looked at Kevin, then the men now standing in front of me and turned walking back towards the castle without a word.
"Where do you think you're going?" Kevin called behind me.
"I'm leaving" I called without looking back.
I heard Kevin say something to the men and then heard their footsteps crunching around me as they walked with me. Kevin walking beside me, and the two nitwits in front of us.
I looked towards Kevin, debating if I should give in and ask him my questions rather than be stubborn and uphold the silence.
"I have some questions." I decided finally.
Kevin looked down at me with one eyebrow arched and I took that as an alright.
"Why are you here? Where is here? Why are there only 4 humans here? Why did that guy call you Sire?" I was cut off by Kevin's scoff as he looked forwards, breaking our eye contact.
"Curious little runaway, aren't you." He chided. "All these questions are gonna cost you, and I ain't talkin' money." His grin made me shiver despite the fact that he wasn't looking at me and I quickly averted my eyes from his face.
"I'm pretty sure I've already paid in full." I stated bitterly, looking towards the castle that was now in view.
He made a deep grunting noise in his throat that clearly meant I wasn't even close to paying, then proceeded to answer one of my questions.
"I'm here cause this is where the rift took me." He stated nonchalantly.
It was my turn to arch my eyebrows as I looked at him again, waiting for him to continue while still faintly aware of the two muscled guys in front of us.
"There are different dimensions or pockets within the one you normally live in, the null void being one of these. Each pocket is in some way connected to another, just how earth is connected to the null void, and there are more than one entrance and exit between the two. You didn't think the plumbers had the only means to get me out of there did you?" he chuckled at the thought, as I frowned.
Although I wasn't that ignorant of things, I still had no idea that he would have an opportunity to escape from the prison he had been placed in. At least not to somewhere other than earth.
"When I was in the null void a rift opened up that I happened to find and when I went through it I was able to leave the prison you and your gay ass cousin put me in. The only downside, I didn't end up back on earth, I ended up here when I stepped through, not that I'm complaining or anything." He shrugged, glancing at me out the corner of his eye as he paused for a moment.
"Anyway, the guy who found me helped me get my power under control, blah, blah, blah. Great thing was, he just happened to be the king of this place and when he died I took his place cause he didn't have kids. Bastard was as mean as hell, but he did help me out so I figured I'd stick around."
"Gee, it had nothing to do with position of authority he left you or anything." I rolled my eyes at his grin. "So that explains why you're here and why you were called sire, so what about the other questions?"
He paused, looking at me with a cocky smirk. "What are you willing to offer for the answers?" He asked wryly.
A deep blush spread across my cheeks at his suggestive question and accompanying grin. I'd be damned before I admitted it aloud, but Kevin did have that dangerous quality that made him attractive in a way I shouldn't have been noticing. Ben would have killed me if he were here to witness me melting in the hands of his enemy.
"Is this all just payback for sticking you in the null void? Playing with me like a toy?" I asked, pleased with the steady tone my voice came out in despite my hot face and shaky legs.
"You can think that, or you can just give in to what you know is the truth." He winked, his black eyes blazing into mine with a heat that made me stumble before regaining my footing and continuing to walk.
"And what truth is that?" I blushed.
"Hmmm…" was his only answer as he grinned and looked forward, once again breaking our gaze.
I hated his cryptic words that seemed to leave me hanging with an unquenchable thirst for the taste of forbidden fruit I couldn't bring myself to ask for. And the fact that he knew it bothered me made him do it all the more in a relentless effort to make that heat rise within me.
"There aren't four humans." He stated, abruptly answering my question and cutting off my thoughts in one short sentence. "There isn't even one."
"But…" I began, confused by his statement before he cut me off again.
"Norio and Heric," he began gesturing towards the men in front of us "are shape-shifters. Each can become the animal that possesses his soul, yet can walk like a man. Which is much more convenient at times. Not human." He stated bluntly.
I looked at the two walking in front of us, noticing their slight motions at each noise that sounded, and some I supposed, that were too distant for me to hear at all. They were constantly shifting and listening, just like an animal awaiting an attack, constantly defending. I nodded and Kevin continued.
"As for the other two, I'm not human and neither are you. Though I see you still delude yourself to believe we are."
I frowned at his words, although I new I wasn't technically human and my power wasn't technically magic, it was just second nature to think so. Try going to school and when someone asks 'where are you from' you say 'oh well I'm from another planet because I'm actually an Anodyte made of pure energy due a bloodline from my fathers side of the family'. Someone hears you say that and you pretty much get straight-jacketed and taken away. So yeah, it became the obvious choice to refer to myself as human, and Kevin looked like a human so that was understandable as well.
"The reason we look different is because this is another planet, far away from earth or anywhere you know of. The details are confusing so I'll leave it at that." He stated, clearly not open to revealing anything else about where we were.
"One more thing." I stated, after a minute of taking in the answers he had given me. "What happened to Aleron?"
"Who?" he returned with dark eyes and a viscous smirk that reminded me of the way he used to be a long time ago.
I fell silent. I could only imagine the horrible things Kevin had done to him, the torture he had suffered through and the state he had left in (if even still alive). I shuddered at the thought, despite the knowledge that he deserved everything he got for what he had attempted.
By the time I resurfaced from my thoughts I found we were back in the castle, stepping through the doorway into Kevin's chambers once more. As I zoned in fully and turned to leave the room, the door slammed, pulled shut by Norio and Heric who were no doubt standing in the hall to prevent my escape.
Kevin's arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me against him, his warmth overflowing into my back and causing me to shudder.
"Let go." I stated half-heartedly, not sure that I could endure it if he did.
His chuckle vibrated down my neck as he ushered me away from the door and further into the room. "Time to pay in full for all those answers." He whispered darkly and seductively, his warm breath heating up my neck and ear as my shudder deepened.