Chapter 18

It had tugged at him, a feeling of something that was eating away at him. It had been slow at first, suddenly ebbing into a wave of something harsh and cruel. His breath had left him, his chest constricting and tightened. The pain had been unbearable, but it had been nothing compared to the one that had chewed at him, there was no real way to describe it. Almost like a rat that was ripping at him from the inside—what had she felt?

Quinn and James had left him in his room, where Thierry had placed someone to make sure that he wouldn't run off. They were going to solve he had said, but they didn't know the torture of being left here in this room surrounded by everything that reminded him of her. The scents that still clung to the sheets and the book on the small coffee table had already broken its spine from keeping that place were she had stopped reading. Ash felt as he if he was going insane, losing his mind. He needed to go find her and sitting her wasn't going to do anything to change that.

The door clicked open, Ash didn't even bother to care who it was. He only wanted those three words said, "You can go." But they didn't come.

Lord Thierry walked in, a stone expression chiseled in his features; the look in his eyes already told Ash that he wasn't the only one fighting Thierry on this. For a brief flicker he could show pity for someone else beside himself right now… pity, huh Mary-Lynnette would have kicked me in the shins if she heard me say that.

The eldest vampire heaved a heavy sigh; "I won't give you the words you want to hear right now. Even still I ask that you listen to what I have to say, what information you give me could change everything that we have been fighting for. I ask you, will you?"

The words he wanted to say were no, to barge out of the room and fight his way to get at some wheels. He knew that if he could get out of here there was a chance that he could find her… but then what about all those nights? The ones that he had sacrificed, with her—for her, by going off on assignments instead of staying with her; he could blame Thierry, tell him that if it weren't for those assignments that this never would have happened.

But his eyes already thought the same way; Lord Thierry was expecting Ash to say no.

So Ash said, "Yes."

There was a brief pause, a moment for both of them to try and make an attempt to collect themselves. "What did you mean when you had told James and Quinn when something had attacked at the very thing that bound you to your soulmate?"

Ash couldn't even begin to describe it, but Thierry asked him to try, " There is this strength—this silver cord that I feel ties Mare and I together. Through that cord I know the basics of her emotions and thoughts, I can find her through it if she's nearby… and it—it connects us. What happened a few hours ago it felt like someone was trying to forcefully tear away at it. I don't really know myself, but there was this unimaginable wave of dark at burned away at me…. I can't really tell you anymore then that."

His words didn't comfort Thierry, if anything the worried lines that seemed to have formed overnight were pushing further into his skull. Lord Thierry confirmed it, " If they have an understanding of the soulmate principal that we don't then I'm afraid that the tables have shifted in a place that isn't in our favor."

Lord Thierry quietly thanked him and began to depart. Ash quickly stood up, " Wait, please. Give me an answer at least. How much longer do I have to stay here? Do I have to wait until the cord that tie me to her is ripped apart! "

"No, I promise that you won't feel that a second time. I've already sent people out to look for signs for Mary-Lynnette. I can't have you go out there yet, you being anywhere in the area she is in may confirm things for them."

"So I can't save the person I care about more then anything? I can go off the minute we found out where she is?" Ash thundered, the calm and collect feelings and mind set were already starting to get thrown out the window. " Don't leave me here in the dark and expect me not to fight back!"

"This situation is different from my situation with Hannah and you know it!" Thierry snapped, " At this point in time we have no idea if Hunter knows even the damage that he has done yet! If that's the case I want to leave him in the dark for as long as possible, but if you show up all hell fire and try to rescue her he will hold a lot more power over us then we could possibly imagine."

"So we leave her—"

"What if they caught Hannah next? Poppy or Rashel? If Hunter figures out that it is possible to damage the soulmate connection then do you think that he would just let it continue? If that happens do you think he wouldn't try and do anything about that information? We are walking on a very thin slate of glass right now. Throwing fire over it isn't going to keep up from falling into an icy water grave." He paused a moment before softening his voice, "You've hit a point of desperation and fear that no one else in the nightworld has ever had to taste, not even myself… and there are many things that I have yet to atone for still. I cannot imagine what you must be feeling and I can't blame you if your truly hate me. But there is more than just Mary-Lynnette in trouble if Hunter realizes just what he has actually done. The moment we know her exact whereabouts I promise that you will be the first one to know and the one to go after. I just beg you to hold on a little longer."

Lord Thierry left then, neither waiting for Ash to explode and crumble in resign. It didn't matter though; Ash could do neither but stand there and try to take in all those words and reasons. Whether he wanted to admit it or not the vampire had been right.

He'd have to wait; there was no other choice. But he prayed that it would be soon. There was only so much time that he could wait before his fear took over. Before even Mary-Lynnette's strength crumbled in on itself just like that night…

She had been strong but almost immediately after the battle and the reality sank in she could hold herself together… so what about now?

The pain had felt her gasping for air, to try and capture those beats that her heart had missed. She lay crumpled on the floor, not caring that Hunter Redfern sat back in his chair wiping away the line of red that trickled out of the corner of his mouth. What that creature had done was nothing like the connection she and Ash had shared, she hadn't been expecting that it would but this… this was beyond the physical boundaries being ripped away. She felt raped, abused and wanted to purge herself in boiling water and scrub herself. Mary-Lynnette had never felt so dirty, disgusting.

The vampire before her didn't notice her discomfort or chose to ignore it and stepped over her body leaving her to try and regain any warmth that had desperately hidden itself inside her. But there was little to no avail.

"Would you kindly escort the child to the old servants courters on the north side of the estate? The smell in here is becoming rather pungent and I'd rather not have it start to attach itself to my clothes."

She didn't feel anything as she was bodily lifted and swung over one shoulder, didn't care when he complained out her weight or how she bumped against his back. There is pain that can take such root and depth inside someone that all other pain just doesn't seem to exist, at least to the point of where your conscious becomes aware again.

The vampire carrying her was well aware of this fact that he hadn't even bothered to bind her hands or legs as he unceremoniously dumped her in his trunk of his old BMW and locked in shut on her. The darkness engulfed her and there was no way to tell what part of her began and where she ended.

Mary-Lynnette could only feel the salty tracks on her cheeks slowly warm as wet down. She wanted to call out to Ash, her father, and Mark. The strong ones of her heart because she didn't think that she was even close to the strong person that she'd once thought of herself. It only took one person—one monster to make her realize that. This was a hell that was unfamiliar and she was pretty sure that there would be no books about to deal with this kind of state of mind. This was a state that had bee created just for her and unlike all the other problems she'd had to face, there didn't seem to be a way to fix this or even get herself out of this situation.

What was going to happen to her? Would she make it out of this? Would she even see Ash again.

Mare cried silently into her arm vowing that if things were different she wouldn't hold back on feelings by fears and uncertainty. Even now she admitted the one thing that could make things, "Ash I need you."

She cried like that as the road stretched on and the only soothing sound was the humming of the car and drifted off from exhaustion. A quick pray that when she opened her eyes, she'd be back in Ash's bed in Thierry's mansion, Ash sleeping contorted on the couch and the smell of brunch wafting in through the creeks in the door.

If only….

"Ash, you don't understand. Mary-Lynnette's been dodging my dad's calls for the last month! They were supposed to stop by her university but they never got the ok to get down there! My dad's been riding down my throat because he knows that I know something that I'm not telling him!" Mark was already starting to lose his cool.

Ash sighed, still debating whether or not he should even tell Mark what was going on. The conversation would have been something in a cheesy comic book: Listen Mark I got bad news to tell you, Mary-Lynnette has been kidnapped by the number one enemy of circle daybreak. How do I know? Well because he sent me a scary picture of him with your sister in his car. I don't know what's going on because I can't leave the room at the mansion to go look for her. The good news is that she isn't dead yet because I felt the worse pain in my life yesterday, but she didn't die from it!

Yeah… that was definitely not the way to do.

"I'll… I'll talk to her. There have been a lot of things going on around the mansion. With everything we haven't been thinking about things outside of the nightworld." Well he wasn't completely lying.

"I still don't understand why she won't answer the phone though. She hasn't even been picking up the phone when I call her. Is she mad at me for not holding off dad or something?"

If only that were the problem.

"No, no that's not it. There are other things going on around here. Big things. Our time hasn't really been easy around here."

A pause, "What aren't you telling me? Ash, what's going on? Is—is Mary-Lynnette ok?" The last part came out a bit choked, as if he even knew that there wasn't something quite right going on.

But should Ash tell him? There really wasn't much that he could say on the phone anyway without the possibility of someone tapping into the line; He had already screwed up enough to let anything else happen. "Mark, I have to get going. There are things that I got to sort out. When I see Mary-Lynnette I'll tell her to call you and your dad. Ok?"

"What? Ash, don't hang up the phone! Answer my—" But he flipped the phone shut and turned it off before it could ring again.

Unlike Ash, if Mare disappeared then there would be multiple worlds that collapsed into nothing. Including his own.

The world woke her with a sun that sell in the way of her eyes. Seeping in through her eyelids and into her brain. Almost yelling at her to wake up and find out if her wish came true.

It wasn't. The room she found instead was built from an attic, a long, low attic that stretched out over part of a building that laid under her. The cot was scratchy against her bare skin and bruises on her legs and arms seemed to throb with each attempt at movement. Barely any movement though showed what lay in store for her. Old-fashioned handcuffs bound her wrists with leather straps, to keep her skin from chaffing, how kind of them she thought absently, and a long thick chain attached itself to the frame of the bedside. Mare tugged at it experimentally at the chain and found that it was secure. Nothing that she could do would change that.

What would be her prison was nothing more then what seemed like a narrow crawl space that was thick and heavy with the Nevada air. It was so thick that it made her head spin all the more. All she could do was lay back down against the brick mean to be a pillow and absently felt her fingers brush against the area of her neck.

Smooth skin, no blemish or scratch, not even the warmth of blood rushing up to the skin. It was just like she expected it, but still that didn't mean she couldn't feel it. The way her spine seemed to want to break apart at the thought of him being so close to her. Just remembering was ripping through her again.

Tears washed over her again. She had to get out of here.

"Ash, please find me"