Chapter 21

It hadn't been long after the trauma shears had been in her hands before she had already been hacking away at leather cuff bands. These were old fashion cuffs, ones that she had seen years ago…. Ones that were kept in psyche ward so that patients couldn't hurt themselves.

What would she do to the victims before me….? The quick thought sent Mary-Lynnette in a world were her stomach dropped and flashes, inhuman and beyond cruel.

I have to focus; for some reason Belladonna pushed everything into sharp and consistent time frames. She couldn't stay here in the woods for too long. Balthazar had once said that she craved the human interaction, the narcissistic glory and attention that she couldn't from being alone. Every day, as the day started to die she would leave and not come back till after the sun was already starting to shine in the sky.

She would sometimes come back with red smeared across her jacket. She would always come back, always watch her with a mocking smile and taunt her, sometimes it was about her family or Ash, sometimes it was even Circle Daybreak, "I wonder if the information that you gave Hunter Redfern is being used today, I heard that he is sending spies into the area around Thierry's mansion. I wonder who might end up dead today?" The torment was beyond cruel.

The words were childish some days, but then there were other days when the world just seemed to fall apart around her. Even if she could break through the chains it would mean nothing because her time was running out. She could only fight for so long; only keep her mind from shrinking back inside her, for safety and protection. There were so many things that were running out of time.

Minutes had turned to hours and her stomach still didn't stop lurching when there was a creek that resounded through the room. Mary-Lynnette still hadn't gotten further with her cuffs. The leather was old yet tough, the fibers rubbing at her wrists raw until they burned when her breath gently drew across them.

The hours sent watching the sun pass and trade with the moon for space in the sky had given her plenty of time to come up with something, anything of a way to escape. The safest way was to make it downstairs, out the bathroom window and, even if the hills was filled with bramble and rocks, to go down that way. At least that way she'd have a chance of escaping—maybe get to a payphone and call someone. Ash immediately jumped in her head, a feeble attempt at the cord inside her sang out a croak and then there was no response. She was too far away, it was there faint and thin, but it was still there. Yet after all that she had been through and felt she was terrified that if she pulled too hard it would break apart and be lost forever. She couldn't even imagine that, Mary-Lynnette would have been tempted to stay here then to risk that.

Tired, leaning against the bedpost, she continued to saw away at the leather; there was little to nothing in progress. The scissors had been dull for so long and with vampires strength they would hardly notice something as mundane as needing to sharpen to get new ones. Beggars can't be choosers; deal with it.

"It seems as though your absence has caused up a stir. My son and that cursed cult are starting to become more than merely thorns. What is so special about you?" Hunter had appeared in the doorway with all his glory and horror, pacing back and forth across the floor, the floor creaking caution to her. He had been like this the last time she had seen him, brief period that it was—it was still burned into her, a scar she wasn't quite sure would ever really heal.

Mary-Lynnette barely dared to breath as she pushed the scissors under her bed, quietly pushing them with her pinky finger. She was terrified, afraid for the slightest push that made this monster teeter so precautiously.

He paused, " are you going to give me an answer? Are you relishing in the fact that your one—if any of them, a handful perhaps, could have survived this long?"

What could she say—

His patience was the fuse of a bomb, dying as the flames got closer and closer. A hand swept across the small nightstand, destroying the light and welcoming in the dark. Only the moon broke through the small window near her bed.

"Vermin deserved to be weakened by the night." His voice soft and hidden by shadows, "You should destroy your hope of being found, you might survive longer that way if that is your goal. My son won't find you and, with such small life spans, you will be forgotten with time. He will find a new toy."

"Your wrong." Her voice was found, "If I die, I will find him again. Lady Hannah and Lord Thierry are proof of that. Ahs forget me and by keeping us apart will only help to destroy yourself—"

Mary-Lynnette's chain was yanked roughly, her knees scraped against the chipped metal frame, the glass cutting into her palms.

"You don't know the strength I possess!" He bellowed, "Love is a human concept—the soulmate principal a disease by humans! I have lived through time, seen and witnessed the world that you created and destroyed in one lifetime. What you think is strength is only a fatal flaw!"

His hand whipped out at her, his knuckles catching her cheek, her neck snapping back and for a brief moment she feared her neck would break.

"You truly are a remarkable animal. Not many, few, have seen this side of the Redfern line. Yet you've managed to disease my children and become an important cog to everything."

Mary-Lynnette choked on the cotton piling in her throat. "I'm not important like you think I am."

By now his composure had once more begun to take place, just as fast as it had come it had disappeared into the dark folds inside him. Her fight for control had given even more strength, "Then you don't know your value. Thierry thinks that he is ahead of the game. He doesn't think I know that Ash is hoping from club to club in hopes of getting information or even that my nephew and his made toy are going around the world to try and recruit those that have been exiled by my word? I'm watching those that are watching me. Whether you want to admit it or not, young thing, you've been a great help to me. Yes I now have names to faces that have been eluding me and almost an entire layout to Thierry's mansion that I thought was forever out of my reach. It's all because of you"

His hand reached out, tenderly over her hair causing shivers that stabbed deep insider her. " I won't give you death so easily. You've become more valuable then just merely punishing my son. No, no you'll be with us for quite sometime."

Her nightmare finally ended when the door was shut and firmly locked behind her.

Whether it was because the hidden glass scattered around glittered in the moonlight called to her or that her body screamed in pain she didn't know; but she laid where she was and surrendered to her dreams.

Ash

Theses days Ash barely slept, his dreams filled with nightmares and the imaginations that ran to unbelievable heights, it made him sick.

If, for a rare moment, his mind was calm enough he would try to kill time by reading through a book. Two weeks since she went missing and it had pushed to page thirty in his first book, there was a sad inkling that he'd read this same paragraph over and over for the last few days. Not that he actually knew what was going on in the story anyway.

He sighed, tonight there was no peace of mind. The guilt that ate at him refused to let his muscles relax and his head started to whirl again.

Ash chucked the book across the room giving up on the failed attempt. He was on the borderline of insanity and even with Lord Thierry keeping his end of the promise Ash knew he wouldn't be able to keep his end much longer

Every thought about the future terrified him. A life without Mary-Lynnette—years waiting for when—if—she ever returned to him. He could barely think of that. His world was a mess that was falling to pieces faster than his attempt to put everything back together again.

He had long since kept his phone off, Mark had started to threatened to fly down there himself to find out what going on. Even now a mysterious number had started to appear on his screen and he feared the worst.

A knock on the door didn't wait for an answer and Ash was half convinced Mark had come to knock some of his own teeth out when the uninvited guest stepped through the threshold.

He would have given anything for it to be Mark.

"How are you holding up?" James Rasmussen asked while setting two cups down on the small coffee table.

"No thanks." Ash didn't think he could stomach anything.

"Lady Hannah and Poppy both insisted. You haven't left his room except to feed. Gillian and Thea said it should return some of your strength back."

Begrudgingly he took a sip—a strange delicious aroma of vanilla and chai that blended together. He took another sip, long and slow, letting the warmth build back up into his limbs.

At least now I can function properly…my mind can focus on the fact that I'm jut sitting here even more.

Properly meant thinking clearly too and admitting a few things. With Mary-Lynnette lost and without being able to help his thoughts were now circling feeling and emotions—even past deeds that now disgusted him.

Ash sighed, "I'm sorry"

James choked on his tea, " for what?" he sputtered.

It seemed as if Ash's cup suddenly became an intense work of art. "For before."

There was an awkward silence filling the room as well as their minds. The feelings they both had, their own ideas and agendas that were playing out that night. For one it had been a test of ideas, if rumors that were circling around were true as well as the hope that there would be fun in it as well. For the other it had been a complete and utter nightmare.

"I realized that all the things that I am fearing now, those were the exact feelings that I gave you that night."

The silence was left to there own devices again and let themselves be enveloped by the shadows.

"No you didn't. What you did then is nothing compared to now."

James stood; watching Ash, trying to understand, comprehend the feelings and emotions welling up inside his cousin. He was already feeling the weigh of Ash's loss, dragging him into someplace he truly feared.

"for the longest time I hated you. You brought me somewhere that still takes hold of me. Because of you I worry about Poppy more than needed, that fear has become my biggest weakness. I wanted to you to experience love so that it would be ripped away. Then that way you would feel like a shell and understand all the wrongs that you were doing."

James was starting to relieve the fear—that spark that could have destroyed everything for him. His world would have ended. His hand tightened on the doorknob and a humorless laugh escaped him, "But I won't ever get that revenge. The bastard that did all that to me doesn't exist anymore. Sometimes I swear that I can still see is face, that cruel smile and soulless eyes. But he's dead. So this hell your going through is even worse than mine. All I could fear was Poppy's pain that I pray I will never have to see or even feel."

He couldn't take the feelings that were pressing onto him anymore, "Gillian places some herbs in your tea, hopefully that will help you."

Ash had already felt the herbs and couldn't stop the heaviness of his eyes and the way the small dying warmth became a blanket that enveloped him. He had only been able to catch his cousin's final words. "Your not the same person."

Then his world began to change….

Sorry for how long it took for this latest chapter to come out. I have been so busy finding a job and moving back home because the college year is over! So in honor of the fact that I am still alive and still keeping up with the story I have written this latest chapter and have already started working on the next one. Again i am so sorry and please continue to read!

Till next time

~Triss