Chapter 8

When I came to I felt sore and my mouth felt dry. It appears one of them drugged me and coming out of it was making me dizzy as hell. Trying to blink away the wooziness and focus on my surroundings was harder than I'd imagined, but after a few minutes, I was able to start taking things in.

I was apparently chained in the back of a moving van, heading to fuck knows where. I had no idea where I was. My head felt like a train had rammed into it and my entire body felt like lead, but I guess at this point, I was just happy to be alive. I tried looking out one of the windows but found they had been painted and I could get no view. Still I had a feeling we must've been in a city, judging from all the traffic noise. Definitely not in Albion anymore. Albion was never this noisy, unless we were throwing a festival.

"Don't try anything funny, guide," a voice broke in from my front left. It turns out I wasn't in the back of this van alone.

"So nice of you lot to think of giving me some company," I muttered, looking at her, "Who are you?"

"Right now, I'm the only one keeping them from beating you senseless," she smirked, "So you better thread lightly."

"Oh," I nodded, "Guess they don't give you proper names where you're from then? Mine's Merlin, by the way."

She glowered at me, "You may call me Lady Morgause. Don't bother trying to use your empathy. You're blocked, nobody will be able to sense it and I'm in no mood to battle you right now. I've not had the best day."

I studied her for a moment and frowned, "Battle me?"

She scowled at me, "I had heard you'd not been trained, but you don't even know that much? Pathetic."

"You're a guide?" I questioned, "You're a guide and you're letting them do this? Letting them take me away from my sentinel?"

She rolled her eyes at me, "'Letting them take me away from my sentinel'," she mimicked, "You disgust me."

"Why? What did I ever do to you?"

"You personally?" she hummed, "Nothing."

"What is this some weird political ploy or something?"

"Don't be stupid," she scoffed, "This is about money."

"Money?" I questioned, "What do you people plan to do to me?"

She laughed maliciously, "You're a commodity, little warlock, and people pay quite highly for commodities nowadays."

"Pay? You're going to sell me?" I asked horrified, "Why?"

"You will be sold and bonded," she smirked, "And we will make a fortune from it. We've got a buyer quite interested in you."

"P-people don't force bondings anymore," I answered.

She laughed again, "You're really naive, aren't you?"

"Why? Why are you doing this?"

She rolled her eyes at me, "We all have our own reasons."

"What reason?"

"I don't need to explain myself to you."

"You're going to sell me," I growled, "The least you can do is tell me why."

She watched me for few minutes before answering, "Since I have nothing better to do and in a few short days I will never see you again, fine, I'll tell you."

She crawled towards me grabbed my cheeks with her hand, "You see, little warlock, if you want to know who to thank for your current conundrum, then you may look further no than Sentinel Uther Pendragon."

"Pendragon? Is that Arthur's father?"

"The one and only," she let me go, "You see, he's the man responsible for my being here and without me, they'd never have gotten you."

"How's he responsible? He planned this?"

She scowled, "Don't be stupid. That fool could never plan anything as eloquent as this. He took everything from me and I'm going to make sure he pays and that starts with you. Well, the money I'll be making off of you, anyways."

Oh great, she's insane.

"I will destroy him."

She is definitely fucking insane. I had to get out of here. I had to get out here and fast. I closed my eyes and focused, sensing the two sentinels in the front.

She laughed, and patted my cheek and leaned into my face, "Don't do anything stupid, little warlock, you'll find yourself regretting it."

I breathed, pulled my head back, and rammed my forehead into hers as hard as I could, she stumbled backwards and smacked her head on the side of the van, effectively knocking herself out. I really hadn't thought that would work.

"Sorry!" I said to her, "I'm really sorry. I'd never normally hit a girl, but it's an emergency and you've clearly gone mad."

I looked at the locks on my hands and whispered, "Aliese," unlocking them. I made my way over to Morgause to inspect her injury, and right as I placed my hand on her. She opened her eyes and pain exploded in my mind, I tried to pull back but she grabbed my arm.

"I warned you, you'd regret it."

The pain was unbearable and it made my empathy go haywire. I wasn't sure what happened, but before I knew it, the van hit something and began rolling out of control. Morgause and I bounced around the van, unable to catch ourselves until we finally stopped. I'd banged my head and probably broken something, but miraculously I was still awake. I looked around and found that I was actually laying on the van's roof. I was laying there because apparently the van was upside down. It seems our trusty drivers had somehow managed to get us into an accident. I slowly sat up, but the movement caused me to hurl. When I stopped, I saw Morgause laying on the floor near the front… Or the back. I was pretty disoriented. I crawled to her, but I wasn't going to make the same mistake of touching her again, so instead, I waited until I could assure myself she was still breathing and began trying to find an exit.

The windows were all broken and crushed, but there was just enough space for me to crawl out from one of them. I was suddenly extremely grateful I wasn't some over muscled jock. Otherwise I'm not sure how I would've gotten out of there.

I shakily stood up and found a crowd and lots of flashing lights around us. I took a few wobbly steps before someone reached out to grab me, "Hey! This kid is alive!" he yelled out.

I took a moment to gain my equilibrium before I pulled away from him. I wasn't sure where I was, but I had to get away from here before these people found me again. I started to run to the crowd and as I neared them they actually parted from me. I heard someone shout, "Where's he going?" but no one tried to stop me. I ran into an alley and came out on another street.

I spotted a cab near me and jumped in, "Off duty," the driver said.

"Please," I begged, "This is an emergency."

"Listen, kid," he started, but stopped when he turned back to look at me, "What the hell? You're bleeding."

"Where am I?" I asked.

"Where?" he asked incredulously, "This is London, kid, and it looks like you need to go to the hospital. Get out and I'll call you an ambulance. You obviously need one if you can't even remember where you are."

"No! No, please don't," I looked around, "I need to get out of here now! Please!"

"No way," he huffed, "I'm not taking responsibility for you."

"Please," I said again and closed my eyes and focused again. I did what I did before and pushed my empathy out towards him.

I opened my eyes to find the driver's face had softened, "Fine. I'll take you where you need to go, but if anyone ever asks, you were never here, got it?" It had worked. It had work and I was quite possibly getting better at it.

"Got it!" I answered.

The driver nodded and pulled into traffic and I let out a breath of relief. He drove for a few minutes before asking, "Well?"

I frowned in confusion, "Well, what?"

He sighed in frustration, "Where the hell am I taking you, kid?"

"Oh right." Fuck. What did I know about London? My aunt lived here, but for the life of me I couldn't remember the address, "Um the tube?"

"You really don't know where you're going, do you?"

"I'm not from here," I answered, "I have to try and find a way to get back home."

"Where are you from?"

"Albion," I answered.

"Albion?" he frowned, "I think I've heard of it. That's quite a ways from here, isn't it?"

"Yeah," I frowned, "It is."

"Not sure if the tube will take get you there," he commented.

"I know, but I think it's a better idea than running around in circles on the street."

"I suppose," he nodded. It was only a ten-minute drive to the nearest tube station. He let me out and I walked down the flight of steps. How long had it been since I've stepped foot in one of these? Or been anywhere near here?

I looked around and located a bathroom first. Looking myself in the mirror was necessary and most definitely unpleasant. I cleaned the blood off my face and arms as best as I could and tried to stop the bleeding from my forehead. I wracked my brain for any healing spells I could think of, but I could only remember one. So much for all that studying. One nasty blow and it all went out the window.

I sighed, hoping for the best, "Þurhhæle dolgbenn." Luckily enough it did heal the cut on my forehead, I tried it again on some other bad cuts I had and decided it was good enough. I really shouldn't be staying in one place for too long.

I walked out of the bathroom, only to remember that I didn't have any money. What the hell was I going to do in the tube? I stopped and looked around and noticed someone sitting in a seat. A ticket sticking out of their bag. I knew I was going to feel extremely guilty about this later, but I couldn't let the opportunity go, I had to get out of here.

I focused on the ticket and carefully made it come to me. Taking my time to make sure it went unnoticed. Thankfully, my effort didn't go in vain, since it was a valid ticket. I asked for directions from one of the passersby and jumped in as soon as it arrived. I wasn't entirely sure where I was heading, but right now anywhere other than here seemed for the best.

Finally, when we started moving I allowed myself to relax a bit. I didn't mean for it, but before I knew it, exhaustion overtook me and I fell asleep.

I jolted awake when I felt someone patting my leg.

"Tsk, tsk," Morgause chided, "You've cause quite some trouble, little warlock."

I looked at Morgause and then looked around to see 5 very strong looking men surrounding us, "Fuck." How long had I been asleep for?

"Did you really think you'd be able to get away that easily from us?" she laughed, "So very naïve you are. You've actually made things a little easier."

I tried to move away from her but she gripped my knee, "You're not going anywhere, but where I tell you. You're going to come with us and you'll do it quietly, otherwise, there's no telling what I or my friend might do."

"Are you sure about that? I mean, look how well that worked out last time."

She frowned, "That was something I hadn't counted on, but now, I have back up and I'm well prepared for your little tricks."

"You have no way out of this, come quietly or," she grinned, "I'll make you come."

I didn't know what she meant, but the look in her eyes made me understand that I didn't want to find out. I nodded slowly and she smiled, "Good boy." She stood up and I followed her out of the tube and into another SUV. I sat in between her and some guy.

"Where are we going?"

"That doesn't concern you," she answered.

"Where are we?"

"That doesn't concern you either," she scowled, "Shut up or I will shut you up."

"You know, my sentinel is going find me," I frowned, "We might not be bonded, but he knows who I am. He will find me."

"That's what all of you say," she scoffed, "And not one has ever gotten even close."

"All of us? You're doing this to other people? Selling guides?"

She laughed, "Did you think you were special?"

"You're sick," I said shaking my head, "You are so very, very sick."

Morgause turned to me and slapped me hard, "You better keep quiet, little warlock, my patience is wearing thin with you."

I raised my hand to my cheek. I am so thoroughly fucked. I closed my eyes and stayed quiet for a while, sensing Morgause's anger and stress, not that it was hard to. Morgause expelled out any emotion she felt. All of her feelings were exposed. Anger, pain, hurt. It was all over the place. Suffocating even. I hadn't met an empath who did that. It wasn't pleasant. She was just so open about everything. So different from me. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if her emotions weren't negative, but I doubted that Morgause let much else into her heart.

In a short time, we were on the highway. I guess I wasn't being transferred to a different car this time.

"I think I miss the van," I said out loud, turning to Morgause, "You were more open back then. Nicer even."

The man beside me pulled out a gun and pointed it at me. I looked at it for a few minutes, then because losing my mind was becoming a new hobby for me lately, well, I lost it. Started laughing hysterically and yelling, "What are you gonna do?! Kill me?!" I snorted, "Damaging the merchandise puts a bit of a damper on business, doesn't it?! Who'd want to bond with me if I'm shot?! Are you stupid?!"

"Put the gun away," Morgause ordered.

The guy stuttered, "B-but-"

"Don't question me!" she yelled and he did.

Morgause eyed me and sniffed, "You reek."

I took a deep breath and calmed down before answering, "I didn't get a chance to shower before you took me," I sighed, "Sweat and blood isn't always the best cologne."

She sighed, "Perfect. Stuck in a car with a sweaty, disgusting little thing."

I shrugged, "I don't think I'm the only one to blame for that though," I looked at her, "You're bonded, aren't you?"

Morgause looked at me and gritted her teeth, "Not yet."

"Why would Sentinel Pendragon say you can't bond?"

"Because he's a blind idiot," she stiffened, "Too afraid of me. Of my empathy."

"Because you're a strong empath?" I nodded, "I could see that. I hid my empathy 'cause I was afraid of what would happen to me. Guess I wasn't wrong on that front."

Morgause gave me cold smile, "No, I guess not," she then grabbed my arm and I felt a burst a pain in my head, but before I could react everything just went black and the last thing I remember hearing was her voice saying, "I told you to shut up."

Arthur's Note: It took me a while to write it, but I'm finally satisfied with it. I hope you all like this chapter.