I know how much all of you wanted this chapter. . .but are you ready for it? O_o Enjoy. . .
Duke Hartmann rushed through the castle. Today was the day he lost and he knew it. His gates were failing and the siege remarkably had lasted a week. In that week he had given Arielle the valerian root every day, and her mind finally began to go. Now her "mate" had breached the gates and his army was almost through. Once he was through Hartmann's game was over. He burst through the door one last time, into the small, dirty servant room she had been in.
Arielle herself wasn't in good shape. Her robe dirty and worn, her eyes tired from trying to fight the valerian root. Her efforts only helped in making the root's effects stronger. At the moment that Hartmann entered the room she was laying back on the bed, her breathing erratic and she head twitching from side to side. If he didn't know any better he'd think she was possessed.
He strode forward and sat her up. "Open your mouth Arielle, you need to drink this."
In a sluggish and confused haze she followed his instructions and drank the root laced water he gave to her. When she finished she fell back on the bed and Hartmann grinned, he laughed and threw the cup back over his shoulder. He then unbuckled his short sword and laid in across her lap, taking her hand and making her grab the hilt.
He leaned in close and whispered into her ear, "Someone is here to hurt you. As I've been telling you He would come. Now he's here and he is coming for your soul. With this sword stab his heart," he looked to her current state. "or try to."
He chuckled and patted her face, taunting her. He stood and hurried from the room. He went to his son Bronson and pushed open his son's bedroom door. There was the young man looking out his window with his hands clasped behind his back while he watched the army breaching the gates. Hartmann walked forward and put a hand on his youngest son's shoulder and looked at the scene with him, both men could see their prime enemy at the head of the siege. The Duke shivered when he saw that Von Krohn seemed to be looking right at him.
"He's finally here father, I told you he would be." He said simply.
Hartmann nodded, "So he is. Remember what I told you, follow every instruction and you will find success. Go to the tower and when the time is right use the tunnel to the outside. Grab her and don't look back. If the chance doesn't come to you, you go to it," he said.
His son glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "Just why did you kidnap her father? Knowing that this might happen?"
His father grinned and patted his back. "It's an art of war son, kidnapping women. The Kurgan is obsessed with this woman. If he were to impregnate her his spawn would terrorize the earth. Look at how desperately he fights for her, obviously its destroying him with her gone. Remember your orders and wait for the opportune moment." He looked at his son and then wrapped him in a bear hug for the last time with his son hugging him back.
He let him go and turned around, leaving his son to watch as his father's gates fell. There was a surge of men from the outside into the courtyard and screams echoed through the castle and surrounding lands. Bronson watched from his room and when the men entered his home he slipped unnoticed through the corridors until he found a servant stairwell, he went to his hiding place and waited.
The Kurgan's sword and armor were covered in the blood of his enemies by the time he made it to the upper floors. He turned down the hall and opened every door, kicking it in if it was locked, checking for his mate.
It was one of the last rooms of the hall that he found her behind a locked door. He went to turn the handle but it was locked, he ground his teeth together and kicked it in, it flew back on busted hinges. When he strode into the room she shot up on the bed, pointing a sword at him. Her hand and the sword shook violently and when she saw him her eyes were wide as if she were expecting someone else.
"Kurgan," she said, her voice wasn't normal. Suddenly she closed her terrified eyes and fell back on the bed, the sword falling from her hand.
He shouted, "Arielle!" And stormed forward.
When he reached her he found that she was shaking terribly, unconscious and filthy. He knew that her captors had drugged her repeatedly, with what he wanted to know. If it was to make her talk or to rape her, well either way the Duke was a dead man when The Kurgan found him. He shook her to wake her up and called her name, her response was to moan sadly in her sleep and curl up in a shaky ball against him. He put his sword away and picked her up in his arms, carrying her out of the room.
The Black Knight carried her down the hall and had just reached the stair way when a cool voice behind him spoke, "Where are you going with that woman Von Krohn?"
The Kurgan set her down on the stairs and drew his sword, facing the duke.
"She is my property and since you touched her you will die," he growled.
The other man, though he had fear in his eyes, did not have it in his voice, "Ha! Oh Kurgan if you only knew what I did to her. If you only knew! She should be expecting children in nine months time!" He laughed hard and stared at The Kurgan. His laughter would be his death.
The giant of a man walked up to him and instead of killing him, he killed his guards. When he turned to face Hartmann he sent his sword straight through The Kurgan's gut. At first he gasped in pain and closed his eyes to control the pain, the Duke thought he had won and smiled triumphantly! His victory proved to be false when the dark haired Immortal grabbed the other man's sword by the blade and pulled it out, Hartmann stared in disbelief and hi sword shook with the trembling of his hands.
"What are you?!" He hsouted in terror.
The Kurgan smiled devilshly. "I am The Kurgan, the strongest Immortal who ever lived."
It wasn't much of a battle when The Kurgan grabbed the man and threw him down the stairs. He picked up his woman and then set her down again at the bottom. The Kurgan turned back to his enemy and swung his sword down brutally against the other man's, breaking it. The metal wasn't the only thing broken after Arielle's hero broke both of Hartmann's legs.
After securing the castle and all of its inhabitants The Kurgan made the man watch as his home burned to the ground. When all of the servants had been killed The Kurgan turned to the Duke last and stabbed him in the most valuable place between his legs, blood and other fluids stained his trousers. The man screamed as the giant tortured him and made him admit to drugging her with valerian root. Also admitting that he had plans on raping her but didn't. In the end The Kurgan slit the man from throat to waist and left him lying on the ground in front of his burning castle, his guts laying out around him, blood massed around his body.
He commanded for the Hartmann women, who had been in the castle and captured, to be brought forward. Duke Hartmann sobbed while his wife and daughter were raped in front of him. When the Outlander men were done with the spent women The Kurgan made sure Hartmann was still alive and then strangled them one after the other, the daughter screamed when her mother was killed first. Next he had the bodies of the first and third Hartmann sons brought forward, both had been killed in battle and The Kurgan ordered them to be skewered on tall spikes.
What the Kurgan didn't see behind him was the Duke's last remaining son silently take Arielle off The Kurgan's horse and slip away unnoticed into the forest beyond.
"Von Krohn!" A voice called out.
He spun around and facing him in the midst of all the chaos was Derbith. The Kurgan growled and pointed his sword at the spy.
"You," he growled.
Derbith smirked. "Where's the woman Count?"
The Kurgan spun around and his expression turned to shock, a rare one for him. His eyes turned black and he turned back to look at the Scot but the spy was nowhere to be seen. He stormed back to his horse and saw that no a trace remained of her this time. He looked behind him to the woods and when he didn't see anything he bellowed in rage and swung his sword down into the ground, the blade sunk in to the hilt. He yanked it back out and went to the dying Hartmann Duke.
"Where is she?!" He screamed and yanked the man up by his hair.
The Duke had lost all feeling of pain and looked at The Kurgan with one swollen eye, "You'll never. . .find her now. My son will make sure of that Kurgan," he said in a raspy voice.
With a cold rage The Kurgan threw his hand into the man's open body and yanked out his heart, he held it up for the screaming man to see before throwing it to the side before he keeled over dead.
He jumped up on his horse and thundered off into the night with his dog at his heels. He looked through the surrounding woods but the area was so vast he couldn't cover it in time fast enough. When dawn came he ordered the bodies of the Hartmann family to all be placed on spikes and left for the ravens and hawks to feast on. The blood craving had been satisfied but his woman was still gone.
O_O Didn't see that coming did you... Was Hartmann's death good enough? More to come soon. . . ;)