A/N: Okay so, these are taking a long time to pump out, but they'll be done eventually. Make sure to read and review.

Morana

Echo moved to the side and I saw Nicholas animate to life. "Dammit Morana," he cursed, his voice the sweetest thing I'd heard in a long time. His dark hair was singed and he stank of gasoline.

I let out a small moan as he reached though the cold bars and pulled me as close to him as he could. My body was so skinny that I could slip both my feet and arms through to him. He wound his fingers through my tangled hair and brought my face closer to his.

I could see the black specks in his sunlight eyes and the way they were red-rimmed with pain. His clothes were bloody and ragged on his broad frame. "I love you so much, my love," the way he whispered it was entirely different from the way Caius did. Nicholas's voice was consumed in me while Caius said it as if it was merely a name for me.

My hips were flush against his and even in this place of horror, I felt the love swell in-between us. "I love you more," I said lightly. He gave me a look to say that there was no way it was true, and I silenced him by pressing my cheek bones against the bars and kissing him softly. He made a breathy noise and held me tighter. I was so close and yet… A cold arm wrapped around my waist and hurled me out of Nick's arms.

I felt my head slam against the floor. Hard. Firecrackers danced in front of my eyes as the immense pull of pain dragged me down. I heard Nicholas yell, Echo cry out, and Caius's shoes scuff the ground beneath them. I closed my eyes briefly before I saw Caius above me; his thick gold hair was across his creased forehead. He smiled at me before I saw the last firecracker go into the darkness.

Nicholas smiled at me and let his fingers trail down my face. I made a sound in the back of my throat; it felt nice to be touched in a way that wasn't searching for blood. His nose and features crumpled in as he dropped away from me. I screamed as his face turned to Caius's. Sharp nose. Angelic smile. Gold hair. My blood boiled as Caius stalked forward and grabbed me by the throat.

He sneered, "Ready?"

I screamed again as the bones in my neck popped.

Day One in Prison

Someone was tearing the fabric of my dress. My eyes jolted open and searched in vain for the person. A thick strap of leather was in my mouth and tied around my limbs so I couldn't move. I made a muffled cry for help.

A light clicked on above me. Caius was silhouetted against the press of darkness. He had ripped my corset open so that I was completely exposed to the icy air except for a very thin piece of fabric over my breasts. I whimpered as he slid a cold hand from my hipbone, into the dip of my navel, and slowly up. Caius stopped and cocked his head to the side, "Don't make me go any farther, my little shifter."

My knuckles whitened as I squeezed my fingers together in their confines. I made another soft sound as he pulled back. "There is something that I just must tell you, my dear."

Caius pulled the leather strap into my mouth just as I gunned up a scream. He slapped a hand over my mouth and fixed a smile on his face. "If you scream, I will make them all come back for a visit. We don't want that, do we?"

I shook my head violently and let the thick leather strap against my neck make the skin raw. "What did you want to say?" I squeezed as much malice as I could into those words, but he didn't seem to notice.

He let his fingernails trail on the soft skin of my stomach, cutting me open lightly and letting the blood gather. "I just wanted you to know that I love you, my dearest," Caius said.

I coughed and spit to the side as far as my head would go. "Don't-don't say that to me. You can't destroy someone that you love. It's impossible. Maybe you wanted me once, lusted for me, but there is a big difference between that and love. So don't say you love me when you don't."

His face-hardened, "Because you know the best about love, don't you? You loved every single one of you friends dearly, but they did not love everyone back in the same return. Your sister hates your little boyfriend and he hates your sister and her admirer. Your sister's admirer hates your boyfriend and doesn't love you to the same extent that he loves her. That's why it was so easy to break you all, because there is no love to bind you together. That's why it was so easy to break you."

I sucked in my cheeks and bit back the tears. "What do you want from me, Caius? I can't serve as decoration in your gloomy palace."

He smiled and pulled out a thick metal piece, "I want to sever your connection to the werewolf." Immense pain welled in my heart as I thought of Nicholas without me. He would spiral out of control; back to the way he was before, and worse of all he would think I was dead. Ever since I had arrived here with Caius I had basically blocked the bond so that he wouldn't be in pain when I was, so that he could keep control. Severing the bond was in direct violation of the mating code and I feared that I couldn't survive it.

"No. No, please, no. Caius, no, no, no, no. No," my voice fumbled and I was nearing total hysteria. Tears gushed from my eyes, down my cheeks, to trickle off the side of my chin.

Even now I couldn't bring myself to tell Nicholas goodbye.

Caius balanced the metal tong on the white fabric a couple inches away from where my heart started. "No," I whispered. No no no no no no no no. The word made spirals of panic seep into my blood.

"But, I have to, dearest. I have to or I'll kill them all," he said. I didn't make a sound as he slit the fabric and ripped it off my body. Them or me, them or me, them or me. It began as a silent chant until my lips were forming the words on their own accord.

Caius looked me over with a smile on his shapeless lips, "You are utterly beautiful." A tear streaked at his words as a wrongness feeling skittered in my stomach. "I will just plunge three of these strips of metal around your heart and my sister—the witch, remember? —Will sever the connection."

I closed my eyes. I felt the metal graze my skin for an instant before it was driven deep into my skin. The scream welled in my throat before I released it out. The pain was something I had never felt before and I never wanted to feel again. It felt so…so that my own soul was curling in on itself and heaving.

"One. For the body."

I gasped as I felt the ground crumble around me and the thick ash fill my nostrils. I was drowning with the sensation of a fire roaring in my chest. A delusion, my mind said. Real, my body screamed. Sweat trickled down my neck as I tried to adjust to the pain that enveloped me in its sweet arms. My back arched and a fresh scream dribbled out through my ripped lips.

I was barley aware that a piece of metal was sticking out of my body. At this point I was barley aware of anything except for the slow drum of my heartbeat. In my haze, I felt another piece of metal steadied over the other side of my heart. I screamed again as it was plunged inside me. I withered and shook erratically as it took over me again.

"Two. For the mind." It was a sharp cut to out mind bond and for the first time I felt completely alone. I turned my head to the side and started retching until I was vomiting over the side of the table. My heart was beating too fast and the blood was slick all down my front.

I coughed and hacked and moved my head just to stare at the invisible ceiling. I couldn't see Caius, but then I couldn't see anything except for the navy color of the darkness. My teeth ground in my head—a way to push away the pain.

"Three. For the soul."

Before I could scream, Caius pushed the last metal piece over the third part of my heart. I started to choke as the pain became unbearable. My body shut down quickly, as did my mind. I started to make small stuttering noises, although my throat didn't want to talk. I had been screaming and calling for the entire time.

I let out a harsh cry, "Echo! Echo, please save me. I'm so terrified. Please, Echo. Nicholas…Nicholas…Nicholas…Nicholas, where are you? I need you Nicholas…Nicholas...Nichola…Nic…" I was slowly losing the ability to have words spew from my mouth.

The world went dark and it was, for a very long time.

I went in and out of consciousness only to see the shape of a fiery-haired slip of a girl moving over me. The ache in my chest was fueling her somehow as her nimble fingers worked to keep me alive. I didn't eat or drink anything unless either Caius or the girl forced it upon me.

All I knew was the missing. All I knew was the heartbreak.

Day Thirteen

I woke with a start, my breath catching and dying in my throat. My chest ached badly and I could feel the blood crusted around it, a new corset laced over the untreated wound.

Where I was, was very dark, the furniture's outlines barley visible. I was lying on a bed; my legs and arms out like a discarded Barbie's. My tangled hair had been smoothed back into a neat braid, the dress I was wearing a deep violet, and my feet empty of Nicholas's boots. His name cut through me and left my heart lying on the floor.

The lamp was gas, which took me forever to flip on, but when I did I saw how much damage Caius had done. A mirror poised on a wall depicted a girl wearing a full ball gown, she looked beautiful, but bruises colored yellow and navy polka-dotted her skin. The girl unlaced the front of the corset and pulled it down to reveal an infected chest wounds. Three large gashes that should have killed her were there along with scrapes that tormented her face and arms. Spidering from the gashes was a purple bruise that traveled from her heart to her back.

I felt sick and turned quickly enough to throw-up into a trashcan by the locked metal door. I sighed and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand weakly. Frail and tired, I fell back into bed where I fixed the corset and thought of Echo, Nicholas. Where they alive? How was Echo? How was Nicholas?

Knowing how bad my pain was made me wonder if Nicholas thought I was dead…which meant Echo thought so too. I drew my legs to my chest and huddled there, as the tears didn't come, but instead silent shaking. My weak fingers picked at the neutral bedspread until they were tired.

The door unlocked to my dismay, in waltzed Caius and his best friend, Jane. Jane looked like a teenager with dark gold spun hair piled high on her head cloaked by a piece of black lace. Her dress was tailored to her body made of an expensive silk and through the dim light I could see her matching red eyes.

She made a sound, "Hello, I'm really sorry about this, but you tend to scream quite too often. The neighbors complained," Jane gestured in the air and even added an eye roll, "about it. Caius and I devised up a plan to fix it."

Caius held up a needle and a spool of black thread. "We'll just sew it closed," Jane smiled and flashed over next to me on the bed. Before I could protest, she put me in a headlock as Caius threaded the needle and neared my skin. I gasped in agony as he threaded it through my lips and knotted it. Done.

I didn't dare open my lips, but instead struggled to get away from Jane like a mouse from a cat that's holding its tail. She smiled again, "So much better, Caius, huh? Look how sad she looks. Oh honey, want something to eat?"

Malice broiled in me. I wanted to hurt. I wanted to kill. I wanted to go home.

Day Fourteen

I choked and a little bit of my will to stay alive died. I clutched at the blanket on the bed. Every breath hurt me, as did every facial movement. Living was hard when your face is sewed up tight like a marionette. The door to my prison unlocked as usual and in stepped the usual Caius. His red eyes grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder with a grunt. He moved so quickly that watching the ground made me sick.

He paused outside the doors to yet another room. Jane pulled it open with a prance and turned on the lights. A dozen humans were laid on tables in formal attire. Blood leaked into glasses as vampires clinked them together and chatted merrily about the weather. If Nicholas was there, he would cover my eyes and hold me tightly, but Caius wanted me to see what he could do—the power that he held.

On the ballroom floor was twenty-some pale-faced blood leeches swirling around with dead women in their arms. Occasionally they would stop and bite into their not-quite-dead necks.

I turned to Caius.

He smirked and pulled me close enough to him so that his hands were dangerously close to my top-half. My chest wounds trembled and I thought again: How was he keeping me alive? His cold breath blew into my face as he leaned forward and pressed a revolting kiss to my sewn lips.

"Sweet silence," he muttered before sweeping my blond braid to the side and biting hard into the line of my neck. I went slack in his arms and he held me up as the blood was continually drained from my body. The blood I needed, the blood I barley had any left of.

I thought of Echo, of Nicholas. I wanted them to be the last things I thought of before Caius killed me here in this room full of dead humans and alive dead people. I wanted them to know that I loved them more than anything.

Yes, this is what I want to think of, but the only thing I can think is how painful this is, of how much I want to die.

Day Fifteen

There are no bones left in this bag of blood and marrow.

Day Sixteen

I cannot eat nor sleep nor drink. I do not know how I live. I see the red haired girl often now. She doesn't speak to me. I cannot speak to anyone.

Day Seventeen

Today I resolved to die.