CHAPTER ELEVEN:

You will answer my questions…

The Lord Prince Paymon was not in a pleasant mood at the moment. He was the ruler of over a wide swath of this realm. He was known as a being of terrible temperament and his cruelty knew no bounds, which provided him much amusement and enjoyment.

He'd been in a good mood when the first dispatch riders came to him informing him that his hunting party had encountered and captured five human women. He looked forward to the "fun" he was going to have with them as human women were a rarity in his realm these days—he recalled past memories of what he would do to them for his enjoyment and pleasure.

His good mood turned foul, when he was informed that the prisoners had attempted to escape within sight of his castle walls.

Three of my warriors are dead and two wounded … A prisoner dead, lost in the creek … Another prisoner wounded, The Lord Prince thought angrily wondering who he should punish for ruining his fun

That two of his warriors had been decapitated in a single blow by one of the females was a revolting and disturbing thought to him. Humans were only good for working to death, entertainment, sacrificing and eating.

"Bring all the prisoners to my main chamber!" the Lord Prince barked to one of his servants. The servant jumped to make sure that the Lord Prince's order was carried out as the failure to do so was usually quite painful.

There may be entertainment value from the remaining humans, The Lord Prince thought smiling to himself looking forward to his fun.

oOoOo

Guards pushed a scared looking Kylie and Stacy into the Lord Prince's main chamber. The women were followed by more guards dragging a bound and unconscious Faith by her arms and carrying a wounded Lisa. She was bleeding from her wounds, but she was conscious and moaning from the pain.

The Lord Prince directed his guards to place the wounded woman on a bench close to his throne. Faith's body was dropped to the ground in front of the throne. Kylie and Stacy were standing back a bit from Faith.

"Someone wake that human up!" the Lord Prince ordered emphasizing the word human with disgust.

One of the guards left and came back with a bucket of water. The guard unceremoniously proceeded to dump the water on Faith's head.

Faith moaned and started to move. Faith wasn't fully conscious or aware of her surroundings.

"Wake that creature up and stand her up!" barked the Lord Prince.

Two guards moved in and picked up Faith roughly shaking her as they picked her up.

Faith was slowly coming to and getting her bearings. She found herself in a room that it took her a moment to realize must be in the castle, she'd seen before their escape attempt. Faith continued to shake the fog from her head and she found that she was facing a "demon" that was larger than any of their guards. She suppressed a shudder as she got a real bad feeling looking at this creature. The creature had an even crueler look on its face than the guards—if that was possible. The creature's eyes were staring at her trying to appraise her and show its dominance over her. She could feel its eyes looking at her body and she had to fight to not shudder. She was determined to not give an inch and she met the creature's stare and refused to be cowed into submission.

Paymon snorted a derisive laugh as the puny human female met his stare and refused to back down, "So you must be the leader that killed three of my warriors …"

He paused as he saw the female leader smirk at his statement.

"I am Lord Prince Paymon … I am the ruler of these lands and everything here belongs to me. You are trespassers on my lands … You now belong to me and you will submit to my will!"

The Lord Prince paused for a moment. He noted with satisfaction that the two females standing behind their leader were fearful and could be broken easily—they would still have their entertainment usefulness. It was the female leader that interested him. She continued to defy him—refusing to cower or look away. She didn't show her fear, but he could smell it. He could see the strength in her eyes, this one would not so easily submit.

Paymon smiled as the thought of the challenge and fun he would have breaking this one, the things he would do to this female. He would strip away her pride and humility until there was nothing left. He would have her begging to debase herself for him. He could feel his blood surge in excitement at the thoughts of what he would do to this one. He hadn't had a challenge like this in a long time. He would have to relish this and take his time to enjoy and savor it—like a fine wine.

How to start? he wondered.

"Why are you here?" Paymon demanded.

Faith looked around at Kylie and Stacy and at Lisa lying on the bench with the crossbow bolt still sticking out of her. It looked like the bleeding had stopped from Lisa's wound for the moment, but she needed medical attention.

Faith wasn't sure how to play this. The demon was no idiot and she was fighting to hold back her shudders as she wasn't liking how this creature was looking her up and down.

Need to buy some time … Need to figure out what to do.

"We're looking for someone… A friend of ours that is lost…" Faith responded to the question.

"Who is this 'friend' you are looking for?" Paymon barked.

"It doesn't matter … we know he's not here."

"And why is that?" Paymon demanded looking a little confused.

Faith couldn't help herself as this demon was such an asshole, "If he was here … You would all be dead…" she said with a smile.

oOoOo

Paymon was taken aback by the female leader's insolence. He scowled at the female. He stood up and walked towards Faith.

"So you think that you are an equal to me and that you humans can stand against me? You are nothing but scum … playthings for me and my warriors to do with as we please. Let's start again …" Paymon said with another sneering smile.

"…You and your fellow females will all kneel before me."

"Why would I want to?' Faith replied still smiling, refusing to cower or give this demon any satisfaction.

Paymon continued smiling and walked over to the bench that the wounded Lisa was laying on.

"It is a shame about your wounded friend here." Paymon said with an evil glint in his eye.

"Leave her alone you bastard!" Faith yelled as she struggled against her restraints and the guards holding her.

"Such a pretty human … I know my guards would love to taste her delights."

Paymon reached down and twisted the bolt sticking out of Lisa's body.

"OH GOD! NOOOOOOOO!" Lisa screamed in agony.

Paymon got a bigger smile as he listened to Lisa's scream as if it was music.

"Stop it you frigging bastard!" Faith yelled.

Kylie and Stacy were screaming and crying at Paymon to stop torturing Lisa as well.

Lisa was unfortunately still conscious and she was crying and calling for her Mom … Dad … Faith, calling for anyone to help her—to stop the pain.

"PPPPlease … I …I …I …want to go home …" Lisa whimpered out with sobs as the pain tore through her body.

"Once more shall we … I so enjoy the sound … it has been so long since the screams of human females echoed through my castle." Paymon said with a smile on his face and he reached down and twisted the arrow in Lisa's body again.

Lisa's eye bulged open as she let out a blood curdling scream.

Faith cried out, "Okay! Okay! We're kneeling just stop it!"

Faith, Stacy and Kylie proceeded to kneel bowing their heads before the Lord Prince.

Paymon smiled as he knew that he had found the leader's weakness—the other females. He could exploit this.

How far would she go to protect the others? This will be most fun to see how far she will fall to protect the others, he thought with his evil smile getting bigger.

"See that wasn't too hard. From now on you will address me properly … You will now say 'As you command Lord Master' … Let all of us hear how my new slaves sound."

Faith, Kylie and Stacy all repeated with their heads bowed, "As you command Lord Master…"

"Very good slaves!" Paymon said again with a smile.

Paymon started to turn to go sit on his throne again. He paused and looked at Lisa on the bench.

"Such a waste …" Paymon said. With that said in one quick motion, he pulled out a dagger and stuck it deep into Lisa's chest.

Lisa was still conscious enough to register what was happening and cried, screamed and hollered as he cut into her chest with his dagger. He then stuck his hand into Lisa's chest and ripped out her heart.

With blood pouring from Lisa's body and the heart briefly spurting blood, he showed the heart to Faith and her two potentials kneeling on the floor. Stacy and Kylie threw up and were crying. Faith felt the bile rise in her throat, but wasn't going to give in. She looked at him with hate in her eyes.

Paymon stared back and he drank the hate in, Yes this will be most fun, he thought.

oOoOo

The guards dragged and pushed the women to the dungeon cells and locked them together in one cell. Their Lord Prince had once again shown his superiority over inferior beings and the guards laughed and joked holding their prisoners in complete contempt as they escorted the women to their cell.

What Faith had been worrying about started as the guards escorting them started to touch and paw her and the other women, but Faith let out a relieved sigh as the guards were reprimanded by a superior. Her relieve was tempered by hearing the superior remind the guards that the Lord Prince wanted nothing to happen to these females—at least not yet.

Faith, Stacy and Kylie were roughly pushed into the cramped, dank and foul smelling cell. Kylie and Stacy each found a spot to sit and continued their crying which hadn't stopped from the chamber room. Faith was pissed off and found herself pacing back and forth in the cell like a caged tiger. Faith was all wound up, she wanted Paymon's blood.

Kylie managed to regain her composure somewhat and asked, "Faith, what are we going to do?"

"I don't know … We have to escape … We have to wait for an opportunity and then take it!" Faith replied as she paced.

Stacy was mumbling, "First Madison … now Lisa dead." she held her face and cried for herself and her dead friends.

Faith stopped her pacing and turned and faced her two potentials, "Okay enough! I'm not going to lie to you … it's really bad … Whatever happens and I mean whatever happens or is done to us, the first priority is to stay alive and survive."

Kylie and Stacy looked to Faith as if she could save them both.

Faith continued, "Focus on the now … Stay calm … When we don't come back, Buffy will come through and she'll find us—"

Kylie interrupted Faith, "I hate to rain on your parade, but we're miles from the portal point and they won't know which direction to start searching … We are so screwed!"

Faith looked at Kylie and said, "I said it was bad, but they will find us … It will only take some time."

Stacy was sitting on the cell bench with her legs up and hugging them. She was rocking back and forth and mumbling to herself.

Kylie went over and sat next to Stacy and hugged her closely to try and comfort her. Faith resumed her pacing.

I've lost two people … How many more will I lose before this is over? Faith thought as she started pacing again.

oOoOo

While Faith was pacing lamenting the fact that two of her team were dead. One of her "dead" team members was struggling her way through the woods to get back to their portal point and home.

Madison had taken a crossbow bolt in her side. She had been lucky on several points. First—the bolt that struck her didn't hit any vital organs or arteries. Second—she had fallen in the creek. The creek was deep enough and had a fast enough current to wash her downstream which was back in the general direction towards the portal point. This took her away from any immediate pursuit by the demons and made them think she was dead. Third—the cold water should have killed her from exposure—and it nearly was—but it was enough to slow down the blood loss from her wound.

After being washed downstream for a while, Madison managed to gather her strength to pull herself out of the water. She had enough presence of mind to maintain her sense of direction and had a general idea of where the portal was.

She focused and tried to remember everything from all her training. She thought of pulling the crossbow bolt out, but she remembered that pulling it out might cause more damage and bleeding and she could pass out and then bleed out. She carefully and painfully removed her coat and then tore her shirt off. She used the torn shirt to pack around her wound to stop or at least minimize the bleeding. She struggled to put her coat back on, she oriented her direction and headed off slowly and painfully in the direction—she thought—back to the portal point.

Madison was determined to get back and get help for the others. That was her focus in the here and now. She struggled through the woods and tripped and fell a few times. That aggravated her wound and the bleeding started up again, but the rough bandage held.

She started getting more scared as the sun started setting. She despaired that she was lost and would pass out and die alone in these woods. She had tears running down her face as she was afraid that she had failed Faith and the others.

Madison felt her strength and determination beginning to fail. She could feel her body almost ready to give up—it was telling her to lie down and close her eyes. She stumbled through some bushes and in the waning sunlight she recognized the clearing that they had arrived in.

She dug deep and gathered what energy reserves she had left. She staggered and stumbled to the point that she and her team had entered this world.

Madison fell to ground hard—her breathing was rapid, her body drenched in sweat. She put her hand to her side and it was covered in blood. She could feel blackness at the edge of her vision—she could feel herself starting to lose consciousness.

She dug deep once more and focused on what she needed to do. She found some moisture in her mouth and licked her dry lips and said the words for the return spell.

"Patefacio is limina, domum."

Madison watched as the portal reopened. She struggled to push herself up and staggered forward, stumbling and falling into the portal and home…