"You were meant to bring back the hunter girl." Ben hears a muffled and not entirely human voice chastise. "but now you've brought the full wrath of that hunter's mob on us by taking this…. this boy."
The stomach-turning sounds of something fleshy and wet ripping apart reach the waking human's ears along with the surprisingly muffled sounds of pain the sound triggers.
"Really, darling? Was that truly…"
"Yes." A growl much like Elinor snarled back before a much more subdued "yes, grandmother it was. They failed us. They need to be punished for said failure." Over the sounds of something wet and slightly heavy falling to the floor. Ben didn't even want to start to guess what that something might be.
"We can still leverage him, your grace." Another voice from his kidnappers pipes up "Anyone who knows the Fairmont girls know this boy is almost as important…."
"Almost." The hissed word has Ben's skin crawling to hear even through the barrier of the wall between him and it.
"Grandmother remember your blood pressure." The more Elinor-like voice reminds of an honest show of concern as Ben pressed his ear closer to the separating wall between himself and the ongoing conversation.
"Thank you, my dear." The elder of the two voices sighs over the sounds of what Ben could swear was muffled swallowing before the woman speaks. "If we're to get the Malkia back, we must have what she holds dear."
"So, we barter like some common peasant." The more Elinor voice scoffed "Honestly grandmother…."
"For the Malkia we must," the first voice reminded in a firm tone before it softened a little before speaking once more "The Malkia is our priority, if we have something she truly values we can see the Malkia safely returned from wherever the Fairmont girl has hidden it."
"The human is awake." The more youthful tone says by way of ending whatever it was they hadn't wanted Ben to hear.
"Then by all means let's tend to him." The first speaker hums once again making Ben's stomach twist uneasily.
The dulled thumping of something against the heavy door of the room he'd been shown to after being dragged roughly from a van right out of a thriller movie signals the thing was about to be opened as Ben shifts from his hunched position on the room's offered bed.
The stinging bruising of the handcuffs shackled to his wrists was a glaring reminder of his previous attempt at escape the slim number of times the chance had seemed to present itself since his kidnapping from that loan Savannah side street. Juliette's number still ringing on the open line as Ben had pulled off the road in another attempt at getting ahold of his best friend.
"Chow time human."
Ben flinches at the title but the fully fanged vampire only seems to roll his eyes in a rather Elinor-worthy manner as he shoulders open the door. Despite the honest rumbling of hunger, Ben doesn't make a move towards the offered fast food takeout bag that had been set down just within his reach along the bed mostly because he catches sight of the thing laying motionless in the still open doorway, or that could be the still wet and bloodied remains of the man's heart laying rather neatly on the visible corner of a table.
"Angel Carnell?" Ben recognizes taring his gaze away before he vomited up what little he had left in his stomach at the bloodied state of the hallway. In truth, he'd never met the fellow teenager in person, but Noah had praised the girl's talents with a bow and arrow a few times during their 'low-key' romance.
"Benjamin Wheeler." Angel answers with a deadly smile. "Quite the popular one around these parts, aren't you?" she says attempting something of polite conversation.
"I'm not letting you use me against her." Ben declares with far more bravado than he thought possible after one more glance out the still half-opened doorway.
"Would you rather we kill you instead?" Angel replies her eyes moving towards one of the many bows and filled quivers of arrows decorating the walls.
"Darling." Her grandmother says in a rather amused warning kind of tone. "Behave, he's, our guest." The elder goes on once the younger teen finally met her gaze.
"For the moment." Angel scoffed flipping her dark hair over one shoulder as she spoke.
"What's this Maliki…"
A hiss interrupts Ben's attempt to gain a little more information "do not speak of the Malkia human. It's nothing to concern…." Angel barks her fangs once more crowding her mouth as she spoke, so it was a little harder for the athlete to understand her.
"If you're just planning on using me to trade for it back, I'd say it sure as hell is." Ben argues
The sounds of laughter break up the glaring match between the two as they turn as one towards the elder woman who'd been watching them with amused interest. "This one has courage. I can see why the Fairmont girl would be drawn to him."
"He's not her type, which is why we were aiming for that hunt…."
A knock on the doorframe cuts off Angel's words it also has Ben's eyes going owlish as he realizes he recognizes the woman now walking so coolly into a room where two women have their fangs bared and himself handcuffed painfully to the headboard of a rather sturdy looking bedframe.
A newcomer to the MAAM's. One who'd to Ben's mind at least had been far more interested in learning about the lifestyle of a legacy than paying much attention to how to attempt to kill one.
"I have a report, your grace." The turncoat announces her head still lowered in a show of submission through her eyes like Ben's finding the yet-to-be-moved body laying as clear as day in the hallway nor the ripped-out heart laying discarded on the hallway table.
The elder nodes her head in allowance for the newcomer to speak.
"The hunter girl…. she's been turned…..by the Fairmont girl."
Ben's blood runs cold at the news as his eyes snap back towards the now smiling-faced woman he could see reflected in the window she was now looking out of.
"This changes everything." She mused aloud. "First the Fairmont cannot control the unruly one…"
"Elinor." Angel offers now twirling an arrow absently between her fingers as she spoke "and she and I could have been real friends." She sighed wistfully sending the twirling thing in her hand speeding into the wall.
"and then Davina's lengthy absence allows not only for hunters to enter our Malika's haven than for our dear Malkia to simply vanish entirely whilst under the Fairmont's care." The elder continues listing off still without turning to face the rest of the room. Ben winces when another arrow was sent into the wall as if the more deadly weapon was no more than a simple dart in the board-looking teenager's hands.
"Now a hunter is made one of us." Angel finishes with one last arrow embedded into the wall as she spoke.
Three silver-tipped strikes into the wall.
"Go back to the search, Sarah." The elder instructs earning a light node from the one called Sarah. "You've done well." She adds at Sarah's more longing puppy-like glance up to meet the elder one's eyes. "but more proof is needed you are worthy of becoming like us, my dear." She adds a soft hand grazing the hopeful human woman's cheek as she speaks.
"I won't let you down," Sarah promises her tone dreamlike as she nuzzled as much as she was able into the vampire's retreating hand.