When I woke up, darkness surrounded me. It took me a second to gain my bearings, but eventually I realized I was slouched in some kind of chair. It was a darkness like nothing I had ever experienced before. It was so thick I wouldn’t have even been able to see my hands in front of my face even if they weren’t bound behind my back. There wasn’t even a beam of light coming in from under a door. It was a darkness like nothing I had experienced before. I went through the last things I could remember and the image of the unfamiliar Vepar crashed into my memory. The last thing I remember was looking into his eyes… Eyes that were completely black as if his pupil had taken over everything, and a pasty face as if he had no pulse. A shiver raced down my spine at the memory.
I was getting tired of being kidnapped. I’d take waking up in a mansion in a sunny room over this experience any day though. I tugged on the bindings on my wrist, trying to see if they would loosen at all, but they held firm.
“Hello,” I called out, feeling like one of those girls in the horror movies right before their death.
I waited for a moment, but I couldn’t hear anything. I opened my mouth to call out again when the strangest thing happened. It was like all the darkness was sucked out of the room in an instant and suddenly there were glowing brick walls all around, and the strange Vepar stood in front of me. I watched as the last remnants of darkness were sucked into him.
I had never seen anything like it.
The man wore the same black shirt and jeans Derrial had on when I first saw him. He slowly studied me before beginning to circle me. He stopped in front of me, and I watched, again amazed, as the blonde hair that he’d been using to impersonate Derrial melted away, leaving a Vepar with hair so dark that it matched his strange black eyes. I gasped. That was the most alien thing I’d seen so far.
Staying on the theme of horror movies, he looked like a character from one of those movies that portrayed people who were possessed by demons. Except I was pretty sure the creature standing in front of me was far scarier than a demon would be. For one, I’d seen enough flicks and read enough to know what a demon was. But this thing in front of me… I had zero clue and that terrified me. I shook in my chair, desperate to run. Except, I was stuck inside a room.
Another prison.
And this time I was with a monster.
“So fascinating,” he whispered in a voice that was as smooth and slick as oil. The voice seemed to emanate from inside my brain, and I shook my head at the strange feeling.
I knew I shouldn’t say something, but my curiosity won out. “What’s fascinating?” I asked.
The creature grinned. Unlike the other Vepar I’d seen who all seemed to have perfect movie star smiles, this one carried a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth, kind of like a shark. I had been thinking that this creature was a Vepar, but now that I had seen the strange teeth, I wasn’t so sure. All I knew was that this being made Derrial and the others look as friendly as a teddy bear compared to him.
“It’s something I’m sure they weren’t anticipating,” the creature muttered to himself, still staring at me avidly. He must have seen the look of confusion on my pale face because he smiled again, flashing those horrid teeth that had me pressing back into my chair. “The bond, little human. You’re the first successful human/Vepar bond to be completed since they started trying. And by completing the bond, you also became the target for every Vepar enemy in the vicinity.” He chuckled and the sound was like knives down my arms.
Nope, nothing good would come from this thing in front of me.
I must have still been staring at him with a dumb look on my face because he continued. “Humans normally don’t even appear on our radar. Your species are like ants scurrying about with no idea of anything that’s going on around them. Only higher-level beings garner any interest.” He raised his chin, his shoulders back.
He went on, “Vepar and all the rest are almost like glowing figures in night vision goggles, they’re easy to spot. While they appear as a faint glow, you my dear are like the fireworks. You light up the darkness like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Every creature within a hundred galaxies will want you. And I got to you first.” His voice darkened and he almost drooled at saying those last few words.
I was trying to absorb his words and their meaning. “If what you're saying is true, how did you get to me so fast. The bond only just happened.”
He smiled again, his teeth sending sharp shivers of dread throughout my body, and I decided right then I loathed his smile. Better he grimaced.
“We had something planned for the Summit. But when I saw you, everything changed. You were too good to pass up,” he answered with a shrug.
“What are you?” I demanded.
The room started to darken, black mists erupted from his skin until it started to envelop everything, creating that same all-encompassing blackness as before.
“We are the Khonsu,” his voice whispered, seeming to be coming from all around me. I could feel something stroking my face, almost like a hand. It was as if the dark mists were an extension of him.
Suddenly the faint touches changed from a soft sensation to what felt like a whip lashing across my face. A jolting pain shuddered across my cheek, and I screamed as the lashes spread all over my body, ripping at my skin.
I screamed and tucked my chin low, but my hands tied at my back kept me locked to the chair.
A piercing pain seared across my body worse than a branding iron.
It was impossible to tell where the next lash would hit next since I couldn’t even see an inch from my face. All my mind could comprehend was pain. I lost all thoughts; all I could do was burrow my head into my chest. Away from the pain radiating me, burning me alive.
The assault never relented, never stopped, never gave me a chance.
Blood soaked my torn clothes, each new strike a sharp bite to my flesh, ripping me to shreds. My throat grew raw from cries, but they went unheard.
In those moments, I prayed for my death, to be taken because I couldn’t take another second.
As if sensing my end, the whips paused, granting me a brief reprieve. Tears tracked my cheeks and fell over my jawline, every inch of me drowning with agony.
I glanced up from the curtain of my hair covering my face, looking for the creature, hoping for an end. But as before, only darkness surrounded me.
Still, I sensed the bastard. Felt him in my head because just when I would recover enough to stay conscious, the whips returned.
Over and over he tortured me, and his laughter echoed in my head.
Please god, kill me.
My whole life I’d fought for survival, battled through depression after losing my parents, struggled to keep a job and keep myself going every day for the simple reason that my mom and dad would have wanted me to, that one day I might see them again.
But now… Now I had enough of everything. The exhaustion tore through me, and I no longer wanted to face the shitstorm of my life. This was it.
Just like most things in my life, I was taken, forced, and shoved aside. And I went along each time, believing in hope. But I’d been fooling myself, and now I had enough. I needed the exit button because I wanted to tap out.
I hiccupped a strangled cry and ached as a deep strike raked down my back. I floated back and forth out of consciousness.
In that moment, I would have done anything to escape.
The agony faded once again, easing the darkness that was consuming me. I watched through barely open eyes as my tormenter appeared in front of me. He smirked and heaved each breath as if my bloody state and agony delighted him. But he looked different, gone was his pasty complexion, and now he carried a shiny, healthy glow like Derrial had earlier that morning. Was this creature somehow feeding on my blood too?
The fear in my veins melted under the inferno of rage drumming through me. I had enough of being used and abused by this monster.
As I slouched in the seat, my quickened breaths grew raspy during the small reprieve, and an idle thought floated through my mind. I’d been told of vampires around campfires as a little girl. And now meeting these aliens, I questioned if the tales didn’t have it wrong. They romanticized vampires, others had them as misunderstood, or starved undead. But what if they were creatures who came from space to use humans? If I had known that as a little girl, I wouldn’t have ever been able to sleep another wink.
“Such a strong, brave, little human,” the creature cooed as he stepped closer. He reached out, catching a little of the blood that dripped from the side of my face. He licked the droplet he’d caught on his finger, almost sounding like he was having an orgasm when he tasted it, his eyes rolling back into his head, groaning. The sound disgusted me, bile climbing to my throat.
“You’re beautiful painted in red,” he declared, his eyes snapping open. Before he even started to let the darkness out once again, I was prepared for my life to end at that point, so nothing shocked me more than when the walls started to dissolve around us. The creature jerked around, his face twisting into a disfigured beast.
What was going on?
“I’ll just take some for the road,” he snarled, his upper lip creased with a look of disappointment. In haste, he swiped his palm across my bloody arm. I screamed in agony as white-hot pain raced over my skin as if his touch was barbed wire, shutting my eyes.
“See you shortly,” he whispered in my ear and licked my neck, the sound turning my stomach.
When the pain had subsided enough for me to open my eyes, he was gone, and the walls had almost completely disintegrated with only a puff of dust in their place.
I couldn’t imagine what creature was waiting for me now, I couldn’t comprehend what could be scary enough to get the black-eyed devil to flee but whatever came next would end up killing me.
Shaking all over and my vision blurring in and out, I sat there with what felt like hundreds of open wounds, blood dripping on the concrete floor around the seat, and tried to prepare myself for death.
I was ready…Ready to face my maker. To end the horrendous pain.
Tears rolled down my face, stinging the cuts they fell into and continuing their journey down to the corner of my mouth. A hooded vale of death hung over me, and in that moment in time when I wasn’t sure how I could ever recover, I welcomed the easy way out. As gutless as it sounded, I couldn’t keep this up.
When a figure appeared where a wall had been minutes earlier, I blinked hard to clear my vision. Was I seeing right? A familiar, gorgeous, tatted Vepar appeared in front of me, my brain evidently having enough. I was hallucinating. Thane’s penetrating gaze was the last thing that I saw before I finally let the effects of my wounds carry me away.
“Pet, wake up,” were the words I woke to. I really would like to stop losing consciousness I decided as I struggled for what felt like the millionth time to open my eyes. I sighed as I felt a soft, wet cloth gently being moved over my burning wounds. The coolness helped ease away the pain somewhat but considering I felt as if I’d just climbed out of a pool it was clear that I was still bleeding profusely.
My muscles hurt as I tried to move them. When I finally wrenched my eyes open wide enough to see anything, I stared up into Thane’s worried, blue gaze. I’m sure I looked like hell.
“Stay with me, pet,” he murmured, continuing to move the cool cloth over my aching wounds. “We just need to get the bleeding to stop and you’ll be better in a flash.” He held a device similar to the one that corran had used on me at the mansion and started to run it over my injuries.
“Fuck.”
His sudden outburst had me flinching, and I regretted the sudden movement as a searing pain shuddered through me.
He threw the device down beside him, his brow pinching, and he must have seen the questioning look in my eyes. “We use that device to heal skin lesions. That bastard must have used his darkness to inflict these wounds because I can’t heal cuts this way.”
It was like I could actually feel the life leaking out of my body. Thane had gently laid me down on the concrete floor in the torture room, and despite the ugliness of the location, I soaked up his beauty as he tended to my injuries. At least I’d have something gorgeous to look at as I died, I thought amusedly. There could be worse ways to die.
“So, we may have to do this the old-fashioned way.” He offered me a soft smile and I wasn’t sure if that was meant to be a joke.
“You could always take me to the hospital,” I suggested in a whisper, well aware of what his answer would be, but figuring it was worth trying.
“That’s not what I was talking about, pet.” He brushed a strand of hair caught on my lashes out of my face. “The quickest way to remove your pain and heal you is with a blood exchange.” He stared at me with a smirk as if he knew what Derrial and I had done.
“Do you mean a bond?” I asked, sounding snappier than I’d intended, or maybe I had meant it that way because no one had even explained what such a connection entailed. “You need to explain what a bond means first,” I gasped even as a wave of pain shot up my leg and I convulsed as the pain rolled through me, faster and harder. Shutting my eyes, I let it pass and stayed statue still until the thrumming eased.
Soft fingers stroked my hand. “My blood will run in your veins and yours in mine. I will share with you some of my healing ability, but it also means...”
He wiped his mouth, almost nervous, and I looked at him, sensing something big was coming. “It means what?”
“The fact you didn’t die when you were bound with Derrial means your blood is compatible with ours, and we were right to sense there was something special about you.”
“What does...” My words trailed off from the burning pain, feeling as if someone jammed blades into my open injuries. “Why does it hurt so much?” I cried out, gripping Thane’s hand, squeezing it as the deadening sensation crashed through me over and over.
His breath was on my cheek. “Pet, I can help you, but you have to willingly agree to bond with me. The darkness he used to cut you up has a toxin in it, made to bring you unbearable pain for weeks after the infliction.”
Sweat slid down the side of my face, or maybe it was blood. I had no clue. I still stared at Thane incredulous though. Was he fucking kidding? He was staring at me with compassion and he had offered me a way out. Earlier I was willing to die to stop the torture, and now I was ready to be set free from the pain.
“Yes,” I cried. “Please, make it stop.”
“I will,” was all he said, then took out a small blade from his belt. “I need to make a small incisor on fresh skin as your cuts have poison that sits on the wound.”
“Do it. Hurry,” I cried as another stream of pain rushed over me, making me feel like someone was raking nails across my body. The pain was so bad that I couldn’t even tell Thane had finished cutting me until I glanced over and saw him pressing my finger into his mouth. His eyelids fluttered as if the taste did something to him, taking him to another realm.
When he finally lowered my hand and licked his bloody teeth, he sliced his thumb and pressed it to my parted lips. Drops rushed over my tongue, and I lapped the blood, its coppery, sweet taste flooding my mouth. Already, the sharpness of my wounds was retreating.
He must have cut himself deep, because I was taking in more than I had with Derrial. As my pain eased, I gripped his hand, holding on. I needed more until the pain was completely stopped. As I drank his blood, I found myself forgetting the day, forgetting that I had ever been hurt.
Thane ripped his hand from my grip, his thumb tugged out of my mouth, making a popping sound.
I licked my lips feverishly, in those seconds believing he might try to take the blood back.
“Enough,” he growled. “Blood sharing can become an addiction, so we need to be careful.”
As I lay there, feeling the calmness spread over me, I remembered the monster’s words. How I shone so bright they’d find me, how I was special, and how his kind, the Khonsu, would hunt me down. A different fear strangled me now, and it became hard to breathe once again as the truth of my reality slammed into me.
No matter where I ran or hid, I’d never be safe.