Chapter 134

I was falling and falling through darkness. Hard surfaces jumped out at me, shoving, pushing me. My head ached as if something was pulling my hair—pulling me along by my hair. Then, it released me. The wind scooped me up and tumbled me around. I opened my eyes to complete darkness and my heart lurched as I slammed into something. I was in that cave again, just falling and tumbling around. I hit several hard walls, unsure of where the next one would come from, I tried to protect myself, but for every time I braced, it came from somewhere else.

I didn’t know how long I was tossed around, but then, I was free-falling straight down until I landed in the deep dark waters. I struggled for the surface, but I couldn’t. The currents were too strong just like before. I hurt much more than before, and there was no reason for it. My lungs burned. I wanted to scream. Where was Raven? Wouldn’t she help me, or was she too busy with her threesome to notice I was in the caves again? They slammed me around against cold stone.

I lost consciousness for a while. My mind drifted through darkness until I could see Candido. He was crawling through a dark place. Blood was running down his face. His clothes were torn to shreds, barely hanging off his body. He turned over, panting and revealing a large wound that was half burn closed.

I felt his eyes on me, flashing with moonlight, then his body shivered and morphed into his wolf form. His golden fur was dark with blood and grime. His clothes were gone and he breathed slowly.

“Hedy…” he said. “Hold on.”

Pain shot through my head. I reached for it as something yanked me out of the vision, out of the water, and dragged me. I gasped for air, choking and sputtering, trying to get the water out of my lungs. I reached for the hands in my hair, dragging me across the gravelly ground that cut my hands and irritated my injuries.

“Let me go!”

Damian laughed and drew me up so he could look down into my face. “Finally, we have some alone time together.”

My heart almost stopped in my chest. I screamed as my nightmare came true. I pulled away. I felt my hair being yanked out of my scalp, but I didn’t care. He tightened his grip. I didn’t get far.

“Oh, you poor thing,” he said, chuckling. “Scared? Well, don’t blame me. You and your mother started this. I’m just finishing what should have been done from the beginning… Werewolves have gone unchecked for too long… uncontrolled, believing that their world was so safe.”

He laughed and continued to drag me with such overwhelming strength I was helpless. I fumbled for my dagger, even though it wasn’t silver, I didn’t need to be, but I couldn’t find it. Damian whistled.

“I wish I would have thought of this that night. I would have saved myself so much trouble. I suppose that is what I get for listening to my sire… Did you know that such blood bonds were so hard to break? You’d have to kill them or… do what I’m doing now.”

He threw me forward. My face slammed into the stone of the altar. I felt my nose break and my face exploded with pain. I slumped, trying to think, trying to pull myself out of the pain to just focus on getting away or stalling him.

Candido was alive.

He’d come for me. I knew he’d felt me there. I knew it was real. It had to be. I felt the cave floor rippling beneath me like it knew me, like it was trying to move, but it did nothing more than hum.

Damian turned. I heard him walking away from me. I tried to turn over and escape. I dragged myself a few feet away from the altar before I was blinded by the darkness again and fell into nothing.

The wind tumbled me over, spinning me around before slamming me on a hard stone surface. I realized then that it was the altar he’d thrown me against.

My jaw trembled as I realized that wherever we were, Damian had full control of the area. Much like Raven had control over the cave we had been in.

She’d called him a cousin, our cousin. My stomach lurched. Was he just as powerful as Raven? More powerful?

I didn’t know.

I couldn’t know.

But he wasn’t more powerful than Candido. He couldn’t be. Even if he was, Candido would find a way to save me. I just had to buy him time to get here.

“Tsk, tsk. The goddess doesn’t like to have her sacrifices run away.” Damian said. “And is that really any way to treat me? I’m family. I just need a bit of help from you and we can all be on our way.”

“I’ll… never help you,” I choked, trying to turn over. “Never.”

“I don’t need your permission, stupid.”

“Stop calling me stupid.”

I didn’t know if he heard me. I heard his voice chanting, almost singing nearby. I felt the stone altar shifting and changing beneath me.

My vision went in and out. I saw a flash of Candido. I could hear his breathing. I could feel him moving, but I couldn’t tell how far he was. I couldn’t speak to him. I couldn’t reach him. My head was pounding. The world was spinning. My stomach lurched as if I was going to throw up, but I couldn’t move.

Then, my vision went black. I heard someone chanting. I saw someone on the platform I was on, unconscious with bloody stone stakes driven through their body. A great surge of blood rushed up around them from deep in the darkness and the channels engraved in the stone altar. I felt the wind cutting around me. I heard the person’s dying breath as the rush of blood flowed up and into the figure. Then, a spark of light escaped the figure and soared into the sky. When the body was completely still and pale. The figure leaned over the table turned and looked at me with a grim, bloody smile.

“At last, a new one.”

I pulled away from that vision, forcing myself to see Damian as he chanted. He was looking up and I turned to look up too. Something above me began to glow golden like the sun. It circled above as Damian’s voice cut in and out. He was talking or chanting, maybe both. I didn’t know. I couldn’t make out what he was saying.

Where was Candido? Where was I? I had to get out of here.

The gold began to melt and turn to silver. It turned to moonlight and something opened above me, so I saw the full moon as it slowly began to turn red like blood. I felt something dripping onto me, thick and warm. I felt sick.

Once this the blood moon… someone said in the wind that rushed around us. I take for myself all that was owed to me! My freedom. My power. My future!

I shut my eyes trying to block out the voice. I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to see it. I turned trying to get off the altar no matter how much it hurt.

“Hey,” Damian’s voice cut through the haze as he shoved my shoulder back down and pressed so the burns on my back screamed with pain.

I cried out. He grabbed my face and turned my head to look at him. His eyes were narrowed. He looked furious. His eyes were glowing golden. Not like Raven’s had, there wasn’t even a tinge of red in them.

What did that mean? Was it something that could give me hope? I didn’t know. I couldn’t know.

“Pay attention,” Damian said. “Didn’t they tell you to pay attention when someone’s talking to you? Right or left?”

“What?” I asked.

“Right hand or left hand,” he asked again. “If you don’t choose, I’ll choose for you. I don’t think you’ll like it though.”

“You’re… crazy,” I said. “Let me go.”

He smirked. “Right, then.”

I frowned as he turned my head to my right where my arm was cuffed to the stone surface. When had that cuff gotten there? Another seemed to grow across my bicep, then another over my shoulder. Another grew over my palm, making it impossible to move much. I felt it happening over my left too. Then, across my hips, my knees, my calves.

“Try not to move,” he said with a wry smile. “It’ll only hurt more if you do.”

“What are you doing?” I asked, trying to pull away. I found all my limbs bound to the stone altar. I screamed. “Let me go! Stop!”

He scoffed and lifted a large, barbed stone stake over my hand. He drew back sharply then drove it through my hand.