Chapter 1
The day the darkness no longer releases me from its comforting embrace will be the day I am finally free. Unfortunately, today is not that day. Brought back to the realm of consciousness by the endless chattering of my teeth and the subtle, but constant, vibration of my stupid body that for some reason was still struggling to survive. It wasn’t actually cold. Well, it wasn’t warm either, but the basement in which I’d been imprisoned usually hovered around an uncomfortable sixty degrees. I was cold, endlessly cold, thanks to the lack of blood in my veins. My captors left just enough behind for my stubborn heart to continually pump in its relentless effort to keep me alive.
Time was irrelevant here in the dark. The slim windows high on the concrete wall to the left used to provide me some semblance of time, but they’d been covered so long ago I’d given up on trying to count the days. Of course they only covered the windows so our captors could enjoy a snack whenever they pleased. Sunlight was irksome, but not fatal to vampires. A fact I unfortunately learned the hard way upon my initial capture in the middle of a rare sunny day in May. Not that I was a hard catch per-se, a wolf-less werewolf, unbonded and branded in my ‘disgrace.’ No, rather I was a shining target for the creatures of the night risking life and limb to trespass through Astieran territory. Moreover, my absence was likely to be entirely unnoticed. With a social standing barely higher than the mud beneath any true werewolf’s feet, the humans strewn about the basement alongside me had a higher chance of being missed than I did. Not that they cared about that at all.
One glorious hit of vampiric venom and the lot of them were purring like house cats. Content and sated on the magical properties of the venom my co-prisoners had absolutely no desire to escape. In fact, they adored our captors, despite the abuse and cruelty we were subject to on a daily basis. The clamouring of their racket was nearly constant whenever they were conscious without their precious drug. Reduced to begging, nay, mewling at the bottom of the stairs. Strong enough to drag themselves over, but not to climb the steps. Chained metaphorically, where mine dug into my ankles and were attached to a rather large chest freezer to my right.
To my everlasting dismay, I was not werewolf enough to evade capture, and not human enough to enjoy the benefits of the venom. No, every time I received the glorious pleasure of having half my blood drained from my neck I was met with unspeakable agony that set alight every bone in my body in a blaze only fit for (hell’s) depths. Once more only having my pathetically weak genetics to thank for that delightful conundrum. If I’d been stronger, or displayed more promise, maybe a wolf would’ve chosen to bond with me. Maybe I wouldn’t be in this goddess forsaken place. I closed my eyes tight. Squeezing hard against the swelling pity in my chest.
“Cut that out,” I whispered to myself, voice broken and dry from disuse. The others had long since learned to ignore me, “no sense in dwelling in maybe’s,” I chastised as I slowly raised shaking hands to my neck, skeletal fingers delicately brushing along the paper thin skin there. I knew each bump and crevice as if it were a map, and sure enough there was a new landmark to be cataloged. I’d been bled again.
I sighed as I let my hands fall back into my lap, shifting slightly to lean a bit more comfortably against the concrete wall behind me. My eyes and lips burned from what I knew was a near constant state of dehydration, but no amount of blinking or licking my lips could soothe them. The mewling had increased in fervor, the desperation in their wheezy voices rising in pitch as more of them joined the clamoring.
“Shut up-” I snapped trying to correct them, but it only resulted in a painful fit of coughing that left me heaving for breath. My head tilted towards the ceiling to mitigate the pain rattling through my bones. I was weaker than I’d ever been. I used to be able to manage sentences, to raise my voice, but now? A few whispered words and a darkness that didn’t belong to the basement curled in closer to my limited vision. I knew my time on this earth was drawing to a close. I likely wouldn’t make it through another feeding. A strange sort of peace fell over me at that. A soft smile pulled on the very edges of my lips as I closed my eyes at the thought. A wheezing breath of air escaping my lungs was the only sound. Yes. This was it. The end to a pitiful and unnoteworthy existence. I could finally- wait.
It was silent.
Completely. Silent.
It was never silent here. Never. This wasn’t death. No, that silence was peaceful, this silence was tense, forced. I peeled my eyes open once more. Forced myself to sit up even as my heart stumbled and tripped in its effort to provide me the strength. As if they’d all been commanded, the humans mewling for their masters, scraping their way towards the door had frozen completely.
My eyes strained to see in the dark, sweeping around the room for a sign of even one of the vampires who’d instilled such silence in the group, but there was none. Then, far away, out in the woods somewhere, there was a noise. A shuffle of leaves, a crack of a stick, the gentle padding of footfalls, steady on the forest floor. My heart tightened in my chest, my thin breathing increasing in pace as I dared to hope- a stupid thing, hope, but…
“Help,” I whispered, lungs screaming with the effort of it, “Help me, please,” I begged. Praying to Frey that whoever was out there would hear me. My voice didn’t carry. It was too pathetically weak. I tried to whistle, but even that small alert of a noise was pathetic in nature, no more than a faint exhale of air. The footfalls had slowed, and seemed to be turning, moving off. My head dropped between my shoulders and I whimpered. The most pathetic, painfilled low keening whine of a sound I’d perhaps ever made, but I officially surrendered. This last bit of hope… I couldn’t do it anymore. It was only through the strength of my goddess that I was conscious now.
Silence. There was nothing but silence as I closed my eyes for the last time. It would be okay, I tried to reassure myself. I had fought long and hard my entire life, it would be okay to rest now. After all, there was no one to miss me. My parents were waiting for me in Frey’s halls, I was sure of it. I had no siblings that I knew of, and I’d been passed around so many different pack houses it was hard to call one place home. There was one- no. No, I didn’t want to think about him. That endless darkness curled around me, its soft fingers slipping comfortingly around my shoulders as another rattling sigh of a breath trickled past my lips.
A growl rumbled through the silence. The only warning before there was an explosion of noise upstairs that sounded like a door being smashed through. Shouting ensued, along with enraged snarls that had salty tears slowly slipping down my face. Werewolves. I’d recognize that sound anywhere, and with the way the screaming increased in pitch, I’d say they were absolutely sweeping the floor with my captors. A ghost of a smile tugged on the edge of my lips as my shoulders drooped and my head sagged. They likely wouldn’t give a shit about me. I was worth even less than the humans scattered around me, but at least the vampires got their due. At least they could butcher them in the way I’d only dreamed of.
When the last of them died, noise assaulted me from all directions. The human’s screaming and wailing at the loss of the connection to their masters. It was sweet, sweet singing to my ears. The door at the top of the stairs flew open, and light filled the space, burning the back of my eyelids as well as those of my fellow captives as they cried out in a new kind of pain. I made no sound, only turning my head, lolling slightly to the right, and closing my eyes tighter against the light. The stairs groaned as someone descended them. Tired… I was so tired… but then, there were hands gently cupping my shoulders, pulling me off the wall towards a warm body. Lurching my heart into an anxious beat as the last of my energy was sapped out.
“Fucking hell,” A low male voice cursed, but I could do nothing as my head rolled forward to rest against his body, hanging on to consciousness by a thread. “She’s here Cal, over here,” the voice called. There was a moment of nothing, as the first backed away, but then another took his place. Their touch was electric, setting my tired body alight as their hands wrapped around and under me as they lifted me from the floor without hesitation. The sound of the chain snapping the only thing ringing in my ears as the brief jolt of energy dissipated and the darkness surged up to claim me.
Free… I’m free…
