Prologue
The room was dark and silent as she knelt to the ground with her head bowed. She waited a moment, before she was instructed to rise and take her place beside him, her eyes sweeping over the room at the others who were kneeling before him. As she gazed into his blood red eyes, she felt a shiver ripple up her spine.
Felt the colour drain from her face as she took each step towards him. But her feet were moving towards him of their own accord. A small voice deep inside her was screaming at her to stop. To turn around and escape. But as she held his blood red gaze, she knew that it wasn’t an option.
When she stood before him as he sat in his luscious throne, he signalled for someone to step out from the shadows. She didn’t turn to see who it was – couldn’t turn to see even if she wanted to – but she knew without even looking, that he’d called Julian to stand beside her.
“Ah, together again at last. Now that I have you both here, I have a little mission for you both,” he advised them.
“What is it that M’Lord wants us to do?” asked Julian, as he gazed at the Master with a glazed look in his eyes.
“I want both you and dear, sweet Cassidy to find out if the Messiah has surfaced. If she has then I don’t doubt my daughter will do everything she can to conceal the Messiah from me,” the Master explained.
Cassidy and Julian stepped aside when the Master rose from his throne to address his other followers, who were still kneeling before him. “As for the rest of you, I want you all to scour the two lost islands for any signs of the Guardians of Light. We must find the other Guardians and prevent them for uniting with the Messiah if my plan is to succeed. If you find Carina, you must detain her – detain, not kill. As for the other Guardian, she must be eliminated. She mustn’t be allowed to join Carina or the Messiah.”
Cassidy tremored at the mention of the Guardians, as a sense of disconnection and foreboding sat in the pit of her stomach. She forced her eyes to glance down to the tattoo the Master had put on her arm. On Julian’s. Then her hands flew to her neck, and she felt her fingers trace the faint scar of two bite marks, that she knew could only be seen to the naked eye.
But she could still feel the burning sensation of the Master’s fangs in her neck. How unbelievably painful it’d been as Julian held her down while the Master bit her. She remembered how she cried out to Julian, begging him to let her go and break free from the Master’s control.
But he too had the same scar in his own neck and was also suffering in silence like her. Only, she imagined his suffering was far worse, given that the Master had forced him to turn his back on his own family. His own brother.
Kyle.
She felt a tear come to her eye as she thought about him. Longed for the day she’d be free of the Master and would reunite Kyle with Julian. But it was nothing more than a distant thought, trapped in a body she couldn’t control.
She pondered how she got here.
How she allowed herself to be caught by the man she was destined to destroy. How she’d fallen from her duties as not only a Slayer, but a Guardian of Light as well. And the truth was, she wasn’t strong enough alone to stop the Master.
None of the Guardians were.
They were much stronger together than by themselves, so perhaps if she’d found them sooner, she wouldn’t be a slave to the entity she was supposed to destroy. She looked down when the Master glanced her way and heard him bellow at a servant who stepped into the room. Cassidy’s head snapped up when she heard a girl whimpering and crying in fear. She noticed the servant hadn’t entered the room alone and he tugged on the chains he was holding in both his hands, that two girls emerged from the darkness of the room and fell to their knees.
The two girls were completely naked, wearing nothing but a shredded robe that did nothing to conceal their bodies. The girls each had shackles on their wrists, ankles and one around their necks like a dog collar, each with their own chains.
The servant pulled on the chains once more as the girls were forced to their feet and then the servant placed the chains into the Master’s hands. The Master smiled a cruel smile, before he pulled on the chains once more. His smile grew larger when the girls cried out.
“Julian, Cassidy, won’t you share these ones with me?” he asked them, his eyes reeling them both in.
Before she knew what was happening, both her and Julian were making their way towards the Master. Towards the frightened girls. Cassidy watched as the Master handed Julian one of the chains, before the Master pulled on a chain attached to the collar around the girl’s neck, painfully exposing her bare throat before the Master sank his teeth into her.
The girl cried out until the Master placed his large, clawed hand over the girl’s mouth to muffle her cries. Cassidy turned to Julian, finally looking him in the eyes and saw the mirror reflection of her own hopelessness, before he grabbed the girl’s leg.
Cassidy slid her arm around the girl’s waist to steady her, before Cassidy pulled on the collar to her expose her throat. Cassidy met Julian’s eyes as he smiled at her, a smile that looked to be his own for only a moment before she realised it wasn’t.
“Together on three, love,” he whispered to Cassidy.
Julian slowly lifted the girl’s bare leg up as he said, “One.”
At the same time, Cassidy brushed the mangled girl’s hair to the side and away from her neck. “Two,” Julian counted as he proceeded to press his lips to the girl’s leg. She cried out, but quick as a flash, Cassidy silenced her with her hand. Cassidy watched as Julian began licking the girl’s thigh, as he prepared the perfect spot for him to bite. His eyes met hers and with a small smile on his lips he whispered, “Three.”
Together they both sank their teeth into the girl’s skin and savoured the taste of their sweet blood. They stayed like that for a moment, taking their time to drink from the girl, just as the Master was doing the same, until Cassidy could feel the girl getting weaker and weaker. Cassidy pulled away to see the Master had already dropped his girl and was now carefully wiping any lingering signs of blood on his face. She turned back to Julian just as he stopped drinking and the girl slumped against Cassidy.
“Escort these girls back to their cells. Then you have a mission to complete,” ordered the Master.
Cassidy flung the limp girl over her shoulder as Julian reached down to grab the girl who was lying by the Master’s feet. Julian picked her up and they both exited the room just as more girls were forced into the room so the other followers could feed.
“I never want to do that again,” Cassidy said in disgust, once she was out of earshot.
“I know. But we’re bound to him. We don’t have a choice in the matter,” Julian replied just as they neared the cells.
Cassidy carefully lowered the girl to the ground before she grabbed the chain that was connected to the girl’s wrist shackles and carefully lifted it up to the hook that was hanging from the ceiling. The limp girl was lifted up immediately and her head sagged against her chest as Cassidy set her at the right height.
She then made sure the chain was secured in the hook before she moved on to the chains connected to her shackled ankles. Cassidy looped it though the hook imbedded on the ground of the cell, securing it tight. She then grabbed the chain connected to the collar and secured it into the hook that was in the wall, which forced the girls head to snap up as if she was looking at the ceiling.
Cassidy exited the cell and walked over to the other one where Julian was. She noticed that he’d strung his girl up the same way but was now drinking some more of her blood. Cassidy rolled her eyes and shook her head as she leant against the frame. When Julian stopped, he met her disapproving gaze.
“What? I’m really hungry,” he uttered.
Julian sauntered over to her and pulled her close to him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on hers.
“We’re going to get out of this Cassidy. I don’t know how but we will be free of him,” he assured her, before his lips fell to hers and she lost herself in his sweet embrace.
