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Heart and Soul

CHapter Fifteen

Water dripped in the right corner. Labored breathing echoed through the cavern. My eyes fluttered open and met with impossible darkness. I realized my punisher's left the thick black bag over my head. They thought about my sight. The one thing that worked in my favor. My eyes never failed, never killed, which is why when the Boss needed a new soul—when he wanted it more than anything—he called me. I saw the human level more than all of the vampires combined in this compound. And they all hated me for it.

The scent of death filled my nose. This death made my eyes water and the contents of my stomach to churn. I pushed back the urge to gag with a gulp of the stagnant air. Growls echoed alongside the dripping water. A sweet metallic aroma attacked my senses. I grinned. Today shouldn’t be too bad. Bloodsuckers always got the worst treatment, and that scent…that blood would send whoever this bloodsucker was into convulsions.

“Sorry, Nick,” a soft whisper floated through the room. Shivers crawled down my spine as the faint sound of scraping metal haunted my ears…followed by the stiff click. Shit!

I froze. They’d opened a vein somewhere. Luckily, it wasn’t mine. Chains scrapped the floor. Hissing caressed the walls. Shit! It’s starving. I can hear it’s cells decaying inside it’s fleshy cage. Too close.]/i] Movement would change its direction. Territorial instincts would take over. I didn’t do this! Why were they using this in the Pit now? I never used this. Torture is one thing, but this…this is murderous.

Even these vampires had hints of souls. It kept them breathing. If I had my eyes… Suddenly, fear washed over me. This was his plan. When the watch dog falters fix him with fear. Show him there’s nothing you can’t or won’t do to him. He was watching somewhere.

Flesh broke two feet from me. Faint gasps found their way to my ears while the stench of death slowly lifted. This monster knew what it was sent in this room to do, and it was prepared to do it after gaining an advantage. Three seconds, the gasps stopped but the sucking noises remained. There was no more heart beats in the room. I tried to slow my racing blood, but panic filled me. The sounds stopped.

Inhaling sharply, I thought of my past here. This was where I started; where I made my way into his good graces. My skin prickled with goose bumps. Too close. I closed my eyes and listened intently. Where?

Drip. Drip. Drip. Scrape. There was an advantage after all. It’s still clumsy. Drip. Drip. Drip. Sniff. I clinched my fists, chained above my head. Someone either didn’t do their job correctly, or did me a favor…my ankles were free. They should’ve been chained to the floor. Growl. It smelled male, now. Testosterone overpowered the scent of death by leaps and bounds. I felt his breath on my shoulder. I heard the intake of breath, the backward motion before he decided to thrust his teeth into me.

Crack! My bare foot met something that felt like burned scar tissue before guttural screams burst in my ears. The sound was much too loud. I reached out again, meeting something that felt like mushed food. Death filled the room again, but it did not go quietly. Its charred fingers wrapped around my struggling ankles before the metal door banged open. Two swift noises met my ears before darkness filled me again.

~~~


Alarms echoed in my ears. My eyes were met with something much worse than darkness. A mirror stood before me. The man in front of me looked like death warmed over and then frozen again. His legs secured, his hands bound to the collar that held his neck and chin in place. Clothes torn to shreds. They’d tried to whip him into consciousness, but he evaded the pain well. My eyes roamed the mirror. Searching over every inch of this man, except his eyes. I closed my eyes tightly.

This trick I’d seen many times. Before my heart got removed, I worked here. I watched the ‘soul stealers’, as they like to call us, fight the urge to look into the mirror. Eyes are the windows to the soul. The moment they looked into their reflection, their eyes, their soul would be transferred to the glass. In their weakened state, it would transfer more than once. Vampire to glass, glass to vampire. Those it didn’t kill became violently ill.

His eyes were on me. Watching me. I could feel them laughing. "I’ll teach you, Nicholai.” He’d laugh. “Never break the rules, Nick.” I jerked my wrists, but I only caused myself pain. My eyes remained clamped as I tried to think. I couldn't remember anything that might stop this.

The door banged open. Cheap cologne and cigarette smoke filled the room. I coughed once, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of any more than that. “Hello,” he purred. The smirk drowned all his other features. I gritted my teeth to keep from growling. “You need to open your eyes.”

“No,” I whispered. My throat ached for water, as did my lips.

He clicked his tongue disapprovingly at me. His footsteps echoed in my head as the alarms fell silent. “Come on,” he purred again. “Be a good boy.”

“Hell no!” I growled this time. The fire of anger scalded my lips down to the pit of my stomach.

“Nicholai,” he hissed.

“I said…” I trailed off before gasping for air.

Sharp pains flooded my chest. I could feel it beating in his hands. My heart. He squeezed it again. Pain left my lips in the form of soft gasps. His lips parted in a sick smile that even the deafest vampire could hear.

“Tell me, Nicholai,” he hissed. “Did you know my witch was coming here?” I shook my head while another pain crippled my lungs.

“She’s here.” He stepped in front of the mirror and forced my eyes open. “And she’s been asking very specific questions.”

“Like what?” I breathed, falling into the pits of hell he called eyes.

“Where to find the creature that stole her soul.” He shook his head. “Did you know?”

I shook my head again. Exhaustion washed over me. My brain wouldn’t accept what he was saying. That witch couldn’t be here. She couldn’t search for me. Her soul was locked in the stain glass inside his office. “She’s mine, Nicholai.” His eyes filled with hatred. “Stop calling to her.”

“I’m not!” I growled. “I only called once, and it was never to her.”

“Liar!”

“You removed my heart for it!” I barked. “I called out to only one person in the world, and you took her from me!” My eyes trained on his. He laughed before he jumped from in front of me. The mirror man met me. Our cold, calculating, black eyes trained on one another. We were faced with all the deadliness of a sharped tooth shark. His scream filled me as it came rushing out. The shades of gold, red, blue, green—each color more vibrant than the last—swarmed into his eyes.

I had only a moment before it was pulled back inside me. A deep breath shuddered through my shoulders. It was his turn to scream as the cacophony of brilliant wonder escaped. Memories rushed into my head. Her smile warmed my sore muscles, her glassy blue eyes held no hatred or anger. She was mine again for a brief moment. Perfect once again, before her blood spilled.

As the last bit of color returned to its home, he stepped in front of me. Stopping the process from repeating. He smiled coyly and patted me on the cheek. “Will you stop?”

“I already have,” I whispered to him before I faded into the darkness of my heartless soul. The darkness that I now appreciated.

“Remove his chains.” He laughed. “You know where to take him.”
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