Page 20 of Obsession

They had been whispering about a prophecy, and arguing that there was no way to know for certain. She overheard their loud arguments as she roamed the halls in her nightgown and robe on her way to the only comforting place she had—the library.

A shiver ran down Ren's spine as the chilling realization sank in while reading through some of the manuscripts in the musty room. The sight of the brothers, once comfortably familiar, now seemed menacing and malevolent; their occasionally curiously kind faces masked with inscrutable expressions. She felt a sense of lingering dread for the meeting they had scheduled with her later.

When she came face to face with the brother’s that evening, Grayson's strategic mind revealed itself once again. He admitted that he knew that Callum was bringing her back to be their prisoner.

“I knew there was no way that Callum would have left her there in that storm to die. Not when he had those thoughts racing through his mind about the witch. So I followed him.” Grayson admitted.

Bastian's authority took on a sinister edge, his leadership more tyrannical than protective as he laid down the law on her place in the mansion.

“You both made the mistake of not killing her the moment she came into this building. She was to be our sustenance and nothing more until she failed to heal herself and died. Nothing more.”

Even Callum's empathy seemed like a mere facade, he wouldn’t acknowledge her glances and offered no support to her meager protests.

“She has been that for us brother. No need to have an aneurysm over such a trivial thing.” Callum casually mentioned while pouring a glass of his favorite liquor.

Finally Bastian seemed to have had enough, and he snapped with terrifying ferocity. He launched forward to stand before Ren in a blur of motion that boggled the mind

With a heavy fist he struck her down.

He roared and with savage intensity, crippled her body with harsh blows, she screamed as skin split and bones cracked under the weight of his fists.

The pain was awful, but when she was on the verge of passing out, he suddenly stopped.

“You will learn you have no power here. You are just a meal to us, and nothing more.” Bastian straightened his shirt cuffs and turned on his heel to walk away.

Ren slumped into a crippled heap on the floor, her bruised and beaten body so heavy that she had a hard time sitting up. The sound of her muffled sobs called to Bastian like a moth to a flame.

Staring down at her, Bastian beat his chest with immense primal power, one fist punched into his pectoral muscle then again, and again.

He roared with his immense emotion that was hard to decipher what that truly was.

Could it be his own fear?

He grabbed her with one hand by the throat and lifted her as easily as he might have a feather. Then he tossed her to Grayson whose face was twisted and snarling with rows of dripping glistening fangs.

He sank his teeth into her neck and drank, ripping out a chunk of flesh as he tore away and shrieked like a wild animal.

Ren’s nearly lifeless body was left on the floor, discarded like yesterday’s trash.

Twenty-One

Bastian ordered Callum to carry her back to her room and put her in the box. She was half conscious as he dragged her battered figure off the floor and tossed her on his shoulder like nothing more than a sack of potatoes.

“It didn’t have to be this way. You could’ve been happy, you know.” Callum murmured as he carried her reluctantly to her room.

“How could I have?” She whispered with a slur. Her swollen lip made it hard to speak.

“All you had to do was choose me.” His voice was pained.

She felt the thud of him tossing her on the bed, but never heard the door of her prison slam shut.

When she awoke the pain that flooded her entire body made her scream. Loud and long until her last raspy sound erupted from her. Deep and guttural with so much disdain and frustration, her sobs followed.

Betrayed and hurt, Ren felt the walls of the room close in on her. A sense of dizziness and the room spinning made her feel nauseous enough to heave. She tried to hold the contents of her stomach down. Not remembering eating anything, she let go of what she thought would’ve just been bile.

Blood.

She spewed blood. Maybe a swallow’s worth at first, and then a bit more on a second cramping hurl.

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