Page 28 of Obsession

Ren was cautious but intrigued by this, the prospect of an ally within her captors' ranks a welcome possibility.

Bastian was enraged by it. He could always sense more than the others through their bond and in an attempt to thwart thissuspected plot, he took Ren and caged her in his own room again.

This was not like her previous cage in her bedroom with clear walls, this was her fully shackled in place, gagged and blindfolded. Cuffs around her waist, throat, wrists and ankles were lined with silver and while they didn’t burn her flesh as the sun did, it caused an irritating rash that itched ferociously. However, bound as she was, she had no means by which to scratch her flesh, and the discomfort of it was maddening.

She could hear the screams of Callum as Bastian savagely beat him. They sounded very close, though she couldn’t tell if he was actually in the room with her since she had her senses taken away from her with the gags, restraints, and blindfold.

After some time of being shackled and unfed, and not allowed to rest or sleep; she began to hallucinate.

Her body was covered with splotches with black veins emanating from the sores.

It turned out the wall she was shackled to was a revolving wall and on the other side Bastian had a dark room that the only way in or out was that wall itself.

She was spun around on it and released into that room where it was so hard to see that she couldn’t even see her nose in front of her face.

As her eyes adjusted she could make out the shape of a man emerging from the darkest shadows.

Both her and Callum were reunited.

Twenty-Eight

Ren, despite her precarious situation, began to exploit the fractures within the brothers' ranks. She encouraged Callum's sympathies, her interactions with him growing more intimate. She screamed with him as they bled, cried with him as they healed, and used her delicate touch to romance him as they set to overcome the cruelty Bastian forced them to beset on each other.

“We just need to make it through this torture together.” Callum whispered to her as they tended to one another’s wounds.

“I don’t know how much more of it I can handle, to be perfectly honest.” Ren said.

“Bastian holds a grudge, this much is true. But he will move on at some point.”

Callum held Ren's face in his hands, squaring her focus on him.

“I promise I will always be here to pick you up. I need you to know that. I love you Ren. I always will.”

“I knew that then, and I know if you could, you would stop Bastian from hurting anyone. But I also know that’s how Bastian show’s his love too. I can’t deprive him of that. Can I?”

“You can do anything you like. If you think for one second that he holds all the power here, you are mistaken.” Callum answered.

“What do you mean?” Ren had a puzzled look on her face.

“He has never been so madly in love in all the years I have been his brother. You have him so tied in knots that he can’t see up from down. The only thing he knows is pain.” Callum caressed her cheek with his thumb.

Ren looked down and away, contemplating what Callum had just told her.

Callum had helped turn her into this creature that could bleed without dying. She loved him, but she knew that she loved them all equally in their own ways.

“Do you really not care that I have feelings for all of you?” She asked.

“I would rather you had chosen just me, but I understand. I would never deny anything that makes you happy. It just might take a while for my jealous nature to stop interfering with my logical reactions.” He paused for a minute to garner her reaction.

“I mean, if you still want to be with Grayson and Bastian, that’s for you to decide. All I ask is that you never leave me. I couldn’t stand to live without you.” He added.

Her only other companion had been suffering, trapped in this tomb with the dead.

At some point she opened her heart to these men, and they stole every part of it.

Her relationship with Bastian and Grayson, seemed to have grown colder and her heart hurt that they wouldn’t return the same feelings anymore. Only Callum openly reflected her emotions and outwardly shared in that strong emotional bond that she had craved for so long.

She was playing a dangerous game, using her body to entice Grayson when she was separated from Callum. Staying with Bastian when all he wanted to do was torture and main her.

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