Page 42 of Fractured Souls
A noise drew both of our attention towards one of the back doors. I didn’t know how long they’d been away, but it sort of surprised me that they were back already.
Zander was frozen next to me, and his hand suddenly darted out and pulled me behind him. I offered him a confused look, but if I looked confused, he looked entirely freaked out. I went to ask him what he was sensing…but suddenly everything exploded.
A bomb-like pulse of power exploded through the room, sending me flying. I crashed into Zander, a groan leaving my throat. Power filled the space like poisonous gas, and I gripped my throat feeling like I was suffocating, the world around me narrowing to a pinpoint. I could feel Zander’s hand in mine, but it was the last thing I sensed before everything went dark.
* * *
Something was very wrong.
I wasn’t positive how long I’d been unconscious, but I knew that from the moment awareness began to seep back in. Something was very, very wrong.
My head felt extremely hazy, my defenses down—Zander’s defenses down, more accurately—and the star calls were coming back with a vengeance. They echoed loudly in my head…yet were somehow muted. My entire body was cold, and there was an uncomfortable sensation rolling through me, making me feel like I was floating.
I wasn’t breathing—that much was clear.
My eyelids were so heavy, and when I tried to inhale I felt my neck flutter, like I was drawing in water. Moving my limbs—or attempting to—hurt so incredibly much, and it felt like I was being held down with an anchor, not allowing my…tail to move.
Fuck, I was shifted? Why was I shifted…
A very faint pulse of power tried to reach me, and I wanted to reach out to it so badly because I had a feeling it was Zander’s. But something was blocking my ability to do that. In fact, it felt like something was drowning my ability to do anything.
It was like I was having an out of body experience…except it wasn’t truly that, because if anything I felt trapped inside of my body, caged and locked.
“Lorcan.”
The name echoed loudly in my head, and when I opened my eyes after what felt like minutes of struggling, the world around me was wavy, submerged in water and moving in a kaleidoscope of colors. Was I high? It really felt like that, and when I drew in water through my lungs I noticed a bitter taste on my tongue, like the water itself was tainted.
Around me were bright flashing lights, and distantly I could hear yelling and cheers, but I couldn’t focus on where they were coming from.
“Lorcan, don’t focus on them.”
Zander. That was his voice in my head.
“Where are we?”I tried to respond, but I didn’t know where he was, let alone where I was. Panic seized my chest, the control that I had been slowly gaining back over my life felt like it was slipping away.
Hadn’t this been one of my worst fears? Being a captive again like in Broken House? Not only a captive, but a captive that could barely focus on her surroundings let alone who she’d been taken by.Where was Zander in all of this? Where were my men?
“They only took us,”Zander said.“It’s just us. Just be strong for a few seconds longer—I’m coming for you, Lorcan.”
“Where are you?”I asked, feeling like I needed to see him, to feel him, in order to feel grounded.
“They have me in a cell, but I’m nearly out.”
Suddenly the world around me rumbled and a massive light came on overhead, allowing me to get a good look at my surroundings.
Dread pooled in my stomach. I was in a tank.
Had they put me in a fucking fish tank?
Looking around, I saw that the cylindrical glass tank I was in had no opening on the top, and at the bottom a chain was locked around my tail, keeping me trapped. That alone would have been fucking terrifying.
But that didn’t even take into account what else the light illuminated. The crowds of people. Faces staring up at me in awe, full of desires that began to flood me without the protection Zander had afforded.
I thought I had felt and seen it all, but my past experiences were nothing compared to the twisted, sick intent and need that came off of these people. I’d thought I’d experienced evil, but this was different. I didn’t have a word to describe it though. I did know I never wanted to experience it again, and the worst part, the part that nearly made me fucking throw up more than even being in a tank, was the malicious need to hurt me.
They wanted to see me bleed.
They wanted to see me ripped from limb to limb.
