Tasting Darkness

Chapter 7

I didn’t know what time it was when the door opened again, but I cringed when it did. Fear coursed

through me, making my eyes dart to it. Worried, Darius has returned to inflict more injury on me. My leg

needed to be set back into place, and I needed a doctor. Without my mates, I have no way of fixing it

myself with one hand, and I doubt I could, anyway. My pain threshold wasn’t the best.

Relief floods me when I realize it isn’t him. It was my usual morning visitor. He walks in, and I watch him

as he tosses the water bottle through the bars. It falls at my feet and bumps my foot. I didn’t even feel it,

and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing because I wasn’t in pain or a bad thing.

“Aleera, please just-” He stops, his eyes going to the odd angle of my leg and my blood that has frozen

on the floor beneath it. His eyes moved to mine before going to the hand still held to my chest. I knew

how gross it looked; my fingers were swollen and black, and they still hurt; however, my leg was numb,

and I prayed it didn’t mean something terrible.

“Darius did that?” he questions, and I just look away from him. He appeared shocked. Why he thought

better of him was beyond me? All the rumors of his cruelty turned out to be accurate, and to think, I tried

to convince myself over the years that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad..

Perhaps I could get past him killing my parents. Thankfully, I never gave in to the hopelessness that

comes from living out there and surviving. If I had, I would have been here over four days, and if this is

four days brings me, just what am I truly in store for, and could I survive it.

The door swings open and bangs on the bars, and I look over at the man. He curses but hesitates for a

second before walking over to me with his eyes trained on me like he thought I would do something. He

glanced at the door behind him, and I watched as he kneeled beside me. He rolled my pant leg up. His

eyes dart to me like he was expecting me to cry out at the movement of my leg, but I feel nothing when I

see his hands move towards my leg where the bone poked out of my skin.

“What are you doing?” I ask him.

“I can’t leave you like this,” He says; he almost looked guilty like he did this to me.

“Why do you care?” I mutter, looking away from him.

“Because you don’t just belong to him,” He says, and my head whips back to look at him.

“You still haven’t figured it out, have you? Do you know who I am?” He asks before I feel his hands grab

my leg. My skin buzzes and vibrates, and I gasp.

“Lycus!” I whisper, and he nods once but doesn’t take his eyes off my leg when I hear it crack as he

forces it back in place, and I scream. I wanted the numbness back. So much for being numb.

His hand instantly clamped down over my mouth while his head turned to look at the door, which I

noticed was wide open. He looks back at me when no one comes down before removing his hand, I try

to catch my breath.

“Quiet, they are in the mess hall,” he says while examining m y leg.

“Mess hall?” Lycus nods but doesn’t explain. He returns his hands to my leg, and I flinch as his hand

comes in contact as h e feels my leg, searching for something. I have no idea, but it bloody hurt as he

prodded before reaching for my hand that tucked against my chest. He turned my wrist, examining it, but

no bones were jutting out.

I watch as his eyes turn silver and his canines slip out before h e bites into his wrist before offering it to

me. I just stared at him. When a thought hits me, I could siphon his magic and knock him out before he

even notices; this was my chance to escape.

“Hurry, it will heal you, Were-fae!” He says, pointing at himself like he thought I couldn’t tell what he was.

I was glad I had no magic right now because, with my pain, I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep it contained

to shield him from what I was. I needed them to believe I was a dark Fae like the rest of the world.

“I know what you are,” I tell him.

“Are you sure because you didn’t recognize me or feel I was your mate?” he says.

“I felt it when you touched me,” I muttered.

“Yes, but you have no magic left, or I would sense it, we all would nevertheless I still would have thought

you would have had some inkling about who I am to you” he sounded almost upset I didn’t recognize him

or maybe I imagined it.

“Well, sorry if I’m a bit power drained right now, and it is not like I see your face splashed all over papers

and the media,” I tell him.

“Having no power is your fault, don’t expect me to feel sorry for you because I don’t,” He says, his eyes

darkening back to their pitch-black color.

“Kalen and I don’t like leaving the castle,” He finally states, but my brain is still stuck on the word castle.

Did he mean like an actual castle from fairy tales? Did they still exist? Was I in a dungeon of sorts? That

explained the weird-ass shackles on the walls. I thought maybe they were some twisted Halloween

decoration, or perhaps they were into BDSM, but now I was looking at them differently. I wondered briefly

how many people hung up by them.

“Aleera, hurry before I heal,” he says before groaning, and I turn my gaze to his wrist that closes up

before my eyes. His eyes turn silver again, his canines sinking into his wrist. He tears the flesh away,

which made me pull á face when he doesn’t even flinch, oh how I wish I had his pain threshold.

Right! Back to escaping, blood to heal, then siphon and run like my ass is on fire. I could do this. I hope it

won’t hurt him, though. I know I shouldn’t care, but I didn’t want to hurt him. The pull to his power and

him now I recognized him was growing stronger-stupid mate bond. And couldn’t the fates have made

them as ugly as their shitty personalities? Seriously they get to be sick depraved assholes and get

godlike looks. How is that fair?

Grabbing his wrist with my good hand, he flinched, and I had a strange feeling he was fighting the urge

to pull away from me. Like my touch repulsed him when I realized he wasn’t healing me because he

wanted to, but because he felt guilty. Anger courses through me, and he looks away as I press my lips to

his wrist, letting his blood flow into my mouth. I could feel his magic in his blood as it coated my throat

and tongue, making them tingle as I healed.

Healing quickly, I wiggled my fingers as they healed before grabbing him with both hands and pulling, no

that was the wrong word for it. It’s like turning on a vacuum, and I felt his magic slip into me. The more I

take, the higher chance he would notice.

I wiggle my toes, and I let his wrist go. He wipes his wrist, cleaning my saliva off with his shirt, but I don’t

waste any time. While he cleaned his wrist, I lifted my foot and kicked him straight in his pretty face. I

hope I didn’t damage it. The shock would have been my only element of surprise, and I jumped up as he

fell backward. Not expecting it and he clutches his nose, which sprays out blood.

But I didn’t have time to feel bad when I blasted him with the magic I just stole from him, which wasn’t

much but enough to shove him backward until he smacked into the metal bars, which knocked him out.

His face falls slack, and his shoulders slouch. I hesitated, feeling guilty I hurt him, but that wore off

quickly as I looked t o the open door and my escape route.

Running, I take the steps two at a time. Once I made it through the door and I reached the top. I find

another door and push it open slightly, peeking out. Blinking, I am taken aback by the fact the place was

indeed something out of fairy tales. It was a castle by the high ceiling and enormous chandeliers, the

massive staircases, and was that a ballroom?

Oh, no, that is the mess hall, but it must have been a ballroom by its sheer size. It has a very modern

look for a castle, one of them has good tastes.

Pushing the door open, I could see a vast corridor across from me, but that meant running across to hide

at the base of the

stairs, which meant running past the double doors wide opent o the mess hall. Men seated at the long

tables made me . wonder if I would go unnoticed-only one way to find out. So I ran like crazy.

The screeching of chairs alerted me that I did not go unnoticed, and the fierce growl that echoed off the

walls out to me. Still, I tried racing toward the double arched doors at the end of the long corridor.

This place is a maze, corridors leading everywhere, but I had n o time to explore while I raced toward the

doors, praying they led outside to freedom.

My blood runs cold when Darius suddenly materializes out of thin air, and my feet screeched on the floor.

He appears in front of the doors I intended to run out of-forced to stop and back up a step. Turning, I run

in the direction I just came from when I see Tobias behind me. A menacing look on his face before I see

his hand whip toward my face a second too late.

It took another second to register as darkness swallowed my vision. Tobias punched me. He knocked me

out, I thought. Though I shouldn’t be surprised, he is exactly like Darius. Darkness engulfed me, and I

begged the fates not to let me wake back up this time.

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