Page 223 of Bitten & Burned

My footsteps echoed as I went down the stairs, pausing about halfway down to rub at my thigh. The sigil wasn’t burning so much as it was throbbing. I could feel it seeping through the bandage I wore.

Vael touched my hand, looking at me as if to say,I will do this for you; you needn’t be here for this.

But I smiled bravely at him, squeezed his hand, and we continued.

As we approached the heavy wooden door to the dungeon, Vael touched my hand again: “Are you certain you want to do this?” His honey-gold eyes were soft as he scanned my face for any sign that I was changing my mind. “I’ll speak with him for you, if you wish.”

I shook my head. “I need to do this.”

Vael reached for the door and opened it. I heard scuffling and sniffing the second he did. The smell hit me next. Putrid andrancid, more so even than I’d come to expect. Sickly sweet and rotten. Gods, I nearly choked on it and was forced to pause to get my bearings.

As soon as I was certain I wasn’t going to vomit, we continued. But my skin still crawled as we stepped into the room.

Rellin was chained to the wall opposite me. The scuffling sound was the sound of his broken legs as he tried in vain to get free of the chains holding him. The sniffing was, of course, him. Sniffing the air. How he could smell anything but his own rot was beyond my comprehension.

“Are you there, leech-whore?” he keened into the room. “I can smell you; gods, you smell likemine…”

I wrinkled my nose in disdain, and Vael stepped in front of me. “Behave yourself, or we’re leaving.”

“We?” he asked, latching onto that word immediately. “She’s here? You brought me the blood-bride?”

Vael cringed. “I didn’t bring her to you; she wishes to speak with you.”

Rellin made some kind of wet snarling sound, and I nearly gagged. But I moved forward nonetheless.

I opted to speak his real name, even if it pained me. Perhaps I could build up a rapport so he’d tell me everything he knew.

Or perhaps I’d throw up the second the name left my lips.

“Rellin?” I said softly.

His sniffing and snarling ceased, and he craned his neck to see me in the darkness. “Come into the light, let me look at you, foul-blood…pleaselet me look at you.”

“No,” I said, remaining in the darkness. “Talk to me like this.”

“Just as well, I smell you just fine from here,” Rellin crooned. “Ask me what you came to ask me, smelling you is driving me insane…gods, my legs are broken, but I could still put one over you.”

“I want the truth,” I blurted, not wanting to hear what he could do with his broken legs. “How is Drummond controlling the sigil?”

He was silent for a long moment. “I don’t know how he’s doing it. I know howwedo it.”

“How’s that?” I asked.

“Come into the light, rotblood. Let me see you. Your sweet face, your soft, clean skin. So clean and so rotten. Come closer and I’ll tell you.”

“Godsdammit, Rellin…” Vael stepped into the light and grasped his throat, squeezing. “Tell her, or I’ll quiet you permanently right now.”

“You’re going to kill me dead no matter what; might as well get something out of it. Go ahead. Kill me and she’ll never know what I know.” Rellin’s eyes were round and focused on Vael, but somehow, unseeing. As if he were looking into the distance behind Vael. At me.

If he wasn’t going to give us the information without it, I could bear him looking at me.

I hoped.

I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders, stepping into the light.

Rellin grinned a broken, toothy smile and started yanking on his chains again. He let out a low moan that made me feel sick.

“Gods, you’re so clean, I bet you’d taste so sweet. I’d leave marks on you wherever I touched you… just like your bloodsuckers…”