Page 121 of Dark Souls

“Stop fighting them, Lukas. You are only making this so much worse for yourself.”

I gritted my teeth and refused to speak. She sighed, stepping closer and running her hand along my naked thigh. “Look at what they’ve done to you, darling. So broken.” Her fingertips glided higher up my leg, over my hip and up my stomach as her eyes stared at my flaccid dick with greed. “You are still undeservingly beautiful, though. My beautiful monster. You disgust me just as much as you fascinate me. It’s rather bothersome.”

“Do. Not. Touch. Me,” I hissed. My eyes changed to red as my rage caused my vampire form to take control. My fangs snapped down as she continued to caress my stomach and up to my chest. Covering her fingers in my blood from open wounds, she brought them to her lips and painted them ruby red.

“Why?” she whispered, smiling seductively, leaning closer to my face. “Scared you will still like it? Even after I led my coven to your family? Even after I watched my father kill yours? You still want me, don’t you? Do you still love me, darling?”

“Go to hell! You repulse me!” I roared as she threw her head back and laughed. She licked her lips, her eyes shimmering as she allowed her magic to come forth. Pressing her lips to mine in a harsh kiss and smearing them with my blood had bile rising in my throat. I twisted my head as her hand wrapped around my cock. “You will never break me, witch.”

“I admire your tenacity. But they will never stop, Lukas. They’ll break you into pieces until there is nothing left of you. But don’t worry, darling. I will come and fix you every time. We will keep it our little secret. Just like we used to.”

I hissed as I felt my body reacting to her seduction magic. She smiled down at me. My cock grew harder without my permission and I thrashed against the restraints, ignoring the tearing of skin on my back when she started pleasuring me.

Her eyes brightened with excitement as she pumped me manically, and I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking out her magic and the sensation; trying to focus only on the hate and anger.

“I’m sorry it had to be this way. But with power comes great sacrifice,” she breathed against my face, her hand working my dick faster, wanting to watch me fall apart for her just to prove she still had power over me. But she didn’t. I would never give her that satisfaction again. “The fortune-tellers believe my mother will have a son in the future. Father has always wanted a son. An heir to the Knowlton Coven. But now, because of you...” She kissed my cheek. “He sees me as worthy. You were a glorious prize and I’ve finally made him proud. He’s naming me next in line. This coven shall be mine. And all it took was this. It is a great shame, I will admit, that you have to die. But at least I can make you feel good before you do. My gratitude.”

She climbed on top of me, straddling my hips as she lifted her skirts to her waist. I bucked my hips wildly, throwing her off but causing the spikes to jam straight through my back as I roared with pain. Black dots danced across my vision as the smell of my burning flesh from the stakes thickened the air, but I still made out her furious face as she jumped up from the dirty floor.

“I would rather impale myself on these stakes than ever touch you again,” I panted through the agony as her eyes turned to slits.

“Very well. I look forward to watching you die a slow and painful death, Lukas Nezera.” She spun on her heels and stormed towards the cellar steps.

“No!” I shouted, forcing her to freeze and peer back at me over her shoulder. “It is I that shall take great pleasure in watching you die, Belladonna Knowlton. Do not fret, darling.” I growled out the last word through my teeth and she scoffed.

The moment the cellar door slammed closed, a single tear slid down my temple before I passed out from the pain.

The memory switched.

I’m thrown to the wet floor, a puddle of rancid water beneath me. I tried to roll over. The new torture wounds inflicted all over my body caused me to groan. I wasn’t healing quickly anymore. Their new tactic of starving me was working. I’m weak. But I wouldn’t surrender. They had nothing to use against me and they knew it. As long as my mind stayed strong, they could never break me.

“Luka?” A small, frail voice choked on a sob from the corner of the dark cell. My heart quickened. No. No, it can’t be.

“Mama?” My voice came out hoarse and thick with emotion as I lifted my head to see the skeletal woman crawling along the floor towards me. Her refusal to eat since my father’s death had left her with sunken eyes and skin stretched taut over her bones. “No! What are you doing here?”

She cried when she saw the state of me, her bony hands pushing back my hair as she caressed my face. “I let them find me. I could not allow them to kill you, too.”

“Mama!” I growled, fury lashing through me that she’d be so stupid and reckless. I had spent months hiding her and Hana. Protecting them from this fate and she did this!

“Shhh, my boy. I am here to free you.”

I glanced around the disgusting cell in panic. “Hana? Where’s—”

“She’s safe in a human village. I promise. But you must get out of here and find her. Keep her safe.”

“There is no way out. I have tried! And now you are here; they will use you to weaken me!”

“No.” She smiled, running her hands down my face and shaking her head. “No, because you are going to kill me, Luka.”

“W-what?” My eyes widened. She had lost her mind.

“Luka, listen to me.” She held my face still and stared into my eyes with conviction. Her once beautiful green irises were dull and lifeless. “I am dying.”

“Because you refuse to feed!”

She shook her head. “Because I cannot feed.”

“I don’t understand?”