Page 175 of Dark Souls

“What-what are you going to do? Wait, hang on,” Wesley panicked as Ronnie untied him from the chair and I stuck a needle in his neck, injecting him with the same drug he had been injecting Hana, god knows how many times, so he could do whatever he liked to her body. He struggled, but he was no match for Ronnie’s newly turned strength and when the drug took effect, his limbs became dead weights as he lay on the floor.

“How does it feel?” I asked, leaning over him and placing the heel of my boot on the wound in his chest. “To be completely powerless.”

“Just kill me. That’s what you want, right?”

“Oh no, that would be far too kind, wouldn’t it, Ronnie?” I peered up at Ronnie as he licked his lips, his nostrils flaring while he glared down at Wesley. “And you do not deserve an ounce of our kindness. You’ve met Ronnie? He’s a newly turned vampire with Luka’s strength and bloodlust. That’s right, Luka turned him.” The fear in Wesley’s eyes was so satisfying. “Well, look at that Ron. He’s starting to understand. That monster that couldn’t give a flying fuck about me? He turned Ronnie so he would come and tell me how to find you. How to free Hana. And how to expose your uncle. But the best thing of all is that Ronnie has just found out that Hana is his soulmate. The very woman you have held captive, tortured and raped. So, I’m going to sit back, let him do whatever he wants to you and enjoy the show. And when you finally feel like talking, I’ll ask him to stop. How does that sound?”

“No, no, no. Wait,” Wesley pleaded, only able to move his lips and his eyes as Ronnie loomed over him, extending razor-sharp nails and slowly dragging them down his torso, ripping him open with agonising patience.

“Did you like to hear them scream, Hector? To hear them beg for mercy? But you couldn’t bring yourself to look into their eyes. Is that why you blindfolded them? Well, Ronnie has no problem looking into your eyes while he tortures you, do you, Ronnie?”

Ronnie grabbed one of Wesley’s hands and lifted it to his mouth. He bit down on his finger above the dagger ring and ripped it clean off. Wesley screamed in agony as Ronnie grabbed his jaw and forced him to stare into his eyes. “No, I fucking don’t.”

Once all ten fingers were discarded on the floor, Wesley was heaving and crying with distress. I grabbed a blanket off the sofa and threw it towards Ronnie. “Wrap his hands. We don’t want him to bleed out before we’ve had more fun. Ready to talk yet, Weasel?”

“Y-You…” he stammered, squeezing his eyes closed. “You’ll n-never find him in t-time.”

I clicked my tongue and slouched back onto the sofa. “Wrong answer.”

Ronnie grabbed one arm and bent it unnaturally until it snapped. Wesley’s scream echoed around the house.

“Where is Hana?”

When he refused to speak, Ronnie forced open his mouth and ripped both his fangs out. One of the worst methods of torture for any vampire. But I had to hand it to him; Wesley was stubborn.

“I fancy ribs tonight,” I said to Ronnie, whose grin widened with wickedness. He cut a line with his fingernails into Wesley’s torso, pulling his flesh apart and gouging his hand inside. Wesley was panting and begging for it to stop until the sound of a distinguishing crack resonated and Ronnie tugged out a bloody rib, throwing it my way. I caught it and licked it clean as Wesley started to whimper and plead for us to just kill him. “Hmm, delicious. Ready to talk or shall we go for a whole rack?”

“She’s- she’s…”

I held my hand up to Ronnie to stop him, and he sat back, his jaw tight with tension, to wait to hear about his soulmate.

“I don’t have all night here. Start talking or things are only going to get so much worse for you.”

“There’s a key. In the safe. There’s a house out back. She l-lives in there.”

Ronnie stood up quickly, dashing to the window to look into the back garden. “Liar! There is no house!”

“M-magic illusion. Y-you can’t see it.”

I slid off the sofa onto the floor beside him and stared into his eyes. “Who is The Devil and his witch mate? What are their names?”

He slammed his eyes shut, and I grabbed his eyelids, peeling them open as he groaned. I could only see the whites of his eyes as he rolled them back. I was losing my patience and sanity now. “What are their names?” I hissed.

“I’ll die before I tell you! I’ll die before I let you save him,” Wesley roared. I delved my hand into his chest, causing his mouth to sputter open, blood pooling in it like a fountain and his eyes to finally widen and stare up at me. I wrapped my hand around his heart, feeling its frantic beating against my palm.

“Their names…”

Mitchell and Parisa. I don’t want to die.

“You’re right. You will die before I save him. But don’t doubt for a second that I won’t still save him.” I ripped out his heart, watching the life drain from his eyes and held it in my hand. Standing up, I opened the velvet box that had contained Hana’s sigil and placed the heart inside. A gift for Heathen.

My mum appeared beside me behind her signature purple smoke. She glanced down at the body of Hector and then at Ronnie and finally me.

“If you say he deserved a trial, then I swear to God—”

“No,” she shook her head. “He deserved everything he got. I’m here to help lift the spell on that house. Come on.”

The three of us stood on the grass lawn as mum started muttering Latin incantations and waving her hands before her, slowly revealing a small one-story house. Ronnie exhaled a deep breath and closed his eyes as we both turned to look at him.