Page 57 of Dark Souls
Fancy Ribs?
W hen we finally reached the location of a huge, gated driveway, I stopped the car and stared up at the strong steel entrance.
Ronnie cursed, leaning forward to get a better look and searching for another way into the premises. “What now?”
“You’re the SIA agent. What do you suggest?” I growled, tapping my fingers against the steering wheel. “Do you think he has people working for him on the premises?”
“I doubt it. If Hana is truly here, he wouldn’t risk anyone else knowing.”
“Then I guess we are climbing over.” I opened the car door, stepping out and peering down the isolated, dark road. Not a car or person in sight. “Grab him and let’s go.”
“You think I can jump that gate with this prick on my back?” Ronnie asked in disbelief.
“Yes. Ronnie. You can.”
He huffed, opening the door and grabbing Wesley from the back. Slinging him over his shoulder once more, he followed me towards a large tree by the side of the road and watched me jump into the top branches effortlessly.
Ronnie crouched and then kicked off the ground, finding a branch with one hand and swinging himself up onto it, dragging Wesley’s body with him. He looked surprised and elated at his new skill.
“Wicked.”
I leapt onto the high stone wall and jumped down the other side onto neatly trimmed lawns that sprawled all the way up to a huge detached Victorian house. A thump by my feet drew my attention and I looked down to see Wesley’s battered body rolling as he regained consciousness from that fall. Ronnie landed in a crouched position next to him.
“He’s waking up. Let’s get him inside and tie him up before he makes a run for it,” Ronnie suggested, hauling Wesley up once again. We zoomed up to the house, used Wesley’s front door key to let ourselves in and stood still in the dark hallway. There wasn’t a single sound in the house. I couldn’t sense anyone either.
“Hana?” I called out with my heart in my throat. Silence. Shit. “Tie him up in there.” I pointed to what looked to be a living room with brown leather sofas, an old fireplace set among deep green walls. I moved around the room, looking for any photographs or clues about who this man was. There was nothing but a few crime books and decorative ornaments. The place was cold. Just like the man who lived in it.
“The fuck…” Wesley’s groan had me spin around just as Ronnie tied the last rope around his torso, having ripped off his shirt and blazer to ensure it burned against his skin. His hands were bound behind the chair with SIA silver cuffs that were strong enough to hold a vampire who wasn’t of a superior bloodline.
“Lesson number two.” I grinned, approaching him slowly, my leather boots echoing across his wooden floors. “Never trust a woman wearing fishnet tights. We are psychopaths.”
“Who are you?” he growled. He rolled his tongue over the empty space where his front tooth used to be and hissed, glaring at Ronnie.
“Someone you really shouldn’t have fucked with.” I crouched down between his legs, pushing his thighs open and digging my nails into his trousers. I kept digging until I felt my nails completely embedded into his flesh, causing him to cry out. So fucking weak. This was going to be fun. “Where’s Hana?”
“I don’t know what you’re–”
I removed one hand from his thigh, grabbing his face and allowing my nails to dig into his cheek instead. They sunk into the soft flesh, causing small wounds that seeped with blood as I forced him to look at me. “Where’s Hana?”
How the fuck does she know about Hana? Who is she? I need to get to the safe.
His eyes darted over my shoulder to the desk behind me.
“You have no idea who you are dealing with, sweetheart,” Wesley sneered, a bloody smirk on his face.
I laughed, a slow, sadistic sound as I shook my head and released his jaw. I sat down on the leather sofa directly in front of him as Ronnie nodded at me, silently communicating that he was going to check the entire house. Once he left the room, I placed one leg over the other and gave Wesley my best resting bitch face.
“Oh, I think I do. In fact, I think I know exactly who I am dealing with. Hector Polken. Nephew of The Devil. I know that you are aware of the existence of two Demonksi Upirs and one is living under your roof. I know that you and your uncle control them to commit heinous crimes because you don’t have the power to do it yourselves. You keep them as slaves for your own greed and ambition. An act that is punishable by death by the crown.”
He hid his shock well, but not well enough. He cleared his throat, narrowing his eyes. “You have no physical proof of that.”
“I don’t need physical proof.” I smirked, staring into his eyes as his mind raced with thoughts of how he could try to get out of this situation. All pathetic and stupid ideas until one interesting one stuck. He was going to summon Hana’s demon. I stood up, walking over to where his eyes had shifted after the thought.
His face filled with panic as I stood behind his desk, bending down to open the cabinet underneath to find a safe.
“What’s the code?”
3781
“Fuck off,” he spat. “As if I’d tell you.”
“You just did.” I laughed, typing in the code and watching him squirm against the ropes when the heavy door clicked open. Inside, I found stacks of cash, some weapons and a large velvet box. I pulled out the box, opening the lid as all the colour drained from Hector’s face. A stunning sapphire crystal attached to a silver chain gleamed up at me, radiating magic and power.
“You’re Ilaria Romano Black,” Hector growled, finally making the connection. “The Princess that can read minds.”
Uncle was right. Luka was fucking her!
“Took you long enough.” I lifted the necklace out of the box and walking back towards him. “And yeah, I was fucking him because he’s my soulmate. And you and your uncle are going to pay for what you’ve done to him.”
Hector threw his head back and roared with laughter. I arched an eyebrow at his reaction, waiting patiently until he’d finished.
“Soulmate? Please. That monster doesn’t have a soul. He can’t love anything. He’s too fucking broken. We made sure of it. Don’t you get it yet, Princess? He rejected you. He left you. And he’s about to be killed for good. Don’t bother going to all this effort for him when he doesn’t give a single flying fuck about you.”
The restraint I’d had to control for hours snapped. In a flash, I’d removed my blade from my leather sleeve and stabbed it in his chest, ensuring I missed any vital organs and twisted. He roared, the sound vibrating off the walls in the house as I ripped it out of him and watched the blood trickle down his torso. The satisfaction didn’t even touch the sides. I needed this man to suffer.
“Where’s Luka?”
He panted, shaking his head. I stabbed him again. Stepping back to give him a second to catch his breath and come to his senses, he lifted his head and looked me directly in the eyes.
“I don’t know.”
Damn, he was telling the truth.
I held up the necklace. “This is Hana’s sigil, isn’t it? The one that controls her demon’s soul? Where is she?”
He closed his eyes, squeezing them shut, and I dived at him, placing my blade at his throat as my other hand yanked his head back by his mohawk. “Open your eyes or I will slice your eyelids off so you can’t ever close them again.”
“You’re going to kill me, anyway. I’m not telling you a thing.”
Ronnie entered the room with a twisted expression I’d never seen before. He looked dangerous, lethal and blind with rage. It was enough for me to step back from Wesley and lower my blade. “Ronnie, what’s–”
“WHERE IS SHE?” Ronnie roared, bulldozing into Wesley’s body and knocking the chair to the ground. His hands wrapped around his throat, squeezing before he sent multiple punches into his face, only to go back to strangling him again. “You sick fuck! What have you done to her? WHERE IS SHE?”
“Ronnie!” I screamed, terrified he was about to kill our only source of information. I dived onto his back, wrapping my arm around his own throat as I tried to tear him off Wesley. He was so strong but after a struggle, I finally shoved him away. His eyes were the deepest shade of crimson, demanding Wesley’s blood as he glared at him over my shoulder. I kept pushing at his chest, forcing him out of the room until we were standing in the hallway.
“Get yourself under control, Ronnie! I will not allow you to fuck this up for me! He may be the only chance I have of finding Luka so I won’t allow you to kill him. Do you hear me?” I shouted as Ronnie started pacing the length of the hallway, his hands running over his shaved head. “This is my soulmate’s life we are trying to save!”
“And mine!” Ronnie bellowed, glaring at me with so much pain in his eyes. I froze.
“What?”
“Hana is my soulmate,” he choked on the words, crouching on the floor as I stared at him in shock. How? What? Hana was Ronnie’s soulmate? “I had a feeling when I saw her picture.” He pulled out Luka’s polaroid photo that he’d been carrying around in his pocket. “I thought she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. But as soon as I smelt her blood, I knew for certain. I can smell her everywhere in his room. I’ll kill him. I’m going to fucking kill him for what he’s been doing to her!”
He attempted to get past me again, and I slammed my hands into his chest, shoving him back with all my strength. “Ronnie. No. He is the only person who knows where she is. You can’t kill him. Not yet.”
“He’s been torturing her, Ilaria! He’s been…” He couldn’t finish the sentence, turning to slam his fist into a wall instead. A lump lodged in my throat at what he was insinuating. I closed my eyes, wishing it wasn’t true but knowing it more than likely was.
“Where?” I asked quietly, needing to see whatever had shaken Ronnie to his core.
He pointed up the stairs. “His bedroom. I… I can’t go up there again. I can’t see it again.”
“Okay.” I stepped up to him, running my hand down his arm. “Okay. I’ll be right back. Watch him Ronnie, but don’t kill him. You want to find Hana? You can’t kill him, do you understand?”
He nodded, hissing through gritted teeth as he leaned his forehead against the wall. I raced up the stairs, searching all the bedrooms until the one that was most potent with Wesley’s scent called to me. Stepping inside, I paused to take in the mess. Ronnie had clearly been ransacking the room from the discarded drawers and open wardrobe that had clothes sprawled across the floor and an open wooden trunk that contained sex toys, such as bondage ropes, gags, whips, knives and vibrators.
There were polaroid pictures of women strapped to the bed in all sorts of positions, gagged and tied, some looking as though they were into it, but others seemed to be barely conscious. Red hair caught my attention and I pulled the photo from the pile. There was no doubt it was Hana, naked and tied to the bed. Cuts adorned her skin and she had a silk tie over her eyes.
I moved my gaze to the contents of the open bedside drawer. There were multiple syringes and medical bottles. Lifting the clear liquid up, I read the label. Fuck. He’d been drugging them so they couldn’t fight back. Muscle relaxants. These extremely high doses were illegal and could only be purchased on the supernatural black market, which, of course, being part of The Underground , Wesley had access to.
Shaking, I left the room, the red haze clouding my judgment as Rue came to the surface wanting revenge for every woman he’d assaulted but, mostly, for Hana. For my sister. She is my family now. And no one touches my family and gets away with it.
Ronnie lifted his bloodshot eyes to me as I slowly descended the stairs, studying my stony expression. I walked past him into the living room, where Wesley had regained consciousness and was spitting blood onto the floor.
“Ronnie. Untie him,” I commanded as Ronnie entered behind me. Wesley’s eyes bounced between us with terror at the deadly looks on our faces. Fear. Finally.
“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.
“My life is about to completely change, isn’t it?” he muttered. I placed my hand on his shoulder as he glanced at me, a mix of apprehension, excitement and fear in his eyes.
“I think it already has.” I dangled the sapphire crystal in front of him and placed it in the palm of his hand. “Protect this with your life, Ronnie.”
His fingers wrapped around it tightly, and he lifted his gaze to the house before taking slow steps to the front door. I went to follow him but stopped when my mum grabbed my arm.
“Did you get their names?”
I nodded. “Mitchell and Parisa.” Mum closed her eyes, fighting a wave of anguish at the familiarity of them. “Do you know them?”
“Yeah. I know them. And so do you. They’re Lia’s parents.”