Be Careful When You Bite Me

Chapter 21

I was hesitant to follow Xavier at first but I figured this was my very last shot. He circled the small square shed that was made out of wood. There was a door, locked with thick metal chains that shun with jolts of dark blue electricity. Xavier was walking around, keeping a one-meter distance away from the shed. He held his arm out towards the door, Asia still being in his arms. The air around suddenly jolted dark blue like the chains and he jumped back.

"There's a Volati barrier around the shed."

"What does that mean?" I asked," we can't go?"

"No, not without getting seriously injured, or killed."

"There has to be a way to shut it off-"

"Humans can't feel the barrier, Holly, you'll have to go alone."

I stared up at Xavier, my eyes wide in fright," how do you know that?"

"Volati was invented to only hurt members of the Underworld, you won't feel anything-"

"She can't," said Asia," she's not fully human, her mom was a witch."

"Dammit," Xavier cursed out," the only thing you had was being human and you aren't even good at that."

I winced at the comment and looked away, trying to hide my teary eyes. I stared up at the barriers around the shed.

"My mother isn't a witch anymore, the thing, the Volati might not detect it-"

"That's not how it works Holly," it was Asia this time," the Volati could kill you."

It was worth a try. If I was half-human it could only be half of the pain, right?

At least that's what I'd hoped for. I held my hand out to reach for the door. The Volati threaded like bolts of dark blue buzzing electricity that wheeled around the shed. I felt a slight sharp pain but it wasn't something that I couldn't handle.

I heard Asia call out my name but I didn't listen. I reached my entire arm out until half my body was on the other side of the jolts.

"Well?" Xavier asked after a couple of seconds.

"It's hot," I answered," it's getting hotter."

I felt the heat of the jolts began to throb on my skin like hot coals. I rapidly jumped to the other side and felt immediate relief when the pain was no longer there.

"What now?" I looked up towards a shocked Xavier.

"You have to unwind the chains from the door," he quickly snapped to reality," behind the door is the entrance to the church."

I nodded and looked down towards the metal chains that were outlined with the same jolts. I tried to reach for a link but quickly winced away at the heat.

"This ones even hotter," I yelled towards Xavier.

"They get stronger as you get deeper inside," he said," pull your sleeves over your fingers!"

I did as instructed and fumbled with the chain as quickly as I could. I took breaks every time I unlinked a chain but the heat was slowly starting to get more and more overbearing. I pulled back my sleeves and looked down at my blistering palms and back up at the chain.

I had about three more links to unhook.

Shit! Shit shit shit shit!

I tried to clear my mind of the pain but that was almost impossible. I unhooked another and now my palms were bleeding through my sleeves. I took another break and looked back towards an anxious-looking Xavier.

"Holly, you have to hurry, the wolf might wake up at any second."

"Okay," I breathed out and wiped my hands on my jeans, I pulled the sleeves back over my palm and unhooked another, and then finally the last one, screaming out just as the chain tumbled to the ground.

I groaned out in pain and felt my tears flooding down and stinging the cuts on my face.

"Good job, open the door, Holly."

I pulled on the metal knob and revealed a dark staircase that led down to pitch black.

"There's nothing, just stairs," I said," I can't see."

"Go down the stairs, the prison should be somewhere down there-"

"I-I can't," I muttered, trying to control my crying. I didn't want to admit to Xavier that I was terrified of going down there and the staircase had reminded me of the one at the castle cell. I never wanted to be anymore near that cell again and the thought of going down those stairs sent chills up my spine.

"Yes you can Holly, whatever is down there won't hurt you," he was oddly reassuring.

"Put me down," I heard Asia say today Xavier. She must have gotten out of his grip because she was now standing right beside me, on the other side of the barrier.

"Holly listen to me," she began and I suddenly wished I could hug her. I needed a sense of comfort that her hugs always seemed to give me. I stared back at her.

"It's Damon," she said," The Mark of Eros, it's Damon."

Somehow her words didn't surprise me. Somewhere along the way, I must have subconsciously figured that out. There was no other way to explain the way I feared for Damon other than destiny, The desperation I felt, to save him, to make sure he was okay, it was a feeling I had never felt before and I could only describe it as fate.

"It's always been Damon," I felt myself whisper.

"You can do this," she said with big reassuring eyes.

I nodded," okay."

I took a couple of steps down the stairs and a couple more until I was surrounded by nothing but dark. I walked down what must have been a hallway until I could no longer see the slight light of the entrance. The only sound that I could hear was the buzzing of the Volati and my heart thudding against my chest.

I heard droplets of water hit the hard pavement underneath me and sudden images of the castle cell flashed across my brain. I took a deep breath and kept going, praying that I couldn't hit something with my feet. I put my arms out in front of me and they made contact with the end of the hall.

I fumbled with the wall to realize it was actually a door. I reached for the cold metal doorknob and flung the door open, revealing what must have been; the prison.

It was one large room the size of a football stadium or maybe just a little bit smaller. The ceiling was high enough for it to be a castle and I realized I must be very deep underground if this was the inside of the church. There were dozens of rows of prison cells, as well as cells stacked on top of each other. The only thing separating the cells was a single jolt of Volati. The cells on top of the base cells were also separated but a floating metal shelf that covered the entire second and third floor of prisons.

There were hundreds of bodies in the room. Some were wide awake and some lay unconscious. I didn't know where to start looking for Damon or if he was even here. I prayed that if he were, he wouldn't in the top layer of the cells where it would be almost impossible to see him.

I walked past the first row of cells and examined the people inside. Not all of them looked like people, others looked like creatures. Some had small wounds others were heavily injured. They all stared at me with curious eyes, wondering who I was or if I've come to free them. I tried to not make direct eye contact with anybody and instead focused on scanning the cells. Sometimes they took steps closer to the barrier but flinched back at the heat of coming too close. No one dare said a word and I was starting to wonder why. The constant buzzing of the Volati was becoming almost deafening. I make eye contact with a boy on the second floor of the cells. He was looking directly at me, almost as if he knew me. He had burn marks across his face almost as if his face was pressed against the Volati. He didn't look much older than I was. I couldn't tell what he was but from where I was, he looked normal. I began to recognize his dark black Mohawk and as I grew closer, I was able to decipher that it was Matheos.

What was he doing here?

Last I'd seen Matheos was at the castle, grinning mischievously at the thought of getting what he wanted. He now looked scared, and confused, almost completely unrecognizable and I began to wonder if the others were here.

I kept walking, past his cell, fear crumbling at the pit of my stomach and I wondered if they had managed to break Matheos in the short amount of time that they'd had him, what could they have done to Damon by now?

I got to the very last row, eyeing each cell from the bottom to the very top. My heart squeezed on itself immediately when I caught sight of a limp body, lying on the hard metal floor of the second floor. His brown hair that was identical to Damon's was stained with blood. I stood in front of the cell and got on my tippy toes trying to get a better look. There was a girl in the cell underneath, she looked like a faerie. Her eyes followed my movements in curiosity. I wondered how I was going to get on top of her cell to get to the one on top.

I tried to grasp hold of the Volati and it burnt slightly against my bare palms.

"Damon!" I hissed out trying to get him to wake up," is that you?"

I was rewarded with silence. I struggled to get my feet on top of the bottom cell. I grabbed hold of the edge of the metal on top of the bottom that separated the two cells and hoisted myself up. I was hardly balancing but now that I was face to face with the person inside the cell, I could indeed confirm that it was Damon. Although I was relieved that I had found him, I had no idea if he was alive and if he was, how I was going to get him out of the cage.

I whipped my hand past the barrier and winced at the burn. I nudged Damon's shoulders and he began to still.

"Damon!" I whispered loudly again," it's me."

Damon lifted his head off the cold ground and pointed his eyes on mines. His used to be bright and golden eyes were now almost pitch dark. I felt my eyes began to tear and quickly blinked them away. I hated seeing him like this more than anything else in the world. He looked weak and beaten and hopeless. He didn't deserve any of this. I felt my chest began to ache at the pain I was feeling from witnessing him like this. I held my hand out to him and he stared in awe," the Volati-" he began, his voice deep and tired.

"Doesn't hurt that much," I replied, cutting him off.

"Holly, your hands-"

"I'm alright, are you?"

He struggled to sit up and I never thought I'd ever see him so weak. He grasped hold of my fingers," how did you find me?"

I smiled almost sadly and shook my head," i-it doesn't matter, we have to get you out of here, there isn't much time."

"I'm sorry," he began," for ever putting you in that dungeon, you should hate me-"

"It's alright," I reassured, "I'm okay now."

"It was never okay, I never felt worse about myself than when I had done that, you should leave me here-"

"Damon stop it," I snapped at him," It's alright, do you hear me?"

He remained silent and I continued," Xavier and Asia are upstairs waiting for us, we need to get you out now, we don't have much time."

Damon nodded and took a look around," there's a lever for each cell, somewhere in the corner over there, each cell is numbered, you have to pull down the lever for the Volati and it will turn it off."

"What number is this cell?" I asked," how do I know?"

Damon shook his head," I don't know, can you see numbers anywhere?"

I scanned the barrier of the cell but I couldn't find a number anywhere.

"No, I don't," I looked back at his hopeful eyes.

"You're going to have to guess," he said," go to the levers and see if the cells are numbered according to anything-"

"Guess?" I snapped," did you know Matheos is in here? What if I let him out by accident or someone even worse."

"Holly, breathe," Damon was sitting up almost completely now. Looking at his face was calming me down quicker than I could have imagined. He gripped my fingers in his and spoke words that were as soft as velvet to my ears," you made it this far, you can do this."

I nodded. After sparing him one last glance, I jumped off of the cell and hit the hard ground once again. Well aware of him watching me, I began to make my way towards the lever box when the voice of the girl underneath him stopped me in my tracks.

"It's C 11," she said softly, so low I almost couldn't hear it.

"What?" I asked. I'm not sure if I heard her right. She looked young, definitely under the age of sixteen, still a little girl with straight golden blond hair that ended at her mid-back and big green eyes that sparkled with innocence.

"His cell, it's C 11," she smiled softly revealing the sharp fangs of a faerie before turning away. I nodded regardless in confusion to why she was helping me out and turned away making my way towards the levers.

There were three rows of lists each of them belonging to an individual cell. They were labeled A-C, each letter holding around 60 prisoners. I searched for C and found it on the third row. It would make sense it be C because he was in the third and last row. I remembered Damon telling me something about faeries being sneaky and wondered if I could trust her. I let my finger hover about the lever that read C10. I turned out to face both Damon and the girl. Damon was staring towards me but the girl was still lying down. She didn't look like she was waiting on me to do anything. She could be telling the truth.

I had no idea how I was going to figure out which cell really belonged to Damon but the last thing I wanted to do was to take her word and end up letter her out instead.

I took a deep breath and decided to pause. I needed to slow down my racing thoughts and my heart. I tried to figure out what kind of system they would use to number the cells.

Had they labeled each cell by the order that it was in, Damon's would be C11 and hers would be C10.

What if he was C10 and she was C11 or what if she wanted me to think that?

I was beginning to form beads of sweat at the top of my forehead. I hovered my fingers back over C10. I went over it again and counted.

That cell would be C1 because it's the first one in the row, and then C2, C3, back down towards the bottom, C4, on top is C5, and the very cop is C6.

Back to the bottom, C7, middle cell is C8, top is C9.

Back to the bottom, the cell with the faerie would be C10, Damon's would be C11, and the one at the very top is C12.

I didn't want to think anymore. I could come up with a thousand combinations but I decided to trust my only instinct and pull the lever down on C11.

I closed my eyes as I did so and waited a few seconds before I could let myself peek. I finally opened them wide and turned around to see that Damon was standing behind me.

I let out a sigh of relief that felt as if I could finally breathe. I didn't realize I'd been choking until now that I could finally exhale.

"Hi," he spoke softly, his dark eyes had lightened just a little bit. I couldn't help the smile that formed on my lips. Without being able to hold back, I wrapped my arms around his neck. I didn't realize that I had been drowning until I took my breaths at the nape of his bloody neck. I didn't care that he was bleeding on my clothes, I just wanted to hold him in hopes of settling the nerves at the bottom of my stomach that had convinced me that he was dead. The panic was beginning to drift away and I felt that as long as I was in his arms, I would be safe.

"I thought you were going to die" I pulled back to look into his eyes again.

"It's not too late," he said sarcastically.

"You're bleeding," I trailed my fingers over his wound.

"You too, we have to get you to a hospital, how did you get that cut on your face?"

"Long story," I mumbled. I wanted to stay in his arms forever but I knew this wasn't the time nor the place. The room shook with a sudden noise and I looked around in fear.

" We have to get out of here."

I nodded," let's go."

He grabbed my hands and began leading me back towards the exit. I turned back to look at the faerie. I wanted to thank her, but when I caught sight of her, she had an evil look on her face. Her lips were completely drawn back revealing a sadistic fang-filled frown.

I knew right away that she had tried to manipulate me into letting her out. I let out a small gasp because I knew was close to falling for that.

I let Damon drag me out of the prison and back up the murky set of stairs.

I began to wonder if Asia and Xavier were still up there or if something had happened to them. I dreaded the thought of the wolf waking up and attacking them again.

I could now see the small amount of light emerging from the entrance of the shed. We ran up the stairs and I could tell Damon was going slow, trying to keep up with me. We finally got to the very top and there were Asia and Xavier waiting exactly where I left them.

I almost ran towards the awaiting couple but turned back to see that Damon was frozen in place. I completely forgot about the Volati barrier that wrapped around the shed.

"The Volati," said Damon, his eyes following the jolts of electricity," I'm stuck."

"What are we going to do now!" I screamed out towards Xavier and Asia," he can't get out, he's stuck!"

The couple stayed silent staring wide eyes at each other and then back towards us. I looked towards Damon.

"What do we do?"

"I'm going to run through it-"

"No!" I screamed out," it could kill you!"

"It won't kill me, it will injure me badly, I won't be able to walk, but it won't kill me-"

"You don't know that!" I smacked Damon across his chest," there has to be another way, Damon-"

He didn't let me finish my sentence before wrapping both his arms around me and lifting me off my feet. Within a flash, he was speeding towards the Volati. My hands gripped at his back tightly no doubt leaving nail marks on his back.

I let out a scream when I felt the painful burn of the jolts electrifying my entire body.

We made it enough to the other side and I felt Damon's grip on my body loosen.

"Damon!" I called out, trying to catch him," Damon!"

He dropped to both knees, eyes wide open, staring up at me.