Blood and Wrath (Blood and Ruin Series Book 2)

My eyes open, followed by a sharp gasp, my mind and body coming awake all at once. I try to reach for my chest to rub the weird pulling sensation from deep inside, but stop short, forgetting about the tight clamps around my wrists.

I’m in a room, but it’s dim, the light above me nearly completely off.

My head is heavy, like it’s full of lead. I lift it slightly, getting no further than a couple of inches. There’s a large strap around my chest stopping me, but it’s enough to see down my body.

My clothes are changed. I’m no longer in my jeans and top but a white t-shirt and leggings. I’m lying on a metal table with metal cuffs wrapped around my wrist and ankles and a larger metal band around my waist.

There are wires leading straight from the band up to the wall beside me, where I can make out some type of rectangular metal machine. Buttons and switches run along it, but it’s too dark to decipher what they’re for.

I try to pull my wrists out of the metal bands, but it’s no use. They’re too tight, leaving no space to move. I try the same with my legs and body but have the same problem.

Squinting, I look around the room. The wall with the machine is on my right and only an arm’s length away, but to the left of me is complete darkness. I can’t see how far back it goes. The door in front of me is close enough to see. It has long metal bars, making me think I’m in some sort of cell instead of a room.

I lay my head back down and look up at the white ceiling. There’s a small dark crack that runs along the middle of it. I stare at the crack until it’s all I can see.

The silence stretches out around me, suffocating me. I stare at the crack, at its darkened shades and long open gap until it’s all I see. The longer I stare, the more it starts to feel like it’s a part of me. The part of me that’s being spilt open in two.

I once thought that King had come close to breaking me, that he had tortured me for too long and taken pieces that I couldn’t put back.

But I never truly understood what breaking meant. Not if the pain inside me now was anything to go by.

I don’t feel… whole anymore, but I don’t want to be either. I don’t want to be anything.

I just want to give up. To drift away and cease to exist. To not feel this kind of torment inside me anymore.

What’s the point now that they’re gone? Why try to stay and fight?

They were my fated mates. A bond not many people come across or even get the chance to experience once in their lifetime.

The bond was there from the very beginning, since the first time we met, and I knew it, we all did. We had something special, something worth fighting for.

But that’s gone now, and I’m too tired to continue the fight.

Just give it time. Isn’t that what people say?

Give it time to heal, time to move on. But time can be endless when there’s no hope or future to look forward to.

Time can be the enemy when all you want it to do is stop. To rewind and start again, start afresh.

I’m aching all over, but I know it’s not a true physical injury or sickness of any kind. I know it because the pain feels so much deeper than anything I’ve ever felt before. Like the inside of my bones and muscles are bruised and broken. My chest is heavy and tight, making it hard to take in a full deep breath, and there’s a hole carved into the place where my heart sits.

The pulling sensation continues, draining me further.

Tired. I am so tired. It won’t be long before I’m pulled under by sleep once again.

I sense a presence in the room before I see it. To my left in the darkness, I catch a glint of white.

I squint my eyes just as two white, floating orbs move toward me. The shape of a tall figure comes into view before it steps closer, revealing its identity.

King.

But not the same King I’ve known. His eyes are completely white, his face and jaw sharper, more pointed. Shadows move across his face as he stares down at me, his white eyes void of emotion.

“I can taste your pain.” King closes his eyes and tilts his head upward. Opening his mouth, he sucks in air, his mouth widening unnaturally as he does. An icy chill slides down my back just as the pulling sensation grows again.

“It’s… exquisite, and much stronger since you’ve bonded.”

I knew there was something not right about King and that when he finally revealed what type of supe he was, it wouldn’t be anything nice. But this… form… was not something I ever expected nor understood.

“What are you?”

The dark shadows that seem to be a part of his skin slide down his shoulder, disappearing behind his shirt only to come out on his hand. It lifts off his skin and, like a snake, slithers up and over to me.

Standing still, the shadow snake watches me a moment before whipping out and striking me in the neck. I gasp, feeling the sharp burn and wetness that follows before the shadow snake slides back up to King and disappears in the shades along his face.

The sharp burn in my neck disappears as quickly as it appeared.

I look up into his ominous, empty white eyes and feel a pit of dread fill my stomach. King’s dark chuckle slides over my skin, making me shiver. He ignores my earlier question and pulls something out of his pocket. He moves closer and only then do I see it. The green vial, but in a syringe.

“I’m going to need something stronger for what I have planned.” I feel the sharp prick as he injects the potion straight into my bloodstream.

“Why… Why do all this? What plan?”

After six years of pain and torture, I still don’t understand why he chose me to be his victim. I didn’t believe it was just because I could heal. I knew there had to be some sort of purpose that he was pursuing. But I never understood what.

King continues to mess with the machine. I’m about to give up on asking anything more when he answers.

“Death leaves a mark, and the more violent it is, the larger the mark left behind.”

Death… like their deaths. Final and violent, leaving behind a mark so large, I can’t see where it starts and ends.

“Is that why you killed them? You get sick pleasure out of killing others?” None of it makes sense. What is the rhyme or reason to his goal? Why did he kill them to reach it? Why is it so important that they died, and I live on to become nothing more than something he gets to toy with?

I need to know. I need to know why their lives meant so little, and yet he went through the trouble of finding them and making sure we met again.

“Tell me why?”

He gives me a smirk, like he’s amused by my outburst. Which alone should tell me something isn’t right.

“Why? Why does anyone do anything? To reach a goal, a purpose. They were a means to an end, with you as the goal, always the goal.”

A means to an… end. An end, their end. With me as his goal.

“What goal?” I ask, but his words sit on my chest, tightening it and making it burn. It was because of me they were dead. It was my fault.

A blow to the chest would have felt less painful.

Why he wanted me, though, is still as elusive as ever.

“Why me?” He could have picked anyone.

“You’re… special. Unique. There is no one like you that exists.” That can’t be right. There are hundreds of healers out there, and they can extend their ability to others. Unlike me.

King steps closer and my body tenses up. “But after this, I’ll no longer require your… services.”

The cold chill he evokes in me spreads out to my hand and legs.

“Then why continue on like this?”

I try to flinch back as he reaches a hand out to my face. But I can’t move as the back of his cold fingers slides down my cheek, making my stomach turn.

“No one else gets to have you.”

The sick feeling grows with his words, making my insides twist and turn. I was not only his goal but also a sick obsession of his.

King steps up to the machine and presses a switch. I hear it the noise of fan turn on just before a loud beep sounds. It’s followed by a clicking sound that ticks out in a repetitive beat.

The noise drums in my ears as I glance back to King.

“Haven’t you’ve already gotten what you wanted?” If he no longer needed me, then what was all this for? Was six years of torture not enough for him?

The first blade of pain slashes across my body, making my thoughts curl into it. It stretches out to every nerve, making the pain feel endless.

King’s cold smile appears before me just as dark spots cloud my vision.

“Oh, my dear, I’m only getting started.”