Smoke and Mirrors

Damien Black

Frustration was all I could feel. No one had ever lasted this long in my torture chamber without at least letting out a whimper or scream, this girl did neither, the only sound I could get from her were scoffs or the occasional curse.

Her eyes bothered me the most, they said that the eyes were the window to your soul and that your eyes would betray any emotion you tried to hide. Most people who had the honour of being personally tortured by me showed me that that statement was true, most of them at least for the first few days tried to put a brave front but their eyes, they showed me just how afraid they were. This girl’s eyes told a different story, the only thing they showed were contempt, disgust, and defiance towards me, there was not a single drop of fear at all.

Every day I tried to find new ways to break her, the first few days I started out simple, with a silver knife I carved her skin and flesh, most people would have let out screams of pain and agony, begging me to stop but she did not, in fact she goaded me to carve deeper. The whip I used on her in the beginning was meant to break bones as well as skin, this usually produced screams from even the most battle-hardened wolves, but all it produced from her was silence.

“Is that all you got? What kind of an Alpha are you?”

Those were the only full sentences I got from her.

I suppose that I should treat her better like what my mother made me promise her.

“Damien, promise me that when you finally find your mate, you love her and cherish her. Remember, you are not your father, just because his blood runs through your veins, it does not mean you are doomed to be like him.”

I might have made good on my promise to her if my mother had not left me one night and ran away, leaving my sister and me at our father’s mercy. The love I had for my mother soon turned to hate, over the next few years I started to realize that my father spoke nothing but the truth. Mates were nothing but an inconvenience. They trap you and limit your freedom.

That girl was proof of it, she invaded my dreams nightly and consumed my thoughts, even when I was with other women I could only think of her. I was not going to lie, she was beautiful with her smooth copper skin and dark eyes that were framed with thick lashes, I as her mate should be proud of her beauty but in the end, she was nothing but a weakness to me.

Her beauty was nothing but a mask. Like a serpent hiding behind a beautiful flower, waiting for a gullible person to foolishly be entranced by its beauty and reach a hand towards it, that is when she will strike and watch as her poison slowly courses through his veins before it consumes him. Like it did me when all I could see was how beautiful the flower was.

I tried to busy myself with other affairs, but she kept creeping into my mind. I was currently busy with one of those affairs when one of my guards stepped into my study.

“Sir, you should come and take a look at what our scouts have found.”

I cursed as I rose from my chair, the girl below me whined as my lips stopped their work.

“Darling, we always have tonight.”

Karmen threw a lavish smile my way before getting dressed, she placed her kiss on my neck before leaving, her hips swaying.

The look of disgust on my guard’s face was evident as she walked past him, but he quickly masked it before gesturing at me to leave with him.

We walked down the steps of the castle, the walls of the staircase slowly disappearing with a thick layer of grime as we ventured deep into the castle. Stopping as we reached one of my favourite places in this accursed place.

I whistled as I walked down the corridor of my lower dungeon, there were no screams or curses thrown my way which was expected of a proper dungeon, I kept my pace before stopping in front of a cell.

The man in it was well-built with blonde hair and supposedly ‘gorgeous’ brown eyes, he would have cursed at me if not for the fact his mouth was sewn shut and his tongue cut out. It was a mandatory practice I had instructed my warriors to do as it was just tiring to hear the same threats thrown at my face every time I came down here, “I will kill you!“, “I will have my revenge!“, it just got so boring and repetitive that I decided that silence was better, I crouched down to see him eye-to-eye before laughing at his face.

“Ryder Blackwater, it has been awhile since we’ve seen each other. You gave my men a lot of trouble trying to find you. You might have made it even further and might have even escaped me if you did not decide to carry your pack’s gold with you. You know… you made execute quite a few of my best warriors when they came back empty-handed.”

“Mmhmm mmmm”

“That’s right, you bribed my men to let you go free while the rest of your pack fell trying to save you. You know if you just gave in to my demands earlier, we would not have this sticky situation and you could have continued living your life as Alpha of the Blackwater Pack, save for a few changes of course.”

I would have continued if my men had not interrupted me. I smiled at them as they threw me a bloodied sack. At least these men did their jobs. I stood up to examine the contents of the sack in my hands before smiling, revenge was truly sweet.

I walked up to Ryder watching him try to scurry back despite his chains pulling him in place. I grabbed the bottom of the sack before emptying its contents in front of Ryder, he made a sound that sounded like a scream, his stitches pulling tightly at the skin of his lips before moving as far away as possible, not caring for the silver chains that burned him. It pleased me indefinitely to see him so vulnerable and scared, he always acted as though nothing could ever harm him or scare but I guess, there was something that could.

“Why squirm, Ryder? Did you not boast about how many of these you have seen in battle? That you ended many of your enemies this way?”

He grabbed and pulled at his chains, looking more like a feral animal trying to escape than a man. Should I kill him now? Be merciful and end his suffering?

Of course not, he deserved to suffer. He betrayed me after all, his love of his position and wealth brought him here. So…what should I do to him? Have his skin painted with silver…or should I use Wolfsbane…or…

“Sir, she is awake.”

My lips curled into a grin before turning to meet Ryder’s terrified eyes.

“Guess the time is on your side. If you only knew who I had with me…”

His shoulders sagged with relief, he did not care if I was going to torture someone else he only cared that it was not him. He thought I was going to leave him alive. I waited for his heart rate to go down back to normal before signalling two of my men who I sent off on an errand to step into the cell.

They carried a large pot with each holding on to one side, the iridescent purple liquid sloshing from side to side with some of it splattering harmlessly onto the stone floor. They sat it right in front of Ryder who proceeded to start hyperventilating, one gave me gloves and a vial. I crouched before the pot and dipped the vial into the liquid, there was smoke or hissing but Ryder still tried to become one with the wall behind him. I filled the vial and stood up before him, his soundless screams filling the room as my men held him down.

“You are really that gullible to believe that I would leave you alive? I said time was one your side, not luck.”

He struggled as I held the vial over his pelvis before tipping it over. My men turned their heads as he thrashed and writhed like a snake. The vial gleamed in my hand, a faint silvery sheen coating its insides.

“It took me a while to get the perfect ratio of silver and Wolfsbane that would allow each component to maximise its use…I always wanted to test it out…turn him upside down.”

He tried his best to escape while they unlocked his shackles, but a swift kick to his pelvis made him more compliant.

Chains rattled as he swung back and forth like a pendulum, his head inches from the ground.

“You dug your grave, Ryder. Time to lie in it.”

I lifted his head slightly before pushing the pot under his head to drop it. The liquid around his head bubbled as he screamed, the pain causing him to rip his stitches open. I turned on heel and was about to leave when one of my men cleared his throat.

“Sir, should we burn the remains?”

I was about to give the order for them to when a much better idea came into my mind, Ryder might finally be of some use to me.

“Not just yet.”

I looked at the bloody remain on the floor and Ryder’s still struggling body before and smiled, this is going to be fun.