Smoke and Mirrors

Damien Black

"Good morning, Sapphire! How is my favourite torture buddy?"

I was only met with a growl, I guess someone is grumpy in the morning. I saw that all the cuts and bruises I left on her had all healed leaving only smooth skin, moreover, she did not seem like she was going to crack anytime soon.

"What do you want?"

Ah, there was that rare sweet voice, I swear there would have not been any difference if I treated her like all my other prisoners. I watched her eyes follow my men, who brought in a small pyre, they left after dousing the wood with kerosene. I kept eye contact with her as I struck a match against the wall before letting it fall into the pyre, watching as the firelight reflected against her eyes.

“Is that what you plan to do? Despite what you hear about me, I assure you I am no witch.”

"I don’t plan on doing anything to you… at the moment. I just wanted to talk about my favourite topic…family."

Again, a growl ripped through the air and I found those dark eyes of hers staring at me, the flame reflected in her eyes seemed to grow brighter. I smiled as I pulled up a chair in front of her, she jerked against her shackles paying no attention to the injuries she was causing herself. This was what I wanted, I was finally able to get under her skin.

"Your sister, the beautiful Cordelia Nightshade, I heard she was expecting, it truly is a pity that child will never see the light. Was it a boy or a girl?”

I paused as the sound of metal clanking filled the room, I smiled as I carried on.

"Then there is your brother-in-law, the Great Alpha Ryder Blackwater, did you know that he sold you out just so that he could save his own miserable hide."

"You're lying!"

I smiled as I heard her scream. This was the chink in her armour, her Achilles heel. Her upbringing in an environment where pack loyalty was reinforced was going to be her downfall. She was a warrior, I was an Alpha. Her purpose was nothing more than to be a barrier against the enemy and her Alpha, the Elders would have drilled that into her head so that when the situation was dire she would protect her Alpha first not herself. Thus, her delusion that everyone else thought that the pack should come first.

"I am not lying, your precious brother-in-law bribed my warriors to let him live, he did not bargain for your pack, not you, not even his precious mate and son."

I closed my eyes for a moment as I reminisced about the moment where I brought Ryder to his knees.

He sat in a chair in front of me, legs and hands bound by rope, not silver. The sack around his head was soaked with sweat.

“Where did you bring me, Damien?”

“I don’t think you are in any position to ask questions, Ryder. Besides, you wanted to speak to me. So, I believe that the question should be directed at you.”

“I know about your plans to attack my pack. You have hit every other pack around us leaving no one from the Alpha family alive.”

“Yes, so what is it to you? Are you here to beg for your pack and family? I know every inch of your defences; your pack is as good as dead.”

“I am not here to beg for their lives…I am here to beg for mine.”

I opened my eyes and saw the pure denial in Sapphire’s eyes, the usual hard glare was now swapped with a soft vulnerable gaze. This was the first time any other emotion besides anger was seen, she was so naïve, she thought that just because she was so brutally selfless everyone else was, she was living in a fairy tale world.

She told me that physical pain was nothing to her that there was nothing I could do that she had not already faced. So, now I have decided that I am going to play her game.

Family, that was of utmost important to her, her faith in family and loyalty built her up to be the person she is now. Today, however, this time her family is going to break her for me, Ryder’s betrayal was just the tip of the iceberg.

I lifted the stained sack, that had been laying near the fire to hide its scent, and waved it in front of her face, she sniffed the air before her eyes widened.

"No… no… no!"

I smirked before overturning the sack, two round objects hit the ground with a sickening wet crunch before rolling till they stopped right at her feet. I watched as tears welled in her eyes when they met the glassy ones on the floor, she bit her trembling bottom lip as she looked at the ceiling.

"Don't look away now, I thought you loved your family. Look here is your brother-in-law and your precious nephew…could not find the body of your sister though, I apologise for her absence."

"You are really a monster! A snivelling coward, who killed a child who was defenceless..."

I stood her and gripped her by her hair, jerking her head backward.

"How dare you call me a coward. I have gone through hell and back to get where I am today. Not one did I rely on my father’s position to get far in life, I struggled for scraps to build my power.”

"I am sure that must have been very hard for you."

My grip on her hair tightened, red trickling down the back of her neck as I dug my nails into her scalp.

“You take out your frustration and anger on a defenceless girl. That is just the picture of courage now isn’t it? You threaten me with death every day, but it seems like you don’t have the stones to go through with it.”

Her voice was full of mocking and condescension, speaking to me as if I was a joke to her.

"Silly girl. Being my mate gives you this privilege. I am not going to give you an easy way out, I am going to prolong your suffering till you beg and beg, only then will finally I will give it to you. However, seeing how uncooperative you are, it does not seem that you would be receiving any relief soon."

She glared at me before spitting in my face.

"My family did not die for me to submit to you like a weak damsel in distress!"

My anger boiled over as those words left her lips. The veins in her neck became more prominent as my claws made a path from the back of her head to the underside of her jaw. My claw poked into the flesh of her cheeks, small tears forming as I brought my hand downwards to push her head down so that she had a front row seat.

I placed my foot on her precious nephew's head, I looked at her in the eye as I applied pressure, a crack and squelch followed as my shoe made contact with the ground. I smiled as I wiped my boot clean with Ryder's hair.

I waited for the scream, but none came, I could not believe it, I did everything, physical and mental torture, and she still refused to crack. I ripped the necklace from its position at the base of her throat, the deafening silence in the room was broken when the sound of the small gold links falling to the floor bounced off the walls. I waited for her to scream and cry but as always, there was silence.

I let out a roar of rage before using my palm to slam her head into the wall behind her, causing spidery cracks to form on the concrete wall. She slumped forwards with her chains being the only thing to hold her up. Without even checking to seethe harm I caused her I walked out the door, not before throwing the remains of the chain and pendant into the fire and leaving her with the remains of her family.