Tempting Darkness

I didn't know what time it was when the door opened again, but I cringed when it did. Fear coursed through me, making my eyes dart to it. I was worried Darius had returned to inflict more injury on me. My leg needed to be set back into place, and I needed a doctor. Without my mates, I had no way of fixing it myself with one hand, and I doubted I could, anyway. My pain threshold wasn't the highest.

Relief flooded me when I realized it wasn't him. It was my usual morning visitor. He walked in, and I watched him as he tossed the water bottle through the bars. It landed at my feet and bumped my foot. I didn't even feel it, and I wasn't sure if that was a good thing because I wasn't in pain or a bad thing..

"Aleera, please just-" He stopped, his eyes going to the odd angle of my leg and my blood that had frozen on the floor beneath it. His eyes moved to mine before going to the hand still held to my chest. I knew how gross it looked; my fingers were swollen and black, and they still hurt. However, my leg was numb, and I prayed it didn't mean something terrible.

"Darius did that?" he questioned, and I just looked away from him. He appeared shocked. Why he thought better of him was beyond me. All the rumors about his cruelty had turned out to be accurate, and to think that I'd tried to convince myself over the years that maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

Perhaps I could get past him killing my parents. Thankfully, I never gave in to the hopelessness of living out there and surviving. If I had, I would have been here over four days, and if this was what four days would bring me, just what was I truly in store for and could I survive it?

The door swung open and banged on the bars, and I looked over at the man. He cursed but hesitated for a second before walking over to me with his eyes trained on me like he thought I would do something. He glanced at the door behind him, and I watched as he kneeled beside me. He rolled my pant leg up. His eyes darted to me like he was expecting me to cry out at the movement of my leg, but I felt nothing when I saw his hands move toward my leg where the bone poked out of my skin. "What are you doing?" I asked him.

"I can't leave you like this," he said. He almost looked guilty, like he was the one who'd done this to me.

"Why do you care?" I muttered, looking away from him.

"Because you don't just belong to him," he said, and my head whipped back to look at him.

"You still haven't figured it out, have you? Do you know who I am?" he asked before I felt his hands grab my leg. My skin buzzed and vibrated, and I gasped.

"Lycus!" I whispered, and he nodded once but didn't take his eyes off my leg when I heard it crack as he forced it back in place, and I screamed. I wanted the numbness back. So much for being numb.

His hand instantly clamped down over my mouth while his head turned to look at the door, which I noticed was wide open. He looked back at me when no one came down before removing his hand. I tried to catch my breath. "Quiet, they are in the mess hall," he said while examining my leg.

"Mess hall?" Lycus nodded but didn't explain. He returned his hands to my leg, and I flinched as his hand felt my leg, searching for something. I had no idea, but it bloody hurt as he prodded before reaching for my hand that was tucked against my chest. He turned my wrist, examining it, but no bones were jutting out.

I watched as his eyes turned silver, and his canines slipped out before he bit into his wrist and offered it to me. I just stared at him. Then a thought hit me. I could siphon his magic and knock him out before he'd even notice; this was my chance to escape. "Hurry, it will heal you! Were-fae!" he said, pointing at himself like he thought I couldn't tell what he was. I was glad I had no magic right now because, with my pain, I knew I couldn't keep it contained to shield him from what I was. I needed them to believe I was a dark fae like the rest of the world.

"I know what you are," I told him.

"Are you sure? Because you didn't recognize me or feel I was your mate," he said.

"I felt it when you touched me," I muttered.

"Yes, but you have no magic left, or I would sense it. We all would. Nevertheless, I still would have thought you would have had some inkling about who I am to you." He sounded almost upset I didn't recognize him, or maybe I'd imagined it. "Well, sorry if I'm a bit power-drained right now, and it's not like I see your face splashed all over papers and the media," I told him.

"Having no power is your fault. Don't expect me to feel sorry for you because I don't," he said, his eyes darkening back to their pitch-black color.

"Kalen and I don't like leaving the castle," he finally stated, but my brain was still stuck on the word "castle." Did he mean like an actual castle from fairy tales? Did they still exist? Was I in a dungeon of sorts? That explained the weird-a*s shackles on the walls. I thought maybe they were some twisted Halloween decoration, or perhaps they were into BDSM, but now I was looking at them differently. I wondered briefly how many people hung up by them.

"Aleera, hurry before I heal," he said before groaning, and I turned my gaze to his wrist that was closing up before my eyes. His eyes turned silver again, his canines sinking into his wrist. He tore the flesh away, which made me pull a face when he didn't even flinch. Oh, how I wish I had his pain threshold.

Right, back to escaping. Blood to heal, then siphon, and run like my a*s is on fire. I could do this. I hoped it wouldn't hurt him, though. I knew I shouldn't care, but I didn't want to hurt him. The pull to his power and him now I recognized him was growing stronger- stupid mate bond. Couldn't the fates have made them as ugly as their shitty personalities? Seriously, they get to be sick depraved assholes and get godlike looks. How is that fair?

Grabbing his wrist with my good hand, he flinched, and I had a strange feeling he was fighting the urge to pull away from me. Like my touch repulsed him. I realized he wasn't healing me because he wanted to, but because he felt guilty. Anger coursed through me, and he looked away as I pressed my lips to his wrist, letting his blood flow into my mouth. I could feel his magic in his blood as it coated my throat and tongue, making them tingle as I healed.

Healing quickly, I wiggled my fingers before grabbing him with both hands and pulling. No, that was the wrong word for it. It was like turning on a vacuum, and I felt his magic slip into me. The more I took, the higher chance he would notice.

I wiggled my toes, and I let his wrist go. He wiped his wrist, cleaning my saliva off with his shirt, but I didn't waste any time. While he cleaned his wrist, I lifted my foot and kicked him straight in his pretty face. I hoped I hadn't damaged it. The shock would have been my only element of surprise, and I jumped up as he fell backward. Not expecting it, he clutched his nose, which now sprayed out blood.

But I didn't have time to feel bad when I blasted him with the magic I'd just stolen from him, which wasn't much but enough to shove him backward until he smacked into the metal bars, which knocked him out.

His face fell slack, and his shoulders slouched. I hesitated, feeling guilty I'd hurt him, but that wore off quickly as I looked to the open door and my escape route.

Running, I took the steps two at a time. Once I made it through the door and reached the top, I found another door and pushed it open slightly, peeking out. Blinking, I was taken aback by the fact the place was indeed something out of fairy tales. It was a castle with high ceilings, enormous chandeliers, massive staircases, and... was that a ballroom?

Oh, no, that was the mess hall. But it must have been a ballroom, judging by its sheer size. It had a very modern look for a castle; one of them had good tastes.

Pushing the door open, I could see a vast corridor across from me, but that meant running across to hide at the base of the stairs, which meant running past the wide-open double doors to the mess hall. Men seated at the long tables made me wonder if I would go unnoticed-only one way to find out. So I ran like crazy.

The screeching of chairs alerted me that I did not go unnoticed, and a fierce growl echoed off the walls. Still, I tried racing toward the double arched doors at the end of the long corridor.

This place was a maze, corridors leading everywhere, but I had no time to explore while I raced toward the doors, praying they would lead outside to freedom.

My blood ran cold when Darius suddenly materialized out of thin air, and my feet screeched on the floor. He appeared in front of the doors I intended to run out of. I was forced to stop and back up a step. Turning, I ran in the direction I'd just come from when I saw Tobias behind me. He had a menacing look on his face before I saw his hand whip toward my face a second too late.

It took another second to register as darkness swallowed my vision. Tobias punched me. He knocked me out, I thought. Though I shouldn't be surprised, he was exactly like Darius. Darkness engulfed me, and I begged the fates not to let me wake back up this time.