Underground Alliance15

Chapter 15-Victor Tortured
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**Author's note: Shae gets raped in this section, but there are no details. The impression is given, but nothing beyond. If you do not wish to read, then just go to the next chapter.**

‘First the stupid hunter, now this stupid girl! I’m just going to have to go away somewhere away from all of these stupid humans and their stupid ideas and-’

“You’ve been really quiet,” Shae said.

Victor looked over at her. A few hours earlier a soldier had entered and made sure the two of them had no weapons before he released Shae’s chains. However, he refused to let Victor go and even pridefully kicked him on the way out of the cell.

Victor leaned his head against the cool stone behind his head. “Just trying to figure out what to do to get out of here and away from you people.”

Shae frowned, “Well what do you want me to say, demon? I’m not apologizing for getting you caught, because I got caught too! I am certainly not apologizing for kicking you either, because you deserved it.” She folded her arms over her chest and moved to the corner furthest away from the vampire. “You’re stupid,” she hissed.

Victor rolled his eyes, “Yes, about as stupid as you for taking the dagger off of a vampire and expecting to get away with it.”

“I didn’t know you were a vampire!”

“Perhaps you should pick your victims more carefully then,” he quickly countered.

Shae’s brown eyes rolled dramatically and she scrunched so her knees were against her chest. It was then that Victor realized she was shivering nearly uncontrollably. He glared at the guard standing at the bottom of the stairs across from their door. “Could you at least get the woman a blanket, you big oaf? Or perhaps your brain is too tiny for your huge head to figure out that she’s freezing.”

The guard threw him a momentarily confused look before he realized Victor was talking to him. He frowned, “You’re prisoners. Why should I help you?”

Victor’s eyebrow raised, barely wrinkling the smooth pale skin on his forehead, “Because that person in the corner of my cell is still a woman.”

“I don’t need your help!” she growled.

Victor ignored her, continuing to glare at the soldier. However, this had little effect, for the man just chuckled. “You have no idea what’s going to happen tomorrow. I don’t have to listen to any of your demands, monster.” He moved away, out of Victor’s eyesight.

“Smooth one, demon,” Shae mumbled.

Victor snapped his glare to her, “At least I tried!”

She snorted, “Yeah, and it did you a lot of good, didn’t it?”

He shook his head in utter disbelief. ‘If Rhyn were here, at least she’d try and get me free. Talyn would even…why am I thinking about them? I’m never going to see them again. I’ll be lucky if I even get out of here alive.’ Victor rested his head against the wall again and looked out at the dark passage behind his cage.

Shae studied the vampire carefully. The more she watched him, the more intrigued she was. Though she would never admit it, Victor was the most handsome creature she had ever seen in all of her life. Also, the more she watched him, the more she realized just how injured he really was. His attempts to hide the pain were mildly successful. The only reason she recognized any pain was from his eyes. Though she couldn’t see what was beneath his shirt, she knew there were injuries deep and in dire need of care.

She suddenly found herself feeling guilty for kicking him across the face and splitting the wound that had previously been there, merely making the wound wider and far worse. Though the edges were dried and the blood caked on his cheek, the very center of the wound still glistened with blood.

Victor sensed he was being watched, but ignored the source. ‘She doesn’t care about me anyway,’ he mumbled to himself.

The night was long and cold. Shae laid on her side, pressed against the corner in an attempt to keep warm. However, the freezing stone did little to help this effort. She got little sleep that night while the vampire watched her. He did it protectively and mostly without her knowledge. ‘After all, she’s still a woman,’ he reasoned with himself.

But there was more behind that than he cared to admit. Shae intrigued him. Because of the fact that she was resisting him, made him want to be with her longer to see just what he could do to get to her. On the other hand, he had no desire to be around her and her negative, snide remarks and insults and flying boot.

Victor shifted his gaze to the stairs when he heard the door squeal open and feet begin their descent. Although Victor couldn’t smell how many were there, he could tell by how many feet sounded.

‘One…two…three? Why so many?’ Victor didn’t like the idea of three soldiers coming down the stairs. ‘No…wait…one isn’t a soldier. Could they be bringing a prisoner?’

The group arrived at the bottom of the stairs just then and, to Victor’s dismay, none were prisoners. A very large man with a shirt that hugged his frame tightly stepped out of the group and Victor immediately hated the idea of this man even more. He smirked down at Victor, revealing a missing tooth on his front row of teeth. “So you’re the one I get to have some fun with, huh?”

Victor’s heart stopped. ‘Balk. This is the torturer. I should’ve known.’

Shea got into a sitting position, immediately drawing the large man’s attention to her. He smiled, “These men are going to have a bit of fun this morning, little lady. Do you want to be a willing participant?”

Victor slowly got to his feet, placing himself between her and the soldiers. “You are not going to lay a hand on that woman. Take me. Do what you will with me, but leave her alone.”

Balk frowned, “These two here wanted entertainment. You willin to do that?”

Victor’s jaw tightened and his mind flew back to years before when he’d been a prisoner of the emperor and his sister. He swallowed hard to erase those memories and slowly nodded, “If that needs to be the case, so be it. Just leave her alone.”

Shae stared at the vampire in disbelief. ‘What does he think he’s doing? He’s willing to…to do that for me? After everything I’ve done to him…and he…why? There is something seriously wrong with that man. If he’s hoping that will appeal to me, it totally doesn’t.’

Balk chuckled at Victor’s reply and waved a finger to one of the men, “Take him with us. We’ll pay heed to his request. For now. Let’s set him up.” He started away, but stopped. He slowly turned his dark gaze to Shae, “Wanna watch your man get tortured?”

Shae’s eyes narrowed threateningly, “He is not my man.”

“Then it won’t hurt you.” He looked at the second soldier, “Take her with us. Her reaction’s as good as his.”

The soldiers entered the cell and Victor had half the mind to attack them. However, he still had the silver in his back and was unable to do much damage. Other than breaking one of the soldier’s noses, there were no other injuries. The second soldier moved to Shae while his friend dragged Victor down the hall.

An evil grin spread across his lips, “Well, beautiful. Shall we have some fun?”

Shae countered with a grin of her own and walked straight up to the guard, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Oh, I’m ready to have some fun. Are you?” The guard didn’t hesitate to lean forward, but doubled-over immediately when Shae’s knee connected with his groin. She smirked, “Fun enough for you?”

The guard grabbed her ankle and yanked it out from under her, slamming her back against the ground. She kicked at him and wrestled with him until she was finally pinned beneath him, her wrists held to the side of her head. The guard panted, “You are a fighter. Good. That’ll make you more fun.” He leaned forward and started kissing her neck furiously.

For the first time since she’d been caught, she felt terrified. The terror only grew when the man moved her hands above her head and pinned them with one of his gigantic hands. “This’ll teach you to kick me,” he whispered in her ear as he moved his knee against her. She cringed and closed her eyes. He chuckled, “That’s right. You know what…? Let’s do this in front of your little vampire friend. I’m sure this’ll be something he’ll be dying to see.”

The soldier yanked Shae to her feet and secured a set of chains on her wrists before he pulled her down a dark corridor.

Victor growled at the man as he removed his shirt and threw it against the wall. The soldier ignored the vampire and secured his hands to chains dangling from the ceiling, making Victor stand with his arms out.

“All of them,” Balk instructed as he carefully moved five pokers in the fire. Each was a different size and had a different grotesque design and each was beginning to glow a bright red. The soldier complied to the torturer and tore Victor’s pants off, adding them to his pile.

Victor glared at Balk, “I will kill you when I get the chance.”

“Well you won’t be given that chance, so be happy.”

Shae was suddenly dragged in and thrown onto the ground in front of Victor. The room they were in was small and damp with a single thin window to Victor’s back, spilling an eerie light into the room. Shae’s eyes darted away from Victor when she realized he had no clothes, but didn’t fail to notice the shape of his body and the wounds that were already there.

Shae wasn’t the only one to notice these wounds. Balk circled Victor, examining every inch of him. “Hm. How did you get this one?” Balk dug his fingers into the cut on Victor’s back where Corbin had inserted the silver. Victor’s eyes squeezed shut and his teeth snapped closed, but he refused to cry out. “You will be screaming before you can say save me.” Balk chuckled and moved to his first iron poker.

Victor suddenly smiled, “Save me.” Balk threw him a confused look over his shoulder. “Well,” Victor explained, “You said I would be screaming before I could say save me, and so I said it. In fact, I’ve said it twice now. I can say it a third, if you’d like.”

Balk looked at the two soldiers, “Lorok, Trace, you can have your way with the girl. Make sure the vampire can see.”

Victor’s eyes narrowed, “You aren’t going to touch her.”

The man that had molested Shae earlier, Lorok, grinned and pushed her on the ground. Victor felt his blood begin to boil. Unfortunately for Lorok, he had moved Shae closer to Victor and Victor was close enough to swing on the chains holding him and land a kick to the side of his head so hard he collapsed unconscious.

Shae moved even closer to Victor. The other soldier snarled, “You really think you can get away?”

Shae chuckled and got to her feet, “No, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try.”

A fire tore across Victor’s lower back and he unconsciously cried out. Shae spun to look for the cause and saw Balk behind Victor with his burning piece of iron. Trace took Shae’s moment of hesitancy to wrap his arms around her, pinning her arms down.

Victor quickly composed himself and glared at Trace, “Let her go.”

“Or what?” Trace smirked. “You’re the one being tortured.”

“For the time being.”

Shae growled and stomped down as hard as she could, digging the heel of her boot into the toes of Trace’s foot. He grunted and shoved her forward, moving his feet away from hers. However, a scream from Victor made Shae halt a second time. His face was contorted in agony and a new wound ran down the middle of his chest: a wide burn-mark already blistered.

Victor kept his eyes squeezed shut. ‘This is nothing. I’ve been through worse…maybe…not really. Relax. Someone will save you…yeah right. You left the others and what reason do they have of coming to find you? They don’t even know where you are.’

He couldn’t muffle his scream as another fire shredded down the soft side of his right arm, holding at his armpit. “I told you you would be screaming,” Balk chuckled, finally moving the poker.

Victor’s eyes flickered open. His eyes literally glowed with his anger. Trace released Shae at the exact moment Balk stepped away from the vampire. However, the look said everything. He didn’t even need to try and speak. Trace moved back to Shae, only to secure her to the corner of the room where she could watch what was happening. He then left the room to guard the outside of the door.

Balk shook his head, “Yes. We are going to have lots of fun.”

Victor’s screams tore through Shae and she couldn’t look at him. Her hands were placed firmly against her ears and her eyes were squeezed shut, but she couldn’t shut out the agony that tore through her with every demonic shriek from the vampire.

Victor’s screams suddenly stopped and Shae slowly opened her eyes. Balk set his materials down and left the room, leaving Shae alone with the vampire. She looked up at Victor, only to see he was clearly unconscious and dangling by his wrists. His whole body was covered in blood, burns, and bruises. A puddle of his own blood stood beneath his feet.

Shae’s eyes filled with tears. “Victor?” she whispered. He didn’t respond. “Victor?” she tried louder. He still didn’t respond. ‘What have I done?’ She finally took a deep breath and screamed loudly. A soldier came in, ready to attack and was completely baffled when he saw Victor unconscious and Shae sitting in the corner.

“What did you want, woman?” he demanded.

She took a deep breath and held her head high. “Will you please release my wrists so I can assist…my friend?”

The guard examined her up and down before he looked back at the vampire. He looked back at Shae. “No. I was told you’d try and do something, Shade.” Her eyes flickered and a smile formed on the soldier’s lips, “Yeah, I know your true identity. A little birdie told me. The greatest thief ever. Huh.” He eyed her. An evil grin spread across his face and his greedy eyes darted out the door before he closed it.

Shae’s heart climbed into her throat, beginning to suffocate her as her terror rose. The guard removed his armor and weapon belt, dropping them beside the door. His lust-filled gaze studied Shae as he removed his shirt and started undoing his pants.

She looked hopefully at Victor, but he was still unconscious. “Sure! The time I actually need your help you’re unconscious, you ungrateful demon. Wake up!” she screamed.

He didn’t.

The man climbed on top of Shae, re-positioning her hands on a hook against the wall, securing them at an angle she wouldn’t be able to release on her own. Shae looked into the man’s eyes, “Please don’t do this.”

He smirked, “No way I’m letting you go. You’re too beautiful.”

Victor blinked a few times, not quite sure he remembered where he was. The immediate fire that consumed him was a stark reminder. He opened his eyes again and looked around the room. Shae was huddled in the corner, her knees against her chest. She rocked back and forth. Her forehead was against her knees, hiding her face, but Victor could see her shoulders shaking with her sobs.

“What-” his voice cracked. He swallowed and tried again, “What happened?” His voice felt chalky.

Shae’s eyes flew to him and Victor knew she had been crying for a long time. Victor could read it on her face. His eyebrows attempted to move into a look of concern, but they got stuck on a scab that pulled on his eye. “They did it, didn’t they.”

She looked away, only able to nod. “Just one,” she choked.

Victor looked down at his puddle of blood. “I wish I could have saved you from that. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah right. You probably would’ve joined him.”

Victor’s eyes flew back to her, eyes fill with shock and disappointment, “You really think that low of me?”

She glared daggers at the man, “I saw the way you looked at me when you met me.”

He looked away. “Whatever,” he mumbled. “You aren’t my type anyway.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded. Victor didn’t respond. “You know what…urg! You’re stupid! You’re ridiculous! Oh, I wish I could help that man torture you.” She bit her bottom lip as soon as the statement came out. She didn’t intend to say that to him. She really had nothing against him. She was merely angry for having been tortured herself.

Victor still didn’t meet her gaze. “There’s a big surprise,” he whispered. ‘Rhyn! I need you! I need someone to make me feel like I mean something! Corbin….grr….when I find you I will kill you. I wish you were the one here. Then you’d know how I feel. And Talyn! Thanks a lot for helping me, stupid assassin. Saria…I can’t blame her for anything…other than stabbing me.’

“I…” Shae swallowed. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean it. I couldn’t even watch what he was doing to you. I’m just…” Victor still wasn’t looking at her, so she stopped. Her blood boiled again. “Will you at least look at me when I’m apologizing to you?!” she demanded.

Victor’s green eyes slowly looked at her, a skeptical gleam in them. “Why should I?” he croaked. He tried to clear his throat, “I sound like a bloody idiot.”

“It’s from screaming,” Shae said quietly. He looked away again. “I’m sorry, Victor! I wish I could’ve stopped him! I really do! You know, you have yourself to blame for this as well. If you would’ve just let me go away, you wouldn’t have been caught.”

“I don’t think I’d count that as apologizing.” He glanced at her. He meant it in a teasing way and, had she been Rhyna, she would’ve grinned.

Instead, Shae got to her feet and glared at Victor so hard he thought his blood froze. “At least I’m apologizing! Do you even know how? No! And you’re selfish! Typical man. Typical stupid, blind man! You don’t care about anyone! You don’t even care that I’ve been hurt in ways you haven’t ever dreamed!”

Victor’s eyes bore into her at the last statement, “You have no idea what I’ve been through in my life. Do not, I repeat, do NOT EVER make statements about me you know nothing about. You’re right. I’ve never had dreams. They’ve been nightmares and they’ve been nightmares you couldn’t even imagine. Do not talk to me. You annoy me.” He looked away again, trying to see how bad his wounds really were.

Shae did as he requested, returning to her sitting position. ‘But what could possibly have happened to him? I was a bit rude…he tried to hold them back from hurting me. I’m just digging myself deeper with this man.’

A set of keys sounded in the door. Victor’s heart stopped and Shae’s flipped. She pressed against the wall in a weak attempt to get as far away from the door as possible. Balk walked in, smiling wide. “Oh good! You’re awake!” he beamed. “Now we can continue. You see, I’ve been wanting to try some different methods and I wanted to get your opinion on what works best. How does that sound?”

Victor’s jaw tightened. ‘When I am free, I am going to kill this man. I will make it slow. Painful. Just as he is doing to me.’ Victor kept that thought in his mind as the man approached him with a simple dagger. Victor kept his cold gaze on Balk.

He took his position in front of Victor and pressed the tip of the dagger against Victor’s left pec. He grinned and slowly dragged it a few inches. Victor’s jaw flexed at the pain, but he didn’t scream out.

Balk chuckled, “Not bad enough?”

He put the tip of the blade in the middle of Victor’s chest and moved it sideways, connecting with the top of his first incision. He then cut two more lines, creating a fare-sized square. He slipped the blade under the flap of skin and ripped it off of Victor’s chest. He grunted, but refused to cry out.

Balk smiled and walked to his various accessories. “Hm. Let’s see. Tomato, lemon, or salt? What do you say, vampire? Which will hurt more?” He looked over his shoulder at Victor and received a becoming-familiar glare. Balk selected the lemon and walked back to Victor. “Do you want to know what I’m going to do to you?” he smirked.

“I have a feeling I’m about to find out,” Victor snapped back.

Balk’s eyes lit up and he sliced the lemon in half. He put one half in his strong left hand and squeezed the lemon juice into the fresh wound on Victor’s chest. He cried out and yanked against the chains holding his wrists. Balk chuckled and rubbed the lemon against the wound, making Victor scream again.

“How long are you going to torture him?” Shae demanded.

Balk looked down at her. “Until he dies.”

“But he will never die.”

He smiled, “Precisely.” He stepped back from Victor and tossed the remnants of the lemon into the fire. “On a scale of one to five, five being the worst, how would you rate that?” he smirked at Victor.

Bloody tears streamed down his face. Knowing the man would continue no matter what Victor said, he remained silent. ‘Bloody Corbin! Burn him! I’ll kill him. That’s final. Nothing he does will stop me. I don’t care if Saria is there. I’ll just make her mine, but Corbin dies.’

Balk returned to his torturing. “If you push right here, they scream loud,” he instructed Shae. He jabbed his dagger on the soft inside of Victor’s leg and did receive a blood-curling scream that reverberated off of the walls.

The man chuckled, “And if you put this in the wound, they scream all the louder.” Balk scooped up a handful of salt and Victor’s eyes momentarily widened before Balk shoved the salt into the open wound on the inside of Victor’s thigh. Victor’s scream could have shattered glass. This treatment continued until Victor was unconscious again. His screams could be heard through the prison.

When Balk left again, Shae couldn’t remover her gaze from Victor. ‘He probably won’t wake up again. Not now. He will probably die from loss of blood. This really is all my fault. I should’ve just given him his bloody dagger when he asked for it. If he lives through this, he’ll never forgive me. Ever.’