Desire Untamed (Feral Warriors #1)(60)

When she heard the clink of metal and the squeak of thick door hinges, she knew she hadn't been mistaken.

Her heart began to hammer. One of the Ferals was loose.

It took no time for her to wonder who. A moment later, Vhyper stood before her own cage, a smile playing around his mouth. A chilling smile.

"Convenient how all I had to do was pretend to go a little crazy and they brought me right to you, little mate of mine."

Kara shrank back, until the wall pressed at her back. "What are you doing, Vhyper?"

"Why, Kara, what do you think? Lyon said you're not mine, but he was wrong. You are mine. All mine. And those dreams you've been having?" He smiled coldly. "They're about to come true."

A figure stepped beside him, draped in the dark robe that matched her own, the robe of her nightmares. From the darkness of the figure's hood, strange, copper-ringed eyes shone.

Mage eyes.

The gate of her cage swung open and Vhyper filled the doorway. A cruel smile twisted his mouth.

"Come, Kara."

"Lyon!"

Vhyper lunged for her, twisting her back against him as his hand slammed over her mouth. "Shut up, bitch. He'll find you soon enough, but with any luck, it will be too late."

Kara struggled against him, but his hold was like iron, and he was too strong. When she tried to kick at his shins, he lifted her like she weighed nothing, immobilizing her.

Carrying a single torch, the Mage led them deeper into the tunnels.

Kara could hardly breathe for the hand blocking her mouth and covering half her nose. Her heart thundered in her chest, her mind shimmering with a fear greater than any she'd known since she arrived here. Because deep in her soul, she knew this was the danger she'd feared all along.

They stopped before a wooden door that appeared to be nailed closed, but the Mage pulled lightly, and the door swung open.

The musty smell of damp earth slammed into her as Vhyper carried her down the long, narrow steps into what looked to be little more than an underground cave. The steps and walls were formed by stone. The floor was dirt. Smoke from the torch filled the fetid air.

As the light filled the shadowed spaces, she saw the place wasn't as empty as she'd believed. Fire pits formed a small circle, in the middle of which hung a long length of thick rope hanging from a pulley attached to the ceiling.

But it was the gleaming metal that caught her eye and sent the blood rushing from her head in a cold wash of terror.

Knives. Long, wicked-looking daggers lay in a perfect row along one wall.

Her nightmares.

Dear God, no.

Vhyper released her suddenly, dropping her to the ground like a bag of mulch. Kara caught herself with one hand, wincing at the pain that shot up her wrist. Before she could lever herself up, a yank of her robe had her tumbling back down. Unceremoniously, the robe was pulled off her.

Kara scrambled to her feet and tried to run, but Vhyper's hard arm caught around her middle and lifted her off her feet.

"Lyon!"

"He can't hear you, Radiant. And I'll not have you escaping. This is your night, you know. The fulfillment of your destiny. Maybe not the destiny Lyon's been filling your head with, but your destiny all the same."

He lifted her off her feet and carried her to the center of the circle, where he once moire dumped her on her face and followed her down with a knee crushing her back.

Tears sprang to her eyes. Even when Lyon was at his most furious, he'd treated her with some amount of care. But Vhyper showed her none. He wrenched her hands above her head and tied them together with the end of the rope lying on the ground.

The vivid horror of hanging from the ceiling in her nightmares came back to her in a rush. Terror stole her breath. The moment Vhyper's knee released her back, she leaped to her feet, desperate to keep that nightmare from coming true, but there was nowhere to run. Even as she tried, the rope went taut, jerking her to the middle of the circle.

Slowly the rope pulled at her hands and arms, lifting them until she was on her toes, stretching to the point of pain. And then the ground fell away beneath her until she was swinging freely in the air.

Sweat ran down her temples, her skin at once flushed and freezing as panic ripped at her pulse.

Her body swayed and turned until she could see the robed figure bending at the wall, lifting two daggers in its hands. Terror exploded behind Kara's eyes.

"Vhyper, please. Please don't do this."

"Ah, but I must, Radiant." His voice was calm and pleasant, without remorse. He slid a wide plastic vat beneath her swaying feet. "The good news is, we probably won't kill you." He smiled in a way that had her heart clawing to crawl out of her throat. "The bad news is, by the time we're finished with you, you'll wish death had been our only intent."

Vhyper took one of the knives from his assistant and came to stand before Kara, his eyes gleaming with a cold brightness that spoke of true evil.

"Vhyper, don't. Lyon will kill you for this."

Vhyper chuckled. "Perhaps. But you are the Mage, right? And I have been suffering from a lack of radiance." He shrugged. "Time will tell what our fearless leader makes of all this." His face turned hard. "But it changes nothing."

He lifted the pointed tip of his dagger and pressed it against her chest, piercing her flesh just above the neck of her nightgown.