Tortured Mate (Sassy Ever After Universe #62)(9)
As soon as his eyelids closed, the visions begin. Each scene more gruesome than the last. A middle-aged man tied to the ground while little girls in pigtails pulled out each and every hair on the man's body. An old woman, bent from age sat huddled in the corner of a small room. Every time she fell asleep, a loud noise ripped through the room startling her awake. The clock on the wall counted the hours since the last time she’d been allowed to sleep. It currently read one hundred and ninety-five hours. Her jailer stood over her, holding a steaming loaf of fresh bread, taunting her as her stomach growled in hunger. A teenager strapped into a chair lined with hundreds of tiny spikes a fire burned below the seat. The kid screamed in agony as the iron chair seared each layer, his charred skin bubbled up and peeled leaving a new layer to endure the same fate.
Valac awoke with a gasp, he was lucky if he’d gotten more than an hour of sleep this time. He was starting to feel the effects of weeks of little to no sleep. He understood what that old woman was feeling. The intense desire to sleep, the increased hunger, and irritability that only grew worse. He was going downhill fast and he didn’t know how to stop it.
With each passing hour, Aeron’s incessant background noise became louder. It was getting to the point he couldn’t ignore it. Either Aeron was describing in great detail, new and inventive ways to torture him or he had the symphony of screams, begging and pleading in surround sound piped into his head from the population of Hell.
There was no reason to stay in bed, he needed a distraction. Something to help him ignore the voices, help him hold onto his sanity a bit longer. It took him a moment to notice that a couple of the voices were actually coming from the front porch and not internally. Just another sign of how bad things were getting that he couldn’t tell the difference anymore.
He didn’t care who was out there in all honesty. They were a welcome distraction that he was desperate for, without waiting to consider if he was intruding or not, he climbed to his feet and headed directly towards them.
“Did we wake you?”
Valac couldn’t help the sarcastic laugh that question elicited. “Hardly, but either way it wouldn’t have mattered, once I realized you were here, my brother.”
Jericho smiled, “I would have waited for you.”
Valac didn’t wait for an invitation just moved forward and pulled Jericho into a tight hug. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“And I you.”
He didn’t want to let go, but he knew they weren’t alone on the porch and he was being rude. “Your mate?” Valac asked with a nod towards Brogan who stood beside Cadence a few steps away.
“Babe, I’d like to formally introduce you to my baby brother, Valac. Val this is my heart and soul, Brogan.”
“It’s good to see you up and moving about and to be able to say thank you for all your help getting your brother away from Aeron like that. I don’t know if we’d have made it out without you.” Brogan said as he offered his hand in greeting.
“We’re family now. Handshakes won’t work.” He said as he pulled him in for a hug. “It’s great to finally meet you. Thank you for making him happy.”
Brogan grinned, “It’s my pleasure. He’s a fantastic mate, friend, and lover. He’s the best thing that ever happened to me too.”
Valac smiled sadly, “Then no matter what comes next it was worth it to see you two together and happy. To know I had a hand in that.”
A soft growl had him pulling back to glance around to see where it had come from. His wolf as Cadence called him was back and he didn’t look happy. “What’s gotten into you?”
“Rogue doesn’t seem to like you touching my mate,” Jericho called happily. “That and your words sounded a bit too resigned to going back to hell for his tastes, and well I agree on that part.”
“That’s his name? Rogue?” Valac asked as he stared at the wolf as it moved closer to his side. “Well, Rogue. Get over it. And to the part about going back…. what can I say. I’ll continue to fight, but I fear it’s a losing battle. You both may have to accept that in the end there won’t be a choice.”
“Bullshit.”
Valac frowned as the words vibrated around him verbally and mentally. He’d clearly heard Cadence, Jericho, and Brogan, but he’d swear he’d heard another voice inside his head at the same time. It’s just another sign he was losing what little sanity he had left he thought as he dropped down to sit on the porch stairs with his back against a post so he could face everybody and still recline.
Jericho sighed, “We were discussing that before you came out. Trying to come up with a game plan.”
“And what did you come up with so far?” Valac asked as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
“Not much, honestly,” Brogan answered. “Why does your brother want you back so bad? Maybe if we know that we can figure something out.”
Valac knew there was nothing to figure out as they put it. Aeron wanted someone to pay and the only person he could get to was him. It wasn’t like he was going to allow Brogan or Jericho to go back. They needed each other, he, on the other hand, was alone and expendable.
Without conscious thought, he began to run his fingers through the soft fur of Rogue’s coat as he felt the wolf settle beside him once again with his head in his lap and began to explain as best he could. “Aeron is a selfish asshole. He feels he was wronged when Jericho was allowed to escape. Add in you and your friends who dared to enter what he sees as his personal domain and you lived to tell about it and you’ve got nuclear level anger. What can I say he wasn’t hugged much as a child.”