Excalibur ~ World from Ashes
Chapter 15

When I woke up, it was dark and gloomy around me. It smelt musky in the room I was in as well. With a pounding headache, I tried to see through the darkness. Slowly my gaze adjusted to the area and I could make out shapes and things around me. Moving, I lifted myself up and found that my hands had been tied before me. Grimacing, I gave a deep frown as I sat up using my abs. How many times am I going to get my ass kidnapped I swear…

“Valkyrie?”

I took in a sharp breath and turned around. Behind me there was someone leaning up against the wall. I shuffled around so that I could face them, falling forward on my hands so that I could sort of crawl toward the voice that I had recognized instantly. When I got close enough I let out a soft cry of fear and sorrow. Tristan’s face was bleeding from a deep cut across his cheekbone, his lip was split open and there were cuts along his arms and chest.

Leaning forward I pressed my face against his other shoulder that didn’t look injured. At least I thought it wasn’t until Tristan groaned in pain and I immediately pulled away from him with a gasp. Reaching up with my tied hands, I gingerly touched his face brushing my fingers across that strong jaw line. It was hard not to start crying as I knelt there.

“Tristan… What... What happened?”

“Ambushed,” he answered softly, he sounded so tired and in so much pain. That sound alone crushed my heart, it hurt so much to hear him like that. My breath hitched as I struggled to keep from crying. I let out a sharp breath as I hung my head. My fingers dropped from his jaw down to his chest where I curled my fingers in his ruined shirt.

“A-and Zak?”

“Here, unconscious, I think.”

I glanced around, trying to find where Zak was. I found him a moment later, sprawled out across the floor on our right. I moved slowly over to him, crawling on my hands and knees. It was awkward with my hands tied up as they were. When I got near Zak, I pulled myself up and rested my hands on his chest. I couldn’t exactly reach out and touch his neck the way my hands were tied up, so I settled with resting on him and waiting to see if his chest rose and fell. It took a moment but I felt his breathing, it was slow and shallow.

I looked up from Zak’s body over to Tristan who was propped up against the wall. Crawling back over to him, I positioned myself right next to his side and was careful not to lean on him too much though I wanted to touch him so badly.

“How is he?” Tristan’s voice was soft and slow as he asked me the question.

“Alive, breathing slow, but fine as far as I can tell, but I’m not a doctor.”

Tristan nodded slowly, “I know.”

“Who ambushed you?” my throat was dry as I asked the question. I was pretty sure I knew the answer to that already, but I suppose I had to make sure. I was hopeful that it was some other asshole that had caught us, then again from what I remember when I was attacked, I knew it wasn’t so.

Tristan laughed lightly, a short, strained sound that made me wince as I reached out to touch his arm gently, “Who do you think?”

I frowned, “Alik… I know. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“It’s all right. Not your fault, Valkyrie.”

“Try not to move too much, you’re hurt so badly,” I said softly, shifting against him. I eyed his body as he tilted his head back against the wall. Both of his arms were behind his back and probably tied there tightly. It was a little too dark to see exactly where all his wounds were, but his arms were bloody just as his chest and stomach were. I found myself biting my lip in nervousness.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me,” he said gently and stretched forward a bit to press his lips against my cheek softly.

Shaking my head, his kiss seemed to be the switch to my hot, salty tears. With a shaking breath I gazed at him, my lips trembling as I sat there feeling utterly useless. I couldn’t believe the feeling of helplessness that coursed through me. It hurt worse than the time I had been Alik’s captive and slave to his drugs and being raped. It was worse because it was Tristan who was in pain and not myself and there was nothing I could do to help him. In light of that, I couldn’t stop crying.

“No… You’re not,” I hiccupped.

He shifted so that he could put his head on my shoulder. I leaned into him, letting my face drop down into his soft caramel locks of hair. I would have loved to stay there for a while, but at the same time we needed to get out of there and get back to the manor so that Kilia could patch up both of them. Although at that current moment, I had no clue as to how we were going to do that. Both of us were tied up and Zak was unconscious.

There was a sharp sound in the room, something like metal scrapping across stone and I turned just enough to see where it was coming from. My heart crowded my throat, my stomach turning into knots in an instant. I watched as Alik came into the room, a wry grin on his lips as the outside illuminated the room we were in briefly. We must have been in some kind of warehouse because the door had led directly outside where it was gray and cloudy. The smell of rain filled the room as cold air rushed inside.

The door closed and the freedom beyond it was locked away. I glared up at Alik, turning my body so that I was covering Tristan. Alik moved toward us and slowly knelt down not too far away. He tilted his head at me, his cruel smile sending chills down my spine. Alik’s gaze shifted between myself and Tristan. I didn’t like the way he looked at us, and especially as his gaze dropped down my body. It sickened me and I wanted nothing more than to shove a knife through his throat.

“Valkyrie. It’s so nice to see you again,” he purred at me.

“Go die in a fucking hole,” I spat.

Alik laughed light as he rocked back on his heels, “That’s just like you babe, always barking and biting before you think anything through. And here, all I wanted to do was share this wonderful discovery with you. It’s amazing, Valkyrie, I have never felt like this before. The… power is just… it’s unimaginable. It’s so unimaginable that you may think it was fantasy.”

“You’re fucking insane, Alik! You’ve lost your mind!”

“No, no not really. I think if anything, I’ve been given a brighter perspective on things to say the least.”

I shook my head at him as I shifted my body to cover Tristan better, protecting him from my ex-boyfriends insanity. My fingers tightened together, intertwining as I shook slightly. Alik grinned as he stood up and took a step toward me. Reaching out, he took a handful of hair and dragged me away from Tristan. I shouted, Tristan’s voice called my name weakly and my chest clenched tightly. When Alik released me, I dropped onto the ground having lost my balance on my knees.

“Let me show you just what it is I’m talking about, babe,” Alik cooed at me as he hovered over me. He kicked me over onto my back and I groaned as his shoe dug into my ribs painfully, “I can make you feel so much pain just by looking at you and willing it. This drug… Excalibur has given me so much power, I could kill without having to pull the trigger.”

My body shook slightly at his words, my eyes widened as I stared up at his grinning face. His green eyes started to glow unnaturally and my body grew taunt. A soft choking cry escaped me as I felt painful stabs pulse along my body. The pain steadily increased and I twisted on the ground, grinding my teeth. Eventually, it was so painful that I was screaming in agony, my body arched off the ground as I convulsed. It felt as if Alik had taken an iron bar, heated it to extreme temperatures and was shoving through my body, dragging it down my chest all the way to my hips and back up again.

My screams were ravaging the air, curdling hoarsely as I tossed and bucked across the concrete floor. I could just barely hear Tristan’s crying voice as he shouted at Alik to stop, to leave me alone. Of course, Alik didn’t pay attention as the pain continued. Tears streamed from my eyes as I endured, trying to get a hold of something other than the agony that tore through me. I thought for sure that my body was being ripped apart, torn into a thousand little pieces.

It felt like an eternity before Alik stopped torturing me. I collapsed on the floor, my breathing heavy and my voice choked as I struggled to keep from screaming still. My vision was blurry, the room growing darker by the second and my vision became tunneled before everything slowly came back into focus. My voice was still gasping, short crying sounds from my throat as I lay there, completely spent.

“What did you do to him!?” Tristan’s voice screamed in the room.

“Showed him what I could do. Without any blood, without any mess, no weapons, I made him feel like he was going to be shredded, simply by thinking it. Would you like a turn, mister Ukomota?”

“N-no… D-don’t, I’ll… Kill you,” I managed to gasp out.

Alik glanced over at me as I turned my head to glare up at him despite my aching body that still had the lingering burn of agony pulsing through it. He watched me carefully, his lips twitching in his smile as if he were trying not to laugh. Alik shifted, crossed his arms and turned to Tristan.

“Nope, not an option, babe.”

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