Dealing With Him

XIV

I jumped awake when I felt a sharp sting to my face. I winced and tilted my head up to see a skinny man with platinum blonde hair, pale skin and a long nose smirking down at me. I grimaced when he slapped me across the face again.

"Wake up!" He snapped and shoved me. Since my arms were chained up, making it burn my skin, all I could do was stand there as he pushed me around. The burning feeling from the silver chains wasn't as awful as I thought would be, but I was guessing it was because of how I was going through the transformation extremely slowly.

"I'm up, I'm up," I muttered and my green eyes met the stranger's cold, grey ones. "Where am I? What do you want?"

He grinned, "You're in the rogue territory, pup," he said. "And I don't want you; Mr. Boss does."

"Mr. boss?" I repeated with a snort.

He glared at me, saying, "Yes, Mr. Boss."

I rolled my eyes.

"Listen," I said and the stranger looked down at me, crossing his bony arms. "If you want money; I'll give it to you."

He rolled his eyes and slapped me again. I hissed at the impact and closed my eyes, clenching my jaw.

"You can leave now, Tristan," a new voice said. It sounded so familiar... "I'll deal with her."

If I weren't being drugged I would kick your ass, Clarke growled out.

"Hello, Aria."

"Enough with the formality," I snapped at the person in the shadow. "What do you want with me?"

"Well," they began, walking in the shadow. "Rumour has it that you have the blood of a pure shadow hound. Correct?"

As long as they don't think that Dylan has it...

"Then it wouldn't be a rumour since it's true, would it?" I said with a sneer. That only received a harsh slap to the face.

"Don't give me attitude, pup," they ordered and finally left the shadows.

I came face-to-face with a tall, muscular man with jet black hair and blazing blue eyes that I could fear if I weren't used to seeing eyes that angry. f**k, my mind was foggy and I couldn't recognize their scent or face.

"What do you want?" I asked for what felt like the seventh time.

He chuckled and squatted in front of me, caressing my cheek with one hand. I tried moving away but he grabbed my jaw tightly and forced me to keep my eyes on his.

"The power of a shadow hound, of course."

He let go of my jaw and backed away ever so slightly.

"I don't think you know this," he began, "but you've been getting closer and closer to your transformation and the next stage of it. You're having nightmares, yeah?"

I didn't answer, glaring hard at him.

He smirked and continued, "The nightmares you are having are what you fear most. For example, last night you had a dream of Dylan tearing apart a little girl because he turned into a shadow hound."

How does he know that?

"That little girl was your future daughter," he explained and my eyes went wide. "And one of your greatest fears is losing the people you will cherish the most; past, present, and future."

I forced myself to look away and felt tears of fear in my eyes.

This man is insane.

Was he stalking me?

"So," he said and stood up. "You're here for one reason; because I want your shadow hound blood. Once I have that, I will save you from your misery and kill you. Sound like a deal?"

I finally stared into those blue eyes I so wished I wasn't terrified as and watched as he knelt down, our faces inches from each other.

"Sound. Like. A. Deal?" He asked through gritted teeth.

I spat in his face and kicked him with the feet that we're dangling almost lifelessly below me. He yelled out in pain and wiped his face, holding onto his ankle. He grabbed my throat and squeezed on it until I was gasping for air, squirming desperately as he kept tightening his hold.

"Do that again," he growled, "and I'll make sure to kill you and everyone you love."

Slowly, I nodded my head and he let me go if it as darkness was closing in. I gasped for air and slumped against the wall, tears rolling down my cheeks as the air burned my throat.

"Hook her to the system," he ordered to someone.

Two men came in and grabbed a needle, stabbing it into my arm which made me scream in pain.

-----

Two weeks...

Two weeks, six days, forty-four minutes.

I had given up on hope; hoping that someone would come to save me from this place of torture. I was stripped bare and electrocuted, slashed with knives, had salt poured into my, blood draining from my body and making me pale and cold. They touched me and made me feel disgusting... I couldn't even cry anymore from how weak I was; I hadn't eaten in three days.

He told me it was punishment for passing out before my blood bag was finished. I had to be a good girl if I wanted to eat... so I had to stay awake. I had to keep fighting for my life.

I just felt like no one was coming any time soon.

Dylan wasn't coming.

Brianna wasn't coming.

No one was coming -- only Death.

He was in the corner, waving with a devilish smirk as he waited for my body to become weaker and weaker until he could take my soul from it. My heartfelt dead and my legs had become too weak to hold me.

The jingling at the door made my head shoot up as fear immediately rushed through me. In came the man who never told me his name. He was holding a plate of a small bowl of chicken noodle soup and some vegetables. There was water in a cup as he put them on the ground and unchained me, shoving me to the ground.

"Eat," he said coldly. "You have fifteen minutes."

I immediately began eating, the feeling making my heart swell with that I hadn't felt in a long time. When I finished eating and went to the water, drinking it as fast as I could, I felt tears pouring down my cheeks as the liquid burned my throat.

Freshwater.

"Stand up," he instructed and forced me to my feet.

He looked me up and down with a smirk.

"You're looking swell, Ms. Aria."

I bit my tongue to stop a sentence of profanity from escaping my lips.

When he opened his mouth to speak once again, a loud slamming sound came from outside of the room. He quickly spun around and growled. He turned back to me and before I could comprehend what he told me, a sharp pain went to my side. I screamed in pain and watched as the stranger backed away from me and ran, leaving me to bleed with a knife in my side.

Tears blurred my vision as I saw a group of men scurry into the room with a man yelling at them to "find them."

"I'm here, Aria," a deep voice said in my ear, cracking. "You're coming for help, love. Don't worry. Please don't close your eyes."

My eyes fluttered and I stared into two golden eyes. They looked dark and full of sorrow instead of the joy they were usually full of. Dark bags were under his eyes and I gasped when I tried to breathe in.

"D-Dylan..." my voice sounded hoarse and faint when I spoke to him. "Y-You came for me."

Dylan looked down at me, his eyes full of tears as he cradled my head in his lap.

"Why wouldn't I, love? I would never leave you."

Several men and women came in and rushed to me with a stretcher. Dylan was holding my hand, kissing the back of it.

"Don't leave me," I whispered to Dylan.

He shook his head and kissed my cold lips, despite the chapped feeling.

"Never again."

I closed my eyes when I realized that I was finally free of being drained of the only bit of hope I had in me.

I didn't have to worry about him because I was with Dylan once again.

No more electrocuting.

No more knives.

No more draining.

No more torture.

I knew he would be back though, and next time he wouldn't let anyone get to me.