Dhampirs of Sgiach

21. Kage

Kieran’s spicy honey scent was all around Kage as he snuggled into the space where Kieran always slept. His eyes shot open, and he sat straight up as he looked around him in the darkened room. Everything looked as it had when they had finally fallen asleep, but Kieran wasn’t anywhere in the room.

Kage got out of bed and found his shorts. Fear filled him as he remembered the nightmare from a week ago. Then he remembered where Kieran had been that night.

Kage: “Where are you?”

He hit send and went into the living room. Echo was in the kitchen, humming softly to herself as she cut fruit and kept an eye on the bacon in the skillet.

“Where’s Kieran?” Kage asked.

“He said he needed to go to the corner store and would be back soon enough,” Echo said as she smiled at Kage and offered him an apple wedge. She blushed then. “I also needed something, and he offered to pick it up for me.”

Kage’s phone dinged with a new voice message, and he pressed play before he asked what Echo needed.

Kieran: “We need condoms. Echo needs girl stuff. We’re also low on eggs and milk.”

“What girl stuff?” Kage asked Echo.

“My period started and…” She looked down at the counter as her face turned tomato-red.

“Period…?” Kage asked, remembering his first appointment with Dr. Baker. “Kieran asked Dr. Baker if I would have periods like a girl. What are they?”

While Echo continued to make breakfast, she explained. With lots of blushes. Kage listened to her, fascinated at the similarities between an aphra-male and a female.

He smiled when he heard the key in the door and happily bounced over to the front door to greet Kieran. The man that stepped through the door wasn’t Kieran and the scent that preceded him reminded Kage of the wererats that had used him when he was still on the streets.

Kage growled as his fangs elongated and he threw his magic at the rat. His eyes widened as snow buffeted the rat and it fizzled out. The rat grinned and rushed Kage as two more entered the apartment.

Stars sparked across his vision as his head cracked on the floor from the force of the rat as it slammed into him. Echo’s scream sounded distant through the ringing in his ears.

Crack!

More stars filled Kage’s vision as the rat gripped his hair and slammed his head into the ground.

Crack!

Darkness filled his vision.

Blood. Sweet and warm flowed over Kage’s tongue. Chasing away the darkness and the pain in his head. That sweet familiar ache of his fangs extended and plunged deep into the feverish arm of a wereanimal.

Wereanimal?

The thought flitted through his mind and the memory of the last blood he tasted came to the forefront of his mind. Blood like spiced honey. So much like his scent.

Kieran! Echo!

Kage’s eyes shot open, and he pulled away from the arm. The tan skin of the forearm ripped as Kage pulled away, blood welling and sliding along to drip to the floor as the man stood. Chocolate brown eyes regarded Kage from a square face with a strong jaw and kissable lips. The tanned brown skin was smooth, and the man wore charcoal slacks with black loafers and a white button-up shirt.

The sleeve was rolled to his elbow as he held out his arm so one of the other two men in suits could press a handkerchief to Kage’s bite.

“Did you enjoy your snack?” the man said in a voice that was smooth as silk and as decadent as chocolate.

“Where am I?” Kage asked. “Where is Echo? And Kieran?”

“Nearby,” the man said, reaching out and touching Kage’s cheek.

Kage hissed and snapped at that hand, backing away and hitting the bed in the room. The sound of a chain drew his attention to his ankle. He was shackled to a bed that was bolted to a cement floor. His eyes quickly flicked around the room. There was a second bed, two toilets, and two sinks. Nothing else in the bare, windowless room. He reached for that cold magic and his eyes widened when he couldn’t reach it. It was there inside him, tantalizing and teasing, but something was in the way.

“What do you want?” Kage squeaked, unable to keep his terror from his voice.

“Lurah’rin’Ley,” the man said matter of factly as he stood up straight and examined his nails. “You, Kieran, and the brat in Lacey’s belly will all be Lurah’rin’Ley and you will help me make my Ratpack stronger than both the Wolves and the Bears.”

“Evil villain monologues tend to make plans go t**s up?” another man said as he entered the room. His scent reminded Kage of a hybrid and the silver bracelet on his wrist confirmed it. Other than his jeans and black t-shirt, the man could be the twin brother of the wererat.

Kage backed away from the man and hissed as he came close. The incubus swiped at the man but the two other men in suits pinned him down and the hybrid snapped a silver collar around his neck. “GET THIS OFF ME!” Kage screeched as he struggled against the wererats.

“Nope. Once you and the Furian have gone through the transition, we need you to help us keep him in line,” the hybrid said conversationally.

“KIERAN WON’T DO ANYTHING YOU SAY! HE’LL SAVE ME AND ECHO AND HE’LL HUNT YOU ALL!” Kage screamed as tears streamed down his cheeks.

“That faggot fanger can’t even save himself.”

The two brothers laughed as they left Kage in the room by himself. Huddled in the corner. He didn’t know how long he was there. Only that his tummy growled and reminded him that all he had to eat was blood. How long since Echo and I were taken?

He looked at the other bed and attempted to go to it but the chain on his ankle barely extended to the middle of the room. Kage was huddled on the bed again when the door opened and a wererat came in with a water bottle that they held out to Kage.

He looked at it silently before glancing up at the rat and ignoring it. The rat growled at him. “Alpha Martin said we can do whatever we want to you. Drink or I might decide to see what it’s like to f**k a she-male.”

The scent of burnt chocolate filled the room and Kage snatched the bottle from the wererat and downed the blood. He moved even farther from the rat as he laughed and walked out of the room. Shortly after, the light went off.

That was the way of it. Three times, the light was turned off. And three times during the time the light was on, a wererat entered the room with a bottle of blood. The fourth time the light turned on and the door opened, two wererats came into the room with the dreaded bottle of blood.

“Echo!” Kage cried out as he tried to get to her. Bruises decorated her face, her left eye was swollen shut and her bottom lip was split with dried blood. The scent of her blood hit him and his fangs elongated with anger even as his stomach sank.

“Get back!” the rat with the bottle ordered as he backhanded Kage across the face. The force of the hit sent him sprawling on the bed and stars danced in front of his eyes. “You’ve been good. Don’t ruin your reward.”

Kage growled and hissed as he curled up on the bed. Echo whimpered as the other rat shackled her to the second bed in the room. She was still wearing her pajamas and there were more bruises on her arms. Then the smell hit him. A bitter, burnt, scent that reminded him of the man Kieran had saved him from.

Anger blossomed in his chest and when the rat with the bottle handed it to him, Kage grabbed his wrist and pulled. His eyes locked on the big pulse in the rat’s neck. The other rat moved swiftly, and Kage’s head rang with the force of the hit. He hissed and snapped as they pinned him to the bed.

When they tried to force the bottle into Kage’s mouth, he clenched it shut and reached out for his magic. That cold magic was still blocked from him, but his incubus magic was there.

Kage slammed that magic into them. Hard.

They both cried out and shuddered as his magic brought them suddenly and painfully. Blood so hot that it should have scalded his throat flowed over his tongue as his fangs plunged into the neck of one of the rats. Kage fed. He fed on the energy of their orgasms and the blood.

He reached for that cold magic as he fed. Felt whatever blocked him from it begin to give.

The rat screamed as Kage was forcibly pulled off him. Then it started. He curled into a ball as the beating began. Echo was screaming and crying as they beat him. Someone else was screaming too and Kage’s throat was ragged as darkness claimed him.