Fated Absolution (21 page)

It stopped just out of her line of sight, but she knew deep within her heart that it wasn’t Kyle or any of the rest of them. It seems Patcalus had come, he had waited long enough.

“Hello my dear, I’ve come for you, you are minessss. You will alwayssss be mine.” S
he fainted just before he got close enough for her to see him. A black void swallowed her up.

Kyle had felt her leave the bathroom, he didn’t get alarmed, he knew that the grounds were well covered and there were wolf pack always roaming the area. He left the mansion just as she had reached the forest, thinking to give her time to cool off. A lot had been thrown at her and she would need time to adjust, to take it all in. It was when she got scared that he began to run, her fear pouring into him as though it were his own.

“Aaron, she’s…Something’s wrong. She’s afraid, something is chasing her. I can’t get
her to open to me, help me.”

Kyle knew that Aaron would come and bring the others; he only hoped it wasn’t too late.

When she lost conciseness, he stopped cold, he had felt no pain, only terror, absolute terror.

Scenting the air he found her and followed it. Before he got much further than ten feet, he scented the wolf, and then another. They weren’t pack, but wild animals. Wild animals not from the pack he’d come to know. These had been tainted with magic, black magic.

They attacked him as one. He had nearly overcome them both when two more joined them and they took him down. Tearing and pulling at his body they overpowered Kyle and held him immobile. He thought they’d kill him but they didn’t they simply waited.

Kyle couldn’t move. The larger wolf was at his throat, teeth and canines deep in the flesh.

Two others held his wrist in the same manner, their teeth deep into the skin, just a small nip from tearing out the vein and the precious blood pumping through there. He needed to contact Aaron, to warn him.

“Hello vamp.” The man leaned over to where Kyle could see him. “I see my animals have found something for dinner. I wouldn’t move around too much. They are under the impression that to kill you would be a feast.”

The man was huge, Kyle thought, bigger than him by a good thirty pounds and two inches. When the man grabbed his chin and jerked his face first one way then the other Kyle had the impression of insanity though where that thought had come from was anyone’s guess.

“Ah, the mate. Good.” The man reached behind him and that’s when Kyle saw the blade seconds before he plunged it into his chest. Before he slipped completely away, he heard him say

“Bring him.”

Kyle woke in a room lying on what felt like a tilted table. He was weak and bleeding, the blade, he could tell that it was silver now, was still imbedded into his chest. His wrist and legs were strapped to the table with silver bands. When he moved his leg, the pain told him that there were more wounds there as well. He was being bled. Bled slowly and soon, with the blades and the wounds he’d be dead.

He looked around the room trying to see into the darkened corners and could see that nothing was there. He couldn’t see behind him, but could hear a faint of panting sound behind him. Reaching out mentally he found that one of the wolves were in the room with him, but nothing else. Reaching further he hit a wall. If there was anything beyond the immediate room, Kyle couldn’t penetrate it. Trying again and failing he figured he was in a lead room.

He thought of Maddy and where she could be. He hoped that she was still on the grounds, that someone had found her and she was now inside, safe. But he kept coming back to the comment made just before he blacked out,
‘the mate’
. Whoever took him knew that he was Maddy’s mate.

“Yes I do,” the large man said just as a door opened behind him. “But you won’t be for much longer. I plan to have her and let you watch while I do. You should not have taken what didn’t belong to you vamp. She was promised to me.”

“Fuck you. She’s my mate and has been since the fates made it so.” Brave words he thought. Now if only he could get up and take care of the man.

“Fate has nothing to do with this. She will be my breed mare, and have me my son. He will be the strongest being alive,” he snarled at Kyle with a twist of the silver blade. “With her pure magic and my black, my child will have so much power we will be able to rule all kingdoms. We will rule the worlds he and I, in this realm and beyond.”

“Where is she? What have you done with her? I want to see her right now.” Kyle jerked against his bonds, tearing and opening the wounds, making them bleed more, the blood flow stronger.

“Demands? Demands lying as you are?” The man threw back his head and laughed without mirth, it was cold and harsh. Kyle saw the wolf in the corner pull himself tighter against the wall and whimper. “I will show you my mate because I deem it so, not you. She has proven…difficult. I’ve had to put her in her place. So don’t be alarmed by the blood. She’ll learn to do as I say or she’ll get much worst.”

The man walked over to the wall at the end of Kyle’s feet and pushed against something.

Kyle heard something heavy slide and the room brightened considerably. The man was at his head before the sliding mechanism was completely still. He jerked Kyle’s head up by his hair and pushed him forward.

“She can’t hear you,” he whispered in Kyle’s ear. “But if you’d like I can let you hear her. Her whimpering and simpering is quite nerve wracking, if you ask me.” He reached down and pushed another button and sound filled the room.

She was crying, sobbing really. Kyle could see she was covered in blood. Her clothes were torn nearly off of her.

Maddy had been chained to the ceiling of the room, her arms pulled tight up over her head. There was another chain around her waist that held her to the wall, her legs were spread and shackled to the floor by leather straps that had cut into her skin, blood pooling at her feet. By some command that Kyle could not hear, a man stepped forward. A man Kyle knew. Robert Button was in the room with Maddy, and he was in league with the monster. He yanked Maddy’s head up and pointed it to the window so that the man and Kyle had a full view of the damage done to her face.

She had been beaten, and beaten badly. Even through the window, Kyle could see that her nose was broken as was her left cheek shattered. Her left eye was hanging out of the socket and blood still poured from the gaping wound. Her jaw was also broken, the mandible hanging lax and without purpose. Her ear was nearly torn from her head. Kyle’s heart hurt, his true love was so badly hurt and there was nothing he could do.

“Oh baby, oh my poor baby,” Kyle sobbed. “Why? Why would you do this to her? She’s done nothing wrong.”

Kyle could feel the tears on his own face. He tried to break free of his bonds but all he managed to do was tear at his body, the silver making digging into his muscle and bone. Kyle’s heart breaking for her.

“Why? Because she refuses me, the ungrateful bitch. Keeps talking about free willies or some other such nonsense. I don’t want to have to rape her, taint our sons conception, but I will if she doesn’t give in soon. Once she is carrying my seed, then I will let her heal long enough to deliver. But, I can’t wait much longer, she is ripe now. I will not be put off.” He dropped Kyle’s head and he immediately felt the darkness swallowing him up.

He woke again sometime later, weaker than he had been in his entire life. He wasn’t going to live much longer with the silver in him and without blood to repair the damage. His first thought, however was of Maddy and if she had given in or had she died. He hoped that she would have given in. He would rather see her live then dead. She could survive without him, but he could not without her didn’t want to live without her actually. He knew that without her blood, he would die and if she was, then he didn’t care anyway.

“There you are” the man said as soon as Kyle opened his eyes. “I thought you’d never wake this time. I have a surprise for you vamp, the lovely and damaged mate”

The wall between them was open, he could see her clearly now and Kyle could feel her weakness sharp. But the man was talking again, he voice sounded so reasonable, like he was used to getting what he wanted.

“You will make her give in to me, or I’ll hurt her while you lay there watching. She is too stubborn for her own good. Now, tell her, tell her to give me what I want, or I swear I’ll hurt her again.” He grabbed her hair and yanked her head up. “Tell her vamp. Tell her to do what I say.”

“Mad…” Kyle started to beg her to give him what he wanted but he felt her in his mind.

She moved without thought to being gentle but with urgency.

“Don’t! Don’t say my name. Without our names, he has no power.”

Before Kyle could respond to her the man back handed her, blood poured from the already broken skin of her face.

“You will not give him advice,” he told her calmly. “If you do that again, I will simply kill him, rape you and have done with it. I am sorely tempted to take you here and now as he watches, but I don’t want to have to do that. You will give in to me girl, give into me or he will die.” Kyle noticed that Maddy wasn’t listening, that with the blow he had rendered her unconscious again.

Listening deep he could tell that her heart was slow, and that soon, very soon it would stop altogether. Her breaths were shallow and fast, panting almost. He could also tell that she had all but two ribs broken and that her kidneys and liver had been abused so badly that they had shut down. Her legs and both of her arms had also been broken. Kyle could feel her will to live slipping away as quickly as her life was.

He needed to save her, reaching into her mind, he found a small spark and touched it, tried to stoke it as one would a spark to a flame.

“Love, call for her. Call for her to come to you. Please baby, call for her.” K
yle felt the second blade slide into him before his saw it, then the third and fourth. The man was killing him.

“
Call for her love, I’m dying anyway.” A
nd he slipped away again.

Maddy was hanging again, her body in so much pain it was if there was nothing else.

Moving her toes into the wet dirt beneath her, she realized that it was her blood making it dark, not the dirt itself.

Kyle. He was dying and she couldn’t save him. He had told her to call her, who she couldn’t remember. The pain was making everything fuzzy and out of focus. Who should she call? Ghostbusters, she thought and starting humming the song in her head.

The next time she woke she knew she wasn’t alone, that Kyle was in the room with her, but he like her was near death. With sudden clarity she knew, that was who she needed to call.

Morrigan.

When she tried to form the words, she nearly fainted from the pain in her face. She thought that now that she could remember she was too broken to call for her. Instead of giving up, she closed her eyes, at least she thought she did and thought of the woman in the house, pictured her face and clothes. Tried to remember what she smelled like and sounded like, and then she thought her name, shouted it through her mind.

“Morrigan, goddess of all Faeries, please come to me.” M
addy slipped once again into the welcoming darkness.

“You must wake my child. It’s time to wake up.” The voice was gentle and soft, not like her Grammies. But Maddy was tired, so tired and she didn’t want to go to school today, she thought if she just slept a bit longer she’d…

“No, not today. I don’t want to go to school today. Let me sleep.” M
addy formed the words in her head knowing something was wrong, something would cause her pain if she tried to speak.

“Wake please love, you are running out of time. You called for me, now wake up and ask me, Madison Shelby Harm, ask me what you will of me.”

Maddy’s mind snapped awake. She had asked Morrigan to come and she had. Hopefully not too late, not too late for life.

“Does he live, my mate, does he live?” S
he didn’t want to give the creature any more power over them but she needed to know if her mate still lived.

“Yes, just barely as do you. You must ask me Madison, you must ask me soon. Your breaths are nearly gone as is your life. Ask me what you will.”

“Madison, love, you must live. Promise me…promise me that you will live. I cannot live
without you, but you can without me. Promise me that you will live.” K
yle’s voice was weak and thready even in her mind. She knew they didn’t have much time.

“He must live at all costs. Kyle Shane Dixon must live at all costs. I will die, but he must
live on. Promise me this, Morrigan, goddess of the Faeries. He must live for me.” M
addy slumped down, her body spent, her last breath just ready to leave her body. With it she uttered her last words, the words to set them free,
“I will love you forever Kyle Shane Dixon, mate of my
heart.”

“No!” Kyle screamed into the room.

Suddenly the room brightened no shadows to be found in any corner. Morrigan reached out and cupped the breath of the child of seven times seven and whispered gently into it. She leaned over to Kyle and touched it to his lips, then dipped it into his blood. Turning back to the woman hanging there without life she chanted a song in a language Kyle thought long dead.

When she was finished, Morrigan once again walked over to the table that held Kyle and pulled each blade from his body, sealing the wound as she went. He didn’t feel the pain, so focused on Maddy. He did feel the energy that poured into him but didn’t really think about it.

“You must save her, I cannot live without her” Kyle begged her. “I have no reason to live without her. She is my everything, my all. Please, take my blood. It will save her, please, I beg of you.”

Stopping for a moment she looked him straight in the eye, and told him the horrific truth.

“She lives no longer, Madison Shelby Harm is dead. Come, it is time for us to leave. Bring her body and we will leave.”

Kyle staggered to the wall where she hung and fell to her feet, sobbing for his one true love. Madison was dead. He could feel is as if it were his own death. Her skin was cool, her breaths no more. He couldn’t even feel the faintest heart beat, she was indeed dead. Kyle wanted desperately to join her.