Blood Destiny: Blood Passage Part 20

"And you considered this werewolf your friend?"

"Yes." I did, there at the last.

"Very well. The Council has already reached a decision in this case; we only wished to hear you answer the pertinent questions. It is all as reported previously." He touched the papers under his hands. Great. They'd reached a decision. "Lissa Beth Huston, punishment is always meted out when a child disobeys his sire," Wlodek went on. "In your case, we have unanimously decided to administer a beating. Twenty strokes. Sebastian." I went cold at Wlodek's words. A beating. Just the thought brought back horrible memories. No, those had to be pushed down. I couldn't show my fear. I couldn't. My skin was quivering so violently I wanted to curl up in a ball. That wasn't an option.

A vampire I didn't know came forward and stood before me, holding what looked to be a long nightstick in his hands. I had to clamp my fingers together; they were shaking so badly. Had to get through this. Had to. Was he going to hit me in the head? Had to squash that thought. "Remove your clothing," Sebastian ordered. Oh, G.o.d. When I wasn't doing it fast enough to suit him, he ripped my clothes away instead with shortened claws that appeared on his fingers. I wanted to moan when he tore away my bra and underwear. I stood there before the Council and all the others inside the cave, s.h.i.+vering so hard they couldn't help but notice. I was completely naked and about to receive my beating. The first stroke came so swiftly I almost didn't see it coming. Sebastian hit my shoulders. The club was some sort of hard rubber. If it had been steel, he would have broken bones on the first stroke. He was putting vampire strength into his blows anyway, which caused indescribable pain. He broke my left wrist on the sixth blow and I whimpered a little and bent over, but tried my best to straighten up. Three ribs went with another blow; the crack was audible as they snapped. I received a glancing blow to the head; he'd aimed for my shoulders again on the seventeenth stroke. Someone off to the side was counting the blows as the fell. Sebastian knocked me down completely on the eighteenth blow and then shouted for me to get up so the last two could be delivered. I got up. It was slow but I got up, my chains rattling. They were still around my wrists and the manacle on the left was causing horrible pain. I took the nineteenth blow to the back, the twentieth, and I'm sure he did it on purpose, right to the head. Blessed darkness descended.

"Sebastian, you were told not to hit her in the head." Wlodek was growling. Sebastian the a.s.sa.s.sin turned to face the Head of the Vampire Council.

"As you say, Honored One," he bowed slightly.

"I will consider your punishment now," Wlodek sighed, looking behind Sebastian at Lissa, who lay in a small heap on the cave floor. "Derlin, please come forward and check on the girl." He motioned the vampire forward. Derlin held several medical degrees and was attached to the Council as their official physician.

"Broken wrist," Derlin said, feeling his way over Lissa's body. "Cracked skull. Three broken ribs. Multiple contusions." He laid Lissa flat on her back on the floor and looked up at Wlodek.

"She must be more fragile than the males," Sebastian shrugged. "I've never beaten a female before." Gavin, off to the side, curled his fingers in to hide the claws that were threatening to grow.

"I believe I'll allow Gavin to deliver one blow, as punishment," Wlodek said, leaning back in his chair. Gavin came forward and took the baton from Sebastian, who stood at the ready in front of Wlodek. "Gavin," Wlodek nodded. Gavin delivered the blow, right to the back of Sebastian's neck, knocking him unconscious to the floor and cracking several vertebrae in the process. He tossed the baton onto Sebastian's back when he was finished and walked back to his spot.

"That was enlightening," Wlodek nodded. "Derlin, perhaps you should go with the girl and make sure the bones are in the proper position to heal while she sleeps. Is there any further business?" n.o.body said anything. "Very well. The meeting is adjourned."

"You'll have to be careful; if she wakes while you're carrying her, the pain will be quite intense," Derlin gave Merrill and Gavin instruction. Merrill removed his coat and covered Lissa with it; Gavin lifted her in his arms. Lissa didn't show any signs of waking. None at all.

"You let them beat her." It was a statement and not a question as Griffin looked at Merrill across Merrill's desk.

"What was I supposed to do?" Merrill rubbed his face and looked out the window at the darkness beyond. The view during daylight was quite spectacular but his night vision was nearly as good.

"I don't know. Argue harder?" Griffin wasn't happy and Merrill knew it. "And who let that thug beat her to begin with?"

"None of the others wanted the job."

"So, of course the one who wants it is going to do his worst," Griffin grumbled. "I've had enough of this place for a while. Try not to get her killed, all right?" Griffin vanished before Merrill's eyes.

"Don't move her, the bones are set," Derlin warned Gavin as he watched the vampire physician closely. "Don't even sit on the bed; the ribs and the wrist are fragile right now and the slightest movement will cause them to come out of alignment." Dawn was close, so Derlin planned to stay for the day, as did Gavin, just to make sure Lissa didn't move before she went into the rejuvenating sleep. Derlin went to the bedroom Merrill had given him at the last possible moment. Gavin slept in Lissa's room on the sofa.

There was still pain when I woke on Sat.u.r.day, February twenty-seventh. I moaned as I moved a little. My entire body ached, but my wrist, ribs and head were the worst. "Don't move, cara, if it hurts I will bring the physician." Just the sound of his voice had me off the bed and crouching across the room, claws out. "Cara, it is only me," Gavin walked toward me. Well, he needed to stay away. Far, far away.

"Get the h.e.l.l away from me," I threatened, my claws still out. My rush to get off the bed hadn't helped my aches any. Gavin stopped in his tracks a few feet away.

"What's going on?" Merrill and another vampire I didn't recognize rushed into the room. I knew the strange vampire's scent from the night before, however. He'd been there to witness the whole thing. He drew back a little when he saw my claws. "Lissa put those claws away!" Merrill ordered. Yeah. Right. They stayed out.

"Stay away from me. All of you," I hissed. Right then, they needed to get as far away from me as they could go. I wanted nothing to do with vampires. I hated vampires. I'd never wanted to be a vampire in the first place. Didn't want to be one now. Nothing but pain had come of it. I think I was shouting that at them before I realized what I was saying. "Get out!" I yelled as loudly as I could. "Get the f.u.c.k out!"

"Lissa! Stop that this instant!" Merrill's words held compulsion again and not a weak one, either. Would they beat me again or kill me if they found out compulsion no longer worked? I hung my head and wept while I retracted my claws.

"You will allow the physician to examine you," Merrill ordered. The strange vampire knelt down and ran his hands over me, beginning with my skull and then going to my wrist and ribs. I was still naked and I didn't like his hands on me. I didn't want another vampire to touch me. Ever. I shuddered.

"The bones are healed; I expect that she still aches but that will go away with one or two more sleeps," he said and stood. I remained huddled in the floor. I wanted to tell him to f.u.c.k off. I wanted to tell Merrill to f.u.c.k off. And Gavin.

"Lissa, clean up, get dressed and eat, I want you in my study in an hour," Merrill said as he forced Gavin and the other vampire away from my room. I did all those things as ordered, crying most of the time before making my way to Merrill's study just under the wire. I had a pocket full of tissues with me too. I couldn't stop the tears. I hadn't put any shoes on so my knees were up to my chest in my favorite chair.

Merrill had his back turned to me, staring out the window. At least my nose didn't run any more when I wept. Not worth becoming vampire over, I a.s.sure you. Merrill didn't turn around when he spoke. "The Council has to maintain order, Lissa," he began. "They have to be fair in their dealings with all vampires. If a rule is broken then punishment is given. It's as simple as that." Good for them. I'm sure they never made a mistake. I wanted to say it out loud but I didn't.

So far, too, I hadn't been on the receiving end of too much fairness, I don't think. From the idiots who'd turned me to Gavin hunting me down, preparing to eliminate me the moment the Council gave the word. And now this. No good deed truly goes unpunished. "You should be thankful they didn't require your life," Merrill went on. If they'd killed me, it would have been quicker and less painful and it would save me from listening to this c.r.a.p now. I remained silent, wiping tears away with a tissue. Yeah. See if I ever put any effort into saving their worthless hides again. They reminded me of a bunch of stuffed parrots. The kind you can pull the string on and get one of a handful of pre-recorded words and sayings. Had I cared for Merrill? That wouldn't happen again.

"Lissa, you should make every effort to follow the rules from this point forward," Merrill went on. "You have two strikes against you. I can only imagine what one more will do."

As lectures go, this one was sucking just as much as quite a few others I'd gotten. I wondered if we were anywhere close to being done. Merrill had come around his desk and knelt down beside my chair. He reached out to touch my cheek and I jerked away from him. "Don't touch me," I said sullenly. He pulled his hand back and stood. If someone beat me, that didn't mean I had to love them. If they watched while someone else beat me, it didn't mean I loved them for that, either. And they certainly weren't going to put their hands on me afterward like everything was all right and nothing had happened.

"Gavin wants to see you," Merrill sighed.

"I don't want to see him," I muttered. "Ever."

"Lissa, please."

"Don't make me talk to him. Or to you. Or any other vampire on this G.o.d-forsaken planet."

"Very well. Go to your room," Merrill ordered. "I am keeping your cell phone and your computer for the time being." I almost laughed at his words. I wanted to tell him what he could do with my laptop and cell phone, but I didn't. I just got up from my seat, walked out of his study and went straight to my room.

Gavin pa.s.sed my bedroom several times before he stopped. I didn't want to see him. Truly. I couldn't think of a single soul I'd met since becoming vampire that I would have welcomed right then. They'd all sold me down the river in one way or another. I huddled on my sofa, watching television for a little while, listening to the news concerning the usual rapes, murders, stabbings, child abuse, domestic violence-the entire gamut of human mistreatment, one for the other. Too bad there wasn't vampire television; I'm sure my beating would have been televised as a warning to others. Half an hour before dawn, I went to my bedside table and pulled Gavin's ring from my finger, setting it down where he could find it. Then I turned to mist and made my way out the barest of cracks around the window, floating up to the roof. Dawn was too near for the stars to be visible except for one or two, far off. Carefully I undressed and folded my clothes. Even with the absence of ash as a telltale sign, my clothing would let them know they needn't come looking for me. There wasn't any concrete around the manor to stand on. Nothing else, either, that might prevent me from digging my way into the soil in case the pain became unbearable. The rooftop was the next best thing. I knew the moment the sun peeked over the horizon, although my eyes were closed. My skin burned, and then blackened and began to boil as dawn broke over tranquil, English fields.

"Lissa!" Merrill's shout could be heard from one end of the manor to the other. He fled to the rooftop as fast as he could, the sun warm on his skin as he flew. "Lissa!" Merrill was crying her name as he found her, her skin completely blackened and flaking away. She toppled over as he rushed toward her. Wrapping Lissa's body in his arms, Merrill pulled her from the rooftop and sped toward a window.

The End.

The Blood Destiny series continues with Blood Sense, coming soon to an e-reader near you.

About the Author:.

Connie Suttle lives in Oklahoma with her patient, long-suffering husband and three cats (the cats are not long-suffering and are certainly not patient). Connie adores fantasy of all kinds and loves vampires, werewolves and most other things one might b.u.mp into in the night. When she isn't reading, she's writing (except when the cats are hungry). For information on forthcoming t.i.tles, please visit her website at www.subtledemon.com, her blog at subtledemon.blogspot.com or follow subtledemon on twitter or Subtle Demon on Facebook.

Also by Connie Suttle.

(Blood Destiny Series).

Blood Wager.

Blood Pa.s.sage.

*Blood Sense.

*forthcoming, September 2011.