Chapter 40

-Noah's POV-

I was thrown by a maid onto a very spiky chair. I tried to arch my back away from the wooden spikes, but I couldn't, due to the pair who had put me onto the chair. They held my shoulders and pressed my back into the piece of furniture. I didn't quite consider it furniture, but I hadn't the time to debate lexical choices.

Crow was pushed onto a table, the likes of which were all too familiar to me. It was incredibly close to the table which I had been laying on when I suffered due to Bertrand. I hadn't thought of him in a little while, at least four hours. It seems that everyone wants to kill us. That was made even clearer when most of the people in the room grabbed knives and other torture weapons.

Crow didn't struggle out of the grip of the two who were above him. He probably figured that it was absolutely useless to fight, deep in the dungeon of a vampire-infested castle. He glared fiercely at them though and kept glancing towards me every now and again. There were too many things happening at once, or two very important things.

"Let's see," Geppetto said, breaking me from my train of thought. "You are a super powerful vampire. And you are a very normal vampire." He gestured between Crow and I, acting like a parent who caught their two children doing something wrong, and was now figuring out how to punish them. "Let's do this."

He must've given his staff explicit information and directions before we came here. Maybe he had a 'just in case these two teenage boys and their accomplices try to visit us, here's the plan of torture and torment' meeting. Or maybe he did this to many of his guests, why else would he have a torture device installed on the roof?

The workers didn't come towards me, but they went for Crow. I wasn't expecting it, so it took a little while for my brain to compute what was happening. When I did, anger flowed through my veins like the poison had a few weeks ago. "Leave him alone," I growled. My eyes had begun to glow red; I could see that because my arms had become red.

Geppetto just laughed. It made me struggle even more against the hold on me. The more I pushed, the more pain I endured, because they would shove me further into the back of the chair, causing pinpricks of pain to sprout over my back. I didn't care much, but the wood stopped me from moving forward, because they had dug so deep into my flesh that it was difficult to shift at all around the wood.

"What should we do first?" Geppetto addressed me. "I do really enjoy some squirming. Maybe we should cut out his tongue? Or we could go a bit lower?" He trailed a knife from Crow's lips to his chest.

"Stop," I commanded. My voice didn't sound like my own. It was like I was being possessed by someone. "Let him be." My words were futile of course.

Geppetto hummed, as though considering, but it was obvious he was just enjoying my pain. Then he pushed the knife into Crow's stomach.

Crow let out a strained scream, he tried to keep the scream in, but the pain was too much. Tears came to his eyes and spilled down his cheeks. I didn't know if it was the glow of his veins or if he was crying blood. The entire scene filled me with even more rage. I didn't know if I screamed, cursed, insulted, or pleaded, but there was a fountain of noise from my mouth which I couldn't control.

My ears rang, my body felt like it was on fire, the room became red. I pulled at the hands which held me down, and I pulled free. I felt like some of the wood from the chair had embedded itself in my back. More vampires hooked themselves onto me like fishing hooks, I lost all control of myself as I fought. I punched, kicked, and even bit the people who tried to restrain me.

Geppetto's laughter filled my ears along with Crow's screams and grunts of pain. I smelled more blood, more very sweet blood. I didn't know if it was Crow's or the vampires who I attacked, but it fuelled my power and strength. Soon there were around four of us in the room. There was one worker who I had yet to hurt, or kill, or whatever I had done to the others. They had backed up towards Geppetto, standing beside the operating table which Crow still lay on. Crow didn't try to get up, even though there was nobody restraining him. His stomach was bleeding heavily, but the knife which had been used was metal, and would apparently heal quite quickly.

"Just as I suspected," Geppetto mused, examining me like a piece of art. "You hadn't come into your power yet. That's just what you need, some good old rage."

It was my turn to let out a very inappropriate laugh, one which didn't feel like me at all. It was full of anger, spite, frustration, and disbelief. That's why my boyfriend was stabbed in the stomach? To get the power out of me. I wanted to scream at him, to curse and tell him that he was a psychotic lunatic. Instead, I just stared him down. I felt taller somehow, but that didn't make me any more confident than I would've been staring him down a few days ago. I was just purely angry.

"Don't give me that look." Geppetto patted Crow's stomach, which was another branch of his unnecessary cruelty. "It's helping."

I wasn't sure how much Crow could hear or see at this point. I could see the whites of his eyes clearly, but whether or not he had passed out was another thing. I wouldn't blame him for passing out after having been stabbed in the stomach, but it would've been comforting to hear his voice, or to see him move in a way which wasn't a flinch of pain.

"Who exactly is this helping?" I asked lowly, daring him to answer me. "You? Me? Because if those are either of your answers, then we're going to have to sort something out." I clenched my fists. "Start something new." I couldn't remember his exact words when he brought us here, but I tried to replicate his attitude.

Geppetto raised an eyebrow before he rested both his hands on the operating table. "I think you're forgetting who you are in this situation." His voice was also low, his eyes sparkling dangerously like a blood moon.

I raised my own eyebrow and gave another disbelieving laugh. "I think you are actually. After all, I'm the one who just had a surge of power. I think that makes me the more powerful one."

The worker beside Geppetto shook their head violently. It was a plea for me to shut up, but I didn't. I didn't know why they were telling me this, as it was our lives on the line rather than theirs, maybe Geppetto had a really terrible wrath I've yet to see, but I didn't want to underestimate him too much.

"Does it now?" Geppetto asked dangerously, his right hand moving towards another knife which was lying on the table. "Given the fact I'm Standing over your boyfriend-" he didn't get a chance to finish his sentence.

I barrelled into him, slamming him against the hard stone wall as harshly as I could. He gave another laugh and plunged the knife into my own gut. I wanted to bend over and clutch my stomach, but I grit my teeth and tightened my grip on his neck.

I was quickly pulled away from him, but for two glorious seconds, I saw true fear in the man's eyes. There were three others in the room now then there had been earlier. The three vampires had glowing red eyes, naturally, and they were all somehow trying to drag me away from their master.

I let them yank me away from Geppetto after a few moments of attempting to crush his windpipe, but that wouldn't kill him. I wanted him dead, and that thought terrified me the most. The fact that I wanted him dead worried me to the point of mortification. Shame washed through me, but it was gone as quick as it came.

The vampire who had been behind Geppetto a few moments ago was now hovering over Crow, but now Crow could fight back. He had his teeth in their shoulder, and nails in their arms. He pushed them away and swung his legs over the side of the table. I met his eyes for a moment, and we both knew that we had to fight our way out of this citation.

I kicked one person's knee, causing a very disturbing sound to come from that area of their body. They screamed and their hold on me tightened, but it let me elbow them in the head. Geppetto himself was shouting for reinforcements, which surprisingly didn't come.

"Need some help?" Aldrich yelled from the door of the torture chamber. He had a grin on his face as he pulled someone else off me and quickly got rid of the threat.

"Where's Sawyer?" I asked, since the last time I checked he was about to get tortured on the roof. "How did you get down here and avoid the workers?"

Aldrich rolled his eyes at me, satisfied that he had done enough work by killing that one person, and deciding to watch Crow and I struggle instead. "He's looking for information. He's not much of a fighter, which I'm sure you understand."

I huffed lightly, but pain in my left hand caused me to curse and pull away from the conversation. My hand was now broken and was in the grip of a woman whose hair was nearly larger than the rest of her body. I punched her with my other hand, right in the nose. She let go of my hand and clutched her face, allowing me to kick her in the stomach.

"Information on what?" Crow asked, wiping his mouth free from the blood which had once decorated his pale skin.

"The super-powerful vampire and human thing," Aldrich said with a shrug. He strode forward and faced Geppetto, who had his back against the wall still, in the exact position I had left him. "What do you have to say for yourself, old friend?"

Geppetto gave another smile. "I did what was necessary for progress." He gestured with his arms in a shrugging motion, like the situation was completely out of his hands, and we couldn't argue with the results of his actions.

"Progress?" Aldrich repeated, seething with anger.

"Aldrich, didn't you share your very colourful choice of words with me earlier?" Geppetto sighed and shook his head. "You're angry, I understand that."

"Angry?" Aldrich repeated again, reminding me of myself earlier. "I'm more than angry, Geppetto. I am absolutely livid." He threw a punch at Geppetto's face, which landed on Geppetto's cheek and caused blood to pour out of his mouth.

I turned and rushed to Crow, figuring that the threat had been dealt with for now. I brushed his hair out of his face, revealing a slash on his forehead, but then my eyes trailed down to his stomach. "We should sort that out," I pointed out with increasing concern.

Crow waved me off, which I thought to also be inappropriate, considering the blood which was pouring from his stomach. "I'll be fine, are you okay?" He frowned, moving my shirt up, trying to scan me for any injuries he might not have seen. "What was that?" He didn't seem to be able to find the correct word, but there was really no word for what happened to me a few moments ago.

"I have no clue."

Hello lovelies!

I hope your weeks are going well!

The question of the chapter is:  do you like squishmallows?

yeah, I'm running out of questions- sorry 'bout that!

I like them a lot because I like to hug things. I've got five, but all of them were gifted. I've got two cupcakes, a stitch, an angel, and a cat! Not all of them have names...but the ones who do are clementine and clover!