Beyond The Fangs

Chapter 47

IZEL

A chilling coldness surrounded me. I opened my eyes, and when the blurriness faded I saw the dark, foreboding bars before me. I quickly got up and immediately regretted it as I felt a sharp sting at the back of my head. 

I had been knocked out. 

When the wooziness subsided, the memories of what had happened swarmed my mind.

Jaeger... was gone.

A lump formed in my throat and I lost feeling in my legs as I dropped to the hard, rocky ground and tears began streaming down my cheeks.

Jaeger... was gone.

I couldn't process that fact. I couldn't accept it. I wasn't going to. I didn't want to.

My breathing quickened and I had to take deep breaths to get sufficient oxygen into my lungs. I covered my mouth with my trembling hands to quiet the sobs that tore through my chest.

Jaeger... was gone.

I dug my nails into the skin around my mouth, trying to create a physical pain of some sort to drown out the feelings that were tormenting me. My body wracked with the sobs that penetrated my lips, and I wanted to tear my heart from my body because it felt too heavy to carry.

"You're awake." That voice, I knew that voice. And I loathed that voice more than anything else. "You were out for quite a while, I must have hit you harder than I thought."

I raised my eyes. A deep hatred and a burning heat pulsed through me when I met the eyes of the Zas.

"You look mad, may I ask why?" He cocked his head, a grin on his lips.

The audacity. "Go to hell!"

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the prison cell," he mocked.

"I'll... kill... you," I said, my voice still shaking.

"Didn't you already try that? How did that end?"

"You're a devil!" I screamed. "You... you..."

"I remember," he recalled. "It ended with that Impurity bleeding to death, and you being locked up in a cell." I clenched my teeth, willing myself not to cry. "I still can't believe you're the Vanquisher with a reputation of killing vampires. Makes us look weak." And with that, he turned and left, and as soon as he did I drowned in my tears.

I broke down and my whole body started trembling. I hadn't felt like this in years. Those same feelings I felt when I lost my parents overwhelmed me. I felt like something inside me broke. Like something inside me was... dying.

I didn't think death even felt this torturous.

*****

Every day was worse than the previous. 

Jaeger was dead. I was locked up. And the Zas was going to keep me here till there were no humans left, then he'd get rid of me.

"You should be happy," he'd said, "you'll be the last human alive."

Humans were going to end up losing the war after all, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Alek was going to die. Raya was going to die. Fergus was going to die. We were all going to die.

I wished I was dead.

Seated against the wall in the cell, I was staring at the stale food that was before me. I hadn't had a bite of anything the entire time I was here, and it had been days. Weeks maybe. I didn't know. I didn't care. I just wanted to die.