Taken

Chapter 10 (Part 1)

The metallic scent of blood invaded my nostrils, overpowering the accompanying scent of burning herbs. It was thick, saturating the air and leaving a metallic tang on my dry tongue. My mouth felt stuffed with cotton, just like my throbbing head which had a ringing sound filling it.

My eyes struggled to crack open and take in the scratched wooden floor pressing against my temple as I lay on my side, my neck aching from the angle. It was dark. Smoke and a faint flickering glow in front of me barely allowed my hazy gaze to make out the shapes on the ground surrounding it as bowls before landing on the large mass lying on the floor just past them. I blinked my heavy eyelids slowly, trying to clear the blur from my vision but failing. Squinting at the shape, it took a moment for me to register it as a body.

My mind was too muddled for fear or panic to sink in at the realization that someone was lying unconscious across from me. Or that I was on the floor in a similar manner as the faint drone of a woman's voice grew easier to hear past the ringing in my ears. The language she was incanting in was foreign and oddly sounded soothing as it neared. My muscles relaxed as she droned on and I barely noticed when a hand slipped under my head to lift it from where it lay on the ground.

The scent of blood grew as the woman chanting by my head moved a bowl towards me. I tried to pull my head back but found I couldn't move. All I could do was blink languidly as a metal rim pressed against my mouth to part my lips. The metallic taste of blood tinged with an earthy undertone swept over my tongue as she tipped the bowl, emptying its contents down my throat. My body convulsed as I choked on the liquid, reacting involuntarily to try to clear my blocked airway with ragged coughs that had me choking on the warm liquid as it made its way down my throat.

Warmth hit my stomach, pooling in a growing heat that spread to the rest of my body and increased to an uncomfortable degree that had sweat beading at my hairline. The warm spot in my chest suddenly grew into a cool one as the rest of my body surpassed it in temperature while it remained unchanged.

My head was gently lowered to the ground before a thin arm reach over me to grab my hand that lay limp on the floor before me. The woman crouched over my head lifted it and pulled it towards her as she continued to intonate words I couldn't understand. I tried to move my head to catch sight of her again. But it was to no avail. All I could do was struggle to keep my eyes open and look at the unmoving body lying across from me as a lick of pain sliced across my raised wrist. Warmth bloomed, dripping down my skin before the cold press of metal caught it. After a few moments where my blood continued to flow, I felt something cool be soothed over the flowing wound before my hand was placed back on the floor in front of me. The paste that now covered my wrist and fresh blood glistened against my skin in the low light.

The woman's voice grew louder and clearer as she rose. My eyes strained to track her from the moment her blurred shadow entered my line of sight. I blinked at the faint sting of sweat in my eyes as I watched her make her way to the body lying on the other side of the burning candle.

A scrap across the floor and the clinking of chains sounded somewhere in the darkness behind her as she crouched by the still body. The noises didn't help my breaths that had turned into light pants, or my temperature that continued to rise. The faint jingle of jewelry reached my ears as she lifted the lying person's head into her lap, cradling it as she pressed the bowl she held to their lips.

A masculine groan sounded through the air before being cut off by a wet, choked cough. The man tried to pull away, more successful than I had been in moving, but she kept the bowl firmly pressed against his lips, forcing its contents down his throat all the while her voice grew strained and jagged as she continued to incant foreign words. The ringing in my ears returned, loud enough to nearly drown her out.