Reborn

Prologue

"Is it dead?"

"I don't know."

The voices were so distant. Spoken softly, almost a whisper. Not meant to disturb anything. Just spectators watching a show.

Zoey wanted to know what was so interesting. What held these two men's interest to such an extend? She wanted to know, but she couldn't move. Something held her in place. Something against her chest. It was hard to breathe. Hard to see much through the fog that refused to leave her vision.

She breathed once. Twice, and then started gagging. She could feel blood filling her lungs. She couldn't get it out. It tasted awful. Her lungs ached, begging for relief.

"Ah," one of the men said. He hovered to the side. Zoey couldn't make out any features. He was just a dark blur. "It's alive."

It.

Her.

They were talking about her.

Why couldn't she move?

No, wait . . .

One arm flopped at her side. The other laid lifeless. It felt broken, it was certainly twisted in an unnatural way. But the other arm – she was able to move it. With a frightening amount of effort, her non-broken arm left her side but before she could do much more, her body seemed to give out and her hand dropped onto her stomach.

Breathe in.

Breathing out certainly hurt more.

Like a hot poker. Something piercing her lungs.

God dammit.

Zoey leaned her head backwards as she tore at her lips to stop a cry from escaping. She couldn't, however, stop the tears that streamed down her pale cheeks. Her fingers fumbled on her stomach, finding the reason why she didn't have much motion of her body.

A strap. A thick leather one that bounded her to a table.

Above the strap was something else. She didn't know what it was at first. She tried lifting her head to get a better look at whatever her fingers wrapped around, but her vision was useless right now.

Something cold. Hard.

Wait . . .

A hilt.

A hilt of a – knife? Dagger?

Zoey breathed in again and this time, she couldn't help the moans leaving her dry and cracked lips.

Yep. Definitely a dagger.

Why was there a dagger in her body? She couldn't get her mind to focus. Everything seemed unreal. Like a dream. Was this a dream? No. It couldn't be. It hurt way too much.

Zoey's fingers left the hilt of the dagger. Thick blood stained her fingers. The scent was so overwhelming, it made her dizzy. Her hand rested on her chest. Pressing down firmly, she willed the wound on her chest to stop bleeding. Close up. Heal. No more pain. No more anything.

Her body would never get time to heal, it seems. Her captives, the reason a dagger now resided in her body, had other plans for the young girl.

One man, the one that stood nearby, moved into view.

All Zoey could see were intelligent green eyes before the dagger was torn from her chest. This time, she couldn't stop screaming.