Eclipse

20.

Torture

It was my wolf that woke me up, her writhing agony jolting me awake. Her pain was mine as she convulsed uncontrollably within me. White-hot pain seared through my body in forks of ruthless lightning as I screamed and screamed and screamed, until it abated abruptly, leaving me curled in a tight foetal position, shuddering violently and silently sobbing.

Once the pain had subsided into a dull throb, I managed to slowly sit up, albeit still flinching, and survey the dark cell that seemed vaguely familiar. Where had I seen it before? I couldn't quite recall where I'd seen it.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" a gruff voice murmured from a shadowed corner somewhere in front of me. My ankles and wrists were chained in heavy metal shackles that clanked loudly when I turned abruptly to the sound. Already, the friction of the metal against my skin was starting to rub it raw.

"What?" I rasped. The insides of my throat felt like I had swallowed a razor, and the tissue was cut and bloody.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" the voice repeated. I instantly placed my finger on the voice. Moore. "We came across this method of... restraining Lupi, shall we say, several years ago. I don't suppose you're colleagues have introduced you to Akonit?" My blood ran cold within my veins at those words, and Moore laughed mirthlessly. "I see that they have. Well, it can be administered in multiple ways, depending on how sadistic you feel. It can be brewed into a rather vile concoction that can be swallowed. It can be inhaled, and in small doses can act as a drug... that is, if you aren't a particularly unlucky Lupi. It can also be absorbed by the skin or open wounds, and can find its way into the bloodstream... so tell me: can you feel it tearing you beloved little wolf to pieces? Shredding it apart? Destroying it?"

My breath escaped rapidly in short and frenzied pants. No no no no no no no no...

"Oh, yes," Moore gloated. "If you can see through the dark, you might notice that the floor's been covered just for you!"

I brought my hands close to my face, and could make out dozens of tiny, microscopic cuts littered across my skin, across my body, with specks of blood and a purplish liquid smeared over it. Small but sharp stabs of pain formed a blanket of pinpricks over my body, and I could feel my wolf within whimpering in pain.

"She's dying, isn't she?" Moore's voice was triumphant and malicious, full of satisfaction. "Now, if I were you, I'd take this as an incentive to speak."

"What?" I managed to say through an almost unresponsive jaw.

"You heard me," Moore snarled, and came out of the shadows. His blonde hair was dishevelled, and his chin was unshaven and bristly. Dark eyes blazed at me through rings of purple. "What are you planning?"
"I—I don't know," I stammered, when my jaw suddenly contracted and clenched, my teeth sinking into my low lips. Blood gushed from the wound, and I gagged. Under normal circumstances, the wound would have already started healing, but the Akonit was detrimental to my body, reducing the healing almost to that of a human's.

"Bullshit!" Moore shouted. He squatted down in front of me so that his eyes were level with mine. "What—are—you—planning?" he hissed. He reached forward and grabbed my chin with leather clad fingers so that I couldn't look away.

"I'm not planning anything!" I frantically spluttered after coughing uncontrollably on my metallic blood. "I was just sent here, and that's it! I don't know anything!"

Don't give anything away, Megan, Emory warned. Stay strong.

But I don't know anything! I thought desperately, but kept the thought to myself.