Double Redamancy

Chapter 16: Illicit

Illicit: not legally permitted

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My head hangs low. It's difficult to stay up right when an energy sucking leech is clasped onto your wrist. The room is dark, save for a large candle lit directly next to me. My hands are bound behind my back and my ankles are tied to the legs of the chair. The only thing I can hear in this basement room is the quiet hum of silence.

Suddenly the door opens. Anger rises within me as the mystery man steps into the room. He carries a small table and a silver platter of food. I see my phone in his front pocket.

"Hungry little Salama?" He asks, setting up the table in front of me and placing the platter on top of it.

Truthfully, I am. However, I don't want to give him the satisfaction of doing something he wants me to do. I shake my head.

"How do you expect to stay strong and healthy if you do not eat?" he questions, crouching in front of me and squeezing my chin between his thumb and forefinger. 

I try to turn my head, but he is much too strong and I am much too weak.

"How do you expect to take my 'powers', as you call them, if it has never been done before?" I retort, glaring at him.

He tilts his head at me with an amused smirk. The door opens behind him and my heart stops at the sight of the person walking cautiously into the room. Their face is full of guilt and he runs a hand through his thick brown hair. Hair that I know far too well the texture of from running my fingers through it one too many nights. His bright, amber colored eyes meet mine and I am filled with pure hatred.

"Destrian?"

The man looks between us with a cold smile. He laughs and claps his hands as he stands.  His steps echo throughout the empty room as he walks towards the younger boy in the doorway.

"So you two know each other?" he asks, gesturing between Destrian and me.

I choose not to speak and instead, Destrian's familiar voice fills the small space.

"You lied to me, Dmitri." he accuses. "You told me you would get the help of a Salama. Not kidnap one."

"Ah, but I never said I wouldn't kidnap one." he smirks. "How else would we get his help for all eternity?"

"What do you mean?" I ask, my eyes snapping up to meet my kidnapper's.

"As the counsel continues to steal away our immortality, the need for healers and Salamas like yourself become more prominent." he shrugs casually and takes a few steps towards me.

"I am not immortal. I won't last an eternity." I state angrily.

"Well of course not now, but after I turn you, you indeed will be." he smirks at my panicked expression.

I pull weakly on the ropes tying my wrists together. The thick material chafes the soft skin and the stinging causes my eyes to water. 

"Why don't you just find a vampire who is a Salama?" I yell in confusion.

"There are very few in existence and the one we do know has already taken the mortality serum." he shrugs. 

"No one knows if you can even turn a werewolf!" Destrian argues from the doorway.

"The Nefarious pack allowed us to test it on a prisoner they had." Dmitri explains.

My head swirls with confusion, surprise and betrayal. Why would Nefarious make an alliance with the vampires? What did they need from them?