Chapter 5 Torture

Dahlia couldn't understand why Valeria looked pained. She could not share in the kind of anger the werewolves bore towards the witch. All that she knew, she had heard from rumours.

After the Dark Battle, the wolves had gone to the destroyed elf city to investigate the reason behind the whole clan's sudden attack. That was where she had been found by George.

Dahlia had been a newly budded elf struggling to survive admist the now gloomy weather of the Elf City - a weather most unsuitable for the healthy and beautiful blooming if a flower.

Naive Dahlia picked up the fallen material and this time, very carefully threw it to over

Valeria. Valeria took the black cloth, trying hard not to faint from the burning mysery in her heart.

"What is this?"

"A cloak."

Valeria was about to ask what it was for when Dahlia timidly continued, "Please put it on."

Her voice became a little hushed, "They find your dressing a little, er, inappropriate."

Valeria had just finished covering up the slightly transparent white peplos with the cloak in confusion when Luke and Ceberus came in.

Accompanying the pinched look Luke gave Dahlia, she did herself a favor and was gone the next second.

Ceberus quickly set the torture board they had brought.

The torture board was a strong iron frame they used on defaulters. They would be pinned down on the horizontal structure and lashed or ripped or in more severe crime cases, have their flesh cut out in mounds.

"Bring her here." Luke commanded.

Valeria kept on shaking her head and muttering a series of no's. Her brain was a marathon of thoughts.

She was dragged out for the second time today. She kept on screaming for Ceberus to leave her alone as the scene before her left her with a bad feeling in her gut.

Ceberus tied her hands and brought her out of the cage and before Luke. Her struggles seemed meaningless as the mass of muscles overpowered her easily.

"Leave us."

And with that, Ceberus left.

Luke immediately held Valeria's jaw in a fierce grip, the grey of his eyes swirling. He was clearly preventing his boiling anger from having control over his actions.

The fear in Valeria was the only thing that was stopping her from thrashing around madly. Or maybe it was the fact that she sensed how it was useless and seemed to make Luke's expression more hardened and angry at her.

His claws began to emerge. Their pointy tip digging into Valeria's smooth skin. A thin trail of blood ran from her jaw bone and down her long and slender neck.

Valeria shut her eyes in pain, her lips pleading for Luke to stop. She didn't know how to deal with this type of situation where she was frightened to the core and yet couldn't do much to save herself.

The more she screamed and struggled, the more Luke became infuriated. It seemed that he hated it even more when begged or merely breathed. He looked deadly and ready to snap her neck the next second.

Valeria felt that if she opened her mouth to say anything, she'd just start crying and probably, finally give him an excuse to kill her off.

What could she even say? That she wasn't the witch? That the man before her had wasted his time coming down to Desert Clan to grab the wrong person after a fruitless search for four years? He'd sooner have her head rolling on the floor before she gets to explain herself.

Luke snarled in his heart at the young lady that was feigning being petrified. His fangs took shape.

"How do you reverse it?"

Valeria's wet eyes blew wide in utter confusion and her mouth refused to function.

"Answer me! How do you reverse your curse?"

The growl at the end of the question startled Valeria. She died with the need to say to him 'I just wanna go home.'

She didn't want to stay in whatever this place was. Valeria was so scared, she began to hyperventilate.

Valeria opened her eyes when her body collided with the ground from a heavy blow. She groaned and tried to sit up but Luke picked up a spikey mullet from the board and crouched beside her.

He traced it up her legs, taunting her, "Do not force me to use this on you. I could crush these feet that took you far from my reach or your voice box, the greatest asset of a witch."

His eyes said it all, he needed to vent his anger, his bitterness and his age long grief that was still brewing with the same intensity as it had some years ago.

Luke had been controlling himself, he didn't want to lose it and hurt her too badly that they'd lose her. He hated to admit it but he needed her. He needed her to take them to her Reversal Array and reverse her curse.

He needed her, for his clan.

He lifted her small frame by her shoulders and slammed her onto the torture board. Valeria tried yet again to get up but hissed in pain and arched her spine.

Seeing that Luke was advancing towards her again like a predator, she scrambled about in panic and pleaded fervently.

"Please, please no. I beg you, let me go." Her dilated eyes moistened, "I don't know what you are asking from me. I don't know how, I swear. Let me go, please."

Luke ignored her shameless tricks and the complete dread on Valeria's face. It was as though he couldn't see it or rather, he was blinded by fury.

He raised her tied hands above her head and fastened them there. Then he fastened her ankles with restraints, pinning them to the torture board.

Valeria began to scream and trash around as Luke slowly raked his claws on her body and stopped at her midriff.

With a sharp plunge of his long nails his fingers penetrated Valeria's body. She screamed and begged and continued trashing, tears spilling from her eyes.

The pain was too much and she knew he was only starting. This thought added to the misery and anguish. A man with her beloved Luke's body was planning on slowly killing her until she said words that she didn't even know.

Blood spurred out from Valeria's abdomen, dying her garment, crimson. The fingers in her body found her lungs and squeezed precious air out of her, causing her to whiz.

Blood was beginning to rush into her mouth, she could feel it. Breathing was a problem as her ribs hurt, her insides hurt. Everything was hurting.

"Answer me." He demanded again.

"I, I... I don't know." She gasped out with difficulty.

Like took out his fingers and bent to touch her face, red imprints smudging it.

"You know," He snarled in a dangerously low voice, "If you were a man, I would have broken your pretty face ages ago. But as you are not, we would have to make do with other alternatives."

A bad feeling attacked Valeria's guts the moment he finished saying this and lifted his other hand to cover her pitiful pleading eyes. Her tears soaked his palm as she opened her mouth to plead again but instead, a piercing scream of pain accompanied the sound of bones popping. Valeria's pinkie faced the wrong direction.

"How do you reverse it?" Luke threatened again, gritting out the words one after the other as he reached for her fore finger.

"I don't know. I swear I don't know, please."

With the crack sounds of bones breaking, her forefinger dangled like a lifeless sausage.

Again and again and again he broke her bones and healed her wounds again by feeding her his blood to prevent her from dying.

This went on for two hours. Valeria felt tormented. No one was going to come to her rescue. She had to accept the crazy reality, she was truly now 'the witch'. It was truly bad that she had inherited all the witch's problems and none of her strength. She did not even know a thing about casting a spell.

The plot of the story was hazy. This was unscientific because she had been reading the book just last night. Her memory was not bad. This situation had no other explanation other than the story had wiped itself from Valeria's memory.

She tried her best to recall and piece them all together. She would think, faint from the pain, awake from the pain only to continue thinking again. She had to save herself, she just had to.

Valeria's brain finally began functioning when Luke lifted the hand holding the mullet and aimed for her knees.

"The Prairie Map." Valeria suddenly remembered.

Luke halted.

"I, I'd need to collect the Prairie Map from the White Witch Clan to locate the gems needed to reverse it at... at my array." Valeria's dry throat said with so much difficulty.

Even though Luke had healed her wounds, the physical strain it had on her would not heal as quickly.

"Where is your array?" Luke squinted his eyes at her and regarded her skeptically wondering if he was to believe her or not.

"The Lava Lake in Vampire Clan."