I couldn't remember ever having such a hard time trying to open my eyes before. I didn't even understand why I needed to. I had no idea where I was or what had happened. My brain felt like a scrambled egg. With cheese. The stringy kind. The contents of my mind were all jumbled. My thoughts made no sense. All I knew was that it was important that I open my eyes.
Sounds began to trickle into my mind. At first they were scrambled too. But eventually I understood the sound of a drum beating softly in the distance, the crackling, snapping sounds of wood burning and the hushed, deep voices of men.
Finally, I was able to lift my eyelids. My vision was blurred like a smeared water painting. There were mostly dark swirls of grays and deep blues floating before my eyes. And then there was a flash of dancing red and yellow. Beneath these colors was a horrible pain that filled my head. When it occurred to me that I had a body, I began to feel sensations in my arms and legs. when I discovered that my body had fingers and toes, I wiggled them, in total awe of how I was capable of doing such an extraordinary thing just by simply thinking it into happening.
Before I knew it, my surroundings were making sense to me. It was night time, and the sky was being brushed by tree tops. The moon's light was shooting through the branches. An incredible heat radiated from---
From where?
I turned my head and saw a raging fire and dark figures circling the flames. The dark figures were circling me as well. They were now chanting and moving in unison around the fire. I realized I was lying on my back on something hard. I tried to move, but a sharp pain dug into my ankles and wrists. I was bound to what ever it was I was lying on. I tried again to move my arms and legs, harder this time, but moving caused me incredible pain. Metal bands held me to an X-shaped table. Their edges were sharp and jagged, and they bit into my flesh whenever I moved.
Panic stirred in my mind, shocking my brain into functioning a little bit better. The dark figures were chanting to the sound of drums. There were men in black cloaks, their faces hidden deep within their hoods. They were The Sons of Hallows. I understood this now.
I tried to make sense as to why I would have awakened here, and that is when I remembered Sean. First his anger came to mind, the icy calm that frightened me so. Sean had punched me in the side of the head and knocked me out. This explained the pain that now seemed to fill my head entirely.
I tried to raise my head, but something was wrong. I must have been drugged. My body and my brain were not working the way that they should have been. I tried to summon that thought, the magical one that could think things into happening, but it was gone now, cowering beneath a whirl of new and raw emotions.
A cloaked man appeared to my right. It was as if he had stepped out of nowhere. I turned my face into a pool of hair and tried to speak, but I couldn't. The man stuck something into my arm. My eyes dropped to see the syringe emptying something into the vein in the bend of my elbow.
I balled my hands into fists and jerked upward on my wrists, trying to punch him, trying to protect myself from this man, but there was nothing I could do. Sharp little pieces of metal stabbed into my skin and tore into my flesh, but I tried again and again, yanking and pulling with all of my strength, which wasn't enough. What ever had been injected into my veins had weakened me greatly. I began to squirm, trying to roll out from under my restraints. Sharp metal chewed at my ankles and wrists.
Then something warm swam through my muscles, seemingly melting them away, making me weaker and weaker by the moment. I tried to kick my legs outward, hoping to break the metal bands, but now I could hardly move at all. The hypnotic chanting of men seemed to grow louder. My struggle to free myself was useless, but I wouldn't give up. I would fight until all the fight had left my body.
Then a large, warm hand touched my face. I was calmed against my will, as if the man who owned the hand had known the magic of thinking things into happening. He thought that I should go still and that was exactly what I did. I turned my head to see Sean. He blotted out the moon with his enormous body. He was dressed in the same black velvet cloak that everyone else was wearing, except his purple lined hood was down, exposing his beautiful, barbaric face.
And those eyes that said I meant everything in the world to him.
"Perhaps leather would have been the better choice. I underestimated your tenacity. Under normal circumstances, one would be rendered completely immobile with far less a dose than what you were given. I must say, I am thoroughly impressed." When Sean glanced down at my hands my eyes followed his gaze. That was when I realized there was blood spilling from my wrists.
Lots of blood.
Sean's hand on my face lifted my chin so that I would focus on him instead. "Now, calm yourself, Little One. There will be no more thrashing about. You are only harming yourself. There is a hungry animal in your midst. The scent of your blood lingering in the air is not safe."
In the back of my mind, somewhere, I had a really bad feeling that Sean was the animal he was speaking about.
"You can not escape me. The sooner you accept this fact, the better it will be for you."
It was his touch that seemed to calm me, when really it was probably the drug coursing through my veins, making everything swirl again. In reverse to my waking, I fell backward through consciousness. The images around me swirled and melted together.
Then everything faded, until there was nothing left but an incredibly soupy darkness.
****
Chapter Eight
Bane