Chapter 450: Bait 2
"Penelope," August groaned, straining to maintain the attack of the vines she had unleashed on the vampire. "Get ready to move."
"How am I supposed to do that?!" Penelope cried. Her hands were trembling. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how to help the stubborn male who was not allowing himself to be healed by her.
"I will help you," Seth replied, arriving next to August’s side. "What do you need?"
"Is Nedra okay?" August asked first.
"Yes, I think so. It seems she has exhausted herself," he told her. He was deeply concerned for Nedra, and he felt responsible since it seemed he was the cause of what was upsetting her before she collapsed. "This is too much for her."
"I understand," August replied through gritted teeth. Her strength was starting to wane, and she could feel the vampire ripping out the last of the vines that she could send. "He will be coming any second. I need you to help Zagan up so we can get him out of the cage we made."
"You made a cage like Nedra?" He asked, unable to see the structure that they had created in the Veiled. It was the perfect invisible trap.
"That’s right," she said. "I can’t hold him anymore," she sighed, releasing the last of the strength she had into the ground and watching as the vampire shrugged the remaining green limbs from his body.
Seth lifted Zagan from the ground and took August’s hand as she allowed him passage through the cage’s wall. Zagan’s head rolled limply to the side, causing Penelope to whimper helplessly as she watched him be carried out of view.
"August, help him. Please," Penelope’s lips trembled with the request, and August’s forehead cleaved in understanding. She nodded and hurried to follow where Seth had laid Zagan against a tree to see what she could do. She had healed Greta and Graeme in the past. Perhaps she would be able to heal Penelope’s mate as well.
"Where are they taking him?" The intruder began stalking forward. "It is no longer fun when he has lost consciousness, is it? We will have to figure out a way to bring him around so he doesn’t miss what I have planned for you. I did not think a simple bite alone would be so detrimental, but then again you have made him so very weak, mate," he tsked, his eyes narrowing on Penelope who stood glaring at him.
"You will pay for what you have done to him," she said, the fear for Zagan now turning into white hot fury in her veins.
"He mentioned that you were a fighter," the male’s smile grew even wider on his face. "That is what I like."
"There is something I am quite adept at. Would you like to know what it is?" Penelope asked, her head tilting to the side playfully as the fury coursed through her. She did not like being cruel, but this was a much different circumstance than the norm. She could fight cruelly if she needed to.
"Of course. Whatever skills you have to offer, I am most willing to appreciate them to the fullest," he replied, revealing his rows of teeth. "As long as Zagan will not mind you offering them to me."
Penelope grimaced, her stomach turning at the display of this creature’s horrifying face. He was ghastly. No wonder his bite did so much damage.
"I am sure he will not mind," she forced a smile as she replied, batting her eyelashes in an exaggerated way. She knew this was a game for him, so she was going to play her part as if she enjoyed it. "Come a bit closer, and I will tell you what it is I can do."
"As you wish, my dear," he stalked further forward, entering the cage along with her and standing there with his wide grin and dozens of teeth, hands folded behind his back as if he were not truly desiring to harm her in the most horrifying way he could imagine.
She saw it—the darkness that bloomed larger within him as he anticipated how enjoyable this would be to claim another victim. When looking at his aura and his being in the Veiled, it would be easy to mistake both as having an absence of energy and an absence of light. That was not the case at all. He was not empty. He was positively full of a darkness that bloomed and grew, dispersing all else from within its vicinity. His aura was heavy and dense and overflowing with vile things. He reminded her of a suit that was bursting with all of the depravity one could imagine, and if he were unzipped, it would all come spilling out onto the world.
The vampire’s lip curled back over his teeth in anticipation. She was making him wait, making him anticipate the secret that she claimed to have for him, and he was doing his best to be patient. Zagan was not an immediate threat, so he could take his time with her. It was always more enjoyable when the suffering was dragged out—when the fear of his victim was prolonged and stretched thin into a brittle terror that became so fragile he could make them shriek with even the softest touch.
"I can make you one of the forgotten," Penelope spoke softly into the air.
"One of the forgotten?" He chuckled, bringing his hands in front of him now and folding them politely as he listened. "What is that exactly? Do you plan to kill me, dear? I am not sure how easy you will find it to be. I have no mate."
"I may not be able to kill you," Penelope admitted, backing up as he stepped closer to her. Just a few more steps and she would be out of the cage, leaving him trapped within its invisible barrier. "But I can make it so that everyone who has ever known you forgets you ever existed."
"Is that so?" His grin fell down into a contemplative smile. He didn’t believe her. "That doesn’t sound so bad. I was expecting something quite a bit more terrifying."
"Well it is not painful. And I can tell you are one who is impressed with pain," she nodded, glaring at him. "But what will happen if you return to where you came from as a stranger? How will you convince them that you are not an outsider when they have absolutely no recollection of you or the mission they sent you on?"
His expression turned sober at this thought.
"See?" She smirked, taking her final steps outside of the cage’s walls. "One does not have to inflict pain in order to destroy. Am I right?"
