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They feasted on fear, and Skye refused to engage. They were going to kill him either way. That was a fact, and he would not add to their enjoyment by sweetening his blood with fear.
He cleared his mind and thought of the days when he and his grandmother lived in a small apartment in Pittsburgh, and life was loving and full. It was a place he went to whenever real life became too much.
"What is your relationship with Ezra Bently?" He kept the image of his grandmother standing in their kitchen smiling in his mind and allowed nothing else to penetrate. His heart rate and breathing remained steady, and they would get no satisfaction from him.
Suddenly, he was hit with a barrage of demands and threats coming from several different sources asking where he came from, where he lived, why he was in town, and on and on, and then he was grabbed roughly and pulled up to be seated on a narrow metal bench built into the side of the vehicle. It was not comfortable or easy to sit on, but he braced himself and remained still and silent.
One of them pulled him close, getting into his face and speaking harshly. "Answer the questions now, or it will only get worse for you. We have ways of making you talk, and we will use all of them." Again, Skye narrowed his focus onto his grandmother, her cotton dress and tennis shoes, and the smell of sunshine coming through the window. They tried to get into his mind and into his thoughts, but Skye knew how to shut himself off and how to keep them out.
It was one of the only beneficial things Adam ever taught him. He didn’t want anyone getting into Skye’s thoughts since they held many of Adam’s secrets, so it was more self serving than an actual gift. Either way it had proven valuable on more than one occasion and especially now with so many trying to gain entry into his mind.
"When we get you to the Coven, you will be interrogated by the best, and they will tear your mind apart. You're human, but you know who we are and what we are capable of doing to you. Talk to us and tell us what we want to know, and it will go easier for you." He sounded sincere, but he was just a low-level soldier who did not have the power to make any promises. Regardless, Skye had no plans on saying anything to any of them.
Things became silent inside the van, and the pressure of that silence was excruciating. Soon, the vehicle came to a stop, knocking him off the narrow bench and onto the hard floor. The impact was painful since he had his hands tied behind him, but he made no sound or protest against the treatment.
This was child's play compared to what they had in store for him. Skye had been at the mercy of vampires before, and their talent for cruelty was unmatched. The door slid open, and he was roughly yanked out and rushed across a drive or walkway and down some stairs. He was then pushed into a large open room it was an empty space of some kind. Again, he landed on his face on the floor, it was a tile floor hard, cold, tile.
"Get up!" Someone yelled at him, so he attempted to stand, but apparently, he was taking too long because he was grabbed by his right shoulder and tossed into a chair. Skye landed a bit askew but managed to right himself without further assistance. He wondered if they were going to keep him blindfolded throughout the torture session or if they would decide he'd be more terrified if he could see his aggressors.
There were two men in the room with him the shouter and another man who stood back and observed. He couldn’t see them, but he could feel their presence which was pervasive.
"Our dear Ezra is terrified of you." He stated, standing over Skye close enough for him to feel the man's breath on his face. "What is your relationship? What have you done to him?" He didn't do anything to Ezra; they were equals in the kindred, both apprentices and both mistreated.
He was at a loss as to why Ezra would behave as he had. Things started to get real when the man swung and backhanded him across the face, causing Skye's head to snap back. The sting was significant, but nothing he couldn't handle.
This man wasn't going to kill him. It was too early in the torture session to kill him. He would knock him around a bit more, and then he'd hand him off to the next vampire. Vampires liked to play with their captives and their victims before ending them. Skye figured he had at least a couple hours, maybe even three before they killed him.
He'd hoped to make it to the Upper Peninsula and maybe find the family that his grandmother had spoken of. She said her brother had moved there many years ago and had raised a family. It was unlikely he would have found anyone, but just the thought of possibly connecting with family had kept him going. Now, it was all going to end today in that hollow room at the hands of a vampire. What a fucking waste. "Open your mind to me. Let me in." The request came at him suddenly pressing hard upon his mind.
The vampire was attempting to work his way into Skye's thoughts. He quickly brought up his grandmother and focused on every aspect of her being, bringing it all into sharp focus. The pressure on his mind eased off, and the vampire was pushed back. Skye kept the image of his grandmother and their apartment, holding it firmly and forcing everything else into the background. They would get nothing from him.
Dante wasn’t sure what to expect when he was tasked with getting everything useful from this man’s mind. The situation with Ezra left him to assume that the guy would be a lowlife of some sort someone comfortable with abusing others someone dark and pathetic, but he was reading something else from this man.
Ezra was in a state, but the Master had gleaned that the man's name was Skye, and they knew one another from the former kindred in Pittsburgh. It would be a while before Ezra calmed enough to say more, but, in the meantime, Master DuCane wanted the man's mind taken apart. He did not go easy on anyone who threatened his beloved, so Dante's task was to take this man apart.
He was still bound and blindfolded and appeared to have been roughed up but was showing no signs of concern for the situation he was in. There was something so resigned and hopeless about him that Dante was having difficulty seeing him as a threat or a danger.
When the guard backhanded him, Dante felt that it was undeserved and stopped him from doing it again. He usually didn't interfere in the beginning of an interrogation but allowed whoever was taking the lead to exercise their own judgement but there was something about this man. He couldn't stand by and watch him be hit. The man, Skye he was told was his name, did not react which too brought out a strange feeling to protect and defend.
Dante managed to skirt the edges of Skye's mind before he shut down, but he saw nothing but an older woman in a gingham dress standing by a sun-filled window. The image was lovely and peaceful, and the man was using it as a focal point to block access to his thoughts.
It was an old technique and effective although it tended to weaken and faulter over time. Constant battering would break him down in about thirty minutes with the right interrogator and Dante considered himself to be the right interrogator. He signaled to the other guard to leave the room, which he did immediately.
He would start with silence, just standing and observing in silence, giving the man little stimulation. It will take considerable effort to hold onto the image in his mind, and with nothing feeding his need to focus, his focus will then falter. Dante would wait for his moment, and when the walls came down, he would enter, learning everything he wanted to know about this man.
The minutes ticked by, and the man sat hunched forward due to his hands being bound behind his back, but he did not complain or try to move. He sat still and appeared distant; he was very skilled at disappearing.
Dante took in everything about him as he waited. His jeans were worn and frayed, his cotton shirt still had creases in the sleeves from being folded, and his shoes were tan leather boots. His possessions were not expensive, but he took care of the things he owned. He moved forward, something inside of him urged him to look closer.
Skye heard one man leave the room, and he knew that the silent one by the wall remained. He was the one who managed to reach the edges of Skye's thought barrier, so he was clearly the professional and had spent his time weighing and measuring Skye.
He could feel his eyes were on him and every breath he took Skye could hear. No one had ever gotten this close to him before. Whoever he was, it was going to take all of Skye's energy to keep him out.
After several long agonizing minutes, the man stepped forward one slow step at a time and came to stand over Skye. His presence was heavy, and the air was filled with his scent, a clean smell of fresh air and water, which was confusing considering the circumstances. It could be a trick; vampires were full of tricks.
The pressure came fast and hard against the edges of his consciousness. Once again, the vampire was demanding entrance. Skye held fast, but he felt himself begin to shake. He thought the vampire was coming in, and he was about to be laid bare, and then the pressure stopped. The blindfold, which nearly covered his entire face and head, was pulled off and tossed away. The light was subdued, but still, it seemed so bright after having been in the dark for so long.
The man standing in front of him was out of focus and having him so close was damn intimidating. Skye didn’t look up at him but rather kept his gaze on the man’s calves and feet. Vampires didn’t like to be looked at directly Skye had found that out the hard way. Suddenly he was pulled forward and the binds on his wrists were removed and he was free.
