I stare in horror as a small waif of a gir, around seven years old with dark raven black hair and deep grey eyes, gets dragged into the room, kicking and screaming. It’s me. I’m strapped down onto the table and the doctor grabs a sharp looking scalpel and proceeds to cut into me. Telling me that if I just used my powers he would stop. It is absolutely horrifying, my stomach revolts. After the me on the table finally passes out from the pain, the doctor brings a healer in and has them heal all my wounds until I’m as good as new before they start all over again.
The memory speeds up and I watch, as if it’s playing in fast forward, as the torture is done over and over again. Each time, they healed me after, not even a scar left. After a while I stopped screaming when the hurt me, even when they inflicted the continuous curving deep cut on my back, the same one that I thought must have been made by mother, they didn’t heal that one, they left me in agony.
At some point that same calm that I use in present time to escape, overtakes past me's features. The doctor and the man in the suit saw that I wasn’t reacting how they wanted me to and decided that this form of torture wasn’t going to work to unlock my powers.
So, they brought in an illusionist and had him make disturbing scenes of my family dying in horrific ways or being tortured similarly to what I was experiencing, amongst other horrifying nightmarish scenes. The horrifyingmemory slows down and I dread what it’s going to show me next. I watch as I’m brought into the room and strapped into a chair this time, I look almost a year older, before the illusionist can start, I hear arguing outside the door.
“Sir, this is enough, nothing has unlocked her powers. Maybe it would work better if she was placed in a home, nothing else is working and her mind is too young, it’s going to break if she has to suffer through anymore torture and then even if you do manage to unlock her gifts you will be unable to train her and use her as weapon, she would be powerful but useless. An unstable weapon would have to be put down.”
I know that voice, that’s Cain, he fought to have the torture stopped.
“Put a memory block on her mind and place her in one of your employees homes, they can keep an eye on her to see if her powers unlock by themselves and I’ll train her myself so that when the time comes she will be ready to become the perfect weapon for you.” Cain finishes.
Suddenly it all makes sense. My mother, that’s not actually my mother, is employed by this man and my early training was all down to this arrangement made by Cain. I want to be mad at him for suggesting my memories be wiped but he saved me and by training me he helped me learn how to protect myself. I owe Cain. I watch as they bring in the same healer to wipe the year I had just lived through. He puts me into an artificial sleep and I watch as I’m handed off to the woman who pretended to by mother for all those years.
Everything fades back to black. Although I am utterly horrified and sickened by what I just witnessed, I feel lighter finally knowing for certain what happened and that the memories can’t suddenly sneak up on me. I’ve seen them now and I can deal with them. I’m not entirely sure why fate chose this moment for me to the see them, but I trust that she has a reason. I don’t understand how this fits in with Brent but I have a feeling it will all be revealed. Instead of letting these memories break me, I take strength from them. I went through that horrifying ordeal and survived. Now I have multiple people willing to fight for me.
Chapter Eighteen
Islowly wake back up, as I force myself to swim up from the depths of my mind. Groaning quietly at the ache in my head, I lift my hand to gently feel the area that hurts the most to assess the damage. I’m startled to find my arms don’t respond. My eyes snap open in response, my groggy mind momentarily thinking they had been chopped off or something. I glance behind me to see my wrists handcuffed to some sort of industrial piping, well at least they’re still attached to me I guess, silver lining and all that shit.
“Good morning, sleepy head!” A sarcastic female voice startles me.
“Shit.” I curse.
I glance around my surroundings trying to find the source of the voice, my eyes land on four battered, bruised and bleeding people handcuffed to the pipes on the opposite wall.
I take a moment to look them over, the girl who spoke to me has deep red hair, cut into a short style which compliments her pixie like features. Her light blue eyes spark with defiance and fight. I instantly like her. Two of the remaining three are identical twins both of them have dark brown hair, although one keeps it ever so slightly longer than the other, they both have dark brown eyes and fit muscular bodies.
The final one has hair so blond it’s almost white and piercing green eyes, built slimmer than the others but still defined if the muscles in his arms are anything to go by. All of them are wearing black combat trousers, black boots and black t-shirts. They all look worse for wear but none of them appear to be severely wounded.
“Sorry I’m late to the party.” I chuckle sardonically, and pixie girl joins in. “I’m Sage and I’m assuming you’re Jett’s team?” I question before adding, “how long was I out?”
“Around twenty minutes,” the red headed pixie replies, “and yeah that’s us. I’m Erin the twins are Damon and Dash and the guy with the blond hair is Jett. Nate and Kyle, our other members weren’t capturedwith us, they were staking out a different location.”
I see worry cloud her eyes before she can hide it and I wonder if she has a Soulmate Bond too or perhaps just a relationship like the one I’m trying with my guys.
“I haven’t seen you before.” Erin narrows her eyes at me. She says it like she knows all of the team’s and it makes me wonder if they belong to the elusive training academy that Thomas mentioned before.
“What team do you belong to?”
“Well technically I don’t officially belong to any team yet, it’s a long story. I came with Levi and the guys.” I reply.
“Makes sense.” one of the twin’s mutters quietly.
“Where are the rest of them?” Jett questions.
“We got rammed by trucks on the way to the safe house you guys were using, there was a gun fight and Brent’s men grabbed me, they’re all fine.” I say, checking the bonds once again. They’re far away but alive.
“Why did they just take you?” The other twin asks loudly, in direct contrast to his brother’s quietness.
The door to the dank room crashes open, banging against the wall, interrupting my answer.
“Sage,” Brent says warmly, “I’m so happy you could make it.”
“It’s not like I had a fucking choice.” I growl, venom lacing my tone.
Anger tightens his eyes, but he manages to rein it back in before he shows his cards.
