Page 47 of Trapped By the Blood Ruby

His hair was closely shorn and his expression was hard, eyes glittering with malice.

The mansion shrank away behind us. Once more, I felt my chances of escape narrowing. How ironic. I’d wanted so badly to leave this place, and now that I was, I wanted to go back.

Just before it slipped completely from sight, I caught movement beneath the cover of trees—a vampire in the shadows. He lifted something to his mouth. A walkie talkie? And then they were gone.

I opened my mouth twice to say something, only to snap it shut. Laurent’s warnings had been frightening, but I’d never quite taken them seriously. I knew without a shred of a doubt that if I spoke again, Avril would do exactly as she’d promised with my tongue.

I squeezed my hands in my lap but they wouldn’t stop trembling. I tried to distract myself. I started working out differential equations in my head, separating variables, solving for functions. The same trick I always used when trying to control my thoughts. I focused on one side of the equation and worked backwards like a puzzle, isolating the variable I wanted to solve for.

I stuck to ordinary differentials. They were simper. I could picture the independent variable x and its derivatives with respect to y⁠—

The van tires screeched. We slammed into something. I was thrown against my seatbelt as several blurs of motion shot around us. “Take her and go!” came Dominic’s shout.

Rough hands grabbed me, then the world was spinning. I collapsed onto my knees outside somewhere, vomiting. “Ugh, disgusting.” A booted foot collided with my stomach, knocking the air out of me. I choked on my bile as I fell sideways, landing in a heap. I groaned, pushing myself up and wiping my mouth on my arm. Tears of pain clouded my vision.

“Soren, was that really necessary?” Soren didn’t answer. There came a suffering sigh. “Just…get her up. Let’s get her inside.”

“That fucking prick tried⁠—“

“Let’s get her inside,” Avril bit out, “and not talk about it until she’s secured.”

My head swam. My neck screamed in agony. I had probably damaged some of the newly healed skin. When I inhaled—a sharp pain bloomed in my ribs. Were they broken?

Soren clamped his hands around my biceps, hauling me up. “Please,” I begged. He forced me to start walking. I noticed the building. It was three stories with a large carport overhang and faded letters that read “Emergency Room.” An abandoned hospital. The parking lot was dilapidated, cracked with weeds poking through the asphalt. We weren’t in the city, perhaps somewhere just outside.

It was all I could observe before we were inside.

“If anything happens to Dom…” Avril’s words died, but she looked at me while Soren shoved me along. “You’re going to suffer, you little bitch, you’re going to scream, and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.”

I choked out a strained gasp, trying to pull free but they were stronger. A few of the lights flickered overhead. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t!

Pain exploded at the back of my head and the world went dark.

My eyelids fluttered. I gasped, sucking in a breath, consciousness returning in a flood of memories and scenes. It had been a bad dream—just a bad dream. Any minute, Vittorio would knock on my door announcing breakfast.

The back of my head throbbed. I reached for it but couldn’t. I was restrained. Fluorescent lights cast ghastly cool light over the walls. I pulled against my arms, my legs. Nothing. I tried to lift my head. It was strapped down. And I was naked, my clothes stripped away.

I splayed my fingers wide, fingertips brushing the cold steel beneath me. An operating table. Fear turned everything in me to ice.

“Scared, amplifier?” I flinched. Avril’s voice came from somewhere beside me as she moved about the room. I tried to catch glimpses of her. “You should be. I want you scared and in pain. That makes for the most potent blood.”

I tried to speak but there was something in my mouth. Avril appeared before me. She was ordinary looking, with a plain face and dark blond hair. What had I expected a witch to look like? Certainly not otherworldly. Not like vampires. “Do you have something to say?” She reached for my gag, removing it.

“You’re evil,” I hissed.

“Oh, yes. Quite.” She said it like I’d complimented her. “Not all witches can stomach the cost of power. Most of them are too soft, too kind, and it makes them weak. But some of us—those of us who have learned how to survive the longest—do so with blood. Not just any blood. Blood taken through pain.”

Everything Laurent had warned me about came racing back. My chest squeezed with the crushing weight of realization. He’d handed me to these people, knowing what they would do.

“Such a pretty thing,” she cooed, running her fingers down my face. A tear oozed from the corner of my eye and slid down my temple. Laurent had been cold, even a little cruel, but it hadn’t made me feel like this. So violated. So terrified. “Maybe I’ll let you keep your beauty, for now.”

She moved away. Moments later, needles were pressed into my veins, tubes, bags to collect my blood. “We’re going to sell it by the vial to all sorts of creatures. But we’ll keep most of it for ourselves. You’re going to make us a fortune, doll face. Not to mention, powerful.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block her out, trying not to think about how vulnerable I was. I called up an equation. Y prime equals two x plus one. Solve for y. Easy. My tremors intensified. Take the integral of both sides. Now you have the integral of y is equal to the integral of two x plus one dx. Something was shoved into my mouth. The left side was simple. The integral of y prime was just y. I lost control of my bladder and wetness pooled between my legs, paired with the pungent scent of urine and humiliation. This gives two x squared over two, plus x, plus the constant⁠—

My world erupted. Searing, white hot fire slammed into me. My mouth bit down hard on a strap. The cry that came out of me didn’t even sound human. My eyes opened wide, fixed unseeing on the ceiling. I was burning alive. My skin was melting off, my bones turning to liquid. My mouth finally opened and I screamed. I screamed and screamed, my throat ripping apart. My body jerked against its bonds. Nothing else existed besides the pain that engulfed me.

Then it vanished and my voice died. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t⁠—