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“What the heck are you talking about? What do you want with me?”
He stroked her cheek with a long black painted nail. “Brave, aren’t you? Not for long. I have to make you hurt. Here let me show you…” he said as he moved his wand.
A burning sensation started at her toes. She looked down and saw that her walking shoes were on fire. She screamed. She was in agony. She could make it stop. She had the power to make it stop. She would have to face him. She didn’t know enough about him to ensure that she would come out of it alive. She had to bide her time and wait until he wasn’t expecting it. Pain took over and she howled with excruciating anguish. She could smell her flesh burning. Hell, she was in hell. She could make it stop. She could make it stop, but that would give herself away.
“Hunter?” Baudali shouted into an orb he held in his hand. “Do you hear her screams? Your lady love is in pain and I am going to make certain she suffers. Do you hear me, Hunter?”
Suddenly with the flick of his wrist the fire was gone. Her boots and clothing no longer burnt and her flesh untouched. It was as though she had not just been engulfed in flames only a moment ago.
What the frig was going on? Why had he done this? Why would Hunter feel her pain?
He said, “Illusion. It works very nicely and yet keeps the subject intact which is what I want. I can keep doing that to every part of you. I can make you feel pain over your entire body and I can do it over and over again. Or, I can make you relatively comfortable if you cooperate and maybe even beg Hunter MacTorry for your life. So, which will it be?”
A human would want to be comfortable and appease him. She wasn’t human. Exerilla said, “Drop dead.” She just couldn’t say anything else. He was sure to make it all return. Baudali produced an ancient dagger and first cut her cheek, allowing the blood to run down her face, neck, and dress. Then he cut open her gown at her belly and stabbed her, over and over again.
Sharp pain gutted through her as she cried out. Her inner witch came to her rescue. It was an illusion. He wasn’t cutting her. He would if she remained tethered like this. He would kill her in the end, but now he needed her alive. She didn’t know why. It had something to do with Hunter.
She pretended to pass out while her inner witch kept her from feeling the pain the illusion called down on her.
“Hunter, do you hear her?” Baudali shouted into the Orb. “We meet soon. In the meantime, I have her close and mean to enjoy this.” He evidently saw that she had fainted and lightly slapped her face. “It isn’t any fun if you are going to pass out on me, human.” She stayed deep within herself.
He produced a bucket of water and without touching it, dropped the water on her face. “Don’t worry; it won’t be much longer now. Time in this dimension moves very differently. Hunter will soon be preparing to join his brother on the battlefield. He thinks to save him, but not all the dark magic he has attained will help him. I have a plan.” So saying, Baudali burst out laughing.
X choked on the water, and as she shook it off. His words formed in her brain and took root. Hunter was a wizard.
Hunter was trying to save his brother who might also be a wizard.
She hadn’t detected it.
Baudali slapped her hard and demanded she wake up. Silently she made a vow to find a way to destroy him. It was then that she felt her dark magic rising.
It was do or die. She was going to take him down as painfully as she could, because she was so much more than she had allowed herself to be.
* * *
Hunter collected everything he needed, but most importantly he made certain his sword carried the spell he and his brother had devised a few months earlier. He had kept it hidden, never looking at it, and now relegated it to the air space where he kept his wand, ever ready to call upon.
Baudali knew nothing about this sword or what it could do.
Dressed in black leathers, warrior leathers, Hunter was mentally and physically ready for battle and just biding his time. He would have to wait until noon, another hour before he would magically shift into the heat of the battle at Waterloo, stand beside his brother, and take Baudali down!
Just as he smiled at the thought, the first wave of pain hit him like a rocket going through him. Pain shot through his body, and in his mind, all he could see was his Exerilla!
An agony of tearing pain continued to sweep over him, coursing through his body. He felt the flames of a fire whip at his skin. He was on fire, his clothes, his flesh, but it wasn’t his skin it was her skin. He could smell her skin burning off her body.
And then he knew, beyond any doubt that Baudali had his Exerilla. He was torturing her. Somehow Baudali had discovered Exerilla was a part of his life and had taken her hostage. He was torturing her in such a way that he would know and feel what she was experiencing.
“Damn your soul!” He told himself. He had everything it would take to defeat t
he Dark Wizard, but he had to remain calm and collected.
His wee lass was human, she would be dead by now if she was really on fire. Baudali was using illusion on her.
He sucked in air and tried to get his head on straight. He had to track her scent. Baudali wouldn’t realize that he was able to do that. He would be careless.
A moment later, Hunter had zeroed in on her scent and sneered. Baudali had taken her to another dimension and one that Hunter had searched long ago when he was tracking the Dark Wizard.
He reached for her through her scent and magic shifted through air and space.
