Chapter 132 CHAPTER 132
ALIRA'S POV
Cold, icy water poured on me, drenching me from top to the naked feet planted on the tiled floor.
My eyes flickered open immediately, pulling me out of the darkness and nightmares I'd been in.
Instantly, I became aware of the cold.
It was one thing being cold in the Utah weather, but here, whatever cold I felt outside, was multiplied a hundred times over.
Like he'd known it was a weakness.
I could hear five air conditioners blowing and now, water was just poured on me, making my hair drip with the liquid on my face continuously.
“Are you awake or do you need me to bring the iced water?”
“Hello Baldwin,” I breathed, teeth chattering from the cold.
“Oh, so you can be nice. Then maybe this can go as smoothly as possible.”
“What the hell do you want?”
I'd expected to be strapped to a sterile, steel bed, my insides bared for his robots to delve into but instead, I was on a steel chair, chains tying every part of me down.
My legs were tied, my hands were chained at my back, an iron thing wrapped around my throat and one more iron chain was around my waist, all hooked to the ground.
Normally, all of that would be a challenge but not an impossible nut to crack but there's something running through my veins.
Pills I'd taken for years, intentionally.
But now, it was at a heightened dose, the type that would kill me if I were human.
But I wasn't, so it was doing an amazing job of keeping down while this bastard walked around, making noise with his feet and increasing my pounding headache.
“What I want? I actually want a lot of things from you but let's start with one thing first.”
And then he walked away.
Then walked back after two minutes or thereabouts, dragging a chair with him.
I could barely move my head but I blew off the strands of hair covering my eyes and saw him pulling the chair to me, a small table in his hand.
He dropped both before me and then reached into his shirt, pulled out nothing and we both began looking at each other.
Me with confusion written on mine, and he with a knowing smirk.
He was baiting me and was enjoying it.
A few seconds later, two robots walked in, looking like they had walked off a runway, wearing flamboyant coats and with blue eyes.
He even gave them huge breasts, the bastard.
They carried a book, no, THE book, with them.
The one that saved me and sent me to Drakkonia where if I'd not been such a weakling, I would have stayed in and lived a good life.
Just last week, I was happy about my life not being threatened.
I had waited for Baldwin to pop out of the shadows so I could kill him and then let my guard down a little but since I didn't hear anything from him, I let it down regardless.
Besides, I had my hands a bit full.
Now look at us. I couldn't even turn my neck to find Zade but I could sense him, he was still knocked out with whatever Baldwin injected us with.
They placed the book on the table and moved back, a door enclosing them.
Baldwin touched the inside of his pockets again and I heard clicks of doors shutting.
“So tell me, what's this book and how did you pull out that monster through it? Is that what gave you those scales? Are you like them too?”
A dry laugh escaped me and it grew, the bubble enlarging in my chest until I was laughing like a fucking maniac.
“Are you done?” He snapped and I shook my head but inhaled deeply, a few uncontrollable chuckles still slipping out. “Good. Now answer my question!”
“Which of them? You were on a bit of a roll there.”
I was channelling the old Alira, the one that was always angry, frustrated, looking for a way out of the life she hated.
Not Alira, daughter of Zhar, but Alira Ferguson, the girl with so much confusion in her mind.
Because how did I even end up here?
What on earth made me come back to that damn library without checking to be sure it's safe?
I should have made enquiries or something but no, I walked into this mess, eyes wide open.
“What is this book?” Baldwin snarled, taking back my attention.
“As you can see, it's a storybook. I've forgotten what it reads though so I'm sorry I can't offer further insight.”
“That's not what I need to know and the faster you cooperate, the better this will go for you.”
“But you and I know that's a lie,” I said to him.
“A lie?”
“If I give you this one answer, you'll have fifty more questions for me. If I answer all your questions, you'll plug my mouth with something, prop me up on a sterile steel bed and find more answers in my body. When you're done, you'll either rape me or kill me. There's no way I come out of this unscathed and we both know that so no, I'm not answering your delirious questions. Do your worst.”
Silence.
Then –
“I really hoped you'd want to do this the easy way.”
His hand reached into his pocket.
“There's nothing called easy where you're concerned. I've been under your father's torturing hands as a child and from the darkness in your eyes, you're worse. But I've spent the last three months dealing with that same darkness in another body so when I say bring your absolute fucking worst, I mean bring it all! I won't tell you shit!”
“Very well then. Allow me to introduce you to Vera, Jon and Ehis. They'll either make you talk, or they'll ruin you. But you will tell me about this book and you'll help me use it.”
“I will rather die!”
“That can very quickly be arranged but no, I have other uses for your body.”
He got up and clicked his fingers and the three beautiful-looking demons, sorry, robots, came for me.
That night, or day, I can't tell, everywhere is sealed, and I saw hell.