He Cackles - Valeria's POV

He Cackles - Valeria's POV
The room is dark, but the worst part is the blindfold covering my eyes. I can smell everything, including the blood that is leaking down my back in droves. By now, it’s probably coating the floor beneath me, making puddles.

When I shift my body, I can feel something wet and sticky beneath me, confirming just that.

The man cackles behind me as he readies his whip again. It’s not the first time that I have suffered from such abuse, though I had hoped those days were behind me.

This is nothing. I will have to make it through.

“Scream for us, darling. The boss needs to hear those pretty, shrill screams. One more should do the trick.”

He cracks the whip again, tearing flesh from bone as it connects with my skin. The scream tears free from my lungs and then I quieten as I slouch forward. My head rests on the concrete flooring, which smells horrid.

I can feel myself giving up. Too much more of this, and I may finally die.

Suddenly, I hear someone telling him it’s enough and to stop. I have never been so thankful for those words.

In the next second, I’m hoisted off the floor and carried back to the tiny cell. They don’t care what happens to me as they throw me inside and I land against the stone wall. I don’t move, even though I long to be free.

There’s just no point in doing anything when I can see. Not only that, even if I moved, they may change their minds and whip me again.

You can’t give up. We have come so far, and you have survived it all. Please, don’t tell me you’re ready to die. My wolf sounds so sure of us, but then it fades near the end.

Once I hear the man leave and know that I’m alone, only then do the tears fall as my emotions show. “I can’t do this anymore. How am I supposed to survive this time?”

Kendric will get us out of this. Have faith in him. He loves you and he’s our fated mate. Once again, my wolf sounds so sure, though I’m not.

I look at the gray stone as the tears blur my vision. “Fate or not, I don’t know if I care about our destiny anymore. Why save any of them? The pack stood by while Jackson hurt me and abused me, and now I’m in another cell, where it’s happening all over again. What’s the point of being their savior when they won’t ever care? Kendric and I should have left them behind.”

I hear her faint huff as she recedes, leaving me utterly alone as I cry. It seems like forever passes before someone opens the door. Their footsteps sound heavier than before, which is concerning.

More muscle means more pain if they choose the whip again.

I shudder as I think about having it come back into contact with my tender flesh. My back is ripped wide open, and nothing is healing.

“Valeria,” the voice says.

I don’t recognize whoever spoke, and refuse to turn around or speak. Whoever it is can say what they want to my back as they watch it bleed.

“My name is irrelevant, but I have come to free you from your cell.”

Before I can stop myself, I turn over and look at the barred door. “Why? And how did you know I didn’t know your name?”

He squats down, finally freeing me of the blindfold. “I know you are aware of your destiny by now, but Kendric isn’t who you should be with.”

“And just who do you think I should be with? I don’t know that I want anyone anymore,” I snap. “This life hasn’t been kind to me and now that I remember all my other lives, especially those that were good, I’m ready to die.”

The man chuckles under his breath as he moves to the side a little. He still keeps his face hidden, and it’s annoying me.

“If you stay on your path, then your fate, along with Kendric’s, is death. There is a way to save you both and your pack. All it takes is one simple answer.” His voice is alluring and inviting, but I don’t have a reason to trust he’ll do as he says.

“There’s always a catch and I’m no stranger to that. Jackson would offer me things to stop the beatings while I was young and a teenager. I quickly learned there’s always another side to things, and it’s never what you think. Something much worse comes behind it. So, what is your deal? Because I really don’t know if I want to save anyone, but myself.”

His hand reaches out for the bars, touching and playing with them as he drags his fingers across. Rings adorn his thumb and middle finger of his left hand. Suddenly, his right hand joins and I notice rings on that hand as well on the same fingers. They click as they come into contact with the bars, but he doesn’t care.

“Oh, Valeria. Have you ever thought that not everyone is as cruel as Jackson?” He asks with a chuckle. “Maybe there’s someone who can grant every wish that your little heart desires and it won’t come at the cost of a war.”

I roll my eyes and move my gaze back to the wall. “Let me guess. This person is you. I’m already marked by Kendric, and I returned the mating mark. There is nothing you can do to break that bond.”

His hand drags across the bars again, causing that wretched clanking sound. “Well, what is done is done, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways around it. You see, Kendric is a tortured soul. Before this life, when he was just a teenager with anger issues, I took him under my wing. He was cunning and brave, but needed to hone his rage. I noticed after a while, the nightmares that happened while he was asleep were quite peculiar. It only took me a month to figure out exactly who that boy was. After that, I knew our fates were sealed and we’re doomed to repeat this vicious cycle all over again. It seems each life he gets more feral and this one, I don’t know how much longer he has before he loses it.”

I turn to glance over my shoulder at him. “So, you are the one we’re supposed to defeat.”

He leans closer to the bars, and in the dim lighting, I catch sight of his fangs glistening. Though I normally can see in the dark, it’s odd that I can’t in this room.

“Defeat is such a harsh word, and we don’t need to go to that extent. Honestly, if you wish, you only need to break this wretched curse that ties us together and then you both may find peace.” He wets his lips and grows quiet for a moment, but when I don’t say anything, he continues. “Nothing is as it seems, is it? I bet you didn’t even know that the reason you have to go through this is all because of some curse.”

“No, I didn’t,” I retort. “I didn’t even know that my dreams were my past lives until recently.”

His breath comes out in a ragged gasp. “As I figured. Your memories aren’t fully there, but I can help you see what you’re missing. All you have to do is agree to give this a chance.”

I burst out laughing, which causes my back to ache from the open wounds. “You have lost your mind. All you will do is torture me again.”

He pulls away from the bars and stalks into the middle of the room. I can’t keep track of all his movements, but I hear the familiar sound of a desk drawer being pulled open.

“You’ll see soon enough that I keep my word. If I tell you that no harm will befall you, then it won’t. You need to see the past and fully understand the curse that was placed on you and Kendric all those years ago. It’s why you keep coming back and why everything exists around midnight. Sadly, there was never a happily ever after planned for you. Unless you find a way out of it and free both of you from this mess.”

His offer sounds too good to be true. I’m not sure what to do. If I take the deal and find out everything, then I’ll know how to kill him. It also would give us the freedom from this we desire, but at what cost?

“If you think you can use your mate bond, you might as well give up,” he chides. “There is no use right now. I made sure you can’t speak to him.”

“I wasn’t trying to use the mate bond. Right now, I don’t know which is a fact and which is a lie. We come together to stop the war between the packs. That is how it has been for every single life, but now I know about you and your influence over it, though I don’t know everything. What do you want?”

“Want?” He asks, sounding amused. “It’s simple. I want what was mine and for Kendric to do my bidding, just like it was supposed to be. What is wrong with that?”

“Was Kendric your mad dog in every life as well?”

His footsteps pause as he stops to answer me. “Well, no, but it would have been nice, wouldn’t it? Can you imagine what I could have? Everything would be mine and at my fingertips with him as my loyal servant. The packs are already aligned with me for the most part, but this would ensure they stay under me.”

“Why do you want that? What good does it do? You’re not even a wolf shifter, from what I can tell.”

He chuckles and comes back to the bars, his hands gliding across them and hitting them with his rings. It’s becoming very irritating. “Power, my dear. Power is everything. So, what do you say? Do we have a deal?”

“I don’t make deals with power hungry vampires,” I spat.

He just laughs in response and hits the bars with something in his other hand. “I even got you a little present. Hopefully, you’ll accept it as a peace offering.”

The door suddenly clinks as he shoves the key into it and turns to open it. He steps inside, but I don’t dare move, mostly because I’m still in pain.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking you to get your back looked at. Then we can deal with everything else.” He steps over toward me, then leans down to pick me up.

When his shirt comes into contact with my wounds, I nearly fall apart in tears. “Those look nasty, almost as bad as the ones Jackson left when you were but a child. So sad. Here you just got those scars healed and Jay tore them right back open to make new ones. Maybe we can get these to go away as well.”

“You’re a monster.”