Chapter 99: Trapped

Chapter 99: Trapped
Mirage’s P.O.V

“Alex!”

I went to reach out for him, but Alistair caught me from behind with his hands around my waist and hauled me back to his chest.

“Now, now…” his menacing voice reached my ears from behind, making a chill run down my spine. “Don’t rush yet. You don’t want Akiko’s hands to slip and behead your little boy-toy, now do you?”

“Don’t you dare! Don’t you fucking dare!” I was past getting scared of him. This wasn’t about me anymore. This was about my mate…and from the looks of it, he already had tortured Alex while I had been out.

But as Alistair’s nails dug into my waist, I knew I had enough.

Jabbing my elbow into his side, I twisted out of his grip as soon as I heard him groan out a curse and then I twisted around and held out my hand in front of his face, palms out…and released a ball of light.

A high pitched scream tore through Alistair’s mouth, the sound like nails on a chalkboard. But before I could continue on with his torture, I felt Akiko grab onto my hair roughly and yank me back, snapping my head to cause me a sharp pain down my spine.

“Mirage!”

Alex’s voice sounded from behind me, but I couldn’t move my head. The snap must have caused my joint to lock in place or something similar, as even breathing hurt my entire body.

Alistair had his face covered with his hands as smoke rose in the air. But when he turned back to face me, even Akiko gasped in horror at the mere sight of his disgusting face. The once beautiful man was finally showing his true colors. The light from my Fae power had done its job and singed off half his face to reveal raw muscle and bone.

“You…” gone was his pleasant voice. Instead, he now sounded like the monster he truly was. It was as if his throat had been scrubbed raw…or burned out and he didn’t sound pleased about it at all as he looked at me with skeletal eyes filled with hatred.

“You lied to the Council!” He screeched. “You have mastered the use of your Fae powers!”

“Of course I lied you monster!” I spat at him, reaching behind me suddenly to grab a hold of Akiko’s hand and twisted out of it to break free. “You think I was going to walk in here of my own free will without any plan?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Alistair sneered. “What plan?”

“Alex,” I turned to face him, nodding at him as he did at me. “I always knew he was following me. We are mates…how could I not know? And Alex…has been wearing a tracker all this time.”

“What tracker?” Akiko’s head snapped towards him, as she looked him up and down to search for the tracker.

Before I could continue, Alistair caught Akiko by the throat and lifted her into the air, surprising all of us.

“You pitiful youkai!” He screeched at her with his skeletal face. “Why couldn’t you do this one job right? You led the enemy right into my house!”

“I searched…I swear.” Akiko managed to chock out, as I took advantage of the distraction and edged my way towards Alex. If only I could use this opportunity to get him free…

“Mirage…”

The hoarse screech of a voice suddenly froze me in place.

Alistair was suddenly in front of me and before I could lift my arm, he had me thrown across the room as I went flying to hit the opposite wall. A gasp of pain escaped my lips as the damage to my spine increased. I was worried that if he landed another blow to my back, it might cause permanent damage…and that just might be what he was going for.

Fuck! I was being reckless! I couldn’t let him come closer to me any longer.

So this time, I stuck close to the wall with my back pressed to it and my hands spread out in front so I could use my light magic as soon as he came near me.

But Alistair seemed to have figured out my plan as well. So instead of coming at me, he pointed at Akiko…and she turned to Alex.

“Alex!” I screamed as Akiko reached for him, her fingers black as tar with the same substance with which she had probably poisoned Julian. “NO!”

Alex struggled against the shackles, his entire body already bruised and bloody from his fight when he had gotten caught by Akiko in the beginning. But now he reached as far out of Akiko’s reach as possible, trying to avoid the black poison.

But it was to no avail. Akiko grabbed onto Alex…and dug her nails into his neck…transferring the tar like substance into him.

“NOOO!” Forgetting about Alistair and the pain shooting down my spine, I ran for Alex, holding one of my orbs of light in my hand.

Alistair tried to grab me, but I slipped under his arms, and ran straight for Alex.

Akiko moved away from me, her face expressionless as usual. She was Alistair’s puppet anyways, so she didn’t care what happened to anyone else…all she cared about was fulfilling her master’s orders.

Without thinking twice, I connected my light magic, the orb of light to Alex’s neck, right where Akiko had clawed at him and injected that tar.

Alex hissed out and I saw the light from my orb spark as his skin began to char at first. I was about to remove it…thinking that my power was only making it worse…but then the dark circular patches began to clear out, retreating until there was nothing left except for the claw marks.

The orb flickered in my hands and then went out…leaving both Alex and me stunned.

This was it…this had been the solution to Julian’s sickness all along? And Alistair had made me believe that only he had the cure to his poison…

“Mirage! Watch out!” Alex went to grab me around the shoulders, but he was too late.

Alistair’s hands grasped my shoulders tightly and yanked me back harshly against his chest. “You weren’t supposed to find out about that…” he whispered into my ears in his horrid voice. “Oh well…”

And then, before I had time to react…he yanked down the collar of my jacket…and bit down on my neck, his fangs piercing my skin to reach for my artery so he could draw my life’s blood.