Chapter 24: Blood and pain

*SAVIOR'S POV

As we approached the cells, cries of agony filled the air from the prisoners undergoing torture. We stood at the door, observing as the lycan guards executed the punishments with military precision, fracturing the hides of the captured humans from the village we had recently raided.

They remained tight-lipped, and I hadn't had the chance to interrogate them myself. But not today; I was ready to deal with them personally.

I had lost a formidable warrior thanks to the sneak attack of the masked humans.

Removing my robe, I entered the torture chamber. I grasped the hand of the guard torturing one of the prisoners. "Allow me to continue."

The guard bowed, stepping back.

I looked at the human chained to the wall with disdain. "Listen to me carefully because I will pose my questions only once," I warned, elongating my claws and dipping them in pure, toxic acid.

Slowly, I drew a line from the inside of the human's head to his eye, stopping just on the eyebrow. The human male ceased his screams.

Leaning in, I unconsciously inhaled the pungent odor of the human's flesh mixed with a metallic scent. "I'm not as patient as my men. I will extract each and every one of your organs and feed them to you if you don't disclose the identity of the masked assailants who murdered my warrior."

The human's heart pounded violently against his ribs, and his fear was like music to my ears. I began dragging my sharp claw down, and the human screamed helplessly.

"Answer my question, and I will spare your life... For now." I smiled wickedly.

The human's mouth trembled, but there was defiance in his eyes. "Do... Do whatever you want to me. I will never tell a dog like you anything."

My eyes turned silver, my wolf angered by the insult. I chuckled darkly as I dug two of my black claws into his eye, and screams echoed. I threw the eye away and dipped my claw in acid again.

"That was for calling me a dog. Now this is for giving the wrong answer to my question." I tore my claws through the cheek of the human, leaving a gaping wound. Then I smeared acid on it, making him yell out in pain.

"Are you ready to lose another eye, or better still..." I trailed my poisoned claw, leaving a mark on the skin of the human male, down his neck to his chest. "Or maybe I should take a rib?"

Wailing and writhing in sheer agony, the human fought back. "Kill me, you bastard. Just kill me."

I chuckled. "That would be too kind a gesture for a filthy creature like you. I will torture you until you are knocking on the doors of death. Then I will bring you back just to go through the process over again and again and again until you break!"

Strangely, it was the other prisoner who spoke up. "Stop!" He yelled, his voice patchy and hoarse. "Promise me that you will spare us, and I will tell you everything we know."

"Kuim, no," the prisoner I was torturing yelled, and I immediately punched him, dislocating his jaw. "Be quiet," I told him, then looked at his partner. "I promise I won't kill you, so now tell me all you know."

The pathetic human hesitated, fearing that I might be bluffing. "I am a lycan of my word; I will never break a promise," I assured him.

Trusting my words, the human began to tell all he knew. "We don't know much about them, but they tried to recruit us from our village, promising us a way to be liberated from the oppression of the lycans. They are called the Sagarian, walkers of light and justice. They were created to fight against the lycans, and we only barely began our training before you captured us." He concluded, but my look told him I didn't believe him. "That is all we know, I swear."

"Hmmm." I stood upright. "Was that so hard to say now?" I turned my back on them, wiping my claws with a rag before returning them to nails. "Like I promised, I won't kill you."

Kaleb took off his fur coat as he entered the cell, walking past me. "But I made no such promise to you insignificant creatures." He tore his claws through the throats of the humans, ending their miserable lives.

As we stepped out of the dungeon, we continued to converse. "So how do we find more on the so-called Justice walkers or whatever they're called?"

"For now, we can only do something out of character to get them," I said, hating the suggestion I had in mind even before I could tell it to Kaleb.

He paused and gave me a look before continuing to walk. "From your face, it is clear that you hate your suggestion, but it is also clear that it might work."

"We may need King Ebenezer," I said with a bitter taste in my mouth. "We may need his spies."

Kaleb nodded, understanding my plan before I even finished telling him about the plan. It was one of the many things I liked about him; he was smart and efficient.

My plan was simple. We had a few supernaturals that were affiliated with humans. If King Ebenezer could use his human spies to help us get information, it would make everything much easier, and we could solve our human pest problem quickly.

"I will send a message to him," Kaleb said, and I nodded. Then he took another route, leaving me.

I reached my chambers and met the guards at the door acting suspicious. I narrowed my eyes, wondering what they were hiding.

The moon was out, and there were distant howls of my people, some probably mating because the moon tonight was special.

It made me sigh; tonight always came with pressure, but I never anticipated the pressure waiting in my chamber.

"Janette, what are you doing here?"