The Delta's Daughter Chapter 284

CRIMSON

Sliver-coated chains held me fast, digging into my skin. It was dark. Usually, with my night vision, I would be able to see clearly.

Except, whatever poison they had hit me with, coupled with the fact that I was hanging upside down, had my vision wavering and hazy at best.

I smelt the cold and dampness before I began to feel it.

A small cell with no windows and a metal door surrounded me. I heard nothing, smelt nothing. I wiggled in the chains and my body swung in the open air. I was strung upside down, feet and hands bound by the restraints of the cool metal that wrapped around my body like a cocoon. I had been here for a while, by the feeling of the building pressure in my head and eyes, most likely due to blood pooling in my brain from my hanging position.

I grit my teeth and try again to hoist myself upright. Straining every muscle, I have in vain. My body goes lax from the struggle. Like a pendulum, I swing back and forth.

I growl out my frustration, wondering if anyone could hear me.

I had no idea where I was, or who took me.

Shit, did they take Tawny?

Panic rises up, ceasing me when I think of my kitten, praying that she is safe and unharmed. And for the first time, hoping to the moon she is with Mason.

The last thing I remember is thinking, finally, as I dropped to my knees ready to eat my fill of my kitten with every intention of finally sinking into her. I was in a lust-filled daze, the only thing I could and was thinking of was her.

Still, I should have heard or smelt someone coming. My senses should have picked up if there was another being close by.

How the fuck did I let someone or someone’s, get the drop on me? One minute I’m relishing in the scent and feel of Tawny. The next… a sharp sting in my neck rendered me motionless - paralyzed me. Then the feeling of flying before I went under.

Now I am here, wherever here is.

“Hey!” I call out with a rough voice “Anyone out there?” I wait for a second, but I am met with only silence. If they heard me, they didn’t respond. Why would they?

In the darkness, I hear the creek of a door. It sounds like it comes from above me. I wait, listening for something else, for the sound of feet or anything. But nothing.

“Hey! Let me out of here!” I yell again, my head pounding from the force of my voice.

My vision starts to become hazy again, this will be the second, third? time, I have passed out since waking up. If I hang here any longer, I fear I may not wake up again.

How long had I been here?

I had no concept of time. I could have been hanging here for hours or days. I was still alive so it couldn’t be that long. Could it?

My ears perk to the muffled sound of shuffling coming from the other side of the metal door. I try to keep my head elevated, but my body is so drained of energy, it’s a hard task to accomplish.

The door opens, clanging as it does, and I squint my eyes against the flood of light that abruptly fills the room.

Suddenly all my senses are on high alert. As the light streams in, so does the sweet scent of nectarines. Tawny - she’s here.

No, no, no! What have they done to her? I will kill them all if they hurt her!

Fear engulfs me at the thought of my kitten being strung up in the same way. The only thing that mattered was her safety and so far, I had done a shit job protecting her. I silently beg that they haven’t hurt her.

I strain my neck to get a good look at whoever is standing by the open door, now blocking out most of the light that comes from a halogen bulb, aimed right at the doorway to my cell.

The brightness blinded me from seeing who or what they are.

“Holy shit! Crimson!” I sigh at the sound of Tawny’s voice and her scent fills the room. “Get him down from here!”

“No.” A woman’s raspy voice responds to her. “He cannot be trusted.”

Not trusted? What the fuck? I don’t even know who has taken us, me. Or what they want with me.

“You want me to stay? Then take him down.” I hear Tawny demand and my heart swells that she is fighting for me. Me! The one who has let her down over and over.

The one who failed to protect her.

There is no reply, and my body gives up – I slip into the darkness once more.

The next time I wake, I find myself face down, cheek pressed to the cold concrete floor. Still wrapped in silver-coated chains and in the same dark, windowless room. My captors obviously don’t know what I am either.

If they did, they would know that I am not a werecat and silver poses no threat to me. That and I have no spirit animal to keep subdued.

Time ticks by - no shadows are cast in the dark dank room and I have no concept of time. My lips are parched, my throat dry but shit I really need to pee. Obviously, the poison didn’t dry up my bladder.

Eventually, I hear movement from the other side of the metal door again. The door opens and a tall, bulky male stands at the opening. He moves to the side and another male comes in with a tray. “Not sure why Lady Althea wants him fed, but we’ve been given orders to feed the abomination.”

Were they talking about me? Was I the abomination? Maybe they did know what I was.

My face is hoisted up off the floor, the chains are loosened, and I’m shoved back down to the ground on my ass. “You eat. You drink.”

The tray is shoved in front of me. Bread, fruit, and a paper cup full of water sit on it. Looking up at the men, whose sizes crowd me and make the cell-like room even smaller. “I have to use the facilities,” I say.

“You will eat. You will drink. Shit and piss yourself if you have to go.” The same man says.

“Where am I? Who are you? What do you want with me?” I fire off a round of questions. Hoping they would answer.

“You will eat. You will drink. No questions.” I guess I was hoping for too much.

I try a different tactic, “My name is Kolby Crimson, I am the named successor to the throne of Cambiador. You have committed an act of war.” I hold my chin up, trying to salvage any dignity I have left.

The two men glance at each other, sharing a serious look between them before they burst into laughter.

Me, I don’t find my situation very funny in the least.

“Eat, drink. This may be your last meal.” The same large werecat says again. “Besides, Cambiador’s Queen will thank us when we dispose of the likes of you.”

Cambiador’s Queen? That means they recognize Tawny as the queen. “I request to see the queen of Cambiador.” Maybe, if they recognize her position, Tawny will vouch for me to get out of here.

“Why would Lyoki want anything to do with that freak?” The other man says to the first.

I growl at their disrespectful words. Now the poison is wearing off and I’m not hanging upside down, I feel my strength return. With my strength comes my ability to shift and my skin ripples with the need to shift and tear them to shreds. I’ll show them what a freak I really am.

The two guards must have noticed the shimmer over my body as it flitted back and forth from skin to fur and my eyes turned crimson red.

They quickly left without another word. Taking their scathing remarks and shocked faces with them.

***FLASHBACK ***

CRIMSON 16 YEARS OLD

“But papa Armand! I have been looking forward to this for weeks! Why can’t I go?”

“I’ve told you a dozen times Kolby. You will shift and they will expect you to mind-link. Your young and I don’t trust your judgment not to lapse.”

I stomp my feet, coil my fists, and feel the ripple of anger course through me along with the partial shift. His denial to let me go on a field trip camping with the rest of the school is infuriating.

“It’s not fair! You never let me do anything!” I huff and stalk back to my room, with tears in my eyes and defiance in my heart. All week I had been practicing controlling my emotions and shifts.

I just wanted to be a normal teenager for once. To know what it feels like to be a part of something everyone else my age was doing.

In the bathroom, I splash cold water on my face and stare at my reflection in the mirror. Red curly hair, with a smatter of freckles. The girls loved my freckles and curls. But the other boys would tease me and call me a ginger princess. Or princess ginger panties when they really wanted to rile me up.

That’s why this camping trip was so important. Not only was it my chance to show them I was the fastest, strongest, and best shifter in Cambiador but I so desperately wanted friends other than Gillian.

Why couldn’t Papa see that? Why didn’t he understand why this was important to me? I glare at my reflection and watch as my eyes turn red, and the pupils dilate and change shape. The anger flares and before I can think, I have lifted my hand and punched the mirror.

Shards of broken reflection fly, and pieces get stuck in my knuckles. I slouch down against the vanity, clutching my hand. It doesn’t hurt, but the blood seeps from around the shards and out of the wounds with a vast flow. Slowly I begin to pluck each broken piece of mirror. Once removed from my hand, the open wounds begin to heal and within seconds it’s as if they were never there.

“Crimson? Crimson! Ahh, there you are,” Papa waltzes into the bathroom, abruptly halting his steps and words when he sees the blood all over the bathroom and over me. “Oh, Crimson, son. What happened?”

Instead of yelling or scalding me like I thought he would, Papa Armand slides down, taking a seat on the cold marbled bathroom floor, across from me. “Are you ok son?” He asks with concern laced in his words. I bob my head, “I know you are physically fine, Kolby. It’s head and your heart I worry about.”

I lift my head and our eyes meet. I can see the concern, not just hear it, now. “I’ll live,” I croak out.

“I know this is tough for you.” He sighs. “I remember when I was your age, chasing girls, running all over the jungle, getting up to no good,” he lets out a light-hearted chuckle “But, I’m a werecat. You’re not.”

He states the obvious, and I roll my eyes at him. “You don’t understand,” I mumble. My ego was crushed. Just another thing to be made fun of – poor Kolby is not even allowed to go on a camping trip. Or the best – Kolby Crimson is too chicken to camp out with the boys.

“Try me.” He challenges.

“…I feel so alone. So isolated. I’m not that much different Papa. I don’t get it, why do I have to pretend to be something I’m not?”

“Because people in this realm will not understand how special you are. I do though, and all I want to do is to protect you, Kolby. Not from yourself, but from them.” Papa scrubs a hand down his face “There are shifters and other races out there that would do you harm. They would want to know exactly what you are, and where you came from. I fear one day, The realm will find out. I just hope when that day comes, You are prepared and have a kingdom behind you to fight the evils we cannot see yet.”

“I don’t want to be different, Papa.”

***END FLASHBACK***

I guess that’s why I had clung so hard to mine and Gillian’s relationship. I would always be different, and she was always the sprinkles on top of my favorite ice cream.

Now though, everything had changed.

No that’s not right. Tawny is what changed things.

I was going stir-crazy not knowing what had happened to her. I heard her voice, she sounded okay. The tension between my shoulders was stiffening even more. And it had nothing to do with the chains I was wrapped in - Nor the situation I had been put in. Not seeing Tawny with my own eyes and being able to check on her had me coiled tightly.

I couldn’t give a shit what they did to me. I swear though, even the gods themselves wouldn’t be able to stop me if I thought they had harmed her in any way.

I struggle against the chains again to no avail.

I’ve been stupid. I know it. That protective feeling I felt the first time I laid eyes on my kitten, the attraction – It’s the mate bond. How could I have not known?

I was taught all about fated mates by Papa Armand. We just never knew if I would have one. There was always a slim chance. Plus, without having a spirit animal, I never knew how it would feel - if I was given a mate.

You do now dipshit! I curse myself mentally.

Time ticks by. An hour, maybe two? I try to count the seconds in my head. It’s frivolous. Even if I was just trying to pass time, my ears honed in on every tiny little sound I could pick up – distracting me from counting.

I should yell, scream, or at least do something.

If this is their method of torture, whoever ‘their’ is, it was working. I think at this point I would rather take pain than the silence of not knowing who, what, where, and why.

If I could just get out of these chains – I could get out of this room. I could feel my strength coming back. As soon as I’m at full strength, I can break out of here. Grab the princess and be out of this goddess-forsaken place.

Seriously where the fuck are we even? Who are the people that took us? And what the underworld did they want with us… or rather me?

Fuck, this was all so frustrating and mind-boggling.

Hushed whispers, muffled by the thick door come from the other side.

They speak again. No not from the door, from above me. I can just make out one or two words If I close my eyes and concentrate.

Are these the people King Armand warned me about? Ones that would hurt me if they knew what I was? They had to know if they took me.

There was nothing random about the way they snatched me and Tawny up. They were too quiet. Too good at hiding their scents and not being seen.

Not once in my whole life had anyone ever gotten the drop on me.

Until now…