Chapter Five (Isla)

Nolan grinned, walking towards me, as the short man left and walked out of the room. He unhooked the chains from the wall and threw me over his shoulder, then turned and headed into the hallway.

Angry, I was hitting and kicking him the best I could with my wrists and feet bound, trying to get him to let me go. He laughed. "Try all you like. It will not work."

Finally, I gave up and turned my focus to my surroundings. Two things were certain I was underground, and this was a castle. It was like I had gone back in time. Which means I’m no longer in North America. Which begs the question, just where the hell am I?

Nolan carried me into a medieval-looking room. Chains hung from the ceiling, there was an iron maiden in the corner, and the rack, which is the most common in medieval torture, sat in the middle of the room; they had iron claws on a table by what looked like a giant stone altar and a giant iron chair, and another chair sat in another area of the room. The room was terrifying. Objects I have no words to describe hung on the walls, along with whips, knives, axes, and handcuffs.

“What momma didn’t hug you enough, so you turned into a psycho killer?” I joked at Nolan, trying not to show my fear. In response, he dropped me to the floor like a sack of potatoes, which resulted in me hitting my head on the corner of the stone altar. Cursing, I sat up, glaring at the man. “That was unnecessary,” I scolded, touching my now aching temple.

The brute or Nolan was what looked like a tall, muscled giant, scarred from battle, and was missing his right eye. He must've been the large black wolf I saw with the silver one.

He shrugged, walking to the side while the short man walked into the room with two men following him. He looked at Nolan, “why haven’t you started yet?” anger clear in his voice.

“You didn’t specify what you wanted done, Sir Ronan.” Nolan replied as a half-turned arm clawed him in the face, nearly taking out his other eye. The two men behind Ronan flinched, but did nothing. For Ronan to change only a part of his body into wolf form means he is ancient. I noted to myself. That's something that a wolf takes hundreds of years to learn.

“You were supposed to torture her for the information we need! I have not waited around five hundred years for nothing!!” Five hundred years. What exactly is this guy looking for? Why does he need Una and Murdina and who are they?

Ronan stalked up to me, picked me up again, and placed me in the chair that sat in the corner and strapped me in. Strong for a little fella, I laughed to myself. I wondered where the hell they got an electric chair from, as they stuck electrodes to my head and legs and removed my restraints just to securing my wrists and feet into the chairs built-in ones.

“Things are about to get interesting,” I joked, knowing that as much as this would hurt, it wouldn’t kill me, or it wouldn’t in a week when I turned twenty-one and froze into immortality. I frowned. What a predicament I’ve gotten myself into. I tested the restraints and couldn’t budge them. I guess they were magically reinforced.

They thought witches weren’t good enough to be mated to wolves, but they can profit from and buy their abilities. “Hypocrites,” I hissed under my breath as anger built

“So, are you going to tell me where they are?” Ronan questioned with an evil smile on his face.

“Like I said before, I don’t know who they are?” If I did, I wouldn’t tell you. I finished in my mind. Bracing for the pain, I knew was coming.

Nolan flipped a switch, and electricity shot through my body, causing my muscles to tense. The electricity shooting up and down my body came as a sting and not as excruciating pain as I had thought. It absorbed into my body, settling in my midriff and built until it was uncomfortable, but not painful.

Nolan switched it off, and I looked at them as they smiled, thinking they had hurt me. I’ll keep that little tidbit to myself. I’ve never really used magic, but I had felt this bottled-up electricity could help me. My mother did specialize in elemental magics and electricity does not differ from lightning. To my surprise, the two men behind Ronan were not smiling, but concerned. Were they aware of what happened or were they concerned about me? What do I care? I scolded myself. They are the bad guys?

“I’ve waited five hundred years wanting to know where Una and Murdina are. I had to wait for you to be reborn and you are not leaving here until you tell me where they are and what you did to them!!” he roared.

I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “YOU ARE NUTS!!!” I yelled back. “Even if I lived another life, and was reincarnated, you, in your five-hundred-year wisdom, should know more than anyone that people don’t just remember their past lives. What do you want them for, anyway?"

“You would and you do, Danu!” he hissed. “As you already know, they are the keys to the prophecy.”

"What prophecy?" I asked, confused, as Nolan flipped the lever and electricity shot through and into me again. The electricity continued to build as a ball that slowly grew bigger and bigger till I felt like I was going to explode. Although the electricity itself wasn’t painful, the gathering up of it was. I could feel it pushing and building till I couldn’t stand it anymore and I screamed, as I vomited electricity, spraying it and hitting everything in front of me. Lights exploded and Ronan shot into a wall, Nolan quickly flipped the switch, and everything stopped.

Gasping for air, I couldn’t help but laugh at how this had backfired on my so-called captor. Someone slapped me hard, and I sobered, looking up at Ronan, who was sitting on the floor with his eyes filled with fury and the hair which fell loose from the bun was standing on end, his face reddening, caused me to explode with fits of laughter. He looked quite crazy .

"What are you? What was that?" He roared as he struggled to his feet and stomped towards me.

Sobering again, “Why would I tell you? You caught me and should know who and what I am. You came after me! Remember!” I accused. I'm not getting out of here alive, am I? I thought as I felt something crack across the back of my head and everything went black again.

When I came to, I was hanging from a hook by chains holding my wrists together. They had not realized I was conscious because the four men were standing across the room talking. When I get out of here, I am going to enjoy killing these assholes.

“Tavish, go tell Alpha Kylen that we need more time and what has occurred here.” Ronan snapped, then turned to Nolan as Tavish walked away “Get information from her. Do not use the chair again or any electricity. I need to find out what the hell she is!” he snapped, walking towards the exit before turning to the last man, "What is it, Taven? You look like you have something to say?" He spat at him.

“What if she is speaking the truth and doesn’t know them and we grabbed the wrong person?” Taven queried.

“Not possible. Faye doesn’t mess up her magic.” Ronan retorted, walking away, with Taven nodding with a frown before following behind him.

Nolan, now left alone, turned and stalked towards the wall, grabbing a whip with a ball on the end and walked towards me. “If you’d cooperate, I wouldn’t have to do this.” He paused; his voice was impossibly low. "Will you tell me where Una and Murdina are?”

Eyeing the whip, I did my best to shrug. “I’ve already told you. I don’t know who they are and I’m not who you say I am.” I bit out bracing myself when he shrugged, shook his head, drew the whip back and struck me across the back causing a scream to erupt from my lips. He stopped to repeat the question, and I bit out again that I did not know them, which was met with another lashing. Pain vibrated through my body as each lash hit my back, causing my shirt to tear as my skin ripped and bled, each lash causing more pain than the last.

Eventually I felt myself go numb and after what felt like hours of this, Nolan stopped, lifted me up to take my wrists off the hook, and put me back in my dark cell. I collapsed onto the floor, unable to move, as tears streamed from my eyes.

I fought back the tears, refusing to let them win. As I lay there bleeding on the floor, I realized it didn’t matter if I knew these people or not, they would never believe me. I’ve never even tried to unlock any past lives I may have had; I never felt the need to. If I didn’t try, though, I would die here, or would they keep me alive until they got what they wanted from me? Would I even be able to control my magic enough to do so in the first place?

I concentrated on trying to call up my magic, trying to unlock anything that could be hidden within my mind; but without the control I so desperately needed, it was futile. I then tried to contact my wolf, which I could never do either, but was hoping this once I could, and she would help heal me, but no answer.

As there were so few hybrids, there was no one to get information from. I have never met another hybrid, so everything felt like a gamble for me. I hoped that with my birthday things would figure themselves out and make more sense for me, but that hope was also met with much pessimism. Now, being trapped here, would I even reach my birthday?

There was no one to even look for me. My parents were dead. I felt tears slipping down my cheeks. Trying not to show weakness, I struggled to keep them in, but could not. I continued to sob. It had been weeks since my parents' death and yet this is the first time that I had stopped and think about them and let myself grieve. They were dead, and I was truly alone. Tears fell until I slipped into a fitful sleep.