“Well, it was a pretty fragile spirit. But that’s not the only thing I broke of his,” was Bane’s response.
Lupita gave a shocked gasp and slammed a hand onto the table in front of her in a blind rage. She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Exy. “Don’t get too work up. Bane isn’t the only one at fault here. It was your son that started all of this mess.”
“There shouldn’t even be a trial. We all know that the both of them are guilty, just lock them in a cell for however long you want and get this over with,” said Lupita.
Exy made a tsk sound and turned another page in the document that she had in front of her, looking down at the page and reading a couple words. “I’ve taken the time to thoroughly look over and read what the two of you have been accused of, and I believe that you two deserve more than to just be imprisoned and given a small punishment like a slap on the wrist,” she said closing the document and flattening out the pages that had curled from her turning them. “But before we get to your punishments, I want to know why Derren, attacked Bane’s Clan and started this whole mess. What was the reasoning behind all of this?”
There was an amused smirk that took over Derren’s face as he spoke his answer. “I was slowly ridding the world of bloodsuckers and their disease.” After he said that there was a low deep chuckle that escaped his mouth and then there was a loud thud of Exy’s gavel striking down on the surface of the table, bringing everyone to silence.
Then the punishments began.
† † †
They had started with Derren first. It had been an absolute unbearable thing to watch, but strangely Bane couldn’t look away, and he couldn’t close his eyes because when he did nightmarish images flashed through his mind—which raced liked a train.
He watched in disgust as Exy tortured Derren; with thin chains of silver that left chain-like burn marks into his tan skin. She trailed the chain over his chest, stomach, then wrapped it around his arms—even the one that was broken. The silver bit into his skin causing it to fester and become bloody and raw with ugly blisters.
Derren grit his teeth, stifling a cry of pain each time Exy trailed the chain somewhere new on his skin. The burn that the chain emitted could only be described as that of hell fire. He was in agony, but this was his punishment.
Everyone knew what silver could do to a werewolf, and if Exy was willing to use a Degenerates own weakness against them, Bane could only imagine what she would do to him. Because he himself had so many weaknesses. Thoughts of what all Exy could do—could come up with—crossed through his mind and he grimaced. Then his mind wandered to thoughts of what had happened to him back in 1910, and he rubbed at the scars that marked wrist gulping back a lump that formed in his throat.
There was no way of getting out of this.
As Exy tortured Derren—clasping chains of silver around his wrist, neck, and legs the silver burning into his skin, sure to leave scars—there was a wicked grin etched onto her face. It almost resembled a Glasgow Smile.
She moved on from Derren, leaving the chains wrapped around his limbs, and moved on over to Bane, who sat kneeling on the floor.
The muffled cries of pain from Derren could still be heard, and though Bane could care less about the werewolf, he still felt bad for him. It was a feeling that burrowed deep inside and ached. Whether they liked it or not they were in this together.
Exy placed her hands on the sides of Bane’s face and the vampire closed his eyes for a split second. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. They were hanging on the tip of his tongue, but he didn’t have the energy to say them.
Exy turned to face the other members of the Transcendent Council—Drew – the Unseelie King of Nympharum and Lupita – Derren’s mother and ex-alpha of the Alexander Clan. “Cuff him to the block for me, will you.”
They grabbed Bane by the arms and locked his wrist into place with the manacles that were embedded into the large cement slab that he was keeled over.
He knew that he could easily break free of them, but that would result in further punishment.
There were a few moments of silence, save for the muffled groans and whimpers coming from Derren.
Then there was the sound of rustling behind him and he tensed up and his body arched like a cats on instinct. Then there was the sound of ripping fabric and Bane could feel the ghost of cold leather straps brushing against the tender flesh of his back. The muscles in his shoulders tensed, visibly, causing Exy to smirk.
He knew what was coming. He took a moment to think of all those times that he had watched the Council do this to people, in public, even though it was something that was meant to happen in private.
There was a sense of anticipation that built up in Bane’s chest as he waited for what was to come.
Exy bent down and rubbed the palm of her hand up and down Bane’s back, slowly, and then she dragged her nails down the length of his back causing five angry red lines to appear. She stood back up straight after a moment. “One hundred lashes,” she said her voice void of any emotion. “I want you to count, and if you stumble over your words, that’s another five lashes. Understood?”
Bane nodded reluctantly, his face pressed flush against the cement block.
Exy smiled in sadistic satisfaction, pulling her arm back and flicking it forward. The beaded leather straps of the Cat o’ Nine Tail ripped into the flesh of Bane’s back making a grotesque sound that mixed with the horrific yell that left Bane’s mouth. A line of deep bloody gashes formed in Bane’s back and through his hysteria he managed to let out a choked, “one.”
Then there was another. “Two,” he croaked. His voice was small, filled with devastation and hysteria. He wasn’t crying, but the Cat o’ Nine ripping through his flesh caused a searing pain to erupt through the nerves of his back and made tears brim his eyes.
After a while, they reached fifty lashes. Bane’s back was bloodied and raw, covered in various gashes.
Bane wished for the torment to be over, but it wasn’t. Exy wasn’t done. She was making sure that she put him through hell and she relished in the fact. She still had fifty more lashes to give, and she’d revel in the sadistic pleasure until the very end. She pulled back her arm and gave another strike of the Cat o’ Nine Tail, sideways. It ripped through the other cuts and a choked yelp ripped from Bane’s throat. The new angle provided a new hellish sensation of pain.
“F-fifty one.”
“Fifty-four more to go,” said Exy.
Bane was weak. He was losing so much blood from the cuts in his back and there were bloody tears streaming down his face. He’d never endured such torture. And had never met someone who could purposely cause someone this much harm.
Exy moved to make another strike but was stopped by a hand wrapping firmly around her wrist. “I think that that is enough,” said Drew, his voice firm and unyielding. It held no room for argument.
“You’re right, Drew,” said Exy, stretching a hand out in front of her and examining her nails. “I seem to have broken a nail in the midst of all this commotion.” She placed the Cat o’ Nine Tail down on the cement block that Bane was cuffed to. It and the floor were covered in splashes of blood.
There was a moment where Bane felt relief, then Exy dug one of her fingers—with a long, fake, black nail—deep into one of the long gashes in his back, and he tried his best to stifle a yell of pain that threatened to escape, but he failed miserably.
Exy then slid the finger coated in Bane’s blood in her mouth and sucked away the crimson liquid, a burst of iron and metallic flavor erupting in her mouth.
Drew and Lupita relieved Bane from his restraints and he slid down onto his knees—weak and in desperate need to feed. But he wouldn’t count on them giving him blood—so he let the thought go, pushing it to the back of his mind.
He then looked over to check on Derren, because he couldn’t hear his muffled cries of pain anymore.
Derren was covered in raw scars where the silver chains had been. His body was covered in sweat and a feverish heat radiated off of his body. His black hair was soaked with sweat and his arm, the one that Bane had broken was pressed protectively against his chest.
Exy hadn’t even spared that arm.
Lupita rubbed a salve onto the burn marks and whispered soothing words to Derren, trying to calm him down. His brown eyes—when not in wolf form—met Bane’s and they both stared at each other, weakly.
Bane broke the eye contact a few moments later and looked up at Exy, blood coated her white blouse. But it didn’t seem to bother her.
“Lock them up,” said Exy.
Derren and Bane were too weak to fight as they were led to their cells.
Because of the lack of blood in Bane’s system, it would take him longer to heal than usual, and he wouldn’t be healed for days if the Council decided to not allow him any blood. But even if it all healed, the scars from the lashes would still be there, and that fact made Bane feel sick to his stomach.
His once clean-slate back was now a canvas masked with raw skin and bloodied imperfections.
† † †
White flame sparked from Goran Ashwood’s hands and flowed over the course of Bane’s back with a graceful dance. The skin grew back, healing with each passing moment, as the white flame tingled on his upper and lower back—and he felt relaxed for the first time in a long time. His muscles—that had been tense and rigid since the moment he had entered the court—relaxed.
“I’m surprised that the Council even sent a summons for you,” said Bane, breaking the tense silence that had washed over them from the very moment Goran had entered his cell.
Well, was thrown into his cell by Lupita and Drew via Exy Durray’s orders.
Goran gave a light chuckle. “It was Drew, who summoned me, actually. He sent a message saying that you were badly hurt and in immediate need of my assistance. He wasn’t kidding.”
“Of course he wasn’t kidding; he’s one of the Divine. A faerie,” Bane replied, tracing incoherent shapes into the thin hard mattress under him, then added, after a beat of silence, “The King of the Unseelie.”
“Well,” said Goran. “His summoning me wasn’t very Divine of him.”
Bane scoffed. “He probably summoned you because he didn’t want me bleeding all over the place.”
Goran stayed quiet, focusing on healing Bane’s back that was now just a mass of scarred flesh. When he was done, he dropped his hands from where they hovered over Bane’s back, the white flame disappearing back into the depths of his hands, and he looked down at his friends back, surveying it until the sight of it was etched permanently in his mind.
“I’d like to see Sebastian,” said Bane, his dark green hair matted with sweat and sticking to his forehead. “If that’s all right.”
Goran hummed. “I’m sure that could be arranged,” he said, standing from where he had been sitting at the edge of Bane’s cot. “I’m sure Exy would allow it.”
Bane nodded, halfheartedly, exhausted from everything that had happened in the last few days but as hard as he tried he couldn’t fall asleep, the pain radiating from the lashes on his back were too much for him to bear.
Without another word, Goran took his leave, making his way down the hall, the clacking of his shoes against the hard floor growing fainter the further he got away from Bane and his cell.
Bane closed his eyes, clenching them shut tight, hoping for sleep to take hold of him and pull him under, to distract him from the pain that he was feeling, but alas it didn’t.
His thoughts were elsewhere, bringing on the images of what he had done to get him in this mess. His mind providing him a play by play.
Bane still felt distinct tingles of pain even after Goran had healed him.
He could still feel the bite of the Cat o’ Nine Tail hitting against his back and grit his teeth. He couldn’t move it hurt too much, so he just laid there with nothing but his thoughts.
In the cell across from him, he could hear muffled whimpers coming from Derren and his heart broke for him. What they had received wasn’t an act of punishment, but torture.
When Bane closed his eyes all he saw was Exy and the Glasgow Smile that etched itself into her lips.
He was in hell.
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