There were only a few things Aleneo was afraid of. Death wasn't one of them. But Angel dying? He'd consider suicide if she died because of his foolishness. And if anyone harmed her, he would make sure they wished they were dead when he was done.
The thoughts of torturing men evaporated as Yazif held up his hand. He put his hand into a fist, signaling to everyone to be quiet. Aleneo looked around and listened for whatever Yazif had picked up on. He'd been so distracted he hadn't picked up on the same strange feeling he got earlier. It was back and stronger.
His fingers tightened on the reigns. The leather bit into his skin. He started to lead Angel forward when he caught himself.
What was he doing? Was he trying to get them all killed?
Yazif lowered his hand.
"What is it?" Aleneo asked after a long silent moment.
Yazif shook his head as if he couldn't believe what he'd seen. "There was movement in the trees."
Aleneo looked up. He couldn't see anything. "Are you sure?"
Yazif stared at the tree line. "I'm sorry, sir."
Aleneo trusted Yazif. He was a good general. "Mistakes happen. Don't make it a habit."
Yazif clenched his jaw. "Yes, sir."
They started to move again. Though they hadn't seen anything, Aleneo was on guard. He kept his hand was on his sword the whole time as they passed under the trees Yazif had been talking about.
He relaxed some when nothing happened.
"Alright. We'll rest here—"
He got the words out just as the trees started to fall. The men screamed and unsheathed their swords in a matter of seconds. The things falling from the trees jumped on top of them. Yazif shoved Aleneo out of the way, narrowly missing the thing coming for him. Aleneo pulled out his sword and attacked the thing atop Yazif. The sword went straight through it.
He pulled the blade out and saw blood. Yazif pushed the leaf covered thing to the ground. They both stared in shock as the thing landed on its back, revealing a man's face beneath all the leaves.
More screams pulled Aleneo out of his shock. He moved to attack more of the things attacking his men, but it was too late. His men's throats had been slit. The horses with dead owners bucked the enemy off.
Aleneo stabbed the closest to him. They weren't taken off-guard by the attack. They had tried to hit the sword out of his hand with their knife but had missed entirely. Aleneo pulled his sword out again and went for the next one while Yazif attacked the others. They got two more down before a loud bang sounded from the direction they'd been heading.
Aleneo and Yazif had no idea what the sound was. They backed away from the men. Four of the leaf covered men were dead and there were three left that inched closer to them but didn't strike.
Aleneo would have made a break for it, but Angel on the other side of the men stopped him. He couldn't leave her with these men. He'd taken a vow to raise and protect her until she had a peaceful death of old age.
So he didn't run. Even when Yazif pushed him toward the opening, he didn't take the out.
Aleneo stepped toward the men, jutting out his sword. They backed up.
Another loud bang came from the forest. Aleneo felt something graze his shoulder and a splitting pain came next.
"Ah!" He hissed as he slapped a hand over his shoulder. Warm liquid filled his palm.
"Aleneo!" He'd never heard Yazif say his name before. He was more shocked by it than the dark blood running down his fingertips.
He was yanked back just as more men crept out from the forest. They weren't covered in leaves like the first men and they didn't swing down from the trees. However, their clothes were like splattered of green and tan overlapping one another.
A large burly man with black and gray hair shaved close to his skull came toward them. He held a strange contraption in his hand and pointed the thing at Aleneo and Yazif.
"Take one move motherfucker and I'll blow your head right off."
Aleneo's eyes got really wide. His tongue lodged in the back of his throat.
This was the Dark Prince? It couldn't be. He was...
Aleneo looked the man up and down.
He was so ugly Aleneo was slightly repulsed.
Yazif grabbed Aleneo's arm and forced him to drop the sword. Aleneo's eyes narrowed on the Dark Prince. His upper lip curled.
"So this is the man you've become? Playing tricks and attacking with dishonorable techniques." Aleneo stood strong even with the pain blooming in his shoulder. It wasn't the worst he'd taken in battle and not even the worst he'd gotten while sparring. It was distracting none-the-less.
The Dark Prince laughed, throwing his head back. "I don't know who the fuck you think I am, but I don't give a shit what you think is dishonorable or not."
The Dark Prince got closer. He gestured at Aleneo with the thing in his hand. "Tie them up and make sure they don't have anymore weapons."
Aleneo fought the men that grabbed him and separated him from Yazif. "Get your hands off me!"
The men ignored him as they patted him down. He struggled a little longer before he just let it happen. They weren't going to get out of this just yet. There were too many of them.
He was calm just for a second and then the men went for the horses, including Angel.
"No!" He slammed his skull into the man in front of him. The man went down and Aleneo kicked the other in the gut. He ran toward Angel, ready to kill the man touching her with his bare hands.
He got two feet before the Dark Prince used the device in his hand and made a loud bang with it. Something hit Aleneo in the high. He screamed as his leg went out from beneath him. The ground came hurdling to his face and he slammed into the rough terrain of the forest.
"Tie the little shit up. I want to keep him alive, but he's really testing me."
Another scream was ripped from his chest as a booted foot slammed on his back and pinned him to the ground. His arms were pulled back, rope was wrapped around his wrist and were tied together. Someone else grabbed his legs. He attempted to kick at them but screamed again when they punched the spot where the Dark Prince's device had hit him.
He had no idea how the thing had caused damage from so far away. No one had ever said humans had weapons infused with magic.
When all his limbs were tied, they hauled him up and threw him over Angel. He couldn't see anything with his head hanging upside down and his view blocked by Angel's large body. He was somewhat relieved to be close to her again. It seemed they were going to keep her alive and weren't going to kill her like the Hinythians would have.
"General Reeves, Olsen has returned."
Aleneo's breath turned hot as his face was pressed against Angel's side. Her scent calmed him but not his racing heart. He felt his blood from his leg dripping down the inside of his leg. It tickled his skin.
"Where is he?" The Dark Prince was the general?
Aleneo's brows furrowed. General Reeves. At least he had the name of the brother he was going to kill.
"Here, sir."
Aleneo perked when the new voice joined. It was soft and soothing, nothing like the rest of the human men's voices.
"What did you find?" Reeves asked. His graveling voice was just as repulsive as the rest of them. Aleneo felt like he was listening to metal being dragged across stone.
"There are others crossing the ridge. Approximately forty and on horseback."
There was a pause.
"We'll meet them."
Aleneo kept his giddiness quiet. The Dark Prince wasn't smart. He was going to lead his men into a massacre.
Aleneo's pulse spiked when he heard footsteps coming closer to him. He jumped and gritted his teeth when he was smacked hard on the ass.
"By the looks of it, this is their captain. We'll keep him hostage for safety out of this shit-hole."
Aleneo let out a gruff sound. His kingdom wasn't a shit-hole.
"Oh, what did you say?" Reeves walked around Angel and stood behind Aleneo's head. Aleneo became even more tense when he felt the man's hand stroke up his spine. "Are you shy all of a sudden?"
Reeves hand drifted to Aleneo's neck. He hooked his fingers into the helmet and yanked it off. Aleneo's head flopped down, his hair unrolling from the pins keeping it in place. Reeves slid his fingers into Aleneo's hair and roughly twisted the strands around them, wrenching Aleneo's head up. He hissed in pain as his neck was forced to bend in an unnatural position. He twisted his body so Reeves didn't break his neck.
Tears flooded Aleneo's eyes from being upside down, the pain in his leg, and now the pain in his neck. His vision was blurry as he got a glimpse of another man standing a foot behind Reeves.
"He's pretty. If his men end up not bargaining, we can always use him as a fuck-hole."
Aleneo's face twisted with revulsion. Raping and pillaging were a low-life's doing.
The man beside Reeves didn't say anything. Aleneo could feel the man's stare and he prayed the man wasn't interested in Aleneo's looks like Reeves was. For the first time, he wished he wasn't beautiful.
Reeves shoved Aleneo back down. He swung and hit Angel.
"I'm sorry," he whispered against her belly, wishing his men would find them and save them.
A seed of doubt grew within him. He squashed it and put it away in the sealed part of his mind that grew weeds of self-hatred. That place was full of needless thoughts from his teenage years which he'd grown out of.
But these men were far different than the difficulties he'd faced when he was younger. These men were of a different world, with weapons he had no idea of, and an agenda that could only end with him dead.
The only thing going for him now was that Reeves didn't know who Aleneo was yet. He thought Aleneo was just a measly captain. Hopefully, it stayed that way.
Aleneo eventually passed out. He woke when he was being pulled off of Angel. He attempted to grab ahold of her, but it was no use with his hands tied behind his back. Even if his hands weren't tied, he was too tired and still a little out of it to get a good grip. His head pounded and blood rushed to it as he was thrown to the ground.
He whimpered as he fell on his bad leg.
"His leg," someone said.
Aleneo turned his head toward the voice. It was that soft voice. Olsen. Aleneo couldn't see much in the dark. His eyes were still adjusting when a bright light shined on him. He closed his eyes again and turned his head away.
"No. Look at me."
The soothing voice almost made him trust Olsen. He couldn't though. These men were the enemy.
Fingers turned his head back toward the light him. The fingertips tapped his cheek.
"Open your eyes. Come on."
Aleneo still didn't. The fingers forced his eyes open and he grunted when the light shined directly into them.
Olsen went from one eye to the other, blinding Aleneo. Was this a form of torture?
Olsen stopped touching him. The light was gone. There was a fainter light farther away from him. He blinked through the blurriness and saw a fire burning behind Olsen. The human men were sitting around the fire. Their laughter traveled. They were making jokes and playing around as if this was any other leisure adventure.
Aleneo grimaced and looked away.
Olsen gently touched Aleneo's leg. Even though the touch was faint, Aleneo still jerked away. He glared at Olsen as if the man had just said he wanted to cut the thing off.
Olsen pulled his hand away but let it hover above the spot. "I'm just checking it. If the bullet's still inside, it won't heal properly and will get infected."
Aleneo gave him a strange look. "What is a bullet?"
Was the device Reeve used on him called a bullet? Was it named after a bull because of the sound it made?
Olsen snorted. "Funny."
Aleneo didn't know what was so funny about the question. He was stumped about the whole thing that he let Olsen inspect his leg. Olsen crooked his fingers into the hole in Aleneo's pants and ripped the fabric to get a better look at the wound. He pulled out a cylindrical shaped thing. A bright light shined from it.
"Wow!" Aleneo forgot he was tied up and tried to reach for the thing. He slumped back onto the tree when he realized.
He had no idea that humans used magic so much. How much of their stuff was enchanted with it?
Olsen gave another soft snort. "If you're this delirious, we definitely have to get this bullet out."
"I'm not delirious—ow! What the Hell are you doing?"
Olsen ignored him as he poked his finger into the wound on Aleneo's thigh. Aleneo screamed and bucked his hips, but Olsen held him down with the elbow of the arm he was using to hold the flashlight. He dug deep into Aleneo's thigh, pushing and prodding until Aleneo felt something that was not part of his body moving each time Olsen scraped his nail on it.
"Stop! Stop!"
"Shut him up Olsen for Christ's sake! He's going to alert every man and animal in this fucking forest!"
Olsen didn't seem happy to being called out. "Then someone fucking help me!"
There was muttering until someone came over to aid Olsen in holding Aleneo down. They pushed a cloth into his mouth, smothering the screams being pushed out of him.
Aleneo cried himself out and collapsed against the tree. He was numb from the waist down. The other man had grabbed the light from Olsen's hand and was holding it above him, pointed at the wound. Olsen's now free hand was on Aleneo's shoulder in an attempt at soothing which didn't help at all.
The fingers withdrew, only taking some of the pain with it, and leaving something behind that felt like a parasite making its home within him. He shivered. A thin sheen of sweat covered him from head to toe. His body shook as he gazed up at the sky. The stars blinked in and out through the scrawly branches of the trees. The cold soft breeze brushed his damp skin.
The feeling within him was a mix of pain and something else that was curious. On the border of pleasure, it made him crave Olsen's fingers back inside him. Closer his body craved.
His eyelids drooped. He wasn't strong enough to keep his eyes open any further.
"There. It's out," Olsen said. He held something up in his bloody hand, shining the light on it. It was a tiny piece of metal.
That was what had caused him so much pain?
His head drooped. He didn't feel good. In fact, he felt worse than when the bullet was still in his leg.
"Shit. He's bleeding out. Give me a piece of your shirt."
Pressure was put on the wound. Aleneo moaned at the dull pain. He wanted it to stop. He didn't want to feel anything anymore.
There was a ripping sound and then the pressure was let up until a thin fabric was tied above the wound tightly.
"Is he going to be alright?"
Out of all the voices to hear, Aleneo wasn't expecting Yazif's. He parted his lips to say he was fine when Olsen beat him to it.
"As long as it doesn't get infected."
Aleneo had seen men who'd had to get their limbs cut off after infection. He couldn't even begin to think what it would be like to be one of them. Without a piece of himself? He'd be broken and useless to the throne.
Aleneo passed out again. His dreams were full of nightmares.
He was running from the Dark Prince, but he couldn't because his legs were gone, cannibalized by the inhuman thing the prince had become.
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