Chapter 12

Fire like heat ripped through me, and stars circled my head. A burning pain unlike anything before crowded me. I felt nothing else, I saw nothing else. I tasted blood, I smelt blood. I was about to be butchered meat.

A blood-curdling scream thundered against the tape with each descension of the glass into my skin. He was pressing the pieces in such a way that it would purposefully leave remanences of glass shards buried deeply in my flesh. Damon and Eli watched eagerly while the shadow man demolished my foot. Hot blood trickled like a river down the calf of my leg toward my thigh.

His pace was slow and antagonising, letting minutes pass with each drag of the glass and replacing it with another when it had shattered beneath the pressure. Sounds of crumbled glass ricocheting on concrete echoed until it was almost a faded muffle in my mind. Saliva pooled around my lips under the tape, and I struggled to swallow. My vision was blurred, and I almost didn't notice that he"d stopped.

Come on, Esme, focus.He finally, mercifully, threw my foot down and tied my ankle the chair before untying the other. No. I mumbled the word, but it didn't sound. It was a mere croak. He was going to repeat the same process on my other foot. My maimed foot tingled in a pool of blood. It felt thick as it oozed from my wounds. That must have been what the dripping sound was earlier, someone's blood. They already fucked someone else up, and now it was my turn.

Time began to blur in my brain. Had I been here for a few minutes? Hours? I didn"t know exactly when, but I had stopped screaming. He pressed hard into my skin once more, and I barely had the strength to wriggle. I had no choice but to let my body fade into darkness now. I was barely holding onto consciousness. My skin was covered in beads of sweat from the shock. Surrounding sounds were nothing other than a dull drone, other than hollow moans from Damon, who got a pleasurable thrill off other" pain. I summoned all I had to look at the three masked men again. Eli was compliant with his arms crossed, his breathing slow. The shadow man was lost in his world of torture. Damon wore a sadistic grin, and hard pressed against his jeans, was his fucking erection. The sick fuck.

The shadow man strayed from my foot and drew into the skin of my knees with a fresh fragment of glass, like it was a canvas to paint on. Blood, so much fucking blood. Eventually walking behind me to the palms of my hands, he placed a piece of glass in my palm and scrunched my hand into a fist. I gasped. Shattering the glass and almost my bones with the pressure. The pain was excruciating, and I whimpered, unable to let the scream out. He panted, groaned, and threw the last piece of glass on the floor to shatter, satisfied with his macabre design.

"Now you can't run away, little one. All destroyed. Class dismissed, you've learned your lesson." Eli growled as the shadow man circled me like a vulture again. I batted my heavy eyelids as their voices fell in and out to nothing other than a drone. "You're ours now. And now that he's finally found you, he can't lose you." Eli continued. My head fell back, and the darkness enveloped me. I let the weightlessness recede. Falling into whatever mess my head wanted to spit at me in my dreams.

I was an object, a desired item.

Like a diamond.

An offering.

Ours.

The gentle sweeping movement of a hand on my head slowly tugged me away from oblivion, like someone was brushing my hair with their soft hand. I stirred and tried to flinch, but my body was firm, limp. I drifted. A familiar smell warmed my nose, fruity hints of spices and aromatics with an earthy tone, and whiskey. Caine. I tried to flinch again or open my eyes, at least move away from his touch, or run, or something. But it was like my brain was dislodged from my body, a total system malfunction.

I mustered up all my strength to peer through blurry vision, but I couldn't open my eyes all the way. Unable to fight them, they fell heavy again, and I drifted straight back into my state of darkness. Letting his soft, somehow comforting tone of his voice lull me. As I floated, I imagined the sound of the shadow man playing the piano again, the heavenly symphony adding to my stillness.

The pain he held inside tugged at my heart, right where it shouldn't. Suddenly, vivid memories of him tearing my feet apart and chasing me in the forest split through my brain. I jolted upright with a gasp, drawing an astronomical amount of air into my lungs before crashing into a tremor of tears. An immediate blow of pain warped from my feet and other places. I was hurting all over.

"Please don't hurt me, please! No, no!" I cried out in a tearful shriek, melting myself into the headboard of the bed. I was back in the room, again. Pain radiated my core, like I had been hit by a truck. I squinted my eyes again to the brightness of the light, a lamp perched on a bedside table. That wasn't there before. I tucked my knees into my chest for comfort, pulling the sheet along with me, and I winced. Fucking hellouch. Why did that hurt so much?

"I'm not going to." he assured softly. It was genuine, I think. An enigmatic smile turned the corners of his mouth. I darted my eyes between his soft blue ones before dropping them to where I felt pain. I gasped at the sight of my hands. They were wrapped in a blood stained sheet. Caine ran his hand through his hair and with a perturbed glint in his eyes, he sat on the chair next to my bed. How long he had been in the room with me? How long had I been here? A tingling sensation formed under the surface of the bandages. As did my knees. It was there and then I came to my senses with the amount of pain I was in.

"Jesus… Christ." he muttered, throwing his fingers between his ashy hair again. I had almost forgotten how handsome he was, given my illicit discractions. His eyes tightened before he continued.

"What did you do?" Me? What did I do? I was not at fault here.

"I didn't do anything!" I hissed. Rage started to boil through my veins. This is all his fault. No thanks to Mr. Fairytale jack ass over here. I wouldn't have been punished for escaping if I hadn't have been kidnapped in the first fucking place. Sadness was quick to knock over the rage. I crumbled like fucking pastry and collapsed my head into my aching knees, binding my arms around me into a cocoon. I fitted into a pitiful sob.

"Sorry. Are you okay?" he spoke through clenched teeth, like he was guilty, sympathetic even. Am I okay? Was he serious? Had he any idea what the fuck I had gone through? Instinctively I peered down at where the worst of the pain was radiating from, my feet. His lip curled as his eyes followed where mine landed, he knew what I only imagined was carnage under the bedding. Dread uneased me. The heat from the bottoms of my feet was throbbing up my leg, painfully hard to dismiss. I winced, desperate for relief. I was covered in dirt, cuts and bruises, some I could pinpoint from running through to forest, a few black welts on my arm from firm grips, as for the rest, I had no idea where they came from. I felt massacred.

My lips curled back in a sneer. "What do you think? Fucking jack-ass."

"I'm not the one to fear, Esme. I haven't hurt you yet, have I?" Caine tilted his head back knowingly.

"N-no." I answered, suprised it was the truth. But I still didn"t trust him. He was the reason I was here in the first place.

"You're only in here because I managed to bat my eyelids to bring you up here."

What? I rolled my eyes. "Oh, how nice of you to spare me."

"Be shitty with me all you want, but I thought it would be nice to lay here instead of on cold concrete". he snapped, glowing at me.

"Do you really expect me to thank you?" I scowled.

"No"

"So then why are you doing this?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he leant back in his chair and drew his perfectly manicured fingernails into his hair again. He took in a big breath, his tight-fitting vest struggling against the seams. He was wearing another smart outfit. Just as tight fitting as the last. This one was a darker blue, with oak brown pointed leather shoes. His shirt was a pale blue, with rolled up sleeves. Buttoned all the way up and rigid across his neck. Fucking hell, his neck. I gulped. I hated myself for admitting he was fucking gorgeous.

Curiosity burned inside me. "How long have I-" He cut me off, "Three months," An impish grin pulled at his mouth. "THREE MONTHS?" I sputtered in shock. There was no fucking way.

"I'm kidding." he chucked before continuing. "It's nightfall. You've been out for the whole day." I creased my brow and pursed my lips, the fucker. "You think this is funny? You think this is a joke? Look at me." I hissed, weeping through the pain. "I am." His reply was genuine, like he actually gave a damn. He sighed before grabbing a white unlabelled medicine bottle from the pocket of his suit pants. The tablets rattled inside, and his watch made a similar sound around his wrist.

Fucking hell, even his wrist was sexy. All veiny and defined, his hands were pristine, like he went to the salon three times a day for a clean. He was too clean to be involved in the blood shedding sport the other three did. I gave him a perplexed look.

"Here… Take these. It'll help with the pain." I frowned but didn't respond. Like hell I was going to take whatever it was that he was dishing out from that medicine bottle. He sighed again and looked away, biting down in anger, guilt or something. Revealing the bulged tension of his immaculate jawline. I really needed to stop looking at him.

"Look, I know you"re pissed. You have every right to be." His tone softened more than it did a second ago. I imagined throwing daggers at him. Yes, I fucking do have the right. I pushed aside the feared anger again. I just wanted to go home. I grabbed the bottle and laid it beside me.

"If you won't take those, at least let me help you." he pleaded and I stared him down.

"Why are you here?"

"You can't stay like this, and I know you can't do it on your own. Someone had to look after you."

I adjusted myself. "I don't know what sick fetishes you freaks have with me, but the head fucks have to stop. One minute I'm here, the next I'm in a concrete cage. And now I'm being given pain killers, like any of you actually give a damn." I scoffed.

"Like I said, I haven't hurt you. Have I?" He repeated, his voice turned up a notch. As if he were asserting dominance. I hesitated. "No, but-"

"I may be involved in the things my brothers and sister do, but that doesn't mean I can't do my own thing. Besides the point, if you saw what you looked like when you slept, I think you'd be pretty glad I was here to hold your hand."

I frowned, and he continued.

"Whenever a nightmare ripped through that pretty little brain of yours, your body went through what looked like an exorcism. But, all I had to do was hold your hand, and it went away."

"Have you been here watching me the whole time?" I demanded. Someone watching me sleep was probably the least of my concerns. After all, I was used to that happening a great deal. What with my stalker and all, and now being here. "Yep." he remarked, adjusting himself in the chair. I was starting to very much dislike that everything he did was making parts of me warmer than it needed to be. I frowned again and he mirrored me. "Look, unlike them, I have morals, okay? Is that so hard to understand? That someone actually cares about you?"

My throat swelled around the lump in my throat. My brain was screaming at me that this was so fucking confusing. "Cares about me? You fucking kidnapped me!" I snapped.

"I didn't… I mean. Well… I did, but. Fuck." He grunted, crossing his arms and jittering his leg.

I shook my head, letting out an exasperated sound. "I don't understand. -Any of it".

"You never will. Fuck. I should have just left you in the basement with the others." I felt guilty, for reasons I had no business in feeling. "Thank-you" I breathed, honestly. We sat in silence for a long while, and he never once took his eyes off me. The pained twinkle of guilt over his face only grew as the time went on, which oddly gave me a sense of relief. If he was even remotely feeling guilty for helping kidnap me, then good. Rot in it. The rat. I hadn't moved other than to eye the pain-killers beside me every now and again. The pain was almost unbearable now, and I could feel the shards of glass burning, like it was moving under my skin.

I contemplated taking the pills, but if I did what would happen after that? I'm was certain they weren't regular Tylenol. I had a hard time focusing at the best of times, let alone with drugs in my system. Something more than that would knock me into next Tuesday, and as much as I wanted that, I didn't want to succumb to the idea of being unconscious anymore.

"I'm going to draw you a bath." Caine said finally, rising from his chair.

My lips parted, about to respond with a no fucking way Jose, but he was already gone, and the sound of water had begun to pour from the ceiling tap in the bathroom. I kept leaning over to see him floating around in the bathroom in the gaps of the door. Gah, he really was an outstanding looking man. I hated the fact that I thought he was attractive. Actually, I loathed the fact that I found any of them attractive. Caine returned moments later. "I won't hurt you, I give you my word." He offered me his hand, and an inkling of a feeling set in my body that I could trust him. But what was his word to me? Nothing. But it was still better than any of the others. The want and need for a bath ran higher than my doubt for Caine's word anyhow. I took his hand and winced from the pain of the glass aggravating my wounds as I got to my feet. "Ow." I muttered with a tear that fell down my cheek. I looked down. I shouldn't have, but I did.

I had been absolutely, entirely, fucking massacred. My upper legs were coated in dried, cracked blood. My knees had welts and shards of glass through them, but the worst source of pain were my feet. They had poorly wrapped bandages around them, soaked in blood. Caine braced my body firmly with his strength, but it wasn't enough. Pain ripped through me, hard, causing the bleeding under my feet to begin again. All over the carpet.

"I can't, I can't." I cried out, throwing myself back onto the bed. "Here." Without hesitation, he leant forward, scooping me and the sheet that was draped over. I gasped as he cradled me into his arms without taking his eyes from mine. He carried me to the bathroom effortlessly and lowered me and the sheet into the warm bath. Maybe his word was genuine. Maybe he really wouldn"t hurt me. I mean, he hadn't before. Not really. He"d had the opportunity to hurt me, I was defenceless. And yet, the sheet was covering my naked body so that I was not exposed.

I winced from the sudden sting of the warm water hitting my wounds, but it was short lived. Eventually, the water soothed away the aches and pains. I sighed my relief and drowned in it. Caine stayed completely silent, letting me lose myself to rid the pain in my own way. His eyes were so piercing under this light, not as blue as they usually were. They weren't the colour of the ocean like Eli, or as devilish as Damon's. His were like a puppy's eyes. And they wandered over my body. For a moment, I was thankful the soaked sheet hugged my curves. I let him mentally undress me. I liked the sensation it gave me, the way he was looking at me. Because it took my pain away.

My lips parted, and my breath staggered, my hunger mimicking his. I frowned. Was I that deprived of a human being"s touch that I was turned on by anyone who gave me attention? I'd spent my entire life invisible, no one wanted the fat white girl, until now. No, now I was the main attraction. The diamond. Mindlessly, I dropped my eyes. His erection was bulging at the seams of his suit pants. My eyes widened and an embarrassing noise fell from my tongue, followed by a throb between my legs. Oh no, not this again. The disgust I had for myself looking churned my stomach.

"Sorry." I muttered truthfully, darting my eyes elsewhere. How embarrassing. The side of the bath will do, focus on that little spec of stone. Guilty from my perverted glare. He chuckled deeply, wetting his lips with his tongue.

"Don't be sorry for something your body wants, little diamond." His voice broke as he said my pet name. Caine paused, offering me a reassuring gaze. I gulped hard, and he darted his tongue over his lips again. Intensifying the pulsating sensation between my legs. "It would appear that I want the same thing." I watched his chest rise and fall as he stood next to the bath, not touching, just looking. I mentally begged him to touch me in the spot that had been aching to be touched for far too long, but I was too scared to ask and too scared to do it myself.

He exhaled for what seemed like forever. Finally he murmured. "As tempting as you are, little diamond. I can't." My heart pounded as he began backing away from me. He wasn't going to leave me here, was he?

"Because no matter how much I want you, you don"t belong to just me."

Before I had the chance to respond, he was gone. The door to my room slammed behind him. I laid in the pool of blood and water. I shuddered, and tears streamed down my face. I was alone.

Again.