“What’s dessert?” the boy asked suspiciously
“Half of the blood in your body should do just fine.”
“Oh,” Ben gulped, the knob in his throat bobbing visibly.
“That seems fair,” he murmured rather weakly.
And so, they stepped out of the public house and strode briskly toward the nearest secluded field away from the bustle of the village.
Zai smiled darkly to himself, looking forward to the contest. Torturing the human would be almost…fun.
It was high time he had some.
Chapter Four
“The Dark Queen Ashlu might be young, naught but a couple hundred years old upon taking the throne, but she was shrewd and deliberate. While she started no new wars, instead making an uneasy truce with the Elementals who’d brought down the Blood Moon Queen, sacrificing their elders in the process, Ashlu maintained the balance of power with Dark Ones reigning supreme…”
—From the lost oral histories of the Zodiac Scrolls
Dark Fortress dungeons.
Sin paced the dank, dark pit he was trapped within, its depth about fifty times the length of his body. Emitting a low growl every few turns. Baring his teeth in a frustrated snarl.
Stewing in pent up rage and encroaching madness.
The hellhole was entirely carved out of stone, the sides and base covered with a thick, smooth layer of metal. There was no crack or seam for him to dig even the tip of his claws or fangs into. No rough edge with which to gain purchase.
At one corner, there was a tiny grate that allowed liquid refuse to flow out of the pit. Solid waste could be pushed out too, and he’d had to resort to that over the last few weeks, for no one else bothered to do it.
If the Dark Queen was feeling generous, someone might toss down the scraps from a feast every few days. Most of the time, only dirty water was poured into the pit, and he had to lick up what he could before it flowed out or dried.
When you decide to grace us with your human presence, Beast, I may feel inclined to treat you marginally like one,Queen Ashlu said when he was first captured.
Sin growled sonorously in memory.
He hadn’t taken human form since the day his Mate was killed. Full-blooded Beasts preferred their animal forms as a rule. They only took human form with their chosen mate.
But more than that, Sin stayed in his Beast form because there was little humanity left in him. His mind was usually blank; his more complex feelings entirely shut down.
Just as he preferred.
He had always been primitive and wild, even after he met and settled down with Anya. Now, he was practically feral.
The typical thoughts that ran through his head were:
Hunt.
Kill.
Dark Ones…
Kill. Kill. Kill!
And the only remotely human thought he had was:
Revenge.
Since that fateful day when he’d lost everything he held dear, along with his humanity and most of his sanity, he’d brought down more than his fair share of Dark demons.