Both anger and hunger rose inside of me. Never have I felt such conflicting emotions; I wanted to rip her apart and feed on her until the rest of my hunger was satisfied, but at the same time I wanted to coddle her and kiss away her pain. It was my fault she was brought here in the first place and I needed to protect her because lord knows no one else in this G.o.d forsaken place will.

Willow had lost weight. She was pretty tiny to begin with but now you could clearly see her bones pressing out from her skin. Her eyes were dark and bruised, and even though her face was swollen you could see her cheeks were sunken in.

"Let him up."

The minions jumped to Alexander's command. The steel restraints that held me to the floor were unlocked and I was jerked to my feet by Alexander pulling on the chains still cuffed to my arms.

My legs felt like they were going to collapse underneath me. Whatever Alexander had injected me with was definitely doing its job. My throat still burned and I didn't even have the strength to speak. I wanted to ask Willow if she was alright but by the looks of her that would be a very stupid question.

I watched as Alexander walked over to her and I wanted nothing more than to break his hand when he cupped her face in it. She closed her eyes, but she didn't fight him off like she did his minion. It made me wonder if what he had said was true. I couldn't see Willow doing something like that, but if he tortured her enough maybe there wasn't anything she wouldn't do to get out of here.

"Hey there princess." Alexander said in a rather chipper tone before planting a kiss on her lips; she looked absolutely disgusted. Since Alexander was a vampire he didn't care that her blood had gotten on him, instead he just licked it off.

"She's absolutely delicious. You should have a bite." He said before releasing her.

His minions chained her hands to the ground this time so she was forced to stay on her knees. I could see the tears in her eyes, but she wasn't letting them fall. I was so proud of her and the strength she had. I wanted to kiss her for her bravery.

"Is that a no?" Alexander asked as if it wasn't obvious. "Well, alright then."

I watched as he pulled a knife out and placed it against her neck. I began breathing rapidly while trying to contain my anger. He knew p.i.s.sing me off would force me to give control over to the hunger inside of me, which only increased the chances of me feeding on Willow until she was dead.

I had to clench my teeth together to keep myself from begging him not to hurt her. Willow kept her eyes on mine, which helped me keep myself in control as much as possible. Alexander didn't seem too happy that his attempt wasn't working, so he plunged his knife into her shoulder.

Willow cried out in pain but her voice seemed so frail that it broke my heart. She wasn't meant to withstand this kind of torture; she wasn't made to be immortal like the rest of us. We might feel pain but for us it is dimmed because we can heal a lot faster than everyone else. With her being completely human, she felt every prolonged minute.

I tried to pull on my chains but it was no use. I was being held in place by one of the minions and, with whatever drug he injected me with, I had the strength of a thirteen year old boy.

"Let him go. I'm sure he's getting hungry by now."

I dropped to the ground as the minion released the chains. I held myself up on my hands and knees before I crawled towards Willow. Alexander had walked away from her, but left the knife sticking out of her shoulder.

When I finally reached Willow I cupped her face in my hands and tilted her head up to look at me. She refused to look me in the eyes, but I wasn't giving up that easily.

"Shh cupcake, it's me." I rasped.

Slowly Willow opened her eyes and I could see the tears she was holding back, but what really broke my heart was the fear I saw in her eyes. I knew my eyes were red because I was currently at war with the hunger inside of me. The smell of her blood made me want to devour her.

"I won't hurt you Willow."

I pulled her against me as best as I could. It was kind of hard to work around the chains that confined both of us. She buried her face in my chest and I could hear the m.u.f.fled sobs as she finally let her tears free.

"Its ok baby, let it out. I got you."

I squeezed my eyes shut as I cradled her against my body. I could feel her hands against my chest and I couldn't get enough of her touch. It was extremely horrible timing, but being this close to her made my c.o.c.k react instantly.

I took a deep breath as I examined the blade sticking out of her shoulder. It was at an angle where it missed all major arteries, but still caused her to lose a lot of blood. I grabbed the knife by the handle and pulled it out.

I felt her bite my chest to keep from screaming, which was perfectly ok with me. I dropped the knife to the floor and applied pressure to her wound. She would still lose a lot of blood but had I left it in, it would take a lot longer for her to start healing and there could have been a lot more damage done.

"Feed on her!" Alexander demanded.

"No." I said through gritted teeth as I held her closer to me.

"Raise him up!" He gestured violently towards a minion.

I barely had time to release Willow when one of the minions wrenched on my chains. I flew backwards as he dragged me across the floor until I was on my knees ten feet away from Willow.

Alexander walked over with a spray bottle in his hand. I watched him screw the lid back on then adjust the setting to mist.

"I've always wondered how much this would hurt"

Alexander looked as excited as a child in a candy store as he walked over to me with spray bottle in hand. He lifted it up and pulled on the nozzle. As soon as the mist hit my chest I grunted through gritted teeth as I listened to the sound of my skin sizzling.

"Huh, doesn't sound as bad as I thought it would. Let's try that again."

I kept my eyes at the floor as Alexander walked around me and began spraying my back with whatever concoction he had created. I kept my jaw clenched, but after the fourth and fifth spray I couldn't hold it in anymore. I cried out from the pain as my body instinctively tried to pull away from him, causing the cuffs to bite deep into my wrists until blood began to run down my arms.

"Stop! What are you doing to him! Please, stop. I'll do anything you want just stop!" Willow pleaded as she fought against her chains.

"Baby, no!" I spat out through gritted teeth which was only rewarded with another three sprays to the back.

"You're telling me that you would do anything to protect him even though he's a monster who has killed hundreds of people?"

"He's not a monster, you are!"

Alexander walked straight over to her and held the spray bottle in front of her face.

"I'm not sure if I'm supposed to thank you for the compliment or take it as an insult. So let's just pretend it was a compliment."

Willow kept her mouth shut and nodded her head slowly without taking her eyes off the spray bottle. My burns would heal and fade; but, if he sprayed her, she would be scarred for life.

"Now, where were we?" Alexander asked and stood up again, pulling the bottle away from her face.

"Protecting Tobias." She whispered.

"Oh yeah, you were willing to give up anything to save your little vampire play thing."

Willow looked to me and I shook my head no trying to plead with her not to; whatever he had planned for her would hurt me worse than his acid water ever could.

"So tell me sweetheart, are you willing to give up your life to save his?"

"Yes."

"No!" I tried to run to her but the minion held tight against my attempt.

"Shut up Tobias. This is between little blue here and me. Another word out of you and I'll have to do this."

Alexander held up the bottle behind Willow and pulled the trigger slowly so that only a few drops fell from the nozzle and landed on her shoulder where she was stabbed.

Willow cried out in agony and I had to bite down on my lip to the point that I was drawing blood. There were so many things I wanted to say to him and I wanted nothing more than to skin him alive, but I couldn't risk hurting her even more.

I dropped to my knees in defeat and Alexander looked all too smug about it. Willow continued to sob silently and Alexander waved to one of his minions to drag her away. I watched them drag her from the room and I was filled with dread and horror at the thought of what they could be doing to her when she wasn't here with me.

"If I didn't know any better mate, I'd say she was in love with you. Why else would she be willing to give up her life to save someone who can't die?"

It felt like someone dropped a ton of bricks on my chest. I couldn't breathe at his words. Willow loved me? Surly he was mistaken. I didn't know if I was elated or terrified.

Alexander walked away to put the spray bottle down, but came back with the tray from earlier with the remaining syringes and began pumping the liquids into me one at a time as he beamed triumphantly. The look in his eyes grounded me even though his face made me sick to my stomach; I swore to myself I would get Willow out of here alive.

If there was any possibility of Willow loving me there's no doubt that it was all but gone now, but if there was even a sliver of hope that Willow could still have feelings for me after all of this, I would have to survive this at all costs.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

WILLOW.

I stared at the wall as I dragged my hand cuffs up and down creating a small groove in the brick. I marked down one for each day we were held captive. We've been here nearly three weeks all together, but I only started keeping track after Alexander had stabbed me in the shoulder.

For the past two weeks I've been dragged back and forth to watch Tobias being tortured because Alexander refused to accept any offer given to him. I swear he enjoys watching both of us suffer. If it isn't Tobias being tortured it's me; all because he's h.e.l.l bent on getting Tobias to kill me.

Amelia hasn't really been touched since we got here. She's just been held captive and on occasion Alexander likes to come in and talk to her about someone named Anna-Sophia. I don't know who she is but Amelia refuses to talk to me about it. I've asked her at least a dozen times and every time she just shuts down and stays silent like she's disappeared somewhere in her head.

Finally satisfied with the marking on the wall I sat back down with my back pressed to the cold bricks. I'm pretty sure my shoulder is getting infected and isn't healing all that well. I wasn't even offered a bandage, let alone a first aid kit to properly clean the wound.

Sometimes I wonder if Alexander and his men remember that I'm not immortal like Tobias and Amelia; not that it would make much of a difference. If anything, Alexander was probably hoping that I'd get a bad enough infection that he'd get the pleasure of cutting my arm off himself.

"We're going to die here, aren't we?" I asked out loud; it was more of a rhetorical question.

"Well, you might, but I'll be stuck with these a.s.sholes for all of eternity."

I never really knew if Alexander was immortal like everyone else, but the way Amelia said she'd be stuck with him for eternity suggested that he definitely wasn't human.

Amelia drifted off to la la land like she has been doing quite often lately. I was beginning to think that being caged up was starting to mess with her sanity.

I closed my eyes and started humming to myself while waiting for Alexander's return. It was only a matter of time until he came back; he always came back.

I heard the usual clicking of the door and I closed my eyes remaining still. It pretty much became routine. Wake up, mark the wall, get dragged off to be tortured, go to sleep, and repeat.

Two men came into the room that I haven't seen before. They didn't fit the usual henchman criteria that I've grown used to, which kind of threw me off a bit. Alexander's men reminded me of empty drones, almost as if they were in a trance or something; these two were anything but.

The shorter one stood by the door; he seemed way too young to be a part of all this. If I had to guess I'd say he was about twenty. The taller one looked a few years older and if I didn't know any better I'd say the two were related. I know I haven't seen them before, but something about them seemed oddly familiar.

"Amelia!" The man who came in rushed to her cell as soon as he caught sight of her.

He didn't even need a key to open her steel door; he just tore it right off the hinges. The concern on his face and the fact that he knew her name told me that he definitely wasn't working for Alexander.

"Hey, talk to me. Amelia focus, I'm right here!"

"It's no use. She'll be like that for at least another hour or two."

"What did they do to her?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you. But it has something to do with someone named Anna-Sophia."

I heard him cuss under his breath before he picked Amelia up in his arms. He took her over to the guy at the door and handed her off before coming back for me.

Once the bars came free, he picked me up in his arms as easily as he would a child. Instinctively I started to fight him off, but he crushed my body against him so I was unable to move.

"Whoa, Willow chill!"

I gave up fighting him as pain shot through my shoulder. I wanted to cry, but I've run out of tears over the past few days.

"Colton, let's go."

Colton? I know that name, he must be Tobias's brother; the fire starter he told me about.

"What about Tristan?"

"He said not to wait for him; he will meet us at the house."

"We can't just leave him here." Colton argued.

"Just start moving your a.s.s before I kick you in it!"

Colton glared at the man holding me, who I a.s.sumed must be another one of his brothers, before he took off down the hall with Amelia.

"I can walk, you know." I said but he completely ignored me as he took off after Colton.

I was beginning to think we were lost. Colton had led us down so many different hallways that I wasn't even sure there was an exit to this place. It wasn't until I noticed the bodies on the ground that I realized they were following a trail they left behind on the way to find us.

There were a lot more people on the ground than I thought there were. Turns out this place was crawling with people working for Alexander and Calliope.

"s.h.i.t!" Colton cursed as we reached a dead end.

We stood in front of a door that had been bolted shut from the other side.

"I got it."

Colton stepped away from the door as his brother put me down. I steadied myself against the wall but nearly fell on my a.s.s when I watched him walk through the door.

I recall Tobias mentioning that one of his brothers was a ghost, but I never expected this; he literally just walked through a steel door like it wasn't even there. I jumped when I heard the ping sound of metal bouncing off of metal. The sound didn't last long, but I still had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Not even a minute later the door swung open and there he stood, covered in blood with at least six bodies lying at his feet.