Excalibur ~ World from Ashes
Chapter 16

As Tristan suddenly gave a painful shout and fell from his propped up position, I let out another scream. Moving my body was so hard, I tried to get my nerves to respond to me correctly but everything was hollering at me to stop moving because it burned too much. Still, Tristan’s screaming voice was driving me insane. I couldn’t handle it, the way he sounded like he was dying. I cried hard as I rolled over onto my side, my mouth opened in a soundless scream as I couldn’t get my hoarse voice to make anymore sound.

I sobbed hard as I watched him writhe on the concrete floor much like I had been a moment ago. Taking in a gasping breath, I coughed hard; hacking on the dryness in my mouth that felt like it was nothing but cotton and dust. It took a while, but I finally managed to get my voice. I let out another scream, shouting at Alik to stop, that I was going to kill him if he didn’t. Alik didn’t listen to me. Turning, I looked up at him through my tears. His grinning face… that wicked smile, the look in his eyes as if he were immensely enjoying the way Tristan was screaming… I think it set me off.

Rolling to my other side, I threw myself up, ignoring the pain that wracked my body. With a growl of utter fury, I threw myself at Alik. We both tumbled to the floor as my body weight took him off guard. As I landed on top of him, my tied hands reached out for his throat. We grappled for a while, my hands searching for his neck so that I could snap it in my blood raged intent, and his hands slapping mine away and slamming into my sides and stomach. Behind me, Tristan’s screams had finally stopped, only gasping moans remained and those drove me to continue my fight against Alik.

My attack must have shocked Alik, the look on his face was different for a moment before he turned angry. He shouted, yelling a couple of names that I didn’t pay any attention to. My fingers curled around his throat and I felt his beating pulse beneath my hands. I tightened my hold, crushing his esophagus with as much power as I could muster in my arms. The veins around his neck started to bulge, his eyes closing tightly as a bit of saliva started to trickle from his mouth. His gasping sounds only made me tighten down further.

As his face had started to turn red, and before I could feel the life fade from him, two pairs of hands latched onto my shoulders and dragged me off of him. I cursed, shouting and screaming, my limbs flailing as I struggled hard to get back on top of Alik so that I could end his fucking life. A strong punch to my gut doubled me over, another kick to my stomach and I dropped onto my knees, gasping for air. Panting heavily, I slowly pulled my head up to see the damage that I had inflicted on Alik.

He rolled onto his side, coughing hard and wheezing. Oddly enough, I felt my lips pull up into a grin. Fucker… I hope it burns like a bitch, and next time I get the chance, I’m going to snap your God damned neck! Alik slowly pulled himself up onto his hands and knees and finally up to his feet where he stumbled a bit. Turning, he faced me as I was held tightly between the two men that he had shouted for. Rubbing his neck, he glowered at me for a moment before his usual grin spread across his lips.

“Well, babe. Didn’t think you had it in you to do something like that. How’d that feel? Did you enjoy it?”

“Fuck you,” I spat, “I’m not like you, you sick bastard!”

He arched an eyebrow at me and gave a slow nod, “Sure, sure. I suppose we’ll just have to see.”

I pulled at the arms that held me. From somewhere behind me, Tristan moaned my name and I gave a slight gasp. Pulling harder against the two men that held me, I turned and struggled to see where he was. Lying on the ground, partially on his side, Tristan looked half delirious. I felt fresh tears beginning to stream down my face. A coughing sob filled my chest as I watched him.

“Tristan…” I called out to him and he shifted a bit, his gaze unfocused as his head lulled slightly and his beautiful hazel eyes seemed to roam all over the room.

The sight of how messed up he was made me sick to my stomach. I swore right there that I was going to make Alik pay for what he’d done to us. Alik was going to pay with every fiber of his being. I shook as I ground my teeth, my thoughts turning dark as I turned back to the bastard who had done those things to us. I narrowed my eyes at him, watching his every move like a predator, ready to pounce on him if he got to close and tear my claws and teeth into his flesh, to rip him apart, make him bleed. I wanted so badly to have him down on the ground, screaming as Tristan had been, and leave him to bleed out slowly upon the floor. His pain was going to be three times that of what Tristan had felt. It was going to happen, especially if I had anything to say about it.

“Well, I wanted to try something on you, babe. You see this new drug. It’s sort of a pain in the ass.”

“I don’t care how much of a pain in the ass it is, Alik! You insane, God damned prick!”

“It’s not nice to call people names, babe.”

“Stop calling me that!” I shouted.

“Why? You’re my boyfriend. I had you first, I slept with you first, I had your every ‘first’, babe. So why not?”

I ground my teeth, “Because I’m not yours, Alik.”

“That’s a shame. I’m sorry you think that way,” Alik turned away from me and went to a metal table across the room. There was a sharp click in the room and the sound of a lid opening up as Alik shuffled around over there with something I couldn’t see. He spoke as he started putting a few things together. I could hear the soft sounds of pieces being hooked together as he stood there with his back to me.

“Excalibur only takes to a few people, babe. A good handful of other people simply die from it. It’s really disheartening. It’s such a fine drug too. No high, no addiction. One dose and you’re good for life. It changes your body completely, remakes you. It gives you understanding that you’ve never had before.

“Think of it as revamping your body. You get this powerful shot throughout your system. It hurts at first, but then once the pain goes away, it’s like your mind has been completely opened up. It’s a slow process, but I’ve been gaining new abilities lately. The most recent one I just showed you. Before that I was thinking a bit faster, moving several steps ahead of my gang members. I knew what they were going to do before they even did it. That takes a bit of concentration to do, but it’s amazing to always be ahead of someone.”

I tilted my head slightly, “Did you know I was going to suffocate you?”

“Didn’t I just say it takes concentration?”

I grinned, “Then you wouldn’t know that I am going enjoy feeling your neck break beneath my fingers, now would you?”

Alik laughed, “Only that you want to now. Not that you’ll ever get the chance.”

“Oh, I’ll get the chance, I promise you.”

“I always did love it when you promised me things, babe. Gives me something to look forward to,” Alik said as he turned around. In his hands was a small white gun looking thing, a long needle attached to the end of it. As he moved toward me, I pulled on the arms holding me down.

“Sure you want to do that,” I hissed between clenched teeth as my heart sped up and my stomach twisted violently again. I was trying my best to keep from utterly freaking out, but I supposed I wasn’t really doing that great a job at it.

Alik smiled, “Why not? It’ll be fun to see what kind of monster you turn into. I wonder if you’ll even survive it.”

“I’m not going to turn into a monster, you dick. I’m going to kill you, a good riddance to the world.”

“That feisty tone of yours, Valkyrie. It still turns me on.”

I flinched, taking in a sharp breath and jerked backward as Alik dropped down in front of me. He pulled my shirt back away from my shoulder and I narrowed my eyes, hissing in a sharp breath. His touch sent disgusting chills down my body and I desperately pulled again only to have the hands holding me tighten down painfully. I groaned as my head fell forward, eyes squeezing shut.

“Hold still, don’t want to break the needle in your arm, boy would that suck.”

That’s the least of my worries right now asshole! I thought about shouting that but just as I was about to, the prick of the needle plunged into the thick muscle of my shoulder and I tightened my jaw to keep my voice from shouting out or giving Alik any further satisfaction of my discomfort. The liquid was thick as I felt it push down into my veins, spreading out all along my shoulder. It was the most disgusting, awful feeling on the planet and I nearly threw up right there. As it was, I dry heaved and doubled over slowly.

When the needle was removed from my arm, the hands let me go and I tumbled to the concrete floor on my side. Everything was numb and strangely enough I found it sort of nice to finally not feel anything but the burning pain of my aching and tired muscles. Of course, the respite didn’t last long and I started to feel a strange kind of burning course its way through my body. I cringed, rolling over and curling into the fetal position.

“Oh, feeling it now?”

I ignored Alik and concentrated on not screaming or making any noise. The last thing I wanted was for Tristan to get even more upset than he already was. Not to mention Alik could do with a little rebellion to his sick and twisted mind. I’m pretty sure he was enjoying my pain, the bastard was probably getting off on it too. I ground my teeth as I curled my hands in toward my body and clenched fistfuls of my shirt tightly. I shook despite my best efforts, but at least I wasn’t crying out. That much I had accomplished, and it was more than enough I supposed.

When it faded away, I had a moment of relief. Right after that, I felt as if I were overflowing with energy. Something about the drug that he’d given me made me sit straight up. My eyes stared out into the darkness that I could quite easily see through now. My hearing was exceptional. I could hear Zak’s labored breathing and I knew right away that he had a broken rib and two fractured ribs. I also knew that he had a bullet wound to his leg, though it wasn’t life threatening.

In addition to that, I also knew every single one of Tristan’s wounds too. Broken ribs, several lacerations and a couple of bullet wounds to name a few. My heart rate was fast, almost insanely rapid in my chest, except it didn’t hurt like it probably should have if I had been normal still. Behind me, both men that had been holding me down stood there, arms crossed over their chests. One was taller, Zak’s size and the other was Jace’s size which was sort of like me. Directly ahead of me was Alik who stared at me with his wicked grin. I could hear his short breathes and as I’d thought before, the bastard was turned on. God I wanted to rip him apart just because of that.

Right after that thought, my body tingled slightly and I found that I could feel the air around me. I could feel how light it was in comparison to my body weight. It was strange really. Glancing around, I spotted a breaker box and I stared at it for some time, somehow utterly fascinated by it. The wires that wove in that box still held an electrical charge. I could feel that too, and once I felt that, I felt my body’s own natural charge. The nerves were tingling, dancing with energy.

I’m not sure how long it took for certain, but as it seemed like an eternity to me to process everything in the room, it probably only took a few seconds. A minute at most. My gaze locked on Alik and I gave a sharp, short laugh. The ropes around my hands snapped, crackling as they burned. I stood up slowly and Alik tilted his head at me, an amused expression on his face.

“This will be good,” he said in a low whisper.

“For me. Not for you,” I commented and the two men that lunged forward to drag me back down and subdue me got the first taste of what I wanted. My entire body crackled with a pale white light. As they both touched me, they let out screams as they were flung backward by my enhanced electrical charge. Alik moved, standing straight now as he watched me a bit warily. I looked down at my hands, my fingers crackling. This was going to take some getting used to.

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