Seventy six

Satake woke in a standing position. Except his feet were barely touching the floor. Head bowed forward, the muscles in his body twanged. Something was banded across his chest. A crest of some sort and it stung. His body felt numb. Especially his back region. He tried to move only to realize that his arms were wrenched above him, his wrists hemmed together. He wriggled but couldn’t move much. The air around him was musty with a lingering scent of blood.

Flickering his eyes a hundred times to adjust to the darkness, Satake came to be fully awake. He tried to talk but he could only wince as a sharp pain shot up his body. His jaw was messed up. His foggy memories were beginning to prop up. He had remembered resisting after that damn witch had attacked him with a cursed weapon. He also vividly remembered being driven to unconsciousness by one of her vampire pals. His sight cleared slowly and in time Satake came to realize he was in someone's living room. There were rugs rolled up to a corner and he could spot a couple of chairs tossed in different corners. Not to mention the elaborate swarmed wallpaper, velvet curtains, and chiming chandeliers. Real candles were lit in the massive fixture just overhead and off to his side, casting a dull glow over his predicament.

The floorboards were dusty and scratched, and some kind of liquid had been poured before him. That was where the blood was from.

He looked up with great difficulty and realized his ropes were intertwined to a wood column that should be covered up with a pad. The rope went over the column and stretched further. Satake's eyes trailed all they could in the vast and hazy room.

Looking as far as he could over, he saw there was another woman on the other side. She was crouched down. She was almost lifeless but Satake could tell she was alive as she was still breathing. There was a circle formed around her. A gut feeling caused Satake to look down and he noticed a similar circle riddled with runes under him.

"A fucking spell," He muttered under his breath. "Are you awake?" He called out to the other victim. She moved. However, she made no attempts to converse or even so little as beg for help. Satake squinted his eyes and realized that it was Olamide. "Fuck," He whispered, jerking forward out of reflex only to be reminded by the strong ropes he was bound by that he was powerless in this situation. "Are you alright?"

Olamide's face dipped to the floor implying she was far from alright. It awakened a wave of anger in Satake. He pushed against the ropes as they bruised his wrist while screaming at the top of his voice. He wanted answers or perhaps it was to awaken the failing powers within him. Sadly, none of them worked. At least, that was what Satake taught. As the effect of adrenaline wore off, Satake shuddered with anguish as the entirety of his actions washed over him.

"Your fox fire won't work here." A feminine voice disclosed. "I made sure of that."

"What do you want from me?" Satake demanded, struggling to keep his face up. His body trembled with tremors as blood seeped out of the crest on his chest and splashed to a small pool of crimson on the floor.

"Do you know you are a relic?" The woman began, bending over to yank up a small mortar. There was an elixir of some sort in her hands. It was blue and Satake could almost swear that he saw it glow. "A creature of immense power blessed by the universe itself."

"Shut up." I snapped. "Is that why I am here? So you can harvest my heart?"

A small smile crept up the woman's lips. She walked over to a table at the vast corner of the room and placed the mortar in her hands on the work table. With her back turned against Satake, she proceeded to pound.

"Well, that was unexpected," Yasmin said. "How did you know? Was it David Blossom?"

"It doesn't matter." Satake retorted. He looked over to a downtrodden Olamide and threw his second question. "Why is she here? I understand why you would want to kill me but what does that human have to do with this?"

Yasmin stopped pounding and peered over to take a look at Satake. "Do you remember your parents?"

"Shut up!!"

Yasmin didn't. His response seemed to jeer her on. She picked up the pestle and continued to grind her herbs. She paused for another moment and reached out for the elixir to her side. She lifted it and turned to face Satake. "This is the essence of your nine tails. A feat I have to commend. You are barely ninety so I wonder how your fox has grown so much despite being repressed for so long. I wonder if it is your grief. After all, you have suffered greatly on the hands of Candice Blossom."

Despite his predicament, Satake could not help but laugh. "But you are just like her. You tear people away from their family and loved ones for a volatile thing like power. Isn't that why you want my heart?"

"Wrong." Yasmin retorted. "The night Candice Blossom chose to betray her mates and a huge portion of the werewolf community, my husband was murdered. He was a werewolf and I loved him."

Her remark about her mate being a werewolf caused something to click within Satake. It reminded him of that damned witch in the graveyard. The one who plagued him with the memories his brain had chosen to keep under lock and key.

"So?"

"So Candice made me a monster. Just like she had done to every one of you. Do you think I don't know this is wrong? The only difference between the Crow and me is that I cannot take it out on the supernatural of Wentworth like the Crow brothers and yourself have done but I can bring back the man I love even if it means upsetting the balance of space and time and literal murder."

"So you need a relic for some kind of resurrection spell. Taken but why is my Alpha's mate here too? Do you also need innocent blood?"

Yasmin scoffed and looked in Olamide's direction. "The girl is far from human. Innocent, maybe but she is also vital to this spell. She is the spinner. A speck of the allotter and a piece of the inflexible. She is currently one of the three fragments of the embodiment of fate scattered across the world."

She might have spoken an epic in regards to her villain origin story but Satake was not buying it. Evil was evil whether it had a cause or not. Yasmin reminded Satake of Candice. Monsters giving themselves reasons to cause havoc. He watched Yasmin return to her brew. She poured the fullness of the bottle into the mortar. After a few anti-clockwise turning, she poured the mixture into a pitcher and walked up to him. In one hand was the mixture she just made and in the other was the glowing sickle from before. It glowing hot orange this time around. As the measure clicks of her sneakers approached him, Satake flinched. Panicking, he wriggled at the ropes binding his wrists. The post he was tied to seemed solid. No matter how much he fought and pulled, the load-bearing column would not be moved. He had no weapons on him and no magic that could cut through the rope. Forks of lightning forked and following thunders humbled the earth but none of them strayed to a window or the roof. Satake had to accept the grueling truth that the witch had not been bluffing. His letdown of magic wasn't going to save him.

"What are you doing?" Satake demanded, retreating backward but the ropes binding him only shoved him back in place.

"What I have to do." The witch replied. Yasmin then muttered a spell Satake had no idea was capable of.

Satake felt his jaw open up against his will. "Don't do–this..." Satake begged as Yasmin raised the pitcher over his mouth. "I am begging you."

A tinge of regret burned bright on Yasmin's face but Satake's pleading did absolutely nothing to stop the witch. She poured the content of the cup down Satake's throat and against his will, Satake was forced to swallow. His whole body jerked as the liquid washed down his throat and settled below. Satake felt nothing at first but slowly and surely, heat erupted from within his bowels and spread upwards. The warmth grew from a feeling of mere warmth to liquid fire against Satake's skin. It was supposed to hurt but strangely, Satake felt no pain besides a slight discomfort. He watched with glassy eyes as the pitcher dropped from Yasmin's hands. The witch took a step backward and marveled at the sight in front of her. As Satake wondered why, the world in front of him turned a brilliant blue. There was barely any time to comprehend what was happening as Yasmin jogged towards him with malicious intent. What occurred the next second was merely a blur. Satake watched in horror as Yasmin raised the scythe high and plundered his chest.