The Transcended: They call him Lucius

Part 3: Blood ~ Chapter 14

Zoey woke with a gasp, adrenaline flooding her system before her brain had a chance to register what had happened. Pain shot up from her right leg and she groaned. Confused and disorientated, she tried to discern her whereabouts. There was grass beneath her and blue sky above her—with Lucius glaring down. A wave of utter dread washed over her as she concluded he was the cause of her pain. She curled up, but Lucius grabbed her left leg and pulled it straight. Before she could react, Lucius' boot came crashing down onto the side of her calf. He stomped on it with enough force to cause her fibula to break with a sickening snap. The sound went through her entire being followed by a second surge of hot pain.

He broke my legs! Oh God, he broke my legs!

Whimpering, Zoey tried to cradle herself, forgetting her right wrist had been broken before she had lost consciousness. Unable to deal with it all, she wailed in despair.

Lucius placed his boot on her side and pushed her onto her back. Placing his weight on her chest, he glared down. Zoey still tried to fight back but got no further than wrapping her left hand around his ankle—though even that had an index finger that refused to bend, thanks to Lucius' bite.

"I warned you," he stated coldly. "I told you I would break your legs if you didn't come along. You know I don't make empty threats." He added a bit more weight and Zoey clawed helplessly at the fabric of his pants.

"S-sorry," she managed to utter, hoping it would stop him from breaking her ribs too.

"You'll definitely be sorry," he snarled before finally removing his foot. For a moment he kept it hovering above her stomach but then decided to kick her right leg instead.

The world spun as Zoey's nervous system overloaded with pain signals caused by the shards of broken bone biting into her flesh. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she repeated in agony. She was in full survival mode now—which came down to pleasing Lucius as best she could in order to limit how much suffering she would have to endure.

"Who is sorry?" Lucius asked with a devious grin.

It took Zoey a bit to process the question and what the desired answer was. With a loud sob, she replied, "B-Bobbi's sorry."

"Bobbi's sorry for what?" Lucius continued.

Oh, God, I can't keep doing this. Please, someone, make it stop! She swallowed, the burning pain from her broken bones somewhat manageable as long as she lay completely still. "For... For..." She sniffed, her legs pulsating along to the frantic rhythm of her heart. Her mind raced to come up with what the desired answer would be. For fighting back. For faking my own death. For trying to kill myself. For being disobedient. Her lip quivered. "For... For being a b-bad g-girl."

Lucius smirked. "Well, we better get going then." He grabbed her arms and started to drag her along behind him. "You've got quite the punishment waiting for you once we get home. Though, we might need to calm you down a bit first—wouldn't want you going rabid any time soon; there's no fun in that."

The way he held her right arm hurt her broken wrist, but her brain was dulling her senses to negate the overload of pain. Zoey wept and shuddered as she couldn't do anything but allow herself to be taken along. The throbbing in her legs spiked with every small bump and hole in the ground they crossed.

This is it, she thought grimly. I've lost. I can't fight him. I can't run away even if I did. It's over. She closed her eye, ready to surrender.

You can still crawl, another part of her stated. It's not over until you give up. You still got a working jaw, don't you? Well, transcended or not, he won't be immune to you biting through his jugular. When he's done bleeding out, you can just crawl your way back to Gwen and Isa. They'll patch you back up. But, you'll need to finish him before he takes you back to his mansion—there's no-one to help you there.