Forgotten Wolf

41 Flayer

"The fuck, is a flayer?!" I ask, throwing up my hands in exasperation.

I'm just gonna leave vampires for another day. Based on his tone, now we're screwed.

"Not good," he grumbles.

I just glare at him. "Got anything more helpful for me!?"

He studies me for a moment while he comes up with a new game plan. "I thought it was just the old fashioned way of elbow grease 'till they wore me down enough to get me to tell them what they wanted. Flayers are kind of like sadistic psychics." He pauses, trying to find the right description.

'Well that sounds just delightful.' 'I can do this, I guess my ex was good for something after all, sadists I can handle.'

"They won't need me to tell them anything, they just have to break my mind enough to get in to find what they're looking for." He's trying to put on a brave face but I can feel his concern.

"What are they looking for?" I whisper, shaken by his confession.

"Information on the lost royal would be my guess. It's the only thing of value that I know." He shifts to look at me, brown eyes boring into mine. "I can't tell them. Under any circumstances, you understand this right?"

"But you said they can just rip it from your mind?" I question, not understanding his statement.

"Even with extreme pain I won't break, I've been extensively trained for this. It's going to go from bad to worse, real quick. Flayers are not patient people, though it takes a toll to dig around and hit walls. That explains why he was only here for a short time each day." He seems to take a small comfort in this.

"He's going to kill you," I whisper as the realization hits me hard.

"Probably," he replies as if he isn't talking about his own end.

"Don't you care at all?" I ask incredulously.

"It's part of the job," he replies as he smiles sadly at me. "It's expected that I'd lay my life down for the crown, I knew it when I signed up."

"I can't prepare you for this," the remorse is clear in his voice. "Don't show him anything, hold out as long as you can, showing fear will just be like blood in the water for a shark."

Derek has always been a formidable asshole, this tender worried side scares the shit out of me.

"Try and rest as much as you can, exhaustion will make you more vulnerable." His hand brushes my cheek. "No tears for me either. I'm so sorry I dragged you out into the woods-"

"Like either of us expected this," I say with a bitter laugh.

His laugh brings me out of my own funk. "You're handling this surprisingly well," he says skeptically.

I shrug. "I freak out about thinking things, shit that doesn't make any sense. This is tangible, he's right here, for now it's one foot in front of the other. I'll have my breakdown later and you can bring me hot coco and rub my feet then." My voice is bitter but I'm desperately hoping we can look back on this later as a bonding moment. We've never been close, but I'm glad he's here with me.

The door opens and the man who caught me comes in only long enough to toss a bundle in before leaving and locking up again. I walk over to see what he tossed in: a ratty thin blanket, two bottles of water, and hunk of bread.

I checked the seals on the bottles, both are safe. I hand one to Derek, who gulps greedily while I sip mine. With half a bottle left, I hand it over along with the bread.