Chapter 3: Iron Chains

Before Eli could react, the double doors swung open, pushing her backwards. She stumbled back but did not drop the blade in her hand.

She positioned her feet and raised her head. All movements were now purely instinctual.

The mage descended his throne unhurriedly. A scary shadow, his eyes blazing, surrounded his face. A red aura of power formed around his fists. 

A small army of naked, angry creatures stood ahead, shielding him. Their height was no more than his elbow. 

She swallowed. Eli had survived worse before; a little pack of short demons wouldn't be the end of her. Though she knew not many people encountered a mage and lived to tell the tale.

"Seize her," the mage commanded softly. The creatures charged toward Eli as if released by his order. She had half a second to pull another dagger from her belt before attacking.

If she were going to die, she would take as much as she could with her.

With one blade, she stabbed the first creature's bare skin in the gut that closed to her on her right and slammed her elbow into the mouth of another beast approaching her from the left.

They both groaned in pain. The one Eli had cut clutched her stomach with her hand to stop the bleeding, hissing at her. The other made room for the third, who rushed towards Eli with open claws and sharp teeth. Eli pushed one of her hands away, cutting her arm, but the nails of her other hand landed on Eli's face, slicing her cheek, lip, and jaw.

Eli screamed and shoved a blade into her shoulder and pulled it out. The creature shrieked and fell down. Thick black blood spilled on the floor.

Her own blood, warm and smooth, flowed down her face, dripping on her vest. Her face was on fire.

Eli had only a second to catch her breath before a male charged at her, shouting. She ducked his punch and carved a deep cut on his thigh. The movement cost her as another male lunged at her, throwing her backwards the stairs behind her. 

Eli's head hit the stairs from behind. The daggers slipped out of her hand. Her vision blurred for a few moments, and the sounds became muffled. But she quickly came to her senses, blinking the tears away.

Eli clutched the stair's stone railings and stood up quickly to steady herself. 

Her head throbbed. 

The bloody and wounded man was lying on the side of the stairs with his legs open, grabbing his balls. Blood dripped between his fingers. From the looks of it, Eli's blade cut him while falling. 

Eli didn't spend much time on him. One of her blades was at the foot of the spiral stairs, and the other was nowhere to be found.

As she raised her hand to wipe the blood from her face, two more beings attacked her. 

One had wings. 

The dancers. 

Eli punched the other as the female launched forward and sunk her long, sharp fangs into Eli's neck. The fangs cut through leather and cotton and pierced into her flesh.

Eli screamed. Pain shot through her collarbone and shoulder. She punched the female so hard she was thrown back a few stairs. The female hissed at the pain, showing her bloody fangs to Eli. She quickly got up and aimed to attack again when a calm voice commanded her, "Careful, Takana. Show her our hospitality." The voice had a hint of darkness that even Eli halted for a second. She didn't look up to find him at the top of the stairs. She was staring at Takana, the female dancer, and her wings trembling alarmingly. Even the rest of the creatures halted to see the two, panting and bloody, only a few stairs apart.

Eli's clothes were getting hot and sticky layer by layer. Blood flowed from her shoulder to her chest and stomach. Each breath sent a shot of pain to her shoulder. She already felt her left hand was getting numb. She swore under her lips. Takan's fangs were poisonous.

A male came to Takana, helping her stand up. He was winged, too. And still naked. To Eli's satisfaction, Takana winced in pain. Beyond the transparent dress, some nasty broses were forming under her ribs where Eli punched her.

The male launched at Eli. She blocked the blow with her hand only to receive another in the ribs. She shrieked and kicked his balls hard with her knee, pushing him down the stairs. 

Her vision blurred for a few moments. She was losing blood, fast. She had to run away. 

But from the looks of it, there was no chance of leaving this cursed house alive. And no future welcomed her without the ruby.

She descended a step backwards, spitting blood on the floor. Her left foot stepped on something. It was her second blade. She looked at Takana, still staring at her, and bent to grab her blade without breaking eye contact. She wasn't giving up. 

Takana grinned, her teeth red with Eli's blood. "Your blood is so delicious," she wiped her lips with her tongue, "I can't wait to taste more." 

She struck again. Eli was ready. 

But another little beast struck alongside Takana, catching Eli off guard. Eli darted the blade directly at the male beast coming down the stairs. The dagger plunged right into the middle of his chest, causing the creature to let out a cry.

A shout came from behind her, and then something heavy fell on Eli's wounded shoulder, causing her to lose balance and fall back on the stairs. It was the same winged male that Eli had pushed down the stairs. The wooden stairs hit Eli's jaws and ribs hard, pulling her breath out of her lungs.

She groaned in pain and tried to make the damn demon off of her. But the male pressed Eli's face against the stone step with his firm palm and pinned his knee on Eli's shoulder wound. He was shockingly strong for his size. Eli could not breathe.

"Bring it to me, Takana, before Gheiys kill her." The mage was somewhere above Eli.

There were stomps of the steps, and then, a moment later, hands clasped Eli's hair, lifting her up. Eli breathed deeply, making her body fire up in pain everywhere.

"I want her alive," the mage said at the top of the stairs, his voice dangerously low. "For now."

Eli moved to escape their grasp; she wasn't done fighting, even though her left arm had lost its senses.

The mage raised his fist and pointed it at Eli. A bright red aura danced around his hand, like a bloody dragon ready to strike. Before Eli could react, he whispered something, and Eli lost consciousness. 

***

Eli's senses first came back by the sharp shoulder and neck pain.

The fang bites created by that cursed diva on Eli burned as if her skin and flesh had been set on fire.

Her breath was wheezing with pain, and she slowly realized that her wrists, arms, ribs and her right ankle also hurt. 

If she was lucky, it could be just a twisted ankle and a cracked rib, but she was anything but fortunate that night.

Beyond the scorching pain, Eli's ears started to work. She struggled to regain consciousness, but it was as if a heavy cloud covered her brain, preventing her from awakening. Her eyelids were so heavy, as if they were sealed by moulted iron. 

She heard chatter. The whispers were angry and hostile.

"That is yet to be decided," a soft, clear, and low voice responded.

The sound was terrifying enough to revive Eli completely—enough for her to remember where she was, who she was, and what predicament she was stuck in.

She shot her eyes wide open, taking a sharp breath.

Her mouth fell open.

Fuck

She was in the middle of the large room, the same chamber on the second story. Gone with the orgy, musical instruments, and sensual atmosphere. She looked up, finding her hands chained from the ceiling with a thick iron chain. It was high enough that Eli's heels couldn't touch the floor. The room was filled with a pack of strange, angry varmints, and Eli was content to see they were also wounded. They had gathered around her a few steps away and were whispering to each other.

She looked at herself. Her gloves, leather vest, belt, boots, and weapons were ripped off her. She did not need to look hard to find them. They were on the ground, a few inches away before her bare feet.

Without the leather vest, her deep-cut white shirt was now loose and open, revealing the skin beneath. However, the shirt was no longer white from dirt, blood, and sweat. Eli took one look at the blood on her breasts and her stomach between the two sides of her shirt, rising and falling with each painful breath, gleaming under the lantern lights. The blood flowed slowly, not drying. She closed her eyes for a second. That meant her wound was not healing. She was about to die soon.

Eli looked up again. The chain was strong enough to support her weight for months.

There was no escape.

Fuck Fuck Fuck 

"Now that you have comprehended your situation, we may proceed." 

Eli's head shot back to the source of the sound. The mage stood in front of her. His voice was deadly calm, and his eyes looked distant and cold.

Eli swallowed.

She knew there was a slight chance left for her to survive.

Lucky for her, it was not the first time she was scared, in chains, trapped, and facing death. So she took a stern face and reminded herself he was under house arrest - not that it would profit Eli.

The mage was wearing a black robe now. The ruby still rested on his chest, mocking Eli for her failure. He stepped in the red lights, and Eli saw he was much younger than she imagined. He was probably in his thirties. His stubble was short, and the features of his face, shoulder-length hair, slender nose, high cheekbones, and jaw all made him look kind and even beautiful. 

But his eyes would wipe all that. They were so black no sun in the world could light them up. His eyes had no mercy, no soul, as if all emotions were pulled away.

ELi's head dropped backwards a little. She knew it was her final hours.

The mage glanced at Eli's belongings on the floor. "Look at that. A Thief!" he sounded disappointed. He sighed. "What a night. And here I assumed my house was watched for political motivations."

So he knew she was eyeing the mansion.

Eli pressed her lips together. She thought she was more discreet than that. However, the house was different from the outside. Maybe he was watching her spying on the building as he sipped his tea behind the window. Or his black potion of toad brain and baby blood. Eli wouldn't know.

"Were you expecting an assassin?" Eli tried her best to look smug, suspended in the air.

The mage looked up. 

"Unchain me," She continued, "and I'm more than happy to oblige to your expectations." 

She had her experience with being tortured, but she had no idea how mages earned their dark reputation. She braced herself for the mage's blow.

He closed his eyes, a deadly smile on his face. "Oh...you chose the very wrong night to test my patience, and as you know, I'm known for my creativity."

Eli frowned- Her shoulder barked with pain. She was sure the creativity the mage was talking about could make her condition much worse. 

The mage narrowed his eyes, studying her face. "Dear heaven, you have no idea who I am, do you?" He sighed, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "Ugh, pathetic; I expected them to hire a high-skilled crook at least." 

Now, both the mage and Eli were offended.

Before she could stop them, words came out of her mouth, "I'm no crook!"

"How could you be? It requires a set of skills to be one." He shot back.

"I AM known as an expert!" Eli growled, her jaws locked.

The mage cocked an eyebrow, "Oh? And look how you ended up." He snapped. 

That hurt Eli's pride more than her injuries. 

The mage exhaled through his nose, shaking his head. "Clearly, I have to lower my standards. Now I have to deal with petty house burglars."

Eli had had enough. "Well then, then fuck you and your standards."

The mage was now furious. His eyes glazed with rage, and the red aura of power shaped again, circling around his right fist. 

He closed a step to Eli, stepping on her belongings, and pointed a finger at her, coated with vicious alarming power and threatening. "Alright, listen now," His voice was low and threatening, "I will level with you. Evidently, you don't seem to know a damn thing about me or even mages. Because then you would've known there is no escaping from a mage. Nobody gets to steal from us and walk freely on earth.

So the only reason you're still polluting the air of my house with your rancid breath is because it's clear that you're just a pawn of somebody else's scheme. They are pulling your strings, and I intend to identify them. Regardless of the outcome, you will die here, in this house. The only difference is you have a body to bury by your beloved if you cooperate. Are we on the same page now?"

It took Eli a second to blink away the terror that filled her core. She put on her mask of smugness again. "You surely love to hear yourself talk."

The mage dropped his hand. He lifted his chin, looking down at her. Nobody moved for a few moments. The house again blocked all the sounds of the world. 

"Fine," He finally said, "Have it your way. I'll leave you alone for the night to rot here since you reek of cheap booze, garlic, and men's cum." He looked disgusted, his nose wrinkled. "You have the whole night to come to a decision. And I'm forbearing for now."

Eli said nothing as she stared at him. The dark circles around his eyes looked deeper and darker. 

"I thought I chose the wrong night to test your patience." Eli teased.

"We'll leave the fun for tomorrow morning, then." He seemed to barely contain himself from strangling Eli to death. His eyes burned with disdain.

"Come on now, let me attend to your wounds." It took Eli a second to realize he was addressing his demons while looking at Eli. 

He eventually faced them. They all left the room one by one, murmuring at each other. The mage stopped at the door and looked at Eli over his shoulder. "And I wouldn't be hopeful about that bite mark. That won't close. You'll be slowly bleeding to death."

Fuck