She turned the lights off, leaving a few candles to give meagre illumination, and then she left the room. The other Wolf left too, but their captive could not see even if it were male or female through his tear-blurred eyes.
When they were out of earshot, the dungeon Mistress asked: “Now, what do we need to ask the miserable object?”
“I’m not certain. I know Darius and probably Phillipe are up to something, but who else is in on it and what it is that they’re up to, I have no idea. We know that it involves poisoning Wolves with the drugs they manufacture, but what else?”
They paused as another howl ripped through from the dungeon.
“My only guess is that they could be amassing an army, attempting a coup.” Red continued.
“We’ve seen what the effect is of the drug that he laces Humes with but why is he poisoning Wolves? The poison prevents a Wolf from being self-aware so he is no use as a soldier.”
“Maybe he is disabling Wolves who would show an allegiance to the Lycaeon?”
“That is very possible. But to what end, unless he is trying to overthrow her in favour of a puppet Lycaeon?”
“But we don’t know who else would be eligible or willing to succeed Victoria as Lycaeon.”
“Phillipe is next in line, of course, but that would not benefit Darius, he knows that Phillipe is too greedy to be a puppet and Francois still regards Phillipe like the idiot son that he is – even more so these past few centuries.
“Phillipe is an addict and so would probably be more malleable than we first thought.”
“How do you know this?”
“Apart from it all making sense, he smells different. Wolves not on the drug – or cocktail of drugs – smell natural, but he is behaving like a Hume, he is trying to cover bad body odour with too much cheap perfume, it mixes with the odour and he stinks of it. That is what Phillipe smells of, chemicals – rather like industrial cleaner – and whatever it is that he tries to cover the smell with. I don’t know, maybe he rolls in cow dung like dogs do - but it doesn’t work.” Red’s nose wrinkled in unconscious disgust. The smell invades the back of the nose rather than the front; it coats the throat and makes the eyes sting. I noticed it on him even from a distance and I’ve noticed it on other Wolves recently.”
“Right, you will be listening intently to his answers then. Now, before we go back to work, would you like coffee?”
As they approached the dungeon once more, she grew wary. Her captive appeared to be sleeping. To ensure her guest was not recognised, she placed a hood over his head. He awoke and struggled a little, shaking his head in a poor attempt to get it off, but Red had taken her place once more in the shadows.
Disoriented and weak from the poison, he tried to change to Wolf. It was unfortunate for the wretch that this whelp had become, because the Aconite still had a firm grip and all he managed was a fine covering of fur on his torso.
“It is lucky for you, slave that I know you did not do that on purpose. Your instincts are trying to keep you alive. Now a few questions require answers.” She waited whilst he nodded. “I want to know who you work for”
He hesitated for a moment. “I’m freelance. I buy drugs in large quantities from different sources and cut it myself. I package the wraps and take them out to the druggies. I don’t work for - or with - anyone.”
He screeched as the chrome wand was pressed deep into his armpit, wrenching his shoulder almost out of the socket.
“I do not repeat my questions. I ask it once, so if you insist on lying to me, you had better remember what I asked, for you get this,” she jabbed him once more with the electrified prod to accentuate her point, “if you do not give the correct answer.” She allowed him time to calm down then continued: “I know the answers to most of the questions, if you are to play games with me, you must work out which questions I know and which I don’t. The stakes are high and I think I have a better idea than you about your pain threshold. I think you can take more pain than you could imagine, shall I prove my theory?”
He emitted a high keening wail as she passed the wand over his abdomen. The stench of singeing fur filled the dungeon and a crackling noise accompanied the smell. He could not see the light-show that played along his skin, but it was mesmeric as the miniature lightning bolts played on his skin. She prolonged the working-over of this Wolf until she deemed that he was almost primed.
“Another question: What drugs are the Humes laced with?”
“I sell Charlie, Crack, ‘H’, a bit of ‘Whiz’, ‘Speed’, but mostly ‘Blow’. He said, his head moving in slight jerking movements similar in action to a chicken.
He tensed, expecting more from the wand, but she didn’t give it to him until he began to relax.
Again the acrid smell of burning hair pervaded the air. This time though, she had played it over his legs, which didn’t hurt him quite so much and he didn’t make any noise except for a grunt as she first made contact. However, when she touched it to the back of his knees, inside his legs, the screaming began again.
With an icy coolness, she said: “Do not take me for an idiot.” She stuck the wand under his rib once more. Again, he grunted, unable to make more noise than that as his body contorted, trying to double up on itself. “And now down to business.” She switched off the chrome wand, removed his hood and made certain that he saw her take the silver implement from the shelf. She held it up in front of his tear-streaked face. “I want answers. You either give those answers and only suffer a little, or you continue to lie and I use this…” she showed the wand off, turning it this way and that, watching the light glint off its length “in places I’ve not touched with the other wand – if you get my meaning – tender places.”
She smiled with bared and pointed teeth and with such a look of glee that he did not care for in the slightest as his eyes flickered recognition at her hints. “How long do you think I could make you last under these conditions?”
He shook his head and she took that to mean he didn’t know.
“A day? A week?” She asked, as she walked in front of him, flourishing the silver wand. “If I care to, I can keep you indefinitely. The moon does not penetrate here. You will never feel its full effects. You will never grow stronger and I can administer Aconite to prevent you ever changing to Wolf. I enjoy my craft, and I am constantly looking for new ways to give pain. You could be my practice piece. A life of pain is all you can look forward to. Think about it. I can easily keep you here or you can earn your way out.”
“How do I know you’ll not kill me when I’ve answered you, Mistress? How can I be sure you will let me leave?” He struggled to speak, but they heard him.
“I give you my word. I have no fears that you will leave here and run direct to Darius and Phillipe…” she smiled as his head jerked up as he realised that she did indeed know some of the answers to the questions she had asked “to tell them what I have done, for they both are fully aware of my expertise and would also know that you had talked. Your only hope of salvation is to tell me enough so that I deem you have earned your freedom. I will not be informing Darius that you have enjoyed my hospitality, I am confident that neither will you.
“However! Here is a warning. If I get bored – and it has been known – then I will release you in public view, naked and shackled so that Darius will soon hear of it, and as I said before, such is my reputation, he will assume – wrongly – that you squealed like a pig and told me all I need to know in order to save your own miserable skin. And if you believe nothing else, trust me on this: He would make you suffer, and then he would kill you, he has no professional pride as I do. Now, do you wish to co-operate?”
He nodded without a moment of hesitation.
Much later, as the pair left the building, Elizabeth set the alarm and locked the doors, Red said: “I thought you promised him that he wouldn’t die by your hand?”
“I lied. There was no point in telling him he was going to die no matter what he told us, was there?”
Ooops! Pictures from Pixabay