Chapter 16

The girl's smile became friendly.

"Hello, sir. My name's Natsuki." She said. "Sorry to bother you so late, but my father's car has broken down. May I use your phone to call a tow truck?"

She seemed genuine. She was only young, in her early teens, so she must have been harmless. Kitty felt no threat from her, so he let her in. She looked familiar, but he couldn't figure out why.

"Sure." Kitty smiled and led her to his and Damien's room. "My cell phone's upstairs. Don't worry, I won't do anything inappropriate or nothing. You're too young, and I don't like girls anyway."

They went up to the room. Once there, Kitty told the girl to wait outside and he would bring his phone out for her. He opened the door as quietly as he could. Damien might have been asleep. He found him sitting up on the bed, staring at the wall in front of him. When he noticed Kitty had come in, he turned to him and smiled.

"Hey." Kitty greeted him with a smile of his own. "There's a little girl who needs to use my phone. I'm just gonna get it a sec."

Damien nodded. He glanced over at the closed door. Kitty grabbed his phone from the nightstand, intending to open the door to give it to her. But he found she had already come into the room. Her apathetic face unnerved Kitty, but he went to hand her the phone. His eyes shifted to Damien to see how he was, and found him staring at the girl in horror.

"Dimmy?" Kitty was starting to get nervous. "What's wrong?"

"Don't you know who that is?" Damien asked, trembling.

Straining his eyes a little, Kitty stared at her. He tried his best to figure out who she was. The image of Damien on the floor after having holy water thrown in his face and the girl who was next to him came into his mind. His eyes widened.

"That's Dana?" He asked in panic. "Oh no, it's her. Dimmy, what do we do-"

The sound metal clicking interrupted him. His blood ran cold. Dana had locked the door, and was standing in front of it with a crazed smile.

There was no way out. She had them cornered like rats.

Damien gritted his teeth, a look of fear mixed with rage on his face. He jumped up off the bed. Two blobs of shadows materialised in his hands and became fans.

"Climb out of the window." He said. "I'll stop her".

But Kitty couldn't run. Dana would kill Damien, he knew it. He could see him shaking. She terrified Damien, but he was trying his best to save him.

"I'm not leaving you! We'll fight her together!"

"You don't know what you're doing!" Damien yelled. Kitty stopped dead. He had never shouted at him before. Damien bit his lip. "I don't want you getting hurt for me. If you died, I'd never forgive myself."

Kitty watched him. He knew he had to do something, but Damien was right. He didn't know what he was doing. He'd never been in a fight before. He'd gotten beaten up, many times, but he never fought back. Every time they picked on him and pushed him around, Jack saved him. He didn't know what to do.

His anxiety got the better of him, and he froze. He started twisting his hands. His eyes started filling up. His breathing became heavy. He felt helpless and useless. But there was something inside him telling him to fight. No matter the consequences, if you get hurt or even die, you have to fight for the ones you love.

With an inhalation of breath, Kitty lunged towards Dana, fist pulled back. He heard Damien shout his name. Before his punch could land, Dana tutted and put her hands up. Then he saw a blinding light shoot out of her palms. He shielded his eyes, but it made no difference. He couldn't see. His vision was too blurry.

The last thing he remembered was something sharp and thin stabbing him in the neck. Then it all went black.

☽☾

He hadn't slept this well in years. No nightmares, no interruptions. Nothing. Was he even asleep? It was dark, and he couldn't move. Was this what it felt like to sleep? He couldn't remember.

A hand thwacked hard against his cheek and his eyes opened. He had been asleep, or rather unconscious, but he wasn't in a bed. He wasn't even lying down. He was on a chair, tied up and slumped over. He lifted his head. It hurt, like someone had kicked it. His vision was crap, unfocused. His eyes didn't want to work, it seemed. He squinted hard, then widened his eyes to see better, and saw a figure in front of him. Who the hell was that? And why was he tied up like a fucking pig at a redneck convention?

The answers became clear when his eyes refocused and he saw the object of his fears standing before him.

Dana gave him a calm smile. She was hiding something behind her back. She stepped aside to show Kitty behind her, tied up to another chair with tape over his mouth. Damien's blood ran cold when he saw what Dana had in her hands.

A cattle prod.

"What the fuck are you going to do with that?" Damien asked, brows furrowed.

Dana stared at the cattle prod for a few seconds. "Obviously not going to herd cows." She muttered. She glanced back at Damien with a smirk. "But I think it would be good for herding hybrids."

Blue and red eyes widened in terror. He started perspiring. He couldn't breathe. "Don't you fucking dare!" He spat out. He struggled to get out of the restraints. He was panicking too much. "I'm begging you, just stop. He's not your enemy. I am." He gulped, trying to calm himself. He needed to negotiate a way out. "You can do whatever you want to me. You can even use that thing on me. I don't care. I'll do anything. So please, let him go."

Despite his pleading, all he got back was a cold stare. Dana pointed the cattle prod in his face. "You're pathetic, begging me like that. How you've fallen."

"You hurt him and I'll fucking kill you!" Damien snarled.

Dana grinned in amusement. "That's more like it."

She wasn't deterred by his threats. She switched on the cattle prod, electric bursting at the tip, and pressed it onto Kitty's stomach. The tape muffled his screams of pain. Damien thought he was going to throw up. He thrashed and pulled at the rope around him so hard that the chair he was on toppled over. He landed with a smack on his side, smashing his head off the floor. He felt dizzy, but he didn't care. He needed to save Kitty.

Damien tried to use his shadow tentacles, but found that they wouldn't come out. He couldn't use shadows at all. He then tried to use telekinesis, but that didn't work, either. Why were his powers not working?

He remembered what had happened before he passed out. A sharp needle in his neck then wetness in the wound. Dana must have injected him with something to make him weak, most likely Holy water if he couldn't use his shadows or telekinesis. If Holy water entered a Hell-creature's bloodstream, instead it hurting them as it would if it touched their skin, it cancelled out their powers for 24 hours.

There was absolutely nothing he could do.

After about a minute of electrocution, Kitty passed out. Damien was watching him with tearful eyes, unable to do anything to help him. Dana watched him, too, but with a cold expression. She looked at the cattle prod again.

"Hm. Must not have been able to take it."

Rage replaced his sadness. But what could he do, drugged and tied up? He could hear banging and yelling on the bedroom door despite his dizziness. It must have been Claire and Richard.

The door swung open with Carrie's telekinesis, and she, Claire and Richard barged into the room. Seeing how they outnumbered her, Dana transformed into a ball of light and shot out of the window. The damage she had done stunned the three of them.

Richard made his way over to Kitty and Claire over to Damien and they both untied them. Carrie rushed to the window and jumped onto the ledge to see if she could find Dana. She announced that she was long gone.

As soon as Damien was free, he rushed to Kitty's side and held him. He begged for him to wake up, tears pouring down his cheeks, but he remained unconscious.

He was alive, but barely. Damien prayed he would be all right.