Page 23 of Captive
Memory surged through him, the bear's blood, the hunt, the orc woman with her herbs. Through sheer force of will, he turned his head, quickly assessing his surroundings. More orcs stood around the sacred chamber beneath the Heart Tree, filled with glowing crystals. He spotted the witch among others wearing ornate jewelry marking them as council members. His eyes narrowed as he calculated his precarious position.
"You," he said to the witch, trying to make his words form properly despite his mouth feeling strange and unfamiliar. "Your magic... it's damaged my enhancements." Vapor leaked from his spine in erratic patterns as he tested whatever invisible force held him down. "The consequences will be severe when my house discovers what's been done."
The distant pulse of vampire magic filtered through the chamber, search parties coordinating at the forest's edge. Sebastian felt both hope and dread at their proximity.
One of the larger orcs tightened his grip on his weapon. "The border patrols have spotted search parties. They've lost your trail at the outer markers, but they're persistent."
"They'll keep searching," a mid-sized orc added, moving to guard the chamber's entrance. His spear caught crystal light like captured lightning. "But the Heart Tree's magic protects us. They can't penetrate this deep without their copper parts failing."
"Your magic won't hold them off forever," Sebastian's voice steadied despite the pain that encompassed every inch of him. Without synthetic regulation, every sensation overwhelmed him, but he maintained his composure through years of noble discipline. "House de la Sang doesn't abandon its own."
The knife's edge glistened with deadly precision near his throat. Sebastian eyed it warily, measuring his limited options. The crystal lights embedded in the living wood shimmered in blues and purplesbeyond a spectrum he was used to seeing, colors his enhanced vision would have filtered out. The raw smell of earth and living wood penetrated senses that his processed existence had dulled for centuries.
"The blood," he whispered as another memory surfaced. His tongue moved across odd-feeling canines that felt like something ancient and forgotten. "You fed me..." Pure instinctive revulsion made him heave, but beneath it rose a hunger he'd never felt before. Artificial regulation had always kept it carefully controlled. It threatened to consume him from within. "What is happening to me?" he asked, unable to fully mask his unease.
One of the elder orc women stepped forward, her fingers weaving magical gestures that invaded his awareness. "His organic systems strengthen but reject synthetic control. The transformation accelerates now that he's conscious." She stared at the largest orc across the knife's edge. "We must decide quickly."
"It changes nothing," the mid-sized orc countered, though uncertainty threaded his voice. "He's still one of them."
Three sharp whistles followed by two long notes rolled through the tree. Sebastian's body seized at the sound as pale yellow vapor curled from the seams at his neck. Despite the pain, his mind remained clear enough to recognize the tactical implications. "Your borders are being tested," he observed, neither gloating nor threatening, simply stating a fact.
"That's our border alarm," the big orc confirmed. "They've established a perimeter, but they're still at the forest's edge. Your people are methodical, if nothing else."
"They won't find us here," the eldest woman assured the others. "The Heart Tree's magic has protected our inner sanctum for generations. Their artificial parts fail long before they reach these depths."
Sebastian's expression tightened, masking his concern. "You underestimate their determination." Even as he spoke, doubts crept in. Would his father still consider him worth saving, transformed as he was? Without his enhancements functioning properly, was he still truly his father's heir?
Running feet announced more orcs arriving. Sebastian tensed, gathering what strength he could despite his condition. Knowledgewas power, and every bit of information about their defenses might prove useful if he survived this ordeal.
"The scouts report multiple search parties," one guard reported between breaths. "They're bringing in blood trackers, the old methods from before they relied on machines."
"Blood trackers," Sebastian echoed, his tone carefully neutral despite the hope this sparked. The old methods could follow his scent even where synthetic scouts failed. If he could just survive long enough... But another concern immediately overshadowed this hope, what his father would think of him in this degraded state?
Another convulsion tore through him as brass pulled away from tissue. He couldn't suppress a gasp of pain. "Is this..." he managed through clenched teeth, "part of your interrogation technique? Or simply bad hospitality?"
"The vision shows truth," the witch said softly, her magic crackling with warning. "His brass awakens. His blood fights against artificial constraints. But that remembering may destroy him before-"
"My enhancements have sustained our house for generations," Sebastian interrupted, though each word cost him. "They can't be undone by forest magic." But even as he spoke, he felt the change accelerating within him, the terrible freedom of sensation without synthetic regulation, the raw awareness of everything his enhancements had been designed to filter.
The knife pressed against his throat felt more real than anything had in centuries. The taste of his own blood, unprocessed, unrefined, awakened cravings his training had always suppressed.
Stripped of enhancements, he was nothing but sensation, uncertainty, and confused instincts warring against two centuries of careful regulation. Every moment brought new awareness of what had been done to him, of how artificial his existence had been. He wouldn't give these orcs the satisfaction of seeing his doubts, but neither would he waste energy on empty threats.
The big orc's blade didn't waver, but something shifted in his expression as another series of signals echoed from above. The orcs exchanged glances. The one by the door pounded his spear on the floor but remained at his post.
The crystals pulsed faster, their light shifting quality as Sebastian'scondition deteriorated. The magic in this place seemed to respond to his suffering, to the battle between metal components and awakening organic systems.
Sebastian's chest heaved as the chamber magic surged through his failing systems. His back arched as copper threading scraped against tissue, tearing a sound from his throat that held nothing of noble restraint, pure, animal agony that echoed off crystal-lit wood. He cursed this weakness, this loss of the control that had defined his existence for centuries.
"His heart rate spikes," the witch warned, her magic probing his systems. "The transformation accelerates,"
Then something different happened. The hunger that had been building since he woke crashed through every remaining synthetic regulator. Without artificial control, the need for blood overwhelmed everything else. His senses sharpened painfully, he could hear every heartbeat in the chamber, smell the unprocessed blood flowing beneath orc skin. His fangs extended fully, responding to instincts no amount of enhancement had managed to suppress.
"No," he gasped, fighting this new loss of control. His hands clutched at the wooden floor beneath him, trying to anchor himself against the tide of pure hunger threatening to consume him. If there was any part of him still worthy of his position, he would not surrender to base instinct. Not like this.
"Hold him down," the biggest orc ordered. Hands gripped Sebastian's shoulders, but all he could focus on was the pulse points in their wrists. The scent of their blood called to parts of him that remembered what it meant to be a predator.
"Stay back," he warned, the words mangled by fangs he could no longer control. He struggled against their grip, fighting both their restraint and his own desperate hunger. Everything burned, his dead copper components, his too-alive organic parts, his mind overwhelmed by sensations that had always been carefully regulated.
