Never Too Late

[Ashton]

PSA: Trigger Warnings -- In this thread there will likely be mention of rape, child abuse. There will be depictions of cannibalism and torture.

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It had taken several months of waiting for the hammer to finally fall. Mistress Blackthorn was getting all uppety about it. There was nothing Ashton could do about it, the man left town.  What the fuck was he supposed to do? Follow him? Besides, he wasn't in town, which meant he wasn't causing problems for the Blackthorns employer. And thus he could continue to flirt and talk with the cute bartender.

But that all came to an end when he had been spotted out on the town by one of his foster siblings. Everyone was out looking for him by that point. Mistress Blackthorn was truly well and pissed, but now she was happy.  He hadn't posed any problem when Ashton caught him unaware.  A simple touch to his good arm, a sweet smile and words sung in his siren's voice and the man was putty in  his hands.

He followed instructions almost too well but Ashton thanked his stars. Now he just had to make sure no one found him. And that he didn't use that power he'd seen him use. That could fuck everything up.

For now, Nox Durante sat in the cell in the basement of the Blackthorn mansion. He stared at Ashton with reverant eyes and followed his every move. His mechanical arm was laid on the table out of reach with his very expensive wallet. Ashton wondered who would get that.  They would have to dismantle the arm and likely ditch the phone to cover all their tracks when the man was dead. 

A noise pulled Ashton's eyes towards the stairs.  It was still early no one should be rousing.

Cedrick with his hawk nose and beady eyes scrambled down the stairs in a haggered way. "I'm starving." He looked into the cell were Nox followed Ashton. Cedrick licked his lips and smiled with his jagged teeth. Ashton hated when he did that, it was far worse since the man filed them to a point.  Better to tear the flesh with he said.  

Cedrick never took his eyes off of their captive prey. "Call him to me."

"Mistress Blackthorn wants him dead, not alive." Ashton complained.

The monstrous man turned on Ashton and growled. "Do it or I'll take a bite out of you."

Ashton took a deep breath and moved closer to the bars and smiled at Nox, crooking a finger and with his sing song voice called the man over. "Come to me my dear."

There was a moment of hesitation.  Who wouldn't hesitate when staring down a monster, though Nox had never taken his eyes from Ashton.  He stood up in a graceful move and approached the bars. "Good my love, now give me your good arm and be a good boy and don't scream."

Ashton hated this part.  The man lifted his arm through the bars and Cedrick grabbed it.  His sharpened teeth sank into the flesh of his well toned forearm and a small sound escaped his lips but he didn't scream.  Ashton saw only a handful who didn't break out of the spell when pain of your flesh being ripped out jolted the vicitim to reality.

[Nox]

All thought was muffled by the song in his head and the hand on his arm. And then as he sat down in a cell and watched the man with blonde curls bouncing around the basement he was now locked in, memories and thought slowly creapt back in. Nox took in his surroundings the best he could while he followed the man who'd he'd seen make Jaxen disappear. How he didn't know, but he had seen it with his own two eyes. And now he was caught in whatever snare he had.

The voice sang to him every so often and the fog drifted back over his eyes. Thoughts and memory faded and he didn't remember how he'd gotten there.

He didn't know how long he'd been sitting there when another man joined his captor on the otherside of the bars. The three girls in the cell next to him all scurried back into their corner as if the shadows could hide their full form. Who the fuck kept pregnant women in cages...

But the thought drained away as the man stared at him like he was a piece of meat -- Rougarou!

The horde felt a kindred spirit the otherside of the bars and while Nox hadn't taken his eyes off of his captor he was well aware of the beady-eyed man and his fucking teeth. The voice fell upon him and Nox followed the instructions. Stood up. Walked to the bars and gave the man his arm -- willingly. What the fuck!

Even knowing what was going on, that this was a Siren Nox had little control over his actions. He was out of practice. But there was a tiny piece inside that didn't care. That wanted this. Wanted to obey and the song latched on to it and Nox obeyed. Sharp teeth sank into his skin and through flesh. Veins gushed blood and soon Nox was feeling light headed and tried to grasp the power inside but it slipped through his fingers beyond the slime and taint of the horde. Fuck!

Nox yanked his arm away and pressed his gapping hole against his chest. Fuck!

The beady eyed man laughed and wiped the blood from his lips. "I'll tell mother that he's dead. He's mine now. I want a slice of him for dinner -- alive. Don't kill him. He'll last a long time with a body like that." And he left Nox bleeding out.

His original captor stuck his head out the door beyond the stairs. "Liv, I need a healing."

[Ashton]

Cedric bit into his arm and then he left. Fuck! This wasn't good Cedric woulcn't take the hit he would. He was going to lie to his mother -- their mother and mistress. This wasn't good. He panicked but Olivia was there taking care of the boy he'd pulled off the street.

Nox was trying desparatley to stop the bleeding, and scurrying away tot he corner. Live didn't want to go in with him. Ashton didn't blame her.

He whispered a song through the bars. "It's okay. We only want to help. Come here."

Nox looked at him with doubt. Ashton frowned and reached his hand through and their prisoner backed up. "I promise we aren't going to hurt you." He sang again.

The words sank in this time and Nox stood up and handed Liv his wrist. Blood covered his shirt. It squirted blood. Liv touched his arm and he shivered his eyes going wide like all the others and he didn't scream. It was an odd feeling watching and seeing your skin knit back together but he didn't stare at it, he looked in her eyes almost lost in a dream. A scar remained when Liv let go. He mumbled "Thank you." He sat down and rested his head against the wall. He didn't faint like the others.

[Nox]

Healings were never easy on the recipient. Liv, her name was stood weakly on the other side of the cage. Nox still couldn't reach the power. Now he was just too tired. He needed a nap. But did he dare close his eyes? He'd never been dinner before. What would his father think? Nox was a little fuzzy on how he got here.

"You hungry?" Liv asked.

I nodded. "Famished. But it might be in my best interest to not eat."

She smiled softly down at him. "Cedric will make us force feed you if you don't eat."

"Why do you do this?"

The blond who's been flirting with Raffe spoke from the other side of the room. "If we don't we get punished, same as you." He brought a tray over and shoved it under the bars.

"Why were you at the club? Targeting me? What do you want with Raffe?" He looked at Nox like he didn't know who he was talking about "The bartender you were flirting with."

The blond smiled. "He's cute. Would you be mad if I took him for a spin?"

There was a moment of anger and the horde rolled across his mind hard and Nox growled.

"I guess that's a yes. But don't worry, he's not my target, just you. He was just fun."

The food didn't look good but the first rule of healing was to eat and rest. Nox didn't hesitate to pull the tray closer together and use his mostly healed arm. It still hurt, it was stiff to move. "Let me out of here and I'll make their lives a living hell and get you out of here. You won't have to do this again."

Heels sounded down the wooden stairs. "Cedric really isn't a good liar."

Liv took one look at the blond coming down the stairs and slipped around the table and the guy who had flirted with Raffe and out of the room.

"They won't be doing that darling." she said. She handed my captor a packet. "Use this to incapacitate him. So you don't have to be here. Cedric likes him I'd hate to disappoint my baby boy."

She rubbed his head like a favored pet. "Good boy, Ashton. Good boy. Don't take too much, we can feed the boys well for a while with this one."

[Ashton]

Mistress Blackthorn came down and Liv scattered to her room. "I thought you wanted him dead."

She laughed. "Flynn only wants him out of the way. He's out of the way. Feed my boys!"

Ashton sighed. "Yes, ma'am. What's this do?"

"Incapacitates him. It's a sedative I'm told. Modified variation on what the police are using." Mistress Blackthorn said. "Bring him close and I'll administer the first dose."

"That isn't a good idea. You should kill me now." Nox didn't threaten, he leaned his head back against the wall and ate a piece of bread like none of it even mattered to him. Ashton thought he was arrogant, he was not going to like this place. He didn't even seem afraid.

Ashton did as he as bid. "Come to me, my sweet." He sang softly through the bars.

Nox got up slowly. He was fighting the song.

"How is he doing this, boy." Mistress Blackthorn smacked Ashton on the back of his head. "Why aren't you doing this right."

"He's different than the others." Ashton ducked down and away from his Mistress. He crouched near the ground by the bars. "Please, love come to me." Ashon reached out his hand through the bars.

There seemed to be a softening of their prisoners face as he stopped hesitating and drew close. Mistress Blackthorn grabbed his arm and pushed the serum into his veins. His head wobbled and he staggered back. The light in his eyes was gone, there was a darkness now as he stepped back towards the bars and snatched Mistress Blackthorns hand before it left his arm with the syringe. His black painted fingernails dug into her skin leaving red marks as he pulled her inside the bars.

She struggled but the sedative fully worked and he dropped to the ground.

"Don't ever let him do that again." And she stormed out of the room.

Ashton sank to the ground. "This is going to go very badly." A pair of hands in the cell next to Nox's reached out and touched Ashton's shoulder. "It's okay Izzy. We'll figure it out. Mistress won't hurt you as long as you carry the baby."

[Nox]

The power slipped away behind a block before the sedative ran its course through his veins. The horde revealed in the freedom and grabbed her arm. The bitch! She was working with Vaia Plus. The horde didn't understand Nox's anger, but took full advantage of it before he dropped to the ground.

Nightmares plauged the forced slumber. Nightmares of his childhood of being taken and eaten. The reality of his current situation bringing back his fears. Anger rolled through his body and Nox's eyes opened in the dark of the room. His head hurt, the horde growled. The power hovered on the edge of his vision but he couldn't reach it, it slipped through his fingers. His mind still broken with whatever they'd done. His body felt heavy as he tried to eat -- tried to clear the fuzz from his head.

A whisper next to him pulled his attention. "You okay?"

Nox growled. There was no control, very little control, he was hungry but moving was difficult. He tried to move towards the other side but it was too much work, he slumped against the bars. "I need meat."

Another voice asked. "What are you?"

"A monster like them, but with more control when I have my ability. I can't move right now so that's the only thing holding me from trying to get to you."

"You eat people?" They both skittered away from the bars.

Nox laughed. "No. At least not yet. Just meat -- protein, the bloodier the better. The horde is hungry and angry and trapped. All things it doesn't like to be." In his current state he could feel them -- stronger, closer. He could sense them -- they were more present more numerous. They wanted out!

"The horde? Our masters aren't a horde just ugly men."

"Roguarou. What's a siren doing working for them?"

"Ash? He's like us. Was a foster they put to work to bring in food. He's favored, special."

Nox laughed. "If that's favored I feel bad for the rest of you. You two are trapped here why?"

"Chained so we don't kill ourselved. Ava is pregnant with a girl and they will feast on her when she's born. I have a boy. They will take him raise him."

"How many of them are there?"

"The old man and his wife. Mistress and her husband, Cedric and his wife and Edmund is 10, but he's the worst."

The other girl added. "Don't forget Max and Octavius and his line."

"How many males?" Nox growled.

"Eleven, 4 of them are under ten. But Edmund is the only one who feeds like the men."

"Where are we?" They were being forthcoming with information Nox would dig for whatever he could of his fellow captives. He only hoped he could remember it later. His brain was fuzzy.

[Ashton]

This wasn't a good thing. This was a bad situation. This kid was going to be more trouble than he was worth. A fucking channeler. The same type of person who changed a building into a momument on a whim. What could he do? Ashton had seen some of it first hand, and it was scary. Mistress Blackthorn had no idea what she was getting into. She should just kill him and fuck Cedric's whims.

Ashton checked on Liv and the others. They were all safe in their rooms in the basement. Ethan's room still empty. He rarely slept downstairs Edmund wishing to keep his chew toy handy. Ashton felt bad for his friend, and brother, but there was nothing he could do. It was live like this or die like Taylor and he didn't want that. None of them wanted that and did everything they could to live longer than the last. Still it took a lot to live past 18. Ashton's gift was both a blessing and a curse.

When he returned to the cells he heard voices, Nox was talking with the Izzy and Ava. He was asking a lot of questions. The girls answered him, and asked their own. He freely answered and Ashton wondered what he was too. He wasn't like the others. But then he asked a bad question and he stepped out of the shadows. "They can't answer that question."

He chuckled. "Course not. Have they ever left?"

"They used to. Until they started shedding their lining and then..."

"How many years have they been here?"

"Too many. Even a day is too many." Ashton sat down next the bars by the girls as far as he could get from Nox. "You don't think you can get out of here do you? Others have tried. They've all failed, ended up worse than dead."

His brown eyes turned towards Ashton and were darker than he remembered when he picked them up. There was a shadow over his features casting a sinister look across Nox's face. "I'm not like the others. I will hunt every fucking one of them down and end them."

Ashton chuckled. "You can barely move. What makes you think you'll get out?"

Nox just chuckled to himself. Ashton didn't like this one bit. Not one fucking bit.

[Nox]

A Rougarou nest with a siren and a fucking godling who can heal. What was next? And of course they were working with Vaia Plus. His anger rose and he was grateful for the information but the kid, Ashton was very seriously underestimating him. Even as they talked Nox could feel the horde's growing fury at being captive.

The siren left him in the cage after jabbing him with another syringe full of whatever the concoction was that left him limp and groggy. Left him to his own devices, but not without tipping Nox over and carving a slice of flesh from his calf. The pain was aweful but he didn't scream. There was only feeling he couldn't move even if he wanted to. The girl healed him before they both left and the scar that remained hurt when he stretched. This was going to end badly for them.

The horde's presence grew. Nox leaned into it. Leaned into the feeling and instinct. He'd get out. He was trapped in more ways than one. It wasn't beastial instincts that drove him, he had a mind, and he was capable of so much.

The darkness shifted in his head. Grew. It wanted blood. To kill. And Nox didn't stop it. Didn't reign it in. He couldn't, he had no power over the thoughts. His anger powered the horde. His past deep and dark and murderous. He wrapped himself in the void of emptiness where the power usually sat, it was there untouchable. It made his heart race with panic. Searing pain echoed in his body at memories of being unable to control it.

The pain sent memories of the horde dying in the tunnels scorching his skin, flesh melting from his body.

But his mind was safe in the emptiness. Away from the darkness. Unbroken.

[Ashton]

Three days they kept a very dangerous person confined in the cells. The cameras rolled and the man sat there glaring at the camera when he wasn't eating. It was too bad there was no sound on the screen, he only spoke when the girls were present -- never when Ashton entered. Ashton tried to eaves drop but he always clammed up when he was near the door -- when anyone else tried to enter.

The drug that Mistress Blackthorn gave them was running low. Ashton informed her. "Mistress. We have only a dose or two left at the rate you want me giving it to him. You need to get more if you want to keep him alive."

"Cedric wishes for a large piece tonight and more variety."

"As you wish, but we still need more." Ashton tried to reiterate.

She waved him off with a glare and Ashton let it go. He knew he was going to die if he got out. They all were. The look in their captive's eyes had not wavered from the moment he first came in and realized he was food. Since he had seen Mistress Blackthorn. Since she spoke...

Down in the bowels of the Blackthorn estate the man rested with his head against the wall glaring at the camera. "No one is there to see."

His eyes turned to Ashton and a shiver ran through his body. "I think they will end this soon. Cedric wishes to dine on a variety tonight. Soon he'll wish for an organ. He relishes the heart and brain. It's almost over." Ashton said trying to scare the man, but the look never changed. He just sat there.

"When Mistress Blackthorn came down here, she said a name. A name you knew."

His eyes flared with a fire that made Ashton take a step back.

His voice was empty of all emotion when he spoke. "Vaia Plus will fall soon enough."

"Why? What did they do?"

A half smile slide across Nox's face. "Fucked with the wrong person. They were going down before, but now... no now they all die. Feed me to fucking monsters!"

"Why were they going down before?" Ashton knelt down next to the bars and shoved another plate full of meat closer to him. He hadn't been able to get steaks, but it was easy enough to get burgers smuggled in. He looked less haggard when fed. Less like he was going to keel over and die sooner rather than later.

"They made a monster and let it get lose and it ravaged the Undercity, killing friends of a friend among others."

Nox picked up the food with sluggish movements and chewed slowly while glaring at Ashton. It made the simple act of eating sinster and creepy and Ashton gulped. "I don't have a choice in this. I don't want to end up like you."

His face softened and he nodded. "I know. Let me out of here and I will end this misery for the lot of you."

"I don't know. If I get caught." Ashton sighed. "I'm going to inject you again. I need to havest larger peices this time, and from several places. I don't want you awake for this. It's horrible. I hate listening to the screams but I don't have to with you."

Ashton reached into the bag and pulled out one of the last two syringes. Heavy foot steps echoed in the stair well. A laugh came from the door. "Oh my dear boy." Cedric cackled with glee. "I'm just in time." The voice startled Aston and the glass syringe plummetted to the ground shattering and the clear liquid spread across the basement floor.

"I want to hear him scream!" Cedric laughed and moved closer to the bars.

In a flurry of movement Nox was on his feat. Fury in his eyes and his hand grasped Cedric's throat with an iron grip. He was weak but the cannibal was still dangling from the ground just a hairs breath from touching. Strangled sounds came from Cedric's lips as he tried to pry the hands from his throat.

Ashton pulled the last syringe out of the bag and jabbed it in Nox's neck and squeezed the plunger. It took a few moments as the light faded and he fought to stay conscious, a sly smile drew across his lips as he fell to the floor.

"Why did you do that?" Cedric pouted and whined. "Now I can't hear him scream."

"I could have let him kill you instead."

"You could have hacked off his other arm." Cedric growled before stomping off up the stairs defeated.

[Nox]

Sedation brought dreams but more like memories. He saw the night of the gala, the ijiraq pulling power through him and searing his soul. The pain radiating through his body as it consumed more than he could hold before the beast scattered into the air.

The particles fluttered into an ocean of lava, the horde danced at his feat as he sent them one by one to their fiery deaths. Each one melting his skin, frying his hair. The putrid smell of blood and ash filtered through his nose.

He fought the next scene. Fought with everything he had as the memories drifted front. His worse nightmare wasn't those things, was watching the pain in Raffe's eyes when he knew the truth. Words echoed on his soul.

Hope was dashed on the floor when he opened his eyes again. Pain in his side, his legs, his chest. New scars stiff against his body as he moved to sit up. New pains. He felt flushed, hot, like his eyes might boil out of their sockets.

A voice whispered from the shadows. "You've been out of it a long longer than they expected."

Nox only grunted.

Heavy footsteps fell on the stairs leading to their cells and Nox laid back down with a heavy grunt and closed his eyes.

The voice that sounded just the other side of the cage was cracked with humor. "Look how he dies."

"He should be awake by now. Somethings wrong."

"Too much trouble. Just end it. Feed me his heart."

Ashton gurgled as he was lifted from the ground by the Rougarou. "I want his heart!"

Ashton shuddered. "Okay. Yes, Cedric. We will."

The cold of the stone floor was nice against his warm skin. He knew this was near the end. Even if the Rougarou didn't eat him alive, he wasn't going to live long afterwards. When the monster left the children to their own devices Ashton sat down next to the bars. "If I let you go you have to kill them all."

Nox's voice was empty of all emotion. "Anyone left in this building when I'm done is going to die. Get everyone out you want to save."

Izzy and Ava whimpered, but it was Ava who spoke. "We can't get near Ethan. He's with Edmund."

Nox sighed. "Fine. I'll help him out when I find him." He sat up and looked at Ashton. "Give me my wallet, my arm and get me the fuck out of here."