CHAPTER 479: SAVAGE

Lauden crouched down before those cell bars and chose not to stand up for a good number of minutes. Minutes that, null doubt, stretched to an eternity in Allegra’s mind.

He watched intently as her body continued to tremble, eyes struggling to even blink. There was also the fact that her head seemed too heavy to maintain up without leaning against the wall behind her.

He watched in pure, irksome silence until his own eyes had enough of studying every inch of her.

"So?" he tilted his head, an unnerving grin on his face, "Will you talk today? Or will I have to pry the words out of you?"

Allegra’s already irregular breathing rate accelerated, hands pressing against the ground as though attempting to lift her weight into a better, more comfortable sitting position. To no avail, of course.

"I might need to take something else from you," his lips reached almost from ear to ear, "You won’t mind, will you? Your father likes receiving these little reminders of you. It gets him all worked up," he chuckled, "Although this time around I will have to take something more... Personal, more convincing. If you know what I mean,"

In response, the vampiress groaned and squirmed in place without earning the slightest change to her condition.

"You look so adorable when you struggle," Lauden practically whispered. The grin adorning his features disappeared so quickly for them to contort into a graceless glare, "What happened that night? Was Arabella attacked or not?" he took his sweet time, enunciating and pressing on each word separately, spitting them through tightened jaws, "What happened to Edna?"

Allegra did nothing but cough and groan in her spot which did nothing but make the blood in his veins boil.

"Fine then," he nodded, "Let me see if I can change your mind,"

From the inner pocket of his black vest, the vampire pulled a silver dagger that glistened under the candle lights brightening that hellhole.

Its glint reflected in Allegra’s eyes as the sight of the weapon caused them to widen.

"Well, I mean I needed a piece of you anyway," he unsheathed it to admire the blade while pushing himself back to a standing position.

Opening the cell gate separating them was his next motion. That action bestowed Allegra with the strength to finally move.

Well, move was a bit of an overstatement as all she managed to do was tumble over onto her side and scratch at the ground with her bare nails in an attempt to crawl away from her assailant.

Instead of lunging forward or trying to stop her, Lauden just halted in place and enjoyed the show, knowing full well that the collar around her neck was chained to the wall and would reel her in eventually.

When Allegra exhausted the full length of the chain, she did not relent and damn near choked herself on it, still clawing her way forward or at least, trying hopelessly to.

"Come now," he marched her way, towering over her, "None of this is necessary," with one hand, Lauden grabbed her by the hair, lifted her body of the floor, relishing every moan, every groan before tossing her back against the same wall she had been relying upon that whole time.

The vampire neared her again only to crouch right in front of her crumpled, gurgling figure.

"I am going to give you one more chance to speak, little girl. I am very patient, you know, but my patience has its limits too," he bared his fangs.

To that, Allegra merely shut her eyes and put her best efforts into choking her sobs which Lauden did not like one bit.

He too shut his eyes and sighed a long and loud one..., "Fine then, have it your way,"

Without a single warning he yanked her by the wrist and forced her hand flat against the ground with such power that Allegra was unable to even curl her fingers and form a fist.

"At first, I thought I could simply draw some of your blood since you know... I am not the savage you would think I am but well," he pushed another long exhale, "Desperate needs call for desperate measures,"

Lauden waited not another second before pressing the sharp edge of his blade on her ring finger, right at the part that connected it to the rest of her hand.

Little by little, he added more pressure as time went on, rejoicing her screams and thrashing for the blade sank deeper into her flesh and bone.

Allegra cried, pleaded and screeched for him to stop with all of her remaining might, but in her condition, there was very little she could really manage.

As for him, there continued to be no hesitation in his motion. Chin high, eyes on her damp, grimy and contorted face.

For a man that claimed to be no savage, he sure showed a lot of joy watching her squirm and beg for the pain to stop.

But he carried on with the same, agonizingly slow pace until her finger was completely severed off the rest of her body.

The first thing he did upon releasing her hand was pick the chopped digit between his and bring it up to eye level, "All you had to do was open that pretty mouth of yours and answer my questions,"

The first thing she did was grab onto her butchered hand and cower away from him the best she could while still whimpering and trembling.

"So, I am going to go ahead and ask you again, girl," Lauden still swirled her fingers in front of his mesmerized eyes, "What happened that night and who killed Edna?"

A few seconds went by of Allegra sniveling, curled up onto herself which turned out to be too long of a wait for Lauden to handle.

Once again, he wrenched the same hand and flattened it on the ground, ready to cut yet another finger, but that time around, Allegra did something other than screaming and spoke different words than begging.

"It was Edna!" she yelled.