Put Some Madness to the Method

[Lion]

"You of all people should know, Vandryn," Halias laughed at him, coughing again from the pressure around her throat.

Vandryn smirked and squeezed a little tighter.  "You think you're so clever, Irina.  But oftimes you miss what's right in front of you.  I'm not one for games Halias.  But seeing as you want to play...  I might be inclined to amuse you.  Dorothea, tie her up from limb to limb.  We'll drag her back to our playground."

[Clair]

Dorothea felt like a giddy little girl. She happily obeyed Vandryn, tying Irina up; twisting the ropes and pulling them painfully tight.

[Lion]

When Irina was all fastened, though not without a fight and when she was, Vandryn grabbed up the end of the long rope and did as he said, dragged her back to the cabin.  By the time they made it, Halias was freezing and bleeding along her face.  Vandryn plucked her up with his good arm, holding the back of her shirt and dragging her inside.

He threw her on the ground, leaving her there.  "We'll get started in a bit, swine.  There's this little matter of my hand I have to attend to.  And don't think about escaping.  We found you once, I doubt I'd have much trouble finding you again."

He closed the door and remained outside.  The wind began to pick up again, but he held out his banged up hand to Dorothea.  "You get started on her.  Don't make too much of a mess, and don't kill her.  Yet."

[Clair]

Dorothea took his injured hand with a gentle grip- she was a woman capable of giving care to her man, after all- and sighed. "Are you sure you don't want me to wait for you? I can help you get patched up." Though a part of her did have feelings for Vandryn, she hoped he'd decline her offer to help him; she wanted to get started on Irina. It'd been SO long since Dorothea had tortured someone!

[Lion]

Vandryn actually got a little irritated with her.  First of all his hand was killing him, though he'd long ago trained his face never to show it.  And he'd just gave her an order that she did not jump when he commanded.  He looked hard into her eyes.  "Go...inside," he said dangerously, and pulled the door open before shoving her inside.

[Clair]

Dorothea stared wide eyed at the closed door for a moment before balling her fists in fury. HOW DARE HE! Who the hell did he think he was? Sure, he was her teacher, but... she thought she'd proved that she was more than just his pupil. Sighing, aggravated and hurt, she turned to Irina.

"So, bitch," Dorothea said sweetly, smiling. "Lets get started, shall we?"

[Lion]

Vandryn stared at his mangled hand, fingers twisted a little and looking like a shredded piece of nothing.  His face became grim and he walked around back of the cabin.  In between Irina's screams of pain, Vandryn held his tongue as he pulled his fingers to straighten them out.  Luckily for him, that was all that was broken but he still couldn't move anything.

He prayed for a moment as the screams went on again.  And the sound seemed to summon Mat'nacht faster than usual.  He felt her caresses surge through him and the whispers in his ears and when he awoke he looked at his hand and saw that it had mended.  Vandryn stood up and brushed snow off him before coming around back and entering the cabin to see the work Dorothea had done.

[Clair]

Dorothea had stripped Irina down and had tied her so she hung from the ceiling by her neck, and her wrists were bound by another rope attached to the floor. She had to remain in a crouched position with her arms painfully stretched behind her, to keep from being strangled. There were deep cuts trailing up her thighs, abdomen and shoulders.

Dorothea had stepped back to admire the crimson blood flow... it looked lovely, lazily pumping from Irina's body.

[Lion]

She had gone and made a mess after he'd instructed her to keep it as clean as possible.  But she had done a decent job, though he might have preferred if she kept the woman's clothes on, at least the cloth would have absorbed a decent amount of blood.  He smiled at Dorothea and tapped on her shoulders for her to step aside.  He looked at Halias, kneeling in front of her.

"You ready to talk now?"

She choked a little, but was overall, able to hold herself from choking completely on the rope around her neck.  "Go to hell, Vandryn," she grinned despite her palor.

Vandryn's smile faded and he stood up and walked around behind her and pulled on the knotted rope around her neck.  She coughed harshly through reddened teeth and snarled at him.  "I might die here and now, but you'll never know.  I won't say a word!" she managed.

Vandryn looked to Dorothea.  "Go get a bucket of water, cold water.  We'll break her yet," he snarled.

[Clair]

Dorothea raised an eye brow. "Cold water? Really?" she sighed, not sure if using such a childish tactic would be very useful but she did as she was told and came back quickly with the bucket sloshing with cold spring water.

[Lion]

Vandryn had a plan and cut the rope that bound her around her neck.  Irina was not untied but she was no longer choking to death.  She gasped for air and Vandryn dragged her outside.  He took the remaining lengths of rope and bound them around a branch, knotting them securely and strung her up until she was at least four feet off the ground.

He took the water Dorothea had given him and peered up at Halias and gave her an angry scowl.  "Tie her feet around the base of the tree," he ordered to Dorothea just before he took the bucket and raised it before him.  She hung there, stark naked and shivered in the blistering cold.  "Listen, he said to Halias, eyes as cold as the snow around them.  "Listen to howl of that wind.  It'll only get colder as night falls.  And your bleeding too.  Do not be surprised if animals starved by hunger will come looking for an easy meal.  If your flesh has thawed by then that is."  And with that he tossed the entire bucket of cold water on her.

She yelped in reaction and felt the air even more but still kept he silence as he turned back towards the warmth of the cabin.  "Come, my apprentice," he said, and closed the door behind them.

[Clair]

Dorothea gaped at Vandryn as he turned away. "We're... we're just going to leave her!?" she cried, horrified. "W-we can't do that, she'll die in the night and then we've wasted a completely wonderful kill!"

[Lion]

Vandryn quirked a brow at her.  "What is this weakness?" he inquired softly.  "Is this compassion i hear?  Sympathy for the enemy?  I expected so much more from you.  But no, she will not die.  Mat'nacht won't take her just yet.  I'll come back for her in a few hours.  And Halias is a not-so-surprisingly hardy woman.  I'll come back within an inch of her life in exchange for a few words.  She'll come to our way of things, I promise.  Who knows, we might not even have to actually kill her.  Which would be nice; less of a body trail."

[Clair]

"We should torture her, Vandryn," she persisted. "I've no sympathy- I just want to hear screams!"

[Lion]

"And you have no patience, Dorothea," Vandryn said softly.  "You don't know Halias like I do.  She's very good at what she does...perhaps not the best.  And with her momentarily out of the way...I thought perhaps, you'd prefer to hear my screams.  But, if you'd rather not, then I completely understand."

[Clair]

Dorothea could not hide the blush from her cheeks. She grabbed him again and sighed.  "You do know what's best, Vandryn," Dorothea said softly. "We'll do what you say is best."

[Lion]

It was an easy way to put the argument aside, and to quell Dorothea's fire for the moment.  Vandryn didn't much care to use sex as a tool, and certainly didn't care to do it without proper reason.  But he gave in now to silence his apprentice, and he made love to her leisurely, taking his time, until he figured enough time passed that Halias couldn't hold out much longer.

The wind howled against the cabin and he fulfilled his promise of a scream as they finished their lovemaking.  He cleaned himself off with water from a bucket he had on the side, bathing in a corner before drying and dressing.  "I'll check on her.  I'm sure she's half-dead as it is.  But no matter."

[Clair]

Dorothea bathed with him, and was synching her leather belt around her waist just as he went to leave to check on their prisoner. She smiled, feeling warm still from their lovemaking, and blushed a little. She hated it, but he had a strange power over her. "Okay," Dorothea sighed happily. "Don't be soft on her now!"

[Lion]

Vandryn put on his hood and coat to stave off the blistering cold that he was sure Halias wasn't faring too well under either.  As he opened the door, the wind blasted against his warm skin, coming in a drastic shock to the system, but a squint of his eyes had him stalking further outwards to the hanging body he left to freeze.

Halias was still and blue on the lips and he cut her down.  He felt a faint heartbeat there, but it was slow and steady.  Cradling her, he took her into the cabin, latching the door closed and laying her by the warmth of the fire.  She shook nearly uncontrollably and briefly opened her eyes.  "I'll talk," she managed.  "I'll talk...just...don't let me die."

[Clair]

"And after what you did, you really think we'd let you live!?" Dorothea spat.