It was her side of the cell that looked like someone had been murdered and it was as accurate as it looked.
Kai was torn, finally hurrying to Epharis first to undo the two simple knots that held him in place as he was the easier fix.
The second the lich was free he was crawling to her, his hands cold and bloodless on her face.
She met his gaze with her own neutral one, but the second she was free, she lunged for him.
Kai yelled his surprise as she threw herself on the lich, her fingers on his throat, digging in and he struggled to get her off him.
She screamed her fury at him, doing her utmost to rip his lying throat out.
She managed to rip a significant amount of skin before Kai dragged her off him, his arms wrapped around her middle and pulling her back in a panic.
"This is your fault!" she screamed, getting one last kick in to his ribcage before she was dragged out of range.
Fighting like a captured feral, she turned on Kai and sank her teeth into the base of his throat, jerking back to tear away the flesh.
Screaming his pain, he refused to let her go even as she bit him again.
Epharis moved to help, her arms trapped behind her back and she thrashed against them and with no other option, Kai slammed her to the ground on her front, her arms trapped behind her back.
Realising with sudden horror what he had done, his eyes dropped to her middle and all colour vanished from his face.
There was no more swelling, no life, only a large, angry looking red scar running just above her pubic bones.
"What happened?" he gasped, turning horrified eyes to the blood and gore on the floor and wall in a spray. "Drizdan?" he demanded but neither of them were talking, instead she was staring at Epharis with murderous intent. "Basement?" Kai finally asked and Epharis nodded, unable to look away from her eyes.
Kai dragged her from the floor, taking the gold chain and using it to reluctantly bind her.
He then removed his long coat and wrapped it tightly around her before he pulled her from the room and up the stairs that led to the rest of the castle.
She had stared at Epharis right up until the wall came between them and finally she looked forward, burning with a blinding rage that she gave into willingly. It was the anguish that the rage was hiding that she was dreading, allowing her to cling to that fury like a shield that would protect her.
Kai moved her quickly through the halls of the castle, making their way down into the rooms he shared with Jaia, who wasn't there.
Down another flight of stairs, she found he was locked safely away in the room with Versalis sitting calmly on the bed in the other side.
The sight was so reminiscent of the first time she had come there it made her pause and she shook her head.
"Let me go Kai. I'm not going to run," she said in a defeated voice.
Versalis looked up, taking one glance and then slamming against the glass, his eyes wide and horrified. The scent of her hit him a moment later and he gagged, his eyes sliding shut in his horror.
Kai released her and she crossed the room to Jaia, her eyes on his. He was smiling slyly at her, feral and knowing what had happened to her, that knowing smile promising to finish what the other man had started if she went in there with him.
Instead, she opened the hatch and thrust her arm inside, the vampire too eager to feed his addiction to care.
He bit her hard, digging and clawing at her arm as he fed and she shuddered, her eyes shut as she tried to focus on keeping calm and not start crying.
***
When Jaia had released her, she dropped onto her side against the glass, her bleeding arm limp in her lap.
"Who gave him the blood?" she asked when the feral growling from Jaia had stopped and his breathing became regular once more.
"Who?" Jaia asked from the other side of the glass, her position making it hard for him to see her. "What's happened? What's that smell?"
Kai wanted to speak but the horror of it all glued his mouth shut and he could only watch helplessly as she buried her face in her hands and started to cry.
Jerking on the door that was still locked, Jaia was furious as he tried to get out and eventually demanded Kai release him.
Opening the door, Jaia stalked from the cage and towards her, stopping a good three feet back as he realised what it was. He all but lunged for her, clutching her trembling body against him.
"What happened?" he snarled at Kai, turning on his brother as his arms went around her.
Turning her face into his chest, she tried to block it all out.
"There was so much blood…" Kai said in a barely audible whisper. "So much blood… The Drow, he cut her open. The baby is gone…. Then he…" he couldn't finish, suddenly sitting down on the bench and rested his head in his hands. "Mother, how could anyone do that?" he asked the floor.
Jaia had gone still at her side, his eyes on his brother.
"What did he do to her?" he demanded.
"I think… I think he raped her Jaia. He cut out the baby and then he raped her and then he beat her and raped her again," Kai's voice sounded dead and Jaia's grip on her was suddenly too tight, painfully tight.
She wanted to tell them the truth, but to admit she had been abused in any way only had her trembling harder. She could only cling to Jaia, desperate for his comfort and the security the twins could provide her.
Versalis had gone silent, a statue in his cell at the words he had already known were coming.
Pulling her up with him, Jaia led her from the room and upstairs, not saying a word as he took her into the bathroom. Stripping the jacket off her and throwing it to the floor, he turned on the water and waited, then he thrust her under the stream and she jumped, looking up at the unexpected fall of water.
They had a water fountain like the ones in Weorene, the water wonderfully hot.
He stalked from the room only for a moment, leaving her staring up at the shower of water but when he returned, her eyes found him again, blank and staring.
He worked briskly and without feeling, ordering her to stand still while he lathered her up and then allowed her to rinse herself off, repeating the process twice more and scrubbing her hair clean of blood and fluids she didn't want to think about.
He studied her naked, bruised and broken body for a moment, ensuring he had cleaned her as much as he could and then he sighed.
"Etani I need you to trust me, okay?" he said, looking grim.
She could only nod and he dropped to his knees before her in the shower.
She remained still as he withdrew something from his soaked pants and inserted it into her. She didn't know what it was, some smooth metal device. The thought of him inserting something into her body left her trembling in fear, frozen and unable to think. What if Jaia was going to finish what Drizdan had started? Would he abuse her? Could she actually trust anyone, or was she just a stupid, naive girl to think that anyone actually cared about her? Frozen in her panic, she could only stare ahead of herself as Jaia worked. His low voice soothing her, but she didn't hear a single word he said.
Something clicked and she screamed as small spikes snapped out of the thing and he pulled violently on the device.
She dropped like a stone, blood turning the water crimson but the vampire was already gone with whatever the device was he had used on her.
Almost hyperventilating on the stall floor, she tried to understand what he had done. It felt like he had shredded her internally, the thought reminding her so much of the agony of Drizdan cutting out her womb. Tears filling her eyes, she looked up as Kai burst into the room at her scream.
"Jaia?!" he cried, seeing the blood and her on the ground.
"Kai stay back," Jaia said and the two hung back.