Golden Beauty (Tales of Grimm Hollow Book 2)

by LeAnn Mason

  “Keeping that…” Then it clicked. “You’re Allya's father.”

  “Very good, though she doesn’t, or didn’t rather, know that. She most likely does now. I’m sure someone in Grimm Hollow would have connected the dots by now. Seth Morgan at your service.”

  “What?” I was confused. Wait. “Are you saying you are actually her father? Like, biologically?”

  “That is exactly what I am saying. It was the only reason I needed her.” He continued whatever he was doing. I had no real hope of figuring out what that was without my glasses unless I was right on top of him, and that sounded like a horrible idea. I wanted as much distance between him and myself as humanly possible.

  In fact…

  I took a large step to the side to give myself just a little larger buffer. I wanted to expel this vile imitation of a man from my mind. Yet, my curiosity just wouldn’t let me. “Why did you need her? What did you do to her?”

  That piqued his interest, and he turned his gaze my way, abandoning his ministrations in favor of me. He stalked my way in a predatory blur. That was the only way to describe it, both the man and the manner.

  I am in deep trouble.

  I backed up as he crowded me, only able to retreat a few hurried steps before my rear bumped into the rough bark of a tree at my back. My eyes were saucers, so much so that the effect would have been comical with the addition of the lenses of my glasses. Too bad the widening didn’t aid me in making out any more details. I was effectively blind without those stupid glasses.

  I dropped my eyes to the forest floor to avoid showing my panic to my captor. But he wasn’t having it. A rough finger met my chin and pushed upward. When I resisted, he added more force. I relented knowing if he broke my jaw, it would only excite him. When our eyes met, the predator was shining bright. Literally. His eyes were glowing a golden color, his face set in an impassive mask. When he leaned toward me, I slammed my eyes shut, unable to stomach his nearness. My spine stiffened with revulsion as he drew his nose from my collarbone to the base of my jaw.

  “Wonderful, that smell. The permeation of fear that explodes from a human’s pores.” He inhaled roughly before lifting his head though he didn’t move out of my personal space one inch. I flinched when something slid across my temples. “Sit still, girl. I fear you’ll need these if you’re to see what happens next.”

  My glasses.

  He was putting my glasses back onto my face. Something way too intimate for him to do. Maybe, now that I could see again, I’d have a shot at escape. Before I could think twice about it, I brought my knee up with as much force as I could muster to slam between his legs. I was short, a measly five-foot-three-inches, so I had to bring my leg up quite a bit. I had no idea if I aimed correctly, only that men were supposedly very sensitive in that particular area.

  When he coughed roughly and buckled over, holding the offended area, I assumed the information was credible. I only had a moment to appreciate the implementation of defense before I remembered that I was supposed to be using the tactic to escape the clutches of a killer.

  Turning with a stumble, my hand pushing off the leafy ground when I toppled forward in my haste, I ran blindly through the trees. Not my brightest idea, considering I had no idea which direction was “out” and back toward town. This was probably the only time I would wish that I’d ventured into these woods before now. Only then, I may have some sort of a chance…

  My glasses almost immediately began sliding down my nose with my heavy footfalls that matched my rapid breaths. I kept my hands extended before me, using them to blow through any manageable impediments that cropped up. Small branches bent before snapping as I pushed through their grasping tendrils.

  “Oh, little one, you’ve made two mistakes that you will sorely regret. You never run from a predator.” My kidnapper’s voice rang through the forest as if through an amplifier, kicking my heart rate into “heart attack” territory. After a moment of exaggerated pause, he continued his ominous threat. “And the kneeing… hurt. I must now return the favor.”

  “Oh God,” slipped through my clacking teeth as I redoubled my efforts, scrambling to right my glasses so that they were once again useful as I continued tripping through the trees. At least it was daylight still, though with the sun heading toward the horizon, nightfall would be fast approaching.

  I had no chance in the dark.

  Officially into autumn, the trees were truly shedding their leaves, several fluttering to the ground around me with every waft of breeze that ruffled their branches. The dirt could hardly be seen through the now heavy carpet of leafy debris, which is why I didn’t see the exposed root that hooked my foot. My helpless momentum sent me sprawling to the ground almost as if I were a baby bird attempting its first flight. I was able to get my hands below me before my face could impact the discarded leaves, but the contact jarred all the way up to my shoulders.

  Removing my foot from the inverted U-shaped root that appeared almost perfectly formed to receive my shoe, I forced myself back to my feet. A rustling behind me had my nerves firing in continued panic, reminding me that I didn’t have the luxury to try to soothe away my hurts. A whispered brush of air wafted across the back of my neck, sending me spinning. What was that? Is he here? There was no one. Still, words whispered across my skin as if they were spoken directly into my ear, causing a chill to break out across the whole of my body.

  “Found you.”

  CHAPTER 3

  He was here. He wasn’t, not even a moment ago. As a myriad of particulates flew at my face, I couldn’t help but inhale. Seth stood only feet from me, hand out like he had just blown a kiss.

  My luck, he’d just given me the kiss of death or something. With eyes alight and almost glowing, he watched me. His own breath was quick, but I guessed it more from a sick sense of excitement rather than anything physical. “Now, stop this nonsense, yes?” Delivered as a question, I knew it as a warning not to refuse.

  Didn’t mean I would fold. I opened my mouth to curse him, ready to flee again. Only, my mouth wouldn’t open. My feet wouldn’t move an inch.

  “That’s better. Though I must admit I did enjoy the chase, no matter how brief. My wolf would have preferred to find you, but he wouldn’t have stopped before he drew blood. I don’t want that particular scent on the air.” Striding past me without a glance, he marched away, back toward the clearing. “Come along, little one.”

  Almost as if there were a leash between us, I began moving to follow. My feet took one step, then another and another in the wake of Seth Morgan, my best friend's father.

  No. I couldn’t think of him that way, wouldn’t bring my friend into this nightmare. She could not control him, nor could she escape. Just like I couldn’t. I understood now. My shoulders bowed under the realization.

  I could do nothing to help my friend. I couldn’t even help myself out of my own predicaments involving this psychopath. And he was clearly a psycho. This man had no attacks of conscience. There was no little angel sitting on a shoulder, telling him this was wrong. That taking someone’s free will away was wrong. That kidnapping was wrong.

  Murder was wrong.

  My feet kept moving of their own accord, my mouth unable to let loose all the expletives that were screaming through my mind. The uncouth words wouldn’t bubble and spew forth from my lips as I wished, just this once, to scream. They refused to move at all, almost as if glued shut. My heart was still galloping a mile a minute, seeing as my situation hadn’t improved. In fact, I was pretty comfortable in the assumption that it was decidedly worse than running blindly through a darkening forest.

  Nature didn’t have a sadistic desire to hurt those in its midst. This man did.

  “Stop there,” Seth commanded casually as he went back to the outer edge of the clearing where we’d started. My feet halted in the center of the eerie circle per the command.

  “Master, I have finished preparing the site,” a woman spoke as soon as we broke free of the treeline to reen
ter the clearing I’d tried to escape. She moved deftly around the space before stopping to face us, braced with hands clasped behind her back. Her posture was almost military-like. But the guy who’d killed my parents, left my home burning, and kidnapped me didn’t act in any way that I would consider military.

  Calculating, definitely, but not practiced-looking like I associated with military motions.

  “Good, Reina. Are you ready for your part? This one is almost ready. We need to get set. I’d bet that Allya is on her way. It will still take her some time to reach us, but I want to be ready and waiting, not caught without my lure set.”

  “Yes, Master. We will be ready. Though… might I ask… why?” Master raised a questioning eyebrow at the young woman. “What I mean is, why pursue this Shaman? She is nothing, a means to an end for your true heir.” The longer the woman spoke, the higher her voice went. Each word narrowing the man’s eyes until they were little more than obsidian slits. I waited for some form of retaliation from the simmering magic man, but none came.

  “Apprentice,” he sneered as if the word was a slur. “It is not for you to query me. If I want to obtain my heir, that is not for you to question. And if you do so again, I will make you in my image and let them make their assumptions.”

  I had no idea what that meant, but it appeared to be enough to cow the woman, who dropped her eyes to the dirt and nodded silently before returning to her duties when given a curt nod of dismissal.

  With all the unsaid threats looming thick in the air, it would be an opportune time to attempt to flee again… except I was still tethered, frozen mutely in place.

  Helpless.

  It felt like hours. It was hours. The sun continued its descent through the trees, the circle clearing a perfect location to watch the rise of the moon. It would be beautiful and serene if the situation were other than what it was. My body ached and shook with fatigue, stuck as I was in my statue-like state, forced to watch, to wait as the madman went about his business.

  I began to understand the plan when the girl suddenly took on my visage. I didn’t see myself any differently, but I had a feeling I had one as well. There wouldn’t be two of me after all… would there? Maybe that was the ruse? Forcing Allya to choose the right “me”? I had faith in my friend. She’d pick correctly.

  If that is the ruse.

  People and wolves came and went. Allya’s father sent them outward into the forest to wait for her arrival. All the while, I was not able to move a muscle, to utter a sound. No one acknowledged me, let alone looked the slightest bit appalled by my status or at the fact that I was put in this situation. A pawn in their game, and not one of them cared.

  My body could still do one thing. But it, too, was against my will.

  I felt the first tear make its warm track down my cheek, a reminder of my helplessness. Others followed, swelling my eyes, clogging my nose and throat, and threatening to drown me. My anguish was silent though it should have been as loud as it was messy. Yet, my mouth still refused to move.

  Everyone needs that outlet. My captor's ignoring of basic bodily functions could lead to my asphyxiation, and he wouldn't notice. He certainly wouldn't care. Except that it would mess up this grand plan he'd been working on for hours. The bright spot to me choking on my own throat-clogging phlegm? I wouldn't be party to Allya's deception.

  “No more of that. Geez, Norms are so fragile in both mind and body. I feel like I must continually keep my eye on you, to make sure you survive until the right moment.” With a put-out sigh, he drolly waved a hand at me. “Ad omne.”

  Yeah, it's called human decency! I shouted… in my head. My only outlet for any of my anger and fear. But I was pretty sure he wasn’t an ordinary human. He had me physically unable to disobey him and had somehow just done some kind of magic trick to make my tears—and the resulting bleh—completely disappear. Making my father bleed internally was another of his party tricks.

  Dad. Mom. This monster of a man orphaned me today. My sisters. They didn’t even know, or maybe now they did. The tears swelled again, but they didn’t escape my eyes, instead flooding my vision and distorting the scene as if I were underwater. Another unnatural occurrence to add to the list. This one just appeared to be the one that would break me.

  “Enough! I am expending too much time and energy on you. I’d hate to take more final actions to quiet you.” Threat loomed in his glowing amber eyes. I didn't want to die, which was what he implied he’d do to me, so I blinked frantically in an effort to clear my vision. Hopefully, my mind would calm the slightest bit as well.

  I needed to be able to think. It's what defined me. My studiousness and work ethic had served me well up to now. Too bad I'd never thought to dive into the supernatural. I'd always been firmly planted in what we knew, what was proven.

  I wanted to do something meaningful. I studied the things so many before me had, never dreaming there were things like magic in existence.

  This was good. My mind calmed a bit with the new information.

  What else is out there? Do others know about it? Someone has to, right?

  What had I learned so far? Well, he'd spouted some Latin at me a few times, each making different things happen to me. I'd fallen unconscious, been tethered to him, then forced into complete immobility and silence.

  Some would call that “spellwork.” Could anyone do the spell if they knew how? Could I do magic?

  “Reina, take your place, and be convincing, yes? Our show is about to begin.”

  The words, spoken with a dark and excited timbre, were enough to distract me from my hypothesis development. My eyes darted to the Witch who now knelt at my side, appearing bound, disheveled, and bruised. And exactly like me.

  Probably not far from the truth.

  Mr. Threatening had disappeared when I looked away from the illusion. Had he gone? What had changed?

  The bellow of something that sounded enormous and enraged froze my mind to match the state of my body. All thought evaporated as what I'd describe as a roar rent the air, sending any animal who heard it into a frantic flee.

  I should have been among them. I wanted to be one of the fleeing critters. They were smart. One didn't stick around when something that sounded like that was out there. To be fair, running probably wouldn't have helped for a number of reasons. Only one of which being that I didn't know where the animal was and could very easily run in a direction that would make me an easier meal.

  My bladder felt like it wanted to let loose, but for that instant, I was glad my body didn't function. That would be so embarrassing.

  The surrounding fight and flight fueled my fear, making my heart rate explode into dangerously high territory. The speed would soon cause me to pass out if I couldn't bring it down. The deep growl at my back pushed my heart faster, sending my head swimming as I approached unconsciousness. I would have collapsed had my body been able to, but alas, I remained upright.

  “No!” A feminine voice shrieked from within the dark of the trees surrounding the clearing.

  It had to be Allya. That’s who was expected anyway. I couldn’t be sure it was her. I’d never heard her so panicked before.

  Quick, heavy footfalls were my only warning that something heavy approached. And only a moment passed before the weight of a house landed on my back, expelling what little air my lungs were able to drag into their depths. Searing daggers punctured my skin where the beast gripped me tightly, pulling me backward into its body, its razor-sharp teeth latching onto the crook of my neck as it brought me—its prey—to the dirt in a heap of stabbing pain.

  The scream torn from me never left my lips.

  CHAPTER 4

  “Ryan, no! That’s not Seth. It’s an illusion. That is the hostage!”

  My best friend burst forth from the trees like a harbinger of death, a longbow up and ready, equipped with an arrow prepared to fly as she slid to a stop several feet away with a gigantic wolf nearly plastered to her legs. Allya wore normal enough clothes, but there was
a bright red cloak trailing behind her, bound to her back on one side by a quiver of arrows. Her eyes glowed a vibrant whiskey color that shone like beacons in the dark night. The animal had pulled me down in such a way that I could see for the few moments before I hit the dirt on my back to stare only up at the trees as the bright moon lit the night sky.

  My eyes felt like they would pop out of my skull as they widened in both immeasurable pain and complete flabbergastation. This girl was fierce, nothing like the girl I’d come to know in Winchester. Bright bursts of light pin-pricked my vision as the pain of the attack flooded my system. I was exhausted, drained, and injured. I’d be passing out soon.

  The sound of Allya’s cries and her emergence from hiding gave the animal cause to release me from its massive jaws, leaving me limp on my back in the dirt to scream my pain only in my mind as it stood like a guard presiding over me. Probably guarding his kill against other predators.

  This was too much. My heart was going to explode any moment now. It hadn’t slowed for what felt like hours, and the muscle just wasn’t meant to keep up such a rate for so long. I honestly had no idea how I hadn’t passed out long before now, maybe another stipulation of Seth’s sadistic spellwork. He would have wanted me to see my death coming, especially if it had been my friend who’d delivered it.

  “Mors!”

  I couldn’t see anything but the belly and ruffled mane of the giant beast lording over me… until it was blasted off of me with the force of a battering ram. I still couldn’t move, so seeing the whole of the fight that had just exploded around me was near impossible. I could hear snarls and snapping teeth, which didn’t help my runaway pulse, at all. A scream pierced the night before cutting off with a gurgle.

  “Hunter! He’s gone. Protect Ryan!” Allya ordered.

  Who is Ryan?

  “Oh, daughter of mine, why would you tell him to guard the beast? He was hit with a mortem spell,” Seth’s insidious voice oozed from everywhere. Maybe it just seemed that way because of the pounding in my ears. The situation was wreaking havoc on my body, not to mention what it was doing to my mind.