Hope of the Future

by Ariana Browning

  Too much.

  Crap. . . .

  Footsteps approached from outside the door. Hope rotated, ready for anything.

  The lock disengaged. She debated whether to pretend to still be in bed. In the end, she knew it wouldn’t work. They heard the chain rattle, otherwise they wouldn’t have come. Who would use such an archaic chain, and why? Perhaps to hear when she woke, perhaps another ridiculous reason.

  The doorknob turned and all Hope’s senses awakened. Shock flitted through her. It’d been so long since she used anything and she no longer felt as weak as before. Not since that night with Ronin.

  Ronin. Her heart ached. What happened to him?

  The click of the mechanism in the knob was like a gunshot in her soul, causing her to focus on the matter at hand, refusing to be denied. A soft violet glow spread over the stone and she shook her head, calming down.

  Without the tracker, I’m more myself, so then what’s the collar for?

  The door cracked open, slowly and excruciatingly inward and there stood the voice she recalled from her dreams, the voice she prayed she had imagined. A face she hoped never to see. He came into view and she could swear she quit breathing. Her world toppled out from beneath her feet.

  “You heal as fast as they say.” His voice encased her, his green eyes held her transfixed. She wanted to flee, wanted to hide. Wanted to do anything but stand there like an idiot. “You lost a massive amount of blood. Whoever put that tracker in you, didn’t want you to survive its removal. Though they didn’t know what you were, either,” he said.

  “Darrok.” Feeling incredibly naked, she crossed her arms to hide her body from his scrutiny. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

  Those lush lips she remembered so long ago that made her think about kissing them, curled into a devilish smile, and her body responded in a way it shouldn’t. Why feel such attraction for the devil? A man who all knew as evil and she hated?

  Her attention leapt to his face when she realized she was gawking at him. His green eyes sparkled as if reading her thoughts. Well-toned body from years at the gym, strong hands, tanned skin, but he didn’t appear old.

  Amaranthine’s slowly aged, but they did age. This man looked like an attractive forty-five-year-old male wearing a black suit with black tie, who one would never assume to be over whatever age he was, and just like that day she ran into him on The Streets. The worst aspect was the confidence in his widened stance. The arrogance he held said he could take her. Maybe that’s what scared her most.

  He could.

  And she may want him to.

  Nobody ever stared at her with such a challenge.

  Hope shifted her stance to move away from his intense gaze.

  “No, of course not.” He cleared his throat and Hope looked at him to find him holding a tiny controller. He pointed at her neck. “The collar is insurance and nothing more. You behave, I won’t use it. The chain was a precaution. I wasn’t taking chances with my investment.”

  “Investment?”

  Darrok smiled and called down the hallway, “Come remove her chain.”

  THIRTY THREE

  VANDREN HEADED OVER TO her with a smirk she wanted to remove from his face. Darrok tapped the controller in his hand. Hope glared at him through the corner of her eye. With no hesitation, Vandren knelt in front of her.

  “You are the lowest life form on this planet,” she seethed.

  “I would not talk in such a way or I will not be as nice.”

  The chain fell from her leg and vanished. Vandren stood up a little too close to her for her comfort and she stepped back, which made him grin.

  “Ah, my gorgeous creature. You are worth the price.”

  Hope closed the distance and slammed her hands against his chest, sending him flying back into the wall. The impact should’ve broken the wall, but it didn’t even crack. She tilted her head, regarding the wall with interest while Vandren stood up.

  “As I said, I would not be taking chances with my investment.” Darrok reminded her from the doorway.

  Hope flinched and adjusted herself, having dismissed him. He built this place to be unbreakable. At least he assumed he did. With a last glance at Vandren in warning, she smiled at Darrok. “And are you aware of who this man is?” She waved a hand toward him. “You have an enemy in this room other than me.”

  Darrok laughed. “I am aware of who I employ.” All amusement left his face and Hope saw the evil come forth. She shivered. Darrok regarded Vandren, but spoke to her, “I am aware that he hopes you will take me down.” Darrok smiled at her again, his green eyes casting her in their magic, and the room eased up in temperature. “What do I care? I have my prize I sought for many a year. From the moment we bumped into each other I have thought about you. I do not underestimate you.”

  That irked her last nerve. He assumed he knew who she was? Was he kidding himself? She glanced between him and Vandren. Vandren didn’t seem at all surprised that Darrok would have figured that much out. Why would he? He was just as calculating.

  Hope shook her head. “Everyone does.”

  Darrok’s gaze moved so slowly along her body it made her ache. An intense need overcame her for his touch. “Yes. I’m sure you believe I don’t know a thing about you.” Attention landing on her stomach for the slightest moment, Darrok said, “Whatever existed inside of you is no longer there.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Having remained outside the room the entire time, Darrok finally entered. When he did, the entire atmosphere of the room shifted. Hope took an unconscious step back. His lips quirked ever so. Vandren left the room and Darrok kept coming. Hope took another step, smacking back into the window with a “mmff.”

  Darrok stopped a foot in front of her and she feared raising her attention to his face. The power around him surrounded her. His scent eased into her senses and electrified her. Hope clenched her fists at the sudden urge to touch him, to grab him, to do way more.

  What is going on?

  Standing there for a few minutes longer than he should’ve, at long last Darrok spoke and said with no less than the greatest revulsion he could muster, “That human you carried.”

  Hope’s heart fell. Vandren had told her what would happen when the tracker was removed. It wasn’t as though she didn’t know she may lose the child. It wasn’t as if she wanted children.

  But . . . it had been Ronin’s. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt us.

  Hope took a deep breath, focused on staying calm. “Human. Curious. Not Amaranthine, not anything but human. You populate your cities with humans. If you think I’m special, why would you believe a child of mine was human?”

  “It is a term I use to mean filth. Nothing more, nothing less. You had filth inside . . . and now it has been cleansed.”

  Hope snorted. Darrok’s rage surfaced, his gaze darkened in anger. She leaned further back. “It was a child of mine. That makes it anything but filth. Use the term again and I will make you regret it.” She kept mum about a secret hidden within that would stay hers alone.

  “Will you?” Darrok said in amusement. “Let us test this, shall we?”

  Hope went to ask what he meant and a second later the electrical charge reached out, surged, and knocked her to the ground in agonizing pain. She cried out when the electricity threatened to pull her skin apart again and left her breathless.

  Her muscles turned to noodles and refused to cooperate. Her eyes watered. About the time she was sure she’d pass out, her world cleared, but she stayed hunched over on all fours until she was positive she could stand.

  “Interesting device,” she wheezed. “I’ll make sure to destroy it the moment you drop your guard.”

  “I like the honesty.” He pressed forward and she shoved back into the cold glass, turning her face away. Darrok leaned down so his mouth was next to her cheek. “Drop the act, Hope. You are not human. I saw it. You couldn’t hide that, your eyes changed.”

  Heat
spread through Hope, trickling down to the place between her legs. If she didn’t get away from this man, she would be in trouble. An unconscious desire to breed hit her unlike anything she had ever known. Something about this man had been overlooked. He was hiding a secret like her, but . . . different.

  Did he know he would affect her body, or did it work both ways? Had to be the reason for him staying in the hallway. Darrok had the chance to discover that would happen when she was out of it. Hell, he had yet to touch her, as if he learned that when he did, he wouldn’t stop.

  Hope swallowed, and refused to look at him. If she did, her eyes would betray her. Her body wanted him to touch her, wanted to mate. With him alone. “Get away from me.”

  Her breath caught when he did what she hadn’t wanted. His fingers slid along her skin and wrapped around her chin. She shivered, goose bumps spread along her body, desire surged. His essence intensified, Hope clenched her jaw, maintaining the slim hold she had on her sanity. Moisture built between her legs.

  Darrok twisted her to face him. The resolve she so dearly needed to stay strong faltered. Being this close to him was too much. What was this unknown power?

  “Do you have a problem with me being so close?” He smiled and Hope suppressed the urge to melt. And the one that came after to kiss him. “Not even medically enhanced eyes have ever looked like that. They are . . . unique.”

  “They are eyes. That’s it. Get a grip.”

  Darrok squeezed her chin. “And the energy changed in this room. You did that. Not me.”

  Hope rolled her eyes on purpose. It struck Darrok’s nerves as she wanted and he shoved her loose. “Oh, do you not like that? Good.” So now she learned what he hated most. When she acted like a normal bratty human. Human it was.

  “Humans disgust me,” he spat, taking a step away.

  Hope smiled. “So why am I here?”

  Darrok spun on her and she smacked back into the window with a twang. “You . . . you are no human. You believe when I bumped into you that first time, I didn’t feel something different about you?”

  Hope shrugged.

  Once more, he closed the distance. Hope pressed as far back into the window as she could. That wasn’t enough for him. Darrok leaned closer and closer and closer until Hope had to press cheek into glass to avoid him.

  When they had bumped into each other that first time, she hadn’t felt his intense power. Now it all but consumed her and the entire atmosphere of the room. This entire zone of his, there had always been a constant state of command surrounding the city. And now the pure strength of it sucked all freedom from the room and enveloped the room in a bone chilling cold that shook her being.

  It wasn’t the city.

  It wasn’t the world.

  It was this man who stood in front of her. His evil swamped her. His aura grabbed at a part of her that made her want to give in, called out to her, begged her to relinquish control and relax into it. She continued fighting back against the powerful pull, refusing to give in to it. She could not. Would not.

  Darrok placed his mouth right next to her ear and whispered, “Do you know what you are, Hope?”

  Rage flared through her system and punched the air. Hope slid her face toward him, ignoring the fact that his lips were a breath away from hers. “Maybe I should ask what you are, Darrok.”

  Darrok’s eyes darkened with the hint of death. Excitement that she could sense whatever he was.

  Nobody ever had.

  Less than a week later, Vandren moved Hope into the living room of Darrok’s home. He attached a different chain on her ankle, then left. The chain was as thin as filament, but when Hope tried to tug it, the thing cut her fingers like a razor blade. Thin, but powerful.

  Clean and almost bare, Darrok had no use for a lot of furniture in his living room. The chain allowed her to move from the couch and into the immediate hallway, but no more. A locked door to the side remained shut to his office.

  The entire front part of the living room was solid glass, but that was no escape. Though it seemed like regular glass, Hope couldn’t break it. She had tried many different methods.

  Two sets of double doors led to a lobby outside Darrok’s upper floor condominium. Beyond the lobby was the elevator to the rest of the building. The elevator was powered by fingerprint, card, and code.

  Hope stood at the window, thinking about her prison. All along, she knew she couldn’t trust Vandren and he proved her right. He had said that she could stop Darrok and yet he brought her here and helped imprison her. It made her wonder why he wanted her to take Darrok down then.

  Vandren either hoped she would get loose and kill Darrok, as if he believed her so powerful, or he meant for her to change Darrok somehow. What did the man reason, that Hope might soften Darrok up?

  She snorted and shook her head. “That’ll happen.”

  “Ready to tell me what you are?” Hope spun around. Darrok stood in the doorway of his office.

  How do I not hear you move? “Ready to die?” she asked in the same casual tone.

  The demonic atmosphere that always surrounded him took over the room as he came closer. Instead of walking over to her, he smirked at the way she shifted uncomfortably and backed into the window. He moved to a corner covered in shiny metal, and a part of the wall disappeared.

  Darrok grabbed a glass, set it in the center, and dark liquid poured from the top, from an unseen source of his mini bar.

  “You should temper that unless you prefer me to show you how.”

  When the liquid was done splashing into the glass, Darrok removed the drink and turned her way, motioning to ask if she wanted one.

  “I don’t drink.”

  Darrok shrugged and when he moved away, the wall became solid again. He came to stand next to her by the wall of windows, and she took a step back. Doing so always proved to amuse him. “I meant what I said.”

  Hope stared at him blank-faced. “Never doubted it.”

  “You like to be coy, don’t you?”

  “Wouldn’t know what you’re referring to.”

  Darrok swigged the alcohol while he watched her over the rim of the glass. The light outside caught his eyes and made them glow. Hope found her attention captured by that gaze. Who was the person behind that gaze? The urge to move closer to him intensified.

  Blinking, she turned to stare out the window. Darrok chuckled, which convinced her that he made her feel that way. “It’s amusing the way you act around me.”

  “I’m sure you’re used to women falling all over you, but I’m not a ‘take a number’ kinda girl.”

  “So you don’t deny the intense attraction.”

  Hope’s fingertips drummed along her arm. “I never said that.”

  “You didn’t have to. It’s in the little details. The step back you take when I near. The avoidance of my gaze. You hide from me.”

  Hope rolled her eyes, knowing how much it would anger him. “Keep convincing yourself of what will help you sleep. You hide far more than I do. Don’t you, Dar Dar?”

  Hope returned her attention to the city beyond the windows. Being so high above everything made her feel normal, like this was where she belonged.

  Darrok’s anger dropped the room temperature. Hope glanced at her arms and the goose bumps forming. She refused to look at him. The glass he held struck the wall across the room and she flinched ever so slightly. Again, she refused to look at him.

  Darrok stormed over and stopped right next to her. Hope held her ground. He was close. Too close. His reflection in the glass in front of her showed him glaring at her, as if she couldn’t feel it. She continued to refuse to look at him. His anger pressed against her. He wanted to hurt her, to do something to her, to demand her submission.

  One of Darrok’s hands wrapped around her chin, the other tangled in her hair. He forced her to face him and collapsed his mouth around hers before she could protest. One moment she could think, the next, all thoughts left and she muttered a soft cry under his lips.
The desire surged so powerfully, her legs threatened to give out. If he removed her dress, she wouldn’t stop him. Pleasure struck her to the core, coiling into need, so close to going over the edge—

  Darrok shoved her away and placed distance between them, leaving Hope to stand there, staring out the window, befuddled. Her cheeks burned, her entire body burned. She opened her mouth, gasping for air like a fish out of water without a sound. Her body ached for his hands to be on her again, those lips to take her once more.

  Even if harsh.

  Hope struggled to stay centered and calm, but it didn’t work. She lost the battle. God how she craved his touch.

  Darrok remained close, but he didn’t look at her. Small miracles. No doubt his body echoed how she felt. Being hit for angering people was something she could deal with, but that, that she couldn’t defend against.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Darrok studying his city. His jaw muscle pulsed. She wanted to touch it. Watching over the city seemed the perfect place for him. She hated him though she craved him. If she could shove him through the window, she would. With a smile on his face, he turned to look at her. She jerked her attention away.

  “Too bad you would never accomplish it. As I said before, there is an intense attraction between us. You hate it. Good. You wish to act human and I will remind you that you are anything but. That? Was a connection of energy. I learned something else about you, Hope. If I kiss you again I will learn more. Shall I see if my assumption is correct?” He took a step toward her and she shrank back.

  “Bullshit. You’re an attractive man. I will give you that. You acting like you can read me through a kiss? You’ve got to be freaking kidding me.”

  Darrok’s lips curled up, but the amusement never touched his eyes. “You’re more than a Breeder, not Amaranthine either. You are something far more powerful. I can sense it as I did then. What would happen if I released you from your chains?”