I glanced down at the water pooling at my feet, desperate for any distraction. “Sorry about the mess. Do you have a mop or something?”
He turned away, taking the two steps needed to reach a small card table holding a coffeepot and a stack of a Styrofoam cups. “I’ve been expecting you.”
I pasted on my best service-with-a-smile grin. “Well, here I am. Now, about that mop?”
He poured himself a cup of sludge that could tentatively be labeled as coffee. The consistency was wrong, thick and syrupy instead of thin and liquid. His gaze met mine and the very corner of his eye twitched. “This year makes five years.” He took a sip then stepped forward, tracking me.
Fear skittered along my spine. Dana had mentioned the fifth year too. They both made the word sound less like a number and more like a deadline. One I’d passed. “Yes, it does.”
His eyes flashed all black, a demon’s black. “The time for mourning Harper has passed.” His large body crowded mine as his gaze traveled languidly over me, snagging at the level of my breasts. “I’ve waited for this day.” His tongue swiped across his lower lip. “For you.”
My heart thundered in my ears, drowning out the staccato beat of rain on the tin roof. Cold sweat beaded at the base of my spine, mingled with rain, and rolled lower. “What are you talking about?” I shoved against the solid wall of Jacob’s chest, but he didn’t budge.
His low chuckle reverberated throughout the booth. “You don’t remember me, do you, princess?”
“What is your problem?” My breaths came quicker, and the nubbins just behind my shoulders tensed, preparing for a flight to safety I could never make.
“I was a slave in your house. For years I watched you call Harper to your chambers at night while the rest of us fought for bedding or slept on the cold stone floor.” His hand lifted, revealing clawed tips on the ends of each finger. “Your protection as his chosen expires today. It’s been five years since he failed to return to you, and your sweet…” he leaned over, inhaling deeply, “…sweet flesh is mine for the claiming.”
I flattened against the door, reaching one hand behind my back to grope blindly for the doorknob. “No, it wasn’t like that.”
His pupils flashed silver. “Then tell me what it was like!” His fist punched through the wall beside my head, crumpling the corrugated panel like a well-placed foot on a soda can. “Did he love you? Truly love you? Or were you only a warm bed and willing body for him?”
“He loved me.” Harper’s admission had been the last words he’d spoken to me. Even in the midst of half-truths and whole lies, I believed he’d meant them. I had to.
“You sound uncertain, highness.”
Jacob stroked hot fingers down my cheek. Blood pearled where sharp claws met soft skin. “Your scent is maddening.” He lifted damp hair smelling of an herbal shampoo I would never use again and sniffed. “Did you know that?” His tongue lapped away the crimson droplets staining my cheek. “Mmm.” His chest rumbled under my palm.
“Stop it.” Fear made my voice waver, and judging by his grin, he’d noticed too.
“I don’t think so. I heard the women talking after you first arrived. You had no idea that Harper had been to this realm, let alone aided in the creation of the colony.” His eyes were vacant pools of malevolence. “Have you searched for his face among the children?” Jacob laughed darkly. “Did you find it?”
My mind screamed in instant denial even as it flipped through a rolodex of youthful faces living within the colony that fit the right age and appearance. I shut down those thoughts hard. “I came to pay my respects, not to be intimidated.” The backpack slipped from my shoulder until the strap dangled from my open hand. “I’m leaving now.”
“No.” He nestled his face in the crook of my neck. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.”
“Don’t do this.” I tensed and tightened my grip on the strap. He must have felt it because his hand traveled down my arm to snatch the satchel from my grasp and toss it to the floor behind us.
He’d taken my only weapon. No matter that it was no match for thick Evanti hide, I’d felt safer having that tiny assurance in my hand, and he’d ripped it away, leaving me with no option but to bluff my way out of this mess. “I’m under the colony leader’s protection. Clayton won’t let this go unpunished. You’re a fool to even consider it.”
“Then I’m a fool.” Jacob groaned against my neck, nipping his way across my collarbone. One wrong move from me and he could tear my throat out so quickly I would have a moment or two before realizing I was already dead. “All the unmated Evanti will come for you. You may be a half breed, but you’re the only unmated female of our kind in the colony. You’ve never seen the frenzy, the fight for a female’s favor. Blood will flow.” His teeth captured skin between them, reinforcing my earlier imaginings. “You could save lives by agreeing to be mine.”
“You’re crazy.”
His large palm wrapped around the front of my throat. “I am what your mother made me,” he enunciated slowly, fingers tightening.
I tried to pry away his hands, but failed. His breath carried the scent of stale coffee from what must have been hours spent sipping and waiting for my arrival. Why else would the trashcan be overflowing with crushed cups and the burned dregs of distilled caffeine left bubbling in the pot on the burner? The high flooding his system would override his basic decency, if he had any left.
“I’m sorry for what she did to you.”
“Not yet, you’re not.” His tongue delved inside my ear. “But you will be.”
I believed him. The sterling shine in his eyes kicked my instincts in gear as fight-or-flight adrenaline surged through me. Years of squaring off with Emma had primed my body for this eventuality and I was ready.
Smoothing my hands up Jacob’s biceps, I rested them on his shoulders. He groaned his approval, squeezing harder, cutting off my air supply. I braced against him, regaining my balance, and then brought my knee up between his thighs hard enough to rattle his teeth. He pulled back, eyes wide and losing their focus. His fingers flexed open, releasing me as he cupped his groin with one hand and braced against the wall with the other.
The doorknob spun in my hand, opening the door on the storm as wind and rain raced inside the small building and whipped around us, blowing hair into my eyes.
Jacob glanced up, panting. “Do it.” He bared stark, white teeth. “Run. I like to chase.” He twisted to brace his forearm against the wall, resting his face in the bend of his elbow and hiding his eyes. “I’ll even give you a head start.”
I backed out the door and slammed it firmly shut between us for all the good it would do me. I watched through the window in helpless fascination as his glamour fell away. Light skin became dark. Wings seemed to burst from his back as the appearance of humanity melted away to reveal his true form.
The part of me likened to him wanted to stay and touch those red wings fluttering provocatively, luring me past caution. “It’s a mating dance,” I said, swallowing a sour lump in my throat, knowing what would happen if I stepped back across the threshold. Still I allowed the rhythmic flitter to lull me and make me want on such a primal level I couldn’t break the enthrallment.
His soft laughter cut through the thin metal panel separating us. “So you’re not immune.” He flicked his bright, fleshy wings. “Good to know.”
My mouth watered. The doorknob, half twisted, filled my palm. I stared at my hand, moving independently of thought and working to get me closer to what my body craved. Something was wrong with me, and Jacob, but I didn’t know what, and it was too late to ask now.
Emma had known. How could she not have warned me? This, whatever it was, must have been the cause of her apprehension this morning. My jaw tightened. Dana had known it too. I had been the one left unaware of my circumstances and, if Jacob caught me, I would be the one to pay.
I pried my fingers free, watching the release of each individual digit. Once my eye contact broke away from the sensu
ous display inside the building, I could think again. I turned around and surveyed my surroundings. To my left sat the open road and my useless truck. To my right, white marble headstones dappled the hillside. Damn it. I had to choose and fast.
Jacob’s singsong voice cut through the chaos of my thoughts. “Ready or not, here I come.”
I didn’t make a conscious decision. My legs started pumping, eating up the ground between the guard shack and the graveyard. Debris exploded outward as the door I’d closed on Jacob hurled by my ear and embedded in the base of an oak tree to my left. I raised my forearm, blocking my eyes from the showered splinters of impact.
Behind me, I heard the snap of wings unfurling. A breeze kicked up, fanned by what had to be Jacob’s launch skyward. My legs pumped harder but were no match for a male demon in his prime.
“Mad-el-yn,” he called, swooping closer. “Run little demoness. Make me work for my reward.” His talon-tipped fingers brushed through my hair, snagging in the damp length. Hot breath lifted the fine hairs on the back of my neck with rising fear.
In my peripheral vision, I saw Jacob gliding effortlessly beside me. I had to do something or else he’d keep pace until my legs gave out and then take me where I fell. Princess Madelyn DeGray had been raised to be a victim, but the waitress Maddie Toliver was not going down without a fight. I just needed a way to level the playing field.
Changing direction, I veered abruptly towards the oak grove, leaping over fallen logs as I ran for the shelter of the forest. The low-lying branches would render his wings useless, but earned me only a slight advantage because demons were fast and pissed-off demons were nearly impossible to outmaneuver. As I ran, tree limbs slapped my face and roots hooked my feet as if trying to slow me down and hold me captive for him. Each delay cost me seconds I didn’t have to spare.
“Come out, little princess.” Somewhere behind me wood snapped on a harsh growl. “Princess?”
My feet alternately bogged in mud and slipped on ice patches, making me curse this climate for luring demons down south in the first place. I ran full out until my legs wobbled and caved beneath me, dropping me all too soon on my butt. The muscles in my legs jiggled like Jell-O, but I knew Jacob was close and I had to move.
A copper flash out of the corner of my eye brought my head around to a fallen oak tree where a pair of citrine eyes peered out at me. They blinked once and vanished, much to my relief. Despite Emma’s assurances, I didn’t want to take my chances with the local wildlife.
Pushing to my knees, I got my feet under me, still shaky but doable. I’d wasted the precious few minutes of lead time I’d gained by taking this route. Now I had to make a decision and time was running out. I glanced over and the animal, a fox, darted from its den, trotted a quick circle around my legs and went back inside. I looked at it and it at me, neither of us quite sure what to make of the other. The fox stepped back out, made a show of turning, and went back inside the den.
Zaniah help me, I took its invitation, well aware I was too large for the meager shelter it offered to share. I walked until the end of my shoes disappeared inside the hole and then dropped to my hands and knees. Hope flared white hot and burned through my exhaustion when I realized what I’d found.
Built beneath the fallen oak was an opening almost two feet squared, kept hidden by shadow and mounded leaves. But what made up my mind was the thin veil of glamour cast over the entrance. Evanti could shroud their bodies, but not physical locations. Something else had created this haven with a gentle touch that seemed to pulse with welcoming vibrations.
Mindful of my host, I lowered my legs inside and wiggled down until the ground swallowed me whole. Inside the burrow, I had a foot of clearance above my head and a few feet of space stretching out on either side. Clearly, not an animal’s home, but what else could it be?
The fox wove through my cramped legs, pausing to rub against my hand like a cat.
“You’ll be safe here.”
“You talked,” I said on a harsh whisper, plastering myself against the dirt wall as far away as I could get. I must have hit my head when I fell. Only I didn’t remember falling. I’d crawled in under my own power.
Grasping for any anchor in reality, I allowed roots to tangle in my fingers, surprising me by how real this hallucination felt. I glanced down at the small animal who absolutely had not spoken to me. “You’re not real.”
“As you will.” Its dainty, furred shoulder rolled in careless dismissal. “Stay here and I will fetch Clayton.”
“How do you know—?”
“Shhh, the other will find you if you can’t keep quiet.” The fox, a vixen from the sound of her voice, which I absolutely did not hear inside my head, walked to the small opening.
“I—”
“Shhh.” She glanced over her shoulder, warning me again with a snap of her jaws.
My head jerked up and down in a shaky nod. With a flick of her plush red tail the fox slipped out, kicking more leaves over the entrance with her nimble hind legs before sprinting away into the dark maw of the forest. I wanted to call the apparition back. But she had vanished in a blur of russet fur, assuming she was real and not a product of my desperate imagination.
The scent of damp earth and wet, rotting leaves swamped my sense of smell where I rested my head against the dirt wall. I adjusted my legs and slid down into a more comfortable position. Alone and afraid, I tried to reassure myself. I am not crazy. The mantra soothed me, so I added a few more things to the list.
Foxes cannot talk. I am not in a burrow underground hiding from a coffee-addicted, would-be rapist. I must have slipped getting into the truck when I left the house this morning. I’m probably lying on my back in a patch of ice in front of the house. When Emma gets home, we’ll laugh about it and…
Then I heard it—that stillness that comes with the absence of sound. Outside of my hidey-hole, silence reigned. No pitter-patter of falling rain. No birdsong, no wind or trees creaking—just absolute, utter quiet.
A twig snapped, echoing sharply amid so much stillness. I flinched when Jacob called out to me. “You’ve hidden.” His voice rose. “I’m disappointed. I had hoped to catch you, mark your body among the tombs as we lay your ghost to rest. Now you’ve forced me to take you where I find you.” He paused. “And I will find you.”
A dull thump sounded overhead as pieces of decayed wood sifted down and into my hair. He stood on the log directly over me. I prayed the old wood would hold and his weight wouldn’t send him crashing through the rotted tree trunk to land on top of me.
I didn’t dare to breathe. Dust tickled my nose, tempting me to sneeze, so I cupped a hand over my face. I closed my eyes, picturing myself back home rocking with Emma on our rundown porch while picking paint chips for the grand renovation she had planned.
Above me the log groaned and more dust sprinkled my clothes. I heard a heavy thud as Jacob’s feet hit the ground after leaping from his perch on the log. The den went dark as black ankles blocked the meager light from filtering through to where I sat. Red talons protruded from his heels, tapping idly on the ground while piercing through leaves and mulch on the forest floor.
Fear tied my stomach neatly into knots. Suddenly, letting an enraged and aroused demon find me in a burrow big enough for two didn’t seem like such a great idea. I cursed the damn fox for leading me into what could become my final resting place and me for being fool enough to follow her. What had I been thinking? Oh yeah, that I didn’t want Jacob to find me out in the open, either.
He turned so his toes pointed directly towards me, almost at the level of my eyes. I waited, expecting his foot to test the opening or him to drop onto his stomach and explore the entrance just large enough for a frightened demoness to slip inside to seek refuge.
My hands trembled where they rested on my knees. I shoved them between my thighs and clamped my legs together until the nervous twitching stopped.
Outside, thunder clapped and rain began again.
“Madelyn,”
said Jacob. “I will find you. And laws or no laws, no one will keep me from you.” Then he roared, “You are mine!”
My ears rang from the ferocity of his cry, the sound so filled with hate and twisted with desire that it sickened me, terrified me to the marrow of my bones because I knew he believed it.
I saw muscle shift as Jacob’s Achilles tendon flexed and his toes dug into the ground while rolling onto the balls of his feet. I heard the snap of leather pulling taut, a muttered curse, and then he was gone.
I could no longer feel my fingers so I loosened my thighs and let my hands quiver fitfully on the tops of my legs. My lungs expanded fully for the first time since entering the guard shack and released a foggy breath that was full of gratefulness to be alive. The bone-biting cold went unnoticed by me as I evaluated my position.
After living a half-life for so long, I had thought myself ambivalent to its continuance, but when faced with death, I had been afraid. I didn’t want to die. I needed to curse flat tires and run through rain, sand old paint and put up wallpaper, bicker with Emma over silly unimportant things, come and go as I pleased, see…
I wanted to live. It was as simple as that.
The corner of my lips kicked up in a grin. Too bad it had taken a face-off with a demon, a figment of my own imagination and the promise of hours trapped underground to convince me life really was worth living.
Chapter Eight
Shivering, I kept track of time by the faint glow of my Timex wristwatch. Sometime between the start of rippling cramps from a missed lunch and the gradual fade to black of my vision, I decided Figment, the name I had given the fox, had stood me up. Night had fallen and I had to move.
I doubted the cavalry was on its way or it would have been here by now. Figment either didn’t exist—and I had been crazy to believe a wild animal could somehow bring help—or she did exist and I was…well…slightly less crazy but still trapped with no help looming on the horizon. Not that I would see them at this point. Only the sensation of movement told me when I waved my hand in front of my face. Darkness rendered my eyes totally useless in distinguishing my surroundings.
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