Until she heard the pounding of feet
behind her. Jamie’s heart jumped to her throat, foot slipping.
“Fuck!” she cried, and then hurriedly shoved a hand over her mouth
to muffle the sound. Her face paled even more, the cold settling in
her bones with a daunting speed.
The sound of men barging through the
forest made her duck into the closest thing to hide, a fallen
branch. Almost twice her size, she knew it would hide her form and
possibly cover her.
Snow was the only blanket she had, the
only source of protection against the men that were coming after
her. The sound of ragged breathing sounded dangerously close. She
trembled, fisting her hands in her lap, curling into a tighter
ball. The smaller she felt, the better.
“
Where did she go?” a rough
voice asked, then the sound of crunching. Snow, she suspected when
the sound of footsteps got closer to her ear than she would have
liked.
“
Swear she was here...
Bitch tried to run away from our masters,” another snarled in
anger. She froze, eyes wide in her small face.
A sick chuckle rang through the
forest, and the first man spoke again. “Bet master wouldn’t mind if
we took a small bite out of her, since we had to go through all of
this trouble to get her,” he said, considering. She could just
imagine the leer.
“
Take turns,” the other
replied. Then his voice turned soft, the subtle sadistic ring not
lost on Jamie, who had tears streaming down her cheeks. She held in
the sob that wanted to burst from her throat, panic rising even
sharper within her. “Come out, come out, wherever you
are...”
“
Master is waiting for
you!” the first said, trying to make light. But even Jamie, in her
terror, knew that there was nothing “light” or “happy” about the
situation. She turned her mouth into her shoulder, stifling a
cry.
Silence.
“
Did you hear that?” the
second spoke, softly. A large foot slammed down near her head.
Jamie froze, an unknown feeling coursing through her. If they took
her, she thought, eyes wild, she would kill them, or at the very
least attack them.
She refused to go down without a
fight. Jamie remembered her mother enrolling her in martial art
classes. She had reluctantly gone, but only for a week. The
work-outs, the training, the fact that they were teaching her how
to hurt someone had been gruelling.
Jamie had quit the moment she had been
instructed to hit her trainer.
Now, she desperately wished that she
had taken the class — maybe now she wouldn’t be in this situation.
Her stomach convulsed, bile rising in her throat as the other man’s
foot came into view, a dark boot with mud and snow caked to the
bottom. She shrank away.
Snap
.
The next movements were in a rush,
Jamie barely knowing what was happening. A large hand clamped over
her arm. A scream built in her throat. Twigs stabbed into her back
as she was dragged out from under the branch.
“
Shut up, you stupid
bitch!” the bald one snarled, a hand curling over her mouth, thumbs
digging under her cheek bones. A soundless scream emitted from her
throat, back arching as she struggled to get out of his tight
grip.
She stomped her foot on his boot,
wishing that it had hurt him. With no heels or shoes on, the move
had been painless for him. Frantically, she thought of what to do.
She bit into his palm, dropped down low, dug her elbow into his
groin, and watched fleetingly as he fell to his knees. Triumph ran
through her, a second before shock as another thick arm wrapped
around her chest. She tried to do the same thing before, but he was
prepared. He took his hand from her mouth, wrapped it around her
neck, and pressed his thumb into the part under her
chin.
She ignored the pain, the ache
settling in her shoulder and jaw. Jamie clawed at his face, glad
that Chris had always complained about how inelegant her hand
looked without long nails. She dragged her nails down his face,
listening with mute pleasure as he grunted, dropping his hold on
her neck.
Jamie twisted around, and using the
momentum of the movement, drove her knee into his groin. “Whore,”
he coughed with pain, his hand lashing out to grasp her pony tail.
Jamie’s eyes widened. Her eyes stung as he yanked on her hair,
dragging her back to his side.
She grasped his wrist,
letting into his insistent pulls, a keening whimper escaping her
throat. “Let go!” she cried out helplessly, adrenaline racing
through her. It made her stronger, made her feel braver. Jamie
looked at the man, trying to find a way to get out of his hold. For
a moment, she inanely pictured doing a ninja flip, then taking his
face out with her foot. She grunted, bringing up her knee. Like she
was flexible enough to do
that
. The man holding her hair looked
at her slack jawed as he realized what she was about to
do.
Feeling no mercy, fearless,
and completely in control now, she drove her foot into his face.
She could not only
hear
the crunch of bone, but she felt it. Later, she
knew she would regret it, feel guilty at having hurt someone, but
now her mind was solely focused on escaping. She dragged in a deep
breath as his hand fell from her hair. His big body fell to the
ground, next to the withering man on the floor next to
him.
He started to rise, his bald head
gleaming with sweat. She stared at him in horror for all of two
seconds before sprinting away from him.
That is, until a bony hand wrapped
around her throat. The surprising strength in his grip held her
immobile as she was wrenched back. Jamie saw the disapproving eyes
of her captor, their crimson depths gleaming with the promise of
retribution.
Of course,
her mind whispered dryly, despite the dire
situation, that
would
be the last thing she saw before her body went limp and her
eyes slid closed.
“
Brother, she is more of a
nuisance than I thought she would be,” Auro snapped as the girl
fell limply to the ground. He watched with disinterest as the thump
echoed around them, the sound mixing with the groans of their
men.
“
Should a woman be able to
fight like that?” Lyne asked curiously, peering down at the girl
like she was a new creature completely. His brother’s thin hand
reached out to touch her curiously, but Auro grabbed it. He thought
of Amena, of his brother’s weakness that had led to their
destruction and immortal lives. Anger flared deep within him as he
saw a flame light his brother’s eyes.
Keeping Lyne near him, he looked down
at the pale beauty on the ground. Ivan was staggering to his feet,
his hands cupping himself in a disgraceful act. Ignoring the pale
look of his face, he gestured to the woman and sneered. “Take her.”
Auro didn’t see the man’s lips curl, and wouldn’t have
cared.
The sounds of grunts came from behind
Auro’s turned back. They started towards the house, their long
coats floating eerily behind them. Ivan stared at them as they
left, then turned to his partner, who was out cold. He almost left
her there, wanting to choose his partner over the girl, but knew he
couldn’t displease his master.
He carried the girl back, following
behind his softly murmuring masters.
“
Putting the enchantment
over her would be useless. The minute she touches Talon, it will
disappear and she will panic,” Lyne said, taking Auro’s arm in his
own as they walked.
“
Yes, but it will make it
easier for us to get her down there. Surely you don’t want a
fighting and biting female on our hands?” he asked, lips
tightening.
Lyne shrugged, looking around them
with mild distaste. “Whatever gives us our power and revenge,
brother. Tonight, I will help her dress and get ready for Talon. I
want this to go as smoothly as possible, you see. Possibly, if we
can make her look enticing to even a man like Talon, we might just
get our power tonight.”
His smile was sick, the sadistic
pleasure showing even in his eyes. Auro smiled proudly. It slowly
dimmed as a thought occurred to him. “I shall dress her and prepare
her. You can cook us a lovely meal,” he said with false pleasantry.
As Lyne started to deny him with a shake of his head. Auro
unconsciously tightened his arm around his brothers. “I wish to
taste a morsel only you could cook so well.”
The look in Lyne’s eye gave away that
he hadn’t noticed the small grit to Auro’s teeth. A haughty smile
covered his face, and a prompt nod was his reply. “I shall do as
you wish, brother. Would you care to dine after or before the
show?” he asked, his pace quickening.
Auro smiled, considering. The threat
of his brother becoming attached to another female avoided, he felt
lighter at heart. “Before, dear one. I will prepare her while you
cook, and she will sit beside us. We must keep a close eye on her,
and also make her aware of what she has to do tonight.”
“
I have already led her
thoughts in the right direction, but I agree that an explanation
would make her more willing. I doubt that Talon will willingly take
a female. Perhaps if we tell her why we need this to be done, she
will be more accepting.”
Auro agreed. A simple female would not
object to the wishes of her masters.
“
No.”
Jamie saw the blank expressions on
their faces before the shock and surprise registered. The outburst
had even shocked herself, but she refrained from letting it show.
The cold denial of what she had told them rang through the
room.
“
No?” the twin on the left
asked dimly, eyes drawn over her face. The one on the right looked
at her with a cool regard, the only thing that was making her
fidget.
“
No. I won’t go down to
some hole to be a breeder for you sick fucks,” she spat, crossing
her arms over her chest. As the man on the right gave her an even
colder look, she shrunk back into the seat but held her ground.
Where had this inner strength come from? She almost cursed at
herself, hating that she couldn’t have been this strong in front of
Chris.
“
Sick fu... You whore!” the
one on the left screeched, and would have lunged across the table
had his brother not grabbed him and held him back.
Jamie shuddered, wishing she had her
Columbia. Her shoulders were bare, the corset of the low-cut dress
they had shoved her into pushing her breasts almost above the thin
material. She thought of the callous remarks that he had stated in
front of her as he had forced her to change from the only pieces of
clothing that she had called her own. The room was freezing. She
could have sworn that her skin was turning blue, almost
purple.
The fall of the skirt brushed against
the floor when she walked, and Jamie felt a permanent revulsion for
the men. What kind of sadistic bastard would force a woman into a
Victorian Era harlot costume? The dress was skimpier than any of
the cocktail dresses that Chris has gotten for her.
The one on the left took a shuddering
breath. Out of them all, it was clear to her who was more
emotionally unstable. While the man on the right had the cool
demeanor, the hard eyes, and the ingrained hate that she had no
idea about, the other could barely control his anger, he was
shivering so bad.The air around her turned frosty — possibly from
the men? She shoved her trembling hands in her arms as she
tightened them across her chest, well above the swell of her
breasts.
The sound of a chair scraping against
the floor drew her attention back to the men. A sickly delicate
whisper floated to her ears as one of the men appeared behind her
suddenly. Her back tensed, face paling as his breath caressed her
cheek.
She could smell the
metallic smell of the bloody...thing that he had been eating. Their
plates were all filled with the same disgusting creation — a still
pulsing
something
with pieces of charred...skin? Strips of meat? Bacon? Her
stomach heaved. Jamie desperately prayed it was the
latter.
“
You will
go into that room. You
will
seduce the monster. You will give
us our pay. If you fail to do so, I
will
tear you apart with my bare
hands, along with your family. Everything you love, every drop of
their blood, will caress your skin as I force you to watch their
demise.”
Jamie shivered. He was the colder of
the two and yet, it was the one who was so unstable and looked at
her with eyes that said she owed him, that made her hoist her
backbone.
“
No.”
Chapter 5
The thick door slammed shut, the
action making Talon’s ears ring as the sound echoed through the
room. An array of scents wafted over him.
Sweet.
Soft.
Fresh.
Female
.
His hackles rose, and he pressed
farther into the shadows. His guard rose as well, furious at Auro
and the new presence. Was he meaning to tempt him, to make him want
even more than he had before? Disgust roiled through him as he
spied a curl of dark black hair shimmering in the light.